Thursday

 

We finally had a typical beautiful March Florida day: sunshine, pleasant temperature, and blue skies.

We drove to the causeway to walk because it's chilly on a bike in the morning, even when it's 70 degrees.

We also were needing to get back for my 11:00 dentist appointment. And I wanted to ride my bike the 1.25 miles to the office.

A treasure for someone. I texted a picture to our friend who collects roadside furniture.

The tile on the floor is our new number one choice. It's one of the whitest tiles we've found. In bulk, it's almost as inexpensive as our last #1 choice.

Close up of the tile (horizontal), the baseboard (leaning against the wall), and our decorative shower tile  (vertical).

Here's a better picture of the decorative tile from the company's website. There's a lot more blue than in the sample piece we received. Our designer didn't like our sample so much, but she loved it when she saw the larger picture of installed tile. As usual with this tile, it doesn't photograph well. It's much more beautiful in person.

Our designer suggested that we replace the portico tile at the entranceway with the same new tile.

Neither John or I like this pink tile, but we were willing to ignore it. Now, we think we might as well replace it when we replace everything else. Project creep. We started with the bathroom remodel and now we're looking at re-tiling the entire house and the front stoop!

She also suggested that we put a piece of our Cambria quartz here at the entrance to replace the marble that's there. I never would have thought of that. I've always thought the marble looked nice. She thought the quartz would add a lot. We'll think about it, but honestly, it's not a high priority.

We're awaiting an updated budget. If we like it, we'll sign a contract and make a deposit. Work won't get started until this summer, I think. We met with the demolition folks yesterday. They use a riding machine like a Zamboni in hockey to pry up the tiles in the large spaces. For the smaller spaces, they us a jackhammer. He said they could do the work in one day. They would come back the next day to demo the bathroom. Our job would be to cram all our stuff in the sunroom (they're tiling over it) and the garage and take Toby and us away for the day. We'll also be responsible for removing and reinstalling our closet shelving that Bruce and Kim installed in October. The logistics are going to be challenging if we decide to do the whole house. We might just decide to do the bathroom and bedroom, just to keep the project contained. And then move on to the next stage, but it might be easier to rip the bandaid off and do it all at once.

We rode our bikes to Walgreens; then we took the Pinellas Trail to Weaver Park. John went back home while I did yoga and weights.

I always feel relaxed and stress-free afterwards.

We had such a busy day yesterday that we forgot to feed Toby his dinner. Unlike our two previous dogs, he never reminded us or complained. So he went to bed with an empty stomach. About 10:00, he woke up vomiting bile, which is what he does when his stomach is empty. We fed him and cleaned up and went back to bed.

We attended the Whitney Fox meet and greet at a neighbor's house tonight. She's running for Congress, representing our district against Anna Paulina Luna, an extreme MAGA Congresswoman, who boycotted Biden's State of the Union address tonight, which may have been less rude than the behavior of some of those who did attend. There were about 75 people at the meet and greet. We knew about a dozen folks. We got to talk with Fox. She is a young mother of two, married. She has worked in PR for SunCoast Transit Authority (Pinellas County) and has contacts in the state and federal government around issues having to do with transportation. Her father was there and her husband. They all spoke to the crowd. The father recently changed his registration from Republican to Democrat. He said he was appalled by the current Republican Party. He did say his daughter and son in law did have to teach him some things about fairness and empathy for others. He admitted that he was blind to some issues before. They raised over $10,000 at the event, $1,000 from one of the couples we invited. The woman who invited us was in charge of the food. As we were leaving, she brought us a ziplock bag of cookies to take home. It was nice being among fellow Democrats who believe in supporting gay rights, women's rights, worker's rights, improving race relations, supporting better childcare policies, and supporting democracy. They were all lamenting the state of Florida's politics and the national Republicans.

We dressed up in long pants, long sleeves and everything.