Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Yesterday, we went over to De Soto Park here in Florida. It is very nice park, but we could tell from the web site that some of the sites were small and tight. Since we are less than an hour away, we loaded up the furballs and headed over to see it first hand. Ended up we found a site that would accommodate us so we made our reservation for Jan 4 thru 8.

Tomorrow is travel day for us......yeah, gonna be on the road a whole 30 minutes....if that long. We are heading over to my Uncle's marina. We will be there for the New Year's festivities. I'm sure hoping the weather cooperates.....

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Yule Log

I sure hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did! There was about 22 of us over at my Aunt and Uncle's home for Christmas dinner. Bill and I provided scalloped potatoes, mac-n-cheese, cookies, and a yule log. I made two batches of the mac-n-cheese....one of which I added a little pepper jack to and it was a big hit. I guess you could say my family is a little on the 'hot-n-spicy' side..LOL!

After dinner the kids started opening their gifts. As adults, we don't as a general rule exchange gifts. So, imagine my surprise when I got not one but two presents. My Grandmother gave us one of those Febreze flame less candles. Those things are great, lots of fresh clean scent and it really fills the rv. It automatically shuts off after 4 hours and it looks really nice too! Thanks Grandma!

As many of you know, I painted my Aunt and Uncle's two German Shepperd's a couple of years ago. "Bear" has been gone for several years, but they just recently lost "Shadow".....just after Thanksgiving. So, sad. My second presents gift tag stated that it was to "Perfectlygoode" from Shadow and Bear from doggie heaven. Perfectlygoode was the name of my home dec and decorative painting business. I opened this little white box and what do you imagine I found........it was a beautiful gold and silver flamingo, accented with little diamonds. I just about fell off my chair.....and the emotions....well, I gave my Aunt and Uncle big hugs and thanks. They made me feel so very special. This has been such a grand December....our 30th wedding anniversary.....family and friends.....and so much love...it just doesn't get any better than this!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Here are some photos of our Anniversary Celebration. On the left is my Grandmother, then my Auntie and Uncle
Here is the rest of the crew, again from left to right, my Dad, Step Mom, Brother, Me, and Billy
And here is my Uncle again......"I'm ready for my close up, Mr DeMill!
We had a fabulous evening full of love and laughter! Our chef was great and entertaining....right down to the fake bottle of ketchup he pretended to dump into my lap. I almost had a heart attack!

From Celebrations to Toilet Repair......Yup! Bill and I had a day of toilet repair which is why the Anniversary post was a day late in getting up. We have both been noticing a little water on the floor around the toilet base. Not a lot and we are pretty sure it is fresh water not black water. At any rate, Bill got out the manual and then made a trip to Camping World to make sure we had any parts we might need for repair. Pulling the potty was not as big a deal as I thought it would be.....Billy did a great job. We both looked and really could not see any problems anywhere. Bill just tightened everything up, installed a new foam ring at the base and set the potty back in place. We ran some water through and still had water leaking. Upon closer inspection, (yeah! me and the flashlight on the floor looking deep into the potty's darkest recesses!) I found that the foam ring was not seated properly. Here we go again......but our second attempt was perfect and best of all no more leaks!! At least...so far so good!

Our chef from our Anniversary dinner asked us what our secret to 30 years of marriage is.....yesterday was a perfect example....it is all about 'teamwork' not I not me, but US working day by day together on all life's little challenges.....Merry Christmas everyone and may all of life's blessing come your way!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

First of all, let me say "Thank you" to everyone that commented on the satellite set up and sent helpful information......we have not had a chance to re-try for our neighbors as of yet. They were gone most of the day yesterday and we have not had a chance to get back with them. Thanks for the comment on my flamingo painting.....I will have more on that in another post.

Today is a very special day for DH and I.......it is our 30th Wedding Anniversary! We made plans to celebrate with our family tonight at a nice restaurant. Bill is my very best friend and truly the love of my life. I just can't imagine what my life would have been like without him in it. The past 30 years have had there ups and downs, but they were always full of love and laughter. Now, we have embarked on this whole 'rving thing' and we LOVE IT! I know a lot of you out there, thinking of this lifestyle, wonder about the prospects of being together in a small space 24/7. Well, let me tell you.....we LOVE IT! We have such fun together, and if anything, it has brought us even closer together.....Although we love being with family and friends, we have also found that we are just as happy when it is just us two (plus a couple of furballs)!

