Beach Life Is The Best

Hi Friends!

Yes, I know it has been a long time since I updated all of you.  Mom heard someone say that no one really cares when a blogger doesn't update their blog and Dad agreed.  We are glad that you are not holding your breath waiting for an update, but we do hope you care a little.

Everything is fine with us.  I am still walking about 2.5 miles every day on the beach and now I lay down in the water and let the waves crash over me.  It is so much fun!

This past weekend was a holiday and the beach was packed. The news said that over a half a million people visited the beach.  Mom said they didn't all come to visit me, but I still greeted as many people as I could while on my walks.  We were really surprised that the traffic was still backed up at 10 p.m. on Sunday and people were still on the beach. We don't know what time everyone left because we went to bed.

Oh, on Monday, we saw this man trying to pull in a fish.  He was pulling and pulling and pulling.  We thought it would break his line but finally, he got it in and people cheered and gathered around him to see it.  I bet it was thrilling for him to have such a crowd around him cheering for him.  It was a huge Texas Redfish.  Dad said people are only allowed to catch one large redfish a year and the man set if free.  We hope it makes it.  Mom should have taken a photo of it, but she didn't.   A lifeguard came running up because she thought something bad had happened since the crowd around him was so large.  I am sure she was relieved that it was just a fish and not a child on the ground.

People were parked as far as we could see down Seawall Blvd on Sunday.

We still try to see the sunrise every morning but sometimes it is just too early for us.

Sometimes we see cute sand sculptures.

We have seen other things that we can't unsee.  BOL!

Condo Updates

We have made a few more updates to the condo.  Mom doesn't have a lot of storage space in the kitchen so they decided to add it to the wall.

The shelf and the spice racks were ordered from Ikea.  In true Ikea fashion, there was drama involved in the order.  The spice racks and the shelf were shipped separately and the mailing label on both had the first number of our address cut off. The FedEx man called us on the package with the spice racks and it made it to us without any problems. The shelf didn't make it.  Mom called Ikea and was on hold for 52 minutes. She then spoke to someone for 22 minutes who figured out the problem but then the line went dead and Mom didn't know if the shelf was actually coming. She email and she chatted with no results.  Finally, the FedEx person called three days later and said the driver said we didn't exist even though they had our correct address.  The shelf finally arrived.  If Ikea would have provided us with a tracking number we would have at least known a little more about what was happening.

Mom painted the spice racks and the shelf. The spice racks are teak wood and the shelf was white. The containers are from Walmart and fit perfectly on the shelf.  The containers hold flour, sugars, coffee, my treats, and different kinds of pasta.

Mom calls this Dad's wall because it is all his design. The pictures except for the center one were left here by the previous owner.  Mom painted them white. The middle one Mom bought at Hobby Lobby. The shells we collected from the beach.

We have been wanting a pair of these chairs.  However, they are $325 to $375 each.  They are made of Polywood and will last "forever".  We found out that Murdoch's, a store here, was selling their chairs because they replaced theirs with new ones. They only had one bar stool left.  We went ahead and bought it because it was only $50.  We wish they had had two, but they didn't.  We went to the furniture store here and they didn't have any white ones and we were told when they come in, the price would actually be $415.  The folks stopped at another place and were able to order one for $325 plus tax and it should be here next week.  The chairs are still crazy expensive, but they basically bought two for $400 instead of $650.  They love their chair because it is tall enough that they can see over the balcony.

Anniversary

May 24th was the folks anniversary but Dad was in Los Angeles for a meeting.  They celebrated on Saturday night.  They ate to Fisherman's Wharf with a gift card that Mom earned from mystery shopping. They wanted to watch the cruise ship leave and they had a front-row seat.

The ship was 40 minutes late leaving, so they ordered dessert.

Finally, the ship left.

Rarely Boring

It is rarely boring here.  It seems like there is always something going on around us and we are not talking about city events. The other morning someone crashed into the porta potty on the Seawall.  That same morning a transformer caught fire and we lost electric for a few hours.  Also on that same day, one of the employees went to the ER due to illness.  Mom was quite worried about him, but he is fine now.

