Sunday in paradise...

In case anyone knows the area those condos over there are on Singer Island.  Yes, the sewing machine Singers.  Very pretty.  Oh, and the house at the bottom in the middle?  That's Dr. Wacks.

Today will find me at the Walmart shopping for the week.  I really don't need too much, I have all the fish and chicken for the week, just need veggies and some little stuff.  Then I can get in the pool.    I didn't get in yesterday, when I got home from canasta I was really tired so I cooked some dinner and sat down at the computer for a bit and watched a bit of tv.  But I did walk at least.  Exciting day!  Ha ha.

You will never believe this!  I am planning on voting for a Democrat in November.  Yup, I am planning on voting for Bell Nelson for Senate.  It will be the first Democrat I have voted for since Carter.  Unless he ticks me off that is.   Which is highly possible but still.  I wonder what Sarge would say?  I doubt he'd be happy about it but then we did differ on several matters.

I'm starting to get a bit tired of my red wall.  I saw a room recently that I loved and it was all in browns, tans, and whites.  I don't know if I'd like to live with that many neutrals but red does get old.  Any ideas of colors?  I should go to a paint store and just look I think.  See what tickles my fancy.  And I still want to paint the bedroom purple.  I haven't forgotten that yet.

I guess that's about all I know today y'all.  Hope your Sunday is lovely.  I know mine will be.

Happy Birthday Ayla!

Don't think the Bee Bandwagon can work?  Think again!  The duck made this for me, wasn't that lovely?  

The mammogram was great, they read it while I waited.  The chest x-ray I haven't heard yet but expect it to be good as well.

Today is Lala's birthday.  Oh, I forgot, she doesn't use Lala anymore, she is Ayla now, her real name.  She's a beauty, that girl!  And her hubby isn't half bad either!  Twenty five she is!  Where did those years go?  I remember the first time I held her like it was yesterday.  The feeling of that first grandchild in your arms is like no other on earth.  It is life altering.

So grown up it makes my heart hurt!  When Matt deploys I wish she'd come stay with me for a while, wouldn't that be nice?  We could even take a cruise!  Ha ha...

Photo by Layla

Photo by me

Have you heard of Magnetic nail polish?  I got some and did it myself and it's not half bad.  It was kind of fun to do.  I'm not sure yet that I love it but we'll see.  I have been "into" some pretty wild nails lately, well for me anyway.  I used to be a pink girl.  Now it's turquoise, green, royal blue, purple, and now the magnetic polish in deep blue.  I still don't much like yellow but that's just me.  Oh, and this is not a paid ad either, just something I ran across.

Gosh that's a lot of reading and news for you today, sorry.  Hope your Saturday is totally tits.  Mine too...

Friday in my world...

Today I have to get another mammogram and chest x-ray.  I now have five years free of breast cancer and seven years free of lung cancer.  Knock wood.  And knock whatever else might help.  Anyway I also can stop taking the Aromasin in a few more weeks.  One less pill.  They are really getting down there now!  

I'm still trying to decide what else to do with my life.  I am doing a bit of beading but don't want to sit all day and do that.  What I want to do is get out of the house and move!  I sit too danged much.  Enough of that.

I'm having some fun with Kate's camera.  I've been playing around with panoramic and it's pretty fun.  I've never tried it before and I'm having to teach myself.

 So that's about all I know for now.  Here's hoping your Friday is as good as mine...

So okay, this might be the start of a new series, not sure yet.  "Bee v. Siri".  We had our first argument yesterday.  I asked her if she could say "How may I help you?" instead of "What can I help you with?" (which sets my teeth on edge just to type it) and towards the end she said "Now now Bee!"  The sassy little thing.  I am hoping we can get along but so far I find her a bit condescending, especially for someone with such bad grammar.  We'll see.  Oh, and I named the new phone "Kate" after you-know-who.  Beautiful, sleek, lovely.

