SATURDAY JANUARY 17, 2015

It's a fine day at Tampa East! We all slept in til 8:30 then began our day with bacon and eggs!  Mark cooked today!

At 11 we picked up Rick and Ruth and headed to the RV show. 

Rick and Ruth finally joined the Good Sam Club having mistakenly joined Sam's Club in Palm Beach County, thinking that was an RV club. Ha ha ha. 

Here they are, walking the Midway in search of free "Good Sam" bags and kettle corn. 

Ruth had a great suggestion about visiting a local winery & brewery in Plant City. The fee was $10 for eight 1 oz. glasses of wine ... but, our bartender was double pouring. I was the only one to purchase any wine ... two bottles called Key West!!! Dawn really liked the Key West wine until Mark said it smelled like a Kamikaze drink. That turned her off, bad memories from the 80's. Haha. 

Rick and Ruth at the bar, waiting for their wine pours. We all got ours pronto, but Rick was still waiting for his ... (along with the cocktail wieners from the RV show kitchen demonstration)! LOL. 

Dawn and Randy at the wine tasting. Two Cutie-Patooties"!!!

This was an interesting winery with many fruit based wines! 

And then there's Mark and the instigator. LOL. We're just a party waiting to happen. 

On the way home from the winery, we discovered a fruit and vegetable stand. We all got out of the truck and went walking around the fruitstand. Randy returned these to Rick after they fell out of his manly short-shorts! Oo-la-la. 

LOL. Randy, is this what you accidentally saw at Rick's RV yesterday??? Oh my. 

So, hope we arrived home after the winery, Randy and Dawn went for a little walk and made some new French Canadian friends. Randy even managed to schmooze a flag. 

After Mark's Turkey Chili dinner, we started the second half of Mexican Dominoes. Mark wound up the winner ... me the big "L". 

The party wound up about 9 o'clock with Rick and Ruth going to their RV. There's more to the story of "the flag" that culminated with "someone" cozying up with Ruth's shawl ... 

But I have NO IDEA what it was about. Haha. It was a fun time with fun pals! Many stories will be told. 

Hope your Saturday was super fun. 😄

FRIDAY JANUARY 16, 2015

Oh boy! Advil please save me. LOL. Mark was up at 7 o'clock and woke us all. Great! Except the clock was on daylight savings time from our last trip! Hence, it was really 6 AM!!!  Haha. 

We loaded up at 9:20, and went to pick up Rick and Ruth at the end of the street. What we didn't know was Rick and Ruth saw us pull away and were behind us waving and hollering. We didn't hear a thing! LOL We pulled up and waited outside their RV. Then, they came up walking up behind us! LOL

It was a great day at the the show ... nice and windy for the first part of the morning with the sun warm by noon. Mark and I chauffered Robbie in his pet carriage.

Robs was very good and enjoyed the ride. 

The pipers paraded with pipes squealing right passed us. It was a fun day. About three, we came back to the RV park, regrouped and walked to R 'n R's for a visit with Daisy. (She was home alone all day.)

Randy and Dawn cooked dinner tonight ... Teriyaki chicken plus broccoli cheese rice followed buy Key Lime pie. Delicious! No one was lively tonight and we called it at 8:30 after spotting Rick sound asleep in the chair. Tomorrow's another day!

THURSDAY JANUARY 15, 2015

Good morning!!! It's a ROAD TRIP kinda day. 😀 However, I'm up a little too early. 

Left home base at 9:14 with a mere 99 miles to Tampa. Arrived 11:30 and into Site 132 amid Bonjour-Ville. Oh boy. 

So far, on this trip I've discovered The gist of food sayings in the English language. For instance, peel and eat shrimp. It sounds simple enough, right? Well, no, you'd be wrong. Peel and eat shrimp means Randy peels the shrimp, and Dawn eats the shrimp. LOL. That's lesson number one. Hahaha. 

Lesson number two. Mixed nuts are purchased because you like mixed nuts, right?  Well, no, you'd be wrong. Randy likes mixed nuts, but Dawn only likes almonds. So, Randy picks out the number of almonds Dawn would like at that moment. Who knew? There is a glitch in this however, because, Robbie likes almonds too!!!

