Jerry gave me a power washer for my 62nd birthday-what a blast!! (pun totally intended!) It’s amazing what it can do. He said the salesman talked him out of buying a cheaper one because it was returned a lot and was just not powerful enough. He suggested the gas one and that is what he bought. It’s a Troy built from Lowe’s. I cleaned off the driveway first-used detergent (Simple Green) and let it set about 15 minutes before I started cleaning it. It looks new again and did not lift any of the paint. The concrete edgers I blasted back to white-they were covered with black mold. Some were new and some old; now they all look alike and CLEAN.

I then did the side walk the next day and most of the back patio. It took a while because the mold was really into the pavers. But now they are like new and really look nice. The washer was powerful enough to weed between the pavers too.

Monday I did the lanai. Wow! it usually takes me a couple of hours to wash everything and get the floor clean. I spent about 20 minutes and just kept pushing the puddle of black water out the door until it was clean. They did not put in a drain hole so it puddles all along the front of the lanai. Jerry had come home about half way through and filled up the gas tank and moved it for me and then took off the hose when I was done. Now just have the side walk by the cactus garden and the curved edgers around the new palm bed.

Shouldn’t have to do it very often to keep up and it will be a back and forth wash instead of having to spend so much time blasting the ground in stuff.

Janice says she needs to borrow it! With hers, she took 15 hours to do her deck. With this one, and since they do not let it get really bad, an hour or so should do it. What a neat present!!

I’ve done it. I made up my mind to do a new quilt for our bed that will go with the permanent things in our room; like the window valances, border paper, dust ruffle and canopy valance and wreath. After talking to Lynn at Old Green Cupboard, I asked Susan to pick out my colors for an Ohio Star based king-size quilt. She did a great job. I had taken in pieces of everything in the room so she had the correct colors to work with. It was $164.00 and will probably be another $200 to get the batting and have it quilted. I will gladly pay them to use their long arm Gammel to quilt it!

Now I am timid about starting to cut all this beautiful material! I know I have extra because I bought extra-enough to make pillow shams but still. I will do it with my rotary cutter because that gives excellent edges and is easier. Plus it should be faster. I think I will do it on the kitchen counter so I don’t have to lean over–you are not supposed to do it sitting as there is no way to exert the proper pressure or have the reach. We’ll see.

Yesterday was my birthday and Jerry went way overboard. On Saturday, he brought home Applebee’s steak dinner-which is what I asked for. In the morning he gave me a gorgeous, sweet card and candy and more cough drops (since I said I was almost out) and then had me sit with my eyes closed while he brought in the present. It was a power washer! We have been wanting one and I was going to borrow Janice’s but now she may borrow ours as it is much more powerful. I talked to Michael and he said to be sure to not do it too hard at first and I will get used to it fast. I just want to clean off the back paving stones and some of the concrete edging, some dirt on the driveway and probably use it to clean out the lanai. We thought we could be real winners when we saw a Craftsman challenge in the catalog because Jerry paid less than the listing but it does not have a special mixing feature so I know that would disqualify us. It’s a Troy-built, with a Briggs and Stratton engine so it should last.

I am furious. We spent $375.00 to have our Sony DVD recorder repaired last October 25 with a new DVD mechanism. I wore it out with all the recording I have done over the years and thought it worth it to repair with Sony parts at an authorized repair center. $100 just to look at it and then the part was over $265.00. Now, after only burning maybe 5 disks, it has failed and we are totally out of luck. The service center won’t do anything and Sony customer service says that they have to look at it themselves but we have to pay to ship it to Laredo, Texas for $124.00 plus repairs. So I am done recording on DVD. It has been too much money and I am all the things anyone would be under these circumstances. I am furious that they won’t replace this part through the service center, at their cost. Nothing new should fail in 4 months. It seems so typical of things now; integrity is out the window.

The up side (one has to see the silver lining) is that I don’t have to worry about taking the time to do recording any longer. We have the DVR with the Dish and have lots of space on that. Anything we really like that much we can buy. It just sucks that there are a few things I would like to have on disk that are saved right now but—–whatever!

Well, it’s been two weeks now and my knee is still swollen and I can’t bend it all the way. I keep doing the ice and am careful, I called Christy today and she is going to check into family medical leave to cover my days. that would be great-then I wouldn’t have to withdraw from my 403b to cover those days. I’m just hoping that I can go back to work by then.

