We’ll be at a Kings Club North Club party bringing in the New Year on New Year’s Eve. Several tables of friends will join us. Should be fun.

Over the years we’ve tried several different parties but we’ve never attended this one. The previous couple of years we went to one in Sun City Center which included a sit-down dinner. The food this time will be heavy hor dourvers which may work better because last year the service was slow and our meal didn’t get to us until nearly 11:00. Going to a party should be more than just waiting for your meal.

Since John and I never stay up until midnight, just staying awake will be a challenge but if the music is good, we’ll dance a lot.

I’ve got a problem that’s driving me crazy. I hear two very high pitched chirps every 1.02 minutes but I can’t figure out where the sound is originating. Since I am deaf in one ear, I can’t directionalize sound and the pitch doesn’t match John’s hearing range so he’s oblivious to it. I can’t figure out what’s making the sound. It’s not the smoke detectors, nor air purifier nor the refrigerator. It’s been going on since last night and I’m about to scream. If there’s any one with good hearing who is in the vicinity and can help me, I’d sure appreciate it. Since John can’t hear it, he’s looking at me strangely.

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I FOUND IT! The source of the chirp as a digital meat thermometer in a kitchen cabinet. It had been returned to its box after being used yesterday and it stayed on, chirping intermittently. Drove me crazy!

I buy a lot of stuff on eBay. The other day I spotted a pair of Carlo Pazolini Leather Folding Travel Flats (handmade) which looked very comfortable for $159 with $9.99 for shipping. They’d be great to wear on the plane when I go to California, but they were waaaay too expensive!! No way would I spend $169.99 for little leather flats!

On December 19th, I spotted the same shoes for $15 with FREE shipping. $153.99 price difference!

Here are the two pair. Can you tell which ones were more expensive?

Take a guess. Were the expensive ones Pair 1 or Pair 2?

Pair 1:

Pair 2:

The bargain ($15) was Pair 1. Identical in every way to Pair 2 including the cloth bag with Carlo Pazolini woven into the fablic.

I love eBay. Shop carefully and you’ll do what I did. You’ll score a good buy from a wonderful seller. Thanks, Mike!!

Today we’ll enjoy a Christmas gathering at the home of friends (Paul and Bunny). Sounds like a good time and, knowing them, we’ll have lots to eat and drink.

Tomorrow it’s two days until Christmas.

It’s become a tradition for us to host a Christmas Eve party for our Michigan friends who are here in Florida. We’ll enjoy a lot of food and our group of four (Kings Strings) will provide a little Christmas music. There’ll also be some group karaoke, and a little sampling of wines. The plan is to enjoy a relaxed evening with friends.

Lots of flickering candles, the Christmas tree fully decorated, lots of outdoor lights, and hopefully a warm and welcoming atmosphere.

Obviously getting ready is a challenge. I continually dust and vacuum, but I still spot dust bunnies. And Charlie, our cockatiel, spits his seeds in his cage area. (I think he’ll go in our music room for the evening but he’s not going to be happy being left out.)

The party will start at 5:30 on Christmas Eve. We’ll party until the last leave. No deadline on the festivities.

Christmas Day the two of us will enjoy a 12-pound turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

It would be nice to have pool weather after Christmas because I’ve been too busy to spend any time there, but I think there’s a cool-down anticipated. (It’s been mid 80’s.) It’ll probably be in the mid 70’s which is warm enough to sit by the pool and read.

On New Years Eve, we have plans to attend a big party at the North Clubhouse.

I want to take down the tree and un-decorate on New Year’s Day so I won’t have to face that chore after my California trip. All my fake poinsettas, wreath, outdoor lights, candles, etc. will be packed and ready for John to store in the attic. (He’ll have the week that I’m gone to get that done.)

I leave Florida on January 2nd and return home on the 8th. My grandson gets married on January 4th at Hidden Valley, Carmel Valley Village, California. I fly out EARLY on the 2nd. (We’ll have to leave here by 5:00 a.m. to get to the airport by about 5:45 for a 7:00 departure.)

Seems like I’m on a treadmill getting no where. So much to do, but not enough energy to do it all.

What do I need to do before the party, what can I do toward Christmas dinner, what do I wear New Years Eve, what do I pack to take with me? And on and on.

I’m wondering if anyone else finds “Perfect Polly” a very sad advertisement? Does anyone actually think that fake bird resembles (or sounds like) a real bird?

