toby is going back to see the opthamologist tomorrow. in the past 72 hrs her vision has gone downhill. basically nothing in the left eye and very little in the right. i hope they can fix her. she's running into walls and bumping into furniture. it's disturbing to say the least. she's my best buddy.

here's our boat friend, bob, and jerry (with toby) sharing turkey day with us. it all worked pretty well considering the fact that 3 weeks ago i had absolutely nothing but an empty house except for a few dishes, some pots and pans and a bunch of random artwork. i had originally planned on having more people but as it turned out this was just enough for my impromtu "guest's for dinner" practice run in the new house. the 12 lb. turkey came from mary's turkey farm, an free range happy turkey place and the rest of the food came from the local farmer's produce stand.

i tried something different with the turkey this year by making up a sort of herb & kosher salt rub which is smeared all over the turkey the night before, then put in a bag and into the fridge. the next morning it all gets washed off, then i shoved a bunch of herbs, onions, celery and lemons inside the bird, rub the outside with olive oil and put it into the oven. i also made a new special stuffing recipe with lots of herbs, cooked separately (stuffing the bird dries out the meat), my favorite garlic smashed new baby potatoes, steamed green beans, caramelized heritage carrots and fresh cranberry/apple sauce. not to brag but i think i could have won a cooking contest with this dinner. no doubt it had a lot to do with a healthy turkey (which you don't get at the grocery store), fresh herbs and locally grown organic plant foods. john said that he's never had turkey and stuffing that tasted that good. i'm definitely writing this year's recipes down and putting them in my recipe box for safe keeping.

i gave bob and jerry a bunch of leftovers to take home. they both live by themselves and they both wish they had someone to share their lives with... no family around..always looking for a female companion... and that sort of thing. i feel bad for all the lonely people.

now that thanksgiving is over i must start thinking about christmas present projects.

right now i just don't know what to think about. this year our traditional christmas flights to n.j. cost us close to twice as much as they have in the past so my christmas budget is pretty much shot. maybe i'll just give everyone a coconut with a smiley face painted on it.

all you have to go is look around you to be thankful.

this is the view down by the dock at the end of our little road here. hmm.
after all is said and done, the only think i actually bought new for the house is this quilt which just blows my mind every time i look at it. it's supposedly a design that was inspired by ceramic tiles from santorini. i realize that i am the kind of person who needs to be surrounded by visual inspirations...quirky, colorful, whatever.. just very visual.

so i decided to make a cake from the bon appetit magazine for my thanksgiving dinner because someone is already bringing the traditional pie. i call it the "bad cake" since the chocolate cake basically fell apart and is only barely being held together by the glue like peppermint icing. actually it tastes really good even though it looks absolutely nothing like the picture.
oh well.

have a great day.

boat people are supposed to be performing at the 2009 sxsw. actually i'm not that fond of their music... just want this poster. so here's the plan. laura and i go to austin for a couple of days in march for sxsw and of course to visit josh. we would like to rent some sleeping space at his studio.. http://whalefall.org/, preferably the darkroom which surely can accommodate two sleeping bags. i don't know what they charge per day/night.. how about $30?? that's fair. otherwise i guess we can sleep on the stoop in a cardboard box next to the dumpster. i'm sure no one would mind.
thursday is, of course, turkey day. i have only 2 other people coming over, crazy jerry and good old bob. later on my ex-soon to be again-boss and his girlfriend, her daughter and some other people might stop by for pie or whatever. i'll be picking up the overpriced locally raised organic free range turkey today. i don't like the nasty stink of bird flesh cooking but whatever makes the people happy. the only things i like about thanksgiving are the macy's day parade and listening to alice's restaurant on the radio. otherwise it's just a lot of work and bird stink.
finally got a dining room/sunroom table to eat on.. it's really just perfect, good and solid, and only $20 on craigslist. the guy actually brought it to me because i didn't feel like driving all the way out to bfe to get it. it will also be used for painting/sewing/whatever. yesterday i found john a thrift shop "man's napping chair" that fits just perfect in our little living room. it might be the best deal i've gotten so far. it's a cool looking rattan and green fabric lazyboy small sized rocker recliner, in very good condition... $25. they still sell them at the store for $799.00.
the thrift shop/craigslist furnishing frenzy project is almost finished except for some kind of desk for my laptop. i guess i could still use a couple of "interesting" lamps. i tell you junk shopping and trash picking is seriously very addictive. yesterday i spotted 2 lime green wooden ladderback chairs and a little wooden table in someone's trash. i really had no need for them but of course i had to put them in the van anyway and bring them home. maybe i'll paint them and put them in the soon to be "two chairs and a table" garden. all in all i think everything has turned out pretty darn good and way under budget. if anyone wants to know the true meaning of the seriously abused cliche "shabby chic", just come to my house. it's very amusing.
also yesterday i went in for my annual blood tests so see if everything is still working right. i'll find out the results next week when i go back to the "doctor". he gets on my nerves and apparently i get on his nerves as well. i was going to switch doctors but honestly i don't really care anymore. just need someone to tell me what my test results are. it's not rocket science.
my plans for december are to do some work on the boat and to do some painting and creating of found object nonsense. maybe some garden art would be cool. also to make some christmas presents.
according to the recent new marina updates i should be back at work in 7 weeks, around the middle of january. yippee. the marina is almost finished and it's looking really good. hopefully i'll have all my projects done by then. it's going to be good to get back to work.