Today is our 14th Anniversary. Jerry says the new monitor is my anniversary present (HP W1907). It is amazing and he teases me about being on it so much but I’m not on it any more than I was; But.I am seeing ZooTycoon the way it was made to be seen for the first time! Our monitor has been dark for years-probably from the first. Now we’ll have to wait for the hazardous waste collection is arranged.

Queen Latifa is misdiagnosed and thinks she has 3 months to live. So, trip to Europe and enjoy food, spa treatments, clothes and daring deeds. But, she finally finds her true love and happiness, on the ledge of a building. Nice movie.

This was a surprise. The story was good. The driving incredible. That drifting down the mountain was almost like a ballet. Nice surprise at the end.

Robin Williams, Carol Linney, Christopher Walken, Louis Black. A bit too long on the sillies and jokes the first half but then it got really good the second half and ended up well.

Well, I’ve done it again. I didn’t wear my boots for yard work and when I went round the side with the cart to pick up the pond debris, I stepped on the edge of the walk and turned my ankle. I went down like a ton of bricks. It hurt so bad it was nearly unbearable. I was crying out from the pain and gasping-the whole deal-couldn’t control myself at all. I went down so fast I wasn’t sure what happened at first. Went down on my left knee and then was worried about my hip. Jerry was already mowing the front lawn and couldn’t hear me. I guess I was so loud, Linda and Alfie came out to see what was going on.

I finally could stop gasping and crying and Alfie and Jerry got me on my feet but it was horrible. My inner thigh muscle (groin muscle) hurt the worst and kept cramping. It was so bad I could do nothing except cry out and grab hold of Jerry. We got into the house but I know I didn’t make that much noise when I had Mindy!

Took me an hour to go to the bathroom and back-the cramping was horrible. I took 4 Ibuprofen and put ice on my ankle and knee. It was already starting to show color. I used a kitchen chair as a walker but it was very bad. Jerry is in charge of the plant for the next 2 weeks and he absolutely could not take off. I told him I would be fine but didn’t know how I would manage the bathroom the next day.

I slept in the Lazy-boy-very well actually. The next morning, I was much improved and told Jerry I would go to the bathroom after he left as I didn’t want him to hear me and see me in pain. The night before it was awful for him as he could not help me at all.

He got me my cell phone, the house phone, my Protonix, some more Ibuprofen, ice for my ankle and knee, the remotes, filled my water pitcher, got me some fruit, some crackers and then had to go.

I was amazed that I didn’t cramp as I did the night before. It took me half and hour with the chair but I did get to the bathroom all right. It was not too bad considering. I talked to Janice and she came over. She made 2 conference calls and left me to make an appointment at the doctor’s for Thursday. She was very concerned about soft tissue damage and x-rays. So I called and got in at 11 AM. She came about 10 and helped me get dressed. By Thursday I was getting to the bathroom in about 15 minutes. It was very easy to get in and out of her car if she helped get my feet in and out. I used a wheelchair for a walker at the doctors. He gave me Rx’s for pain and, as I asked him about my blood pressure (150/100 up from the 140/100 it had been since I moved to Florida) and my weight. He said there was nothing for my weight that didn’t react with your heart so that lets that out. But he gave me pills for the BP and water retention as well as pain meds. I had to go to Baptist South for x-rays as I am too heavy for the floating table at the doctor’s office. So, another trip in and out of the car.

On Friday, Dr. Hayes called and said the knee, hip and ankle were fine but there was a tiny fracture at the end of some bone in the ankle (the only place it hurt was when he pressed on the tip of the ankle bone) so I would need and air cast for precaution and see an orthopedic surgeon to check on the fracture. So that meant that the RX and referral were at the doctor’s office. Jerry had Robert (Country) pick them up and he stopped on this way home.

I checked around on Saturday and the only place to get the air cast was downtown at Preston Pharmacy-they have a medical supply section. It was $44.00!!! I couldn’t call for the appointment with the surgeon until Monday and then couldn’t get an appointment until August 2nd. I had called CSD to tell them I couldn’t be in to work and then called on Monday to speak to Christie personally. I should be ok except for 2 days pay. I will use all my 47.25 PTO hours but that is what they are for. I then have an appointment with Dr. Hayes for August 3rd as a follow up.

I have been in the shower twice and can get about all right with a make shift cane but now my left leg is really painful on the shin. I am taking my meds and am eating right too. This is the final wake up call as far as I am concerned. I don’t know how the BP medicine (Cozaar) will work for a few weeks. Dr. Hayes wants me to check twice a week; I can do that at Publix for free.

