Trip To South America????

Today, the bill for my Dixie Belle business credit card arrived. I had recently charged a couple of big ticket items so I knew my balance was going to be up there. But it was just a bit too high. While going over the charges, I find one for $376.76 to LAN.....global something or other. I said to Dan, "I don't recognize this charge. Did we buy anything big other than the washer & dryer?" He couldn't remember anything.

After sitting & scratching my head for a few minutes, I decide to Google LAN. Guess what I found? A freakin' airline to South America. Somebody flew to South America on my dime!!!

So I call Bank Of America fraud line and after several days on hold, ok maybe it wasn't quite that long I finally get a real person and start on my tale of woe when my damn cat steps on the phone and cuts off the call.

In the end BOA was very helpful. They took the charge off, pending my affidavit of fraud, closed the account immediately and will be issuing me a new card.

The Hideous Yellow is Gone

Here's the new & improved unit #6. The color is actually a soft gold. I know it looks more like cream in this photo. The first yellow was actually a lot worse in person.

This problem was easily solved. There's another one that a new coat of paint won't fix. It's a she, the wife of one of my workers who's in one of my kitchen units for a month. She's here for a visit.

He goes to work & she stays and drives me and Karen nuts while we're trying to work. The fridge isn't cold enough, there's a small leak under the kitchen sink, which she wiped up with one of my good hand towels, she needs more hangers, she needs another can opener, she wants a different spatula. She completely rearranged all the furniture in the room and put a welcome mat in the doorway of my laundry room which I tripped on & damn near killed myself.

She's a non stop talker, mostly about how we can do things better, faster, smarter. She's a real expert on all subjects and followed poor Karen around all morning. I can hide in the office. She says she's leaving Thursday, but my guess is that she'll be baaaaack........

Admitting my Mistakes

In my defense, there are little yellow fish in the comforter. However, the particular yellow that I used on the lamp and benches is totally pukey. Way over the top & embarrassing. As soon as the wind dies down (spray painting) and I can get to the hardware store these will be redone and I will repost.

Granted the room needs to be a little less blue, but this is disgusting.

The Jury's In

My new GE Profile dryer. I'm giving it a 4 out of 5 stars. It beats anything I've had in the past, but that wasn't all that hard to do. The drum is huge. 7 cubic feet. A good size load of towels dries in about 1 1/4 hours. I wish it was faster than that, but I can live with this. By the way, it has a shiny stainless steel drum. On Tuesday, I was wearing a heart monitor & when I reached into the dryer, the reflection of my arm made me think there was some kind of critter in there. I jumped back 3 feet. I wonder how that's going to register!

Some new restaurants have opened it the first reviews are in. I personally have not been to any of them, but this is what I'm hearing.

Joe Mama's, wood fired oven pizza on Reid St, downtown PSJ. 2.5 out of 5. One size, medium, with most folks claiming it only serves one. only three basics with pricey charges for extras. The biggest rip off in my book is a charge for extra cheese. I remember when pizza had plenty of cheese. The evil genius who thought up cutting the amount of cheese in half, then charging extra for the right amount should rot in hell.

The Great Southern School of Fish. Despite the ridiculous name this upscale restaurant in Windmark is getting raves. We give it a 4.5 for the stupid name and pricey menu.

Two Crabs. Hwy 98, St Joe Beach. Unanimous 5's for this small seafood house. There's an educated and talented chef/owner, casual atmosphere &, fresh seafood. They plan to serve on the beach across the street, to open for breakfast and to introduce more innovative menu choices. Opens at 5 PM for dinner & if you're not there at 5, plan to stand in line. Pricing is good.

Red Hat Lunch

I wish I had taken a picture today. About 10 of us gathered for lunch at Toucan's, a funky tiki bar type indoor-outdoor restaurant right on the beach in Mexico Beach. One of the quirky things about this area is that the time zone changes from eastern to central at the county line, 7 miles up the road. We're eastern & Toucan's is central, so the ladies who live in MB had lunch at 11 AM. When we make dates around here, we always ask, your time or my time?



Anyway, we had a good group today. In our booth, it was me & The Ho, Jean, a 93 year old sassy girl ,(she told a risque joke today,) Virginia, charming, friendly and the vice-queen of our bunch, Joanne, who's poor health moved her here from Brooklyn to live with her son & DIL (a gem of a woman with all the charm & chutzpah of an italian gramma from Brooklyn,) and rounding out the group, Fran, who has a daughter my age & told us that her recent brain surgery cured her craving for chocolate & if she had known they could turn off that switch, she would have asked for a few more adjustments.



Jean's Joke: A young woman was spending the weekend with her grandma & came downstairs dressed for an evening out in a very sheer shirt. Grandma says: "Oh my, you can't go out like that, I can see through your blouse!" The girl replied, "Oh Gram, get with it, I'm just showcasing my rosebuds." The next morning, when the girl comes downstairs for breakfast, there sits Gram totally topless. "Grandma! What are you doing with no shirt on!!!!" "Why my dear, I'm just showcasing my hanging baskets."



