Friday, January 11, 2019

Good morning sunshine 🌞 ... it’s chilly (Florida standards) at 44F with a north wind. 

It was a great day for me working on the last Christmas tree’s redecorating. Mark worked across the street at Marky-Mark’s project and helped him work on his dock. Mark is going to rebuild it similar to what we did.

Tomorrow, Sue and Wayne leave on a cruise to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary. We wish them a bon voyage and smooth sailing. Have fun guys.

Randy is caretaker and nurse for Dawn this week as she has strep throat. I talked to her earlier but knew it was difficult for her to talk. Feel better Dawn. We miss seeing you guys.

Tonight, we are going to Kiku Japanese steakhouse to meet Karen & Pete for dinner. We both wanted somewhere new, so this is it.

Wow! Dinner was really good! OMG, we were so full!!! After the big dinner, we went to 1884 in Eustis for a nightcap. The place was full, with a DJ playing karaoke music. 

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Good morning. I was awake at 5 o’clock, just rarin’ to go. It’s now 8 o’clock, and Mark is still sleeping. The doggies have been up for about half an hour and are ready for their breakfast and a walk. 

The new construction house at the end of our street is nearly done. Today they are laying sod and have been working there since 6 o’clock this morning. The drone of the bobcat is rather insidious. It’ll be nice to have the house done and less traffic on our street again. Meanwell, Marky Mark continues to make good strides on his project home. He began painting “The Lodge” portion! Schweet. I’m betting there will be other changes in our neighborhood in the next six months. Several of the older members of our community have recently passed away and with their relatives living up north, I’m betting that some of those homes will come on the market. We’ll see. 

Today I flocked the Christmas tree. 😜 That sounds bad. 😁 The official method is spritzing the tree branches with water ... then sifting the flocking powder over that region with a flour sifter while simultaneously spritzing water to blow the flock onto the tree. Well, it was incredibly messy with a 12 MPH north 💨 wind. So ... I simplified the method. Spritz the area, use a sifter SPOON to sprinkle the flock on and spritz again. The tree is drying overnight but looks good. ✅

Mark took over pool care for Marky-Mark again as it was turning green. He was just too busy with all his started projects. We’re amazed at his enery! Lani is back in Canada at work. 

Randy called to say that Dawn is off work today and home with strep throat. This is quite alarming as we’ve never known her to have any illness ... and Randy was out picking up antibiotics for her. Feel better Dawn!

Tonight we’re relaxing at home with a roast on the BBQ and the fireplace simmering. Ta ta. 

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Good day all y’all ... it’s going to be a great day! My plan to snow flock my green Christmas tree was delayed when I couldn’t locate my wire flour sifter. So, I re-read directions and the customer remarks online. This was a good idea as many mentioned putting the Christmas lights on before flocking. I wasn’t planning on that but maybe it makes sense. Sometimes plan B turns out the best. 😬

Mark helped Marky-Mark by hauling a load to the dump and picking up the Redneck yacht at Randy’s. He has plans to reface the dock at the project house similar to ours. Plans approved, he’ll have quite a bit to do. 

Tonight, I feel well enough to go to YaYa’s for a couple of hours and Mark is going out with the fellas to Tillie’s bar. 

The first YaYa’s of 2019 ... Carol made a pork loin, mashed potatoes, turkey sauerkraut and black-eyed peas. Well done. She likes quizzes and tested us on 3 puzzles. (I won a linen towel for 1 game.) ✅

Overflow diners ... Sharon loved the Strawberry jello, ice cream and frozen fruit. It was delicious! 

Back home, we both had fun evenings. Robbie sat with me for an hour; he missed me. 🐾💕 Mz Bee had to wait for her snuggle. 😜

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Good afternoon. Well, despite this sinus infection and bronchitis, I had a pretty good night sleep. So, I thought I would be able to make game day today. Mark and I went to Bealls store for an hour and when I got back I was exhausted. What the heck? So, I have begged off game day and will spend the afternoon puttering around here.