What a royal mess. I did make supper last night but it’s hard to stay on my feet for long. It’s my back that hurts most -I guess from being just that much crooked.

We have to postpone our Labor Day trip to Disney. I doubt I will be fully recovered by then.

Jerry did manage to get the lawn cut on Sunday. Linda came over and told me not to mess with the pond anymore. Because I was interrupted in picking up the debris, it bleached the grass and now looks worse than the pond. So I guess that is the end of my good deeds as regards the pond.

this was an exciting surprise. The action just kept going to the end. We had read that it wasn’t worth spending the money to see at a theater –maybe so but it was a good action movie.

Jerry brought home the original Italian Job. The only thing exciting was the mini chase. It was such a 70’s movie! the remake was so much better.

Oh, this was a good one too! Jillian loves to watch it but not any of the parts with Bootstrap–he is too creepy looking.

You know summer has arrived when the heat makes it harder to enjoy the yard work. Have already had 100º for several days last week. Thunderstorms are filling up our ponds; yippee! but it makes everything a sauna outside.

My gas string trimmer is horrible. I can’t start it without wearing myself out up front. Jerry will have to use it from now on. I also have a horrible time feeding the string. It tightens up and I end up trimming with about 3 inches of string. Jerry says to get an electric one for me and he will use the other. But will the string feed?

Mindy was going to try to come for a visit the end of July but might not have the money because of things coming up. Perryn is there now and we have talked several times. She is concerned because he is putting on fat and has totally lost her early training for eating right. She says Pete is a house now so it’s all the junk food they eat.

Have been trying to get through some more boxes of tapes. So many won’t even play on the VHS in the living room-will have to try them in the one in the hobby room. The rest I will give to Barb Jones. I will send the DVD’s I made of 3rd Rock to Mike as we have the whole set on purchased DVD’s.

I really like working the 3 days 5-1:30pm. If I have to work for a while now, it beats whatever else I could do. Inside, AC, I know the job. It’s usually not busy or hard. Just putting in the hours and trying to do it all right. I have another new Team Leader but she is on nights so Yolanda is doing the surveys. Last month I had 2 at 95% and this month one so far at 100%. She is very fair and is not out to get you. Really nice for a change. She is a terrific TL and will go far. She gets along with everyone and really works at doing her job well. She is strict and follows the rules but is also a very human person. Jerry and I figured that I will keep on with this shift until I get social security next year. Then I think I can cut back to the minimum if I want to. I’d like to work even more to help out but Jerry insists I don’t have to since I am getting the pension anyway. I don’t think it would be good to stop any time soon since one can always use some money and eventually we may need it to pay for medical. It seems that all the plans you have can go west in an instant. All the preparation for the future or retirement doesn’t always work out-at least for us. Some can do it and that’s great but...

We had Animal Control come out and catch a cat that was hanging around. There is another one but hopefully it has moved on.

Dealing with scammers half the time where I work, for deaf relay service, I was especially ticked off when we found that our Visa had been charged for an AutoVantage Membership we did not want and did not remember signing up for. Well, we didn’t sign up for it but ‘authorized’ Bank of America to charge our Visa for dues just by fulfilling a rebate requirement for gas. It seems there is the tiniest print legally allowed on the rebate that allows them to sign us up and charge our Visa.

I was so furious! I had to wait until this morning to call the bank and find out there is nothing I can do because the company has to inform the bank to refund the deductions. There is also no way to prevent this happening again except to be sure nothing is checked etc. or to be sure to opt out if there is any kind of trial membership. We know that drill but didn’t realize we were authorizing anything at all.

I had put the phone number in Google and found 2 pages of complaints by people for the same thing–some were charged $99.99!!! for the whole thing up front! at least ours was only (!) $11.99 a month. No wonder I had a check returned, didn’t know I was out that much each month. With working on taxes, we had not gone over the statements as we usually do.

So, I called the ‘club’ and blasted them ala' Shirley MacLaine in Guarding Tess. I didn’t mince words and interrupted the gal every time she tried to read off her phrase sheet. She finally gave up and refunded the money–all but one month that we will have to fax something to. I may decide not to bother with that as I don’t want them to have any more info than they already have.

What a trip! The nerve of some companies and it’s legal.

Watched the new Bond today-WOW!! Great action, neat enough story and Craig makes a terrific Bond. We said Wow more often in this movie than we have in a long time.

