Robert did it

Great vacation with friends and family. Traveled to one of my favorite spots - Key West. A strange and bizarre place on earth. Visited the East Martello Museum for the first time and met - face-to-face with Robert the doll. A long history behind Robert the doll and his owner. Robert is on You tube and has many many stories about him and his antics. He has his own website - www.robertthedoll.org.
Check out his blog....http://keywestrobert.blogspot.com

So while visiting the museum and Robert the doll high up on a rooftop with my very own Robert I snapped a photo. Very interesting museum. When out and about please visit the West Martello Museum an almost replica of the East Martello Museum just a little mortar damage. Awesome flowers and a great ocean view.

www.kwahs.com/martello.htm

Stupid Award

Stupid is as stupid does. What? If you're stupid you're stupid or just somewhere out there in oblivious land. So - move over Forrest - Forrest Gump. No shrimp casserole today. Actually we had tuna steaks on the grill this weekend - delicious!! Which really has nothing to do with this subject.

We are planning the great American Christmas Eve dinner at our house. Hubby is cooking the whole shabam. He's such a sweetie-snookums-pie. Holiday eat a thons' are not held very often at our abode. First our humble home is small and for the two of us it usually works out fine. We have the lanai that does hold lots of folks but it's winter in Florida and we party inside.

So sitting 5 people around our holiday table is a task or an impossible feat. Hubby drags the large table from the depths of the outside storage shed as a temporary replacement for our round tiny dining room table built for two. It will not hold a party of five. Handyman starts to remove the legs off the round small table a table that we have owned for at least 5 years. It's a nice table with a matching sideboard - bought second hand but in great condition.

Whalah - two legs are off and what do our wondrous eyes behold???? An extension table leaf tucked nicely beneath the small round table. A miracle. Now our small tiny table becomes almost banquet size and room for all five people ready to party and eat. Who knew? Certainly not us - the table owners.

Happy+Happy=Happier

The cold weather seems to have headed to the north - thank you thank you. Now - we have the rain which is acceptable but along with the cold and dreary weather - I'm starting to get sick YUCK!!! Last holiday season the asthma sent me on a downward whirlwind to a place I absolutely do not want to return to. I detest being sick. I just want to have fun.

Trying to finish up wrapping presents, getting vacation ready which includes cleaning and decluttering the house for guests. It's a marvelous thing those closets - they hide lots of stuff. The garage is useless cuz it's already overflowing with stuff. Garage sale in the spring sounds mighty good.

Sprinkling out - walk to get the paper may be written off the 'to - do' list. Getting excited about Christmas dinner with family and friends and the really-really good part is hubby is in charge of doing all the food fixins. I can be supervisor and taste sampler.

1. I am happy I have such an awesome spouse.
2. I am happy winter break is almost here.
3. I am happy for the travel plans we have made.

Florida Freeze

It's been cold in Florida lately and we are not at all conditioned to this blast of frigid air. We are flip-flop junkies in shorts and t-shirts. I would do barefoot if not for all those dang sand spurs. OUCH!!!!

So the little guy who hasn't much fur at all and just about hairless on his little belly began to shake. Poor baby doesn't like this cold weather either. Off we go to the land of Wallyworld - very early in the morning to miss the barrage of rather strange looking individuals who walk the trails to Walmart. And yes, I spotted one on the way out and no camera to document the episode. Some parts of the body just need to be covered - cold or not cold.

I purchased the little guy a red plaid flannel jacket and he looks so sweet. He is now a brave kitty-cat hunter. Whatever - at least his shivering has stopped. Monday night the freeze is supposed to hit so we are prepared.

Distance

Is there that thin slice of time when dreams swirl with reality and melt? Where red and blue become purple. Are those feelings and sensations a product of the here and now or just a cloud passing over the land of what might be?

Reaching out to touch and finding immobility washing over the body and mind. Surrounded by the desire to validate perceptions and roll to a different drummer with the sounds playing a gentle earthy rhythm.

Eyes are tightly shut surveying a vast empty field overflowing with colors colliding with fog. The soft sounds and the movement of air wrap around as if smothering and at the same time dripping a rainfall of peace. Which way to go?

Am I lost and confused in my dream world or facing life with a jar full of bitterness and bliss? If this is real why does my body lay motionless? In a silent wait for what is to come. Directions are blurred. Open those eyes and get on with life.

It must have been a dream or perhaps a nightmare that grabbed my being and spun me around - pricking my sleeping senses of the pain in the world transferred to myself. How ? I ask can a dream mix with reality and stain the soul? Like a tiny sand spur breaking through skin - tuff as leather and causing a limp to last for days. The art of life and living melting red into yellow and changing to orange.

Dead Sea Spa

When I was a younglin - many moons ago - our medicine cabinet consisted of - mecuricome, iodine and Epsom salt. Band aids were an old torn white sheet. We did not have pastel colored Egyptian 600 thread count cotton sheets.