here's the west wall of the sunroom/studio/dining room/whatever room. this room is probably about the same size as the entire rest of this little house. the other cottages don't have this addition.

as you can see i really like glass block.

it's a kaleidoscope all day long.

i think i have permanently injured my neck from too much craigslist shopping for furniture. sometimes i just get way too busy with myself trying to get something accomplished but really.. it's the only way i ever get anything done. otherwise we'd be sitting on the floor for the next 10 years. i'll be done soon. just a few more things... a work desk, a big art/eating table and some kind of comfy little futon and side table to put in the sunroom for john so he has a nice place to sit and yack to his boat buddies and his customers on his cellphone.

http://youaintnopicasso.com/mp3/ofmontreal/Of%20Montreal%20-%20Nowhere%20Man.mp3

morris day put on a good show although it seemed strangely inappropriate for a jensen beach family festival. he asked for all the sexy women in the audience to come up on stage and dance with him telling them all to get down and nasty. whatever, it was hilarious. then he lost a bunch of snow birds when his band chanted "what the hell are we fighting for" and all that. a bunch of old people walked away most likely in disgust. he's a hoot though. we sat in folding chairs in front of the stage. the festival tickets were only $5. good deal. oh and john and i rode some kind of neck wrenching carny ride, upside down, spinning all around...the kind that makes your shoes fly off.
i love the pineapple street festival.
this week i will continue my search for free/cheap furnishings...mainly an expandable dining/art table for the sunroom. if i actually find one then maybe i'll have a thanksgiving dinner for some friends. otherwise i have no place to feed them. can't trust the weather this time of year to eat outside. some years it's warm enough but sometimes it's just too chilly.

the original cottages here had metal roofs. ours was replaced with a new one in 2001. the rain sounds very nice on it.... makes you feel like napping.

the sunroom/art studio/whatever has big windows with glass block and tiled window sills on the 2 exterior walls. my friend, kim, gave me this bench that she found in someone's trash. she cleaned & sanded it and told me to paint it up. i might put it out in the yard. actually i didn't really want it but i didn't want to hurt her feelings plus now i'm forced to paint it and keep it since i know she'll be over to visit frequently. the garage (you can see through the window) is now empty. we took all our garage junk out of there and put it in the sunroom so john could paint and seal the floor. next he plans to start building his giant heavy duty workbench.

here's my little bathroom. it has an old caste iron tub with shower and a linen closet too. i think i might like to replace the sort of ugly vanity sink with an interesting old retro white pedestal type someday when i find one. the bathroom is one of the rooms with the original old hardwood walls that have never been painted over. several people have told me that i should paint just over them but they've grown on me, they have lots of character and they do feel a little maine-ish which is cool. actually i guess they are cool and probably provide good insulation because yesterday it was close to 90 and inside the house it was nice and cool and very pleasant.

this little house makes you feel like you're on a vacation somewhere.

omg
ok...this is just too cool. this weekend is the annual "jensen beach pineapple festival" the street party lasts 3 days. there are key westy crafty vendors, bahamian markets, lots of weird food, corny carny rides and beer tents. this year the music headliner is none other than morris day and the time, the master of cool & funk. let me you this is some good pre-prince jumpin early 80's music. actually i think prince got his inspiration from mr. morris day.

