Forgive me, Cindy, but more photos coming up!

My friend, Dolly, who lives in WI is not really a traveler, so I promised her photos of my house as she'll probably never get here to see it in person. I thought I had more to show but guess these will do. If they are repeats, please don't be mad, but go back and read some old postings while the rest of us look at these pictures.......talk amongst yourselves.......

This group tearing up my family room are some of the famous 'church' ladies, subdued at the moment. The lady leaning on her walking stick is June, Martie's sister, who has moved to PA for awhile. Suzanne, the viola player is seated next to her mom-in-law, Judy C. On the floor is my hoot of a friend, Janet, who is good for my soul!!!! Over the TV you can see part of the light purchased in Santorini from Justin's and my 'friend', Jeanne.

Here's a better view of the shelves behind the TV, already built-in when I bought the place. This is from my birthday party when my family was here, and I had a tooth-ache, of course! January 2nd I was on the doorstep at my favorite root canal doctor with a pliers in my hand...not quite, but I was ready! Anyway, this picture shows Lori and Lynn sitting by the window, I don't know which one is which because they look so much alike. (Lynn is wearing her best Packer garb). David may be playing his guitar for Emily, whose back is to the camera.

Here is the dining room table on the Persian rug we bought in Turkey back in 2000. It still looks great on this hardwood floor, my "Bruce" floor, since Bruce installed it! He is father of the bride from last Saturday's wedding--FYI. On the wall just behind the French door you can see the arrangment of plaques I wrote about earlier, that Billy Powell liked so well. Gifts from Justin. This view looks across a hall and into my kitchen where Rick is busy at the counter. The room just beyond Rick was Justin's bedroom but now is for my guests. This is where you would sleep, Dolly, if you came to see me---I'm just sayin'............

On the console in the dining room you can see Murano glass flowers in a vase, more gifts from Justin, to match my chandlier. Next to the vase is my lovely ruby red cake plate from the Cummer Museum. Twila showed it to me and I was swept off my feet, but Mom scolded Twila for leading me into sin, showing me the pretty glass! Twila knows what I like! Carol Douglas always threatens to take the ceramic Santa on the dining room table because she loves it so much. Justin made it in school and it weighs about 50 pounds. Carol would never get it out the door!

This shot looks into the river half of my family room. I have my loveseat along the wall with a lovely Portofinio tapestry above it on a rod. The French doors seen here are but one pair of four which came with my condo. Bruce also installed the flooring in the family room as well as the kitchen and hall bathroom. The room continues to the left but is not visible from this angle. I'll look for a photo of that end but not right now. I think I have some of the boys playing with Play Doh during TS Faye.

This is my mural in the dining room, actually a framed single, but giant, piece of wallpaper. If you didn't know any better...........
My Great Hang Ups ladies ordered the picture frame material for me and my remodeling guy from church perfectly cut and installed it. Julia came to do have a "putty party" but could hardly find one spot needing filler, that's how good the joints were! The wall shelves were purchased in Manitowoc at Shimek's and work perfectly in the decor. The lamp came with me from The Preserve. Some of the pieces on the buffet are from Southern Living at Home, in case anyone is interested.....


This view is looking out from the dining room, through the river room and into the basin area of the river. To the right will be the marina and it's been a long time coming. The dredger came back but left again so no one knows what's going on with it. Some of my sun catchers, chimes, and colored glass can be seen hanging in the windows. The carpet is from last year's visit to Istanbul, bought after having a tiny glass of raki. On the etagere you can see my scrapbooks lined up, waiting for someone to come and look at them, plus a pink thunder jug I bought a couple years ago at the church yard sale!

You can't see it clearly but there is also a planter with the original plant, the first to arrive at our house the morning after Timmy died. It came from Rick and Jennifer, in the shape of a bird house. The plant is not pretty but it still is alive.

On the far right is a window pane painted with vines and flowers which Martie and I bought at Volano Beach one day when we went to watch a hurricane go past. Obviously this was prior to 2004 when we got clobbered here and now appreciate the threat a bit more. Anyway, that was the day our waitress at Cracker Barrel described us a "regular Thelma and Louise", just because we ordered apple dumplings with ice cream for breakfast!!! Hence, if you hear us calling each other these weird names, that's why!


Speaking of trouble, here is a photo thrown in of Jennifer and Memrie with me, taken in unkind light. Or kind, depending upon your perspective. One false move and Memrie will only be a memory!!!! Either way, she'd have a soft landing on her mama or me! This shot was taken outside the Buco del Beppo restaurant the night we had dinner with Rosses plus other people with whom I used to work at my former business. I don't like to say "employees" because they are more than that to me, much more! Mem, as we call her, is a full-time first grader this year.....where did that time go?


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Okay, that's it for the pictures, you all can come back now...............Was this good enough, Dolly, because I have lots more pictures in my vault???

Saturday and I've got ants in my pants!