Here’s the website which contains the same information presented in the TV ad: https://www.perfectpollypet.com

They actually say, “PERFECT POLLY IS LIFE SIZE & VERY REALISTIC –
Its features are so lifelike, only you will know it’s not real!”

This holiday it seems this ad for a plastic parakeet runs every hour or two. I hate it. Chia Pets and Clappers have been suggested for years as great Christmas gifts, but Polly is worse. The ad implies that it will replace a pet. (“The joy of a pet without the work.”)

Old folks aren’t that desperate.

But wait… You can get TWO Perfect Polly’s for the same price. Why??

You can buy the fake bird for $10. (Why would anyone need to be told that a plastic bird doesn’t require food, cage, and other care items? Of course it doesn’t. It’s FAKE!! It’s a hunk of plastic.)

The TV ad says you get a second one for free. The commercial doesn’t mention that you pay shipping separately on both of them. Going to their website, you will find out that it’ll actually cost you considerably more than $10. (It says, “Order Perfect Polly Pet for just $10 plus $6.99 shipping & handling. Add the SPECIAL OFFER of a second Perfect Polly Pet for a Separate Fee of just $6.99.” Total $23.98.)

Dern DUMB!!

I need to lose about 25 pounds to look the way I want. Unfortunately that won’t be possible before my grandson’s January 4th wedding.

The dress that I had ordered on November 27th for the wedding came but it was a disappointment. (You can scroll back a couple posts to see it.) Actually I liked it, but John didn’t at all. The sequins were too much, according to him, so I will be shipping it back. (Heck, if my guy doesn’t like it, I sure won’t feel pretty.)

Today I found one on Macy’s website. It’s a jacket dress so has “two looks.” I ordered it in eggplant (one of my favorite colors). Hopefully it will work. At least with Macy’s orders, I can return it to the store in Brandon, if I don’t like it. But time’s getting short. I won’t have it for a week, and that will be pushing it, if it doesn’t work. Yes, I do have a two or three old ones that I could haul out, but I want something new and lovely to celebrate the occasion.

Since I’m sorta short, it’ll be too long (probably calf length), but I don’t mind.

If I would get busy and lose weight, everything would look better on me. I’ve never been this chubby. In 1985, my wedding dress was a size 2 and was about 100 lbs. I usually wore a 4. Until I was about 40, I was definitely “under-weight.” Over the years I settled in to a 6 or 8. Now I’m an often snug 10! Not happy!!! Hopefully this latest purchase will hide my “problem area.”

Here’s the pendant I think I’ll wear on a fine white-gold chain with simple diamond studs. Maybe the necklace won’t look right with it, but I’ll know when I try it on. I hope the two shades of purple/eggplant look nice together. If it doesn’t, I have a diamond heart that was my mothers’, but it’s in a gold setting with a gold chain, and the embellishments on the dress are silver. I’ll wear either black or silver 2″ heel shoes/sandals. (The black are definitely more comfortable so I’ll probably go with them.)

This morning was a “fun in the sun” time. Got to the pool early and enjoyed a Holiday Open House on the pool deck. It started at 10:00 and went until 1:00. Lots of crafters’ tables selling handmade items. There was an area where coffee, hot cider & chocolate, egg nog, and holiday cookies were available. It was well attended. We sat in one of the few shady spots where everyone passed us. I was so busy talking with friends that I forgot I wanted to read.

We left about noon. A delivery of our 72″ TV stand was scheduled for the afternoon. It arrived about 3:00 in an enormous box. The delivery folks left it still boxed but close to the area where we wanted it. Took us quite a while to unwrap our purchase. Unfortunately the tracks that the left two drawers should have glided on had broken free of the side-wall and were loose. We immediately called the company (Wayfair) and they acknowledged a problem.

A customer service person from the company where we purchased the TV stand made us several settlement offers. Our choices: we can either accept their $$$ offer and John can attempt to fix it, or we can get a new replacement stand (and when they deliver the second unit, they’ll remove the broken one), or we can get full credit plus $100 for store credit, or we can get a full refund of our money. We’re still thinking about how we’ll resolve the problem. John thinks he can probably fix it. (None of the visible wood is affected.) We’ll see.

The photo of the whole stand is a stock photo I took off their website. Our TV is actually quite a bit larger but it fits the stand nicely. When centered, it probably is about 6″ from the ends.

