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

End of March - More Condo Updates

 March has been very nice here weatherwise.  We have had many beautiful days!  We survived spring break.  It wasn't crazy with college kids.  It was full of families.  Boy, was it crowded!  We are finding that weekends are packed now that the temperatures are nice.  You should see it tonight.  It is so busy!  I enjoy walking on the beach when it is busy because it is just more exciting!

Here are a few photos of me and my Dad:

Mom and I walk every morning, but I enjoy the weekends best because both of my folks are with me.  You should see how deep I am getting in the water now.  I love it! 

We have made a few more updates to the condo.  Dad painted all the kitchen cabinets and put new knobs on them.  He added knobs to the drawers. They never had knobs, so that required a special screw because the wood was extra thick which added a few weeks to the project.  Mom got them on Amazon.  We have starfish knobs on the top cabinets and shells on the bottom cabinets and drawers.

We found the starfish hooks at Kohl's. They were half off and since they matched our kitchen, Mom said we had to buy them.

Dad added hooks to the stove so that Mom could hang her pot holders.  She hated just leaving them on the counter.

Here are more starfish holders with measuring cups and spoons on them.  We only have two real drawers, so we don't have a lot of room for things.  Mom bought the knife holder at Ikea.  She wants to get a wall spice rack. She bought this one at Goodwill for $2 but it doesn't hold all of her spices.

Here is the view from the living room.  The Home Sweet Home is from Ross.

We bought this at the Galveston Market.  It is an outdoor event that is held every few months.  It was only $5.

Today, we hung up the divider curtain between the living room and the bedroom.  We were going to put up barn doors but those would have been a challenge.  Our ceiling is steel and concrete and Dad doesn't have the tools to drill through it which means we may never get the ceiling fans we want.  Anyway, we decided to go with curtains.  We doubt we will really close them, but it gives the room a more finished look according to Mom.  Dad glued the wood to the ceiling and then he screwed the rod into it.  He says it will hold.  I hope so.  Mom is going to have to hem their curtains.  They are a little long.

Mom painted the table next to the bed. It is actually a barstool that came with the place.  We were going to just use the top of it as a shelf but decided to leave it alone in case we need it for seating some day.  Do you see the pelican on the upper shelf? Mom really likes pelicans and it seems she started collecting them accidentally. 

We have a few more paintings to hang. Mom painted the frames last week.  Dad has talked about fixing the countertops will a faux finish.  Mom said it looks like a lot of mess to her, so I am not sure if and when that will happen.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Enjoys Getting His Belly Wet In The Ocean

It's February - More Condo Updates

Can you believe that it is February already?  We are happy to have this year moving into a new month.  January was cold here.  I know, it was not as cold as other places but it was cold for Galveston.  We actually had ice here!  Dad had two really bad days of driving on ice.

Our condo is directly over the storage area.  We enjoy not being over another condo because we can be noisy and not bother anyone.  We did discover a downfall.  The storage area is not heated which means our floor is very cold on freezing days.  We have rugs all over, but the floor is still cold.  Mom gets notifications from the electric company every week telling her how much electric we have used the previous week.  We are using a lot more electric than other people.  We think we figured out another reason other than our freezing floor.  We think a lot of those people are not even living in their units.  The majority of the people in our building do not live here full-time so they are not really heating their units.  It was warmer last week and our heat wasn't on that much and we were still told we were using more than other people.  Mom said she is just not going to worry about it. She should probably stop the notifications from coming so that she doesn't stress so much.   We keep our unit at 72 during the day and lower at night.

We have completed a few more updates to our place since our last post.  We have received several compliments on our door.  BOL!  We took down the rusty piece that was on it and Dad painted the door, put a new lock on it and put weather stripping all around it.  Mom thinks it is funny that so many people are excited about our door.

Can you believe they left the rusty piece on it when they were selling it?  They put a ton of nails in it and they probably didn't want to fix it.  This was the picture on the realtor's site.

Mardi Gras is huge here, so bought this wreath.  We like our lock system. We can lock it with just a touch of the screen.  We don't have to carry keys, but Mom does because "What if the battery dies while we are gone?"  I like it because I know when the folks are coming in the door.  They can't sneak up on me because it goes beep, beep, beep as they punch in their code.

This is our breezeway.  We take the elevator to our floor and then we have to walk on the breezeway to get to our unit. There are some days that it is very windy here.  Most people don't like the blue and there is a big debate about what color it should be.

This is our view from our doorway.  It is not very pretty.