So, Honey, let me say now and forever......"I love you!"......my heart still skips a beat when you walk into the room.......

Monday, December 21, 2009


Here it is.....the beginning of my flamingo painting. Not much to look at right now and you can click on it for a little larger photo. I have been finding it hard to find the time to get much painting in with all the 'satellite' set up problems we have been having......but we are up and running so now I can focus more on my painting.

As to the internet satellite....WOW! We had more problems finding a signal then we have ever had....and there is nothing that we could "see" that is causing interference. It took us the better part of two days to finally latch on to a signal...just barely strong enough to lock on too! We are wondering if there is some kind of interference we can't "see" that is causing some issues.

So far we have NOT been able to get our neighbor set up with his tv satellite. They are from Canada and have the 'Star Choice' for their television. It is their first time using this system....so....DH spent the better part of a day helping just to put the equipment together and in position. Unfortunately, we just could not seem to find a strong enough signal to 'latch' on too! To make matters worse for these first time rvers, the husband took a fall here at the rv park and fractured his right hand. We feel so bad for them. We have told them to please call upon us for any help they might need. I know the wife is worried about how they are going to travel with her DH's right hand in a cast. Things may go from bad to worse for these two......he is to see a specialist next week to determine if surgery might be needed on his fractured hand. I sure hope that is not the case!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Yesterday my brother arrived from Indiana and brought with him our missing satellite internet part. My Dad was kind enough to bring it by our fiver. It seems my brother has already headed down to Fort Myers for the weekend.

We headed over to a new Japanese steak house in Brandon. We are thinking of having our 30th wedding anniversary celebration there next week. We had a look at the menu and then decided to stay for lunch. The food was excellent and we made our reservations for next Tuesday.

Back at the fiver, DH and I began the set up procedure for the internet satellite. Unfortunately, it was late in the day and we were quickly running out of daylight. We did get the system set up, but we were unable to find a good signal. There was a front moving through the area so we are hoping that is the problem. Today we have fairly sunny skies, so hopefully we will be able to get it up and running. We have found that once we lock onto the satellite....the weather is not as critical. It takes a pretty bad storm to degrade our signal. While DH was out fiddling with the satellite our neighbors came by and inquired.......they are new to rving and are setting up their satellite television for the first time. They are having problems so I imagine that later today we will be giving them a hand and hopefully getting them up and running too!

I’m still working on my flamingo painting and I will post some photos. I’m just waiting till we have our satellite internet so as not to use up our gigs on the aircard.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Finally got my paints out today. It has been a long time since I sat down in front of my easel. What am I painting? Think about it a minute and I bet you can guess.......Flamingos of course! I ran across this copy write free image of two flamingos that are in somewhat of an embrace. That is my inspiration. When I get a little further along I will share a photo with you.

The easel I’m using is brand new.....I wanted something a little more light weight and portable then my old standby. I got it out of it’s carrying case and set it up for the first time yesterday. I was looking at the instructions on how to put it together and it seemed to me I was missing a part. I woefully explained this all to DH and handed him the instructions. It didn’t take long for him to discover that several instructions for different easels were listed......I was looking at the wrong one.....once set to the right path everything went easily together. DH response to all this, “Be sure and let your blog readers know that your ‘Bodacious Husband’ saved the day”! LOL! Of course, he had read my blog entry on the whole tv satellite set up.....including my reference to myself as the fabulous, ‘bodacious wife’!.....Can’t a girl have any fun! LOL!

Monday, December 14, 2009

We decided to put up our internet satellite from Hughsnet. We are currently using our Verizon aircard, but we are getting close to our 5 gig limit. We had put our Hughsnet system ‘on vacation’ while we were at the river site in Indiana because we had no place to set the dish where we could get a signal (too many trees)! So, it has been awhile since we have gone through the set up procedure. We had a few technical glitches, but I finally got through that and gave DH the numbers he needed to set the dish. DH pulled the tripod from the basement and was positioning it. I was getting the dish and the LMB out when I realized we were missing a very important part. I don’t know what to call it, but basically you attach the dish and the LMB to it and then to the tripod. I could not find it anywhere. DH and I searched the entire basement and no luck. We finally decided that we must have left it behind in Indiana. As I’m sure you all know, the longer you stay in one place....the more you s-p-r-e-a-d out! We were at the river for about 6 mons. There is a small cabin on the property and we tend to store some of our bulky items there. More than likely, that is where the missing satellite part is now residing. Luckily, my brother (who resides in Indiana) is coming to Florida next week for the holidays. We gave him a call and he is going to see if he can locate the missing part and bring it down to us. Till the missing part arrives, we will have to be a little careful with our internet usage.

