Mosaic Mom

I actually won the Pisces Rising Flash Fiction Contest!
OMG!
OMG!
OMG!

Details later, I'm having some beers now...hard to type!

Hope to see everyone at 5:30PM at Pisces Rising Restaurant in Mt Dora at the reading party.
I will be reading my 500 word story "The Dealer".

Come have a good time and support all the local writers.

The lady who is coming to visit us is squeamish about bugs.
She completely loathes spiders.
Wildlife? Forgetaboutit.

Good thing I was the one who found the lizard in the bathroom this morning.

Lizard successfully captured and released into the nandina bush outside.
Peace shall reign!

Our crepe myrtles have not bloomed well the last few years.
To be honest, we haven't given them any care.
No fertilizer, no irrigation, and no pruning.

Well, all that changed this weekend.
Plant Daddy and I pruned the heck out of our 2 big specimens.

I spent the afternoon hauling branches off to the dump pile while PD and the Z boys welded his truck muffler.

We expect to have some nice flowers this summer. Around here they usually bloom at Memorial Day. Stay tuned.

Crepe Myrtle flowers circa 2007.

Plant Daddy and I have had it with the pool.
A 30 year old pool is a lot of maintenance and when the pump broke...again...this week, we threw in the towel.

"We are filling that hole in the ground in!" we exclaimed.

So I phoned the pool guy.
It was actually the original company that had put the pool in!
I thought this would be a poetic end for the old swimming hole.

The guy had an appointment to give me an estimate at 10AM today.
He did not show.

My rule is...if you can't show up to give the estimate, what makes me think you'll show up to do the job?


He did phone at 10AM to say he was "tied up on another job" and would drop by later in the day.
Nevertheless, I locked up the farm and ran the route.

I had to go to the Post Office and fetch the special Desert Rose seeds Plant Daddy got. We'll get those planted in the morning.

We are thinking of making the pool into a patio area to show off desert rose plants. That would be spectacular!

Rooms to Go showed up right on time and the two nice fellows set up a new bed.

RTG truck in my driveway


RTG day bed in the guestroom

Shopping Day Today

Company is coming next weekend. I have to get things ready.
One of the items I need and have never owned is a luggage rack.

I looked at Lake Square Mall on Wednesday.
I trotted through Belk’s and Target and Penney’s. No luggage racks to be had.

I looked on line.
Bed, Bath and Beyond had several, so I decided to drive to Sanford.

First I went to World Market.
I wanted some Tiger Tiger Rogan Josh.
They were out. Grrr. I bought a jar of Rogan Josh anyway, but it is a brand I do not like as much. I also got PD some Sriracha Hot Sauce.

Then I went to Pier One.
I wanted an umbrella stand. They had a few, but none I really loved for the price.

I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond.
Got the luggage rack. No umbrella stand there either.

Went to Michael’s Craft Store.
A jolly lady manned a booth just inside the doorway.
She was trying to enroll folks for a cake decorating class.
She was giving away free cupcakes. Nargh!
But I soldiered past her without a nibble. Go me!

Thinking that I might find an umbrella stand in the Mall, I crossed the street and parked at Dillard’s.

A very nice lady helped me buy some Elizabeth Arden make up. Oops! How did that happen? (I am planning ahead for when I have to give a reading of my short story in Mt Dora on Feb 29th at 5:30 at Pisces Rising.)

I strolled down the mall.
I made stops at an Oriental Import store and a Love Connection store.
No umbrella stands.

I went into Macy’s.
No umbrella stand but something interesting…Lake Square Mall is a Simon Mall. Remember how the roof leaked and caved in at Morrison’s Restaurant?
Well, Sanford Mall is also a Simon Mall.
It rained last night.
Macy’s had a huge section of the housewares department cordoned off. They had fans drying the carpets and a janitor with a mop telling customers to go around the puddles. Hmmm. Same roofing contractor perhaps?

