SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014

Good sunny morn !!!  It was a good Billy Joel tribute band last night. I forgot several times that he wasn't the real deal. Very good. Randy came by for an hour, but was enjoying his freedom at the Hideaway. It was great to see him having fun. 

First thing this morning, we went to Olivia's for breakfast ... The GeorgeFest Parade  started about 10 o'clock. 

We couldn't believe our eyes ...

A real BULL rider. When I stepped out to take this picture, the bull gave me an odd look ... my RED hair, perhaps?  LOL

This 95 year old veteran of WW2, Battle of the Bulge, was a huge hit with the crowd!

Sir Gus is a parade favorite! The Shriner's mascot. 

The Wells Fargo horse team and stagecoach were beautiful. 

Wells Fargo semi and trailer transports the stagecoach and team of horses. 

Betsy Ross was still stitching the flag! LOL

There were musical high school bands, beauty pageant contestants, fire trucks and the like. It was a good time!

Randy invited us to dinner ... Homemade chili with salad and cheese toast. It was good. Linda was bouncing off the walls today, unable to settle down. If she falls asleep soon, we're going to play Mexican dominoes!

Glenlivet it is !!! And Mexican dominoes!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Well it's a beautiful sunny morning, although a little chilly. Our trend is to be 80° over the weekend. 

This is a wonderfully big weekend in the Lake Eustis area. It's our 112th annual Georgefest. What is Georgefest, you ask??? 

George Washington's birthday has been celebrated in Eustis as part of Presidents' Day celebrations. This year's theme is "It's a Grand Old Flag" ...  two days of carnival rides, parades, fireworks and musical entertainment. This year's parade features 80 entries, including the Wells Fargo stagecoach!  Tonight, "Turnstiles" an 8-piece Billy Joel tribute band plays for 3 hours at the "Shell" along lakefront Ferran Park. In all, there are 8 bands playing throughout the weekend. It's all free!  What a great place to live!!!

Randy is getting his "Linda-sitter" and meeting us there at 6:30. Unfortunately, Linda does not do well outside of her home nowadays. 

Lest you think it was all fun 'n games today, it wasn't. LOL. Friday is house cleaning day ... Mark vacuums ... I dust, polish, scrub and tidy. The house is company ready ... but we're not expecting this week. The Stevenson's are "booked" for March 20-25th. Yay ... 

It's less than two months til our big RV adventure!  Much to prepare and organize ... last year's trip was fantastic. 

Ta ta for now. 

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2014

Good morning!  I awoke to the smell of simmering soup, Mark is cooking up a chicken concoction! I'm so glad he has taken on cooking, as it was never my forte. LOL. 

Robbie had a very smelly mat under his right jawbone when we groomed him yesterday. After moistening it with Neosporin, Mark was able to loosen it and clip it off. The Panalog we had on hand cleaned it up ... but we must keep an eye on it.  I went online, and googled a question. Most dog owners said it was caused by a hot spot from an insect bite. Robbie's is about the size of a dime! The online consensus was to treat it with an antiseptic and then Gold Bond powder to dry it out. So, we shall try that for a day or two, and if not it's off to the vet!

Imagine our busy lives without "the net"! Mark and I ONLY use our iPhones now ... no computer at our house. 

The computer age is already out-dated ... remember when we had to be plugged in and connected with a phone line?

Anyway, my day started with a nice hot tub soak ... Life is good. I thought we might go to Orlando for lunch today, and a shopping spree at Bass Pro shops but Mark thought a visit to Linda and Randy's was in order. 

So, the chicken soup was great ... we each had two bowls, Orlando lunch will be some other day! A rain-check. LOL

This cartoon mentions a floppy disk! Wow ... that's OLD. LOL

We laugh when we see a couple eating at a nice restaurant ... looking at their phones rather than each other! 

Randy has been busy planting everything from flowers to vegetables in his new garden. He went for a little grocery shopping while we stayed with Linda. She was pretty quiet again today but happy to see us arrive with the dogs. We were invited to stay for a bowl of chili but we had Mark's cabbage roll casserole thawing on the counter. 

