Woohoo!

I finally have computer access in the evening!!  We've been hanging out with Jami and her family, Bryan & Erin, Dad & Roberta, as well as Tom's mom.  It's been a hectic couple of days.  Bryan, Dave & Jami have been busy doing Jami's "daddy-do" list.  I think there's only a few things left on her list.  Bryan & Erin fly home tonight, so Dave & Jami will have to work by themselves tomorrow afternoon.

I got to watch my Cyclone football team tonight, but Dave was starting to get congested from the dogs, so I said let's go home...the score was 21-38 (we were behind).  By the time we got back to our condo and I turned on my Facebook page, I saw that we were in OT.  My gosh...I can't believe it.  So I asked Dave to see if we could possibly get the game here in the condo and we found it.  So we got to watch us win in the 3rd OT!!  That ending was awesome...the rest not so good.  Go Cyclones!

Tomorrow we'll go to church and then meet up with the family at Bru's Room (sorry Sudi & Howard - wish you were here!)

More later...

Pre-Thanksgiving

It is cold here tonight!  It's only 53!  I'm glad we're heading further south tomorrow!  Ooops, I guess cold is relative - it's 22 in O-town right now!  Now I don't feel so bad.

We had our weekly coffee this morning.  Then tonight we played 7s.  My team got clobbered!!  I guess it was our turn to lose.

I finished the phone directory for The Ranch today.  That's a big thing to have off my plate!  Now it can get printed and I can wait for people to tell me my information is wrong!  :)

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Successful day!

It was a pretty successful day all around.  First off, bowling was pretty darn good for both of us!  I had a 137, a 152, and a 142.  Dave had a 126, a 116, and a 151.  The 151 was Dave's best ever he thinks!  Not only that, we had a good day at cards!  We play both poker and cribbage each line of bowling.  Dave won $11+ in cribbage and I won $9.75 in both cribbage and poker!  Not a bad day at the bowling alley!

Lunch was at Village Inn - must have been 20 of us at lunch!

This evening I actually got to say bingo.  Unfortunately 3 others said it at the same time, so I only won $3.  I was close many other times, but just no luck!

It's raining tonight and we're under a tornado watch.  I sure hope that doesn't happen!

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Monday

Wahoo!  I feel so much better!!  It took until noon,  but I finally feel like staying out of the bathroom!!  I even went on a bike ride before cards tonight AND, as you can tell, I even played cards!!  I also won at cards!!   Oh, and I also ate some food today!  So I guess it was a successful day!!

Dave had to go to Sarasota by himself today because I was still having issues this morning!

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Sunday

It was a cool day today - not nearly as nice as most of our days are!  When we went to church it was pretty nice.  After church we picked up Sudi & Howard and went to Sanding Ovations 2013 in Treasure Island.  The sand sculptures were again wonderful, although I thought they were a little "out there" this year.  Sometimes you really had to wonder what the sculptor meant with his creation and with what he named it.  For instance, this one was called Ascension...

What is ascending?  I loved the sculpture, but I didn't understand the title.

This one was the winner - it was fascinating, but I wonder what made him think of this concept.

Yes, this man is buried in the sand!

This next one is called What Now?  These little "people" walk up the spiral and get to the top edge...what now?  

This won the sculptors' award - it was wonderful.  Enlarge this last photo and look at the itty bitty people clear down in the spiral.  Clever!

It was a good day for viewing the sculptures - it wasn't so hot that you melted!

I am not feeling well today.  I got up at 3:00 this morning with a very bad intestinal problem (if you know what I mean!)  I finally was able to go back to bed at 6:00, but I've had my problem all day!  I'm a little tired of it, but at least I'm functioning.  I didn't eat much at lunch and I've only had a few crackers tonight.  I hope I feel better tomorrow.

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Saturday

Dave and I spent the day together today...he's usually working, so we don't do that often.  We went shopping this morning.  Went to CVS and to BB&B.  Then we stopped at Subway to get us a sub.  This evening we went to Marv & Betty's for a fish fry.  The guys who were on the fishing trip got together.  All of us brought side dishes and Marv and the guys fried the fish.  The Grouper was especially good.  We also had grunt and mackerel.  I didn't try either of those, but someone else said the mackerel was the best.  It was a fun evening with fun people and good food!

