Boo Hoo

We had to leave The Villages this morning and head to Atlanta.

With a few little traffic tie ups - nothing significant, it took us 8 hours to get here.

We stopped for lunch at a McDonalds (they charged us 30 cents for two cups of water)!  I guess as a stockholder I should not be too upset - but, really!!!

We checked into the Hyatt Place at Perimeter Center and will be here for four nights unless the Gods of winter change their minds. We hope to get home by Wednesday.

We had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes tonight and had too much to eat.

We stopped at the Georgia Welcome Center and got some tourist brochures and will plan out things to do for the next few days.

Of course, Terry is excited Shark Tank is on tonight.

Cinderella

We felt like Cinderella today, cleaning the house, washing and vacuuming floors, etc.

We thought after that we deserved a break so we went to the Mallory Country Club and shared a salad and a veggie pizza.

The day was a little overcast, but it was beautiful sitting by the golf course.

Terry did not think to take a photo until we were half way through the pizza!

 

 

We left Mallory and went to Sumter Landing and walked around.  It was Market Night and some of the vendors were already set up.  The entertainment had not started, but it is always a pleasant walk.

 

 

We recycled a few days worth of newspapers and then came home.

 

 

We packed up the trunk.  I don't think we could get a piece of paper in there!

 

 

We put some things on the back floor and will wait until tomorrow to put our travel suitcases, food, coats, etc. into the car itself.  We really do need a van - probably a maxi van would work well.

 

 

We keep checking the weather.  It will probably be Wednesday before we get home.  We'll hole up in Atlanta as it looks right now.

Lazy Day

We spent most of the morning reviewing the weather and discussing what our strategy for going home will be.

We could not find a hotel in The Villages for the weekend - so scratch plan A .

On to plan B.  Friday we move to Atlanta for 4 nights - go to Louisville for a night and Wednesday home.

Stay tuned - our plans are J-ello!

Rest of day working, eating, reading.  

Did I mention it poured all day long.

Last Nice Day Before We Leave

They are predicting rain for the next two days so today was the perfect day to go out and enjoy the weather.

We decided to go to Eaton's Beach Sandbar and Grill, on Lake Weir, in Weirsdale.  We left a message for Diane to see if she wanted to join us (Tom is in Chicago helping their daughter, Cheri).

She had just come off of the golf course but wanted to join us, but, had to go home and get her car.  We met her at Beall's Outlet on Highway 42.  BTW:  Terry bought a few things while waiting for Diane.  We all also went into the store again after lunch and all bought a few things.

We had a nice lunch.  The menu is a little strange.  Terry and I both had cheeseburgers (Terry had bacon on hers and could have had peanut butter on it also - she declined the peanut butter).

BTW:  I was looking at a jar of peanut butter the other day and it said "made with peanuts" -dah!

We sat where we could look at the water.  The table near the water that we originally sat at had a bar the interfered with a view of the water so we moved to a table where we could see the water.  The outside was really not outside as it had plastic "windows."

 

 

We looked at the weather and thought that we might be better off leaving on Thursday, rather than our originally scheduled Friday.  However, when we told that to Mindy she said they were expecting 6 inches of snow over the weekend - oops!

 

 

We now are leaving on Friday and may go somewhere to chill out for a few days until the route home is without snow and ice.  Stay tuned!

 

 

Of course, we watched Shark Tank tonight.  One of the people told two of the Sharks that THEY were out!!  He did not like their offers.

Conference Calls Galore

After breakfast, I participated in a two-hour conference call as a member of the North Shore-Barrington Association of REALTORS' Government Affairs Committee meeting.

After the meeting, Terry and I had a quick lunch and headed to do some errands. 

We recycled our newspapers at the Temple and then headed to shred some documents that Terry had.  We went to Pack and Ship, who advertised that they shred.  However, someone comes on Thursdays with a truck and picks up their shredding, which resides in some sort of box until then.  Terry was concerned about using them, since this was sensitive client information.  So, we went to Office Depot, where she was able to shred the documents herself.  It was inexpensive and she felt better doing it that way.

We wandered into Cracker Barrel to look at the store part, but did not find anything that we wanted to buy.

