Five Things Thursday

1. We do not have Amazon Prime. I don't see the point of spending $99 a year to get free delivery in 24 hours when I get free delivery in 5 days which is actually 2 days. That's fast enough.

But when all of my packages are delivered with this tape, it makes me think I do have Prime. Or maybe it's just advertising. I guess this could be a mystery. 

2. The weekend of the coronation is going to be a busy one. Starting with a Cinco de Mayo party here on Friday night. I'll have margaritas and a taco bar. I got all of the party goods from Amazon. Jordan, Robbie, Morgan, and Olly are going to be in town for a wedding. My sil Janet along with her daughter, Jackie, and family (Greg, Evie, and Josie) will also be here. Janet is staying with me, but the rest of her family are here for a soccer tournament and have hotel reservations with their friends and fellow teammates. Plus the rest of the "in-town" family will be here--17 in all. That's going to make for a fun party.

On Saturday, it's the coronation of King Charles. I cannot miss that!

So I found this free e-vite. I customized it, but as you can see, I couldn't quite get the spacing right and didn't know how to fix it. The party is starting at 5 a.m.!! Actually, I'm having a "cream" tea which is taking the place of breakfast for my guests. I know that's a little unconventional to have a tea party this early, but I have tea every morning anyway.  I've also invited Stephanie, Mindy and the boys too, but don't really expect them to come. I've ordered a coronation party pack from Amazon. Basically, after I clean up from Cinco de Mayo, I'll be setting up for the coronation.

I thought this was pretty clever, but not enough to buy it!!

3. While we're on the topic of the Brits, my friend, Paige in NYC sent me this picture.

After 35 years on Broadway, Phantom of the Opera has closed. Paige went down to the theater and saw Sarah Brightman (who originated the role of Christine). Andrew Lloyd Weber was also there, but she didn't see him. He wrote the music for Sarah--his wife at the time. I felt a little bit of sadness for the day, but was also so happy to have had a chance to see one final performance in January. I'm not worried. It was too popular. I'm predicting that in 5 years, they will start another production. For sure.

4. Now I'm just bragging here.

About a month ago, I shared how I'd learned to isolate an image from a photo.

It's nice to not have those background distractions. Then I did this:

I added a title in the white space. I'll be sharing the actual scrapbook layout on "Scrapbook Saturday."

5. Sandy and Greg came into town for a Comedy Show at the Ryman, hosted by Kid Rock. 

It was Sandy and I with all the boys as Stephanie and Mindy are still at the beach. We had a delicious dinner at Blue Sushi & Sake. We didn't love the show but were happy to hear that they raised $85,000. Kid Rock announced that the money was going to the families of the children killed at the Covenant school a couple weeks ago and the 9 airmen who died while training near Fort Campbell. We were happy that the money was going to a good cause. That took a little of the sting out of the show! 

But then, the evening ended on a sour note. Our car was "booted!" To make a long story short, it was a mistake as we have free VIP parking just about anywhere downtown--the perk of Butch having been in the parking business for nearly 40 years. Anyway, he called the number posted on the ticket, the attendant showed up and got it all straightened out. At least we hope so! I'll be going to the theater in a couple weeks. I don't need to have these problems with my friends! I'm too spoiled. For sure! 

Travel Tuesday

I'm going to be traveling, but not until Saturday when I'll be going to the beach with my friends for a week. We're all looking forward to it. The van has been rented. We've figured out all the meals and put together the grocery list. I'm bringing a couple games, poker money, and have made a list--with Connie's help (she's also handling the grocery list)--of shows to watch while we're down there. I'm trying to get myself acclimated to the sun so I don't burn. I'll be packing very light. We only plan to eat out once while we're there, so I don't need a lot of clothes. It's going to be all lounge-wear and swimsuits.

Stephanie and Mindy are down at our place this week. For my blog friend, Deb in England (you can check out her blog here), who asked about this snow white sand--it's called Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. It's on the panhandle along the emerald coast. When I go with my friends, we'll be about an hour and a half away at Mexico Beach. Same white sand. I'll send pictures. 

Anyway, Stephanie sent me this picture. She said it's beautiful--and best of all--

the beach is completely empty!

Mindy is all set with her cooler and chair.

Butch will be joining them on Thursday. He's going down for the annual homeowner's meeting. He's on the board and there's a lot going on right now. It's going to be interesting! 