We got home in time to find the ISU-Kansas ballgame on TV.  Dave went to bed, but I'm watching my boys.  Sure glad I'm not there.  It's 3 degrees at the stadium and it's 70 here!  Where would you rather be?  Let's win this one, Cyclones!

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Beautiful Friday

What a beautiful day.  We went to the Legion with Sue & Penny.  They had not been there before and the dolphins put on quite a show for them.  We saw over 100 dolphins - some large, some small.  None were very close, but they were constantly on the move today.  Must have been a good feeding day for them!  The beauty was wonderful!  The food was good, too!

We came back home and I took a nap while Dave raked behind our mobile home.  Then I went to play cards while he was socializing!  When I got home from cards (where I was a loser), Dave stirred while I put together my grape salad for tomorrow's fish dinner.  The six guys who went on the fishing trip get to eat all of the fish...and spouses, of course.  Oh goody!!  You know I don't like fish much, but I'm sure I'll get enough to eat anyway.

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Sad Day

We found out this morning that one of our fellow Ranchers was killed in a car accident yesterday afternoon over by Home Depot.  Howard & Barb had gone out to get a fan for their mobile home and were t-boned turning into the store.  Howard was killed and Barb has numerous injuries including spleen damage, possible head trauma, broken ribs, broken leg just to name a few.  They are from Indiana.  RIP Howard - we'll miss you around the park.  Barb, hurry up and get better so we can love you back to health.  Barb lived real near Dave's family when he was growing up and her son was in school the same time as Dave.

We had to go to Walmart, so we went to 5 Guys first!  That was the first time we'd been there this season.  Boy was it good!  After we got home, Dave power washed the carport and the front porch as well as our car.  Then we took 2 laps around the park on our bikes!  Tonight we've just hung out!  Felt good!

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Wednesday

We had a great day here today.  Dave and 5 other guys went deep sea fishing.  They had a great day.  The notch for one of the fish they were catching was 20".  They threw away over 100 fish, most of which were from 19.5 to 19 7/8" long!  Needless to say, they were excited and tired when they got home.  They were about 22 miles out in the golf off of Madeira Beach.

They were catching 3 different kinds of grouper, but the long thin fish is a mackerel.  Good job, guys!

In the meantime, back at The Ranch...we were shuffling this afternoon.  I got beat both games today.  Ann beat me the first game.  She put me in the kitchen 3 times!  The last time, we were tied in the last frame.  I couldn't do anything to beat her unfortunately.  I had some good shots today, but the kitchen did me in.  Marv put me in the kitchen 3 times, too.  No wonder I don't cook...I don't like being in the kitchen!  (For those of you who don't shuffle, being in the kitchen is -10 points!)  You can go from a positive score to a negative one pretty quickly!

Tonight we played cards - I'm a winner again!  There were 14 of us tonight...one table of 6 and 2 tables of 4.  It was fun and a little raucous!

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Winner!

I finally won at bingo!  I didn't win enough to get me out of the hole, but at least I got to say "bingo"...in fact, I got to say it twice.

We won't talk about bowling!  It was absolutely awful today.  I couldn't do anything!!

Tomorrow Dave's going deep sea fishing - hope he catches a BIG fish or two!  Everything is in season now, so they can catch to their heart's content!

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Monday

We went to Sarasota this morning again.  Dave and his dad went fishing again...whiting are really biting and Maury says it's way too early for whiting.  They caught 14 today - unfortunately a blue heron got the biggest one!

 The front left fish is a flounder and the second left fish is a grunt...the rest are whitings!

 Roberta and I went to the beach to meet the guys for lunch.  We took sandwiches from Jimmy Johns and these two little guys wanted a bite of our sandwiches!  Dave finally started shaking his fishing pole like a whip to shoo them a way!  Maybe they didn't want our sandwiches as much as they wanted the fish!

The fish are in the white bucket in the foreground!

