Sunday, April 7, 2019

Good afternoon. It’s quite a nice day here in Central Florida although a little bit muggy. After breakfast, Mark went to work on the west Gable of our house. I checked on him several times and couldn’t believe the space he had got himself into.

And yes, that’s the Rick M scaffolding at work! 😜

I can’t watch! 

While he was working, I puttered around getting my chores done and made lunch. 😍 Yes, I actually cooked. I made two boxes of Kraft dinner. ⭐️

The kids and I took a ride on The Caddy and saw the old Hunter sailboat on it’s trailer. This old beast hadn’t moved in all the time we’ve owned here which is 19 years! A couple of weeks ago Lew scored it free for his son Benn.  

It’s going to need a lot of TLC but came with a trailer and motor. (It’s nice to have it out of our canal system.)

Good luck Benn. (Comin’ about!) 😱

Tonight we watched American Idol then it was early to bed for Mark! 

Saturday, April 6, 2019

Good morning. It was our sweet little BZ who decided 7:30 was late enough for us to sleep in. 😜 And, she was correct. We have things to do before our evening of merriment. 

Mark decided our old barbecue was ready for the trash. He had repaired it numerous times and put several new parts in it a few times over the past 5 years. Now, we’re going to use the smoker in its place. It moved into the gabled shelter where the barbecue was. Smoked burgers 🍔 were last night’s fare.

I’ve been enjoying my houseplants the past year or two. Today, they needed sorting out and fertilizing. That kept me busy enough for an hour or two. Next, job is the hot tub. Chemicals have to be balanced and water added. 🤔 

Robbie and BeeZee are happy sitting on the front porch today. I keep setting a timer and bringing them in every few minutes to cool down, but they seem to enjoy the morning sunshine. They have about five minutes left and then it’s inside and I’ll get about my chores again. 🙄

Mark began work on the rear gable this morning. 

Removing the aluminum siding was tough ... it was nailed on with roofing nails; lots of them! (He made a Rick M type scaffold with 2 ladders and a board ... fortunately I didn’t see it!) 

Randy and Dawn are expecting her mom to arrive tomorrow night. I know Randy is dashing around the house doing last-minute things while Dawn is working this weekend! 

Sue and Wayne have been busy too. Didn’t we all expect to slow down in retired life? Well that doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe it’s because things we normally would have paid for we now do ourselves. What do you think? 

This evening, we are going out with Karen, Pete, LaDonna, Wayne, Dee and Rick to The Villages. We’ll have dinner and then enjoy music at the Square. (Randy & Dawn have told us that a big red solo cup of wine is $5) Glug glug glug 😜 

LaDonna & Wayne ... Rick & Dee ... US ... Karen & Pete. The food was good ... music was good ... and we all had a B L A S T 😜

Friday, April 5, 2019

Good morning. We were up and ate a good breakfast before starting our housekeeping. Mark did some vacuuming and swabbed the deck. Ha ha. It sounds so much more fun than washing the floor. I gave the kitchen a deep cleaning which involved soaking the gas stove top grates and scrubbing the burned on bits. I wore out a Magic Eraser. 🙄 Now while I tackle tidying my craft room and doing a loads of laundry, Mark is taking the little redneck yacht club boat back to Randy’s. He had been using it to work from at Marky-Mark’s dock. 

We have no plans today, just puttering around the house and relaxing.

Since I have to put pictures in the blog according to my buddy Rick, here’s a cute one of Cheri and Cindy from last night. 

Who knew that we would find such fun people just by moving to Harbor Shores! 

It was a perfect afternoon for happy hour on the front porch. It’s 84° with a nice breeze. After wine and cheese we took the dogs for a ride on The Caddy. They had a blast barking at everyone who was walking their dogs at 5 o’clock. LOL

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Good morning! Well ... a deep subject indeed ... we hired a roofer which will cost us $14,000. It’s official, no trip to Canada this summer. (We figured that would happen!) 

Mark just came back from walking the dogs. He talked to our neighbor Jay who just sold his house and is moving at the end of the month. Jay said his buyer found two blemishes on the roof and wanted a new roof. Jay said no way, but called his insurance company, Farmers. They looked at the roof which is 10 years old, and said no problem. You can bet we’re dropping Progressive in favor of Farmers Insurance!

At 10 o’clock I went with Lynn to visit the neighbors, Louise and Bob Carter. They have lived in the area since 1982 and I interviewed and wrote a spotlight story for our neighborhood newsletter. 

