Making Homemade Pierogies

Making Homemade Pierogies

Thursday December 21, 2023

This morning I got myself up and out the door for walk fit at 9:00 a.m. followed by line dancing for 2 hours. It's so much fun for me, it should be illegal. 

Later when I got home we had our leftover Sonny's BBQ from yesterday.

 Then we went for a golf cart ride. 

We stopped and looked at the beautiful lake here on our ride. It is the best place to watch the Disney fireworks from here.

 Also saw more red-headed sand cranes.

I even took a picture of my beautiful flowers that are blooming right now. 

Later we Stopped and talked to Carla and Keith. Lynn drove by and said Jeanne was making homemade pierogies. I texted her and offered to help. We said goodbye to Carla and Jim dropped me off in the golf cart. He went home and I stayed for a while as we chatted while she worked. 

I wasn't much help, but she had a routine and her RV kitchen is not made for two people working. She had to do everything on the dining table. There was already flour everywhere. 

She was having a few hard days, and kind of sad, her sister had passed  three months ago and she's also having issues with her knee. Since the operation, she is probably going to have to have it redone. 

We chatted for a while and she kept saying she was finished making them. Gave me some mashed potatoes filling to take home and make my own. 

Jim came back over in the golf cart. I interrupted him playing the drums he wasn't too happy. But I didn't really have walking shoes on to walk home. Once I got home, I put flour in a bowl and started to make my own dough, and she texted me again. Again she said she was done. To come back and get the hunk of dough she had left. So I went back in the golf cart to go pick it up. Here's the picture of my 30 I made. Above.

 The picture of the ones she made are on the right. She made over 150. Then I came home and started dinner which included a few pierogies for Jim's dinner.

I also made quesadillas and had grilled vegetables. And we settled in for the night with our favorite TV shows.

Friday December 22, 2023

It's red shirt Friday so once breakfast was over and we dawned our red shirts. We went out for golf cart ride ended up seeing Val and Kev on our travels. Love seeing switch crew. 

We will see them again at the Tampa RV camp out.

Later in the day they had a Christmas party, with Santa and Live Entertainment. We got dressed up and attended. Great picture of Lordous  with Santa Claus.

Also us together, really enjoy talking with her.

The live music was a guy singing. He would act like he was introducing a singer like Frank Sinatra, etc. and then start singing.

This was my holiday picture I sent to everyone. Love it with the tree. They have at least 4 in here.

Santa

My line dancing crew all dancing with Santa.

All my line dancing friends.

Sandie took a picture of us dancing.

He was a really great Santa. As he had a real beard. He just blew it when he came over and told us what a great Santa gig he has. Telling us about corporate parties that will pay him $8,000, but he says he doesn't gouge people. I

A party he had the day before with only seven kids. Really messed with my Santa illusion.

Once we got home and settled in for the night Jim was sad that he missed a family reunion. Here's a picture of everyone. LOL

He thought it was funny, wish I would have had this picture for the Bigfoot hunt in Oklahoma.

Saturday December 23, 2023

This morning had our coffee I made us a beautiful breakfast, with blueberry pancakes, sausage, veggie omelettes.

Later we went for a walk. Saw a motorhome totally decked out for christmas.

 Saw our first Turtle of the season. 

Then I happened to see a guy with a real drum set under his awning. 

I told Jim look, drums we walked over and talked to Rusty. He said they get together and have a jam session out there with a few other people, and invited us back for later.

 The two of them talked drums for a while, before we continued our walk.

Then we returned to the RV and had lunch and then jumped in the golf cart

later and went over to listen to the music.

 Somebody had a cool golf cart all decorated for Christmas, I think they were in the parade. We had a nice time and chatted with some people. 

Later we went home and had a light dinner before we went up for meat bingo. First they have a little pizza, before the game starts.

Jim won a T-bone steak. We had a lot of fun, we had two or three tables with people we were hanging with. We didn't get home till almost 10 pm, FUN.

Sunday December 24, 2023

Christmas Eve morning and I suggested to Jim get the grill out and make his small T-bone steak, from last night's meat Bingo for his Christmas Eve breakfast. It was the perfect size steak for breakfast. I made eggs to go with it.

 Later we took a golf cart ride and saw Brad and Colleen. They were our neighbors here last season over in I Loop. 

