Dog Days

So after talking about our beloved dog Murphy for the last six months, the girls have switched to obsessively talking about their NEW dog....the one that I'm not so sure we are getting. I definitely miss Murphy, and there are times I miss having a dog around the house. But I'm thinking I may not be a 'dog person.' Maybe I was just a 'Murphy person.' I'm not sure anymore. Regardless, NO ONE in this house is getting a dog of any kind until after holiday break because we will be traveling for several weeks. I keep telling the girls that we will discuss it then. One of the major issues in this process of deciding if we want to add another dog to the family is the type of dog each girl wants. Mari wants a Chocolate Lab, just like her teacher and favorite human on the planet owns. She talks about Chocolate Labs, uses Google images to find adorable photos of them, and thinks that Coco would be the perfect name, since, well, I'm sure you get it. Josie on the other hand wants the dog in the picture here. She's watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua (parts 1, 2, AND 3, of course) way too many times. She also wants to name her dog Coco, but this time it's short for Coconut, like the dog you can get from American Girl. My husband and I have explained that if and when we do choose another pet for our family, we will choose it from a shelter or from a rescue agency. I don't think the girls get that a pure bred Chocolate Labrador or a whatever-the-heck-breed princess dog is probably won't be available at such places. Although I could be wrong, and I will certainly do all the research when this process starts up again after the holidays. In a perfect world, I would choose a dog on the smallish size who will fit through the existing dog door on the back of the house. This dog will never shed or have any accidents in the house. It will not chew the fringe off the expensive rugs on their way down here from a house in Maryland. And when we decide on an impromptu weekend getaway, or want to add another week or two to our time up north in the summer, this dog will somehow take care of all arrangements to allow that to happen. So, yeah, I'm obviously not there yet. I am still enjoying the freedom of not having a dog after having one for 15 years. And as I look at the pictures that the girls are constantly showing me, a part of me looks away because I don't want to get too attached....probably the true reason I'm not dog ready. Yet.

Key West Kitchen Re-Do

I thought the galley-style kitchen was cute when we bought our house in midtown Key West. It just needed a coat of paint to bring out the green and orange accents in the tile, a nice print for the wall, and a cute rug by the sink. It was compact, something that the kitchens in my last two homes were definitely not. Now that I have lived here for more than four years, 'compact' has become 'cramped.' The cabinets are inadequate for our dish ware and pantry items, so the limited counter space becomes even more limited with cereal boxes and drying dishes. And don't EVEN get me started on the two bins on top of the refrigerator! Pull one down to grab the plastic wrap or aluminum foil (and no matter how hard I try to remember, I always pull the WRONG bin down) and get bonked on the head by a plastic container or a box of storage baggies. So my husband and I decided to upgrade and expand. We started by purchasing new cabinets at Ikea. They go with our style and the other Danish Modern furniture in this house. Those are here and ready for placement. All of our food and dishware is on open shelving in the living room, which is actually pretty convenient, I have to say. Kind of like living in a store. The top cabinets are down and waiting for pick up, and the base cabinets will be gone over the weekend. That tile on the walls certainly hasn't cooperated with our removal plans. Even though I've watched countless people on HGTV tap a pry bar to have the tile just pop right off, ours has taken chunks of wall off along with it. Oh well....we will definitely need more drywall replacement than we originally thought. A bonus to this project was discovering an unknown skylight in the attic and that there is absolutely no insulation up there. So as we run our air conditioning most of the year, the top level of the house is just cooking away.....creating extra condensation, which can lead to black mold. That will be fixed. And of course we are dealing with 'island time.' Things aren't speedy here in Key West, that is for sure. People call you back when they call you back, and come by when they come by. Next week the electricians will run the new wiring, and we will face the roughest part of the project - not having a kitchen at all. The kids will love having to dine out every night for a short time, and I'm sure I can use the microwave on some flat surface. Some place. If I can find a clear spot among the piles. When the going gets tough inside the house, here in KW we can just head outdoors. Our trusty grill is under the palm trees, and if we dine on hot dogs, burgers, and s'mores for a few nights, so be it.  :)

Post-Labor Day Key West

Local kids have been back in school for three weeks, I haven't noticed too many tourists in my travels, and it generally rains several times a day. Welcome to September on the island. It is the quietest month, so slow that many restaurants and businesses close their doors for the entire month to do repairs and regroup before Fantasy Fest (easily the busiest week of the year) at the end of October. These rains come on strong! I will notice a dark cloud, see those first few large drops on the windshield, then BOOM! It will rain 'cats and dogs' but only for 20 minutes, if that. The sun comes back out until the next cloud passes. This time of year it may be pouring rain across the street or across town, but not where you are right now. The other morning I left my house to take the girls to school in sunshine, but by the time we passed the VFW on Roosevelt Boulevard it looked like we were driving into another world....gray, almost foggy, and lots of water. The rain comes down so fast that the streets will flood a little, and the parking lot at Publix is ankle-deep. The water doesn't hang around for long....it is quickly evaporated by our strong sunshine. You definitely get used to it and dress accordingly. I have those OluKai water-proof flip flops in every shade of the rainbow. (Unfortunately, after they get wet, they 'squeak' loudly when you walk, but it too is short lived. The other day I was walking around the halls at the girls' school and I seriously considered taking my shoes off so I didn't disturb the classes!) The rain clouds make for some truly amazing sunrises and sunsets. It's always beautiful here in the Florida Keys, and the rainy season just brings a different kind of beauty. The ocean can look almost black under the dark clouds, with bright spots of sunshine giving any vegetation an almost neon glow. It's a photographer's dream! I like this time of year here in Key West. It's the island dweller's version of early autumn.

Taken yesterday near Sugarloaf Key, between rain storms.