sometimes it's tough

Today was a busy day, and after work, I ended it going to Clare Bridge, an Alzhiemer care facility. I have a customer there. Her husband doesn't like the on staff stylist, so he has arranged for me to go there every 2 weeks and do her hair. It's quite the challenge most visits. Today, she just didn't want to lay back in the shampoo bowl so I could wash her hair. So I just curled her hair without washing it. I though I was doing pretty good talking to her, but I think I need a book to better understand this type of patient. They apparently have 'good' moments and 'bad' moments. She still seems to recognise me as someone she likes, so that helps me to get her to do what I need her to do. But before I got there, she had a 'tiff' with her husband, and she told her him to leave. So I didn't have him to help me. This was the first time she wouldn't let me wash her hair. But I'll keep trying.
In other news, we tried a new recipe for dinner. Spicy-sweet pork tenderloins. They were very good! We had them with pan fried potatoes, and marinated broiled Asparagus. Very tasty! The recipe's here.

And since I'm not a night owl, I'm now tired and need to go to bed. Goodnight...

funny friday and a rant

Well, it's been busy at work this week. It should get steadily busier as we go through the holiday season. Glad I don't work at a store. They've been playing Christmas music for 2 weeks already. And for me, a little Christmas music goes a long way. And now another reason I hate shopping at Walmart. Actually I do occasionally shop there. They do sometimes have better prices on some things, but, this is an example of their advertising tactics. Their Wednesday flier in the paper showed frozen turkeys for $.40 per lb. The cheapest in the area. Meijer's was around $.45, and Kroger, $.49. We usually but 3-4 turkeys. 1, I love turkey. 2, They are by far the cheapest meat you can buy, especial right now. And 3, I love the smell of it cooking all day in the oven. And we eat one on Thanksgiving, one at Christmas, one in February, and one in March. So anyway, I sent Craig over to Walmart after work to pick up a couple. He comes back, no turkeys. He said they were all sold out. I said, 'all sold out'? The ad just came out today, and is good through Thanksgiving! And of course, the ad said select varieties, while supplies last. And that's the kicker. Get them in the store for a deal, but knowing you don't have many at that price, and hope they'll just pay more for another. I hate when stores do that! So, I'll get my turkeys at Meijer. I know they'll be in stock when ever I go there. Just another reason I hate walmart.
So now on to our ff............



And for this ff, with Thanksgiving coming up, how pumpkin pies are really made..........

Have a great weekend!

It's Alive!

Ummm nope, it isn't.
If you remember, my laptop started acting weird. I would turn it on, the fan and lights would come on, then after 10-25 seconds, would turn itself off, and then right back on. It would cycle like this forever until I held the power button down to turn it off. So anyway, everything I read on the Internet led me to believe it was a problem with the graphic card/motherboard configuration, but I kept thinking, why would it all of a sudden start doing this? Then I ran across a post about the BIOS and the clock. Now my battery died a couple of years ago, and since I always plug it in, I thought no problem. It would beep at me when it started with a message about wrong time. I for a while would correct the time, but later just stopped doing that. Well, the post said something about screwing up the Bios if the clock isn't right, so I got into the bios, and the clock read 2006. I changed it to the present date, exited bios, and bingo! Windows loaded! I thought All right! I just need to get another battery! So I left it plugged in, and put it into sleep mode. This morning, when I opened the case, nothing.........black screen, nothing......Tried the bios thing again, nothing........I'm back to the beginning of starting over and over again. So now I'm thinking it's the cmos battery. I guess I'll try replacing that, and go from there.
But in other news, I was a cleaning freak yesterday. I don't know what got into me, but I cleaned and cleaned. Kitchen cabinets, counters, floors, bathroom, TV room, dusted, and vacuumed. It looks great! I even spot painted.
And it looks to be a very busy week at the Salon.
So I'm outta here!

bundle up, it's getting cold!

Good morning.

It's been a dreary cloudy cold couple of days. Sunday, I did some more weatherizing of the house. We have a trap door in the hall that goes into the attic. I decided to put another sealed door over the other to increase insulation. With Craig's advice, I ended up buying a Styrofoam panel rated a 10. Cut 2 pieces out of it to fit the opening. That would give me an extra insulating value of 20 total besides the existing door and blanket insulation on top of that. After I wedged the first panel into place, I could feel cold air coming through one edge.

So I was right in thinking the trap door

with blanket insulation on top wasn't enough!

And since you can't possibly cut Styrofoam perfectly,

I used pipe wrap insulation to fill in the gaps.

I tore sections of pipe wrap, and with a

screwdriver wedged it in the cracks

to form a good seal.

Here's the finished job.

I also redid some of the weather stripping around some doors. And with the furnace on now, I won't need the vent fan in the bathroom, so I took off the cover, and stuffed a bunch of insulation in there too. I think we're pretty much good for winter now.

On Monday, Craig and I went to Muskegon to visit my mom. I cut her hair, took her to Applebees for lunch, and then to the VFW for some pull tabs and the $1 drink specials they have on Mondays. And guess what? We actually won $150.00! Cool! My mom could use some extra cash. I read in the papers how VFW's are struggling around the country, but this one has actually gained memberships. For a Monday afternoon, there were maybe 20-25 people there. But they do a lot to encourage visits. They do Nascar parties in the summer, dinners a couple times a month, with proceeds to charity, football and basket ball parties in the winter. They seem to have something going on all the time.

That's all I got for now......

It's Sunday

Good morning.
The work week ended up busier than expected, so I still haven't got a haircut. But I did get out of work early yesterday, and with a one day of temps in the low 60's, I went home and cleaned all the windows. Inside and out. They sure look good! I should do this more than once a year. :-)
I then got out the caulking and re-caulked around some of the windows.
Then for dinner, Craig made his home made pizza. Yummy! Click the link if you want the recipe. Today, I've already cleaned the Salon, and after this post, take my shower. Poor Craig's on the floor in the living room with the heating pad. His back just isn't getting better as quick as it has in the past.
Today, with temps back down in the low 50's, I'm going to do some more winterizing of the house.
Have a good day.