Wacky Wednesday

Wednesdays at the Ranch are pretty laid-back.  However, today after coffee, we had our annual cookie walk, where you could buy cookies, fudge, brownies, etc. for $3.00 a pound.  They had styrofoam containers for us to put our goodies in.  We filled ours and I thought it was pretty heavy...it cost us $3.00!!  Yummy goodies!  I made and took about 4 dozen cookies - chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies.  Good!  After the cookie walk, then we had our monthly meeting.  Today we had nominations for board members.  One of the people nominated was my brother.  Since he wasn't there, they asked me to speak for him about why he'd be a good board member.  I did a good job selling his virtues, much to Bob's chagrin!!  Since there were no other nominations from the floor, the 3 nominees are automatically board members.  I guess the other board members got together today and decided that Bob would be President next year!! 

Dave got all of the wallpaper off and half of the room painted today!  Tomorrow he'll finish painting.  Then I guess he's going to lay off for a while and finish up after we return in January.  I tried to take the wallpaper border off in the bedroom, but it didn't come off so well.  I doubt that it has sizing under it...so, it could be awful to get off!  I haven't tried the bathroom wallpaper, but I'll be glad to get it off too. 

It was so nice out today that we ate both our lunch and dinner out in the lanai.  It was 75 degrees and just perfect out there.  After dinner we went for a bike ride just to look at the Christmas lights in the park.  They're judging the lights on Friday.  There are some really pretty ones!

More later...

Tuesday at the Ranch

Tuesdays at the Ranch are for bowling and bingo, remember??  Well, we didn't bowl because Dave is Hell-bent on getting the painting done here and I'm still limping!  He got the hallway/kitchen painted and it looks really nice...very clean and bright!  He's got over half of the living room ready to paint tomorrow.  But tomorrow we've also got coffee and a monthly meeting, plus a cookie walk in the morning...I made about 5 dozen cookies, but I'm only taking about 3.5 dozen...the rest broke!  I haven't figured out this oven yet..It's a little too hot, so I have to either turn the heat down and add time to whatever's baking, or leave the heat the way it is and shorten the baking time.  Either way, I haven't got it quite right yet!

Here's a picture of the hallway and kitchen.  I don't know that you can see the colors properly.  After the curtains are up, I'll get another picture with the flash which should give you a better look at the color. 



Here's more yellow.  We think this is just sizing...the other side of the living room has white sizing, but for some reason this side is yellow. 

This is what Dave has to paint tomorrow.  I can't wait until this mess is done!!

By the way...I didn't win at bingo tonight...:(  More later...

Double Yay!!

Not only did Dave get the wallpaper backing off of the kitchen/hallway, but we also got all of the wallpaper (2 layers of it!) off of the living room.  So we get a double yay!!  Tomorrow, since Dave's back is so sore and my knee is so sore we're not going bowling.  We'll be here working on walls.  The hallway/kitchen is ready to paint.  The living room has to have the paper backing removed and then it'll be ready to paint!  Tomorrow night, I'm going to play bingo.  Dave will probably still be painting!! 

Wednesday morning we're having a cookie walk after coffee and our park meeting, so I've got to bake some cookies tomorrow too!  This weekend is the park breakfast AND on Sunday they're having a baked potato bar.  Busy, busy!!

I ran errands today and I also got my hair cut.  Dave drew me a little map so that I could find Walmart, Lowes, Target, and Great Clips.  I got in the wrong lane and turned before I got to Walmart, but I was able to get turned back and get into their parking lot with a little effort.  Right now we're watchin The Closer.  I hope we can stay up and watch Rizzoli & Isles too. 

More later...

Before...and After!!

Yay, yay, yay!!  The add-on room is done except for adding quarter-round around the baseboard.  Here's a picture before the floor went in.

 Now the floor is in!

 And this is today!!  All done - this is looking north.

 And this is looking south.

Here's a picture of our living room after some of the furniture is gone!  Lots more room in here.  I think I'm going to move the couch to the wall where Dave is sitting and move the chairs to where the couch is now...we'll see!

After Dave got the baseboard on and we got the furniture in the add-on room, then he went outside and cleaned out his shed.  He even washed down the walls.  He'd come in every once in a while and we cleared out closets of "stuff" that Paulie had.  We put things outside and people come by and pick them up.  We are having trouble getting rid of the dirty recliner, however.  We may have to clean it and bring it back in :(!

