Sunday night and all's well!

I haven't had time or energy to blog - we've had company since Tuesday night of last week.  Bryan and Erin came in Tuesday night.  Then Wednesday night Don & Bev came (as well as Bryan & Erin).  Then Thursday was Dad's birthday party and Jami & the kids came back here (as well as Bryan & Erin, but minus Don & Bev)!!  We stayed that way until today...Bryan & Erin flew home, Jami and the kids drove home, and Don & Bev are back.  Tomorrow night we're ALONE!!

Then I'll get back to blogging on a regular basis!

More later...

Waiting...

We're sitting here waiting for Bryan's plane to land.  He and Erin are flying in tonight.  Tomorrow they're planning to go to Busch Gardens and tomorrow evening Dave's twin brother and his wife will arrive.  Then Thursday night we'll also have Jami and her 3 kids.  Sounds fun, huh!?!

I bowled really well today.  I had a 121, a 155, and a 138.  I was pretty happy with those scores.  We came back here for lunch.  Marv and his crew did lunch up at the clubhouse as a fundraiser.  Then right after lunch, Ann and I played for the right to move on in the shuffleboard tournament.  I beat myself!  I gave her 14 points, plus I put myself in the kitchen which is a -10...hard to overcome all of that!

I didn't win at bingo tonight either!  Bummer!

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Soggy!

We were supposed to have our singles shuffleboard tournament today, so we started out our day trying to dry off the courts.  At one time we had 6 leafblowers turned on and drying.  We need a roof over our courts!  We'd just get them about ready for play when another rain cloud would come over.  We finally started playing and got in both the first round and the second round.  Then we went to the 3rd round...we still had 2 courts playing (Ann & I were one of them).  It rained so much we couldn't even get the pucks down the court, so we called it off for the day.  Tomorrow after bowling and lunch, we'll try to get round 3 finished and round 4 going.  I won my first match in 2 games, but lost my second match in 2 games.  In the 3rd round, I won the first game and Ann won the second game, so we're having to play the rubber match tomorrow.

I got my new lens today, but won't get to use it until the rain stops.  It is really BIG!!  Can't wait to try it out.

Cards were awful tonight.  Jules and I couldn't get anything!

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What a game!

This morning after church we came home, ate leftover burgers, and then Ann, Barb, and I went to see a play called "Boeing, Boeing".  It was so funny!  We laughed and laughed until our jaws hurt!  Great story line about a guy in France who is engaged to 3 different airline hostesses and juggles them according to their schedules.  You can imagine what happens when a schedule changes!  It was hilarious!

We  didn't get home from the play until close to 5:30 and my Cyclones started playing at 5:15.  Then we were invited up to Barb & Gary's for dinner.  I was able to see the game on tv through the window.  It was nerve-wracking because it seemed to me that all the calls were going North Carolina's way.  Roy Williams is a crybaby and the refs listen to him.  Regardless my Cyclones stayed calm, cool, and collected and won it in the end!  I'm a proud Cyclone tonight!!  We're going to New York for the Sweet Sixteen!

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Old friends

Dave and I went to Port Charlotte today to see a childhood friend of Dave's.  Terry and his wife, Ann, made us feel very welcome in their new retirement home.  We had a wonderful lunch  in their lanai right by the swimming pool.  We enjoyed our afternoon immensely.  Hopefully we can do this again.

This week coming up is going to be a stressful and busy one!  Dave's dad's 90th birthday party is Thursday and starting Tuesday we're going to have company, company, and more company!

Tonight we're sitting here watching the Indian Hills Warriors play in the championship game at the NJCAA tournament.  It's not looking real good for the Hills team.  We've been down the entire game and can't buy a 3 point basket.  Right now we're down 6 points, but we've been down by as much as 12...so there's still hope at least.

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Win #1 and Win #3

Yay and Yay!  Both the Warriors and the Cyclones won this evening...and so did I at cards!  Hopefully both teams can keep it up.  The Warriors play Jones Junior College out of Mississippi tomorrow night for the championship and the Cyclones play North Carolina on Sunday!

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My day off

Dave went to Sarasota today, so I call this my day off.  I had a good day!  I slept until after 9:00, which was good because I didn't go to sleep until after 2:00 AM.  I vacuumed the floors, swiffered them, and then about 1:00 sat down to watch the IHCC basketball game.  About 1:30 I went to Bob's to make sure he could watch the game on his computer feed to his TV.  I watched the rest of the game with Him and Gary.  With 1 minute left in the game, the NJCAA website had problems and we missed the end of the game.  We were ahead by 2 with 1 minute left.  South Plains evidently made a 3 and Lester Mefford made 2 free throws with 2 seconds left for us to win it 71-70.   Whew!  Another nail biter.

