Continuing from yesterday's teasers...

First I hinted that the "new" refrigerator has created some problems.
And it has.
Although as you saw last night it fits perfectly where it is, but... we had received a phone call at seven thirty A.M. on Wednesday morning just before its scheduled delivery that was between nine and eleven and we were told that they could not get another one and that our brand new one had a ding in its side, but if we want it they would give us a ten percent discount...oh well... Hubby told them that we will look at it and then decide.
When it arrived and Hubby went out to the delivery truck to look at it, it had a dimple on the side that would be up against the wall. Hubby still felt that they could give us a better deal and he stuck to his guns when he asked for a fifteen percent discount, when they then stood tight on the ten percent. The women who was negotiating was talking to the department head and then got back to us with a sales receipt emailed to us that credited back to our credit card account for the fifteen percent!
We gave the men who brought them in, the range and refrigerator, a tip of twenty bucks for the both of them, we thought that was appropriate... Geez, it was about eighteen years since we had appliances delivered and installed, so we didn't know that according to one site Lowe's delivery people aren't supposed to get tipped... oh well, now our discount went down to that ten percent...KIDDING! (About that, seriously. The fridge was already on sale for three hundred bucks less and this brought it up to nearly four hundred dollars off.) 
After they left the frig was not doing so well... it was too noisy and I suggested that maybe it was just off balance, but Hubby adjusted the front legs several times and the noise would return.
He went around the back and felt that the noise was coming from the fan!
We called their service department the day after our "new" refrigerator was delivered and made an appointment for them to come out and try to fix it, since another "new" one would take two to three weeks to be delivered! And they were coming that afternoon from the Suncoast Humane Society to pick up our old range and frig and they were already clean and waiting outside on the patio!
So I had no frig if they took this one.

Thus the second issue... our donation pick up...
I had an eleven o'clock A.M. physical therapy session Thursday morning so I had requested they come as late as possible for the pick up since we also did errands after, and so they were able to come between 1-4 P.M; they agreed.

We got home a few minutes before one... and there was a note on our door... I bet you got it, yes that is right they had already come to pick up the two items, but no one was home!
There were two messages from the driver on our landline's voice mail saying that they were on their way and  next that it was 12:29 P.M. and they could wait no longer and that they were leaving!

Three times I left messages on the number that was on the note, but I did not receive a call back until that same day late afternoon.
We have consequently rescheduled for next week, the day before the "new" refrigerator is scheduled to be fixed or we are told that it can't be.
The problem is we would be getting the same model minus the ding... what is the usual way to handle the new non-damaged one, in other words would we have to give back the discounted monies and now we are pretty sure we do not have to tip the new delivery of that "new" one, right?

PS our fenced in yard's gates are always locked due to our very transient neighborhood, right now we have two homes waiting to be rented, although one new neighbor introduced himself to Hubby next door about a week ago, but has not moved in yet and the other across the street had its sign removed and a black Range Rover has been parked in the driveway there all day long, we can only hope it's our other new neighbor!

Moving on...

Any-who, I once again was graduated from PT today and have been given the go ahead for  independent exercise program that means coming back whenever I want to use their equipment and ask them questions if need be.

On that note of light at the end of the tunnel, allow me to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly share all your blessings and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Mini pics tonight!

 Below you will find our new stainless steel appliances, not the top of the line since we are simple folks. They are nice anyway. My new range is a convection one with an enormous glass window to see how you're cooking! The smooth top has neat burners that sizes can be adjusted according to the size of your pan or pot and are totally invisible when off, and there is a fifth burner for just warming. The microwave is slightly more powerful than our last one and otherwise is pretty similar. All appliances are Whirlpool and made in America! The refrigerator is as big as we can fit in that small space but it is a galley kitchen and those doors at the end are my pantry with slide out shelves, plus my laundry room has more pantry space, since we moved the water heater out into the garage when we had to get a new one and it went up to a forty gallon just last year. Question where is your coffee maker in your kitchen? Ours used to be next to the sink but I moved it across from the sink to make a beverage station, with a tea canister, and instant decaf canister, and, with my Stevia and sugar packets from the hotels we stayed at even hot chocolate all next to the fridge where the milk is and where Hubby keeps his sugar, the toaster is on that side too. I thought the stainless steel appliances there matched rather nicely also. Hubby prefers it where it was and so now I have to make the coffee that I cannot even drink until next month! (He feels it is unnecessary since carrying water over the floor and spilling it is dangerous! That's why I am doing it without spills!) Any-who, where do you keep yours?

