What is your viewing pleasure?

Do you watch TV?  What shows appeal to you?  For the most part Jim and I like the same kind of shows.  Dramas, action adventures etc.  Of course we have our differences too, as in cooking shows and car shows. We both like HGTV and DIY shows.

Recently we've found we don't watch a lot of television.  For that reason we're dropping Direct TV and the extensive programming we have.  Switching to Dish and the basic package they offer.  Just seems better for us and we'll see how it works!

We have been getting DVD's from the library and we're having fun with series of shows, starting at the beginning and enjoying what we may have missed the first time around.  Sometimes when the shows aired you can miss an episode.


Jim and I both like Sherlock Holmes.  I thought Basil Rathbone was the best Sherlock.  All the episodes in black and white..Then there’s Jeremy Brett who was Sherlock in the 80’s. We'll have to see if it's available on DVD. Have you seen Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch?  We picked up season one at the library. What fun!  Not sure if we’ve seen all of them.  But we’re going to now.

We just finished watching the last season of Endeavour because a new season starts on PBS soon.  Endeavour is the precursor to Inspector Morse staring John Thaw.  This series is excellent!  Wouldn't mind seeing them again.  Did  I ever mention that we love British dramas and mysteries? The writing is better, filming is intriguing with angles and light.  Probably why American shows don’t appeal to us. The Brits just do it better!

Critters...we have them, from this itty bitty preying mantis on my plumeria

to this ten inch snake that was resting under the patio mat.  Wonder if he'll be there next time I pull the mat back?

Katydids!  Just a couple hang around the rig...but they have serenaded us for weeks now

Handmade cards because:

No one displays an email on the mantle

or shows off a tweet on the fridge

or saves a Facebook post in a box of treasures

For the year of 2019 I've challenged myself to 500 cards think I can do it?

12 June 2019 144 cards

This first card is from the June Paper Pumpkin from Stampin' Up!  Note card size and they having matching envelopes

One Sheet Wonder cards are fun to make.  You cut up 12 x 12 patterned paper and make many cards depending on how the paper is cut.  This is only three of them and I'm adding sentiments to all of them. The two on the left will be thank you cards, the one on the right will be used for the cards I mail out.  Perhaps to you!

Thank you for visiting!

All is right in our world

Whew! It's really getting warm here

Sunday Evening

For the last three days our temperature has been in the low 100's.  Oddly enough, though it's warm the low humidity makes it tolerable..For sure you don't want to do anything strenuous.  I think that's why siestas were invented!

Today we went to lunch at a new to us restaurant.  As far as I know it was an authentic New York City Deli, with some local touches.  Jim had an omelet with chili! I had potato latke (2) which would have been enough for me, but I also ordered a Greek Salad, most of which came home with me.  It's a popular place on Sunday morning as we waited for a bit for a table.  

Afterwords we went to the mall to walk it off.  With the high temperature walking outside is a no-no during the afternoon.  

We're doing good.  Jim is slowly getting better but still tires easily.  He only does minor chores.  I think it's time to up his game.  My meds seem to working as my blood pressure is going down.  Didn't expect that.  I would prefer not taking medicines.  But for now it's part of my life.  I stay busy with my chores and making cards.  Though lately days have gone by without playing with my paper.

Most of our days are spent relaxing.  Reading, playing games and watching DVD's from the library.  We're dropping Direct TV because we just don't watch television very much.  Switching to DISH. There basic package is a bit cheaper than Direct TV and offers us the channels we like to watch.   I need the basic channels for CBS, PBS and football!  We'll see how much we watch and go from there.

We do eat out maybe a couple times a week and the trips are combined with grocery runs or trips to the library

Handmade cards because:

No one displays an email on the mantle

or shows off a tweet on the fridge

or saves a Facebook post in a box of treasures

For the year of 2019 I've challenged myself to 500 cards think I can do it?

10 June 2019 140 cards

These five cards are from a Club Scrap Kit with a botanical theme.  I like the soft green and butter color combination

Echo Park is offering a kit and these four cards are a start on using all the supplies included in the kit.  There's a lot!

The Floral Market kit included: 

12 sheets of 12 x 12 double sided paper

4 of these are cut aparts

1 pad of 6 x 6 double sided paper

1 sheet of 12 x 12 stickers

1 set of matching cling stamps

Enamel dots

A package of 33 ephemera

1 sheet of 6 x 12 chipboard sticker

1 tape runner

and a wee York Peppermint Patty

I've plenty to work with so check back to see what I make.  All I need to add is the coordinating Stampin' Up! card stock

Our  Bluebonnets and other wild flowers have all faded and in some areas been mowed.  Here at Spring Branch RV Park the cactus are blooming

That's about it from here.  

