Our first event at Furman

Friday Bob and I went to a dance performance at Furman.  We both agree it is probably the best dance event we have ever seen.  There were 23 performances.  Everything from ballet, hip hop, Irish dancer, east Indian dancers, large group performances, tap dance, modern dance.  The variety, music and staging was impressive, their timing to smoothly present all the performances was great and the performers were stunning.

Starting in May every Thursday they have free music concerts on the lake so we will be going to many of those.  Each night has a theme.  There is classical, blues, jazz, Beatles, Bib Band, contemporary and international.

Without a doubt Furman is the most beautiful campus I have ever seen.  The setting by the lake is gorgeous.

Also downtown Greenville has outdoor concerts down by the river every week in the summer as well as Shakespear in the Park so we will have lots of things to keep us entertained and that’s just Greenville!  The rest of the area has lots of things going on also.

One of the reasons we picked Greenville was because it seemed to have so many social, educational and cultural events and so far it definitely does.

True SC Residents

We truly are SC residents now because we have our white rocking chairs on our front porch.   Looking forward to visiting with our neighbors as they are out walking their dogs.

In a few weeks the three tier planter will become my herb garden.

Poor Tanya had a trip to the vet but is ok

Last Friday Bob noticed lots of little bumps on Tanya’s back above her tail.  I took her to the vet on Monday and it appears that probably when we were in FL she got a flea bite and had an allergic reaction.  She is not infested with fleas, just one or two bites caused quite a breakout.  Good thing is she doesn’t seem to know they are there.  We knew fleas were a problem in FL and I guess they are more of a problem here in SC then in MN so we have a simple flea treatment for her once a month through the summer. Not cheap.   $100 for six treatments but it also protects against heart worms, parasites and some other things.

It’s been three years since she last had a series of blood work done so we did that.  Good news is at 16 Tanya is very healthy with no problems.   She is so good going to the vet.   Doesn’t squirm or meow.  Just a little perfectly behaved kitty.

It was a good week!

I spite of a week of rain and Bob and I struggling with cold/allergy stuffy noses we got a lot done this week.

Picked out carpet and tile for walk out room and got it scheduled for delivery April 6.

New comfortair bed was delivered Thursday.   So far we love it.

Really cool new front screen door installed Thursday.   Just when you think there could be nothing new in a screen door we were proved wrong.   It has two really nice features.   A keypad lock and a retractable hidden screen that magically pulls down.   Hard to explain but really nice.  Now it just needs to get warm enough to have the door open!

A new heated matress pad.  Bob keeps whining that he is cold and I am never cold so this seemed like a good idea.   Will sleep on it for the first time tonight.

Finally found towels and shower curtain for master bath that coordinates with the new bedroom spread and think we found patio table furniture for the deck and our two white rocking chairs for the front porch.  Just need to hook up the trailer to get them home.  Of course everything has to be on sale.  No full prices at our house if we can help it.

It took me forever but I finally got six months of Quicken entries done and all our bank and investing accounts updated.   The picture looks better then I expected.  Seeing the information in one place that  I have entered myself always seems more real then looking at multiple statements.  Also got the taxes to our new accountant.

My least favorite thing to do is iron so I always let it pile up.  I watched 4 hours of my recorded All My Children soap and got it all done yesterday.  Whew!

The guy we had help clear out our wooded area last fall came back with his partner and they will help us seed the back yard, put in another sprinkler head and plant trees and mow the lawn.   Very good ideas from them and I think fair prices.  The back yard is so steep Bob couldn’t see himself mowing it.   In 47 feet it drops 13 feet!  Good news is the grass is well rooted and we are not seeing erosion from the rain.

And I hope best of all, I hope we have found someone to help Bob with painting, yard work, etc.  Found him on Craigslist.com.   We will meet him on Monday.   Sure hope he works out for his sake and hours.  He described himself as a 19 year old  guy with a 2 year old son, high school dropout but working on his GED and laid off from his job.  Says he has landscape and some building experience.  Babysits the son until noon so is available in the afternoon.  Bob is a little paranoid about a stranger in the house so we will be cautious.

Still dreary today but surprisingly warm.   We had coffee this morning on the screened porch with just a sweat shirt on.  We thought this fall that we didn’t have many birds but were we ever wrong.   We had an incredible concert of jays, crows, owls, mourning doves and a few others I didn’t recognize and absolutely no traffic sounds or dogs barking.   It was wonderful.

Bob will start painting the trim in the walk out room today and tomorrow we will put up heat reflecting film on our front windows.   We already know those rooms get really hot when the sun comes out.

I still have some things that never got properly unpacked and just stuffed in a few cupboards to get sorted out, a few plants to put in pots (lavendar, rosemary, catnip, ivy and panseys) as soon as it stops raining and finally have my paints out!

Greenville Newcomers group and Life Long Learning at Furman have lots of tours and events coming up in April so you will be hearing more about that in the weeks to come.   Tuesday is the first spring get together with Greenville Newcomers group and Friday is an Antiques and Collectables trip with the Furman group.

Odds and Ends

Thought I would talk a little bit about a variety of things.

Bob and I spent last week truing to figure out how we were going to landscape outside, finding an accountant, getting taxes done, going through a month of mail, getting Quicken finances caught up for the last 5 months.   Shame on me!