I left Sanford and boogied over to the Mt Dora Antiques Mall.
I found a couple of umbrella stands.
Prices weren’t too bad.
But I started sneezing.
Was it from mold? Dust? Furniture polish? Somebody’s perfume?
It was terrible. I fled. I sneezed all the way over to Publix…where I bought some Sine-Aid. And some pork chops to cook up in the Rogan Josh sauce.

When I got home I was starving.
Go visit Plant Daddy’s blog to see what we had to eat!
What a feast!

A friend of mine sent an email and I opened the link.

It was a virus.

So if you get an email from me and it has a link...DO NOT open the link.

And if you open it, don't worry, you can just take it to a computer place and get it purged out. Nargh!

This fish has some teeth doesn't he?

Plant Daddy caught it this afternoon.
Says it's called a Sheepshead.

Tomorrow, we call it "Dinner"!

Here's a photo of our adventures moving furniture on Sunday...


On Sunday I went to the Rooms to Go website to get some replacement furniture. The website was under construction.
Yesterday, I went to Rooms to Go website to get some replacement furniture. They didn't have what I wanted.

Macy's did...Oh No!
I'll be toodling over to Macy's in a couple of days to check out the matress sales.

Meanwhile, Have A Very Happy Valentine's Day!

On Thursday afternoon, Little Pastry Chef forgot to get electricity turned on in her new apartment. So we did not know the schedule for moving her and her stuff to new digs.

On Thursday afternoon, Aunt Denver and Uncle Circuit were in the skies, flying to town for a Ham convention. I wanted to see them as soon as they were settled. But I did not know the moving schedule.

On Thursday afternoon, we received a 2 page letter and a 44 page article that had to be edited…by Friday afternoon.

On Thursday, rain was predicted for Friday…which greatly influences the moving of a bed to Orlando via open pick-up truck!

After the rain, the temperature was predicted to plummet to the 20’s.
We kinda needed to do a little freeze preparation on the farm.

Things turned around on Friday.

Pastry Chef got her power on.
The rain came and went.
Aunt Denver found her missing trade show booth.
The letter and the paper got done.

Saturday we were good to go.

The Z Car Club showed up unexpectedly at 9:00AM!
“We can’t cook supper for you today,” we said as we left.

We drove to Orlando and dropped a load of furniture at LPC’s cute, adorable apartment.
We drove to the Ham convention for a nice visit with Denver relatives.
We drove back to the farm and made freeze preparations.

The Z Car Club boys looked hungry.
(We usually feed them hot dogs and potato chips.)
“We can’t cook supper for you today,” we said as we left a second time.

We drove back to town and had a great dinner at a Thai Restaurant with LPC, Aunt Denver, Uncle Circuit, PD and me.

On Sunday, PD and LPC made a second trip with furniture.
I stayed home and did lots of cleaning.
We had a spaghetti dinner and set the time clocks and irrigation for the freeze and went to sleep.

That was enough weekend to last us a long time!

Here's the new USDA Hardiness Map just out this week.

We are still on the border between 9a and 9b....but heck, this winter is so warm and wacky, it feels like we all live in Zone 11!

Planted flowering peas last night. I hope they are fragrant too. I am chomping at the bit to get green beans in the ground, but too fearful that a frost would catch me. Today I need to cut broccoli and maybe plant an herb jar. In the houseplant world, I definitely have to repot that overgrown Peperomia.

This popped into my mail box yesterday!


You’re Invited
to
Come Meet and Hear the Winners
of the
Writers One Flight Up-
Pisces Rising and
Pulse the Magazine
Flash Fiction Contest

At the Pisces Rising 239 West Lounge
Leap Day
Wednesday - February 29 - 5:30 PM

Hear the winning stories for the Pisces Rising
Writers One Flight Up
Pulse Magazine
Flash Fiction contest
Based on the original painting by
Lauren Graham Cunningham

The three Finalists read at 6:30 p.m.
First, second and third place prizes announced

Cash Bar
Bar snacks provided

It’s a grand day for a party!