back before children i used to be able to do the morris day dance. it's a shoulder bopping, side step jumping, arm swinging sort of thing and it's very contagious.
ohhhh we ohhhh we ohhhh...jungle love.
of course then there's the "bird"

here's the living room.. oh i mean the sailor's room.. so far. the little window to the left of the sofa is the original window hole where the window a.c. unit went...back in the day. i put one of john's dad's model ship's that he built in there along with some old fish net. that little window is cute. this room is just about done. it's just very simple although the coffee table actually belongs in the sun/art studio room because i painted it like the ocean. i'm still looking for an old wooden table or trunk for the living room that i can paint something nautical like on. maybe an old chart or something lacquered onto the top. the ocean coffee table was $7. i found the beautiful huge wicker sofa used on craigslist. it opens into a queen sized bed and i swear it must weigh 1000 lbs. i had to borrow my ex-boss' truck to get it home. we've actually been sleeping on it since we still don't have a real bed yet. i found the 2 old gold painted rattan side chairs at goodwill for $2 each and then found the cushions for it for $2 each. the painting of boats was painted by john's dad in 1988. it's one of my favorites. i think it's crooked. oh well. the old ring buoy hanging on the wall was .50 at a yard sale. this room is very relaxing to sit in. the overhead ceiling fan keeps it very cool. we do have a little tv in the corner where there is a small built in cabinet. it's a 10" black and white tv i got at goodwill for $6 and it only gets 4 local channels with the rabbit ears i bought at radio shack. i might get around to buying a real tv someday, a little digital one with color would work.... maybe after christmas.

the little screened in front porch is adjacent to the living room. it's now full of old hodge podge yard sale wicker furniture. it's good think to like wicker because you can find it everywhere here, at every yard sale and flea market. the little wicker settee was $5 and so were the little tables. i got the 2 stick rattan porch chairs for free. walmart has spray paint for around $2 so i bought 6 different colors. it's fun to paint furniture. if you don't like it you can just paint over it....which i do constantly because i change my mind every other day.

the citronella candle sitting on the $5 porch table that i painted is wearing a pair of old pink goggles i found on the beach.

there's definitely something to be said about buying a little house like this... especially when you know it's all yours forever and ever and you don't have to think about resale value or doing any sort of thing to it to please someone else... and i my case i can just let loose and if i want to paint a pelican's birthday party on the ceiling then i will and i will think it's just dandy.

ultimately i suspect that it was fate that i found this little cottage when i did and eventually i think i will find out why i'm here. i know i'm here for a reason.

i know i lived on the boat for a year for a reason. i now think the reason was to teach me how to live minimally and self sufficiently and without wastefulness. it's simply amazing to live on a boat and to come to the realization that we can all get along just fine with less than we "think" we need. i look at things differently. i think i look at spaces differently and i don't take as much for granted as i used to and i'm definitely not as wasteful.

i'm getting into the mood to paint again. i guess it's the house or the sort of key west like environment here or whatever. actually i have about a dozen projects in my head, which is good but tends to get a bit scrambled in the head sometimes. right now i'm painting a sort of house welcome type plaque on an old wooden boat centerboard. i just finished painting a little coffee table from goodwill. it's a fishy ocean thing for the sunroom. as queer as it sounds i have themes for each room. the sunroom is the ocean room. the living room is the old sailors room. the porch is the island room. the kitchen is the colorful fruity tropics room. the bedroom will eventually be the bird room... tropical bird theme i guess. it's all just sort of silly, but i like being surrounded by silly.

i "acquired" 2 old wicker rocking chairs for the porch and a propane bbq for free and 2 rattan arm chairs at goodwill for $2 each.

i guess i am turning back into a landlubber. john thinks i'm a schizotypy or whatever it is when you change your mind all the time. the boat is good but in all honesty it squashed my freedom to be who i am. i feel a little torn about it all but it will all work itself out. everyone needs to do what they do best, be productive and try to enjoy life to the fullest.

this is an interesting neighborhood.

yesterday the 2 little neighbor ladies asked me if i wanted to walk down to the river with them to look at the iguanas. so we did. the one little lady calls me "sister".

we looked at the iguanas. there were 2 of them sunning themselves near the seawalk. i really didn't think iguanas belonged around here. they are invasive, probably someone's pet that got "misplaced". anyway the ladies are funny.

in the early evenings here most of the neighbors come out to chat, let their dogs play and walk up and down the sandy little road and sometimes down to the river to sit for a while with each other. they trade plants and stories and help each other with chores. it's actually quite lovely to watch. like a warm and fuzzy.