I took my bike ride and then waited for Dave to get home.  He had an exciting day.  No, the fish weren't biting.  Instead one of the guys fishing near them caught this:

That's a shark - Dave said somewhere 4-5 feet long.  He wasn't happy about being caught!  You don't see that every day!

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Wonderful Wednesday

It was another beautiful day today.  We went to coffee this morning and then shuffled after coffee.  I won my first game, but I lost the next two.  I lost to Ann first.  All I had to do was score, and instead I hit her puck and as a result she scored instead of me.  I couldn't believe I did that!  Oh well!  I beat Fred the last time I played him, but today he clobbered me!

Tonight at cards, Ann & I were partners and we won!!

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Tuesday

It was a nice day here - a little on the chilly side, but nice regardless.  We started our day off at the bowling alley.  We've only got 2 more bowling days.  I started our pretty good today.  I had a 147 and a 159.  My 3rd game was only a 119 - I really struggled in that game.  I ended up with a 425 series, so I felt good about that!

We went to lunch at The Dugout.  It seems to be everyone's favorite.  Good food and good service, good prices.

We took short naps after lunch and then watched the IHCC tournament game.  We were down by 16 points and came back to tie the game in regulation.  Ended up in 2 overtimes and we won!  One of our guys broke his arm and has to have surgery on it tomorrow.

Tonight at bingo, I won $12.  I just came so close on the big games - darn it!

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Happy St Patty's Day

We had a good day today.  I baked a cake this morning.  We were supposed to bring desserts to the potato bar tonight.  It was a delicious meal!  I love baked potatoes!  We had all kinds of toppings - broccoli, ham & asparagus, salsa, chili, mushrooms, cheese, butter, sour cream - you get the idea!  Great job!!

I've got pix, but I watched DWTS when I got home from playing cards so I didn't get them uploaded to my computer.  I finally won tonight at cards, too!!   Oh, we won the "Share the Wealth" pot tonight - that's a first!!

It's raining cats and dogs out right now, so I'm going to bed!

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Beautiful day

Yesterday we saw dolphins and today we saw alligators!  When I got up this morning, Dave said he'd like to go to Myakka River State Park to take an airboat ride to see the alligators.   Unfortunately it was very windy and alligators don't like the wind.  So, we saw some alligators, but not bunches like we would have if it hadn't been windy.  We also saw some of the birds around the park, but again because it was windy, they weren't out in the numbers they usually are.

After we left the park, we stopped at the Sarasota National Cemetery.  Beautiful, serene place.  People were among the stones reading or sitting in meditation.  I was amazed at the symmetry of the stones.  Any way you looked, they were in straight rows.

It was a wonderful day.  Thank you, God, for all this beauty.

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Woohoo!

ISU men just won the Big 12 Championship!  It was a horrible game for us.  We missed our first 16 shots and still came back to win it all!  Way to go, Cyclones!!

This has been a wonderful day.  We started out having breakfast at the clubhouse.  Dave helped do dishes and after noon, we headed to John's Pass to take a dolphin cruise.  It was a beautiful day for a boat ride and seeing all of the dolphins and birds made the day even more beautiful.  The dolphins were feeding today and now the water is starting to warm up, so there were many of them!  It was just a wonderful cruise!

After our cruise we went to Sudi & Howard's for ribs.  It was really a great evening.  We sat outside in their screened in lanai - great ribs, great friends, great key lime pie, and a great evening!  Thanks again, S & H!!

 He stabbed his fish!!

 Flipping and chasing the fish.

So cool!!!

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Fun Friday

Bob, Ann, Dave and I went to Venice today to see my cousin, Sue, and her mom, my aunt Janie!  Sue was giving lessons in the horse arena, so we got to watch her do her thing.  She's 1 year younger than I am, but she still rides in the speed events and trains 18 horses.  She and her mom brought 5 horses down here, so that was a light load.  Her mom is 88 and doing very well.

From left to right:  Dave, me, Aunt Janie, Ann, Bob, and Sue

It was a beautiful day to sit outside around horses and family!  Traffic was horrendous, but we made it there and back, thank God!

Tonight I didn't even play cards.  I wanted to watch my Cyclones in  the Big 12 tournament semi-finals.  We won!!  We finally beat Kansas this year!!  It was an exciting game!