Mark, on the other hand, got Lew and headed to the Woods to pick up their hunting stands. I know he will enjoy that a lot more than puttering around here with me. Ha ha ha. Both Robbie and BeeZee wanted to go with daddy. Poor kids. I’ve been boring these past few days. 😷

Sue and Wayne‘s dog sitter arrived from Canada very very late last night. With all the bad weather and delays, they are lucky she got here at all. Their 45th anniversary is coming up and they are going on a Southern Caribbean cruise to celebrate. Sweet. 

Our green Christmas tree was de-frocked today. Many of the lights had burned out so it was maybe overdue for a total restringing. The original lights were so tightly wound around each branch that it took me 3 hours and one finger blister to remove the lights. 

No, I won’t show Mark the blister ... he’d just smack it. Ha! This won’t slow down my redecorating. Heeheehee. 

Tonight, we had drinks on the porch ... a golf cart ride for the doggies ... a big dinner and some TV snuggle time. 

Monday January 7, 2019

Good early morning! The History Channel has some awesome programming this week. Plenty of new scientists onboard with great data. Last night we watched Vanished about the thousands of cases of people who apparently disappeared very possibly through stargates in our National Parks. Mark’s comment was “hi-tech” ... me, Membrane Theory. 

Anyway, I woke up coughing, turned on the telly and voila, more good stuff to exercise my brain. 

Mark’s away at the post office with 3 jewelry eBay sales and grocery shopping while I make potatoes and sweet potatoes for the Robbie and BeeZee meals.  Since I’m still laying low with my sinus/bronchitis bout I worked on ornaments for the Sunroom’s Christmas tree until 3:30 when Mark came home from an eye doctor appointment. Then Lew ambled over with a tall beer in hand ... then Marky-Mark arrived with his in hand. I just love a front porch party! 

Randy is golfing tomorrow! We’re so glad he’s getting back at it after his difficult knee replacement surgery last July. Good deal Randy! Dawn’s at work today and tomorrow but I hope she’ll join me for YaYa’s on Wednesday! 

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Hey hey hey it’s 5 o’clock somewhere and that’s HERE! Tonight we’re meeting Randy and Dawn at Stavros along with Lani and Marky-Mark. I’m feeling a good bit better and am not contagious 😷 so there. (Hack hack hack 🙄)

Sue and Wayne have been invited to dinner at their friends’ home, Amy and Raymond. Even the dogs have been invited! Now that’s some nice friends. I hope Shorty Hot Pants realizes and behaves. 😜 We all know that Julius will be perfect.

I’ve been thinking about our friend Scott today and wondering how he’s doing. We sure hope to see him in Florida again soon. If you’re following the blog Scott best wishes to you 🤗 

Mark did plenty of catch-up chores today and even got the car washed. I worked on our sunroom Christmas tree most of the afternoon. Another afternoon of effort and I’ll be able to put it in the closet til next year. 

It was fun to get with RanDawn tonight ... And Wednesday is date night so more fun coming. It was a very good evening. 

Tonight’s snuggle-buggle with the kids on the sofa. And yes, they had pizza-bones. 🐾💕

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Good morning. Well, I had a very restless night coughing after taking a Mucinex before bed. I knew that was going to happen, but I had no idea just how much coughing was going to be involved. This morning, my stomach feels like I have done 1000 sit ups during the night. 🤢 Anyway, I will not take another one of those at bedtime! 

Mark, Lew and Benn went to the Ocala forest this morning, the last hunt of this deer season. They have a beautiful day, 59F in the forest now. Today, the excitement was a big shiny black panther! To me, that’s scary! If you Google it, not only is it extremely rare, but almost impossible to find in Florida. So it’s either a leopard or a jaguar with melanistic color variant. (We had one in our neighborhood a few years ago and the neighbor had a perfect picture of him by her pool!) 

Today’s job was to de-robe the white Christmas tree. That done, now I can think about what I’d like for next year. I know that tree is going to be somewhat of a Florida theme. That will go perfect with the coloring in the sunroom. So I added 500 turquoise lights and will decorate it tomorrow ... then it’s tucked into the Christmas closet til next season. 

Tonight we have a fire on and we’re relaxing watching TV.