It was Market Night at Spanish Springs and Rocky and The Rollers were there as the entertainment, and even though there was the threat of rain, the place was packed.  I bought another chain for a necklace that I had purchased at Sumter's Market Night.

We stopped at Publix for lottery tickets and a few fill-in items.

After dinner, Terry and I both had conference calls.  I called into the Township for the Board meeting and Terry is on a conference call with AADMM.

We are watching the weather carefully for our trip home.  We are hoping to leave on Friday, but could leave on Thursday if we needed to.  We cannot stay any later as we don't think the lady who is renting the house for March wants to share it with us!

I think the weather here for the next few days is not going to be good as we heard on the radio that they are rescheduling Wednesday's Strawberry Festival, which is a big event.  I guess the weather is getting us ready to go home!
 

Mah Jongg Tournament

After lunch we headed out to a Mah Jongg Tournament to benefit the American Cancer Society, held at Colony Cottage Recreation Center.  Our friend, Joy, had told us about this event and she was there also.  The event was in memory of a gal, Mary Beth, who died from breast cancer and was run by her friends.

In previous years,  Mary Beth used to run a similar event.

Sitting Area at Colony Cottage

Invitation to the Event

Terry's envelope

 

 

 

The instructions were for each person to bring their mah jongg card and, if they had one, to bring a pusher.  The recreation center had mah jongg sets.  There were 21 tables of 4 each.  When we arrived we were each given an envelope with our name.  It told us what position we would play.  Terry's envelope said Seat D (mine said Seat C).  We both started out at table 17.  After 4 games of mah jongg, we each moved to the table designated in round 2.  Terry moved to Table 15, I moved to table 19.  We played another round of 4 games and then moved to the next table for the last round of 4 games.  The person sitting at Seat A was the score keeper.

 

We each also got a raffle ticket (they had a raffle prize for each person).

 

You could also buy 50/50 tickets (the winner was our friend Joy's friend and she won $140).

 

They also had tickets you could buy to try to win special baskets, wine, etc.  You put your tickets into the bucket in front of the basket or item you hoped to win.

 

They had snacks and beverages and asked for a donation to offset the cost of the snacks and beverages.

 

Each round of four games was 55 minutes.  That is playing fairly quickly.  It was for intermediate and better players!

 

The rules were in each person's envelope.  Basically you got the value of the hand if you got mah jongg, 10 bonus points if you picked your own mah jongg.  20 points for a jokeless hand (unless it was a singles or pairs hand).

 

Penalties for player who discarded the winning tile. Minus 10 points if winning player had no or one exposure.  Two exposures was minus 20 points to the person who discarded the mah jongg tile.  Minus 25 points for the player who discarded the mah jongg tile if there were 3 exposures.

 

For a wall game all players got 10 points.  If a player's hand had been declared dead during the game, that person got no points.

 

If the 4th game in the round was not completed when the horn sounded, all players got 0 points.

 

There was a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize - all monetary prizes.  WE DID NOT WIN ANY OF THESE.

 

We came home and had our leftover salad, from yesterday's lunch at Too Jays, and are now reading.

 

Below is a photo of the type of palm tree that Terry likes that she had tried to explain to our friend Fran.  If you notice, it looks like a pineapple.

 



 

 

BTW:  For those of you who know our friend, Janet, who had open heart surgery this week, you'll be happy to know that she is doing very well.  We've talked with her for the past two days and she'll be leaving the hospital for rehab soon!  We told her today that she would not have liked the tournament as they played too fast.

Sumter landing Craft Show

We met Diane at Sumter Landing for the craft fair.  It had threatened rain but turned into a HOT day.

I took a photo of a dog being wheeled in a stroller!

 

I got this far in the blog last night and Comcast went out - TV, Internet, the works.  We called and their recorded message said that they were having technical difficulties!

After walking around at the craft fair, we went for salads at Too Jays.   There was a small wait for a table, but we were seated within 10 minutes.

In the parking lot, we traded items - Diane had our mail (our last boxes for this year) and we had a bottle of wine that we had meant to bring to her home when we had dinner there but forgot.

We came home to do some work, read, and watch the Olympics.