The picture at the right shows the interior of the left side of the unit. (The glare is just the flash shining against the inside back.) The two drawer areas have the problem. The light colored wood side boards with the glue line (curvy brown swirls on the light wood) are the pieces that should be holding the tracks but instead are totally disconnected.

If John can fix the TV stand so it looks and acts like it should, I’m all for accepting their offer (which will knock a substantial amount off the cost of the unit). I guess I am too lazy to want to go through having the broken unit hauled away and another one brought in to replaced it. The whole procedure made a real mess with styrofoam and cardboard pieces when it was unpacked. I sure don’t want to do that again if it can be avoided. But John will need to buy appropriate repair materials and it might never work as it should. We’ll have to think it over.

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John bought wood glue, sanded down the original piece and re-adhered it. It worked.

We got $250 refund for our trouble. Looks nice! We are pleased with the service we received from Wayfair.

I’ve finally found a way to have internet access so I can more easily browse on line.

Going on line:

For nearly three years I’ve used a Verizon 4G modem which receives the signal like a cellphone would. It clips to my computer and plugs into my USB port to go on line.

But with the laptop connection, I am limited to 5GB (5 gigabytes) for $50 monthly. That data restriction makes my browsing difficult. I can’t look at videos or photos because the bytes add up quickly. When I use up my allotment I incur additional fees. The USB modem serves my laptop. It isn’t a wifi hot spot, but it’s worked ok with my computer.

We also have Verizon family plan cellphones. Since mine is a “smart phone” it can go on line. That smart phone was grandfathered in with unlimited data access. When I see I’m running out of data with the modem, I do have the smart phone to fall back on.

Buying a TV:

During the past year, we’ve been shopping for a new large screen TV. (John can’t see the fine print from his usual seat in our great room, so a bigger set seemed like a good solution.) Last week, we finally decided on a 65″ Samsung smart TV from Sams Club. It was delivered Saturday and after setting it up, we’ve been enjoying the crisp clear images and much better sound. But from the beginning, it became obvious that we need a wifi signal to “feed” the smart TV. We’re missing out on too many features of the television.

Solving both problems:

Moderate speed internet service from Brighthouse, the cable company that provides our TV, costs $50. With Brighthouse internet, I wouldn’t need the USB modem, so I needed to find a way to trade internet access through our Brighthouse cable provider for my Verizon 4G USB modem. The price would be the same and Brighthouse is very accommodating about turning services on and off for snowbirds.

I hoped there was a way to switch services. I was concerned that since Brighthouse isn’t available in Michigan in May, we would need to return to the 4G modem, and I didn’t know how Verizon would handle the stop and start of my wireless USB modem’s service.

I called Verizon and got a very friendly service person who suggested that I “suspend” service to the modem. She said Verizon will let me do it in 90 day increments for up to 180 days in a 12 month period. When we return to Michigan, I can revert to USB modem service. We’ll pay the same for wifi while we’re here as we currently pay for the USB modem which only provides internet to my laptop.

The Brighthouse wifi will feed a wireless signal throughout our condo so we’ll have internet going to the TV and to my laptop. AND Brighthouse doesn’t have data restriction. I can even download movies!!

The installer came and set it up, but he left before I had an incoming signal. I worked for about an hour with Brighthouse tech service and finally got the internet working as a wireless signal. After I had the wireless signal coming in, I contacted Verizon and suspended the USB modem.

I feel like I’ve finally entered the tech world. It’s wonderful.

Tonight we went to our HOA association’s Christmas party. It was lovely.

For us, the highlights of the evening were the hor dourvers which were served by a local high school culinary school. The servers looked and acted professionally and the hor dourvers were excellent (Swedish meatballs, small crabcakes, and several other beautifully presented, tasty items). They were all announced and served at our table in a up-scale manner. We could have made a meal of them.

The prime rib was also good, but the hor dourvers and salad rated five stars!

We also enjoyed the company of our neighbors in a way that we rarely get to experience. They’re genuinely nice people.

Wish I could have spent more time with several of the attendees, especially Terre and Norma. I feel a real link to both of them. Isn’t it funny how you meet some folks only occasionally but feel you’re with valued friends. Unfortunately they were on one side of the room, we were on the other. Not enough mingling but both John and I had a very good time!