I was thinking (I know, here we go again), anyway I was thinking about whether to look back or look ahead.  I have decided to look ahead.  No one can ever take away my memories, especially of my dear Sarge, but hopefully I have many years left and now I have to decide what to do with them. I could just continue to play cards and have lunch and blog, all of which I love, but I can also add more to my life.

I could learn to play the piano.  I could volunteer somewhere, maybe at the VA hospital?  I could travel more but don't really want to do that alone.  I have more energy now so I think I could do some more, well I know I could.  Anyway it's something I am thinking of doing and what the heck? If I find I don't like what I choose, well I can just do something else.  I also thought about *gasp* taking up golf!  You know that really dumb sport where you hit a ball and go after it and hit it again?  Yeah, that one.  We'll see.

Anyway I need something else besides online shopping.  By the way, my self imposed shopping ban for the month of September was a total failure.  Here's a partial list:  iPhone5, 3 dresses, 4 pants, 11 tops, underwear, a pillow, some software, and the list goes on to adnauseum.  Is that a word?  If not it should be.  At least I didn't buy any more bathing suits!

So my dear friends have yourself a lovely Thursday.  I'll be at the club having lunch with some gals and then a hot canasta game.

Wednesday in paradise...

Wednesday and no MahJong today.  Buggers.  But Steve and Jane are coming so I will get out and do something.  If it's nice I'll go to the pool and if not I'll go to Publix and the fruitstand again.  I like to get out of their way so they can clean, they have a system and it sure works!

My new iPhone came yesterday.  It was so simple to get up and running.  It just asked me questions and I answered it and the next thing I knew I was all done.  Couldn't have been easier.  The battery was charged too, that surprised me.  That's another thing I can do today, go out and play with the camera.  I hear it's tits!

Yesterday at canasta I won five cents!  I'm not kidding, five cents!  When I keep score I round to the nearest fifty cents after each hand but the gal that scored didn't.  Too funny.

Now I have to tell you about another nutjob in my building.  Remember the gal that I passed in her Mini Cooper and found out she was my new neighbor?  Remember I said I liked her?  Well I think I might have been wrong.  Here is what happened...

I walked out of the apartment Monday night to go downstairs and I smelled something burning.  When I went down I told the door person it smelled like an electrical problem or something.  She went up and decided to call the fire department.  They came and smelled it too.  There was no one else on my floor at the time, just her and me.  I know it wasn't in my apartment.

The firemen knocked on her door and told her something was burning in her apartment.  She denied it and said nothing was burning.  They asked her if they could look around, it smelled like pot??  Anyway after some investigating they found she was burning a huge pot of sage.  When they confronted her she told them she had to burn it because spirits were in there kicking her.  Of ffs.  I'll keep you posted on this new nuts escapades.

I know for a fact that no one ever died in that apartment and I told her that.  It seemed to make her a bit happier but she's not done, I'm sure of it.  

Have any of you had any experiences like this?  I'd be curious to know if you have.  

So go out there and have a totally lovely Wednesday, I will too...

Why are my eyes now blue?

It seems that is a very good question.  The first person I saw that did the initial exam had no earthly idea and never heard of it before.  The next person I saw that dilated my eyes actually asked me what happened.  Then I saw Dr. Katzen.  He knew.  

He said most babies are born with blue eyes and over time they change as pigment develops over the blue.  For some reason the pigment in my eyes wore away (most of it, he still saw a bit of it in there) and the original blue was able to be seen again.

Also there is now under development a medication to do just this, it's not ready yet.  There seem to be a lot of people that want natural blue eyes.  Lucky me.

On another note my eyes are still great.  There is the very slightest sign of early cataracts but not hurting my vision at all yet.  Nothing else wrong.  Great vision.  No glasses needed for anything but reading and drug store readers are fine.  He is a fabulous eye doctor, Sarge always used him.

But there was some poor planning on my part.  I never thought about my eyes being dilated.  That meant I could not get in the pool because the sun was too bright.  Sooooo, I had a lovely nap instead.  The end.

Monday at my house...