What a terrific time we had! I have all the pictures online in the Gallery. Great view from the room. We went to the Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and MGM Studios. Just did what I could and took lots of photos. Tried the Boma restaurant with African type food as part of the choices and it was nice. Great service. For breakfast we did the Mara; best price for the food you get. We also did a dinner at Tony’s but it was not as good as I remembered. Service was excellent but for the price I expected it to be hot and it was just warm, the roll was cold, but the flavor was wonderful.

We didn’t do the Everest ride–much too long a line even for Fast Pass but will catch it another time. We didn’t even do snacks at the park, just brought along water and kept refilling at the fountains. I sweated something awful but it was in tehe 90’s so that was to be expected. Still haven’t found the name of one of the birds we saw.

We were introduced to Hidden Mickeys and will buy the book before we go back-it was neat to see where they had hidden one.

We ate at Denney’s in Palm Coast on the way down and Carraba’s in Daytona on the way back. so for a tank of gas we went down. 3 hours each way with eating. Not bad. I had taken everything out of my purse and just put what we needed in the camera bag. So mostly I carried the camera and Jerry had the bag.

We found some nice lion things at the Harambe market place.

I didn’t take photos on the Great Movie Ride but will the next time-what color!! Missed some of the shots of Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride but will be better prepared the next time. I need a brighter flash setting and wait until it charges up-missed some because it wasn’t ready to fire.

The Star Wars ride was as good as ever.

We are ready to go back already.

What a really good story! The acting, everything was so in depth. Each character was interesting and I always like a happy ending. Some real family problems and solved nicely in the end. A very possitive hope filled movie. I really admire Shirley McClain. She still looks awfully good!

We have put a ceiling fan in the dining area as well. We changed all the light bulbs in the home to fluorescent. The chandelier over the table was terrific for light-we missed good lighting for Jerry to read the paper. But, the fluorescent candelabra lights have the ballast on the bottom and cuts the light too much. A big disappointment. So we called Josh and he came and put a fan with lights that matches the one in the den. Lots of light now! and a bonus of a fan for some air movement. We usually eat at the table and watch the TV on the counter so we don’t have food mess elsewhere so we use the lights and fan quite a bit.

Moving the palms was postponed to this Friday as it rained all day last Friday–indeed almost every day last week. But, Ernesto is kicking up all over Cuba so we may have rain this weekend too.

We have decided to start really enjoying Florida and have bought Disney annual passes. We are going down on Saturday morning for the Labor Day weekend and staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge in a Savannah View room!! We figure that we can go down for the day any Sunday and even the weekend if Jerry has off with the Value resorts only being less than a tank of gas to stay. We will be on the 3rd floor and should get some great photos. We are thinking of going for that weekend each year and staying in a different place. Jerry likes the Contemporary but has never seen the Polynesian and we like the looks of the Fort Wilderness Lodge. I think the Grand Floridian may be out of reach unless we get a Fl discount that is really good.

I have been making shorts from a pattern I made from a pair that fits me just fine. I have a blue denim look pair and just finished a tan pair and have black cloth for another I can do this week. It takes me about 2 hours or so to get them finished.

Had to replace a sprinkler head a the end of the driveway since it cracked and blew off. Linda told us she had seen the fountain yesterday morning. I also got a wide pattern one for under the window. Ray had capped it off but I think the shrubs need it. So we’ll see how it goes.

Also used the new edger yesterday afternoon as Jerry cut the grass. It works really easy and made everything look really nice. I was totally pooped after the front yard but we can do the rest later on. The yard really got away from me with the heat and the shingles in my knee. The shingles started up right at the fourth of July and still is a bit puffy and aches sometimes but it is going away and I’m very thankful it turned out to be this mild. We were waiting until it didn’t bother me so much to walk before going to Disney. It should be fine as we aren’t in any hurry and will be going back so we really can’t miss anything.

It has been way too long since I was able to sit and think about all that has happened in the past year. We totally underestimated everything about moving. We could not afford to have a company move us–they wanted from 8 to 10 thousand dollars! So we are going to have Mike bring out stuff down and pay him. We did paint the ceiling in the living room-that job made harder by the fact that I just had a hard time rolling above my head. Lots of grunting and swearing on my part. Jerry did the trim around after we taped it off with that blue painters tape. But it made a world of difference.