Monday Mystery

You might remember this post from last year. It was a mystery---that now has been solved.

Here's the story:

All of a sudden, we see this again this year.

Some sort of droppings again! Exactly the same and in exactly the same location. 

It's too large to be mice. Like last year, I thought it could possibly be rats--which of course, really freaks me out. Then I thought maybe it's chipmunks. But why here in this exact same spot? 

Butch is much better than me at thinking outside the box. For some reason, he thought to look up. I never thought of that.

 

That's when it hit him--bats! We have bats in the belfry! Okay, we don't even have a belfry. I guess this is a vent since that's what it is. It's open to the outside. I had no idea about that. Butch said there's some sort of screen to keep anything from getting inside--except for bats!!

He went up to look in the attic. I couldn't do it--I was too afraid. Yep, bats. We have 4 attics in this house---all with vents. 

That lead to a contemplative conversation during happy hour on the front porch. How could so few bats cause so much poop. More importantly, since they hang upside down, how exactly does that work? (Sometimes our happy hour convos are a reach--after all, we're together 24/7!)

I called our exterminator who referred us to "Complete Animal Removal." Ours doesn't do bats.

They came out the very next day.

He checked all around the house and went into the attics. He told us that we have 4 bats and 6 vents. So far, the bats are only in this one vent. He also told us that he was at a house down the street last year that had hundreds of bats in their attic!! EEEK! That's probably why we got our bats for the first time--they came from that house! Luckily, ours are still outside. He told us that when the bats are expelled, they will come back somewhere else--like one of our other vents. So, we decided to have the newer screening put in all of the vents. It's an expensive proposition--nearly $2500--but I don't want to worry that the bats will just find another place to get in.

We also learned that we only have until May 1st to have the work done. Bats are protected in Tennessee. May through August--I think--is the breeding season.

I swear, it's always something. We've had a lot of animals around here in the 28 years since we moved in. A lot of the time, it's pretty exciting. We've had:

*deer

*turkeys--they were pretty cool, you could just about set your watch as to when they would come through morning and evening. They nested in the trees in our side yard--that's how we learned they can actually fly!

*groundhogs--who tore up the yard in a huge way.

*assorted small animals including chipmunks that dug up my planters on the porch.

*mice that have gotten in the house more than once.

*a cat that died under the house which we didn't even know about until a workman told us of the skeleton under there

*moles that we had to hire the "molinator" to remove

*skunks and opossums (they cohabitate) living under the house that the "Critter Ridder" took care of.

*squirrels who did damage by chewing some other kind of lead pipe vents on the house causing our roof to leak.

*assorted skinks or lizards.

*snakes

*birds, the woodpecker that pecked holes in our freshly painted columns, and who could forget the heron that ate our fish? 

*I loved the hawks we had last summer. I'm expecting them back because they tend to nest in the same area year after year. I'm thinking now that the only reason we saw them so much last summer is that the neighbor behind us took down all the trees in what was the wooded area behind us.

So there's a difference between the animals that are nuisances and the ones we love to observe. I love the wildlife around us. I just want them to behave!

Now that this mystery is solved, I wonder what will be next!

Something for Sunday

I can't remember whether I've mentioned that my friends and I have started playing Pickleball--at the mall! Yep, there's a court right outside of Dillards. Mitchell gave me a Pickleball set for Christmas, so we've been playing for a few months now--once or twice a week depending on schedules. 

We play Pickleball for 45 minutes to an hour--depending on if there are 2 or 3 of us. With just two, we're pretty pooped after 45 minutes. We usually play before the mall opens, so there are just walkers going by. I like to say that the most exercise we get is retrieving the ball. As you can imagine, with nothing to stop it, the ball just sails the length of the mall! Sometimes, someone will stop it for us.

Last week, Stephanie played with us for the first time. A little while in to it, she said, "Mom, people are taking pictures of us!" I think she was embarrassed. It took Connie a while to agree to play for that reason. Yes, we do see people we know, but I look at it this way: at least we're doing something! I'm laser focused and really don't notice the people around us. 

On Thursday, it was just Nancy and me. Our habit is that we play Pickleball, go to Panera for lunch, and then a movie to take advantage of our Unlimited Regal Pass. 