Well let's start off with a recap of yesterday.  The sun actually came out!  Nice and warm too.  I went to brunch with the duck and saw Dr. Wacks and his wife there.  He was very happy and called me the duck's sister! Ha ha.

Then we went to the Walmart which was the usual zoo of a place but I got lots of good bargains in good food.  We found those chicken breasts that I buy in a big box (they are individually wrapped organic ones) and I got those too.  

I came home and was able to get in the pool.  I did 30 minutes of walking back and forth.  I think my hip is a bit better but I am being very careful.  My friend was there (the nurse) and she had a great suggestion.  She said for the next three days or so I should take Advil as an anti-inflammatory.  I'm doing that now.  I don't know why I didn't think of that myself.

Now remember today I have the eye doctor.  After that not much going on so I hope it's nice and I'll be at the pool then and in the evening I have poker.  It's usually on a Tuesday but since Tuesday is the high holy day we moved it to Monday this week.  

I like potatoes fried with onion.  Really like them.  Well yesterday I figured out how to do them very low calorie and so simple.  I sliced the onions thin and the potatoes thin as well.  Put a pile of them (enough for several meals) on a baking sheet, a little salt and pepper, some Pam spray, in they went at 400 for one hour.  They browned and they were delicious as a side dish.  I mean really delicious.  I don't think I'd ever fry them again.  No mess, no splattering oil, no fattening oil, just healthy good potatoes and onions.  Oh, and when I bake things like that I always use that non-stick foil.  I love that stuff, no pan to clean even!

Have a perfectly lovely Monday y'all.  I know I will!

Rain rain go away...

And come back another day.  Gosh it rained and rained and rained!  By the time it quit it was pretty late to swim and not too warm anyway so I didn't go.

I did, however, clean out a really pesky drawer that needed done in a big way and also did a bunch of stuff around the condo including cooking and sorting and laundry.  Big day, huh?  But I suppose days like this make other days seem exciting.

Tomorrow I am getting my eyes checked finally.  It's been a while since I've gone and I know I shouldn't put off things like this.  And don't forget, for some reason my eyes turned blue recently.  They used to be hazel.  I wonder what he'll say about that?  

I don't watch much national news these days because of all the political krap but I did watch some yesterday.  So many people around the world hating Americans.  And yet they take our money.  Why do we continue to send it?  I have no idea.  They are burning our flag and Israel's flag and stepping on them.  Truly awful people out there.  Hateful and horrible.  I was so sorry I watched it too because it did me no good and only upset me.  Back to the local stuff for me again.

So here is hoping my Sunday will be sunny and bright and yours too!

The Autumnal Equinox - today!

Today is the Autumnal Equinox.  Latin meaning "equal night", the same amount of day and night, light and dark.  The sun rises due east and sets due west on this day.  Also it's the first day of fall.  The favorite season of so many.  When we lived in Podunk it was certainly mine but in South Florida, well, not nearly as much.  

Well I did get to have lunch with the duck yesterday.  He's doing good, just busy busy busy.  There is a golf tournament coming up to benefit the Fern House and that has him hopping along with all the other stuff in his daily day but he loves it and busy is much better than not busy!

So this is a photo of the new pillow I ordered.  It has a memory foam center and some kind of other thing on the outside to keep you cool, I forget what it's called.  Anyway it came yesterday and I used it.  For about an hour.  Then I got up and got my old one out.  The reason is the smell.  I know memory foam has an odor for a few days after you open it and then it goes away.  For the hour or so that I actually laid on it I found it very comfortable.  It'll be another few days before I get to try it for the whole night though.

Gosh is this my third post on a pillow?  Is my life that dull?  Well no, actually I love my life, I just don't have much to talk about.  I guess I should take another fish oil pill and let my brain go!

The pool was especially nice yesterday.  Not windy, warm, not too sunny, and very warm water.  And no one around.  What more could you want?  I know when the snow birds come back times like that will be few and far between but for now I am just enjoying the peace and quiet of the still almost empty building.

