boring

It's Saturday, it's 12 degrees out this morning. Yesterday, after work, I walked the mall again. (boy that's boring!) But the weight is coming off. Slow, but off. And that's good, because it'll be easier to keep it off. And then when I got home, I had to snow blow the driveway again. I swear, the piles of snow at the end of the driveway are the biggest in probably the 22 years we've lived here! And for supper, Craig made a tasty dish of Hamburger Helper.

I know, your gonna say, Hamburger Helper? But Craig's such a good cook? Well, he is, on our days off. But after working all day, the last thing we want to do is 'prepare' a meal, so that means Wednesday and Thursday, we have leftovers from the previous week, and Friday and Saturday nights, we have something simple. But he did alter it a bit. He added Mushrooms and Onions when he cooked it, and garnished with Tomatoes, so to add a bit more nutrition. And he used Lean Hot Italian Sausage, instead of Ground Beef. Tonight, we are having Chicken Cordon Bleu, Noodles Alfredo, (with light Alfredo Sauce) And Parmesan Zucchini. I know, we tend to eat this dish a lot, but it's easy, and tasty.

Well, time to get ready for work. Later!

funny friday

I know, this is a terribly sexist ff, but it is still hilarious!

What is the difference between a battery and a woman? A battery has a positive side.

How are fat girls and mopeds alike? They're both fun to ride until your friends find out.

What should you give a woman who has everything? A man to show her how to work it.

If your wife keeps coming out of the kitchen to nag at you, what have you done wrong? Made her chain too long .

Why do women have smaller feet than men? It's one of those 'evolutionary things' that allows them to stand closer to the kitchen sink.

How do you know when a woman is about to say something smart? When she starts a sentence with 'A man once told me...'

How do you fix a woman's watch? You don't. There is a clock on the oven.

Why do men pass gas more than women? Because women can't shut up long enough to build up the required pressure.

If your dog is barking at the back door and your wife is yelling at the front door, who do you let in first? The dog, of course. He'll shut up once you let him in.

Scientists have discovered a food that diminishes a woman's sex drive by 90%.. It's called a Wedding Cake.

Why do men die before their wives? They want to.

Women will never be equal to men.. until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

Have a great weekend!

it's not a diet

Yep! Still winter! We have reached 54.5 inches of snow so far this season. We are now at our normal season average snow fall with another 6 weeks or so of winter. It's been a long snowy winter!
I wrote in a post earlier about us wanting to lose some of our holiday weight. We went way overboard and ate pretty much everything in sight. Well, now I weigh more than I ever have! I'm looking to lose about 13 lbs. I know, for a lot of people, that's nothing, but to a skinny frame like mine, it is! I took a before pic, And it's not pretty! You don't realize how you look until you actually see a pic of yourself! YUK! So we are eating better, and I'm working out with weights again. And when I get there, I'll post that ugly pic along with my after pic.
And we're not dieting. We're just making better choices food wise, and trying to burn more calories exercise wise.
Now I'm off to work!

Cooking with Craig

First off, yesterday was very productive. Craig did laundry, and vacuumed, and I cleaned the bathroom. We walked the mall, (and no stopping/looking/buying) and did some banking.
Later, Craig made a delicious dinner. This one is really easy.
Take one package of stuffing mix,

one package mixed frozen vegetables. Thaw first. We used Broccoli, Corn, Red Peppers, and Cauliflower. You could use fresh also but the frozen was easier.
One can Cream of mushroom soup. You could use any cream soup you want.
Mix all three together and put into casserole dish.
Trim excess fat from Pork Cutlets, season and place on top of stuffing mixture. See pics.
We used Garlic, Cilantro, and Cumin.
You can use what ever you like.
Bake at 400 for 40 min.
Enjoy!
We made enough for left overs so we will have a meal on Thursday also.