I'll be reading a Flash Fiction piece called "The Dealer".
Hope you'll come and enjoy it!

So I drove to Apopka today to take another IRS letter over to the accountant.
"Grrrr," says I.
"Not to worry," says the accountant with a smile.

(I am as worried about the accountant's bill as I am about the IRS these days.)

On the way home, I stopped at the Post Office to buy stamps.

A sign scotch taped to the locked door read "Back in 5 minutes."

A man was waiting by the door.

"How long have you been waiting?" asked I.
"Twenty minutes," he replied.

So much for stamps.

So I get home and guess what...there are 2 more letters from the IRS in the mailbox.
Grrr.
And I don't even have the stamps to write them back.

This morning I decided to go over to the Mt Dora Arts Festival.
I wanted to check a price at one artist’s booth. I also wanted to meander over to the Marine Company on the lake and buy some Corrosion X rust remover for Plant Daddy.

You know what God does when you make plans, right?
HA!

Did somebody schedule a bicycle festival and an arts festival at the same time?

Bicycles were everywhere. Hundreds of them.

On my way to Mt Dora, I passed 2 lady bicyclists pedaling along on Lake Dora Drive.

Ladies, ya’ll’s asses were way too big to be in those spandex bicycle shorts…AND…that spandex was stretched so thin, I could see ya’ll’s butt cracks clear as day!

(I am sorry to put this in such vulgar language here, but the sight was dreadful. Absolutely dreadful.)


I inched into town and made my start-and-stop way over to the Episcopal Church. I had already budgeted $5.00 for to park in their church parking lot and walk downtown. But at 11AM they were parked full. So were the Methodists and the Church of Christ’s. So I gave up and went home.

I have never seen so many people at that arts festival. Hope all those porta-johns hold up!

So I went back home…passed lots more bicyclists on the way home again. I picked up Little Pastry Chef and we toodled over to Target where we bought necessities like shampoo, a kitchen rug with a baby beets motif, a shower curtain, and Valentines.

Then we crossed the street and hit up McDonalds for coffee and French fries. Yummy!

Plant Daddy and the Z Boys were at it all day. They painted the little white Sentra’s bald spots and polished the headlights to make them shinier. They worked a little on the Chevy truck muffler. They worked on the race car. They ate hot dogs and potato chips.

I sat at the computer and did some editing work. Little Pastry Chef packed books getting ready for the big move to the city next weekend. She and I polished off the leftover Chinese food she had brought home yesterday.

We are all resting from our busy Saturday now. Getting ready to watch the Super Bowl tomorrow.
We do not care much about the game.
We care about the Bean Dip and Salsa and chips and Tostidos and beer we are going to consume. Yummy!

When Plant Daddy comes home from work, I like to have his dinner ready.

When Little Pastry Chef comes home from work 3 hours later, I like to have her dinner ready, too.
I don't want it to look like leftovers, even though it is, so I try to spiff it up a little.
Here is her place setting at the breakfast bar.

I added the cute mini-martini glass of fresh squeezed orange juice and Plant Daddy sliced some grapefruit sections just for her.
The menu on the plate reads:
Roast Pork
Mashed Potatoes
Carrots and
Salad

Yummy!

My friend Suzy has this gorgeous plumbago growing in her front yard.

We've had a mild winter so far so her plant is lush.
This weekend I have a yen to go to the Mt Dora Arts Festival. I have not been in years, but there's one particular artist I want to see. I'll try to get up and go before the noon crowds.
Maybe I'll stop over and visit my friend's garden and check the plumbago and her vegetable garden. (She has trouble with city squirrels raiding the tomatoes. I feel sorry for her that she can't just shoot them since she lives in town.There's no justification for bushy tailed rats. Grrr.)
Anyway, Happy February.