PS Jean also volunteers 3 days a week at the local nursing home where she is older than the oldest resident.

New Mural

Unit 10 is one of my favorites. Non smoking with a king bed and a bistro set by the front window.

However, it had a connecting door with a smoking room & sometimes some smoke seeped in. So...using Dan's method, I heavily duct taped all the seams around the door and applied this lovely tropical sunrise.

The room is painted yellow, so the colors blend beautifully. Right now, over the bed is a badly underscaled print, so as soon as I find and can afford the right sized artwork, I'll post a photo of the entire room.

On a different subject entirely, my profile photo is new because today I went to a new hair stylist. I had lowlights put in and a new cut and style. It fascinates me how various people feel one should look. I let her do her thing, because I wanted to see what kind of look she thought I should go for. It's cute, but, I never wear my hair down. It already feels hot around my face & neck. It'll be back in a ponytail tomorrow.

Trailer Living

We've been back in the trailer for a year now & I'm really enjoying the convenience and the comfortable space I've made. The kitchen however, had a tropical motif and it just wasn't striking the right cord. On a whim, I ordered 2 small prints of old Atlantic City postcards. Love, love, love them.

I'm off & running now. I ordered 3 more in different sizes, plus I had made a shadow box with a photo of me at age three in a rolling chair with my Pop and the metal Shill sign from the front of an AC rolling chair. Now I have a ruby cut glass cup which was one of Mother's treasures. On one side it says Atlantic City and on the other, George Hoffman, 1894. Mother & I loved Pop and having these things to remember him by are very special to me.

Here's a before & I'll post my AC kitchen when it's finished.

A New Favorite Author

Lately, I seem to be drawn to books with a sense of place and characters I can see in that place.

When I first read The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch by Marsha Moyer I was sucked in by the town of Mooney in east Texas, partly because, I'm familiar with east Texas & like it , so I could picture the town easily. In books, I love to revisit places I've been & have been drawn to.

This was Moyer's first novel & entrancing in many ways, but I found myself a tad impatient with the characters overreaction to events and feelings. But then again, anyone who knows me knows that I'm very impatient with what I perceive to be real peoples' overreactions. Given that, I still liked it enough to read her second story in the series.

The Last of the Honky-Tonk Angels really sucked me in. I just read the last word & immediately went to Amazon.com & ordered the last two books in Moyer's series, because I need to know what happens with these people, even though I want to smack, Lucy, Ash & Denny upside the head many times.

What really grates on my nerves is that, the character by the name of Denise is called Denny. I hate that. Denise is a beautiful name & Denny's is a chain restaurant.

It's Here!

The new dryer is here & I'm already in love with the size of the stainless steel tub. It's a cautious optimism however, because I was so enamored with the look of the Whirlpool Duet and it turned out to be one of the worst & most expensive dryers ever. All the Duet ever did was turn the wet wash into wet pretzels.

I brought this on myself by asking to have the utility sink moved over a couple of feet in order to make the washer more accessible. I hate having to climb over the folding table to load my wash. Oh boy, did I open a can of ugly, squiggly, bloody worms.

Tomorrow is Sunday, the biggest turnover day of the week and not only do I not have a dryer, but because of the work going on in there I also have no washer, no folding table, no route to take the cleaning cart in or out. I was in South Carolina shortly after the devastating hurricane Hugo. Hugo would have left my laundry room in better condition.

Tomorrow will be a nightmare & as I write this, I'm seriously trying to hold back a nervous breakdown.

Gramichele the Geek

I've been without internet for 3 days now. Today I must have done something right because, by deleting a hidden object game that had given me trouble, then running the troubleshoot again, I'm up and running without professional help. So proud of myself. I'm inching toward geekness and proud of it.

Dan had to put up with my ill humor during my netless state. Without it, I am bereft. I'm thinking that I rely way too heavily on my computer. I'm going to have to find a way to exist contentedly without it if need be. I had to use Dan's computer to put in my Avon order, check my email, confirm my reservations and download my crossword puzzle. His is configured so differently from mine that I'm totally uncomfortable with it.

On a different subject, the new dryer arrives tomorrow. No more twice daily trips to the laundromat.
Let's hope the dryer lives up to the reviews I've read. My hopes are high.

Wow, Fresh Air

I'm sure there's tons of folks bitchin' about this storm coming through, but I was just out on the front porch & the smell was of freshly washed air & I loved it.

Easter at the Laundromat

I had 7 turnovers this morning which translates into 14 sets of sheets and towels for 17 because 3 rooms had an extra person. It started out fine. The weather is on the cool side and the air dry enough to breathe without a scuba tank. Went out early to get some wash going, came back in, made Dan some blueberry muffins (his fav.) Oh I need to digress for a moment. Does the punctuation belong inside or outside the parentheses? I've always been confused about that. From somewhere in the the recesses of my mind, I feel compelled to put them inside, but it just doesn't look right.