Recently I have been struggling with a plethora of ailments, Asthma has been flaring up relentlessly. Now the back hurts. Getting old is not a pretty sight for me. Get over it - be positive and be proactive.

I decided to make my own bathroom into a personal spa for mwa. At a closeout store (because I'm always on the look out for a bargain or plain old cheap) I purchased dead sea bath crystals, dead sea bubble bath, dead sea lotion and beach scented candles. My spa was ready and it cost me pennies. Then I did spend $12.00 for a pair of soft plushy slippers. My only super indulgence. I deserve it.

I took a large beach towel and tossed it in the dryer with a linen scented dryer sheet. I plopped myself in the hot tub with my dead sea scrolls and soaked. It felt so good that I soaked a second time. It was ever so refreshing and relaxing.

My research began on Epsom salt, magnesium and the dead sea. Over and over again I read about magnesium (Epsom salt) removes toxins from your body and pretty much looks like a miracle cure. According to the web it helps with blood pressure, muscles aches, breathing in general and asthma. HHHMMMM. Perhaps I have found a cure for my ailments.

I think back and remember the medicine cabinet in my home. There sat the medical cure for ailments right on the shelf. I have found the fountain of youth.

check out this site.......
http://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org

Who dat?

The little guy jumps up in the bed and sits down right smack in the middle amongst pillows and rumpled sheets. He turns his head and looks straight on in the huge mirror that sits atop a very large dresser. Grrr. His ears stand on edge and wiggle. Grrrrrrrr. He starts to shake, then turns his head away from the mirror and the scary image.

His little head swivels back facing the mirror. A little snarl slips across his lips. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. Woof. He begins to shake again. His face turns away. He looks up at me with those pitiful brown eyes saying - "Who is that fool trying to stake out my territory?"

His head spins back to the mirror his fur standing on edge with his ears making points to the ceiling. GGGGRRRRRRRR. YIP.

GGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. He stands up to get a better view of the culprit in the mirror. His ears twitch and his nose wiggles - trying to sniff out the unwanted guest staring back at him. Grrr. His tiny body trembles.

He plops his little body beneath the crumpled sheets and hides his face from the fright that is confronting him - face to face. A little grrr slips out. And his thoughts seem to say - "You can't catch me. I'm the gingerbread dog."

We are not the brightest crayon in the box.

Manatee Madness

I have mailbox envy. It eats away at my self worth and cul-de-sac status. I have no idea how many people have this disorder? Perhaps it is only me. How sad is that? To be or not to be the only crazy with mailbox envy - but woe is me.

I decided to hit this strange disorder head on - face first and at the curb. My current pathetic mail holder (an embarrassment to the entire neighborhood) sits crookedly on a post that has truly seen better days and would be better off in a landfill for broken posts and forgotten dreams. The mail box is black metal - bottom of the line - and was at one point in time covered (looks like gorilla gloo) with narrow wooden slats glued to old black metal receptacle.

Time, weather and a general lack of care has caused said wooden faded, fungus covered slats to fall off and disappear into some oblivion world never to be seen again. What is left on black faded metal container for mail is that funny looking gorilla gloo. A vomit provoking sight to have and behold till death do us part. The death of the black metal bin sitting on the wooden crooked post.

My quest began in earnest to replace this deplorable tacky mailbox and the sad wooden post. I found my dream deluxe mailbox along the streets in the Florida Keys. WOW - I wanted one of those pretty babies perched next to my driveway. It seemed like so many people had this awesome deluxe mailbox. I had to have one - to keep up with the Jones's and to satisfy my mailbox envy.

There she was - and I could tell the mailbox was a SHE. I can just figure out those sorta things. It's this bizarre knack I have. My need-to-have-must-have dream mailbox was a manatee. She is grey and stands proudly with flippers pointing straight out holding a metal box. I wanted that mailbox!!!!

So, I stopped at an establishment somewhere along the keys and asked about my dream mailbox. I no longer wanted mailbox envy - I wanted the real deal. The proprietor stated that the Manatee mailbox was $299.00. Okay I could mortgage the house to get this awesome mailbox. Price was of no concern to me. Then he says the little mama weighs 450 pounds made of solid cement and takes four people to load the endangered species onto a flatbed. Actually he said four men but I feel that is a sexist statement. Now that is a problem the weight not the sexist statement.

She will certainly not fit in the back of our mini sized pick-up and travel up the coast of Florida to her new home. And the cost of shipping is way out of the question due to the fact that a second house mortgage would secure the mailbox and I couldn't possible take out a third mortgage to transport her to her new home.

I guess I could rent a post office box. I have turned the bend - gone in another direction and perhaps given up my dream of owning a 450 pound cement manatee mailbox. This is where I have gone.....http://www.savethemanatee.org/news_psa_holiday_10.html.