B & B

Time flies when you're having fun!  I was reading a bunch of different things on the computer tonight and all of a sudden, it's 10:00 and we've turned into pumpkins!  So, this will be short because Wednesdays start early for us!

Bowling was decent.  We only had 15 bowlers today.  Chris had her gall bladder surgery today, so that took Bobbi, Alan, Chris, Wolfy, and Fred away from bowling.  Plus it was a rainy yucky day so some people must have just stayed home!  For lunch we went to Bruce's Chicago Dog Grill.  Good Chicago Hot Dogs!!  Bingo was typical...I didn't win, but came close!  I won both cribbage and poker today at bowling,, so the day wasn't a total loss!

Holiday Ranch calendars arrived today, so tomorrow we'll start distributing them.

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Monday

We got lots accomplished today...except for a nap!  We started off the morning by taking down the Christmas tree and putting everything away.  Then Dave took down the lights outside while I packed them away.  So all signs of Christmas are gone for this year.  I then swept the floors and dusted the furniture.

After lunch, Tammy and I worked on the directory while Dave put up the rope lights around the carport.  They look really nice!  We took a bike ride and stopped by a couple of people's homes to visit and then it was time for supper and cards!

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Sunday

We went to 11:10 church this morning - great sermon about Wise People.  We were taken back to 250 AD to a monastic retreat.  Once you have decided to follow Jesus, you must confess, and then you must give up on the "things" that keep you from following Him in order to be transformed.  That was the subject of our retreat.  Pastor Jack did a good job!  We sneaked out during the prayer following the sermon, so that we could get to Sudi & Howard's for lunch.  There were 4 of the Girls of 66 present, as well as Dave, Rod, Howard, and Amy.  It was a good lunch with good friends!  Thank you Sudi & Howard for having us all over.

This evening we've been watching a Revenge marathon.  That girl is really relentless!

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Saturday

Busy day today!  Dave started painting the lanai floor this morning.  The first coat didn't take him long...the clean-up/prep took the longest.  After two hours he was able to paint the second coat and after another 2 hours we moved the furniture back in.  I chose a khaki color - we really like it.  It looks very good with our table, chairs, and throw rugs.  Glad that project is done!

I had to go to Lowe's during the first 2-hour break to get another gallon of paint.  So while I was out, I got my hair cut.  There sure is getting to be more and more traffic.  The wait at stop lights is quite long now.  You don't want to be in a hurry to get somewhere...or else find less popular streets to travel.

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Friday

It was a Legion day today and it was beautiful sitting out by the water.  Didn't see any dolphins, though.  :(  There were bunches of people there from the park...18, I think!  Lots of fun!

We've decided to paint the floor in the lanai for now, so we picked up the paint for that.  We also went to GFS to get champagne glasses, napkins and placemats for our New Year's brunch.  The only thing on my list that we didn't get done is getting my hair cut.  It's about 5" long all over and unless it's humid, it's flat and I hate that!  Maybe I can get it cut tomorrow.  We'll see.

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Merry Christmas, Ho Ho Ho!!

What a fun day!  We just leisurely got up this morning - finally not in a hurry!  Around 11:00 we took off for the beach.  I love the whole idea of being on the beach on Christmas day!  So cool!!

 We even ate lunch at JD's.  I just had a house salad because the park Christmas dinner was coming up at 5:00.  It was wonderful...ham, stuffed chicken breasts, scalloped potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, etc.,  etc.  There ended up being about 70 of us at the clubhouse!  Fun evening.  Dave stayed to help clean up and when he got home, we met Della, Diane, and Gilles at Central Park to see the lights.  That was fun, too...and crowded!

Then we came home and drove around the park taking pix of the lights in our little neighborhood.  This is our little piece of Paradise!  

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!