We had spent a few hours chatting with them, and we even had a drink with them. 

Later we went home and Jim got the Ninja Grill going and we smoked the turkey for tomorrow's Christmas potluck with the Prices. We spent a lot of time trying to get it to fit, it was a 10 lb turkey. Ended up having to spatchcock it,  which flattens it so it would fit in the Ninja and it also cooks faster. Should have had a picture of it,  but we were up to our elbows in Turkey juice. Glad we did it out on the picnic table. We had to try at least three different options so it would fit.

Then I made grilled veggies, a small cornbread casserole he made outside too. Had leftover stuffing and cream cheese pumpkin pie, I had frozen, sweet potatoes too. Later we had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner together just us.

Visiting Dennis and Linda Price

Visiting Dennis and Linda Price 

Monday December 18, 2023

This morning we did our normal morning routine. I left for my 3 mile walk fit right before 9:00. Never leave early enough. Then we did 2 hours of line dance. 

When I returned we had leftovers for lunch. And a tiny bit of MaryJo's lasagna from last night. 

After that we took a golf cart ride, and just hanging out. 

Later Dennis and Linda Price invited us over. 

First time we saw them since they arrived this season. They never made it last season because of Linda's heart valve replacement surgery. She needed the winter to recover without traveling. So great to have them here again,  we had a wonderful visit together. 

She definitely is the reason I started drinking now that I've retired. LOL. She got me into cosmos. Although I drink the equivalent of a shot glass worth of alcohol, Jim says if that much, and then I'm done.

Tuesday December 19, 2023

This morning after I did my workout stuff up at the building. Once I got home and had lunch Jim and I took a walk later in the day. Eventually a golf cart ride together.

Some of the cool stuff we saw while walking or on the golf cart. There are so many Cricket golf carts here like ours. Here we saw a green one.

Apparently they just bought a Ninja seven and one wood fire grill just like ours. Probably the box in the back they're going to get rid of on the next garbage run like we do.

Kind of next door neighbors with the Cricket people,  we saw a truck camper with a deck out the back. 

First time we saw this was at the Tampa RV Show last season. Pretty cool setup.

Then on the outskirts of the campground, there's an RV that has a pig. They have a ramp going up into the RV. Can you imagine what it smells like in there. I grabbed a quick picture.

if you zoom in enough you can see the pig was scratching his butt on the ramp. Lol. 

We also saw this cool Santa, that moved his arms and wiggled, as he turned his head back and forth. Kind of creepy. First I thought it was a real person standing there.

 Then as we drove around, I was looking for Lourdes. We saw her walking her two dogs, on her Me-Mover.

 You have to lift your feet like your walking up stairs. Then we went back to her, Beautiful motorhome, 

she's the one I talked about, that is all alone now since her husband died only 6 months into full-time rving. I'm so impressed with her, she's a very strong woman.

Then my favorite thing, Jim helps me with the cooking by using our Ninja outside. First he grilled chicken and then a whole bunch of vegetables. That he won't even eat, lol. They are delish. Then we settled in for the night.

Wednesday December 20, 2023

This morning I went to do 3 miles of walk fit. That's all they do today,  on Wednesdays a few people go over to Amy's, she teaches line dance in her park. She comes here on the other days. She's only like 80, with an amazing memory for all the steps.

 Then we got ready and had a ton of errands to do. First we went to Walmart and got my prescriptions filled. On the way out, we saw this drone they are showing off. As they are deliver packages now. 

Then we went to find an eye doctor and a dentist. They are in the same building next to each other, and they both take our insurance. Jim needs to get new glasses, since he broke his in the Keys weeks ago.
 We can't get in until beginning of February, and the dentist we made an appointment for a cleaning, January 3rd. 

I took this picture as we were leaving.

You can see the Citrus Tower in the background. Ironically it was right next door to this building, that the truck broke down, 2 years ago.

They had a cool Christmas tree in the dentist office. 

Then we went for lunch, we had planned to go to Sonny's BBQ, the commercial that's on TV brought us in. 

What a fantastic meal. We even have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. It's great to come back from 3 hours of working out and have it all ready to heat up. 

After Sonny's we killed some time walking around Target. We found absolutely nothing we wanted. 

Then next door was where I made my hair appointment.