We arrived home and lit a nice fire ... Mark's aunt Jane phoned. She and Cliff are in the process of moving to their new villa at Baytree golf course. :-)

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2014

Good morning! I LOVE a rainy day at home ... and apparently that's what's in store starting about noon! So, Mark and I did our shopping and were home before the first drops fell. 

Yesterday, was a beautiful sunny 80°. Of course it was beautiful and sunny, our guests left the day before! Isn't that the way it goes in life? There's an old saying, "one day late and a dollar short!"  LOL. Regardless, we had a blast with Cayann & Timichael. They arrived home at 3:30 am yesterday, having stopped at their favorite casino enroute. LOL. What a pair!

Our Lake County boasts over 1000 named lakes and spans 200 square miles. You see, rain is always welcome here! There are plenty of boaters around the region. 

Last Friday, Mark's uncle "Bun" passed away at 89 years young. I met him a few times over the years, of course, and Mark knew him well. We feel sad for aunt Jean; they were married 68 years! They had two children, Michael and Karen. Our thoughts are with them. 

Mark and I had a relaxing afternoon; he cooked chicken, asparagus and baked potato ... I worked on Ancestry.com. It rained, we napped ... it was a nice day!

Sunshine tomorrow???

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014

Good morning! It's 61 at 6:30 ... going to 81 later today! 

I believe it's time to assemble our paperwork for tax preparation. A humble task, but ... It must be done. 

Meanwhile, spring has sprung in Florida! Hope you'll enjoy a few of our favorite bird photos. 

THOUGHT I'D SEE WHAT YOU'RE DOING?

SITTING AT THE COMPUTER, I SEE. LOL

WHO PUT THE FABRIC SOFTENER IN THE BIRDBATH? 

HA HA

THERE'S A SHOWOFF IN EVERYONE :-)

PUTTING ON THE RITZ !  

THE NEXT CARDINAL FOR POPE ...

NON-CONFORMIST OR "THE MILKMAN"?

THE BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS ... 

PAINTED BUNTING NOW VISITING FLORIDA!

I WANT BREAKFAST !  NOW !  

HAPPY DAY !

HITCHCOCK, BEFORE WRITING "THE BIRDS". HAHAHA. 

While I was working on the tax paperwork, Mark spread soil around the back patio border, planted grass seed and trimmed some trees. 

Linda & Randy popped in for an hour. She was talkative today! I saved some mail for her to sort which usually is a good thing; not today, though. LOL. Linda wanted to sort it 'on the go' and took a swing at Randy when Mark annoyed her by mentioning "Are you doing the taxes, Linda.?" It was then "medication:30".  Haha. 

Mark made a special batch of spaghetti sauce tonight with his homegrown rosemary ... nice!

Sue and Wayne have gone to Bella Roma with their friend, Jackie. (I sure would love some Penne ala Vodka from there!)

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2014

Good morning. It's a cloudy one, but nice and warm!!

We four went to Olivia's for breakfast but, she's closed on Mondays!  So, we went to Billy's Cafe and had a great meal. The waitress, Norma, was lots of fun. Timichael wanted a pork chop, but,alas, no luck. He had to settle for ham.  LOL 

So after breakfast, Timichael decided he needed to renew his Florida drivers license. Being a dapper gentleman, he wouldn't have a new photo taken without being clean shaven ... so away we went to find a store and buy a razor and shave cream! It was for not, though, as the DMV needed more documentation than his passport and driver license! All he wanted was to update his address!  

So; we did a pop-in on Randy since we were just around the corner. Linda was very quiet today ... not social. We stayed an hour, had a drink then headed home so our pals could get packed. They fly out of Orlando to Dallas at 8 o'clock. 

LOL ... Timichael could scarcely lift this huge bag! It weighed over 100 lbs. 

Good friends, good times! Two "old" married guys. Haha. 

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2014

Oh, my aching head. Last night was too much fun!

Mark cooked up a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns. I set the table and made toast. We were all a little quieter than the night before ... aka, hungover. LOL

Despite the stormy weather forecast, we decided to take "Mrs R B" cruising. It was a fine day!

Mount Dora's lighthouse ...

Cayann & Timichael with Mount Dora in the background. 

