It's finally spring!!!

I missed getting a photo of the azaleas, we have one small bush in the back yard, but I did grab some others. Our rose bushes had nothing but buds on them Friday, amazing! (Remember, click any photo to see a larger image.)

And remember where the #2Doods loved to play and rest last fall? Yup, still a favorite spot. No flowers there this year!

Ciao for now!

Sifting the Sunlight

I love our front porch but as spring moves into summer, the afternoon sun gets too intense to enjoy it. Plus the sun coming in the front door and side window panels heats up the main living area inside, forcing the A/C to run more than we'd like.

We've put window film, blinds and curtains in both the front bedroom/office windows to minimize the heat there and we keep them closed all day long. That helps. But the front porch continued to be an issue. We talked about some bamboo drop-down blinds and that got me looking at Amazon to see what was available. Bamboo, reeds, vinyl, PVC woodgrain and other synthetics - surprisingly there were a lot of options for outdoor roll-up shades.

We finally made the decision and ordered two. They arrived on Saturday and Stu immediately went to work mounting them. We didn't see them working until today because it was cloudy yesterday. Today we got a better view of how they were going to work.

We picked the Coolaroo Outdoor Cordless Roller Shade for several reasons, one of which was our familiarity with the fabric. Coolaroo is the maker of the dog hammock we have for the #2Doods. it wears well, is washable (thus no issues with rain outside) and good reputation.

Installation day, overcast...

Today with the afternoon sun shining brightly...

I love them! No cords, an easy to use removable wand that we store inside when not in use. Weather resistant, filter the light well, color co-ordinates with our house, is hidden from view when not in use and a durable material. It's now after 5pm and the heat is usually blasting in the front...not today!!

Ciao for now!

Spring, time for new STUFF!

When we bought this house, we knew we'd be replacing our refrigerator sooner or later. Not that there was anything wrong with it - well, other than the grunts and groans it made and the fact that it was a side-by-side, which we both disliked.

In February, Lowe's had big appliance sales and we started looking at Samsung French door models, similar to what we put in the RV. We both liked the big drawer freezer and double door at the top. Well, since all our appliances in the kitchen are white, they had to special order what we wanted. Because the price difference was minimal and, hopefully, this will be the last refrigerator we have to buy, we put in the order on Feb 27th and was told it would arrive on Mar 26th.

March came and went and it was delayed until April 6th. Then to April 26th. Finally we were told it had shipped and would be in on May 4th. Imagine our surprise when we got the call that it was in and they would deliver it on Sunday, Apr 30th!

We put everything from the freezer into coolers and the fridge stuff into the RV fridge (not turned on). They arrived about 30 minutes after they called, came in and inspected the area and took measurements. Then they pulled out our old one and put it in the garage for us, brought in the new one (just barely fit through the front door), set it up and gave us the tour of features.

I am ecstatic!! Not only do we have more usable space than with the side-by-side, but this is a larger capacity fridge than the old one. Here is a photo of the old fridge and the new one.

OLD:

NEW:

Lots of room in the freezer and I love that we can keep the oldest meats in the slide tray as well as smaller items that tend to get lost.

The middle drawer is for canned drinks, cheeses, deli meats, etc and has four temperature settings.

We sold the old one locally, it went to its new home yesterday! Now if we could just get rid of Stu's old metal desk...LOL!

Hooray, horray! It's the first of May! The weather is finally nice, up to 80 today (the AC kicked in, had to close the windows). The #2Doods are loving it!

Ciao for now!

New toys & a little Doodling Fun

We have written in the past about our SimpliSafe security system. It is still working well for us but we do have great WiFi in the house and good Verizon access in our area. Others haven't been as lucky.

One of our friends from Ecuador, who have also moved back to the states, posted a link to WyzeCam, a company offering stand-alone motion sensor cameras. We read about them, researched their history and since they were offering the cameras at 50% off, we ordered three. We planned on one for the front porch, one for the garage and one for the shed.