 Same lady Tina that MaryJo goes to. She calls it a No Frills hair salon. It was 35. Plus the tip. After an awesome haircut, which I will never be able to duplicate again. 

We went to Goodwill, we had a lot of clothes to get rid off, since I went through the closet weeks ago.

 Then we went inside the store and looked around quite a while. I found a few things I wanted mainly just clothes. Jim hung with me for a while, till he pooped out, then went out to the truck and waited till I checked out.

 Then we took off and finally got back home. Decided to take a quick golf cart ride before it got too dark. Stopped and talked to Lynn and Jeanna, and we actually saw the Walmart drone. They explained how they come in and they dropped the package. It's attached with the Rope, you have to unhook it and then they pull it back up. Man did that box drop fast. And there's a weight limit of 5 lb.

Jim said can they drop 1, 6 pack at a time, lol.

 Then we went home for the night. I made us dinner. 

 Found out later in the evening our oldest granddaughter Sarah 

passed her driver's test and is now a licensed driver.

Lasagna Dinner Party hosted by MaryJo and Dan Starr

Lasagna Dinner Party hosted by

MaryJo and Dan Starr

Sunday December 17, 2023

Our Hosts for tonight's Lasagna Dinner Party in there beautiful Motorhome.

This morning we had a leisurely waffle Sunday breakfast for Jim. Then I like to watch the news with Willie Geist. After that, I had an NoBS Zoom call for a few hours.

Jim still needed to get our potty fixed after the plastic piece snapped off and broke on upstairs. 

Red marks are where this little piece was broken from. It allows the foot petal to snap back when flushed.

He looked at the website he ordered from a few days ago. And it appeared  that he didn't actually go through with the order. So he did it again. Come to realize a day or so later he ordered TWO. Now I guess we'll have a spare. They break too often to send it back. It's sort of big and bulky, but not very heavy. I found a box and a good place to store it.

Jim installed the new potty, I  tried to help him wherever I could.

 After lunch I was prepping for our dinner party tonight.I was taking garlic bread and I made cookies too.

Mary Jo invited us before we even arrived in TTO, along with Kathy and Timmy. With all the rain yesterday the weather is not great for hosting an outdoor picnic table party. So we decided to meet later up at the building. We shared the room with another group that Lourdes was involved in.

Mary Jo had the lasagna recipe that was a true Italian grandma lasagna recipe from Italy. The biggest difference was instead of ricotta cheese layer, she makes a Cheesy white sauce that replaces it. It really was fantastic lasagna. Also another one of Jim's number one favorite things. 

All the kids below were hanging out. MaryJo offered to take a picture of them all together. 

The little picture is my Dad and oldest son Thomas, my Dad was in the Air Force.  Later he was also was inspired by his Grandad to also inlist in the Air Force. 

Pictures pop up as a memory, and we saved it and it just happened into the pictures of the dinner party. I just COULDN'T delete it.

The six of us had a wonderful time together as always, we so enjoy their company. Kathy and Timmy did have to leave a little early, as their was more people to visit before everyone leaves. So we played Left, Right, Center dice game with Mary Jo and Dan. Before we all headed out about 8:30 to head home.

One more picture that popped up today that we had to save. Of course it's an HDT. 

But you have to look at it twice before you realize what you're looking at. They took a flatbed trailer that's hooked up to the HDT. And attached somehow the fifth wheel to the flatbed. They tow the pickup truck on the back of that. The funny thing is every HDT you see they're all set up differently. But this one is incredibly unique, and kind of super cool.

Travel Day to TTO

Travel Day to TTO 

Tuesday December 12, 2023

This morning we prepared to leave Peace River. Enjoyed our site here. Had a beautiful travel day.

I walked along side Jim as he made the many turns to get out of here. Left close to 10 am. We had an uneventful travel day, which is a good thing. On our drive we did see this cool guard rail fence. Had huge cows in it. Looks like it was recycled into the fence.

We arrived at 12:20. We were number 36 in line. It didn't seem that long, but it took an hour to find our site, till we got through the long line. 

We were on our way to a different site, and the ranger suggested F 44. He said it was one of the last ones with concrete, and we said sold. 

Really close to the building for quick access to the activities in the morning. It's a little sunny on the living side but it's a great spot. As usual Jim backed in quite easily. We got set up. 