All is right in our world. 

The past couple days have been wonderful!  The weather has been perfect, now if we could get it to stay this way until our stay is over we'd be really happy!

Thursday Jim wanted to go to Hobby Lobby and check out Historic St Andrews.  So once I remade the bed with clean sheets and did the dishes we were off.  We made our purchases at Hobby Lobby then drove the short distance to St Andrews.  It's on the Bay and it was fun walking around the marina and small town.

Then we stopped for lunch at Gracie Rae Bar and Grill, part of the Shrimp Boat and sat overlooking the bay watching the gulls, cormorants and pelicans.  It was a beautiful day to be sitting outside drinking cold beer and eating seafood.

When we finally tore ourselves away from this tranquil setting Jim decided we needed another stop to 'check' on something....The Verizon store is a dangerous place.  We checked on getting me a new phone, which we did...I now have a Droid Maxx like Jim's and apparently Chris, our son in law.  We did lose our unlimited data plan (which is why I was keeping my old Droid) and our monthly bill goes up about eight bucks.

After about an hour we left with my new phone, a car docking station, screen protectors and a hands free blue tooth thingy in red.  I lost all my pictures because Verizon doesn't think it's important to be able to transfer them to a new phone!  There's a slight learning curve and I'm getting the hang of using this phone.  It's a wee bit bigger and sensitive to touch.

Friday was another glorious day!  We didn't go anywhere.  Just did some cleaning and normal chores.  Cooking (me) and grilling (Jim).  We even ate outside because it was so nice.

We went for a walk when we finished out afternoon coffee.  As I think I mentioned we are on a wetlands but we sloshed our way through the puddles and walked down to the bay.  Boo was having a good time with all the new smells.

On the way back we picked up a toy football and tossed it for Boo to chase.  It was almost to large for his mouth but he finally managed to pick it up and it was funny watching him march with it!

Watched an HBO (free weekend on Direct TV) movie last night and went to bed by 2230.

Deland

Saturday started out overcast and warm.  The sun did come out for a bit but the temperature only reached the mid-70's.  Perfect for wandering the main street in DeLand.  The four of us piled into the truck just before 1000 and headed south on US 17 passing through Crescent City.

We found a place to park in one of the public parking spots.  There is a three hour limit but we don't think it's enforced. 



Stetson University is located here and I wonder if this was a student special?

Some of the buildings are interesting, the opera house has apartments on top

DeLand is a very pretty city and well worth a visit.  I know we'll go back

 After wandering up one side and down the other, stopping in a few shops along the way we finally decided on lunch at the Mainstreet Grill.  Very nice menu and you can dine outside on the patio with the walls of water cascading in the background.

Jim decided on sauteed mushrooms and a Cobb salad while I had grilled mahi-mahi with black beans and yellow rice, we both had a draft beer.

Kathy ordered a turkey Ruben and John had a cheeseburger after ordering two cinnamon rolls!  The rolls were small and he did share them  :-)  They had tea or water to drink.

After we waddled our way back to the car we drove around the campus for a bit just looking at all the buildings.  We didn't see any students so we figured they were on Christmas break.  

On the way home a gentle rain began to fall and by 1800 it was a full blown thunderstorm!  We even lost power, but it came back after a few minutes.  Direct TV was out for about 15-20 minutes.

The rain continued all through the evening and as far as I know, all night.  I heard it several times during the night with gentle rain at times and a wee bit more other times.  The deck was so wet that it didn't dry out all day.  

Monday Jim had to work and I did a load of laundry.  Had to change the sheets and didn't have any clean!  Sure will be glad when my wash machine is fixed.  I really don't like schlepping my laundry, I guess I'm spoiled....

The day was a bit overcast but not to bad temperature wise.  I took Boo for a walk after lunch and Kathy joined me.  As the day wore on it did get cooler and by nightfall it was already in the lower 60's.  By 2200 it was in the 50's and we slept quite well under the duvet.

Today Jim is working and it's much colder.  Beautiful, sunny skies but the temperature is only 55 at 1400.  No wind so it's tolerable!

Tonight we're going to the work camper dinner so I don't have to fix dinner.  It's nice to be included but I didn't work a lick this year.