SATURDAY JULY 18, 2015

Sunshine and birds singing this morning! We were up early ... Mark is helping Randy this day with weed removal on his property. He has a rented barge to assist with the job. 

I puttered about at home this morning with laundry and making a black/red coral necklace. It's nice to add new items as some items as others sell. Hey, it keeps me happily busy and out of bars. Haha. 

Mark arrived home about 1 absolutely soaked. It was hot working in the sun! I had a streaker race through my artsy-fartsy room after putting EVERYTHING in the washer. LOL. Since this is mostly a family friendly site, no photo. ;-)

A couple came to look at our Grandfather clock today. I have it on eBay, but local pickup. Alas, it was "smaller" than what they wanted for "an old folks home"! The dimensions are listed. 

Tonight we enjoyed Happy Hour on the front porch. The Cardinals put on a nice display and we saw a very young one with it's parents. Robbie spooked the bathers. Alas. So we switched to looking at Jack's foreclosure and wishing R 'n R would buy it. Imagine the fun we'd have ... painting parties ... pool parties ... happy hours ... dinner parties ... tree trimming parties. LOL. I'm exhausted now. Haha. 

Robbie wasn't feeling good this morning and didn't eat. (I gave him a treat of milk yesterday...my bad!) He enjoyed his full supper tonight. 

Enough blather. Sue and Wayne had a night at Les & Lynne's visiting. They went dancing while L 'n L babysat the doggies. Otherwise, status quo. 

Have you made a dump cake? They're pretty darn good; and simple to make. Mark found these good combos ...

Dump a tin of pie filling (sweet) or a bag of frozen berries (perfect) into a cake pan. Open a cake mix and dump it over the fruit. Pour a soda over the cake mix. Swirl 3-4 times with a fork ... dot with pats of butter and pop it into a 350 oven for an hour or so. Serve hot from the oven. Awesome!

FRIDAY JULY 17, 2015

Good morning. We all slept in until nearly 9 o'clock! Overnight, we had an eBay sale of a pearl necklace ... not expensive, but nice to have a sale!

Mark had just left for the post office when Simplex arrived to install the porch gutters. It looks finished now! Yesterday, we bought a bar height bistro set by Hampton Bay ... table & 2 "chairs". Of course, assembly required. 

Meanwhile, I painted two pieces of wall art ... the same metallic "Sienna Mist" as our front door trim. Tonight, "Happy Hour" with Robbie on the front porch. Yay!

That job complete, it's time to relax this afternoon and watch a Ray Donovan. 

After a dash to the bank for some weekend cash, we came home in time for a 2+ hour tropical downpour! We poured a drink and sat outside and enjoyed the storm. Awesome! 

Cheers! Haha. The storm lingered 4 hours and dropped 8" of rain. 

Tomorrow, Mark is going to Randy's to help with weed removal on his vacant lot. A barge has been working at the neighbor's seawall, and Randy has permission to use it tomorrow; but no motor use. (Randy's boating skills are known far and wide!) LOL

So that's it for tonight. It's now 8:45 and still pouring rain. The Sunshine State has had the liquid sunshine variety today. Ha. 

THURSDAY JULY 16, 2015

Good morning! It's bright and sunny with showers forecast this afternoon. Plans for today? None. Haha. 

Mark just reminded me of a ride to Umatilla to buy 3 "pilings" to mount our stone pelican on. I thought we might add the bird bath dish to the mix and put it all near the front porch screen doorway.  Then, we have some "refresh" spray painting to do on a wall hanging and the front metal bench. So, we'll be busy enough today. 

Last night, Sue and Wayne had a dinner party with friends at the lake. Dennis arrived wearing his (very fashionable) winter hat! John Gale had a go with it. LOL

John with Barb & Donna ... too bad they ran out of wine! Haha. 

Wayne tested the hat and is now ready for those chilly September evenings! Haha. (Sorry WE missed a great PARTAY!)

About 4:30 Randy phoned with an invitation for lobster dinner. "Hell, yeah! We'll be right over!!!"  We fed Robbie, loaded up some wine and drove over. 

Randy had lobster in the pot while Dawn made us Cheesy Potatoes! (The best!)

We sat down to a fantastic feast and toasted to our good fortunes. Cheers! Lagimodiere!  We were well into a 1/2 game of "Mexican Dominoes" when Randy's phone rang. Scott (Johnnycakes) phoned at 9:30. Randy put him on speakerphone with us all. It was great to catch up on news and have some laughs with him ... we had such a fun time, we played all 13 rounds and didn't arrive home until after 11!  (Dawn works tomorrow ... but she poured us another round of wine. Haha.) What fun. My stomach hurts from laughing. 

Robbie enjoyed sitting on the high bar stool and supervising the dominoes. Dawn fed him some soda crackers ... and ice cubes. It's a good thing they washed floors yesterday. ;-)

Tomorrow, we'll get our new bistro/bar set assembled on the front porch. Ta ta til then. 

WEDNESDAY JULY 15, 2015

Good day. It's the middle of July already! Robs and I have been out back and it's a lovely soft feel to the air. (He's now lying on our bed with Mark. Having just one dog, we spoil him a little more.)

The K's dogs won the lottery when they were adopted into the family from Shih Tzu rescue. 

Here are Shorty-Hot Pants & Julius enjoying summer in Canada with their dad, Wayne. 

Apparently, last night, at K cottage, Sue put a pizza in the oven ... here's her story:

Happily, nothing serious happened ... except SHP bit Sue's hand.  I think we Tawns girls should stay out of kitchens. Haha. They're dangerous places. 

