Mosaic Mom

The Mosaic Art Car featured a Treasure Island theme. Here is a close up of one of the mosaic fish on the front panel.

I wonder where the mosaic art car is now? Last I heard the lady who owns Noni Bath Salts store in Mt Dora had it.
Wonder if there will be any more art car events?

Well, stove #3 went up tonight.
This time a burner, not the oven.

All that white powder is Baking Soda to smother the flames. This is why one should have baking soda handy...to smother fires...because you put the water on to boil so that you can add frozen peas and POOF! The element goes onto char-broil-grill effects.
So embarassing.
But on the bright side, we get to go to Lowe's this week!

Our Sunday will be as follows:

Plant Daddy continues to work on the soffits. Today he is removing all the rotten wood. Rough Ralph the rat and his buddies must have had an easy time scratching and chewing through the soft rotten wood. But by tonight, all will be replaced with fresh, copper-treated lumber.


My day will be spent in front of the washer and dryer and ironing board. The afternoon will find me in the kitchen roasting a chicken for the roof repair crew.

I predict the Lake Square Mall will close early next year...judging by the lack of shoppers there today...on a Saturday afternoon.

And by the number of empty store fronts.

But the real clue is the artificial/portable air conditioner outside in front at JCPenney. If the mall management could afford to fix the A/C for their tenent JC Penney and thereby give them a nice entrance wouldn't they? Or maybe JCPenney is leaving and management won't invest in the repair?

This is all speculation on my part, but I sure didn't help the situation today. I didn't spend any money at the mall.

Try as I might I could not find any shirts or shorts at Penney's or Belk's or Sears. A couple of pieces came close, but even for $10 I'm not buying shirts with too large arm holes, too deep plunging necklines or too long over the butt hemlines. Sigh.

There's a reason that stuff's 75% off.

Plant Daddy was watching football or fishing or superhumans last night (I was in the other room watching Project Runway)when a loud high-pitched POP ocurred. I came flying in from the living room and we both hovered over the set to investigate.

Maybe it was a power surge, but the other items on that line were not affected. There was no lightning going on. Maybe it was just an old TV ready to blow a transistor. (Do they still have transistors?) ANYWAY...the result is a dead TV set.


This morning Plant Daddy hauled the old one out and we will "borrow" Helen's from the storage room for the time being.

Last evening Plant Daddy and I sat down and outlined our chores.

His was so thick, it required a binder clip to contain it.

Mine had only 6 items.

So today I set to and tackled the first one. I went down to the passport office and signed up. I have always dreamed of going on the snow train across Canada.

The thought of all that cold snow is all that is keeping me motivated today as I tackle item #2...remove the plastic off the pile of junk in storage so we can start to sort it out.

There were supposed to be clouds and rain today, but Nooooo. Just 95 and broiling.

Snow train. Snow train. Snow train.

I’d caught a glimpse of a yellow wildflower as I drove home the other day. Hoping it was Tickseed, I’d hiked out the front gate and down the road to photograph it and collect seeds if it had any.

Great surprise! It wasn’t tickseed at all, but a new flower previously unseen. It must have come in when the road workers installed the sod. I think it is Helianthenum. Very pretty.

As I turned to retreat back down the driveway, I spotted another one. This is Macroptilium. Another newcomer and well come.

One thing I am glad of in this slow economy, the mowers come less frequently and the flowers have a chance to bloom and seed in. Maybe these two will get established.

Plant Daddy and Mosaic Mom are married 31 years today!
Here's a look at the flowers PD bought me...

Those are the largest asiatic lillies I've ever seen...8 inches across...and they're so fragrant,very sweet, like honeysuckle.

After 31 years you'd think we'd know every thing about each other?
Well, we found out this week we both had maternal grandfathers who were roofers.

What's on our agenda for the day? We are working on our roof repairs. Then a nice quiet chicken dinner at home, a swim and a nightcap of Icy Hot and Aspirin!

The eggplant won!
It is the very last survivor of the 2009-2010 garden season!