The old Lakeside Inn ...

Stilt house row in Mount Dora

Cayann & Timichael at the Palm Gardens for lunch. Lunch was delivered to the boat as it began raining!

We had a fun time! The ride home was misty rain. 

Cayann & Timichael enduring the rain. LOL

So following an afternoon nap, we regrouped,  watched Ancient Aliens and then headed to Pisces Rising for dinner!  We were so full from lunch, we all had salads. 

Cayann likes her new necklace that I made. 

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2014

Good morning. It's very overcast here and gloomy looking. Yuck. 

Our first phone call of the morning was from Tim, still on the ship and sounding hungover. Apparently it's been quite the honeymoon ... from the shipboard bill. LOL. Mark and I remember getting a few of those surprise bills too. Ha ha

         We did what??? 

So, Cayann and Tim arrived at our place about 3 and we popped the champagne to toast their marriage. 

Randy arrived about 530, and we had a bottle wine and decided to go to Crazy Gators  for dinner. Except Mark made an executive decision and drove to Main Street, Leesburg to see the Mardi Gras parade.

The fifth street grill that we were going to eat at, was closed, out of business! Randy knew of another place, and with it being so crowded downtown, we decided to go over there and get a seat while we could. 

Apparently, we missed all the parade while we were having dinner! LOL. 

And that's about all I can remember from the night!!! 

Timichael ...

Cayann

The party was underway by the time Randy arrived!

Randy had fun !

Cayann, Julie & Mark at Frank's Place ...

Double Trouble !

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014

Good Morning America was covering the overnight news when I ambled into the livingroom this morning. Illinois had winter tornadoes, thunderstorms; Oklahoma City 60 MPH winds; and we're in for some heavy rain around noon. No complaints here. 

Today is clean house and buy a wedding card / champagne for our pal Tim from Oklahoma City and his new wife, Cayann. They are on their honeymoon cruise due in Port Canaveral Saturday and coming to visit us!

Meanwhile, Mark and I were relaxing when Linda and Randy popped in to pick up perogies. Walmart was out of the doughy pleasures when Randy shopped earlier in the week! Mark found them today! Randy had arranged with the nurse to Linda sit for five hours tonight, as he was expecting friends in town.  Because of the weather forecast, Greg decided not to on the motorcycle from Pompano. So, we decided we would meet Randy-man at The Hideaway for Friday night fish fry. 

Meanwhile, the rain didn't happen in our area as forecast and the sun is peeking out.  

So we wound up at Hurricanes with some good music and an interesting Bride of Frankenstein and a few laughs. Seriously, we wish the bride and groom all the best. They must've had some wicked drugs!!! LOL 

Hurricanes!!! Par-Tay on. LOL

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014

Good morning. We were up extra early and off to the farmers market at the fairgrounds, just 10 minutes away. 

It was a happening place. Thousands of people ... Plenty of bargains, and even fruits and vegetables. Ha ha. Although it's called the farmers market, I'd say it was 80% fleamarket. Mark was a happy camper as he bought a fishing hat with back flap for three dollars, a jar of orange blossom honey for eight dollars and reading glasses. What a bargain!

I made a decision to rework my pearls from a chocker and bracelet to something "contemporary" with Swarovski crystals and gold. I'm in the "planning stage ... but committed. LOL

Jack Czocher gave me a fun grab bag of flea market finds and I've used some tiny flat-backed pearls for the earrings ... still a work in progress; 9 more pearls to put on each earring. It's been two hours thus far on earrings. 

Fun ... 

Mark took Maggie and drove to Randy's to Linda-sit while he went to Walmart. (Tomorrow, WE have to go ...). Linda was fairly quiet and watched the Olympics women's hockey game; the Canadian girls won gold; USA silver. It was nice Canada won as it's their national sport ... and they deserved it. 

Linda seems to be angry with the dogs now. Poor Maggie was dragged around their coffee table by the collar and scolded. Mark interceded, but Maggie took it well. LOL

Tonight, I enjoyed a call from Jim ... loved his news about the Humane Society ... and Mark's hashed brown medley ... and a Scottie dog snuggle. Life is Good.