Have a perfectly lovely Saturday y'all.  I know I will...

Friday is my day off!

Hopefully it won't rain all day, the weather says 60% chance of rain so I plan on going swimming for the other 40%!  Plus I have to go to Publix for a few things and maybe the fruit stand.  I'll also see if the duck can get away for a short time for lunch.  That would be lovely.  He's been so busy lately.

Yesterday I won at canasta again.  Only two bucks but a win is still a win.

I got switched over to new blogger yesterday.  I don't like it yet but I'll try to keep an open mind and see if I can learn to use it.  Normally I don't mind change but it wasn't broken and oh well, onward and upward we go.  It happened a few times before but I was always able to change it back, well, not this time it seems.  The main thing I don't like is to see the whole line in the post as I write it I have to zoon out so far I can no longer read it so it's either keep going left and right on the line or get close to the screen.  Either way it's not working for me.

My new pillow arrived yesterday.  It's tempur-pedic on the inside and some sort of "cool" foam on the outside.  Don't know if I'll like it yet but I'll try it.  My old one was getting pretty sad.  I use a pillow with the contour for the neck, regular ones give me a stiff neck.  I always have trouble on a cruise with that.  I am wondering if I could somehow cut my old one to make it smaller and get it in my suitcase.  I'm going to try that too.

Gosh this is a boring post, sorry.  I'll go now and hope something more interesting happens, if so I'll let you know!  Have a great Friday.  Me too...

Weary of politics...

Very weary indeed.  Every day when I open my mailbox there is mail asking for money for this candidate or that one and the phone calls are driving me insane.  Everyone has already made up their mind and no one is going to change their mind so why are we going through all of this nonsense?  

You know I love my MahJong gals.  A lot.  They are very liberal.  I am not.  They don't understand me and for the love of life I sure don't understand them but no one is going to change their minds.  Or mine.  We are just wasting time, money, and our nerves.  Just get it over with already and let the best man win.

I had no intention of getting in the pool yesterday but I did anyway, I didn't jog though because I am very careful of my hip right now.  I did, however, walk in the water for 30 minutes.  So far so good.  And it felt wonderful.  There was no one around and it was just warm and lovely, exactly what I needed.

Today is lunch and canasta at the club.  This week I have been on a big winning streak.  Too bad there was no poker, right?  Can I keep it up?

I was tickled to death that little Ian won Big Brother, I do think Dan played an amazing game but I think Ian did better.  And so it's on to Survivor!

So that's it from paradise today y'all.  Have a wonderful Thursday.  I know I will.

MahJong today!

Well you know how much I love my MahJong gals so Wednesdays are good days for me.  And Big Brother ends tonight and Survivor starts.  So much to do and so little time!  Ha ha...

Yesterday I didn't get in the pool after canasta even though it was beautiful outside.  My hip was hurting and I didn't want to take a chance of injuring it again so I just walked for exercise.  It feels like just a tinge of bursitis and I sure as all get out don't want that mess again!

If it isn't completely better I am going to rest it until Friday and then go easy on it in the pool, at least that's my plan.  I know things change so we'll see.  Who knows, maybe it'll be completely well!  That would be lovely.

There was no poker last night because so many of the players are out of town for the holiday so I stayed in and watched White Collar and Covert Affairs.  Boy are they good.  I love that kink of show.  I used to LOVE Alias, anyone remember that show?  It was my very favorite of all time.

Enough tv talk, let's talk about something nice.  Are you doing something nice for someone else yet this week?  It's even better if they don't know you did it.  Seriously that's a thrill for me.  Try it, it's like a game but only good comes from it.  

I heard Palm Beach County is trying to get slots again.  I seriously doubt it'll happen.  They have been talking about it for years.  There is some Florida law that only lets them in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, I don't know what it is but I heard that on the news.  Palm Beach Kennel Club (where Sarge played poker) would be where they would go.  We'll see.  I really don't care one way or the other because I don't play them.  Well maybe twenty bucks on a cruise but usually not.

