67 . . . . .

it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  we ran away.  kidlet and i headed out to longwood on a mission to scoff up some andouille sausage for jambalaya. another of ina's recipes is calling my name.  so we ended up here:

we'd been told they had absolutely awesome andouille.  i walked in the door and was an immediate happy camper.  they had aisles of various treats, a cheese section, a crackers and dip area, a wine room, bakery goodies, a deli, a mustard section and of course the butchery . . . is butchery a word????after filling my arms, kidlet grabbed us a basket.  of course i needed the bar harbor lobster corn chowder, a can of crushed san marzano tomatoes, oh and some graber olives.  i'm still hunting for the perfect olives the 9TS and i enjoyed in sorrento.  yes, these are californian not italian, shoot me.  kidlet wrestled with a tin of caramel leche mix and was last seen creeping up on the pastry.

after loading up on sausage and friends, we grabbed a couple of subs and headed outside to nosh:

that is real bread on that thar sammie.  not sure where they found it in florida, but i'm glad they did.

color me happy!!!  and then color the kid happy with her french dip au jus.

after packing the meat in our handy dandy cooler, we headed home but decided to make a detour into deland to visit a funky little store called orchard rain.  i swear its a throw back to the 60's complete with buffalo sandals.  you'd buy those suckers wear them in the bath tub and let them dry on your feet. i don't know how many pairs i went through.  kidlet was smitten by a dress she had seen in there when we went to the craft fair.  and i'm a sucker for old hippy dresses:

hey, they're 100% cotton and really comfy with leggings and yes, i was a hippy.  one very happy hippy.  ST.

66 and counting . . .

got up early to get lee back to the doc for a check up on her infamous toe.  mother nature forgot to tell the forecasters that it was going to rain today.  i love little red but put it on wet roads and it slides around like a puck on ice.  happiness is having the sun come out two hours later.

lunch at la's with nancy.  with one thing or another going on, we'd missed a few tuesdays and my mouth was drooling for one of gron's special sammies.  slurp.

the weeds around the house are taking over even more than usual.  i really need to get out there and scrape off all the old mulch and dead leaves, take the ground down a few inches below the slab and re-mulch.  the garage is getting damp from all the rain.  no bueno.  this is a chore that has to be done on a tuesday so the lawn clippings truck can remove the evidence when it makes the round first thing wednesday morning. our glorious hoa looks down on bags of anything not out on the correct day.  the running problem is my sheer laziness.  such audacity to be sure.

giddy.  i am giddy, i tell you!!!  the same mother nature who drizzled the roads into a slip and slide this morning has turned off the heat.  the windows are OPEN!!!!!  cool sweet air wafted through the house last night and i had to pull up and cuddle, the spread that had been ostracized to the end of the bed all summer.  life is most excellent.

looking around at more old photos and find this:

in our retirement, we didn't dress up much, so when we got home from an event, i grabbed my camera but not entirely fast enough.  this is the bottom half of the same photo:

gotta love the guy who puts up with me and my camera.  happy.  happy.

65 days . . .

happy day full of laziness.  well, someone has to do it!!!

day 64 of happiness . . .

this for lunch today:

love the salty tang of feta and greek olives with homemade dressing.

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now that my hair is past my shoulders, i have discovered a couple of things.  the first is that 67 year old hair is not the soft silky texture of 23 year old hair.  nope, it has a mind and texture of its own.  it's more like barbie hair.  you know, it looks great in the box until you brush it the very first time with its very own comb, then all hell breaks loose and suddenly she looks like some psycho blond b*tch out of a b movie from the 80's.

the second is that fly-aways are now kinky.  my favorite martian with extra antennae.  and, since my hair is currently chemical free, that headband of gray around my forehead which is hidden when my hair is down is glaringly white with my hair back in a pony tail.

and three, i was born with curly hair and apparently i am going out with curly hair . . . we've talked about this before, so now, i'm seriously on the hunt for curling options that do not damage my already  funky old head.

i'm creeping on google, looking for options when i find sweet rolls.  yes, i started to salivate too but they weren't that kind.  these are rollers for your hair, heated in the microwave.  color me curious and i discover the contents consist of tapioca.  you know, those squishy eyeballs rolling around in your pudding popular in 1952.  put tapioca on my shopping list, i am going to make my own.  so if you see me in a more recent post rather bald and smelling like boba, you know it was a fail.  trying new things makes me happy.

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indian summers comes on pbs tonight.  happy.  happy.                                                              

day 63 . . .

this is the view from lee's condo.  kidlet and i called her this afternoon to see if we could kidnap her tomorrow and slap her in a wheelchair and take her grocery shopping.  she got has far as the wheelchair and put on the brakes.  she was NOT going shopping in a two wheeled conveyance.  well, all righty then.

she countered with a request for company and chinese for dinner so kidlet and i obliged and now we are overfilled with honey chicken and pork with chinese veggies.  we left lee with our leftovers and her egg fou something for four.

on another note, i was digging through old photos and found a painting on a wall from cannes and decided to turn it into a 12 x 12 paper for photoshop:

it is amazing to me that paintings like this are just hanging on walls throughout the city.  happy, happy, happy.

and on yet another note, with all the rains come palmetto bugs.  they are really the state bird.  they are that big and they fly when cornered.  a couple three nights ago, pippin was up on one of the bookcases doing her meerkat imitation and chirping at the ceiling.  following her gaze, there was a good sized palmetto bug scabbering around on the popcorn ceiling.  eek.  i holler for kidlet and she promptly picks up the vacuum hose from the floor and sucks that puppy up.  she's happy, i'm happy, the cats are entertained.  last night, i realize while washing my face that i have company.  a bigger, creepier palmetto bug on the bathroom ceiling.  said vacuum was still hanging out so we sucked up the second one.  the cats were hugely happy and circled the clear vacuum canister watching the palmetto scurry around and around.  this morning while finally finishing up the vacuuming, i took it outside to empty.  no cock-a-bugs.  damn.  they must still be hiding in the house.  well not everything can be happy, happy, unless of course you are those bugs.

62 days of happiness . . .

we hijacked lee today for lunch and the three hens decided to see the ocean.  mother nature is having a slight hissy fit by the name of joaquin:

considering joaquin is down messing up the bahamas, i'd say this is one heck of a storm.  i'm not complaining, i love watching storms . . .  from a distance.  color me happy and dry.  i hope everyone else stays that way too.

61 and counting . . .

happy i could take lee back to her ortho-guy.  she's not so happy.  still stuck in her boot.  but on a good note, he is letting her go out to lunch with the hens tomorrow.  happy dance . . . well at least for joanie and i.

speaking of lunch and friends,  robin and i headed to la fiesta for some guacamole and such.  she's right, they have the best guac.  my favorite americano quesadilla wasn't too shabby either, she says as she waddles around the house.

and while fixated on food, this from kidlet:

a little puff pastry, a little apple pie filling, some cinnamon and sugar and melted butter and slurp.  three more pounds just hopped on my tush.

and to make sure there is enough happiness in my day, the woman whose class i took, ended it with a surprise today of a 40% discount off a one day shopping spree in her e-store.  yes, i did damage.