Dinner with Friends, Christmas and Happy New Year

We got a call earlier this month from our friends Barb and Bill inviting us for dinner. Barb owns the house across the street from us which she and her first husband lived in. Barb and Bill live in his condo in Vero on the beach. They occasionally come up to Barb's house to have some work done or just to check on it and stay for a day or two.

We went down to their condo on the 20th. Their condo looks directly out onto the Atlantic Ocean and we sat out on the balcony and had drinks before dinner. Barb had fixed a spiral-sliced ham with a glaze, tossed salad, asparagus and baked sweet potatoes for dinner. Everything was excellent - the food and especially the company. We always have a good time when we get together with Barb and Bill. Bill is a very young almost-90 year old and Barb is a little younger.

Mike and I decided to have our eyes examined again and chose to go to the Center for Advanced Eye Care in Vero. Our appointments were on the 23rd and Dr. Mallon performed the examinations There was only a slight

Visit with Fletcher & Breakfast at The Original Pancake House

Boy, has the year gone by fast! I can hardly believe it is time to work on our Christmas cards and newsletter.

We had Tinker groomed on the 5th in preparation for our trip down to Ft. Lauderdale to see Fletcher on the 6th. We had an early lunch last Saturday and then drove down to see Fletcher. We got to Fletcher's a few minutes before he got home from work and grocery shopping. Doug was off on a trip and we didn't get to visit with him. Fletcher grilled steaks, summer squash, zucchini and eggplant for dinner and fixed his pesto sauce for the steaks. This was the first time Mike and I had grilled eggplant (neither one of us really likes eggplant) and we were surprised at how good it was. Everything Fletcher fixed for dinner was very good. He has developed into

New Storage Shed, Thanksgiving and Ancestry DNA kits

Earlier this month we bought a large storage shed and had it delivered. The building inspector came by on the 17th and approved the shed's installation.

On the 18th I attended the genealogical society's meeting and the guest speaker talked about locating military records for our ancestors. It was very interesting and I learned some things I didn't know about military records. After the meeting was over, Carol, Mary and I went to Toojay's Gourmet Deli in Vero for lunch. It was my first time eating there and everything looked good. You have to walk by the dessert counter first and it was very tempting.

Since then Mike and I made a ramp for it from plywood that we bought at Home Depot. Mike had one sheet of plywood cut in half on the diagonal at Home Depot and then we cut the halves down to the size we needed for the sides of the ramp.

Mike had bought resurface paint and painted the plywood floor in the shed and the ramp. The paint also gives the wood a rough texture.

From Our New Shed

The ground in front of the shed is uneven and Mike decided to use crushed

Our New Storage Shed and its Installation

We have decided to do something about our garage - it's FULL. We have a 2-car garage and we can just get our car in it and if we move anything around, we have to back the car out of garage so the passenger can get in. We have a riding lawn mower, lawn tools, household generator, a RV spare tire, various things we used when we were RVing, a large tool cabinet and the other usual garage stuff.

Mike has been looking at storage sheds on the internet and we've visited a few of the local retailers to see what they have and their prices. On Monday the 3rd we drove up to Shed Movers in Titusville to see what they had and we found a 12 X 24 foot shed that someone had just traded in for a larger one. It had 3 windows, a side door, a 8' roll-up door, had a breaker box installed and 2 large shop lights. The price was a little more than what we had budgeted for and larger than what we had in mind which was a 10 X 20 foot shed, but we couldn't buy a new one any where near that price with all of the windows and extras.

Before we could have the storage shed delivered, there were a few things we had to get done. One was decided exactly where to have it placed and once we decided that, we needed to have

Halloween

On the 14th I attended the genealogical society's monthly meeting and the topic was finding historical newspapers online. I always learn something at these meetings and I got some pointers on locating historical newspapers for my research. Mary and Carol both had things to do right after the meeting was over and couldn't go out to lunch. So I went to Applebee's for lunch and had their Classic Combo - a half a turkey sandwich on a ciabatta bun and broccoli cheddar soup. After lunch I went to Sam's Club to shop and stopped at Publix for some groceries before going home.

Mike bought some mold and mildew cleaner at Home Depot last week and he is getting ready to clean the exterior of the house in preparation for painting it. We've been waiting for cooler weather before we start our painting.

We had 25 Trick or Treaters tonight for Halloween which is about the same number we had last year. It got off to a late start and for a while we didn't think we were going to have any. We had all ages of Trick or Treaters and our last group were 6 teenagers who even put on a little song and dance show for us - which Mike and I totally enjoyed!

Our motorhome is sold

On the 4th Mike and I drove down to Port St. Lucie to the Home Show held at the Port St. Lucie Civic Center. I had printed a coupon good for 2 tickets for the price of one and we used it and paid $5 to get into the show. We had gone to last year's show and it seemed like the same vendors were here again.

While we were at the Home Show we got a call from the sales manager at PPL Motorhomes and we had an offer on our RV! We accepted the offer as it was pretty close to our price and the closing was Monday the 6th. After we got the call from PPL's sales manager on the 6th that it was a done deal, we called our insurance company and canceled the insurance on it and then canceled the subscription for the Sirius radio in the RV. We got our check from PPL at the end of this week (minus their 10% commission).

We knew that the majority of the buyers were looking for shorter RVs and ours was 39' long. Also our RV is a 2005 model and we found out from PPL that banks and loan companies aren't financing RVs that are over 10 years old and ours is close to that now. So it took longer to find the right buyer for our motorhome.

After we left the Home Show at the Port St. Lucie Civic Center, we stopped at Pueblo Viejo Mexican restaurant in Ft. Pierce for lunch and to celebrate selling our motorhome. Mike ordered the Azteca Burrito and I had the Fajita Quesadilla with chicken. Everything was very good and seasoned just right.

Mike joined the local MOAA & I joined Genealogical Society

We drove over to Kissimmee on the 3rd to visit with Cyril and Elaine for a few hours. The last time we saw them was July 22 when my cousin Frances was down from Illinois. We stopped at Tractor Supply in St. Cloud on our way to buy a couple of bags of corn that we feed to the squirrels at our house. We usually stop at the Dairy Queen in Sebastian to get a couple of Blizzards, but this time we decided to stop at the 5 Guys Burgers in West Melbourne for dinner.

I joined the Indian River Genealogical Society this month at their meeting on the 9th. The society doesn't meet during the summer months because so many of the members are from the north and are only here during the winter season. After the meeting was over, Mary and I went out for lunch. Carol was at the meeting, but she couldn't join us for lunch. Mary suggested eating at Ay Jalisco Mexican restaurant near the library. I ordered a burrito plate and thought the portions would be smaller since it was off the lunch menu, but I was wrong - I should have just ordered a burrito by itself.

When we visited with Chris and Carole last March we went with them to a dinner held by their local MOAA Chapter and really enjoyed it. We checked