It's Monday

After cleaning the Salon yesterday morning, and having our coffee and reading the paper, we went out and did a little walking. And no, not outside, it's toooo damn cold! But we walked at a big box store. We probably had security following us all over as we weaved up and down all the aisles. We are trying to get more exercise and lose some of the holiday weight we got.. And we're too cheap to join a gym. In the summer we can ride bikes and walk the park trails, but we don't do cold well, so no hiking outside in the winter. The problem with walking stores, is you inevitably see something to buy. I told Craig it's getting expensive to walk!
Although this time of year, you can get some good buys! I was walking our local mall Friday, and at JC Penny's, I found a couple of shirts, originally $42.00 marked down to $14.99. And, they were selling them, buy one get one free! So 2 shirts for $15.80 with tax!
Sooooo, after walking and a little shopping, later at home we started puzzle #3. Here's a pic of our progress on just the first day. I told you they become addictive! I was planning on cleaning the bathroom, but never got up from the puzzle. Oh well, the dirty bathroom is still there, maybe today. And for dinner, we had left over turkey that Craig whipped up into barbecued sandwiches. Yummy! Craig likes to toast the buns. It keeps the moist meat from making the bread mushy, and makes for a nice crunchy sandwich.

3 YEARS!

I know, I know, it's hard to believe, but I have now been blogging for 3 years! And I just want to say thanks for letting me share some of my little world with everyone who has stopped by my blog.

I went back to the beginning, and saw how much my blog has changed. It took a year to figure out my own look. Another year to become comfortable with my own style of writing. And I believe it will continue to evolve.

I've also met some great people through blogging. Besides a whole lot of new on-line friends, I've met in person some really nice people. First off is Mo, one of the very first bloggers who helped me a lot in my early blog years. And then Tom and Dean, new camping friends from Wisconsin. John and Derek , who are full timing in their RV, currently in Arizona, and we got to meet them in person last year in St Louis. And also Randy and Dave, who are full timing and criss crossing the USA in their motor home, and currently in Miami. And Mark and Craig, who live in Memphis/Palm Springs, and we got to meet them in Saugatuck last summer. All this from blogging! And who knows what the future will bring!
So not knowing why I started this blog in the beginning has turned into some new friendships. I feel blessed, and look forward to many more. Happy Blogoversary to me!

funny friday

Here's a pic of part of the back yard. Look how high the snow is on the bench and turned over bird baths! This is one of the snowiest winters we've had in a long time! But this is half the snow Grand Rapids has gotten which is 50 miles west of Lansing, and only 50 miles from Lake Michigan. My Mom, who lives in Muskegon, right on Lake Michigan, has 3 times the snow we have here! They get what's called 'lake effect' snow. The air coming across the lake, pics up moisture, and dumps it when it crosses land.
But anyway, on to our ff.........

A nun, badly needing to use to the restroom, walked into a local Hooters.

The place was hopping with music and loud conversation, and every once in a while the lights would turn off. Each time the lights would go out, the place would erupt into cheers.

However, when the revelers saw the nun, the room went dead silent.

She walked up to the bartender, and asked, 'May I please use the restroom?'

The bartender replied, 'OK, but I should warn you that there is a statue of a naked man in there wearing only a fig leaf.'

'Well, in that case I'll just look the other way,' said the nun.

So the bartender showed the nun to the back of the restaurant.

After a few minutes, she came back out, and the whole place stopped just long enough to give the nun a loud round of applause.

She went to the bartender and said, 'Sir, I don't understand. Why did they applaud for me just because I went to the restroom?'

'Well, now they know you're one of us,' said the bartender.

'But, I still don't understand,' said the puzzled nun.

'You see,' laughed the bartender, 'every time someone lifts the fig leaf on that statue, the lights go out!

Have a great weekend!

oh, and can you believe it! this is my 500th post! WOW!

Cooking with Craig

Good morning! Today I'm starting a little installment called Cooking with Craig! It seems a lot of readers like Craig's recipes, so I've convinced him to share occasionally. Now Craig is not a gourmet cook by any means. He's a basic meat and potato kind of guy. But he enjoys experimenting in the kitchen. And he always seems to alter the recipes. We try for the most part to eat fairly healthy, and his recipes will show that. So anyway, to start out, here's a new one he did last Sunday. And this is large enough for leftovers, which we are having today!

