Pbenjay's Blog

Some people who have a cottage at the shore actually go to the beach.  Why, when we didn’t have a cottage and we spent weekends at the Lilligaard Hotel, we used to go the beach, soak up the sunshine, read a book, totally relax and end the day on the big porch with a martini!!

That was then and this is now – There was no buffet for breakfast this morning with a bottomless cup of coffee.  Instead, Peter made his own eggs while I toodled around with the computer and watched Sunday Morning.  That was just my way of procrastinating, there were so many things on my To Do List and a good many I had put on Peter’s list.

I showered and ate and set out for my first stop which was to Susan’s BECAUSE once again, those damn knitting needles screwed up the sleeve of Finley’s sweater.  And on my way over, I spotted balloons down the street,  a sure sign of Spring in the Grove – YARD SALE! Not a lot to choose from BUT of course I found a few treasures; 2 DVDs, 2 books for the Grandbabies (I think the books are part of a fantasy of having the grandkids here and reading to them) and a very strange looking tool for Peter which  I thought maybe he would clean up and sell at the Flea Market (that may be yet another fantasy).  Susan fixed the sleeve in no time and I was off to Starbucks for my morning FIX of a Grande Americano with a lite splash of steamed brevi.  Whenever I place that order I feel like I’m a DP from LA. A while ago I bought a travel mug at Starbucks for the car and so if you give it to the staff to fill instead of taking a paper cup and transferring in a moving car which is always a treat, lol, you actually receive a 10 cent discount.  So I hand over my mug with my order and the barista hands it to me with the top not on.  As I screwed on the top, very hot steamed espresso and half and half streamed out through the top making puddles on the counter and a mess all down the sides of the mug.  FIRST I had to bring to her attention that I needed something to clean it up.  She said “Oh I’ll clean it up, it happens all the time”.  She wiped up the counter BUT I’m holding a mug that literally has foamy milk running down all of the sides and on my hand.  NO OFFER to give me something to wipe it or me ,clean.  I literally must have used 25 napkins to get all of the foam off the mug.  It sounds silly, easy and stupid right? WELL, the mugs are covered in various spots with a rubberized and textured coating – all the better for the hot cream to adhere to! Wipe, wipe, wipe and wipe again. I tried sipping some of the brew so it would be below the screw top and still it came out. THIS IS RIDICULOUS!  Wouldn’t you think the people who work for the company that sells the mug would know how high you can fill it?   Why I felt funny about taking a photograph of it right then and there I don’t know – I had my camera with me and I should have snapped  a shot of the total oozing mess.  I wanted a picture for the blog BUT  was embarrassed about taking a photo lest they think I was planning on sending it to corporate.

You can still see specks of foam on the mug

Finally I snapped a quick photo surreptitiously at the very end of the clean up.  BUT I am going to write to Starbucks because a few weeks ago this very same girl was on the counter and when I asked her for the discount that she didn’t give me, she shrugged her shoulders and took a dime out of the tip container.  I guess that was to make me feel foolish and petty when in fact she made the error.  This same staff person on that same day looked at me blankly when I ordered a Tall black Pike’s and proceeded to give the robust coffee of the day.

Listen I know anyone can make a mistake, it’s not about that, it’s the attitude! Wouldn’t you think she would be concerned and apologetic that hot coffee was all over a Guest? Wouldn’t you think she would have glanced over and saw me ripping napkins out of the holders to wipe up the continuous puddling on the counter where the sugar and milks are? Wouldn’t you think she might have said something while I was frantically trying to clean up the mug – this while other guests were trying to add milk or sugar to their own drinks and I am standing there looking like the slob who spilled her coffee everywhere?

Once out the door I headed to Harmon Discount because all week long I had been waiting to buy  two new eyebrow pencils and two blue eyeliners. THAT’S ALL I was going to get.  Part of the spring cleaning of my make-up kit times two because as you know any lady worth her Oil of Olay has cosmetics and stuff at both of her dwellings.  At least 3o minutes later I emerged from Harmon with just a few other items. You know when you go to the grocery store and you’re hungry, you come home with all kinds of snacks and goodies, well somehow the same phenomena struck me when I was in Harmon’s.  For those of you who are not familiar with this store (it is a chain)-it sells discount cosmetics and toiletries, hair dryers, hair care products as well as brushes, clips etc.  In other words it’s a fun place to browse through especially if you’re a girl even a girl of a certain age. So, 2 blue eyeliners – two different brands and two different colors, a water spray bottle to keep my forced curls curly, an eye shadow palette for hazel eyes because I am sure my brown eyes are fading, another eye shadow combo with some greens in it to replace the one I dropped on the bathroom tile floor, you know what that mess was like.  Of course I needed two eyebrow pencils too and again two different shades, two different brands – I mention this only because you can imagine how much time was spent while I desperately tried to determine which product and shade was right.  I think my Gemini side was in full force yesterday morning. – maybe my moon was rising.  Then there was the replacement of a lip stain by Cover Girl that I really like and am almost out of, so I got one of those too. Just as I thought I was done (really) I spotted this eye brightener – now that is a ridiculous come on if I ever heard one because other than putting some magic drops in your eyes, what could this mere pencil do?  Well we’ll find out!!! Leaving the store at the checkout counter, I thought to myself, I should never come in this store again when I’m hungry!!

Guiltily and quickly I headed home, picked up Peter and off we went to the storage area where we needed to drop off some New York street furniture find of his, return the Easter hats to their year long home and find a bank that we sold on Ebay which was supposed to be in a bin and was NOT.  We are hoping it is somewhere in New York because it has been paid for and the buyer is awaiting shipment.

“What a great day to paint, don’t you think, Peter?” He promised to paint the trim around the windows in the bow window to match the front of the house.   Last year we had picked out a beautiful shade of a green that is somewhere between sea glass and aquamarine and at the time we only painted the two front windows and the front door frame…I really wanted the windows on the ocean side of the house painted too.

Bay Window on La Vie en Rose

So after he painted the bow window frames, I drove past the house and sure enough the remaining two side windows stood out like the proverbial sore thumb!  Thankfully it didn’t take much convincing to have him paint those also.  So now our little cottage, La Vie en Rose has some color on the side.  It’s hard to convince anyone it’s a little Victorian when it has white vinyl siding on it.  Very bland, but I am adding color wherever I can and making it into a Confection of a Cottage inside and out!

Lest you think I was reading, knitting or writing this blog while he was working I was not!  We had bought a huge bag of mulch two weeks ago and so I spread it among our bushes in the back, the daffodils on the side and cleaned up the front landscaping and put some there too.  I know that doesn’t sound like a lot of work, but I had to fill a pail with the mulch, spread it, fill the pail again and again and again.  Still, that was a lot easier than washing the mildew and moss off of the porch spindles and the edge of the porch floor.  I scrubbed and scrubbed and it still doesn’t look great and I am trying to convince my painter that mildew will just eat its way through new paint and also some of the spindles and the lower balustrade need to be replaced, AND the porch floor could use some minor repair and a repainting and thank God our other home is an apartment with a Superintendent, handymen who clean the hallway carpeting and wash the floors,  a trash room, a laundry room, a doorman and a garage.

All work, no play? NO WAY – as Sunday afternoon faded away, look how much fun we had doing our favorite Shore thing:  Drinks and appetizers on the porch with friends! Doncha just love it?

Chilling on the porch

Savoring the evening's martini

Hors D'ouevres on the Front Porch

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