I guess that's all I know for today.  Hope your Wednesday is as good as mine!  If so it'll be tits!  

Bee bandwagon turkey cabbage rolls...

One pound of turkey, the really lean kind...

Toss it with some tomato sauce, an egg and some uncooked rice.

Whatever seasoning you like, I only used a tiny bit of salt and

some cracked black pepper.  I like it simple.
Give it all a mix.

Wrap some cabbage leaves around it, about 1/4 cup of meat in each one.

Pour some tomato sauce over it, chunky kind if you want.

Hey, there was enough left for a few stuffed peppers too!  Love those!

And since I have to fire up that oven I might as well add some roasted

veggies, enough for a few meals for me.

No oil, just some spray and a touch of salt and pepper.

Put it all in the oven at 400 for an hour and a quarter.

You don't even need to open the oven, it'll be fine in there.

And dinner is served.  This entire plate of food is only 378 calories!

Now I know it's all kind of the same color but I don't mind.

You can easily add some green color on your plate if you want.

I have lots of left overs too, I'll freeze individual meals.

Monday is the start of a new week...

Well it was supposed to rain again yesterday but it didn't so I got to swim.  Today is Monday again, the start of a brand spanking new week.  Let's all make it special somehow.  Do something nice for someone okay?

So yesterday I was coming home from the Walmart and this little bugger Mini Cooper was putting along in front of me so I passed it and cut back in and came home.  I noticed it was behind me coming in the gate.  Then when I dropped off my packages with the doorman I noticed it was behind me again.  

Oh krap, she lives in my building.  I have never seen her before but oh well, maybe she doesn't know it was me that swerved around her slow a$$.  So I park and get my cart of groceries and come up in the elevator.  I dump them in the kitchen and go back to the elevator to try to send it back down before it leaves my floor so I don't have to wait.  

Bazinga, it comes and off she gets with her cart of groceries.  She is my new neighbor.

So I act all "so happy to have you on this floor, welcome to the building" and hope to hell she doesn't recognize me.  She doesn't seem to so I am off the hook.  Anyway she is very nice and I like her already.  Bad me.  Bad bad.

And-------- speaking of bad, I bought a new pillow online.  And--------- a pair of jeans.  I know!  Bad girl.  Total fail on my part.  But if you are keeping track (and you probably are) all I have admittedly bought this month is an iPhone5, a tempu-pedic pillow and a pair of jeans.  For me this is really really good.  But not good enough, I know.  Oh well, krap on a stick, I bought more than that.  Two dresses, six tops, two pairs of pants plus what I already admitted.  Buggers to me.  Hello my name is empress bee and I am a shopaholic.  Stop me please!

But hey, I didn't buy any more shoes, right?  Have a great Monday, I'll be the one watching for the UPS man...

News in my world...

Autumn is showing up on blogs all across the blogesphere so I thought I'd post this shot that I took a few years ago in Podunk.  I have lots of them but this one is early fall.  The only thing changing colors in my world are my fingernails and toenails (aqua this week, pink last week) and the snow birds license plates as they head into paradise.   

I don't really know why they come this early because autumn really is lovely where they live, I'd wait until the leaves fell and then come south if it were me.  (Right Sandy?)  Anyway they are starting to arrive and it's a great big hello at the club for each returning gal.  Some I am very glad to see, others, well not so much.

So yesterday I had no card game so I was able to get my hair done.  It was decided that getting my hair done was not "shopping", it was "maintenance".  So if you are keeping score I have only slipped up once so far.  And again, since my purchase won't arrive until October, well, I think I might still be good!

My weight is starting to drop again.  I still might make my goal of 70 pounds by October 1st.  It's two weeks away so maybe,  just maybe.  If not, well I gave it one heck of a shot.  I feel marvelous!  I have energy!  I love life!  The ups and downs of it just make it more interesting.

Speaking of that, a great big "thank you God!" for someone near and dear to me who rolled his car off an embankment when a deer ran out in front of him and he walked away from it.  You never know when the unexpected will happen, be ready. 