Lesson number three. Randy shouldn't tease Rick when Randy is having cocktail hour but Rick is waiting for Ruth at the dollar store. Randy said, "Dude! She's at the dollar store? Floor it!!!"  Somehow, French-Canadian American did not translate into Scottish Canadian humor, or humour. LOL

Now, while we wait for Rick and Ruth's arrival, and dinner, Mark, Randy and Dawn have gone grocery shopping. We've been here two hours, and Randy and Mark have had another bromance attack and discussed recipes. Oh boy. I don't know if Dawn knew about this side of Randy. Ha ha ha. 

The original BROMANCE. 

V-Rooom. LOL

Dawn is trying the Light Relief on her aching back ... so Randy "discovered" he HAS A HEADACHE ... yeah, right. LOL 

Mark is heating up Ruth's Chicken Piccata ... and taking Randy-man pics. 

So there's a great story ... R 'n D walked to the gym and tried out the "machines".  While she swung her leg over it, she accidentally kicked R-Man in the family-jewels. Haha. There's always a story here!

Ruth cooked Chicken Picante tonight and it was awesome. After, we started a wild Game of Mexican Dominoes. Dawn was the big wiener in the first half of the game! Yeehaw. LOL. 

Tomorrow, we're meeting at 9:15 to go to the RV show until 3 o'clock. Ta ta. Many laughs today, what a great time!

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 14, 2015

Good morning world, it's a brand-new day. Robbie and I are having a lazy morning, while Mark, took the dually to Pep Boys to get the tires rotated and rebalanced. Haha. I just re-read that ... I wasn't lazy at all. Haha. I cleaned both bathrooms ... did two loads of laundry ... fed and walked Robbie ... made the bed ... tidied the kitchen, cooked an Atkins breakfast, showered and washed my hair! All that in two hours. LOL. So that's what I call lazy!!! Poooor Mark. 

Do you remember John Lennon's song "Imagine" ??? Here it is, made as a cartoon. Enjoy. 

Cool, huh? Or, for my Canadian friends ... Cool, eh? 

Randy and Dawn are coming over after her dental appointment to load their things into the RV and sleep here tonight. We've decided to go to Ichi Ban for supper! We've been a few times, and it's great.

Sue and Wayne are back home after spending a night in the motorhome in Stuart. Sometimes just a little getaway is all you need! That's what this weekend is about for us. 😃

Sue has gotten me involved in selling items I no longer use, on eBay. It's a lot of work! I won't have any time to make jewelry if I'm busy selling it on there. LOL

My cousin Hugh in Australia sent this picture! Those Aussies definitely have a good sense of humor. Haha. 

My cousin Alex in the UK has taken up the long now. Mark thinks that's pretty cool. 

But, look at what Alex is shooting ...

I hope that guy's insurance is paid up!  He liable to get a sharp stick 

in the eye. 

While we were on the way to Ichiban,  Sue phoned and I told her I had put some items on eBay. I said I hadn't had any bids as yet. Well, I'd just hung when I got a "ding", a message someone put a bid on an item. Wow. A minute later, I said to Mark, "I bet that was Sue who looked at what I put on and placed a bid".

So, I stewed about it for a few minutes and then phoned Sue. Sure enough, she went online and saw something she liked and bid on it. Ha ha ha. So, I told her I saw something on hers I'd like. LOL. So far, on eBay, I've managed to purchase wine glasses, gold rimmed let her glasses, and a gold cutlery set. The shopping is great. Sales, not so good. LOL. 

Tomorrow comes early. Ta ta. 

TUESDAY JANUARY 13, 2015

It's a foggy start this morning! Mark was up early to begin a large batch of Turkey Chili for our Tampa trip. Rick and Ruth are cooking Thursday night's dinner, Randy and Dawn doing Friday night's dinner, Mark and I doing Saturday night's dinner! The weather is forecast to be perfect. In the high 60s and up to 71 on Saturday. That's great for walking around the RV show!