I made some crockpot peanut clusters today, but they didn't turn out as good as usual.  At home I have a full-sized crockpot, whereas here I have a small crockpot.  So I only made a half a recipe...I think it almost burned so next time I won't leave it on for more than an hour.  I had it on low, so I figured it would be 2 hours before it would be done.

While Dave was outside this evening, I decided to pull off wallpaper from the kitchen.  I really wanted to keep going into the living room, but I didn't.  Now I've got to decide for sure what paint I want in there because I'm sure Dave will want to get started on those walls soon!

That's all for tonight.  More later...

PS - One of the couples from the Ranch went to the boat parade that we went to last night.  They sat for a bunch of hours in the Legion to see only 9 boats!  I guess it's a good thing we finally gave up!!

Another Woohoo!!!

Woohoo!  My pick for the Heisman - Robert Griffin III from Baylor - won!!  I'm so happy for him AND for Baylor!  That's quite an honor!!  He is, in my mind, what college football is all about!! 

Dave and I had a busy day again.  We went shopping for a microwave - the one here kept burning our popcorn!  Dave said, "Nobody or nothing messes with my popcorn and gets by with it!"  Remember when microwaves cost $350 and were as big as a dorm refrigerator??  Now you can get them for $49 and they're very compact!  We first went to Bed Bath & Beyond - microwaves there cost $100.  Then we went to Walmart a block away from BB&B where we paid $49 for one!  We also found sheers for the add-on room.  Tomorrow Dave's going to get the trim on and we'll start putting the furniture back in the room - yay!!  I'm tired of being in a mess!

Tonight we went over to Indian Shores to see Sudi & Howard and to watch a boat parade.  The parade started at 6:00 south of them, so we figured by 7:00 or so we'd see it...NOT!  Then we waited until about 7:30 - still no boats!  Finally we just went to dinner!!  We went to Sloppy Joe's in Treasure Island.  Good place and cool t-shirts!  When we left S&H's we had to go by The Pub, which is where they were giving out the prizes for the parade.  We actually saw 3-4 boats there...I was beginning to believe there wasn't such a thing as a boat parade!  Did I hear someone compare them to snipes??  Anyway, from what we could see, they were really lit up!  Thanks S&H for a lovely evening...and for the cookies & coupon! 

More later...

Woohoo!!

We've got new laminate in the add-on room - and it's beautiful!!  I'll download some pix tomorrow, but right now I'm trying to "hear" about the ISU-Iowa men's basketball game and the UNI football game! 

Today the guys - Dave, Ron and Alan - started laying our new laminate about 9:00 AM...by 11:20 or so they were done!  I can't believe how fast that stuff goes down!  I went out "exploring" while they were working and on the way home I stopped to pick up pizza for the workers!  Good thing I got home early, since they were basically done when I got here. 

This afternoon, we had "happy hour" at the ranch!  There were only about 23 of us there, but it was fun.  Tonight Dave worked on painting the woodwork.  Tomorrow he's going to try to get the doorsills done and put up the woodwork.  Then tomorrow night we're going to Sudi & Howard's to watch the boat parade!!  Should be fun!!

Woohoo!!  Indian Hills BB wins!!  Woohoo!!  ISU beats Iowa in men's basketball!  More later...

Brrrrrrr....

This morning was really cold!  I didn't get up very early, but it was only 45 when I got on the computer.  I did wear shorts today, with a long-sleeved t-shirt.  It ended up being 63 out - a beautiful day!!  It was sunny all day long - in fact, it's still 63 outside!

My knee hurt really bad last night.  I guess I shopped too much!  When I woke up my knee still hurt very badly, so Dave made me sit down most of the day.  I did go out and ride my bike around the block this evening, just to loosen my knee a bit!  I'll probably take a pain pill again tonight, just to make sure I can sleep. 

Tomorrow the guys are going to work on the floor of the add-on room.  I can hardly wait to get that room put together.  Right now the queen-sized bed is standing on end and being propped up by the dining room table.  The computer desk and everything else out of that room is in the living room.  It's chaotic in here!  Ron thinks they'll get the floor done before happy hour tomorrow - yay!!!

More later...