This afternoon, we met RanDawn  at the bowling alley for a couple of games! Mark and I had a practice round first and then got into two games with them. It was loads of laughs ... and I AM the new flying gutter ball champion!!!  EIGHT PINS down from one FGB! Yowsa. LOL

We all came home to visit Robbie and have happy hour ... followed by dinner at Ichiban. It was delicious! The shrimp dishes are so fresh! Afterwards, we came home to watch a Ray Donovan together. 

So, that was our day. I hope your mid-month is on target. Ta ta. 

TUESDAY JULY 14, 2015

It's game day! (I wish Dawn wasn't working today as she'd enjoy it, too!) Mark is happy to be going to work at Randy's! Haha. Robbie went with him. Less mooching potential. LOL. Notice that I said less, not none. 

Ready for the gals ...

The "Pizzazz" is cooking egg rolls. Perfect. It was a conversation starter!

Sue and Wayne are enjoying the wildlife at their cottage! These Canada Geese are prolific ...

that's quite a brood! Generally, you see them in downtown Kenora where they have become quite a nuisance. There aren't many hunters, nowadays, so their population has exploded. As a child, I remember hearing their honking over our house around October's Thanksgiving. They were in V formation heading South for the winter. 

Speaking of birds, the eye doctor, yesterday, was telling me about a flock of Roseate Spoonbills that he saw in the Orlando area. That's fantastic news as they were nearly hunted to extinction in the early 1900s. Their beautiful pink plumage was in high demand for adorning women's hats. 

It's now 5 o'clock, and the ladies have found their way home after wine and eats. Five of them played 10,000, a dice game and five played Mexican Train Dominoes. We had fun. Lots and lots of laughs. 

Mark and Randy got a large branch down on his tree. Apparently Mark needs a new sawblade now ... just one big branch left. I hope Robbie had a fun time visiting, too. 

After our evening walk with Robbie, we settle down to watch another Ray Donovan. Wow, are we ever hooked on that series. LOL

Tomorrow, we plan to reach to meet RanDawn at the bowling alley and then go to the IchiBan for dinner! Ta ta. 

MONDAY JULY 13, 2015

Oh, my itchy eyes! Er, good morning. I ate mushrooms on a pizza last night. Dumb. The funny thing is, today's our annual eye doctor exam ... and here I am with red itchy scratchy eyes. LOL

Speaking of mushrooms, look what Sue and Wayne had pop up at the cottage!

It looks like a fairytale toadstool, doesn't it?

They popped up right after heavy rains. I love the color!

Mark liked this cartoon! (It hits close to home with Robbie!)

Ebay sales were almost non-existent last weekend ... just one $8.50 pendant ... yet we had a pretty good week of sales. 

Today, our WIFI router arrived from Comcast. Mark installed it right away, no problem, but it took a few tries to get the iPhones up and running on it. Afterwards,  I called Verizon and made changes to our data plan. In all, it will save us $50 a month. KaChing! 

This afternoon we saw our neighbor Candi and daughter Riley at the eye doctors. It seemed everyone knew someone else who was there. Funny. My eyes are good ... I still don't need glasses !!! Amazing. Mark's eye pressures are up considerably so he has been referred to a specialist. He doesn't need glasses either. The "cheaters" from the drugstore are fine when we need them. 

Tomorrow, I'm having the ladies in for game day. I made two chip dips, one is Fiesta Ranchero, and the other Beefy onion. I'll also put out peanuts, a cheese ball with crackers, eggrolls with sweet-and-sour sauce, pickles, olives, peprocinis and homemade chocolate cupcakes. Plus wine ... 3 big jugs. LOL. It'll be a "Partay"!  Ha!

Mark has decided to make himself scarce and go to Randy's for some more lumberjack fun. Robbie is going to go with Mark ... that will save him from a bellyache. (He would most certainly mooch something he shouldn't have!) Haha. 

Did I tell you we got captivated by the Ray Donovan series? We have been binge watching the first of two seasons. It's a great show if you liked the Sopranos or Dexter series. 

So that seems to be the news today. We got a lot of odds and ends done and I prepped for tomorrow. Ta ta. 

SUNDAY JULY 12, 2015

Good morning from the Sunshine State. It's a lovely 79 at 7:30 ... going to be 93 by 3 pm. Well, it is summer. 

Today, is dedicated to getting the house ready for my game day party on Tuesday afternoon. It's my turn to be hostess. This involves setting up for 15 to 17 guests ... two or three game tables, provide the games, three (jugs) of wine and a plethora of snacks. 

Oh my aching back and legs. LOL ... it's now 2:30 and I just sat down. Having a clean home is highly overrated. Haha. I've always been a fussy person when it comes to cleanliness, but it's been hard to keep up with all the work being done around here! 

Tonight, Mark and I are going to the Hideaway for supper. Right now, however, it is pouring rain!

Randy phoned it 5 o'clock. He and Dawn have been on the bike riding all day.  They managed to avoid the rain. We had an executive decision and decided Mark and I would pick up pizzas and go over there instead of the Hideaway. Mark can enjoy a cigar on the patio, and Robbie can come with us. It's a win-win situation. Haha. So, here we are stopped at Winn-Dixie while Mark ran in for pizzas. Robbie and I are holding the fort in the Kia. Oh how I love these rainy days. It's down to 75 now, Perfect. 

Yay ... we're going to Uncle Randy's for pizza bones! Haha

Randy cooked 3 delicious pizzas while the rest of us had drinks on the porch. It was a beautiful evening! About 10 we headed home with leftovers! It was a great time. Robbie had lots of pizza bones!

So that was our day. Work & fun! Cool.