The day was not a total loss.....my Aunt called and invited us over for a late lunch. We went and my Uncle even took us out on his boat. It was beautiful.....we even saw two cruise ships leaving port. The skies were bright blue with those big puffy clouds close to the horizon and the seas were calm. By the time we arrived back at the marina, the sun was melting away into the horizon.....another beautiful sight! DH and I stood arm and arm watching the sun disappear. It was the perfect ending to a not so perfect day........

Saturday, December 12, 2009

I’m back....the Christmas party was a success. I’m guessing my Aunt and Uncle served over 500 people throughout the day and evening. The menu consisted of smoked BBQ ribs, chicken, potato salad, cole slaw, caesar salad, rolls, and assorted desserts. Everyone that attends is asked to donate a toy and it was great to see that toy pile grow and grow......my Aunt then takes them to a group that distributes them to children in need. DH and I were there throughout most of the party, we took a short 2 hour break in the afternoon to tend to our furballs. It was a very long day, but we sure had fun.
Here is the photo of the tv in the bedroom. As you can see, we do not have the shelf installed yet, but the shelf is now stained and ready to go so that will probably be today's project.

Back to the ‘rest of the story’ on the tv. DH called Direct TV to activate our new HD box. Amazingly enough, that actually went well. The box started running through it’s set up procedure and everything seemed fine. DH ends the call with Direct Tv and retires to the living room. BW (Bodacious Wife) remains in the bedroom, checking out the program guide and the channels. BUT.....something is missing here.....it seems I can’t locate any of the HD channels. All the digital channels are there...but no HD. I start trying to find the answer. I’m checking on the connections, checking the settings on both the tv and the cable box. I even re-set the cable box twice......nothing seemed to make a difference. Our tv in the living room is receiving all the HD channels.....so I’m starting to think we have a bad cable box. I inform DH that he is going to need to call Direct TV and explain the problem. BW has been working on this problem for the past hour and just can’t seem to find a solution! DH calls Direct tv and in a manner of a few minutes has the solution. Apparently, DH left off a very important part when connecting the cable from the box to the satellite. There is a filter of some sort which must be connected to the box. DH didn’t see this filter on our box in the living room so he just ASSUMED he didn’t need it on this box. Even though it clearly states in the set up instructions to install said filter. Now, I’m sure you all know exactly what BW is thinking at this point....after spending the better part of an hour trying to figure out this problem. BUT.....being the Bodacious Wife that I am.....I just smiled and patted DH on the head, “that’s ok honey, anyone could have made that mistake”.....well, certainly not BW.....LOL!......but alls well that ends well. The tv is up and running with all it’s channels on display and peace and tranquility have been restored to the Goode household. Well.....almost.....DH has run a second cable to the tv from our antenna so that we can tune in the local stations. We like being able to get the local news and weather in the morning with our coffee. To do this on our tv in the living room we just set the source or cable input to ‘tuner’. DH assumes it is a similar procedure on the new tv, but he only finds two choices on this tv.....one is the HDMI and the other says cable.....the HDMI brings in the Direct TV signal, but the cable selection proclaims no signal is available. BW.....I just love being bodacious, I think that is my new favorite word....HE...HE! Anyway; BW, being the technical wizard of the day, goes back through the set up on the tv and finds that you can select that particular cable connection to either accept a cable or antenna/air signal. Once that was set to the correct choice, BW ran the tuner and ‘bingo’ we now have local news and weather! Ahhhhh.....it is good to be QUEEN! LOL! Yeah, I’m pretty full of myself right now and DH is rolling his eyes and shaking his head, but hey....if ya got it, flaunt it.....and that my friends is the ‘rest of the story’.........

