Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Patio-Day 2

What a difference a day makes. The fountain in gone and you can see that the

little flower bed in filled. The white is the skim coat to fill in. The depressions where the river rock is filled in.












The white skim coat reflects the light into the house and really brightens it up.




This morning the knock on the door asking for permission to cut across our lawn to pull the debris out of the canal.
YES! They piled it up in the cul-de-sac.

This evening, another knock and the city architect said we had a hazardous stucture in front of our house. They also had left a pile blocking a lane down the street. We explained that it was the city of Coral Springs who did this and he said he would have to make a phone call to get this stuff picked up.





The front stoop and walkway is getting processed.











Here is the river rocks around the tree. Tonight we will put more of the rocks around the bushes.









Here is what our new tile will look like.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Patio-Day 1

We are improving our patio. The fountain is our water feature.
Today they FINALLY began to work on it.


Before..........
After.........
We decided this AM that the fountain was going.

Note that the river rocks around the pool have been removed. We used them to make a border next to the East side of the house and circle the tree in the front yard. We will also use them to border the little bushes in front.

The water is suddenly green. No swimming for a while.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Hurricane Preparation

The last two weeks have been tax-free on hurricane preparation items. Outside of food, water, and ice we feel pretty set. We are buying Steve's generator so that we won't be beholding to IB for a hook-up for our refridgerator. But we did make a really good find on a crank radio/tv/flashlight from of all places, Pep Boys. Expecting to have to pay $79, it was on sale for $49.

We've played with the features and are charging the nic-cad battery. The tv part does not run by crank. Neither does the 'beam', but the LCD light and the radio do.
I've named it. I've named all of our light sources. It sounds silly, but I know exactly which light it is with its name.


Starting with the smallest.
Flicker. Looks like little candles with the slight flickering light.












The next is called Cranky.
It is a little LED light that gets it power from cranking. It has two brightnesses

and is a Cracker Barrel purchase.









Our next model has a 'goose neck' that can be positioned up or down and can even be hooked over something to position it. It was from DARE purchase at school.

Its name is Goosey.












This bad boy is powerful. It has two settings and can cut clear across the
backyard. It's VERY heavy and can lose its charge quickly.

Its name.....Jim Beam.






And finally the newest member of the Hurrican preparedness family......Buzz.
It looks like a bumble bee or yellow jacket. Those are not positive images for me


since both could kill me, but Buzz or Buzzy works for me.










We have AA batteries to get yet and have already added another 5gal gas container. Steve said we should be Carbon-dioxide alarms. We have 3 days left.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

I'm PSSSSTTTT!

I'm so angry I can't talk about it.
I'm running a book fair at our school now. It's chaos, but we do it to raise money to buy resources for the library.
Here is the crappy part. This or next week is teacher appreciation. My pricipal and AP want to 'honor' teachers by giving each person a $10 gift certificate to get books from the fair. They come off as Ladies Bountiful. I work the fair, they give it away. My name isn't even on the certificate. They contributed NOTHING!
AAaaaaggghhhhh! That's going to be $600 credited to my fair.
"It's for the school. It's for the children (said with the guilt giving lilt in the voice)
NOT FAIR!!
Aren't they just Wonderful Bosses. Gee....even I get a certificate. Big Whoop!

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Click...Another change

We went to a play at Lynn last Friday. It was a collection of plays that force you to look at situations in different realities. Doppelgangers that are next to you living your life, then click, they switch places with you and you become the doppelganger. Change is part of life. It can’t be stopped no matter how much you try not to.


Click. How did I get to be the age of my parents? Click. My parents are really old, infirm, and unable to live on their own. Click. It’s time to sell the home they’ve lived in for 52 years.

That last click kept me awake this week. I’ve already taken items, but is there something I’ve forgotten that I wished I had? Logic tells me that I already have too many things, but this is final. No do overs. Click. It’s time to turn the wheel to the next position. Our ancestors faced this and now it’s my turn.

Click. Children, this is a click in your wheel of life too.