Flowers!

My friend, Diane, who also invests for me, came over last night and brought me a wonderful bouquet of flowers. She is just a dream of a friend and we always have so much to talk about when together, not the least of which is my finances. Two hours flew by far too quickly and I hated to say good-bye when the time came. Enjoy my flowers with me!

A Tuesday recap

Tuesday was an amazing day, starting early with a quick shower before I had to disembowel the lower cabinets where plumbing is located as the pest control man was coming. We had a ball-park estimate of his arrival on the property of 9 am to 1:00 pm, and I wanted to be ready. Since the cabinets were empty, I swept away the cruddlies which had made these dark recesses their home, and happily found no bug carcasses. Evidently whatever was sprayed last year has done the trick. Besides not being any bugs, this gives a person a chance to clean things out at least once a year!

Monday evening at the Board of Directors meeting, it was mentioned some of the units had leaks which became apparent during the recent rains. At some point the discussion determined that Jeff, my downstairs neighbor, who would be accompanying the pest control man to the units, would check the leak. When they came to my door, I directed Jeff’s attention to the window with the leak. He pointed out there was corrosion along the top of the window which has certainly developed over time. I stressed once more that the leak was originating above Jessica’s unit, with NO open porch or exposed areas. We realize that our river rooms were once exposed and not originally intended to be indoor space, but I AM concerned for the vacant unit above us which might be the source for the leaking. Yikes! He was going up there to check it out after he left my place, and I am interested to hear what he discovered.

So, back to the bug man---he went about his business, as busy as a bee!, spraying around the windows, doors, under the sinks, and so on. Once Jeff left, I redirected the bug man to my bedroom windows for an extra shot to address the jumping spiders that frequent there (Lynn would hate that!) and then pointed out that I had ants visiting my night stand and areas in my kitchen. He saw my bait things and agreed with me that terro is the BEST weapon against these ‘sweet ants’ (which must be different than sugar ants). He did not explain why---he is only the technician, after all. I will make a trip over to Winn Dixie to get terro, which is where I got it last time I had troubles, since the Hot Shots I am using now seem ineffective.

The fellow came up to me when he was done and asked if I still used my die-cuts and such, which he observed in the guest room. I said that I don’t use those tools as much as I did at first, and asked him why he wanted to know. It seems his wife does card making now more than scrapbooking, and he was going to offer me her die-cut tools. Now, isn’t that nice? Instead, I offered him my long-neglected rubber stamps which he was glad to take along. As I bagged them up, it occurred to me that I would have this empty stamp case, designed for holding stamps, lying around, so gave him the whole shooting match to take to his wife. He was so thankful. Earlier he told me that he would buy every new die-cut or supply, and even put himself on wait-lists for new products, to please his wife. Wow! I nearly gave him a smooch…but settled for sending the stamps along with him. Lots of money went out that door with him, but they were doing me no good drying up in the closet and will give her some joy, and he as well!

I did not immediately restock the cabinets, leaving them open to breathe a bit before I would put it all away again. The rest of the morning was spent putting the finishing touches on the newsletter for church and printed one off to mail to Gretchen. I like for her to have one done in color, but now that her sister and cousin have both passed away, she won’t have anyone to mail it to. That is what she did with her copy, mailed it off to share it.

For lunch I was attending a real live tea party at a shop down the street called “Basketique”. It is a gift shop and tea room rolled into one, and wow, what a marvelous shop it is! My eyes came out of my head as I browsed the shelves before the rest of the ladies arrived. This gathering was our water aerobics class, celebrating a wonderful season of water fun.

Since I do not drink tea, I asked Marlena if I could bring my own soda and she said I could, so had one in my purse. Fortunately, our hostess provided me with two tiny cans of Diet Coke which tided me over, but I did have to agree to at least try the tea. And I did!

What a feast we had!!! I can only begin to report what we had because it was not my usual fare of Spam on toast---more like heart-shaped bread, miniatures, with a special ham salad and goat cheese, and a heart-shaped pickled beet on top. I ate it and I loved it! There were other delicacies such as unusually flavored crackers (to me, anyway) with salmon spread and such, similar to what to was served at the “royal wedding”. There was pumpernickel bread cut into flower shapes and some sort of green stuff, and a cucumber slice. This was only the beginning! We had strawberry soup, more like pudding, with cocoa-flavored granola to sprinkle on top; cheese twists that tasted sort of like pie crust that was served with two different types of salsa, one of which was peach. I did not try the salsas, but was not crazy about the cheese sticks. Numerous types of teenie sandwiches came out, plus an olive/carrot/other veggie chopped up-type of mixture in olive oil, served with sour dough crackers, cheese cubes and salami. Oh my goodness!!!!

Pat, the hostess of the shop and tea room, told us everything we were served is also sold in the shop. I even ate some sort of potato chip that had a chili flavor to it, and liked it! Totally out of my spectrum of ‘likes’. I am already planning to bring the church ladies here perhaps in spring on a Saturday but we must make our plans quickly as her slots are filling in quickly for the coming months. The best kept secret in Orange Park, right under our noses! I want a jar of that olive stuff, which Pat said can be eaten directly from the jar if we want to, but she was out of stock on it. Believe me, I will check back in periodically to see if it has come in…yes, it was THAT delicious! For dessert she served cut up scones with two different dipping items but I could not eat anything more. Our final treat was a tea cup shaped cookie with a marshmallow topping, chocolate drizzle, and a raspberry on top. We also had fresh fruit on the table, served with cottage cheese which I ate, giant-sized berries at that. Such a delightful feast!