Well, not exactly, or I should say, not yet, but they are having their way with my desk now! Last week I opened a bag of cough drops and it, too, was alive with ants. I've put a double ant trap on my desk which will hopefully eradicate them. The ants are teeny tiny and fast as all get out, but not quite fast enough to outrun my thumb or pointer as I squish them. The Douglas family would have a fit with me squishing and trying to kill these ants. It's either me or the ants, me or the ants!!!! I hear the theme from "Pink Panther" as I chase them around my desk: dead ant, dead ant, dead ant, dead ant, dead ant, etc.

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The housekeepers were here yesterday when Justin was hooking up the Internet for me, and after he was gone, Angela just went on and on about how handsome and tall he's gotten since she first knew him. I've used this company since the lake house so they've known him in high school. She remembers how I'd say not to worry about his room because it wasn't clean enough for the cleaners to walk through! Every now and again I'd have to work my way into the room and work with him, much to his delight. Oh, yes, those were fun times!

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I'm listening to a "Seinfeld" episoda which includes more chanting:

"Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum!" Jerry gets into an unwilling competition with an extremely aged trio of grandfather, father and son who want to show Jerry they are stronger than he is. Jerry's dad loves his T-shirt Jerry brought with him, which Kramer bought from a street vendor that says "#1 Dad", about six sizes too small, saying it's the best gift Jerry ever gave him. Jerry says, "You do remember I bought you a Cadillac, don't you? Twice!"

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Kramer asked Jerry to bring him back some Cubans from Del Boca Vista (Miami), and he agrees, only to discover they are not cigars, but human beings! When Jerry calls to tell Kramer they are people and not cigars, Kramer says, "Jerry, Cuban cigars are illegal in this country" in a real righteous tone, saying he's bring in Cuban cigar rollers to make his own! The Mandelbaum's are in the crepe business and to make a long story short, the cigar rollers, who are really Dominicans, end up in the crepe business, but blow the whole thing up by rolling the crepes too tightly, like you would a cigar. "Try to take a vacation, you come back and the whole operation is in a shambles!" I feel that way, too, when I get back from a trip.

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My neighbor and I are not able to coordinate our Saturdays to allow for going to the movies and my Sunday is full to the brim. I gave them permission to go ahead without me because with Jeff's flying schedule, they aren't as flexible with their time. I went to see Ellen, my neighbor, yesterday, taking her framed piece and touched up photos. She was in bed, sleeping, but Billy took me in to see her anyway. We had a nice visit although I had to carry much of it, no problem. She is still groggy from her medications and has no appetite or ambition. I left her to her nap but Billy was evidently tickled at having someone to talk to so I was treated to a lovely private concert on his rehearsal keyboard, which sounds exactly like a grand piano. He played original compositions in his favorite genre, classical. Billy's training was in classical music and its his passion, he told me all about his teachers and such when he was growing up on the Westside.

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He showed me, again, his special guitars and other pieces of memorabalia, some with autographs of the original band members, those killed in the crash. Billy told me the reason he needs to wear the dark glasses is because his tear ducts were damaged in the plane crash, but fortunately, his vision is not affected. He is a walking story, let me tell you!

This is a photo taken with Ellen's cell phone of Billy wearing my red coat from Turkey last year. Some of the gold records are visible behind him but they pale next to my beautiful coat!!!! In his hand is a walking stick so he sort of looks like Kramer did in the "Wig Master" episode!!!!

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I, of course, launched into the framing and preserving abilities of Great Hang Ups and offered to have him come down some time to see what they've done for me and to see my glass pieces from there. He said, "I can come right now" so off we went. I am so glad the housekeepers had just been here! He loved the place, and went crazy, figuratively speaking, about my house. I might not have gold records on the walls, but I do have other treasures.

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One thing that caught Billy's eye was the arrangement of plaques on my dining room wall about faith, hope, love, integrity, trust, etc., which Justin had gotten me for Christmas a few years back. As I opened them, he said, "I got these because this what you are all about." Talk about a gift! Obviously, the fact he thought that about me was gift enough, but then he, in his inimitable Justinisms said, "They had your eye prints all over them!", since they were from Kirkland's, one of my favorite stores at the Mall. That kid! Anyway, Billy loved the plaques and he loved the story behind this gift. He kept saying he had to bring Ellen down here to see my glass and all that, but she's been here a number of times. He said it was like being in a museum.

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Well, after he left, I got busy in my office making good use of my new Internet connection. All of a sudden, I heard this bang, bang, bang at my door. I dashed to see if perhaps I had a delivery or something, and there stood Billy with a tin of cookies and some caramel apples for me. Wow! He said the cookies had to be frozen or eaten immediately so I told him that I'd sit down and eat them right away! It was a huge tin of David's cookies, and I popped it into my freezer. One of the apples had caramel, nuts and tiny chocolate chips on it, but the apple was very difficult to cut apart. What a sour apple it was under all that good stuff! Don't tell him but I only ate part of it, and it was mess---chocolate chips and nuts all over the place. Hey, that might account for the ants!!!