I did clean the shower doors and they look wonderful. After Jerry stopped working, another long story, he helped pack and move things around. We finally ran out of things to do and had to make up our minds to leave. We met with his Aunts and Uncles at the Waterloo for breakfast and said our good byes. We went out to eat with Larry and Deb (they gave us a little statue of bears looking at a scrap book-so cute) and my family and his family; also Bob and Diann. Didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to but hey, you never do.

The saddest part was taking Mims to the vet to be put down. She had lost 35 pounds since we came back from Florida at Christmas. She just laid around and sunbathed and ate every other day, maybe, and was getting stiffer in her movements. Stopped chasing anything put would perk up her head and ears when she saw things. Barb, the gal at Litchfield that has Danes, said it was a good time to do it since she still had a good quality of life but was going through the natural process of dying. She was the best dog I ever had and it was so hard to take her there. But she could not have survived in Florida. There was no place to keep her at Janice's; Chris did not have a place big enough; and she would not eat away from us very well. Except for Heartland Kennel but with her losing weight anyway-she would not have made it much longer. She was very slow getting up and down but still able. We don’t have nearly enough photos but lots of great memories. We have decided not to replace her at all. There will be a new house and a new life style and I will just take care of me and Jerry-that will be enough.

Staying with Janice, Stuart and Jillian was nice but we thought it would be a few months tops and Janice had said the end of the year. She was right, it took us until January to move into the house Jerry found. I got stronger by climbing the stairs all the time but didn’t lose any weight because I love to eat too much.

Mike brought all our stuff down and it was quite a thrill to see the yellow truck come round the curve to our street. He was fantastic and stayed an extra day to fix the shower door to swing the proper way. He hooked up the washer and dryer and got the bed together-terrific. Janice and Stuart invited him to stay at the house and that helped a lot. I took off 2 days of work to be around with him. Now I can miss him because he is not living with us.

He finished cleaning up the house after the move. We had a great offer but they found some serious problems with the basement walls. We had our Brian look at them and they did need bracing so we hired Mike to do that. The people withdrew their offer–can’t blame them but it was such a good offer and they loved the house! Mike ended up painting the whole basement and floor and it looked fabulous. The new owners got a good start with that house. We finally got a firm offer almost a year after it was listed. We accepted because we just didn’t want to pay for it anymore and we were already in our new home and paying for that.

The new owners took down the pine trees in front–I wanted to do that for years! I’m sure they will be very happy there. I sent them all the info about the place but have not heard from them and probably wont. Just as we don’t hear from our sellers at all–not even returning phone calls. But that’s ok-sometimes people just want to move on.

Our new home is perfect for us. A vacation every day! Palm trees and a pond; too beautiful. I am almost satisfied with where I have been putting things and have finally got our new Toyota 4Runner in the garage. I just have a few more boxes to put away ( or get rid of! ) and I’ll be able to start doing eggs! or whatever. There is still a lot of things to rearrange and store in the garage but it’s so hot now, the middle of summer, that I may not be able to get to it until fall.

The home is completely landscaped but as time goes on there are some things I am finding I want to change to suit me. Like removing 4 palms and moving one to another location in the yard. There are roses on the south side and I don’t want to mess with the hedge ones. They will be going and I will be able to put in some sun loving plants there. Some lilies by the bedroom window will go to Janice if she wants them–too messy of a growth pattern but beautiful trumpet type head of flowers. The north bed next to the house is full of polka dot plants and adjuga, which is fine, but the polka dot plants suffer in the heat even in the shade.

We mounted the lion fountain on the wall next to the porch and it’s nice. The porch, the lanai, is wonderful. We had some fans put in (lanai, kitchen and master bath) and it makes it very comfortable even on hot days. I also put up some party lights around the top inside and that is nice too. We bought a new Char-broil grill and it fits on the pad just outside one of the screen doors to the porch. We were worried that our patio set wouldn’t fit but it does, just. We had to put the Adirondack chair and the rockers outside on the patio. I found 4 shells among the sedum around the fountain they left in the front of the house: lightening welks, 6-8-10 inches and a huge 14 inch Florida Horse Conch. I put them around the dish of Rabbit’s Foot fern I have on the lazy susan in the middle of the table.

More later!

I didn’t know this was a sci-fi story. Good one! I don’t remember seeing Jude Law before but this was a good performance. I thought Ethan Hawk did a very good job. it was interesting to see Uma Thurman in such a roll. I had figured out that the cop was his brother and that Jerome’s ‘going away too’ was going to be permanent. Nicely done. Alan Arkin was refreshing as just a good cop doing his job. We worry about identity theft–here, selling your identity paid off.