I harvested these yesterday. They are small and it will take all of them to make one Eggplant Parmesan for tonight's dinner. And that's it...there will be no fresh veggies from the garden for a while now. It is the end of the season.

Altho the fresh pineapples are starting to trickle in, late this year, all veggies are done. We'll be eating out of the freezer if we want green veggies.

Plant Daddy will rototill everything under and away we'll go for the next season.

For the 2010-2011 season, I have already started 7 tomato plants and had some very strong urges to plant green beans. But the temps are still mid to upper 90's (94-95) so nothing is going to grow. In 2 more weeks, we'll start again. Fresh eggplants, peppers, green beans, onion sets, squash...I look forward to Labor Day. I really do.

My book order from Powell's Books in Portland arrived this week. Heaven!
I've started in on the textbook.

I am going to work through it one chapter at a time and try to improve my fiction techniques.
From Powell's I also got Rebel Yell by Lance Olsen. It is a text on how to write short fiction. I read about 2 chapters in that already.
I also bought a book about garden writing. The introduction was ok, suggested techniques, but I set that one aside. I don't think I am a creative non-fiction kind of girl.

Is that the sound of a roof rat trying to scratch its way in?
No, it's Plant Daddy repairing wood rot where the pool screen used to attach.

And what am I doing this morning?
Staying indoors! On-line researching a species of Orchid called Bletia florida.

Later on, I might make a trip to Lowe's and get supplies for PD, but the temperatures tell me this is an indoor sort of day.

I got yesterday's blog posted and 15 minutes later, the server went out again for several hours. I could not get my research done. I have a huge amount of data to collect on line from the Herbarium (plant zoo).

I hope it stays up today because when it goes down, I am stuck doing housework. Already this week I have dusted, vacuumed the computer, scrubbed the shower and cooked several gourmet diners. Enough already.

Back to work researching Amaranthus floridanus aka Florida Amaranth.

Nargh!!!

No sooner do I get my computer repaired and the system provider goes down! I was ready to sign on yesterday. I had email waiting. I had to blog. I needed to Google some Latin plant names…because everybody does this, right?

Then this pops up on the screen…

8:15am
Dear Internet subscribers:
As of 8:02am, our access provider that connects our cable's network to the outside world is down. This means that general web access will not function, however anything internal to the network will continue to function. As our phone system operates over the Internet, our toll free number and local numbers will not currently ring. We are working for a resolution for this problem.
We have already contacted the access provider and have advised them of the problem, and they are looking into it. While we currently do not have an estimation of repair, we will post updates on our website as we receive them.
Thank you for your patience.


Update, 12:10pm
Dear Internet subscribers:
The local exchange carrier has located the problem that has caused our circuit to go down, and have given us an initial repair estimate of 6:00pm. We will update this site as more information becomes available.
Thank you for your patience.

3:30pm
This site is closed for maintenance.
Thank you for your patience.

Finally after supper, I checked again. Yay! We were up…

Oh No. A giant thunder and lightning storm blew in from the southwest. Everything had to come off line and off the grid. The usual summer drill. So we just said, forget it, and watched TV and went to bed.

Looks like all issues are resolved this morning.
Thank you for your patience!

Mosaic Mom will be out of service for a while.

My computer has 3 viruses.

All kinds of ads jump up into the middle of the screen. For a week or so I ignored them. But toward the end of the week, I was trying to do some serious writing and every time the crap popped up, I'd lose half a sentence. I'd be typing and the program would not be responding. Grrrr.

So as soon as this is posted, I am going to disassemble the units and haul them in. Hope to be back up in a day or so. Meanwhile, talk amongst yourselves.

as the kids say...BRB!

Great Minds think alike...and we're all thinking Roses!
Here are the roses my cousin gave to his wife for her birthday.

Happy Birthday Linda in California and also
Happy Birthday to Eva in Oregon!

Hope you both have a Happy Year ahead!

Unless you are a masochist,
Put this on your DON’T DO list.

Don’t go out and be a dope,
Trying to save on laundry soap.

See, I checked the price of Tide,
Clutched my chest. I thought I’d died.

Numbers that high frighten me.
Are there options? Well, let’s see.

