Monday 1/7/13

We had a busy day at the ReStore.  I began the day by labeling the bookshelves so hopefully people will sort the books as they come in.  We had quite a bit of merchandise come in to the store today.  As it comes in we clean it and get it out on the floor.  We also test it if it is an appliance.  We got a cute little roll-top desk in this morning and it was sold by 10:30!  It went for only $35 which is a real steal.  The prices are awesome.  We sold a home gym (like the ones you see advertised on TV) for $75 and a cherry dining room table with two leaves and six chairs for $125!  One man came up to me and said he was looking forward to sleeping in his own bed tonight.  I asked him if he had been traveling and the said he was a guest at the Sheriff's hotel.  It didn't dawn on me until later that he meant he just got out of jail!  (Boy, I can be really clueless sometimes!)  We stayed busy all morning and then went home for lunch.  The property manager came by to tell us that the home owners have a service contract on the oven and that the repairman would be out tomorrow afternoon.  I sat by the pool for awhile until the clouds came in.  We decided to go out to dinner tonight so we drove down to the beach.  We found a place called Seabreeze - the food was good.  Dave and I had hogfish, which doesn't sound appealing, but was quite delicious.  The waiter was very friendly and we sat next to two chatty women.  One of the ladies had her dog tied outside of the restaurant and we could see her through the full-length windows.  She fed the dog some french fries so Dave gave the dog a piece of his fish because he thought it might like some protein.  It is raining lightly now, but we hear that it will get up into the 80's tomorrow (if we can believe the weatherman!).

Sunday 1/6/13

We decided to have a lazy day today.  We did some laundry, vacuuming and grocery shopping and then whiled away the time, for me, out by the pool and for Dave, shaping a new wooden spoon.  We have a call in to the real estate agent as our oven does not seem to be working.  He is supposed to come over this afternoon to see if he can fix it.  I had baked chicken last night, but when it was supposed to be done, it was still raw - yuck!  We dined on stuffing and vegetables!  It was quite foggy this morning, but the sun came out after a while and it got up to 80 degrees for a while.  The clouds are coming in now and we are supposed to get heavy rain tonight.  Tuesday and Wednesday are supposed to be great days so maybe we will get to the beach.

Saturday 1/5/13

We woke up to overcast skies today, but it was warm.  We went to the nearby Wagon Wheel/Mustang Flea Markets.  They sold everything there - from junk to some pretty nice merchandise.  Dave bought a pair of flip-flop sandals as his last ones bit the dust last year.  There was some great looking produce for sale so we will keep that in mind for next weekend when our supply is low.  We came home and after lunch drove down to St. Petersburg to visit the Haslam's Book Store.  They have over 300,000 books for sale - new and used, but their prices were a bit out of whack - $1 for a used paperback?  I did find some nice birthday cards.  We then went down the street to visit the Florida Craftsmen Gallery.  They had some lovely things for sale, but the prices were astronomical!  The atmosphere was a bit hoity-toity also, so we just looked.  We stopped for gas - $3.07!  That is the cheapest we have seen.  It seems to range up to $3.34, but even that is cheaper than it is in Connecticut.  We had a few peaks of sun, but it is clouding up again - supposed to rain tomorrow.  I'm not sure what we will do tomorrow in the rain, but we will think of something.  We may postpone going to the aquarium or museums though as tomorrow is the last day of school vacation for the kids here so most places will be busy.

Friday 1/4/13

We went to work today for the first time.  I spent a little while cleaning appliances so they could go out on the floor.  Afterward, the manager asked me if I would straighten out the book section - a busman's holiday.  What a mess!  It took the rest of the morning to make some kind of sense of the mess, but I did manage to finish just before our quitting time at 12:30.  Monday I will label the shelves so that customers can figure out what they are looking at.  Dave loaded several trucks of furniture, kitchen cabinets, floor tile for customers.  This is a very busy ReStore - they had a lot of customers throughout the morning.  We came home and had lunch and then had a quiet time reading.  I promptly fell asleep and had a lovely nap.  The weather was rainy this morning, but it has cleared up now - cloudy, but no rain.  We plan on a low key afternoon and then dinner.  We will have to make a plan for tomorrow as it will be cloudy again with rain predicted for Sunday.  I'm sure we can find some inside things to do.  