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Down Day

Sometimes you need a down day and today was mine!  Dave went to his dad's and since Roberta  was busy today, I stayed home by myself!  I like days like this every once in a while.  I didn't even have breakfast until about 10:30!

I took a bunch  of pictures of George today.  Since Bobbi and Alan were out of town, I took hotdogs out to give to him.  He thought he was starved!  He ate 2 whole dogs!!

He's a really cool bird!  He was so close to me that I think I could have touched him!

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If it's raining...

it's probably Wednesday.  This year we changed out shuffleboard day to Wednesday from Friday.  We have missed many Wednesdays because it was raining.  For some reason it only rains on Wednesday this year!  So again, we didn't get to shuffle because it rained off and on today!

Poor George (our resident white egret).  Bobbi & Alan are gone and he's just been hanging around.  We don't have hot dogs, so we couldn't feed him.  Others in the 'hood thought he might eat bread, but he doesn't like bread.  He's spoiled.  After our bike ride, Dave rode over to the grocery store to get some hot dogs.  George ate 2 and still hung around for more.  Hopefully he'll be here tomorrow and we can feed him again.

Cards were bad again.  We were ahead 3 out of 4 hands, but we really lost the 4th hand and that's what counts.  They caught us without our wildcards and without another red canasta, so we went down 1000 points immediately.  Oh well, maybe next time.

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B & B

This was another B&B day.  Unfortunately they're winding down.  I did pretty well at bowling today.  I started out bad, but came back with a couple of decent games.  I ended up with a 109, a 154, and a 135.  Plus, I won one hand of poker with three 6's, so I won $8.00!  At bingo tonight, though, I wasn't as lucky.  I was close several games, but that darn Bill just couldn't draw out my numbers!

I was really dizzy today.  I need to find a chiropractor down here.  I was dizzy a few times when I was bowling, but after lunch I was really bad.  I tried to lie down, but that made it worse.  I ended up sitting in my chair for an hour and then it just went away.

I came home from bingo and made a couple dozen cookies for a bake sale tomorrow.

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Was this Monday?

I guess it was, but for some reason it didn't feel like a Monday.  Today we met with a realtor to see some mobile homes in another mobile home park...on the water.  We saw 6 properties - really liked 3 of them (2 on the water and 1 off).  We're not ready to do anything at this time, but at least we have an idea of what's out there and what we're going to need to spend in order to be happy.  Hopefully there will be something there when we're ready to buy.  One of these places even had a boat that came with - and it was a "party barge"!

This evening I played cards and I won!  Tomorrow's another B&B day and I've got to bake something for the bake sale.  So it's going to be a busy day!

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Beautiful Day

It was truly a beautiful day here!  It was mid-70s with plentiful sunshine and a gentle breeze.  Dave and I went to church and for once I didn't freeze - the A/C never did come on...maybe enough people have complained about it being cold.

After church, we came home and ate leftovers.  Then Dave went outside to do some work around the place.  I washed windows and played my games.  We ended up taking two bike rides again today - it was just too nice to stay inside!  We had the windows open all day!

Today was my niece, Vicki's, birthday, so I got to talk to her.  Kaylee and Clayton set a wedding date in June of 2015 and I found out that my ex-boss's son and his wife are having twin girls.  Big news day!

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Saturday

I didn't sleep very well last night...bummer!  Consequently I woke up and was still really tired.  I can't even imagine how tired I'll be tomorrow - I HATE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!!  I wish they'd just leave it all year long so we don't lose an hour or sleep!

It was a bit warmer here today.  We went with our neighbor, Bill, to his Elks Lodge in Madeira Beach for lunch and we were actually able to sit outside to eat.  Hopefully tomorrow will be even warmer!

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My 66th!

I had a great birthday - it was the 27th anniversary of my 39th birthday!  Dave made breakfast for us  and Bob called to invite us to breakfast...sorry, Bob & Ann.  With our busy schedule, you've got to call early - ha!!  Then we met Sudi, Howard, and Chris at the Post Corner for lunch.  The Gulf of Mexico was a little riled up today - an angry ocean!

What a fun lunch!  It was great seeing all of you!!

When we got home, we took two bike rides - even though I about froze to death!  It was really cold pedaling into the north wind!  Then I took a little nap to get ready for cards tonight.

While we were playing cards, Dave brought in a cake for everyone to have a piece!  My brother came in, hugged and kissed me, and even sang Happy Birthday to me!!  He must have been hitting the Crown!  Then he came back a few minutes later with a deck of 1948 trivia cards for me!  Plus, I got over 175 messages on Facebook wishing me HB.  Overall it was a wonderful birthday!

