Wednesday

After coffee this morning, Dave, Bob, & Gary started painting on our south wall and the back wall.  Tomorrow Dave will spot the walls to see if any spots were missed.  We had a little mist today, so the guys ate their lunch and painted between the clouds!  I can't wait to see it all done - right now it really looks pretty.

We had 14 of us play cards tonight.  That was fun...one table of 6 and two tables of 4.  Marilyn and I won big and that was fun, too.

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Back Home

We had a wonderful four days in Ft Lauderdale, but it's good to be home.  The kids were fun - they're all growing up.  Kelly (15) just started a job.  She works at Publix on the weekends.  She said it was fun and she likes earning money!  Megan was good - her room was 80% neat, which is an 80% improvement from 6 months ago!  Danny just turned 9, so he's just a crazy boy!!  We sure enjoyed having Roberta with us! 

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Black Friday

We did our black Friday shopping last night about 7:00.  We went to Bealls to buy a new lighted palm tree.  We have replaced the lights on ours more than once!  The Black Friday sale price was $29 instead of $79, plus we had a $10 off!  Pretty cheap palm tree for our lanai!

Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful.  It was good seeing Sudi & Howard.  The food was incredible!  There wasn't even a single bite of pecan pie left, darn it!

Today we decorated for Christmas and I have to say the lights are so pretty!

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Thanksgiving Eve

Big day tomorrow.  The rec hall looks beautiful and tomorrow it will be full of happy, hungry people!  We had a good day with coffee this morning and cards tonight!  Tomorrow it's supposed to be 81 degrees - hope they get the a/c going!

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B&B

Only 12 bowlers today - seems that several people had other things they needed to do today.  I still felt uncomfortable bowling today, so I didn't bowl very well.  Lunch was at the Clubhouse - I had breakfast and it was wonderful.  Bingo wasn't very good either.  I won $4, but I spent $9...hmmm.  Not supposed to be that way!

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Monday

This was a very busy day for both of us.  While Dave supervised the guy who power washed our mobile, I worked on finishing up the newsletter.  I got it to the office a little after noon but they didn't answer me if they got it.  Tomorrow I'll call them to check.  Then I worked on the flyer for Christmas dinner and got it done.  I took it up to the clubhouse and noticed it had a mistake on it...grrr.  So tomorrow I'll reprint it.  I also talked to Epson support for over an hour...another grrrr.  We did get the printer working, though, so I guess it was worth it!

Tonight at cards we had 1 too many, so I came home voluntarily.  My throat has been a bit sore today.  I'm hoping it is just allergies or changes in the weather and not a cold.  Lots of people around here have bad colds and I DON'T WANT ONE!!

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Sunday

Great day.  It was a little cooler than normal, so we both took our jackets to church.  It was hot inside the church!  Must have been Jack's sermon...what a good one! 

After church we went to Sanding Ovations at the beach.  We were glad we had our jackets, but really in the sun it was quite nice!  The sand sculptures were beautiful.  I chose to get some close-ups since I had the big lens.  I have seen things on the pictures that I didn't see in person.  For instance, I didn't know why this was called "Ripple Effect" until I saw...

 this picture with the child putting his finger in the water and causing the ripple effect!

 This one was called "My Changing Woman".  I saw the serpent, and the cat hind quarters, along with the angel wings, but I didn't see the animal on her head until...

 I saw this picture.  Very imaginative!

This afternoon and tonight I worked on the December newsletter and calendar.  I've got them about 98% done!  I should be able to send it to the office tomorrow while our home is being washed!

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Saturday

Another beautiful day before a cool-down!  We shuffled this morning.  I played 2 games and won them both...yay!  Dave continued to work on painting trim and eave spouts while I shuffled.  Then I went to have a pedicure this afternoon. 

I got home around 4:00 and checked on the ISU game.  We were ahead 42-3...say what???  I couldn't believe it, so we looked for the tv station.  Sure enough, the score was 42-3 in the 2nd quarter.  Oh my goodness!  It was a fun game - we scored at will and the final was 66-10.  The announcers were just astounded - this wasn't supposed to happen!