the cute little lady, carol, who lives across from us has lived here all her life. her mother owned the cottage before her. yesterday she brought over a few of her treasures for me to look at. a postcard from the early 50's that advertised the banyan terrace cottages, an old photograph of what it looked like here then and a cottage rental agreement.

the cottages were spread out along the little sandy road. ours was the first to be built, then carol's, then the other 2. the pictures here are of carol's cottage back in the day. since then a few additions were made...our's had a screened in front porch put on and an addition to make the kitchen nook. our sunroom addition and the garage were built sometime in within the last 10 years.

this is "old florida". this is what i grew up in...live oak and palm tree jungles and lots o' lizards. i can almost picture myself playing in this yard when i was 5-6 years old. it looks very familar to me.

you can see here how they added the screened in front porch on the south side of our cottage. carol said they built all the cottages with hurricane wind in mind. they are all facing the south and the same roof pitch, in the same direction because the prevailing winds here are normally from the north.

so far i think i've met just about all of the neighbors down here. they keep wandering down here on foot to say hello and welcome to the neighborhood. carol seems to be the sweety of them all. she is tiny, but not too frail, feeds the birds all the time, always smiling, a little bit goofy and reminds me of an older version of diane keaton. i can't wait to see the inside of her cottage when i take the old memorabilia back to her today. first i'm going to get it all copied at kinko's. i think i'll take her some flowers for being so nice.

yesterday i mowed our little yard with the little lawn mower i bought. it's one of those hand push reel kinds. i love it. it's like mowing the yard in silence and it only took me about 1/2 hr. then i weeded some of little gardens that jean, the previous owner, had probably taken great care of for the past 4-5 decades. most of them are lined in old shells that i'm sure she found on the beach. it's sort of sad really to try and take over where someone has left off...trying not to disturb too much or destroy anything that probably meant a lot to her.

i feel like i should honor these little gardens. i think it brings good karma.

the mango tree cottage at 935 n.e. banyan tree dr., jensen beach, fl. 34957 is now officially ours as of yesterday at 11am. the closing was actually quite painless, sign here, sign there and it was done. the property is ours and fully paid for and we have a deeded right of way to the water. our realtor mentioned during closing that people had been calling about the property up until the day of our closing seriously wanting to buy this place, one in particular... an artist who said that she must have this house so please, please call her if the deal falls through. i'll be glad when they take the for sale sign down. i'll still not sure why they offered to sell the house for so cheap but i surely wasn't going to complain about it. next week we will apply for a homestead exemption on the property taxes. the state just raised the exemption to $50,000 which means if you live in your home full time as your primary residence you pay property taxes on the appraised value of your house minus the $50,000. that's a good deal. our taxes will probably be under $500 a year. the homeowners insurance was cheap too, around $600 a year. so our total monthly house expenses will be around $100 plus the electric bill. this is very good.

i do still plan on going the pv solar route as soon as i can get around to it, probably early next year. actually i'm not really sure about how it's going to work out since the giant mango tree shades most of the main house. the little detached garage, however, isn't shaded. hopefully it will accommodate some sort of solar panels, big enough to make enough power for what little we use. i guess i'll get someone in the solar business to come out and give me some advice about it all. if it looks do-able then i'll apply for the state incentive grant money which should pay for the entire installation. that would be cool.

i am feeling very relieved now and very happy that we have at least something of real value that we can convey to the 2 younguns in the event that we kick the old proverbial bucket.

today we are moving crap out of our storage unit and into the house. thankfully the storage unit is just up the street from the house, less than a mile.

it's sort of hard to get any work done there at the house though. i keep wanting to just sit on out on the screened porch and stare at the water or watch the anole lizards catch bugs.

yesterday i bought a cute little wooden kitchen table with 4 chairs that i saw on craigslist. i called the guy who was selling it to get directions. he said lots of people had been calling so i said i'd be right over since it looked just right for our little kitchen. he also said he had a lot of other furniture for sale since he was in the process of moving out. now... let me ask you this... if you were selling a bunch of stuff on craigslist and you had a bunch of strange people coming to your house all day long would you greet the people at the door stoned out of your gourd, the whole house reeking of weed and with a half smoked joint on the kitchen counter? i had a hard time keeping a straight face about the whole thing. oh well.. it was funny. no doubt many o' joints were probably rolled on our new to us table. i like furniture with an interesting history. hehheh.