We had a great day in spite of the fact that I had a splitting headache.  I didn't even go play cards tonight...my head hurt too much.  So I stayed home and watched DWTS - Max was on as a judge!  I miss him on the show!!

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Gorgeous Day

We didn't make it to church this morning.  Our stool started leaking so Dave ran to Home Depot for parts and came home to fix it.  It wasn't a big fix - the rubber between the tank and the base was worn on one side and needed replaced.  I'm sure glad he knew what he was doing!  He then went down to 441 and finished up down there.  Then we went to the Legion for lunch since the sun was shining!  It was beautiful sitting out on the water!  No dolphin sightings today, though.

We came home and I watched the race while Dave went to Heckarts to help Bob.  When the race was over, I flipped to ESPN2 to watch the 2nd half of the Michigan-ISU basketball game.  Whewee - that was a barn burner!  Hilton was rocking!

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Gray day again

The sun came out for about 3 minutes today...I wonder if the people from St Petersburg who say that St Pete averages 361 sunny days a year would count today as a sunny day?  I wouldn't!!  I'm tired of gray - it's been this way now for 2 days...I need the sunshine!!

We had a good day, though.  Dave went to 441 to clean up his stuff.  I went down and helped him.  I also put up curtains and uncovered furniture.  Jim & Nancy came over so they helped, too.  I think Dave's got a bit more cleaning up to do and he missed one 7" piece of trim, so he's got to paint it and put it down and then he's completely done!!  Until the next project - the back bedroom is the only room that hasn't been painted and it looks mighty drab now!

At 2:00 a bunch of us went to the clubhouse for a surprise 65th birthday party for Donna, one of our Canadian friends.  She was totally surprised!  I counted at one time 44 people.  Good party!  So, we had breakfast at the clubhouse and mid-day snacks, cake & ice cream...no cooking today!

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Pumpkin

I've got to get this written because at 10:00 Dave turns into a pumpkin and wants to go to bed!  It's funny because he says this every night and if it's after 10 he says he turned into a pumpkin 10 minutes ago or however minutes it is past 10!!  He's so predictable!!  I'm tired tonight, so I don't mind going to bed at 10!!

Today was a drizzly day, so I didn't even get my bike ridden!  Connie came over and we worked on the phone directory for about 2 hours.  I've got to figure out how to get this formatted so that it'll print on 8 1/2 x 11 paper - 2 pages to each sheet.  I  formatted it to fit on 8 1/2 x 14 paper...ugh.  I'm not sure how to do this to get it to where we can read it.  I'm afraid the print will be too small!

I played cards tonight while Dave painted at 441.  He's finally done painting, but now he's got to get all of his tools out of there and move things back where they belong.  I'll help him with this.  He also worked at Heckarts this morning - they've got the floor done except for the lanai.  I think they'll start it next week.  The guys are ready to retire from putting down flooring...it's getting too hard for them to get up and down as many times as they need to.  As for cards, I'm a winner again!  Maryetta and I cleaned up tonight!!

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Free Day

Thursdays are free days for us, normally.  I didn't have anything I had to do today until 4:00.  We had a kickoff wine & cheese party at the clubhouse.  This is the "official" beginning  of the winter season, as most of us snowbirds are back and ready to do things.  We had lots of people there - the cheese balls were wonderful.  Marv made his famous cheese log and the wine was flowing.  I had a partial glass of the sangria and loved it.  Unfortunately it was really, really loud in the clubhouse and I got a bit of a headache.  So we left early, but several others did too.

Dave worked with the guys today, trying to get Heckarts' flooring in.  They'll work tomorrow morning again and hopefully get done so we can go to the Legion for lunch.

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Cold Day

It is  sure cold here today.  We only got to 63 degrees with a very brisk wind out of the north!  Today we had coffee and then a FMO meeting at the clubhouse.  After the meeting, we started our fun shuffleboard.  I was fine in the first game, but the second and third games this afternoon got a little colder, even though the temperature was higher!  I shuffled pretty well.  I got beat my first game, but I had some good shots.  Then I won the second game.  Hope it's a little warmer next week when we shuffle again!