As we were playing, I noticed a woman about 50-ish watching and snapping pictures. I struck up a conversation with her. She said she wanted to send a picture to her friend who would love it. Then I asked her if she would like to play. She joined us for about 15 minutes or so. I got her to take a few pictures of us. I invited her to join us whenever she saw us playing. That's when she told us she was from Washington D.C. Apparently she and her friend play, but she had never seen a court in a mall. 

Yes, the ball rolls in to the shops around us. The merchants don't seem to mind when we have to run in and get it.

Sometimes the ball hits the escalator. Luckily it's always been the "down" one. If it lands on the "up" escalator, we'd have to ride up to get it. Hazards of playing in the mall!

The signs, planters, and trash cans are nice ball stoppers for us.

Luckily, there's no jumping the net! Our goal is to just not fall down!

It was bound to happen. I lost a ball. There was a store that closed. It had a locked metal fence with a curtain behind it. Well, the ball bounced through the fence and disappeared behind the curtain. I reached in with my paddle and pushed the curtain aside. The ball was against the wall about 10 ft. in. There was no way to get to it. Nancy suggested I pin a note to the curtain. What??

1. I didn't have a pin.

2. What was I going to say: "Uh that Pickleball belongs to me--would you mail it to me?" Or: 

3. "Would you deliver it to me the next time we are here?" 

When we got there on Thursday, it looked like this:

They put up particle board to advertise what's coming. I could hear work going on behind that wall. I tried knocking, but that didn't really work as the knocking didn't make much noise as the particle board was too soft. So, it's gone for good. Luckily, the balls are cheap and you get 4 with a set--for $12.00. I bought an extra set of blue balls because the yellow ones that came with my set seem to be difficult for me to see with my glasses. 

Here's what I've learned:

1. It's good exercise---I'm definitely sweaty when we finish.

2. I need to be very careful when I run after the ball. 

3. Our main goal is to just not fall down. 

4. We never plan to join a league or anything--heck, we don't even play games. We just volley it back and forth. Nancy and I are getting pretty good.

5. It feels good to be doing something athletic--as sports were so important to me when I was young. 

6. We might be old, but it does feel good to be able to say that we're 70-somethings playing Pickleball! I don't know anyone else doing it (okay, well one person, but she lives far away).

7. I want to keep moving for as long as I can.

8. It's good for our balance--seriously--it's one of the benefits and I need it!

9. Having a Cinnabon right next to the court just about kills me--the smell!!

10. And the best thing I've learned is--My friends are ALWAYS willing to do anything I come up with!! That's what I call loyalty!!

Scrapbook Saturday

I've decided that for today, I'd show you how I deal with scraps. There are always some little bits and pieces left after I do a layout. Right then, I take the time to cut them in to little strips, or use a square and round punch. I keep the punched bits in a little container:

As a result, I have all kinds of odds and ends. They come in handy for a quick and easy layout. Not much thinking involved.

The circles are so easy and make a cute layout. They are 2"and then you just fold up each side for this fun idea.It doesn't matter what the colors or designs are. Just make them and put them down.

I whipped this layout together this week with just using the punched, random squares from leftover bits. I simply laid them out to border the page. So easy. I used the Ali Edwards "delight" kit for the title and all three pockets. I hand-journaled and put the journaling in the pockets. Simple. 

I couldn't find the picture of the layout I did with the 1.5"x3" strips. Those I just fold in half and line them up down the side of the layout--about 3 rows. It's cute, easy and the random colors and patterns just work. 

Cutting or punching your leftover bits prepares you for some really quick and easy layouts that go with just about any pictures. There's not a lot of thinking involved. Just do it!

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

This tree at the corner of our street has looked terrible for several years now. I'm hoping it's dead now after our crazy freeze right before Christmas that decimated everyone's landscaping. Maybe they'll finally cut it down.

A friend posted this on Facebook as something for "throwback Thursday." This was during my volunteer days. She commented on how much she enjoyed working with me on this party. I told her that I remembered two things about this night. About an hour before the party, I discovered ants on my kitchen counter for the very first time. They seem to be regular visitors these days. The second thing I remembered was that Butch and I left for Singapore the very next morning. You can bet, I had the house clean and back in order before I left--even with a couple hundred people here the night before. Luckily, the party was mostly outside. I kinda' wish I had some pictures. This was the biggest party we ever had.