It was rainy and nasty all day yesterday so I didn't get to swim at all.  I always feel better when I do.  Maybe today the clouds will go somewhere else!  Have a great Sunday.  Me too...

self imposed shopping ban... epic fail!

I broke down and pre ordered it today, in white of course.  I watched the video and fell in love.  And that's all I am buying until October 1st!  I think.  And it won't be here for several weeks so it's really like I bought it next month anyway, right?  

And then I called Apple headquarters to tell them that Siri is using bad grammer.  She says "what can I help you with?".  Seriously Siri?  I couldn't help myself.  Siri please say "how may I help you?" instead.  They told me in a future upgrade they will consider this.  I hope they do because every single time she says this to me I will correct her and we will probably argue about it.

So yesterday the duck met me at the car dealership where I dropped off the car and we went to breakfast.  He took me back and I waited in the lounge until it was ready.  By myself.  As it turns out I knew the service tech "Shorty" from many trips with Sarge at another dealership and he took very good care of the car, rotated the tires, changed the oil, filled all the fluids, checked the brakes, washed the car and gave it back to me.  He said for me to get that done every six months and it is all free.  Sarge did have that option on the car.  It now has 6100 miles on it and it's 2 years old.  Part of that mileage was a trip we made too.  I think I drive about 100 miles a month.  Shorty said it didn't matter, in the heat the oil should be changed at 6 months.  Okay then, I can do it!  By myself!  Yee haw!

So I came home and got in the pool.  It was very windy but I still had a great workout.  I also lost a bit more weight which made me very happy.  So what did I have in a restaurant for breakfast you ask?  Well I know you bee bandwagoners want to know, the rest of you just go to the next paragraph, ok?  I had the cook make an egg beater omelet with cooking spray instead of butter, inside fresh mushrooms and green peppers (no cheese)  and whole wheat toast, dry.  Fruit on the side and coffee with milk (not cream).  Absolutely delicious, I promise you.  And I gave my fruit to the duck.

Here is my tip of the day.  Who knew?  Blenders fit into mason jars!  Have a look here.  

So that's it from paradise for today.  Hope your Saturday is wonderful.  I know mine will be.

Friday is my day off!

Well I'm off today as you know.  No, not that kind of off either.  I mean really, just because I sing Jingle Bells in the pool you think I'm off?  

I stopped losing weight again.  Buggers on plateaus.  They are no fun.  I shall keep going and it will come off again soon.  October 1st will be one year.  I wanted to lose 75 pounds but that's not going to happen and then 70 and now that looks doubtful too.  Well that is if I eat anything else in the next two weeks.  Now I'm shooting for 67-68.  It does get slower after a while.  I see all my bee bandwagoners losing so good and I am just staying the same.  I want to be a good role model.  Must. Eat. Less.

I got a letter in the mail yesterday giving me a free oil change.  I have never gotten an oil change before in my entire life.  Hells bells I have never even pumped my own gas.  Should I try to do it?  Do you think I can?  

I called them and asked if I needed an appointment and they said no, just to come in and they'll do it.  It's a Lincoln Dealership.  They probably think if they get me in there and I have to sit around and wait that maybe I'll buy a new car.  Nope, not gonna' happen.  They don't know about my shopping ban do they! Ha ha ha.  Now if I can't buy an iPhone5 I sure as heck am not going to buy a stupid car.  I don't even care if I have a car.  

I finally got my home telephone in my name yesterday.  I have been trying and they kept telling me I had to shut it off and open a new account in my name which I would do until they tell me I have to get a new phone number.  I don't want a new phone number.  Finally I managed to get it done and a better price at the same time.  It pays to be persistant.  

Next I'll have to change FPL.  There are no electric discounts so that one won't be any fun.  I love getting discounts.  Or maybe I'll just let that slide for a bit longer.

So go out there and have yourselves a perfectly lovely Friday.  I intend to do the same...