Dave painted at 441 and went to help Bob, Gary, and Ron put down flooring in Barb & Gary's mobile home.  It is really going to be pretty!

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B&B

I bowled pretty well today...at least for the first two games!  I had a 150, a 153, and then a 106.  By the 3rd game my back and my elbow were hurting pretty badly.  For some reason I was throwing the ball all wrong in the 3rd game, thus the pains!  Bingo was same old, same old - I couldn't win if I tried.  I was waiting for one number for all but 3 of the games...but just didn't have any luck!  I may retire my daubers - it's not much fun when you never win!

We're supposed to have a cold front move thru tomorrow - high of only 69 with brisk winds.  That's not very cold in my mind!

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Monday

We went to Sarasota very early this morning.  Dave and Maury wanted to get a jump start on the fish they were going to catch.  They had a pretty good day - they brought home 7 fish, some whitings included and it's early for them.  So they were happy.  Roberta and I went to Bealls and Bealls Outlet, so we were happy.  Unfortunately we ran out of time.  There were still other stores we wanted to hit!

Tonight I played cards...and I won again!  We had to come from behind,  but we sneaked ahead in the 3rd hand and then we won the 4th hand big!!  There were 12 of us tonight!

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Busy Sunday

We had another beautiful day here.  Mid 80's and abundant sunshine.  We went to church this morning and then home for a quick lunch before Dave went to 441 to paint some more.  When he came home, we went for a bike ride and we took another one right before dark.  I got some paperwork taken care of, plus I installed our new printer on my computer and Dave got it installed on his.  I also got Roberta's tablet working so I can take it back to her tomorrow.

Tomorrow we're going to Sarasota early so Dave and his Dad can go fishing.  I don't know what Roberta and I will do...we may end up shopping.

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Beautiful Saturday!

It was a beautiful day here.  Dave worked at 441 this morning and then  around noon, we took off for the beach.  I had packed a lunch and we took our chairs.  We went to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge rest area and then turned back north under the highway.  We parked among the kiteboarders on the beach and arrived just in time to see them land their kites for a while - there just wasn't enough wind.  So we ate our lunch and waited.  The wind came up again and we had a wonderful afternoon enjoying the sun, the water, and those talented people "flying" their kiteboards!

This young man is originally from Britt, Iowa (the Hobo Capital of the World).  He was fun to watch and fun to talk to...he wasn't too bad to look at either!

These kits are really bit.  This one is 13 meters, which would be over 40 feet.  We saw one that was 18 meters - it was huge! 

This guy is from Czech Republic and is a bit of a daredevil.  He said he preferred skydiving, but he'd had a bit of an accident recently - hit the ground a little too hard.  So when it's too windy, he kiteboards!  He was also fun to watch!

We came home, took a bike ride, rested for a bit and then it was suppertime.

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Legion Day

I'm not sure, but I think the American Legion in Madeira Beach would close if all of the HR people stayed away!  Today there were at least 27 of us there!  That's a lot of $$ they would lose if we ever decide to boycott them.  It took a long time today, but finally the dolphins showed up.  Once they started coming back up-river, there were bunches of sightings!  It was really hot there today and now it's wonderfully cool!  We can leave the a/c off tonight!

Tonight at cards, Doreen and I won big time!  Yay!  I'm a winner again!

I went to Sweet Bay today.  I'd never been in one of them.  What a nice market!  Things were much cheaper there than at Publix; i.e., Oreos at Publix were $4.17 and at SB they were $2.99.  Almonds at Publix were over $8 for a bag, but at SB they were $6.99.  Those two items were big savings.  I will probably switch supermarkets!

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Free Day

We had a free day today.  By that, I mean no cards, no activities, just whatever we wanted to do.  So, Dave worked at 441 painting AND he worked at 104 under the trailer, using spray foam.  He had so much foam on him when he got home, I had to scrub his back and arms with WD40 trying to get it off.  He finally used something else on his hands!  I, on the other hand, went to have a pedicure.  My toes are so pretty!