Did some  shopping, not our favorite thing.  I finally found shower curtains and towels for the master bath to match the master bedroom.  We ordered a new king size adjustable comfortaire bed! It is like Select Comfort but the original company and located in Greenville. We had to admit when we first looked at the adjustable raising and lower of feet and head we thought it was a gimmick until we tried it.  You could breath so much better.  We negotiated  to reduce the price 25%.  Salesmen are hungry!   That should be delivered on Friday.   We can’t wait.  Got carpet picked out for the lower level so now we can get paint and finish that off for company.   Bob’s mom and two sisters are coming for Mother’s Day!  New reclining couch and loveseat came just before we left for FL and we ordered end tables and coffee tables for family room yesterday.

Allergy season is here.   I’m all stuffed up.  Hope I am not allergic to the pine pollen still to come.  Looking forward to breathing better with the slightly elevated head in the new bed.

I am going to water aerobics two times a week at Furman University.  It isn’t a membership like Bob has ($35 a month) but through a lifelong learning program.  This will go through May and then stops for the summer and I was wondering what I would do for the summer.   The YMCA isn’t very close and I didn’t want to join. While talking to one of the other class participants she told me that for the last 9 years she has invited the class up to her pool on Paris Mountain, only a few miles from me, to do water aerobics Monday, Wednesday and Friday.   She says there is also a lot of visiting!   Should be a great opportunity to get to know people better.

We joined the Greenville Newcomers Club and they have many activities throughout the month.   Just haven’t had time to last week to get things planned.

We are happy that Bob’s work with ING got extended through June but it will probably end after that.   He will continue to work 24 hours a week.  We are really pleased with the way this has worked out but he is ready to be done in June.   There may be one more trip for  him to MN but don’t know that for sure yet.

We had a quiet weekend.  We taped Battlestar Galactica and watched 8 hours of that.   Pretty good ending.  I still think Babylon 5 is better but this was a close second.

Seems I threw out to many of my garden pots when we moved so I get to buy some new ones tomorrow for my catnip, lavendar, rosemary and pansies!

It is our 35th anniversary on Monday but we are going to celebrate on Tuesday at the High Cotton Restaurant and Jazz club on the river in downtown Greenville.  They are celebrating their second anniversary and have special things going on so should be fun.

Happy spring to all of you and have a great week.

Spring!

After the fog burns off this morning it should hit 70!  In the area the yellow forsythia is blooming as well as some huge trees with white blossoms (Bradford Pear) and other ones with pink blossoms.   They say there still could be one more freeze.  I have garden fever and will head to the garden store tomorrow to get educated on what grows here.  We still need to figure out what to do with our big sloping back lawn.  Have someone coming next Wed. to talk with us a second time.  The back yard is 47 feet with a 13 foot drop!

Back home in SC

We had an uneventful 12 hour drive back home.

Sleeping in our bed together is wonderful. We have been used to our king size bed and the bed in FL was a double. We tried sleeping together in the little bed for several nights but tossed and turned and woke each other up so even though we didn’t want to sleep alone we decided in the interests of a good nights sleep we went to separate beds.

Bob missed his big screen TV. I missed our screened porch. We both missed the hot tub.

Tanya is happy anywhere. I can’t believe what a perfect little traveler she is. She sits on the little arm rest between our seats and curls up in a little ball to go to sleep or sprawls out and goes to sleep. 12 hours in the car and even though we had food and water and litter box she didn’t use them. Get home, put litter box in place and she uses it. She is more adaptable then Bob and I are.

We are glad to be home. Laundry is done and now we get caught up on bill paying and getting the taxes done.

P.S. There will be more stories and photos coming of our trip so stay tuned!

Mystery ankle pain

It appeared during the night with no warning. I hurt like heck for two days and then it disappeared. My explanation is that a bone got out of place and wearing the splint for 24 hours put it back in place. Weird.

Scientology and Zeitgeist

When we first got here we made a trip to the beach to watch the sunset. As we were leaving a young man handed me a little book and a DVD. Being the polite person that I am I just took the info. The next day I met one of our neighbors who was from Denmark but living in California. He had been here for quite a few weeks and his wife had recently left. He said he was here to study Scientology. Unfortunately he left soon after and I didn’t get a chance to ask him any questions. My curiosity was peaked so I went to Wikepedia to learn more.  Clearwater is the headquarters of the Scientology Religion. WOW, didn’t expect that.

My girlfriend Sara  and her girlfriend Elizabeth came to visit soon after that and Sara was quite interested in the church. Elizabeth knew a little more and between the three of us girls and Bob we had an interesting conversation for the next few days.  On Sat. they were in downtown Clearwater across from the Scientology building and saw a protest.

The book is called “The Way to Happiness’ a common sense guide to better living”. I didn’t tell them anything but asked them to read it. It is a very odd little book. I won’t tell you more then that. Here is a link to read it http://www.thewaytohappiness.org/about/resources-and-downloads/e-books/index.html?id=25935e

I haven’t watched the dvd on prescription drugs yet.

If you are into offbeat views of our society, politics, the monetary system, religion etc. I would recommend Zeitgeist. http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ You can watch it on line or order it for just a few dollars. There is also a follow up DVD. I guarantee it will give you much to talk about whether you agree with it or not.

Heading Home Early

Hard as it is to imagine, we miss home in SC. I want to sit on my porch, grill outside and Bob misses his big screen TV and we both miss our big bed. Add in the fact that on Tuesday I ended up in the doctors office with a very painful right ankle. They took xrays and the dr. said my ankle was a mess. He’s not sure if I sprained it or if there are to stress fractures. I didn’t fall or anything so it is a puzzle. When I get back to SC I need to get and MRI done. Being on crutches really crimps the beach walking so we are going to pack up and start home on Wed. instead of Sat.