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Fun day

We went to Sarasota to the Celery Fields this morning.  Dave needed to work on Roberta's sink faucet, so it was a perfect day to do it.  We were really surprised at the Celery Fields!  This is what we saw when we first pulled up:

Hundreds of wood storks, spoonbills, and 8 other species of birds.  It was so cool - there were also about 20 people just standing watching them. 

We also got to go to Bealls with Roberta and we took her by here so she could see these birds, too. 

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Thursday

Another great Thursday!  I love the fact that I can get up at my leisure on Thursdays!  I didn't get up until about 8 this morning.  I very leisurely ate breakfast and got my shower taken before Dave got home from church and breakfast.  Dave did some odd jobs around here and at Gary's and Doreen's.  I didn't do much.  That's another reason to like Thursdays!

Tonight we're watching Pride and Prejudice and doing laundry.

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Fun Day

We hosted coffee hour again this morning!  We almost doubled in size from last week!  We had 41 people at coffee and had 25 last week!  We had a dozen donuts, 9 muffins, and about 15 bagels.  Thank goodness it was enough.  At the last minute we cut some of the big donuts in half so they would go around to all the people who came.  After coffee, we had our first HOA meeting of the winter.  That went very well and we were out of there in less than an hour.

We then hurried to Redington Shores to see Sudi, Howard, Chris, Nancy and Rod.  Lunch was at Mi Casa Bar & Grill.  Dave and I both had great food!  We'll go back there!  It's always fun getting together with "old" friends!

Tonight at cards we had a great time!  Then rode around the park with Betty and Doris on the golf cart!

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B&B

Today was the beginning of B & B....bowling and bingo.  Actually bingo has been going on, but bowling started today.  I started out very well, but my bowling went to Hell in a handbasket!!  By the 3rd game, I couldn't do anything right!  I ended up having the high women's game with a 143 - that was the first game.  Dave had a 142 and he went downhill.  Bob had a nice 156 his last game. 

Bingo sucked for me tonight.  This was the first night that I didn't win...bummer!

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Monday

It was cool here today.  I rode my bike two laps today just to warm up.  Dave painted the lanai today and got it put back together.  He also picked up his shed and got it put together.  Now he'll start moving "stuff" around and get things put away. 

Cards tonight sucked.  We got beat by 6,000 points!  It was good to have Lulu back!

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Sunday

Another beautiful day here!  We went to church where Pastor Jack gave a wonderful sermon about giving.  It didn't have anything to do with money, however it coincided with Stewardship Sunday.  The giving he talked about was giving everything to God...your heart, your soul, and your mind.  One of the parishioners is dying of cancer and Jack went to the hospital to pray with him.  He asked nothing for himself, he asked Jack to pray that all children everywhere would have good food.  His wife wanted him to ask Jack to pray for his family, but Bill just asked that one prayer.  He has given everything to God!  I don't think there was a dry eye in the congregation.

We had to say goodbye to our friends from church - Bill and Jan Kniesly.  They are moving back to Indiana and this was their last Sunday.  We'll miss them!  We've sat by them for about 3 years now. 

Dave painted some this afternoon - we're really going to like the gray!  It looks so clean and nice.  He got the lanai done today - just has to touch up some tomorrow. 

I don't know if I told you yet - we got a new camera.  We had two of our old cameras go down on us.  One of them had over 98,000 pictures taken on the shutter so it was just worn out.  Now we'll both have cameras again.  Dave has gotten to enjoy taking photos as much as I do.  Here's one he took with the new camera tonight of the moon.

This is hand-held just leaning on the railing.  We're going to get a heavy tripod soon.  It's too hard to take this kind of picture just holding the camera. 

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Saturday

This was a different day.  We started our fun shuffleboard today.  It was a gorgeous day for being outside!  I didn't get off to a real good start, but it was fun anyway.  I beat Bobbi by 20 or so, then Fred beat me 7 to -4!  Then Coreen really beat me.  Oh well...better luck next time!

I got to watch the Cyclone football game this afternoon.  It was a good one to watch because we won!  Then this evening we went to Post Corner for pizza and to celebrate Ann's birthday.  The Heckarts, the Allisons, the Kozaks also were there.  Fun evening, but the pizza wasn't as good as usual.  Something about the crust wasn't right.  For one thing it was too done! 

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Friday

We went to Sarasota today and ended up just sitting around the pool for several hours just visiting with Roberta, Suzy and Greg.  What a great time! 