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Christmas Eve

We had a Christmas bake shop here at our mobile home this afternoon.  We made 2 pecan pies and an ambrosia salad.  Our house smelled wonderful.  If you like pecan pie, I would recommend Dear Abby's recipe.  It's super easy and very, very good!  Each pie takes about 5 minutes to mix together and about 50 minutes to bake, so you're all done in 1 hour!

This afternoon we went to the clubhouse  for Christmas Eve dinner with the Martins, the LaPlantes, the Moquins, the Searcys, the Mainvilles and all their extended families - 29 in all.  We had a wonderful dinner and a fun gift exchange.  Then, about 6:30 we took off for Christmas Eve services at church.  It was a very good candlelight service and it was really fun walking out into 70 degree weather instead of cold!

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Cool!

While I went bowling this morning, Dave stayed here to help Affordable Aluminum put in our lanai windows.  They got  done about 1:00 - it really makes a difference in both the looks of our place and the comfort level of the lanai!

Now we just have to decide what floor we're going to put out there, but that'll be another day!

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Quiet

It's sure quiet in our home tonight :(.  Jami and her family took off around 2:15 or so and went back to Ft Lauderdale.  It's very quiet in here tonight!

We had a good day.  We ate breakfast and then we all went to the clubhouse to sort out the Christmas cards and deliver them.  We have a big box in the clubhouse for people to put their Christmas cards for other residents in.  Dave volunteered us to do the sorting and delivering of all of those cards.  Let me tell you, there were tons of cards!  The box was about 4' tall and about 1' square and it was full.  It took us about an hour to sort the cards and that's with 7 of us doing it.  The kids were great helpers!  After we had them sorted, we borrowed both Betty's and Laurie's golf carts and went door to door delivering the cards.  Some people have 30-40 cards and some only had 1.  We had a good time.  One of the ladies gave Kelly a Santa hat since we were acting like Santa's elves!

After all of that, we had lunch and used up our leftovers.  Then we were able to get 3 games of Sequence in before the kids had to help pack up their stuff for the ride home.  We'll miss them, definitely!

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Sunday

Jami, Tom, and the kids came on Friday evening and I've been too busy to write anything.  We've been on the run for the last 48 hours!  Friday during the day we went to the Legion.  It was such a beautiful day that we wanted to sit out in the sun by the water and enjoy the day even more!  It was fun and not crowded at all.  Then we came home and waited for the kids to get here.  I had fixed meatloaf and baked potatoes in the crock pot for supper.  It was done just a bit before they got here - everyone loved it, even the kids!

Saturday we went to the nature preserve to see if the alligator was there.  We not only saw the alligator, which is huge, but we also saw at least 3 pileated woodpeckers, several Common Gallinules, a Great White Egret, a White Ibis, as well as an Anhinga, and a Limpkin!  Oh, there was also a rather large snake.  We had a super wildlife day!!  Saturday night, Tom & Jami took the kids to the park to see the Christmas lights and to burn off some energy.

Today we went to church and then Tom & Jami took off for Ocala while we kept the kids.  Jami's grandma lives in Ocala and she's not well at all.  Jami's mom came down yesterday and Jami went over to see her today.  We haven't heard from them so we don't know if they're coming home tonight or not.  They're supposed to go back to Ft Lauderdale tomorrow, but it's going to depend on how her grandma is doing.  Around noon we took the kids to the big water and saw a small Anhinga and another bird that I haven't identified yet.  Then we came home, at lunch, played Sequence, watched Annie, and took a bike ride - all before it rained!

It is great having the kids here.  They've grown up a lot in the last year.

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Beautiful Day!

I know I sound like a broken record, but it's sure been nice here and that's why we come here!  Of course, the beauty that surrounds us and the friends we've made are also contributing factors.

Today, I almost finished the Holiday Ranch calendar for 2015.  I've still got a couple of pix to take, though.  I'll get one tomorrow and one on Saturday...then I can have it printed.  I hope people like it!