Found a cheap one in the stack.
Took it home inside a sack.

Washed my underwear real good,
Now the cotton feels like wood.

Now my cheeks have got an itch,
And all I do is groan and bitch.

Towels are scratchy, lemon smell.
Gee, this isn’t going well.

Back to Target I must ride
And spend the money on the Tide.

I strayed off my usual route yesterday and because I was in the neighborhood, because I was in the mood for adventure, I stopped in at Winn-Dixie to pick up the few groceries I needed this week.

Oh! I was impressed with the Tavares store. They’ve remodeled!

You walk in the doors and there’s a greeter handing our flyers and spiritual blessings! You look right and you don’t see racks of shopping carts anymore. You don’t see sodas and stacks of cheap sale products. Therefore, no more smell of cardboard at the front door.

Instead, you immediately see a floral department…and a dozen orange roses found their way into my cart!

The vista sweeps wide into the produce section and there was lettuce…for only 79 cents! Lettuce was on my list so I scooped up a head. Delighted.

You walk back to a large deli and ready to go food carry out section. Wood floor. Nice.
The signage throughout the store seems better. I found everything on my list except Perdue frozen chicken breasts.

Wow! I actually checked out without a long sentence in an unmoving line!

On the way out, I noticed that Winn Dixie has opened a Liquor store. This is awesome. It’s a really convenient location. I will be buying my next bottle of Maker’s Mark there.

Who would have guessed Winn Dixie as my supplier for luxury items like flowers and booze! Go Figure!

Well, when is a sale not a sale?
Today I opened the cheap lettuce. It is all brown and nasty inside. Sigh. The Beef People may be getting my booze business, but Publix is secure in the produce department.

Here's a new Drabble. I entered it in a contest. It did NOT win. Hmmmm.


And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon


Mother’s tuna noodle casserole got up from the dinner table, walked over to the floral chintz sofa, plopped down and lit a cigarette.

“I’m tired,” she said. “I’m sick of laundry and shopping and signing report cards for you kids. It’s thankless, dead-end. You’re sucking me dry.”

She exhaled a swirl of blue-grey smoke and peered out the window. Two floors down, Mrs. Feldman’s kugel was tossing a suitcase into the trunk of a Yellow Cab.

“Hold that taxi,” the casserole yelled. She jumped to her feet and without so much as a good-bye, picked up her purse and left.

It's awesome to get a workshop offered locally. Here are the details:

MOUNT DORA: Thursday Morning BookWriter's Workshop: 10-1 p.m., eight alternate Tuesdays, September 9th-December 16th.

In these workshop/critique groups, seven writers will meet in our Maitland or Mount Dora lofts to develop and discuss their projects-in-progress. Together, we will create supportive community, write together, share new work for group critique, closely examine extended portions of one another's manuscripts, and learn professional techniques for marketing our work.

Members will be writing in all genres and need only have a book-length project in mind to apply.
Join us! Get your book off the ground and onto the page!

Each BookWriter's Workshop is limited to seven participants. The $495 cost includes a one-hour private consultation with writing workshop leader and a written/oral group response to a portion of each writer's manuscript.
* * *

Contact Jamie@WoodstreamWriters.com or 407.644.5163 to register or for information.
Helping Writers Become Authors: www.WoodstreamWriters.com
407.644.5163 ~ Jamie@WoodstreamWriters.com


I will not be able to go as I have several committments in November and December already, but I think a lot of folks would enjoy a class so I'm sharing from my email news today.

Can I charge my beautician with a hate crime?
Cause I HATE my haircut.

Walked into the salon yesterday, very hopeful. My last cut there was superb.
No one was there. No customers. No workers.

Oh, here she comes out of the potty room. I sure hope she has washed her hands.
She picks up a broom and dustpan and sweeps around a chair. Motions me to sit, attaches cape.

“How much you want off?” she axes.

“About an inch,” I say.

She picks up scissors lying on a shelf. Aren’t they supposed to be soaking in Barbercide? I wonder how many heads they’ve touched today. I vow I will go home and wash my head with antiseptic soap asap. She has not offered me a shampoo.

