2WannaBRetireesinPanama: FRIDAY SIGHTS ALONG WITH HITS, BUT MOSTLY MISSED, ACCOMPLISHMENTS

First Friday off for many to come, and I was fortunate enough to have to wait for the "Glass Man" to come replace shattered glass by our front door. Ray was told he would be here in the morning. Gotta love that time frame. I don't love waiting for people to show up mostly because of my lack of hearing. I need to make sure I am on the main level (not in my room getting ready, cleaning, still sleeping!), so I can hear the door bell ring. I also don't love waiting, just because I have things to do and places to go on my day off.
In this post, I thought I would write about what I saw on this gorgeous spring day while I was up and about (I am still mad I forgot to look at the full Pink moon last night, but I left myself a note to check the moon out tonight!). "A beautiful day in the neighborhood".

This is the shattered double pane window before repair (no idea how it shattered)

This is what the Glass Man was going to make the other window look like once done.

Unfortunately, the window frames are different these days. The Glass Man has to order custom glass since the framing he installed was nicely decorative in style with curly cut ins (not straight edge), but it didn't match. He took the shattered glass out and left us with single pane window and some broken edges (we don't have small children, so it shouldn't be a problem). We will wait for his call to schedule another day to wait for him in the morning.

But today was still going to be a day that things were getting done, or maybe not, so while I waited patiently for the shenanigans of the window to be taken care of, I made a cake (called "Wacky Cake"). Carly and her boyfriend are coming to the lake house tomorrow for dinner (she will be home for 24 hours and has twelve days of graduate school left), and I thought I would make something chocolate. It's a Pinterest recipe and anyone's guess of how it will taste, because it is wacky. When I am at Costco later today, I will get a back up dessert in case wacky means yucky.

Looks chocolaty delicious! http://pinterest.com/pin/203717583116968402/

While the cake was baking, I watered some newly planted plants. After calling our landscaper last year from May to September trying to get him to replace some dead plants that were under a lifetime warranty, Ray called and within eight business days, we had new plants. This guy even told me during our last phone conversation, before I gave up, that I should never have had to call him so many times. So annoying.

Never had this kind of plant before (Camelia), and it should be pretty! This is newly planted (I will remove tag at some point)

These were planted in 2010. The back tree is called a "Smoke Tree" and really does look smoky in May.

Bees pollinating everywhere!

Nandina berries

Bored of azaleas we had the landscaper move these to the side of the house. We didn't want to kill them off, but we didn't like seeing the flowers die, brown and then drop to ugly after the flowering season. They pop against red roses.

Dripping hearts.

Love the bleeding heart perennial. Then there's the For Sale sign in neighbor's yard. Soon to be in ours (next spring).

Pretty grass! For now. Until a drought hits, and we don't water it.

Once the walk and watering done and with the cake baked, I hit the road to get things done. First stop, WalMart. I suffer through this store for cleaning supplies and less expensive grocery items. Seems like today would be the day that things would be incompletely accomplished. The one flavored water Ray drinks was not to be found. After loading my car up with I never know what I have ended up buying "stuff", I saw a stupid man push his shopping cart across the parking lot towards the shopping cart holder thingy. He missed. It crashed. Fortunately not into either car that was parked next to the cart holder. Would have been a cool trick if the cart had made it though. Not so cool if it had scratched up a car.

Next stupid man (why are the stupid men off work today?) was found in Target. He was done with his shopping cart and lazily left it horizontal between the automatic doors. While I was walking through one set of doors, he was walking out and left his cart right there in front of me. Gee, I guess I will push it out of my way so I can get through the next set of doors. Yes, I did call him a stupid man under my breath. The carts are all lined up no more that twenty feet from where he lazily left it haphazardly in between the doors. Stupid man. Not that women aren't stupid. I just hadn't encountered any as of that point. Target was a little bit successful. I forget what I went in there for (oh, looking for the water that WalMart didn't have since I didn't want to go into an actual grocery store today), but I did come out with more "stuff".

Bed Bath and Beyond has a dishware set that is on my daughter's best friend's bridal registry. I was picking her up this gift for her upcoming bridal shower. Or so I thought. My store doesn't carry the avocado color anymore. The customer service representative put my order into the computer, so essentially she did what I could have been doing from my couch at home. The computer kept spitting back the information though. Finally after twenty minutes or so of standing there telling her my name and address and email address and phone number and what my favorite color is (not really), the order was taken for this dishware set. I left the store with a receipt, and it should be shipped to me. Again, another thing that was sort of accomplished.

Dress Barn is really the only woman's clothing store I have within fifteen minutes of my house. I have Kohl's, also, but the stuff there is getting to look too maternal to me. Other stores are at the mall south of here (twenty plus minutes plus walking a mall indoors today isn't what I wanted to do) or in some of the plazas near this mall. I have been successful in the past with buying dresses for Carly's graduation last year and the Key West wedding this year, so I decided to give it a try for another graduation dress. Usually the store is empty, and the sales reps have pounced on me (yes, pounced). I didn't want pouncing today, but I was ready for it. Not today. Not on the day that things weren't really getting done quickly. I had to ask for a dressing room door to be open and wait for that to happen. I stood in line buying a dress (successful again, and this I think I can use for graduation and another wedding, so bingo!) behind someone returning many items and another woman buying things but still shopping (you know the one's that send someone else they are shopping with to leave the line to run back for things). Twenty minutes later (I didn't have a watch today, but I think everything took twenty minutes or longer), I was done.

Here is my cute flouncy dress, and yes, my laundry room walls are bright orange.

I like to be happy when I do laundry :)

Finally home again, I made the icing for the wacky cake. Ray came home, and we made the trip to Costco for steaks (dinner tomorrow). My back up dessert is brownie brittle (guess it would be good over ice cream, but I don't like it, so I really have to like the Wacky Cake now). Chatted with neighbors about Panama, yay. And rather than eating dinner, since that would be accomplishing something, we are going straight to Sweet Frog for frozen yogurt dessert. Then I will feel the day was super successful! Few more pictures below of things I saw today and thought about--most thoughts these days are of my daughter moving home and her new life/career. Then of course, I think about Panama.

Wind hit this tree hard two summers ago. I said it has to come down (the main trunk is severely damaged). Ray says yearly now "look at how my tree is growing and thriving". I tell Ray, dramatically, this is the reason our house won't sell next spring.