View from the back. We had this site a few seasons ago. I cleaned up all the flower beds, even planted a few flowers. Also got bit by fire ants.

I grabbed some food and had a quick lunch. He got the golf cart out right away and later we took a ride, they had food trucks available.

Took a picture of some of the up coming activities.

 We got pork BBQ sandwiches and FF. It's going to be a great 3 weeks here.

Wednesday December 13, 2023

This morning I got up and had some leisurely coffee, and breakfast. First day here, and didn't go up to walk fit. Didn't feel up to it.

Then I listened to a  NoBS call. Then we left to go to urgent care, turned out I had a UTI.

 Then we went to Aldi's, got quite a huge hall. Then we stopped at Walmart and got my prescription filled and a few other things Aldi's doesn't carry.

Then we came back home, took a golf cart ride. Later we had planned a potluck with Nancy and Neil, Mike and Mandy also came over. 

Neil,  such good hubby too, washing dishes.

I made cornbread. She made chili for us all, with turkey burger, just because I don't eat beef. Sweet. Mandy made a great salad.

Enjoyed each other's company ate and sat outside for a lovely evening. Nancy made Jim's favorite apple dumpings.. Then left about 8:30. Brought Mandy's stuff and chairs home, as they are right up the road from us. She walked, and Mike went to play cards.

Neil and Nancy leave tomorrow.

Thursday December 14, 2023

This morning I got myself up and moving and went to do 3 mile walk fit and then we line danced for 2 hours. 

Line dancing.

Later Jim and I took a golf cart ride after lunch, we had leftover pork fried rice. Then we went over to say hi to Mary Jo and Dan. 

We had a lovely visit with them talking about their girls. The older ones a lawyer in the Army in Italy and she's moving back to the States.

 She had invited us for a lasagna potluck with Kathy and Timmy later this weekend. Looking forward to visiting with everyone. 

After we arrived here when I was doing line dancing. Jim texted me and said the upstairs toilet broke again. 

A little plastic piece that snaps the pedal back.

 It went flying, you'd think they would make it with something besides plastic. So he ordered one he said.

Friday December 15, 2023

This morning I went up for a walk fit and line dancing. After we finished,  Barb and Kathy and I plan to go to the weight room and we were going to do a little routine together. Kathy wanted to show Barb what she does in there. When we finished I realized that they were talking about her gym, that was out of the park. I thought they were talking about the one here.

 So we said our goodbyes and I stayed home, but went over to look around myself. 

Later Jim and I had lunch when I got back then we left for Publix to get a few things.

 Talk to the baker who was making cookies for a church. We went to the UPS store next door to mail some Christmas presents back to our granddaughters in PA.

 Then we went back to the RV. We took a golf cart ride together before it got too late, cold and dark out for one. Saw the cool redheaded sand cranes.

We also noticed alot of cool HDT'S here. I love it when someone is out and we can talk to them. They have a cool matching paint job.

There was a vendor selling one of Jim's favorite things, Philly cheesesteaks. It was a little early for dinner. So after a ride I dropped him off at home to take a shower. I went back up to the building as they were having an outside vendors in selling crafts today from 3:00 to 7:00.  I popped in and looked

 around first thing I bought was these wonderful Italian cookies she bakes.

 Took a cheesesteak home for dinner for Jim.

After dinner they were having the last dance party and karaoke with Art. He was retiring and we all said goodbye to him. 

There's a great group of kids here that were singing karaoke songs. 

They also line dance a little with us very nice group of kids. The one boy calls us all ma'am.

We had a great time line dancing with everyone, it is so much fun for me. 

Besides horseback riding probably is my favorite thing to do, well besides cooking.

Saturday December 16, 2023

This morning we get up and had our regular routine of leisurely coffee and breakfast. We watched the news and as they predicted we had rain all day long today. At times it was pretty heavy. I think it was a total of about 3 inches. So we had a rainy day project all ready to start, we were saving it. 

Jim and I worked for about 3 hours up in the bedroom working on our curtains. Here's the before and after. We both think they turned out pretty great.

This is what the window box looked like before I recovered them. 

I also tried to be fun a festive. Baked some cookies, put up our little tree, and I addressed some Christmas cards.

Never went outside once, it was just pouring, it's pretty rare for this time of year in Florida to rain this much.