Thursday 1/3/13

We drove to the Habitat ReStore this morning to see where we will be volunteering.  It is only about 15 minutes away from the condo (at least at 9 AM - it may take longer to get there for an 8:30 arrival with commuter traffic).  The manager, Doug, and assistant manager, Glenn, were very nice.  They sell much of the same items that we have at the local ReStore - furniture, fixtures, doors, windows, appliances, knick-knacks, etc.  We will begin tomorrow and work half days 8:30-12:30 M-F.  Doug is not sure what we will be doing yet, but I'm sure he has some projects in mind.  We came home and had lunch and then did a bit of laundry.  The weather was rather misty this afternoon so we decided to go to the movies to see the new Jack Reacher film.  Tom Cruise, who isn't my favorite actor, did an excellent job portraying Jack if you can forget that in the books he is 6'4"!  Dave and I both enjoyed it.  We didn't get home until 6:30 so had a quick dinner of eggs (breakfast for dinner as the kids use to say).  We will probably watch a bit of TV and then hit the sack.  I will upload the photos that should have gone onto yesterday's blog.

Wednesday 1/2/13

We ate dinner last night at a family restaurant around the corner – it was quite tasty.  We came back and watched a bit of TV before going to bed.  We slept through until 5:30, which is quite good for us.  We had breakfast of banana bread which we had brought from home and then showered and went to meet Kelly, Lana, and John at the Tampa Zoo.  We had a wonderful morning walking around and watching the animals.  When we first arrived, a zookeeper showed us a three-banded armadillo – he was very cute (see photo).  Dave fed the lorikeets and a giraffe – he loves to feed the animals (see photos).  We drove across town to have lunch at Bahama Breeze.  We were able to find a table outside on the patio and the food was delicious.  Dave had a Cuban sandwich and I had fish tacos – yummy!  When we left Kelly, Lana and John we drove back to our neighborhood and went grocery shopping.  Now we have enough food in the house so we don’t have to eat out unless we choose to.  We will have dinner soon and then probably settle in for the night as it is supposed to rain tonight.  We didn’t take a walk today, but I figure we walked quite a way at the zoo.  I just noticed I am low on power so will have to import the pix tomorrow.   

New Year's Day Tuesday 1/1/13

Happy 2013!  We slept like rocks last night and woke up refreshed and ready to go.  We had breakfast in the motel and got on the road at 7:15.  The temperature was a balmy 50 degrees!  We drove on through without stopping for lunch as we had crackers and water in the car and made it to the condo at 2:45 PM.  We had clear sailing on the roads except for a slowdown on Route 301 due to a traffic accident.  It is 78 degrees here and sunny!  We drove 480 miles today so after unloading the car, we went for a long walk around the area.  It felt good to stretch our legs.  We found a grocery store just around the corner so later we will make a grocery list and get enough food to last until the end of the week.  The condo is great!  It has a bedroom, a bathroom, a small kitchen, a small lanai and a large living room/dining area.  The living room has a sleeper couch.  There is a flat screen TV in the living room and another in the bedroom.  There is a tennis court and two pools on the property.  We are at the clubhouse now using the free wi-fi.  We called Kelly Flynn when we got here and we are going to the zoo tomorrow with her, Lana and John.  Lana and John will be flying back home on Thursday so we are excited to see them while we are down here.  Well, we are both getting hungry so I guess we will walk down the street to get something to eat.  We noticed a pizza place and a family restaurant on our walk today so we will flip a coin to see which one we will patronize.