Today we got the groceries for this weekend and I actually got all of my stamping stuff put away.  I also picked all of the white fuzz off of our black rugs!  The story behind this is that Dave washed some cleaning towels with the black rugs...shouldn't have done that!  I picked most of the fuzz off by hand, but then I used duct tape to get some more.

Tomorrow we've got to do the vacuuming and dusting, clean the bathrooms and make the meatloaf.  Plus, if it's nice, we're going to the Legion for lunch!  I sure hope it's nice because I'm tired of staying here!!  Oh, I also have a picture session at 3:00!

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Gorgeous Day

What a gorgeous day!!  It was just about perfect!  Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit cooler, but back to the 70's on Friday.

We didn't get to shuffle this morning...there weren't enough people who stayed after the cookie walk.  We tried again at 1:00 but even fewer people came back after lunch.  No shuffling next week either.  Guess they're waiting for you to return, Ann!

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B & B

We had 21 bowlers this morning - great turnout!  The ladies ruled today - Donna bowled a 203!  High men's game was only a 182!  I bowled pretty well.  I started out with a 116 and followed that with a 156 and a 133, so not too bad!  Dave had a nice 139 his last game.  We all went to lunch at Acropol today - good food!

I had another picture to take today (for our park calendar).  I'm about done getting the pix, now I need to get the calendars printed.  I'll take my camera to coffee tomorrow, along with my bowling report, the shuffleboard stuff, the cookies for the cookie walk, my shuffleboard stick, our name tags, coffee cups, a splenda, and my flavored creamer!  We may need to drive!!

Bingo was fun tonight - I only won $5, but I was so close so many times!

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Baking Day

This day was perfect in my book!  I love 70 degree days with abundant sunshine!!  Dave and I both had busy days.  He's always doing something and some times I don't pay attention to what he's doing.  On this day, I fired up the oven and made cookies!  I had gotten two tubs of cookie dough from Allison's fundraiser, so I made both of them - sugar cookies and chocolate chunk.  We're having a cookie walk on Weds morning, so I'll take 3 dozen of something...either peanut clusters or cookies.

We took down our icicle lights and put up some others.  After we got them up, about 4 feet of them stopped working!  NO MORE ICICLE LIGHTS FOR US!!  So we took them down and put up just a strand of lights - they're working fine!

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Sunday

Yay - it was warmer today!  Dave and I went to the 9:30 contemporary service at our new church.  We'll probably not do that again - we didn't like it nearly as well as the traditional services.  We wanted to try it, though.

After church, we went to Post Corner to eat.  They serve breakfast until 11:00, so we had eggs and bacon.  Then we were off to Home Depot.  We found us some chairs and a table for our lanai.  Since the kids are coming this next week, we needed to have places to sit outside if it's warm enough.  We also got a couple of plants - a tomato plant and a pepper plant.  Danny will help us plant them when they get here.

I made crock pot peanut clusters today and tomorrow I need to make some cookies.

Now we're watching a hokey movie - Unlikely Angel with Dolly Parton.  This movie was filmed in 1996 and Dolly can't act STILL.  She should really just stick to singing.

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Saturday

I didn't get much done today - I had a bit of an intestinal bug or something.  This morning I felt pretty good so I was able to get about half of the Christmas cards for park residents done.  Then this afternoon, I just didn't feel well so ended up taking a nap in between bathroom visits.  Sure hope this is gone tomorrow.

Today  turned out to be a very pretty day.  I went outside around noon, just to enjoy the sun.  We've got some of our Christmas lights out - the icicle lights on the awning out front have a section that isn't working.  We were going to take them down this afternoon and replace them with others that we have, but I didn't make it.  Maybe tomorrow after church and lunch.

Dave finished up painting with Ron today, so now we'll be getting ready for Jami's family to come visit.  They'll be here the 19-22...not long, but it'll be fun.  We have some final preparations to do before they get here.

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I'm COLD!

I moved to Florida to get away from the cold!  It's been chilly for a week now and it's still supposed to be in the 60's thru the weekend.  I'll be ready for some warm weather!!

