Life is great, actually! The ol’ saying, “Everything happens for a reason” could not be more true in the case of your friendly blogger down here in Florida! Shutter slutting (as the Queen of Dysfunction called it) didn’t turn out like I had hoped. As a matter of fact, my good friend Kevin who was my counterpart in South Florida just quit the Shutter company too. Not quite the gazillion dollars that they’d promised us. Nottatall!
Erstwhile, I’ve become a sub-contractor for a company out of Navarre, FL doing retail fixture and signage installations all over Central and South Florida and my buddy Kevin has been giving me a hand. It’s been fun and I’m about tripling the money I made at the sham shutter co.
Anyhoo…in the mean time, our landscapers/close friends Bobby and Andee King (freshly married, I might add) just finished landscaping our front garden. They ripped out all of the old yucky plants and replaced them with new, hearty Florida foliage and in lieu of the pine bark we had in the bed, replaced it with a beautiful crimson rock. Looks really nice. I also added a sprinkler system to the bed for easy watering! Here’s a before shot.

Here’s an after shot. They did a fantastical job!

Soo…what else has been goin’ on? I did an installation downtown Miami Tuesday and Wednesday. I installed a display case that looks like a vault into a jewelry store. Turned out pretty cool. When I arrived I was a little leary of how this installation was going to go. The Jewelry store owner was Jewish. Oy yuy yuy, I thought. This is gonna be a long day. Then since I was early, he made me stand outside until they opened their store. So, here I stand with all of my tools that I had to lug about 3 blocks because parking is ridiculous in Miami, sweating my ass off…and bums are askin’ me “for a little help for the homeless.” Seriously, I wish I could have had about 10 copies of the “Miami Herald Help Wanted Ads.” Sure! Here’s a little help for the homeless! =/
Here’s a picture of the finished product. I know what you’re saying, “Nice electric cord sticking out the top!”

How’s about O.J. Simpson? What an idiot, huh? Ok a murdering Idiot. Whatever. I don’t know why I feel like he’s being set up, but I do. I wouldn’t be surprised if his deceased wife’s family’s got their hands in it somewhere. You know what really sucks about it? TV is going to be all O.J. all the time. Even on the sports channels. At least ESPN left the Natalie Holloway story alone.
Mary and I have been diligently remodeling the house one room at a time. I must say, it’s coming along quite swimmingly!
Tony’s Room. Check.
before:

after:

Dining Room. Check.
Don’t have a before, but here’s an after:

Living Room. Check.
Before:

And after:

Master Bath. Check.
Before:

After:

Hallway. Check.

Study. Almost Check!
During:

So, that’s where I’m at. How’s about you guys and gals? You stayin’ busy?
Oh, I’m taking down my Presidential Poll. Although the Frothmistress’ pooch, Beebs, came in a close second…it looks like Fred Thompson is going to be our next President. And…Mark my words, Hilary Clinton will never be the President of the United States. Ever. Period.
Oh, one more thing….
I transplanted a palm tree in the yard. Wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but…it weighed about 600 pounds. I dug around the entire base of the tree to preserve the root ball, dragged it out of the hole with my F-150, with Mary’s help loaded it onto my trailer, drove it to it’s new home and muscled it upright and buried that bitch! Took me two days and a sore back for about a week. Here she is:

Well, it doesn’t look like 600 lbs, but trust me…it’s big!
Oh, another thing! A great tidbit…
As you probably remember, my sisters mother-in-law, Shirley, was murdered in Oklahoma several months ago. Well, this idiot named Michael Lamont Gary was caught driving across country several times using her credit card to fill up his tank. When the authorities arrested him, he said that he got the credit card from someone at a party for a bag of weed. This all took place in Ohio where he faced extradition to Oklahoma. It’s all coming together now. The detectives are shootin’ holes all through his story, and we may have found the animal who caused this tragedy. God, I hope it’s him. If it’s not though, I hope they don’t send an innocent man to prison for a crime that he didn’t commit. God, I hope it’s him.
Ciao