Meanwhile, Mark is working on Marky-Mark’s dock, trying to get it finished while he is in Canada. 

Nice job Mark! 

Later today we will have some fun. I’m going to Yaya‘s at Cindy’s house and Mark is going to dinner with the guys. 

Cindy had beaded bracelets sorted and ready for us to make. There were 14 of us ... eating pizza, drinking wine and making bracelets. What a fun time! 

Rick called on FaceTime tonight and we had a good yak. Ruth was at a spa hotel for the night with daughter Sharon ... so Rick was cooking tenderloin for dinner and enjoying a bottle of wine. 😜 We caught up on stories ... glad to hear they’ve rented an apartment in Mexico for next winter. 👍🏻

When Mark got home, we caught up on a little bit of TV and traded stories on the evening. Tomorrow is housework. Not so much fun as today. Ha ha

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Good morning. We left home at 8:20 to take our Brookstone to giant recreation world in Wintergarden. Our new fireplace is being installed along with a few minor repairs. So far, so good with the new rig. We saw Dennis at the shop and discussed replacing the wheels with him. We’ll see what happens.

On the way home, Mark ran into Winn-Dixie while I went into Walgreens and got a few things for upcoming birthdays. BeeZee will turn 5 on April 14th. I bought a couple pressies for her plus ordered USA rawhides for her and Robbie. 💕🐾  (We will also be seeing Dawn‘s mom for her 80th birthday.) 

Mark went to Lowe’s to pick up some wood to finish Marky-Mark’s dock project. After that he took a load of scrap to recycling and got $60 😜

Randy & Dawn came over at four, after Dawn had her hair appointment. Randy had a terrible headache and laid down for a few minutes, then put heat on his neck. Eventually, a glass of water and a few glasses of wine seem to relieve it. Mark came home from the scrap yard and put on some pizzas. The buffalo chicken pizza was awesome! That’s a definite to keep in our freezer. The other one he cooked was called a prohibition special, also good. We started out just listening to music, and then got into watching American Idol. It was a fun evening.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Good afternoon y’all. The sun is finally peeking out after another drizzly morning. Marky-Mark sent a picture of his house in Cambridge ...

That doesn’t look like April showers! Poor ol’ Jake is snuggled into a myriad of blankets!

I hurried to the clinic before breakfast for my “fasting” bloodwork. It wasn’t too busy; 3 ahead of me. It’s interesting to watch the people’s faces while they’re waiting. One guy was obviously in a huge hurry ... like his fussiness would speed anything up. 🙄 Next week I’ll hear the results. 

It was a good day for puttering ...

I made some (Christmas) ornaments ... jellyfish! Yeah, they’re for the Sunroom tree. 🎅🏼

When the sun came out we had happy hour on the front porch ... complete with frosty paws and Mark’s cigar. 

Yikes! Our driveway looks awful ... and we paid to have it cleaned in February! What the heck?

Deadliest Catch is on tonight ... gotta get our fix of the Bering Sea 🌊 ! Ta ta til tomorrow. 

Monday, April 1, 2019

Good evening all y’all. It’s been a drizzly day, unusual for us. Mark worked on the gable reinforcement and finished the one by the RV port today.

Mark 😍 built 5 “C” brackets to reinforce the gable on the RV side. The code is written for homes built on the coast so we’ll be in good shape if we get another hurricane pass over our area! One gable done, 2 to go! It cost $100 to do this one. 

This afternoon, we did a few errands ... the bank to deposit our hurricane insurance claim settlement 👍🏻 ... the bastards should have just paid our claim; but instead, Morgan and Morgan filed suit for us. (Hell yeah, We recommend Morgan and Morgan! 👍🏻 After that, I needed some skinny ribbon for (Christmas) a project ... and a “routine” chest xray. Nothing’s routine but my cough is better after stopping wheat (again.) 🙄

Marky-Mark and Lani send us a text about 4 o’clock when they were at the Canadian border. It’s amazing, but they do drive straight through. 

Here he is at 6 o’clock ... at his Canadian home ... in clothes we saw him in yesterday! (Flip flops in the snow?) 😂

Tonight we watched Snow White and the Huntsman while I was cooking a week’s potatoes and sweet potatoes for the kids.  

Tomorrow we have an appointment with a roofer! 👍🏻