All I Want for Christmas is to Perculate

Hope everyone had a good Christmas.  Unfortunately, my sister's husband, Gary, (yes, there are two of us who married Gary's) had a bad fall on the 21st and broke his neck. He fell on cement as he was tying something on to his truck when the strap broke.  He ended up in the hospital but was discharged on Christmas Day and will make a full recovery in time, we are all very thankful it was not worse and it could have been.  It just makes you realize how quickly life can change.  So get well Gary.

We had a very nice Christmas with Mary and Pat.  As you can see, we had very nice paper plate holders which makes it very easy to eat and walk around.  I don't know how many times I walked back into the kitchen with my holder but it was a lot.  There was a lots of awesome food  and I really wanted to test the holder to see how well it worked.  I would recommend having these in the house at all times.

Mary and Pat love to shop at all kinds of places and I had them on a mission to get me an electric coffee perculator.  My mother-in-law swears they make the best coffee.  Well they came thru and surprised us at Christmas with one and my mother-in-law was right.  She is always right.

The kitchen is a work in progress, we are on our third week without a kitchen.  Its getting a little old but Gary is working away everyday.  It just is a big project and hoping it is the biggest one we will have to tackle here.  The blue bathroom will be a piece of cake after this.    Happy 2012.  Margaret

Busy As A Bee

Things have been crazy here in SW Florida.  First of all, I hate to rub it in but yesterday (Dec. 20) we had the nicest weather in the whole nation. They even said so on the news. Probably today too.  80s everyday, sunny, no wind.  There, I said it. Deal with it.

I am helping out at an RV Resort, at The Palms Basketball Classic and at my friend, Adele's, in Naples.  She manages seven million dollars homes in the Naples area and since they are used strictly as vacation homes, she is super busy getting them ready for the holidays.  I spent two days working on $4 million, $10 million and $36 million dollar homes.  I vacuumed more in one day than I do in a year.  I wish I knew where they find their stuff on Craigslist.

And so Gary has been working steadily on our house, the kitchen is coming along.  It is a lot of work, the cabinets were all delivered on Sunday and he is slowly putting them all together but it takes a lot of time.  Tiling in the kitchen and living room are done.  He had a nice little work station for cutting tile set up in one of our bedrooms.

Kitchen Cabinets Stacked in Garage

So we continue under construction here, I am busier than I want to be, when am I supposed to read, play on my Ipad, walk dogs, and then there's Ellen, must be in my spot each day when she starts dancing.  And I have to start Christmas shopping pretty soon too.  Oh look at the time, I gotta a blog to finish up.  Margaret

Construction is for the Birds

I just have to take a turn and write the blog this time, we are in the middle of construction and I'm a wreck.  I don't know if I'm coming or going people.  Sure, DeDe can relax, she just hides under the bed and pretends none of this bothers her.  She's just a cool breeze that one.

First they tear everything out, where is my chair, where is my blanket, then they get the broom out, I hate that thing, and then today there was all this noise with the air compressor thingie and just when I thought things would settle down, out came the vacuum!!!  WTF?

At least we were able to get rid of some of the junk that was torn out.  You put anything in the Free section on Craigslist and you'll get about 10 calls.  Yes, all the old kitchen cabinets went to a nice couple from Canada.  Aye.  Another guy took the mirrors from the dining room and all the old disgusting carpet.  Dada said the guy was a little weird that took the carpet, ya think?

When will this hell end?  I didn't sign up for this.  I want to see my contract with these people.  All I want is a nice place to lay without any compressors running or hammers pounding.  Maybe you should check out the Pets section on Craigslist.  I may have to walk.  Or run.  Mojo

The Kitchen - It Be Gone

On Tuesday, Dec. 6th, after all the fun on the boat, we knew the day had come to start a job we both were dreading.  The Kitchen From Hell!!!  We unloaded all the cupboards, took out all the appliances, pulled out all the cabinets and made a HUGE mess.  When we bought the house we knew the kitchen had to go and Gary is not in love with remodeling, he likes new construction, so I had to stay positive as we pulled everything out which is not my strong suit. But we got it done and now the new construction begins.

It was pretty nasty when we pulled out the cabinets.  Lots of spills and pills.  Maybe there was so much spilling cause the previous owners were taking so many pills.  Mr. Clean would have cried. I wanted  to cry.

Our kitchen is now set up in our garage.  This is very handy when you drive into the garage and are hungry.  We are living on sandwiches and paper plates.  Stay tuned....Margaret

PS-The built in can opener - It Be Gone.

Cape Coral Canals

Yesterday we spent the day exploring the canals with Mary and Pat.  We wanted to see the city from another point of view and so Mary and Pat brought their boat down and we took off.  The weather was perfect and except for Pat's excessive speeding, we had no complaints.  (Mary complained, I think she was worried about her hair.)  Pat found me a straw hat at a thrift store.  I felt like I should go stand in a rice paddy.  Came in handy on the boat tho.

Cape Coral has over 400 miles of navigable waterways and has the most canals in the world.  We will be spending lots of time in the boat if we want to get thru all of them.

Gary needed a day off from tiling, the sidewalks and outside patio are all done.  He is picking up the tile now for the inside of the house, we will be tearing the kitchen out this week and making a temporary kitchen in the garage.  Of course, that will be bloggable.  I wonder if we'll have any disagreements during this remodel?  If he would only agree with me on everything, things would go so much smoother.  Duh.  Margaret

A Couple of Joes

We had some sad news yesterday, our cousin Joey was pretty sick and since he wasn't going to get better he went to be with his Grandpa Joe.  I guess Grandpa Joe was waiting for him so now he's not sick anymore and they are just hanging out and waiting around for the rest of us to show up.

Some humans would think it was silly for anyone to be so sad about one of us going away but I know its not silly at all.  We do everything together, our people even pick up our poop and throw it away for us.  They don't even do that for other people.  And I know that sometimes DeDe can get on my nerves with all her chasing around and barking for no reason and getting treats that should go to me but I know I would miss her if she were gone.

I hate that Joey got sick and died cause his mom and dad are so sad and they're so sad cause Joey made them so happy when he was here.  I guess that's our job, to make our people happy, to give them someone to pet and cuddle and give sloppy kisses and to make them laugh at all the silly stuff we do and keep them company when they're lonely.  That's our job and I wouldn't want to do anything else.


All this is making me sad.  I think I'll go find a lap to cuddle on.  Mojo

Not the least thing to bear when they go from us, these quiet friends, is that they carry away with them so many years of our own lives....John Galsworthy