She hacks. And I do mean hacks. I have done better chopping when pruning Ligustrum hedges.

But here’s the thing…her hands stink.

I have never before had a beautician whose hands smelled bad, but hers do. Is it poo-poo or is it an infection underneath those long acrylic artificial fingernails? I am gaggin’.

I pay and come home and wash my hair and enlist poor ole Plant Daddy to try to help even it up a bit. I “axed” for an inch off. I went from shoulder length to ear length…FOUR INCHES!!! Gone.

Oh my God, don’t look to see me in public for a few days.

Rats,Mice, Squirrels...who knows what genus and species they are, they don't belong in my attic chewing my insulation at 3:00AM!!!

Yes, Rough Ralph and his buddies were back on Saturday night. Plant Daddy got up and pounded the walls. Like rowdy neighbors in an upstairs apartment, they quieted momentarily then got right back to dancin'.

So Sunday, PD went up into the attic for a personal and up close visit. He took them a food basket.

That is Tomcat Brand Rat Bait. Photo is a little small, but we hope it has a big impact.

PD also spent Sunday up and down on the ladder repairing soffits. Very frightening to think that the woods are full of rodents who have nothing better to do than crawl over and try to chew their way inside our house.

I popped in to Mt Dora to meet a friend for lunch yesterday. It took over 20 minutes to find a parking spot. I guess that's good for the town that so many tourists are coming, but it sucks for locals just trying to have a normal Saturday.

Lunch was odd...the salmon on my salad was neither hot not cold. Fearing it had been sitting out at room temperature all morning, I was afraid to eat it. My friend said I ought to send it back, but I am afraid wait staff or cooks will spit on my plate if I complain. So I paid $11.00 for a plate of lettuce. I left no tip and will never eat there again.

My friend left and I looked through the trendy shops for cruisewear for my sister. I found some cute items. One was a sea-green blouse for $72. Ultimately, I decided to ditch the cute shops and try the mall. There I found a dress, a blouse and a sweater...all for about $80. Better bargain.

The hooker sighting for Saturday was at Publix. There were two (and their man) working the front door on the south side.

The fat girl was flagging customers by reaching down through the neck of her oversized t-shirt and fondling and grabbing her meatloaf sized boobs and shaking them around. She actually got a call out! A truck drove up and shouted "Hey, girl!" and she got in. The man-pimp waved them off, so I guess the customer was a regular.

The other girl was skinny with short black hair and way too short shorts. She sported a huge shiny gold purse and continued to strike hooker poses in her spike heeled shoes. Blech!

When I got home, I tried on the sundress I bought for my sister. It was very low cut and I said "Plant Daddy, my sister will not want to wear this. She does not want to look like a girl working on the steps at Publix."

So this afternoon I am taking that dress for return.

Here's a cool mosaic on a hot day!
A Mosaic Muffler Fountain!

Plant Daddy gave me an old muffler that I covered in Bisazza, marbles and a smashed coffee mug. After it was grouted, PD fixed it up with old irrigation parts. When the water is running, it has the appearance of exhaust.
It's hot out. I think I'll go turn it on for a while. A cooling addition to the garden. The lizards will like it anyway.

Plant Daddy has published his story about his new Aglaonema Plant "Moonlight Bay".

Check it out by clicking the link Here!

Little Mind Escape gave me this book for my birthday.

From Powell's Books in Portland Oregon
I just finished reading it a few days ago.

I am taking the advice to heart. The bottom line, take home advice from this author/professor is ...keep your butt in the chair and write!

To that end, no pun intended, I have written 3 grant proposals, a paper introduction, and an article for a gardening magazine.

I also have an idea for a story starting to germinate. If anybody has any anecdotes about reading bulletin boards, send that to me. It might get worked in to the story.

I guess that is why I have not posted.
Not gone out of the house.
Not done housework.
Not cooked meals.
Not shaved my legs, brushed my teeth or my hair...hey, this writer life is O.K.!

Do you think we'll see anybody we know here?

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Web Cam

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