The day before Christmas I slept through quite a parade, according to Tom. We didn’t even know they did parades here. They went by twice on golf carts shouting “Ho-ho-ho!” and honking horns. He said they were pretty loud.

Now, will the Canadian couple across the street come honking back in their truck before or after the New Year?

The dog in back that goes off all night long reminds me of Brandy and Whiskey. I’m guessing those dogs are dead by now, although Whiskey could be on his last leg. Either way, I’m sure Jesse replaced them with new dogs to store outside like old furniture and to bark their asses off.

Anyway, if the dog in back was just a little louder, it would be annoying. If we had any kind of a back porch or patio, I wouldn’t want to be out there at night. It barks on and off in spurts, sometimes for hours at a time. I still have to believe the owner(s) work third shift because I don’t see how the hell they could sleep through all that barking. If I can hear it hundreds of feet away, how could they not? I feel bad for the neighbors! I wonder why it’s easier to hear on some nights as opposed to others, but I’m guessing it has to do with the time of year, temperature, and wind direction.

We got a bike rack to park two bikes and put it in the corner in front. When I say the corner, I mean between the outer walls of the lanai and kitchen. We could bolt it to the ground, but decided it was very unlikely that as long as they were locked up anyone would be that desperate to take the rack and bikes as a whole. We’re not out very often, and if they were going to make a try for it, that’s when it would be.

We also got a cover for them so that in the summer when it’s too hot and humid, we can cover them and keep them from getting too weathered.

For the first time in the five months we’ve been in this house, I’m going for a bike ride later on. Yesterday morning was so cold when I went out walking that I just went around the block and back. I totally felt like I was back at the old place!

I have a nail polish set on the way with 24 different colors. Yes, you read right. The sticker whore is getting nail polish. I’m thinking that tugging off the stickers may also have a hand in why I’ve got nail lifting. You really do have to tug hard. That’s what makes them so good and makes you able to shower with them and do heavy cleaning and all kinds of stuff. Some nails actually look a little better, but my thumbs are horrible for some reason. Perhaps that’s because they’re bigger and so there’s more tugging on those nails when removing the stickers. I still think most of it is likely due to my thyroid, but I figure it can’t hurt to go back and forth and do polish for a while and then go back to stickers.

The few bottles of polish I have are old and need to be replaced. I was hesitant at first to get a set of polish because I figured there would be colors I didn’t like, but I found one that doesn’t have any boring earth tones and they’re full-size bottles too.