Anyway, I go back out to put the first load in the dryer & when I pushed the button, I got a lovely hum but no action. I've had the feeling in the back of my mind that this washer & dryer were getting a little long in the tooth, but feeling I needed to squeeze out every last moment of use. Bad decision. If anything is going to stop working, it's going to stop working at the worst possible moment. Better for one to plan ahead than wait for disaster to befall one. You'd think with my advanced age & experience I would have taken the practical route & replaced the damn things months ago.



No, I'd rather spend Easter Sunday at the laundromat. My poor planning leaves me without a dryer until Saturday the 18th when a new one will arrive. We're pretty well booked up this week, so I've got my bag of quarters ready.

EFT

No, not tadppoles or middle earth creatures. EFT stands for emotional freedom techniques.

I first heard about it on The View, the morning talk show hosted by Whoopie Goldberg. I adore Whoopie, always have, and she speaks for me. I swear, every topic that comes up for discussion, Whoopie speaks for me.

Anyway, she & I share the same fear of flying. We both used to fly & stopped for very real reasons. Whoppie has to get to Europe in the near future & since there's no bridge, she consulted some people who are conditioning her to overcome her fear. Freedom at you Fingertips involves tapping on your acupressure points while reciting affirmations.

I'm interested, but I also know that tapping your acupressure points won't keep a plane from crashing. So I'm not on board on that issue.

However, I think the system has real merit & I'm trying it for anxiety and some minor phobias. I'm still in the early phases, but feel that my anxiety level has seriously dropped. Now this is going to sound bizarre, but the first time I did the tapping for my anxiety....at the end, I actually felt a mini orgasm of relief. It didn't last. but gave me hope.

You do not have to believe in EFT in order to reap the benefits. It's a physical manifestation. Positive affirmations are supposed to help, but I'm more into the manipulation of the electrical currents which run through our bodies. If there was a certified acupuncturist anywhere near where I live, I would be on the table.

Anyone who wants to know more should check out the website of expert Gary Craig. It is the preeminent source for information and case stories on EFT. www.emofree.com

My Mexicans

My relationship with Mexican workers began my first year (2002) here at the Dixie Belle. We had only been here a month when I drove into the parking lot one afternoon to see a van towing a flatbed trailer with a porta-potti on board. That particular group worked for a forestry service. I let them put 4 to a room and from them I had my first lesson on the habits of Mexican working men. #1 They will always cook. In those days, my rooms did not have microwaves, and they traveled with small charcoal grills which they set up outside the rooms.

Now that we have microwaves, I do allow nuking stuff, but still no serious cooking odors or grease in the rooms. Let me qualify this by saying that we only allow this in our smoking rooms. Non smoking rooms are off limits.

It has taken 7 years to discern which Mexican workers were going to work out here and I had to come up with my guidelines. They must be clean, respectful, and quiet and I make that quite clear. If a month or longer stay is needed, they have to go through a trial period where I decide if having them is going to work out.

That said, I have had 2 work crews since early February. They are working on our new deep water port. Their spokesman is Juan. He's a charming young man. There's another crew working on the hospital project. They come in from Mon thru Fri every week. The first week, they got white paint on a brand new bedspread, but after I went ballistic on Mario they have been towing the line. My newest 2 are also early week and very respectful.

Here's what I've learned about my Mexican men: They bathe faithfully with girly soaps & gels & use those big fluffy bath thingies, (extremely vain), they will burn up a stove cooking at high heat, they leave food sitting out unrefrigerated & then eat it! Hello???? They never refrigerate mayonaise, or raw eggs. They eat them & don't die. They never turn down the bedspread. They sleep on top. They wipe their butts with TP & put it in the trash can, not down the toilet.

These are not generalizations. These are facts & true across the board. I have not encountered an exception. I have, however, tossed out those who didn't fit in. We can never eat at the local Mexican restaurant, because when they first opened, one guy rented a room then moved several more filthy people in without asking or paying. I called the restaurant on opening day & made them come clear out the room. I'm sure they'd spit in our food.

Just this past winter, we accommodated 2 rooms of forestry workers & told them they could prepare their food at the fish cleaning station out back. They did that, but I found uncovered dishes of food in my dresser drawers. They were actually nice guys, but just could not get with the program around here. I felt bad when I had to send them down the road to the roach motel.

I'm grateful for the business my Mexican guys have given me during my slow months & I'm cutting Juan and his crew a break until their job is over at the beginning of June. One thing they don't know about me is that I really don't speak spanish, but I understand more then I let on. That gives me an edge.

Critter Conodrum

Backstory: In my laundry room which is outside & unheated or cooled I keep a tray of green poison rodent pellets hidden so that nothing that shouldn't find it won't.



This morning, when Karen was setting up the cleaning cart, she upended the roll of paper towels & a ton of green poison rodent pellets fell out. We were pretty astounded. What kind of critter would carry the pellets from one place to another? We just shook our heads & chalked it up to a weird unknown critter.



Later this afternoon, while I was folding laundry, I moved the roll of paper towels I keep on my folding tabel. Guess what? When I picked up the roll another cache of green poison pellets fell out. Now I'm flummoxed What kind of critter would do this? Anyone have any ideas? So bizarre.