Easy to set up, great picture quality, night vision, motion sensing and so much more! We have the app on both our phones and both our iPads as well as our laptops.

Click image for original article.
[Another good review to read]

We were out and about the other day and because the porch one was still in the foyer, pointing at the dog crate (we planned to put the front porch camera inside a decorative bird house), we got to checking on the dogs.

We liked the capability so much for when we are out, we ordered a fourth one for the front porch and got it set up today. (Note: we ordered a 32GB Class 10 micro-SD card for each camera giving us additional video storage) We had fun grabbing some snapshots as we watched videos.

RELATED POSTS:

• A little more of this and that.... (see Cooper set off the SimpliSafe alarm)
• Keys...Precautions...
• What's up with us? (part two)

Now for a few fun pics of the #2doods! We had a couple inches of snow (and bitter cold) last week. They loved it, no matter how cold it was outside. Both ended up with snow faces and enjoyed licking them off each other. LOL!

Do we HAVE to come in?

Frozen ball they brought inside!

Relaxed at play

Yes, Cooper still assumes his inkblot/pretzel mode!

Have I grown much? L: 4 months R: 9 months

One parting thought....I read today that Golden Retrievers continue to grow until 14-18 months and Standard Poodles up to 2 years! Yikes!!

Ciao for now!

A little more of this and that....

January rolled in with a lot of COLD temperatures, we even put a space heater in the RV to keep the washing machine from freezing (heat strip in A/C unit was running 24/7). The house is staying good but we did have to turn on the auxiliary heating since we have a heat pump. It was finally warmer today but we have freezing rain forecast for tonight. The good news is temps in the upper 40's-low 50's this week. Yay!

Murphy is still growing by leaps and bounds, weighing almost as much as Cooper and getting almost as tall. Turning six months old meant.....NEUTER TIME. He did just fine but wasn't a fan of the inflatable collar of shame.

It lasted less than 24 hours before his accomplice, Cooper, chewed off the velcro fastener. Fortunately, Murphy left things pretty much alone same as Cooper had several months ago. Cooper was on a roll, though, we crated him when we took Cooper to the vet and then later, picked him up. We stopped at Subway for sandwiches and while I was inside (Stu was outside in the car, keeping it warm for sleepy Murphy) Stu got a phone call from SimpliSafe, our security alarm folks. Seems like our motion sensor went off....oh, and if you have your volume on, you can hear the beeping (that was the alarm) and Cooper banging the bells hanging on the back door, asking out. LOL!

Yup, in my haste, I forgot to clip the bolt snap hook on so he couldn't manipulate the slide locks on the crate. When we got home, he was out and waiting for us. The top slide lock on the crate was still closed, the bottom one was unlatched and the bottom edge of the crate was bent inward. I still can't believe he slipped through that narrow space! Needless to say...we now remember to clip the bolt snap on every time we crate them (or one of them).

With the cold weather, Stu has been trapped indoors a lot, too cold to work in the garage or shed. So the pups have enjoyed getting some extra loving....whether being petted or brushed. Here are a couple of examples.

Of course the #2doods don't mind the cold temps, we have to watch how long they are outside and call them back in. They play and play and play...then they sleep, sleep and sleep. Oh, and you can also see the new pillows that I got in an after Christmas sale to add a little more color to the living room. It looked so drab when the few decorations (including holiday pillows) were put away.

By the way, Cooper still has bear paws! Compare the size of his paw with his nose!!

I won't be blogging much for the next month. We are cruising later this month, doing a two week back-to-back and we are driving both directions, to and from Tampa. AND, I have to have Paradise Drift written, edited and off to typo hunters and beta readers before then. Eeek!

Oh, and just an FYI. My short story, Lost and Found, will be free on Jan 12-15. It's the prequel to my only romance novel, Home Again, which will be discount priced at $1.99 on the same dates. If you haven't read them, hope you will give them a try. If you have, I hope you will tell your friends!

Ciao for now!