Amid the chaos in the kitchen this morning, I remembered we had an appointment to drop the Dodge off at Advantage Dodge in Mount Dora for service. No problems; just maintenance before our trip!  You know, check the belts and hoses, radiator flush, transmission oil and filter change ... then it's off to Pep Boys to check one of the new tires that seems out of balance. 

Meanwhile, it's Robbie's grooming day!

Look at that smile; yes on both of them. LOL

Let's see, what's going on with everyone else. Randy is getting ready for his first ever colonoscopy tomorrow, so today is rather a Poopee day. LOL. Dawn is, fortunately, working today.  Haha. 

Sue and Wayne are going to Stuart to move their motorhome. 

And that's it for today! Ta ta. 

MONDAY JANUARY 12, 2015

Good (early) morning y'all. A newspaper delivery van just drove past (4:45) our house delivering "the paper" to TWO homes on our street. Will print media die out soon?

Since Guttenberg developed the first printing press in 1440, our forests have been shaking in terror. By 1502 newspapers were being mass produced. The first double column paper, Oxford Gazette, was born in 1653. In 1880, the first photographs appeared in the daily paper. 

Amazingly, newspapers survived the advent of radio and television chiefly because of print advertising. Baby Boomers will surely recall the daily newspaper delivery "boy" bringing the paper and collecting his fee weekly. It was a growing up ritual job for many to haul a heavy bag of papers around the neighborhood. (Mark bears a scar from his delivery boy years ... a hernia!)

Me? I begin my day with Facebook updates followed by then CBS Morning News program. Holding a newspaper is a pain in the neck. Quite literally. LOL 

There are plenty of apps online for instant news ... 

plus amazing videos that accompany many stories ...

Aw, how sweet!!!

It's a rainy afternoon so a great time for working on Mag-Pies Glitter items. Our plan included grocery shopping for our upcoming Tampa RV trip and loading. Well, it's too rainy for that. Haha. Randy had the same type of day planned!

It's also Sue & Wayne's 41st Anniversary. It was a "cold day in hell" LOL when they married. Hey, I'm not joking!!!  It was 30° below zero in Winnipeg. I rest my case. Haha. Happy Anniversary to a wonderful couple! 

Well, we found a break in the rain and went grocery shopping. Everything is now stowed away in the RV and ready for the fun trip!

It's a perfect night to stay in and watch football. Yuck. LOL. Oh well. It's nearly done for the season. 

Hope your Monday was anything but mundane. Ta ta. 

SUNDAY JANUARY 11, 2015

Hurry, hurry ... we're off to the bowling alley for a couple of games!

Good afternoon. Well, bowling was truly exciting. The gutter box was overflowing, mostly, thanks to Lynn! Now in fairness, she is usually an excellent bowler ... but today we amassed $18 for lotto tickets!!! It was hilarious. Lynn's ball would not curve today, and she throws a curveball. (I did good pretty today. I just throw a straight ball and Lane 33 was fine for that.) LOL. Although Lew didn't bowl because of a sore back, he did have to cough up some $$$ for Lynn's debt. LOL  By the second game Lew was coaching Randy instead of watching Lynn. Randy second game was very good!

Look at those scratch off lotto tickets. Ha ha ha. We scratched and scratched and came out $4 ahead! Wow. Lew was happy the gutter ball fund made us money ... an investment. LOL. You'll notice Randy is in disguise and doesn't want to be recognized as part of the gutter ball fund today! Haha. Gotcha.

This afternoon, Randy and Dawn went home to tidy up and go to The Hideaway to watch football. Mark and Lew are cutting down a diseased orange tree in Lew and Lynn's front yard and I am using light relief on my sore foot. Ha. 

The house painting is done! (Drum roll with cymbals crash!) Hooray. It's scarcely worth the trouble to back the RV into its' port when our Tampa trip is Thursday. Right? 

This afternoon we yakked to Roddy and Shay, our Boca Raton pals for an hour. They surprised us by saying they went to the Pompano Beach RV Show yesterday!

Sue called this evening and we caught up on news! They have a cruise planned this month. 

That's the news for now. Hope you had a good Sunday. Ta ta.