The pic #2, is across from the new appliances to show our still white pale dishwasher that in actuality does not get much use at all. But look at that prep station so much room to get everything ready! The knives are there for that purpose as well as the trivets, but if you zero in on the one that looks like it has a bulls eye on it, it got that way from it getting burned one day and Hubby sanded it off mostly, I felt it needed some personality so I took the indelible black marker and wrote HOT SPOT! And yes that is a fruit bowl there too, but it goes up on the bar easily if we need more room. 

                                     My shelves there are purely decorative, and I have a lovely blue wine bottle collection up above. I have my blender holding up my minimal cook books, most were destroyed by the hurricane; sadly years of collecting, only replaced one, recipes these days are off the net although I do print out the favorites and store them over there in Ziplocs. My double sink has one very large deep  sink and a shallow smaller sink to the left that has my drain over it, perfect for doing dishes for just me and Hubby!

That's it for tonight, have a great one!
Tomorrow I will tell more about... that not everything went so smoothly with our frig, and donations... stay tuned!

Shocker! And thank you, thank you!

I do believe yesterday's was my all time high, so thank you all very, very much for such a sweet nice thoughtful gift for Valentine's Day that I can mistakenly or not think it is how I feel that you are showing your love to me! (Or not.)
Delusional as that might seem, but who cares, I like it and it makes me think that you really, really, like me too! Calling on my inner Sally Field child, ha!

Any-who, today's previews shown are before I publish tonight's blog and those numbers should increase exponentially and I think that unless there is a major shake up we just might not beat last night's, but that is okay...I guess...I suppose... really it's alright, yes it is just okey dokey! Hubby catch me I think I might faint! KIDDING!
I will definitely be fine... but once you have been this high (My hand is over my head) it is kinda, sorta difficult to accept mediocrity, ya know what I mean?
But I will live, to fight another day, and to continue to survive, because that is just who we all are and what we all do! All my friends and family that is do it too, get your minds out of the gutter; in reality we are all better than mediocre we are extraordinary people as human beings on this planet, so lets unite and get rid of the sub-par questionable humans that know not what way is up or down!
Non-violence is what I promote.
But alternate facts that got us misbehaving, yeah this could work when we oust the current government hierarchy contentiously believing that he, non-mighty Pres. DJ has the world under his control, so very, very sad. Delusions of grandeur added into, narcissistic,  misogynous, racist, one marble short of a full deck, oh wait that makes more sense as too many cards short of playing with a full deck, hmm? Too ridiculous to use marbles in that analogy when the cards worked so much better, anyway that would be not enough marbles in his brain matter or some such thing... dang I get my idioms confused at times, thank heavens I am not trying to run the free world's number one country!
Gosh I might run it into the ground.
But no I am sane!
I would never think I was capable of running a country just because I was in management for thirty years, no way Jose, and I would definitely make sure Jose became legal if that is what he wanted, not that much different than when my own grandparents had wanted when they arrived from their religious and war torn strife in their homeland countries in the late 1800s and early 1900s! Some came before Ellis Island even existed and yet they were allowed in.
Who knew what they could have brought in, horrible diseases back then, let us not forget their anger with their treatment from where they came and many immigrants distrusted all people, even in the new land, but they came anyway since it was so much better than what they left behind.
We must all talk to our families to get their stories to know how and why they chose to come here, some had no choice but stayed anyway when they finally did.
There is something special very, very special about this land called America and we should all delve further into how and why we got here historically speaking.
Horrifically too many were dragged here on slave ships against their will.
But generationally when choice finally came after way too long, most have chosen to remain, since in spite of too many inequities in our lives here we have something very special that not too many know about in other places in the world, we have the hope to be able to change things for the better, and that is why we stay, too many other nations do not.
Sure even I said with feeling that I was going to leave if this current administration won, well I'm still here as many of you are too... we have hope to change things and we will!
As I said earlier we are a very extraordinary species, us human beings.
It is so sad when others lose hope in their lands, and we as a beacon to the world should allow them to come to us with our open arms as generations before have, even our current Pres. DJs family!
Could we deport him?
Nah, just contain him, more likely just commit him that would be the right and kindest thing to do, since we are much more civilized than him.


   

Happy Valentine's Day to All!