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Oh, I hate to make you all wait for the "rest of the story"....BUT......I'm afraid that is the case. My Aunt and Uncle are hosting their annual HUGE Christmas party for their employees and customers today. We are helping with some last minute decorations and set ups this am. The festivities start at llam and go til 8pm officially, but it always runs well into the wee hours. I imagine we will be spending most of the day and evening at the party. So, hang in there, and I promise I'll get back to the 'tv story' tomorrow!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Here’s the story of a DH and his BW (bodacious wife) and two furballs, who decided to install a television in their bedroom. This may sound like a simple procedure, but..... alas, it was not to be......for Direct TV was in the house!

The first call to Direct Tv was simply to purchase a new HD cable box. DH was informed they could only sell him a new box if he also paid for professional installation. Professional installation? We already had one box in the living room, the cable was already run into the bedroom, the dish was up and pointed correctly (that only took 3 days)......what was there to do except plug in and screw on the cable feed. So, we made our purchase at Best Buy.

BW had decided that the new tv was to be placed on the dresser in the bedroom, but wanted the HD box to be place in the cabinet where the tv would have gone. That was going to require a shelf to be installed and a few holes to be drilled so the cable could be run inside the walls of the cabinetry.....so as not to be unsightly or untidy! The first hole’s placement was agreed upon and drilled with a 3/4 hole saw. All was well, except it was a “hole” to no where. The top cabinet’s wall, (where we were drilling) actually extends past the bottom cabinet a couple of inches.....so, the second hole was more precisely placed, on the floor of the top cabinet....to align with the bottom cabinet. As most of you probably have discovered, some of your rv cabinetry has double walls and floors. This ‘dead space’ is where wires and support beams are typically run. We were attempting to run our cable down through this space and out to the tv sitting on the dresser. The third hole was drilled on the outside of the cabinet next to the tv. The next discovery---something was still blocking our way between the two holes. We found we needed to drill yet another hole a little further down inside the top cabinet’s floor (remember the ‘double wall’ construction) in order to get through to the bottom cabinet. Finally, 4 holes later, SUCCESS! Now, we needed to “fish” the cable lines through. That proved to be no easy task, but between the two of us we managed to get it done.

Ok, we are set.....right? Everything is ‘hooked up’ and we are ready to go. We turn on the tv and........nothing......no signal. DH checks and re checks all his connections and continues to scratch his head...with a puzzled look upon his face. BW realizes that the tv may need to be set on the proper source......I pick up the tv remote, push the source button and SUCCESS. The tv needed to be set on HDMI to receive the signal. You see, it pays to be ‘bodacious’...LOL!

All that is left now is to call Direct TV and activate the cable box........and that will be the ‘rest of the story’ for tomorrow’s blog........yes, there is more.....and some photos too!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

We certainly have seen enough rain here in Riverview. The skies finally stopped their assault of rain drops late yesterday afternoon. I think we are all a little stir crazy. I spent most of the day going through paper. I'm in the process of scanning all those 'important' documents one needs to keep track of......trying to eliminate some of those 'papers' with digital imagery. They are certainly easier to file and keep track of once they are on my computer. We probably purged 10lbs of paper yesterday. My next task for the New Year is to build some spreadsheets to track our expenses.

I did manage to get out with the furballs for a short walk around the rv park. They clearly loved being out and about....especially when I finally gave in and let them wade through all the puddles! LOL!

Later in the evening, we went over to a friend's house to see the Christmas boat parade. Although it was a little chilly, the boats all decked in their Christmas splendor made braving the chill worthwhile. Seeing all those lights shimmer and reflect in the water was beautiful. We all stood on the pier and cheered them on as they floated by....tis the season, here in the sunshine state!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Up with the chickens here......the rooster was a crowing when I was out with the furballs just a little past six. My coffee is brewing and my tummy seems to be back to normal.

