kbois

Hi Starry! We finally got power back last night, so we high-tailed it home. It was absolutely a beautiful thing to sleep in my own bed. My dogs finally settled down too. We were fortunate. I'm on a peninsula that sticks out into Tampa Bay. I saw today that our little slice of paradise had 5-7 feet of flooding. The water line on our condo building came up to almost our steps. I'm glad we are the furthest unit from the canal. Not even a half mile up the road were condos that got flooded. There was so much stuff that people were hauling out of their homes and garages. Once salt water saturates something like furniture, it's not salvageable. I did lose everything in my fridge and freezer, probably $200-$300 worth of food, but my chest freezer still had gallon water jugs that were mostly frozen so everything in there should be ok. It was mostly veggies. It sucks but I'm grateful it wasn't a lot worse. Where I used to live got hit hard with flooding. The barrier island with the beaches we go to was absolutely devastated. It's heartbreaking to see the damage. One of my maintenance guys volunteered over the weekend and said all the sand that got pushed in from the surge looked like snow drifts. He helped clean out 7 houses where people lost everything. So, I'm happy that we are all safe and sound. I'm also going to keep a close eye on this next storm to see how it develops. We'll leave a lot sooner and I'll pack my car with anything important if we need to evacuate. In the spring when our lease is up, I'll be looking to move inland. Thanks for checking in. I hope everyone has a good day!🩷

Thanks for the good wishes. Still no power but hopefully today... fingers crossed!

For once I'm thankful that my sense of smell has greatly diminished over the past 10 years. I know I have ground pork and bacon that is most likely gross by now. I wouldn't subject any dog to what's lurking in there.

Update: Still no power. Tampa Electric's website says they're down to just under 18K people in our area and most power should be restored by tonight. At least I have a place to stay that is air conditioned. I'm not looking forward to cleaning our the fridge. At least this happened before I went grocery shopping. I'm still most likely going to lose about $100 worth of food. That sucks. I hope everyone is having a good day

Well, we weathered that one by the skin of our teeth. Decided to evacuate at 10pm last night after the water in the canal we are on started rapidly rising. Our parking lot was half flooded and the one road out of our area to the main stretch was dicey. The highway was fine. Luckily the worst of the winds were past us. We got to my work at 1045ish. Power and wifi were working. I texted my admin to let him know I was there. He offered up the park model next to him as his neighbors said they could use it if they needed. It was hot AF for a few hours until the AC kicked in. It also had a bed, which for me was useless because I didn't sleep more than an hour. I checked online and three million people in Florida without power and we're one of them. I'm hoping the water recedes by this afternoon and we get power back. My husband was supposed to fly up to Mass yesterday and so far his flight had been pushed back twice. All his stuff is at the house. Anyway... I'm tired as all hell and hate being displaced. Fingers crossed we can get home this afternoon. I need coffee.

Get in line!

Sigh. Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe the "cone of uncertainty"? Hubs is scheduled for a flight out of Tampa Thursday morning. Let's hope this storm stays to the west side of the dreaded cone.

Thanks for giving this a go and reading through to the end. It's still difficult to look back on this story. I wasn't in a very good place mentally when I wrote it. Things are better now. My son is still living at home but he has a job and is in therapy. We have neuropsychological testing set up for him in November. He still struggles but is getting better at coping. Getting away from a toxic roommate and drugs and alcohol has made a huge difference.

One day. One hour. One minute. Every second counts. Hugs, my friend. 🩷

Happy Sunday all! I saw this simple bagel recipe that I need to try 1 cup yogurt (any kind) 2 cups self-rising flour Berries (any kind) Mix yogurt and flour then add berries. Form into bagel shapes and brush with an egg wash. Pop into the air fryer at 350 for 20 minutes. In the video I saw they looked just like deli bagels. If you don't have self-rising flour you can make your own by adding add 2 teaspoons of baking powder for each 150g/6oz/1 cup plain flour. I'd make them today but I'm out of berries.

My mom was an avid reader and she took me with her to the library with her pretty much from infancy. You couldn't get a card of your own until you were five. Of course, I had to get mine as soon as my birthday rolled around that summer. They also limited the number of books you could get to five. We were at the library at least once, if not twice a week. I only remember one of the first five books I checked out all by myself using that brand-spanking new paper card with my name written on it in nice, neat cursive. It was The Five Chinese Brothers (there's a theme here I never realized until now 🤭) It was based on a Chinese folk tale about identical brothers each having a special power. The first brother could hold the sea in his mouth and one time he did so to allow a little boy to gather fish. When he gestured for the boy to come back because he couldn't hold the sea much longer, the boy ignored him and drowned when the man was forced to expel the sea. He was accused of murder. He was sentenced to be beheaded and convinced the judge to let him go home to say goodbye to his mother. His brother with an iron neck took his place and couldn't be beheaded. Each time the judge sentenced him he went home to "say goodbye to his mother" and the brothers swapped places. They couldn't drown the brother with the stretchy legs because he stretched them to the bottom of the sea. One was impervious to fire, and the other could hold his breath a long time. When nothing worked the judge said he must be innocent and let him go. No wonder I like reading weird books.

I love this word.

I got the stuff to make them. I'm going to try my hand at baked beans tomorrow after soaking the navy beans overnight. I've got chicken to do something with too. Glad I've got 3 days instead of 2. I'm off to the Y to get some water walking in before our daily afternoon storms roll through. Ankle rehab... here I come! Have a great weekend everyone!

Chili and cornbread should satisfy those bears of yours. 😁

The only thing I might add to the great advice you've gotten is to write a couple of paragraphs in your native Romanian and then translate into English using Google translate. That way you can see side by side how the grammar is structured. Hope that helps. Keep on reading and practicing speaking as often as possible. It will really help.

Welcome! There's plenty to keep you reading for a while..enjoy!

Eff them Gators... but Miami is worse. I have a nephew who graduated from Georgia Tech... so we're good 😝

I always wondered why they called it football here. They don't use their feet other than to run. The rest of the world got it right. I wonder how we got the name soccer? Weird. Gotta love Google: https://www.deseret.com/sports/2022/12/10/23497245/why-americans-call-football-soccer/

I wish I could watch FSU today.. their opener is against Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland. They brought 170 members of the band. But it's only on ESPN and we don't have cable, nor do we subscribe to their streaming service. GO NOLES!

Don't you have some fleas to scratch?

Noah should've swatted those two mofos.

The rules differ from park to park. Unfortunately, ours does not ban subleasing or renting, including vacation rental sites. I wish we could forbid it.

This dude had a laundry list of complaints. Of course he calls the corporate office to bitch. Doesn't have the cajones to come up to my office. The woman in Chicago who had to deal with him was over it. In addition to the critters (which according to him the park down the street doesn't have) we haven't mowed in 2 weeks.. uh.. the crew comes once a week and I've seen them here. We've gotten a lot of rain.. you can literally see the grass growing. There were a few other things. I would've loved for him to come speak to me so I could tell him that I'm sorry that we're not the right fit for him and he's more than welcome to leave and find a new pplace.buh-bye. The kicker is he's only renting the unit from a resident who lists it as an Airbnb.

About as much good as a spare with no air in it. That's happened to me. It's a common problem. I think I have enough spare yo cover all four tires. 🫤 I hope the day gets better for you. I think this week is National Idiots Week. Had customer service call me yesterday with a complaint from a guest: We have too many mosquitos. He gets bit every time he goes outside. And we have gators and armadillos. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ It's Florida... sigh.

This is a well-written, fun story with a touch of humor and a bit of the unusual sprinkled in. Read on to see what happens between a singer and his body guard and their extra abilities. Nice job!