Meanwhile that is why this is so very, very late.
As many know today was also our anniversary, our forty-sixth!
And we went out like many of you may have too.
We had dinner and a comedy show at Visani's right here in Port Charlotte Florida, would you believe?
Yes, we have had others, but this one is really, really good and so is the food!
No photos are allowed to be taken there and so sadly I have none.
But here's the next best thing, their site:  http://www.visani.net/
Menu there too!

Oh so late and blissfully tired, so happy good night to all, and laughter is truly the best medicine!

Pictorial night!

 Blue moon or blue sun? Hubby says moon...My simulated rusted brass wall art, redone yesterday! What do you think?

 My skinny Buddha for peace and harmony on the bar to our living room with our galley kitchen seen in background also with our new stainless microwave installed, new stainless range and frig coming this Wednesday, yay! 

Long time coming some of the many pictures of my drive in shower!

 My home sign that cost less than six bucks to make with gold paint and rope that we already had and five inch particle board letters hot glued on; from Walmart!

More shower, my marble bench, and one of the three grab rails!

Some of my many fish in all mediums from metal to Neoprene to decoupage to poufy metallic fabric that was applied by Velcro. The blue one above is the $1.80 one from the thrift shop that I painted it too was a rusty mess! My most expensive are in the double digits like $15 -$20, ha! Oh and our double showerheads in the rain style. In the corner is my body wash, shampoo and conditioner dispenser, Hubby has his regular soap dish.

 Our glass block window (8) for privacy and light.

The house painting nearly done!

 Our hallway looking into the guestroom with Number One's old dresser and the striped white cane back chair!

A corner of our living-room with the oak ice box styled end table and the mirror from the old dresser from our guest room at our old home on the other coast.

 Our old grandfather clock circa 1987 with a plaque with our name on it.

My pimped out hospital table for me to use whenever daily, sadly, but prettier now with marble contact paper on it and painted up/down adjustable stem. Was all plain Jane brown, bought online new for only $45 bucks a year or so ago. Holds my laptop where I write this nightly and it's handy for meals and beverages etc. for when I am too tired to sit in our dinette. Oh I almost forgot that lamp which is the twin to the one on Hubby's side is the one he spray painted that metallic gold for my request, it had been white, again no cost, since we had the spray paint same as on the home letters! And it is a wooden lamp, no metal at all; safer for clumsy me, ceramic is so pretty, but also very breakable!

The end for tonight!
I finally figured out how to get my PICS with this newer laptop, no need to upload, just email my PICS and save them and then they are accessible and yay!
But I bet you all knew that... Gosh why didn't anybody tell me, hmm?
It's okay!
Have a great evening and now allow me to be the very first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear! 

Fun Sun!

Not the kind outside, oh wait yes it is, but in a decorative wall plaque.
It had been a brass colored metal, not real brass since it rusted, and so Hubby sprayed it white after he scraped the rust off and handed it over to me inside; it was then basically a blank canvas.
The new mellow yellow walls that he had given to us needed a pop of color, and as anyone who knows me knows I love blue and so...I took my true blue acrylic paint and started painting every other burst, thinking that I would alternate with gold or apple green or what-have-you, but when I did just the burst parts it still looked odd and not what I was going for, a statement piece. After all it is going back on the front of the house, where the brass of its previous self had been.
So I made a  bold move and painted the whole thing that true blue, bursts, plated face and everything!
Still not quite right and so in the old days I would have done my splatter technique outside, but I was indoors and although I use plastic sheeting on my kitchen counter the splash would be outside of those boundaries.
Instead I speckled the apple green on top dabbing sporadically without rhyme or reason just feeling on the now well dried true blue.
Hubby came in and asked where the face was... hmm, another issue...and so I drew with a thin brush after the two previous colors were fully dry, and used the raised shadows in the metal of the eye, nose and mouth and enhanced them with black paint using the thinner brush and voila the sun has a face, and now hangs back where it had been, but brighter if a sun can be, ha!

Here comes a blue sun..., like a blue moon?

Any-who, that was not my only project today I was given our front door bell in actual brass and it is shaped like a pineapple, a welcoming hospitality symbol internationally!