We got lots done today.  Dave put up new fans in both bedrooms.  Once all of the construction "stuff" got taken out of the house, I cleaned all of the floors.  I also made chili - seemed appropriate somehow!

When we took our bike ride this afternoon, I put my hood up on my hoodie.  We've got to start riding earlier - by the time we get to ride, it's usually around 5:30 and by then there's no warmth from the sun at all!

Tonight I went up to play cards and take a couple of pix of the Texas Hold'Em card players.  There were only 9 of us to play 7s, so I told them I was coming home - I wanted to watch the ISU-Iowa Men's BB Game!

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Paper-y Day

While Dave painted at Ron's and did paint repairs for both Bob & Gary, I spent my time working on paperwork!  I had a month's worth of paper to go through, sort, file, and act upon!  It took me most of the day but it's done!  The bills are paid and filed away and the throwaway pile is shredded - yay!  I even had time to read last month's Consumer Reports!  I also got our Wyndham points taken care of and got the printer working (after talking with tech support for at least 30 minutes!

When Dave came home, we went for a chilly bike ride and then I came in and made Jambalya for supper!  I told Dave that I would be watching my Cyclones the next two nights.  Both women and men are playing Iowa and the games are televised on the Big Ten Network.  Surprise - down here you have to pay $10/month to watch the BTN.  So Dave decided that was pretty cheap entertainment for me.  I'll watch tomorrow's game and then cancel the subscription because I don't watch Big 10 sports much.  I'm a Big 12 gal!!  Go Cyclones!  The women are having a hard time keeping up with Iowa.  Lisa Bluder has a good team!  She's a great coach!  See - I can be nice when it comes to the Hawks!!

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Good Day

This morning after coffee, we had our monthly HOA meeting.  I wrote an editorial that I shared with the group.  I know the Board appreciated my thoughts and many other people also shared their appreciation.  In fact I even got an ovation when I finished.  My whole premise was to let the Board know that we were behind them and to ask people to make an effort to give suggestions on how to solve problems instead of just complaining.  I will also print it in the newsletter as an editorial!!

When the meeting finished I was able to get a couple more pictures taken for the calendar we're trying to put together.  Then it was time to shuffle!  It was cool today, but it was a great day for shuffling!  I only won 1 game today.  The first one I lost by about 5 points.  I won the second one and then got clobbered the 3rd game.  At cards tonight my partner and I couldn't get any good cards at all.  Going into the last hand, we were down by over 6,000 points!  But we won the game!  We went out with them having only 1 canasta and beat them by 575 points!!  Goes to show you shouldn't give up too early!

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Yay

The sun came out today - it was still cold, but at least the sun was shining!  Bowling was so so.  My first game was a 146 and then I went down from there!  Bingo - no luck there either.  AND NOW I CAN'T PRINT ON THIS NEW PRINTER!

I'm reinstalling it as we speak.

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Another soggy day.

This foggy, gray, drizzly weather is screwing up the advertisement that this area of Florida averages 361 days of sunshine every year!  We haven't seen the sun for 2 days now...they're saying it'll shine tomorrow.  Needless to say, since it's gray and drizzly, we also are not getting much warmth...it's sweatshirt weather this week.

Today, Dave and I hung some pictures and Dave worked out in his shed again.  Tonight we had dinner and then I played cards (not well, mind you - got beat badly!).

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Soggy day

After today, I'm guessing that our "cold front" is here!  It was foggy and misty for most of the day, so our temps didn't get very high.  Right now it's 65 - tomorrow it's to be 71 and then 60's for the rest of the week. I guess that's good, but I prefer 70's!!  It is December after all!

We went to early church this morning.  It was good.  We're hoping to become associate members of Anona UMC!  We really like it there!  After church we went to #134 and brought all of the rest of our stuff down here to #210.  Dave saw a little leak in the living room, so he'll patch that and then we're done with our "north annex"!