I didn't play cards tonight.  I opted to stay home and we watched a Mission Impossible movie starring Tom Cruise.  It was a good one - Rogue something or other.  Love having a smart tv and prime membership!

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Thursday

Dave went to church this morning to work on the grounds crew.  He does this most Thursday mornings, which means I get to stay in bed!  Yeah, right.  I woke up at 6:30 this morning.  I think my mind is still on daylight savings time!  The guys at church work for a couple of hours and then go for breakfast. 

Tonight we had our kickoff party - wine and cheese social.  That means the season is officially started.  Shuffleboard starts Saturday and bowling starts Tuesday.  Here we go! 

Dave's sister & husband brought Roberta down so we're heading to Sarasota in the morning.  We'll eat lunch with them and then come back mid afternoon.  It'll be good to see them again.

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Funky Mood

I've been in a funky mood all day.  I think it's called "political disbelief".  I truly cannot believe that Trump won the presidency.  What on earth are people thinking?  I'm sure our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves!  We have to find a way to get along now and it's going to be hard.

We had coffee duty again this morning and I had cards tonight.

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Sad Day

Oh my God,,,,please help us! 

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Monday

I woke up with a purpose in mind.  I knew I wanted to accomplish several things and I got them all done!  On Saturday I started taking all my curtains down and ironing them.  Since I didn't get done, I finished that project before I even  took my shower.  Then after my shower, I dusted everything in the house.  I also ran the electric broom, sent the rugs outside for Dave to shake, and I even ran the wet Swiffer over the floors!  Dave usually does the floors for me because it just makes my back spasm, but I got it all done!  I also went with Dave to pick up paint for the outside of our home and last night at cards I finished organizing the books in the library!  I've now got to go through the books and take out the old ones, getting them ready to take to the veterans for resale.

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Gorgeous Sunday

What a wonderful day today was.  The humidity was lower, so it felt wonderful outside.  We went to the 9:30 service of church.  Our praise music today was very uplifting.  It was communion today as well as a sermon about the "begats".  Pastor Jack said that almost everyone reads over the begats in Chronicles and in Matthew.  He said to just think of them as a list of names - sort of like a family tree.  He compared our lives to hour glasses.  The begats are the ones at the top of the hour glass pouring into us - we're the neck of the hour glass.  What is below the hour glass is what we pour into others.  Great analogy.

This afternoon, we had our massages.  Tonight Dave is sound asleep in his chair and I am fighting to stay awake!

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Saturday

We had such a fun day!  After breakfast we went to Fort Desoto looking for birds.  It was a gorgeous day to be at the park.  It was a little windy, but we had abundant sunshine and warm temps...and lots of birds and people!  I have to figure out what kinds of birds we saw - some I think were terns, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, some new birds for us!  Dave got to watch people fish.  Next time he'll take his fishing poles because you don't need a license to fish off the piers there.  We even had a picnic lunch!! 

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Friday

We had another beautiful day today.  We met Sudi & Howard at the Legion at lunchtime.  It's always good to see them!  It was beautiful there today.  Perfect temperature and very little wind.  Someone said there were 22 of us from the park there today!  That's a bunch!  After we got home, we took naps and a bike ride and then it was time for cards.  We had 10 playing cards and our team won.  Fun evening.

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Thursday

I got up around 8:00 this morning - sleep eluded me last night after that Cubs win!  Dave had gone to church to work on the grounds crew, which he does every Thursday.  Later in the morning, I had an appointment for a follow-up x-ray with the surgeon who did my knee last year.  He said it looked good - the other knee has quite a bit of arthritis in it, though.  I just need to call him if I start to have problems.

We went to 5 Guys for lunch - that was Dave's choice, but I really like their burgers!  Then it was nap-30!  Bike rides and watching Cyclone football were on the agenda for the evening.  Sorry, Cyclones, I'm going to bed!!

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Tuesday

I have to tell you that I've been watching the World Series and have forgotten to blog!  What a Series this has  been.  These two clubs are really well matched.  Right now I'm very nervous.  Grandpa Ross just got a home run in what may very well be his last at-bat in his career.  I liked it better when it was 5-0...now it is 6-3.  I'm never going to be able to sleep tonight...I'm way too keyed up.

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