I searched and searched I could not find our brass cleaner, so instead of Googling how to make your own I foolishly went at it without thinking.
First I tried window cleaner, duh, nothing happened, but I know ammonia is in the real stuff that is why I thought it might work, logically.
For some strange reason, me without one chemistry class to my name decided to experiment with natural household items, and so I tried baking soda and lemon juice and it fizzed so I thought hmm, why not and I poured the combo into my corning ware microwave safe side dish and put the pineapple plaque to our doorbell face down into the solution and got out my old toothbrush that I use for cleaning jewelry and started scrubbing! Crazy as it might seem it worked and yes it is back out there next to our front door! After all was said and done I did for the heck of it I  Googled the concept of making homemade brass cleaner and my concoction was no where to be found, but salt and vinegar were and ketchup was too, odd that mine was over looked, hmm?

Oh well, perhaps I am an inventor.

On this note of necessity being the mother of invention... sorry, couldn't help myself, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!


 

Donations

The Humane Society in Englewood Florida will be receiving our old refrigerator and range; they have a thrift shop there to sell them in. I wonder if they would take our extra couch, I should have asked.
I'm trying hard to get rid of some of the clutter. Two couches in the sunroom looks a little bit much, but the one I want to get rid of was bought for the guest room, since it is a nicer styled white futon type but with thick round metal legs and the cover that I had on the good white living room couch that was donated to the Cultural Center. We had decided to put a full sized bed back in there a few years ago.
We had thought with not having so many visitors these days, actually after Hurricane Charley when the original bed had glass shattered all over it from being under the only window that broke due to our neighbors roof going through it and having no warning, then, so we thought that the couch would suffice, but then my Mother- in- law, did not look so comfortable on the futon and that is initially why we went back to a regular bed. Although, she never came down again, due to my husband's sister putting her in a nursing home up by her in Pennsylvania when her dementia got so very bad, thus a regular guest-room, and with Number One Son returning the dresser that was his in his room as a child the beautiful golden oak dresser, the suite was now somewhat more complete. In reality the guest room dresser in our home on the other coast that was in our four bedroom 4k square foot home, that dresser is now in my closet for extra storage there and its matching mirror is in our living room with our ice box styled end table from that den from the other coast are all in golden oak, with our grandfathers clock too that had been returned too. He had sold both his homes and moved on his sail boat then sold his live aboard and moved in with his girlfriend, and bought a towable sailboat!
I know, I know...
He's a grown man and a great son, so he can do whatever he wishes. He works hard at the same job for over twenty years! So he simplified his life, and vacations frequently with his gal, girlfriend for several years, who is a psychologist and two years older than him, so I am sure they know what they are doing.

Any-who, today is a happy and sad day, our younger son's birthday is today and he is forty-one!
The sad part is we are all estranged from him.
Yes, even his brother and all relatives, his choice none of ours.
But he is an engineer and his wife is an attorney and they live well in a four bedroom two story home and own a forty-two foot long yacht, no children yet, I think...
Perhaps, we are not good enough for him, he lives in North Palm Beach Florida where Tiger Woods family lives, not far from the Pres. DJs locale is.

I guess I should be happy for him and not so sad, but its been nearly thirteen years since we saw him and we never saw his second wife, they have been married for several years already... oh well... I have tried and tried... and even sent a happy birthday wish to all the emails that I have for him this morning, simple, Happy 41st Birthday, Love always Mom and Dad... makes me want to cry just thinking about it.

Guilty of dwelling... so I must...
Move on...

Hubby, started the painting of the house with the front completed, he will be doing it in increments, so far it does look great!
A side at a time.
I feel bad I can't help anymore, but he brought in our hanging sign with our names and calling it our cottage in for me to refurbish.
You see, it is weathered and rustic, our Number One Son made it in woodshop in high school nearly thirty years ago and it has been on any place wherever we lived since. The varnish flakes and Hubby wanted me to scrub it off with the brass brush for such things and so I did.
We also have a teak wooden bench to the right of our front door that has a wooden colorful planter on it, now weathered too, a gift from my cousins, the teak bench was made from our old boat in NJ our 25' Catalina, we had it to fix its dive platform way back in the 1980's, and the remainder bench sized piece has moved with us ever since; we had sold that boat before we moved to Florida.
The sign needs to be varnished and the bench could use some spar varnish too, but I don't use either indoors, the fumes are not good!

That's it for tonight, allow me to cry occasionally we all have sadness in our lives as well as joy, and hopefully the joy is more so than the other for us all! So now allow me to wish all of my friends and family a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and to please share those overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!