One of the 'joys' of full time rving is mail delivery. Upon check in, we always ask the park how they handle mail for their shorter term residences. We will be here for about 6 weeks. They gave us a card with the park address and told us to be sure and add our name and lot number. US mail would be held at the office for us, but UPS or FEDX would deliver to our door. DH and I both had a few items we were ordering so both UPS and FEDX would be coming to our door....or so we thought. The first thing we had to do was put up a sign on the fiver with our lot number. All the lots here are marked at the back and hard to see from the street. Unfortunately.....it was not that simple. It seems the office folks at the park had given us the wrong address. There is road construction going on in front of the park and once completed the new address will be correct. For now; however, everyone is to continue to use the old address. We were clueless to all this and completely baffled when UPS was calling telling us the address didn't exist.....of course, we kept insisting it did! Finally, DH had another conversation with the office and we found out about the old address/new address mess. Luckily, both UPS and FEDX did manage to find us....even with the "new" address. I decided not to take any chances, when the FEDX guy showed up yesterday, I gave him some home made choc chip cookies fresh from the oven......that smile on his face told me he won't be forgetting where I live anytime soon....LOL!
Oh, but that is not the end of this intriguing tale. DH order us a small tv for our bedroom; of course, it had the wrong address. UPS tried to deliver it to someone else here in the park. Thank goodness, that person was home and refused the tv. UPS then took it to the office, who called DH. Good news, we got the tv.....but we were also given a 3rd address. Now, the office has decided if you want something from either UPS or FEDX you must use your actual street address here in the park. The bottom line here is that I don't know where I'm living these days and with the exception of my choc chip cookie loving FEDX man, neither does anyone else! LOL! Thank goodness for my neon pink flamingo......it is the only way I can find my way home these days. I wonder if the mail service recognizes pink flamingos as an address....he! he!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Here is our herb pot......and, surprise! We actually have some sprouts in one of the pots! I was so excited to see those little green plants this afternoon.

We spent pretty much the entire day shopping yesterday. I was looking for some sew on velcro and drapery lining to complete an old project. Those of you that follow my blog know I made my window treatments.....well, part of the window treatments. I was going to do some hand painted valances, but they are going to take some time to complete. So, in the meantime, I decided to sew some fabric valances to finish the windows. I have my fabric, but I needed lining. I was so spoiled when I was in the decorating business, cause all I would have needed to do was place a phone call and my lining would have been delivered to me in a matter of days.....wholesale to boot! Now, I have to 'shop' to find what I need and I'm really picky about the quality and price. I finally found a shop that had decent lining at $3.00 a yard......that is a really good deal. Next, I was on the hunt for velcro. Finally found it, but Jo Ann's Fabric wanted $3.99 a yard. I need about 10 yards......decided to try and find it online. SUCCESS!! I found a place in Jacksonville Florida (we are in Riverview...close to Tampa). They had what I needed at 80 cents per yard....imagine that! I did have to order 25 yds, but I had no problem with that as I can always use velcro in sewing projects. Even with $8.00 for shipping I still saved myself money. YIPPEE!

Last night we had a squall line come through our area. It was really pretty mild, but it still managed to keep me and the dogs from having a restful night's sleep. Around 2am, the storm had passed, and I took the furballs out for a potty break. Came back in and they settled right down into peaceful slumber.....not so lucky for me. I slept some, but my tummy was keeping me awake at this point. It was not typical indigestion. It was more like a queasy feeling and a soreness to my tummy. Anyway, it is still with me this afternoon. I hope what ever it is makes it's exit soon.....:-{

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

No, I did not get trampled by the crowd at Wally World last Saturday.....I'm alive and well. Just been a little lazy the past few days.

DH and I have taken on a new project. Last year we saw a fellow rv'er growing some herbs....in what I think is called a strawberry or herb pot. I promise I'll get some photos for next time, but basically it is 4 small pots connected all together. There are 3 on the bottom and 1 on top. I have been looking for this configuration ever since we saw it last year. Yesterday we found it at Lowe's. We bought some dirt and planted from seed.....Rosemary, sweet basil, tarragon, and sage. Now, neither of us has a very green thumb.....but how hard can this be......time will tell. Nothing like sitting around watching your herbs grow.....

I'm also on the look out for some pink Christmas lights to go with my pink flamingo.....yeah, that's right pink! I like pink and I plan on using them year round. By time I'm done with my 'outdoor decor' we should be pretty easy to find, no matter where we are parked.....LOL! So, next time your out, if you see a large pink flamingo with pink Christmas lights all round......then you know you have stumbled across the "Goode Life". Pull up a chair and stay awhile........