This evening we went to Post Corner with Bob, Ann, Gary, Barb, Ron, and Marcia.  Today is Ann's birthday, so we celebrated with pizza.  Unfortunately Dave dropped a piece in his lap and got grease and tomato stains all over his shorts and shirt.  His clothes are currently on the kitchen counter with flour on them, hoping the flour will soak up the grease.  Tomorrow I'll put some Resolve on the stains and wash them.  The sunset tonight was gorgeous, but I had the wide angle lens on my camera instead of the zoom, so I didn't get a good picture.

Tomorrow is Legion day!  Sure hope it's a nice sunny day!

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Hot, Humid is back!

It sure got hot here today...and humid.  We still don't have the a/c on, but I'm wondering if we should.  Hopefully, it'll cool down a bit tonight and I'll feel better about having windows open!  This afternoon, we went to the pool to cool off!  It was very refreshing!

I took the car today and went shopping.  I'm still trying to find plain corn puffs so I can make caramel corn puffs.  I need to still try Sweet Bay - maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

I won at cards tonight.  Ann, Connie and I beat Sandy, Pat, and Coreen!  Good job, ladies!!

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Nice day!

This was a busy, busy day.  We bowled for the first time this season.  You have no idea how many muscles you use bowling until you're 65  years old and bowl for the first time in 6 months or so.  I hurt in my back, my buns, my shoulder, my elbow, and my toes!  I didn't bowl so well the first game or the last game, but I had over 100 all 3 games at least!  My middle game was a 138.  Dave did very well both his first and second games, then fell apart in his 3rd game!  We had fun and that's the name of the game!

After bowling, we took off for Sarasota to see Dave's sis & BIL before they leave for Indiana tomorrow.  We sat by the pool - it was a lovely day for that!  We got home in time for a short nap before bingo...I'm still a loser!  I only needed 1 number for the $104 pot, but do you think they'd call my number?  Nope, someone else won :(!

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Marvelous Monday

Although the sun didn't shine a whole bunch today, it was still a lovely day!  I cleaned the whole house today - vacuumed, ran the swiffer, and dusted.  Plus, I even took the car and went to Target.  I finally found the icicle lights with green wire, but I still haven't found the corn puffs!  I'm not sure they exist in Florida!  I've still got two more stores to look in, but no luck so far!

Tonight at 7s, Ann and I were partners and we WON!!  Yay!  Tomorrow is a busy, busy day.  We bowl in the morning (for the first time this season) and then we head to Sarasota for an afternoon by the pool.  Hopefully we'll be back for bingo tomorrow night, but if not the world will not end for me!

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Beautiful Sunday

I loved church this morning.  Pastor Laura's message was that Jesus is a friend of sinners and part of the Bible reading was the story of Zacchaeus.  She had us all sing the children's song about Zacchaeus, complete with actions!  Fun!!

After church we went to Walmart for a few things and then just took it easy this afternoon.  Tonight we had a movie in the clubhouse.  We saw "Bird Cage" with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.  If you haven't seen it, you should!  It's a hilarious movie!!

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Rainy Day

Ok, so this was one of the 4 days a year with no sunshine...no, I can't say that...the sun shone just for a little while this afternoon.  There was also enough sunshine to get a beautiful double rainbow!  Then it was back to gray and a sprinkle or two.  We got sprinkled on while we were riding our bikes this evening!   We had about 1 1/2 inches of much needed rain!

It was still nice enough to have the windows open and the a/c off!  We also met Sudi & Howard at JD's for lunch and sat outside...in the covered deck.  It was fun to see them again.  After lunch we went to their house to see it.  It is gorgeous and just a short walk away from the beach.  I know they'll be happy there this winter!!

My poor Cyclones...I feel so badly for them.

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Yesterday

For some reason when I got home from playing cards last night, I just blew off posting my thoughts and actions for the day yesterday.

It was a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine.  Bob, Ann, Barb, Gary, and I went to the Legion around noon after a brief stop at Hammerheads.  We sat there for about 2.5 hours just soaking up the sun and the water!  Dave went back to Bradenton to finish up the tile job (yay).  When we got home from the Legion, it wasn't long until it was time to go play cards and Dave still wasn't home.

More later...