Here is the backside of the building.  You can see our wreath - 2nd floor towards the middle of the picture.

Full view of the backside of the building.  Tennis courts are to the left. 

Okay, so back inside.  We bought new rugs to help our chairs fit in with our color scheme.

The lamp came with the place.  It will eventually leave.  We added the end tables with baskets for more storage. Tools are still being stored under our table.

We still need to add a divider to separate the rooms.  We had planned on barn doors but now I think we are going with white curtains.

Mom continues to add things our cubes.

This painting came with the place. It is of our unit.  Mom painted the frame white.

This past weekend, we added a shelf and a new microwave to our kitchen.

Before - this was before we even moved in.  Mom wanted the microwave off the counter.

Before the shelf.  We have the missing door.  Dad took it down so that we could buy new hinges.  We will be painting the cabinets soon.

After - Mom loves it! The plates and silverware are very handy in this location.

We really don't have good before photos of the bathroom.  Dad put in new lights, a new mirror and towel rack.

We still need new towels.  Mom loves the toilet paper holder.  It holds the extra rolls.

The lights and the mirror are a big improvement.

We added the medicine cabinet.  There really wasn't storage without it.

Mom decorated the jars and basket.  It holds q-tips, floss and eyeglass cleaners.  She is not in love with it.

Mom loves this night light that is in the bathroom.  It is from Switchables.  You can switch out the design. They have a few more that she would like.

The door to the right was in our storage unit.  They just had a curtain over the doorway.  Mom hated it.  The water heater is in that closet.  Dad was able to put the old door back up.  It needs to be painted. 

Mom bought some pansies last week.  She has two planters on the balcony. They are Mardi Gras colors!  BOL!

Here is our unit from the front of the building.

We are the unit on the right closest to the wall.

We had some beautiful views this week.

Mom and I don't know why our fonts are acting up on this post.  We have tried to fix it, but it is not working.  We will just live with it.

Joey,

The Greyhound Who Wonders Why It Took Us So Long To Get Here

Happy New Year!

We spent a quiet New Year's Eve at home.  However, Saturday at 4:30 a.m. we were awakened by flashing lights in our window.  A guy stole a car and drove fast into our parking lot.  He decided to get rid of the car by sending it over the seawall.  He put it in drive and sent it over from our parking lot.  He then ran into our building because he is staying here.  The police immediately found him and arrested him.  We thought it had to be a drunk driver or someone whose GPS guided them incorrectly, but no, it was a guy who stole it. 

This is the imprint of the car.  It went down nose first.  The seawall is in the background.

Yesterday, the folks were busy in our tiny condo.  Dad fixed our patio door and our front door or back door (we can't decide what it is) because they both had gaps that were letting a lot of cold air in.  When the wind blows, we had quite a breeze coming in.  He also put the cubes on the wall.

Mom has her cookbooks. CDs, DVDS, my treats and a few other things.  We are going to buy some bigger shells to decorate some of the openings.

 Mom decided to paint the kitchen.  She ended up getting white all over the top of her head  She was painting behind the refrigerator and when she looked down her head brushed the wall.  BOL!  It was pretty funny.  She still has a little paint on her head today.

Before

After

Before

After (Mom bought that clock for their first apartment. It has been in every place that they have owned.)

After

We are going to get a new microwave soon and it will hang above the stove.  We will paint the cabinets blue.  We were going to paint them the same color as the living room, but now we are thinking we will use the bathroom blue.  It is a little bit lighter.

Mom ordered curtain liners that are supposed to help darken the room at night.  They will also help insulate the patio door a little better.  Our curtains are supposed to be room darkening, but it is hard for white to darken.  We think these will help.  They are scheduled to arrive tomorrow.  She also ordered a new vent for the bathroom and a silverware caddy for the kitchen.  We only have two drawers in our kitchen so she thinks that will free up a drawer for other things like measuring cups and spoons and things that just don't fit in our utensil holder.  

Mom is still searching for rugs for the place.  She wants something to help our chairs fit in better with our color scheme.  

It is cool here this week.  It is not as cool as other places, but Mom is making me wear my hoodie.  It is the wind that really makes it cold.  I am still insisting that we walk on the beach every day.  We will dip below freezing the next two nights and then this weekend we may be back up to 70.  We have been told that this weather is not normal for here and that winter normally doesn't last this long.  Mom even got out the space heater today.  Our electric bill is predicted to be double what we planned.  It is not nearly as bad as in the RV though.

Joey,

The Greyhound Who Whines When He Can't Go To The Beach