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Rain, tornado & baseball!

Sure signs of spring, right?  Rain, tornado warnings, and baseball - all in one day!  We had torrential rain today and as soon as they came out with a tornado warning for our area, Dave said we were heading north out of the warned area.  We ended up in Tarpon Springs.  We went to lunch at Hellas Restaurant & Bakery - Dave had a shrimp basket and I had a BLT on a pita.  Both of us thought our meals were really good.  After lunch we went to the bakery and had an ice cream cone.  Dave had rocky road and I had strawberry.  The ice cream was Blue Bell and it was delicious!

When we started home, Bob called us to tell us that the game we were to go to was delayed until 2:30.  We were a little late getting there, but it was a fun day to sit at a ballgame.  The Yankees beat the hometown Phillies 4-3.  We got to see Derek Jeter and Ryne Sandberg, so I was happy!!

 Derek Jeter - he's retiring this year.  He's 39 and his career started 20 years ago!

The umpire made a bad call, so Ryne came out of the dugout to protest!!  I wish I would have taken my good camera, but I was afraid it would rain and my camera would get wet.  I just took my little bitty Sony.

Now we're sitting here watching the stupidest Batman of all times - Batman Returns.

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Ooops

Our Mardi Gras parade and party were really fun!  It was a hoot to dress up, decorate our bikes, and ride around the park honking and blowing horns, and throwing beads at those who came out to see what all the commotion was about!  After our bike parade, we went into the clubhouse for a dinner that featured many jambalayas and gumbos.  Great time with good friends!

Can you believe that after all the merriment, 10 of us played cards!?!  I was really tired, but what the heck!!

Dave went to Sarasota today and went fishing with his dad.  He brought home some filets for us to have our own fish fry up here.  I shuffled.  I won one and lost one.  Tonight 8 of us played cards.  Lots of people have company, so our numbers are down...but we still had fun!

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Great day!

Oh my gosh!  I'm so excited - we saw hundreds of dolphins tonight!!  More about that later!

Sheryl & Aaron got here around noon.  We had a quick bite to eat and then went down to Gulf Blvd.  We went to John's Pass and out on the beach.  It was gorgeous today.

For supper we went to the Post Corner.  The pizza was absolutely wonderful, as per usual!  After we finished we went to the beach to watch the sunset.  Unfortunately the sunset became second because of all of the dolphins that were coming back in.  There were HUNDREDS!!  So cool.  They were pretty close to the shore, also.  It was so exciting!

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Gorgeous day again!

This kind of weather is why we love it here!!  It was gorgeous today.  We went to church and as soon as church was over, we came home and changed into shorts and cooler shirts.  I went sleeveless.  We went to the Legion for lunch.  We got a good parking place and even got a table, although it wasn't in the main area - it was in the overflow area north of where we normally sit.  Then the place got crowded!  People just kept coming and we couldn't get a waitress.  Finally I told Dave since we were sitting by ourselves and people were standing to ask these 3 people close to us to join us if they wanted to.  They did.  Two of them were from Scotland and 1 was from Ireland.  The couple from Scotland now live in Canada and are in Dunedin for 3 months.  The Irish lady lives in Dunedin permanently.  They were very nice and interesting to talk to.  We finally got one of the waitresses to take our order, but it was over an hour before our food came!  It didn't really matter because it was lovely sitting outside!!  We got there at noon and got our food about 2:15!!  Quite a wait!

We had planned to go to John's Pass and maybe take a dolphin cruise, but we had had enough of crowds for the day.  So we came home, took a bike ride, and watched the rest of the Nascar race.  Tonight I played cards...loser again!!

Oh, I forgot to tell you that our company didn't come.  They are still at her sister's in Naples.  Maybe tomorrow!

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Super Saturday

It was another beautiful day today!  Plentiful sunshine and no wind.  It was just about perfect.

We had our annual Chinese Auction here at The Ranch.  It's kind of like a garage sale, only it's different.  You purchase tickets - 10 for $1.00.  There are solo cups by each item or each set of items.  If you want that item, you put your lot # on your ticket and put however many tickets you want into that cup.  Then at 1:00, the winning tickets are drawn and the items awarded to the winner.  We put a ton of tickets on some plastic plates, but we didn't get it.  All we got was a bug fogger and a shoe rack for Dave's shoes.

Now I'm watching my Cyclones get beat.  They just aren't hitting tonight, so KSU deserves to win.  Unfortunately, the Warriors are behind at this point also...hopefully they'll pull out the victory.

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