We sit on the balcony and just watch the beachgoers.  It provides hours of entertainment and it is free.  BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Has A Salt Water Soul

We Have A New Place!

 Merry Christmas!  We haven't been around lately because we have been really busy.  We are now official condo owners!  We closed on our place on December 11th and we have been busy.  We have been painting and putting furniture together.  Grandma and Grandpa arrived on the 15th.  They left this morning.  They didn't stay with us because we are living in a "tiny condo".  Our condo is the size of our 45' motorhome.  It is 338' square feet, I think.  It is a studio which means there is not a separate living room and bedroom.  It is all one room.  We went with this option for a number of reasons. The main reason is cost.  We could have afforded a one bedroom, but the HOA dues are $150 more a month for it.  Dad wants to retire soon and we plan to have this one paid off in three years.  The one bedroom would have taken us probably five years to pay off.  The taxes and utilities are lower in ours too.  We like living small, so it works for us.

We are still working on the condo, but we will show you some photos.  There is still a lot of work to do before it is complete though, so you need to keep an open mind.

Here are the before pictures.

It came complete furnished. 

I immediately claimed this chair.

Mom said we can't keep it because it is too big.

We then started painting. We chose blues for the living area and the bathroom.  The kitchen will be white and the cabinets will be blue.

We ordered our closets and bed from Ikea.  Unfortunately, one box did not arrive. The box was box 1 of our bed We don't know if it was Ikea's fault or the delivery drivers.  We were not given anything to sign accepting our order and saying it was all there.  We called Ikea and Dad spent nearly an hour trying to get it fixed.  They said they could send us the box in a week or we could drive to Houston to pick it up. We needed a bed, so the folks drove to Houston and spent three hours with the drive and waiting in line to get the correct box. We paid $199 for the delivery and $40 for Ikea to "pick" the order and they refused to refund any of the money because we didn't sign anything when the delivery happened.  Yep, it was our fault even though the delivery person practically ran out of the condo and told us to call Ikea if anything was missing.  19 boxes were delivered, so it wasn't like it was easy to tell something was missing especially when some things had more than one box.  Mom expected only 13 boxes, so it was very confusing.   We are not sure how that is our fault, but they rudely told us it was.  Today, Mom received a call from Ikea because they are confused as to whether we received the order that they had scheduled for the since our order was messed up.  They left a message for Mom to call, so she did.  The person answering the phone refused to connect the call to the extension given in the message because Mom only knew the extension number and not the name of the person.  Customer service does not seem to be important to Ikea.

The boxes contain our furniture.

Here Dad is putting the bed together:

We bought this bed because it has storage under it.

Here is our Sleep Number mattress being assembled.

Here is the bed. Mom orderd the comforter online and it is so nice.  I love the bed.

The bathroom is painted a lighter shade of blue and it is a work in progress.  We had the tub refinished last week.  It looks brand new.

 We went back to Ikea over the weekend and spent more $$$ with them.  We like their products, just not the people.

This is our table/desk.  It has a glass top.  It is narrow, but it is what we need.  It has a drawer for "junk".

The table is a TV stand until the TV is put on the wall.  The table also has room for "junk" under it.

Dad purchased shelves for the hallway from Ikea.

The hall has the shelves and two coat racks.  One rack has my collar, leashes and beach walking items.

Today, our recliners arrived.  We had planned on getting a loveseat and recliner but decided the loveseat would make it too crowded.  We really wanted white or blue recliners, but after searching several stores, we chose these.  We could have special ordered, but the wait time was four months and the folks needed chairs.

The white cube "shelves" you see will not be stayng there.  They will be hung over the bed. Dad ran out of time.

The recliners match my bed.  Have you noticed that I don't have a couch?  What greyhound doesn't have a couch?

Here are the closets and dresser from Ikea.  A TV will hang on the wall in the middle.

 

The kitchen still needs to be painted.  Mom is searching for rugs for the entire place.  There is still a lot to do. We will give you another tour when we have more things completed.

This is the view from our place. We have our own palm tree.

Another view from the balcony.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Probably The Newest Greyhound Resident In Galveston