I heard from Sudi today - we'll be having Christmas dinner with our friends at the park, and then on Sunday we'll celebrate with Fairfield friends!  I really wanted them all to come here for Christmas dinner, but they decided not to, so that's that.

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Busy Saturday

It was pretty hot here today - in the mid 80's.  We put up our Christmas lights outside and about roasted doing it!  I had sweat running into my eyes!  I hope to get a picture of our place tomorrow night.  I just didn't want to go out tonight!

Tomorrow we're planning to go to early church - 8:15!  I hope we don't oversleep!

I got to watch some of the Cyclone vs TCU football game today - that was really ugly!  I'm sure the guys are glad that season is over.

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Fantastic Friday!

It was another gorgeous day in the neighborhood!  Dave & Bob got our outlet working, so now we can put up our Christmas lights tomorrow.  I'm pretty sure this is the latest I've ever put up lights!

Today, the little guy came to wash our mobile (and Gary's, too).  He was only about 2 hours later than he said he'd be here, but he finally made it!  When he got here, it took him a while to get started because he was busy trying to get a picture of the armadillo that was across the street from us.  I ran out with my camera and snapped a few pictures, too.  I don't think I've ever seen one up close and personal, but this one didn't mind us being out there at all.

He uses his snout to dig for grubs...that's why all of our yards have holes in them!  Fascinating critters!

Tonight we played cards and my partner and I lost by 730 points - bummer!  I even got some good cards tonight!

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Thursday

What a beautiful day!  82 and abundant sunshine!  We had a great day.  We had some errands to run, and then we met Sudi & Howard at the Legion for lunch.  It was great sitting out on the water - great lunch, great friends, and even a couple of dolphins!  We always say it's a perfect day if a dolphin graces us with their presence!

After lunch, Sudi & Howard came to our place to visit - even Bob & Ann came over to say hi!  After they all left, we got the Christmas tree up and put some fiber optic angels around the living room.  We've also got some Santas out and, of course, the nativity scene.  Now I'm watching my Cyclones play basketball and Dave is sleeping in his chair!

Hopefully we'll get some electricity run to the outside of our mobile home tomorrow and then we can decorate outside tomorrow night!

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BAD night at cards!

Ann and I were partners tonight at cards and we had a really, really bad night.  Neither one of us could get any good cards!  We didn't get our 7s two different hands and didn't get our wild cards in the last hand!  That was unusual - we usually get pretty good cards, both of us.  Oh well, Friday is another night!

This morning we played two games of shuffleboard.  I won my first game and lost my second.  This afternoon, I sat out the first game and lost the second...but it was a good game.  It was a beautiful day here - especially nice for shuffling!

Dave didn't shuffle - he finished up the cupboards and then worked on the doors inside our home.  They all shut now - yay!  Then we worked together to clean up around here.  Tomorrow we're going to get Christmas decorations out and see what we can do.

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Fair and Better!

Since today was B&B day, I did both bowling and bingo.  I did fair at bowling and better at bingo!  So far I'm ahead for the year and that's a first!!  Dave stayed home and worked on putting new hinges and knobs on all of the cabinet doors.  He's got about 8 doors left to hang - yay!  I'd like to get done with this construction so we can clean up the house and enjoy our new home!

Hopefully we'll get done with this stage of construction tomorrow and then we can get out the Christmas decorations and put away the turkeys!

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Monday

As I sit here writing tonight, my hubby is fast asleep in his chair.  He worked really, really hard today, so he deserves to sleep in his chair!  He put up new blinds on each window while I went shopping for curtains.  I hate to shop!  Regardless, the blinds AND the curtains are now up!  Tomorrow he's not bowling - he's going to start replacing hinges and knobs on our cabinets.  Unfortunately, he's also got to wash the cabinets while he has the hardware off.  I'll be bowling!

I swept the house today and generally cleaned up around here.  When he's working, he tends to be a wee bit messy!  Our house is starting to look like a home!

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