He discovered this in our local newspaper. And it was delicious! Now what he changed was as follows. Instead of Ricotta Cheese, he used fat free Cottage Cheese. And Eggbeaters instead of a regular egg. Also the fresh Ravioli was too expensive, so he got frozen, and precooked it and cooled it before making the dish. He also added a layer of Cooked onions, black olives, and lean Hot italian Sausage. And also fat free Mozzarella to make it a little cheesier. And did I say, it was delicious?

And thanks to Jamie and Randy for suggesting the Cooking with Craig feature.

And for step by step pics, go here!

it's Wednesday

Good morning from a very cold mid Michigan. As if that's any thing new. Our weekend was fairly uneventful. Well, except we've got a new president, and hopefully a new direction. But back to me. After all, this blog is called Wayne's World, so it's all about me right? Soooo, we spent the weekend laying low. Craig fixed a wonderful mock Lasagna that I'll do a separate post on. ( After all the please post food comments I got, he's let up on me.) We started our 2nd puzzle. I forget how addicting they can become! We started this one on Sunday, and in just 3 days, we have just the bottom section left to complete.
We also ran the mo-ho and generator, and also his Honda that's stored for the winter. We try and do that once a month.

Oh, and I finally caught a rabbit! And entered him in the Wayne Relocation Program! I'm sorry, but I can't divulge his new location. Just to say no harm was done to the little bastard cute thing!
That's all I've got time for this morning. Now it's off to work! I've got a very long day today. 7:30am to 7:15pm.

Life in the Salon.

Good morning! Our weekend is going well. No food pics today.
Craig thinks I post too much about food. So I say, we're not doing mo-ho trips, so I can't post about that, I can't do posts of my gardening, it's buried in 2 feet of snow, we don't do winter, which means no skiing, snowmobiling, or any thing else where I have to be in the cold, So what else is there? That leaves work, which on a day to day is boring, sleeping, which is really boring, Playing on the puter, cleaning house, doing puzzles, (which I can only post so much about), and eating! Which is at least different now and then. But okay, something different............
I've been doing hair for 31 years now, and there's been some interesting times.
1. Worst hair disaster.
A customer came in with a perm over a frost job. The frost was so over processed, the hair turned to mush. You couldn't even get a comb through it. The poor woman was in tears. I conditioned it, and then very carefully sectioned it and razored out the frosted hair. Fortunately, it was a light frost, and her hair was fairly thick, and when I was done, the perm looked great!
2. Most unusual haircut.
A guy on the local high school swim team came in. Swimmers always have short hair, less drag in the pool. This particular year, all the swimmers were getting designs cut into the hair. I did a checkerboard on him.
3. Most unusual request.
A woman comes in every month to have her regrowth bleached. Her hair was a natural brown, but we bleached it blond. During one visit, she asked me if I could color 'all' her hair. I said "I do color all of it", and she said, "I mean 'all' of it". Then the light bulb went off, and I said,"no! We can't do that!" And then she asked if I could give her some so she could do it at home. And I said, "no! Your not listening! that area is sensitive and this is a harsh chemical, it'll burn!" I said "why do you want to color there"? And she said, "I don't want any one to know I'm not a true blond." I'm thinking, How many people are going to see?
4. Most fun hair.
For school spirit, on game days they do a dress theme, such as 50's, dress in school colors, funny shoe day, and such. Well one week it was funny hat day, and one of our receptionists was a student. So we cut a piece of cardboard in a large circle, cut out an inner circle, combed her long hair down evenly all around her head, slipped the cardboard over the top on an angle, and smoothed her hair up over the cardboard and tucked it in, and when we were done it looked like she was wearing a large brimmed hat! It was the hit of the school!
5. Oddest hairstyle request.
A man used to come in on occasion and ask for a shampoo and set. That's where we wash the hair, set it on rollers, dry it, and comb it into a pretty style. It's what we do for most of our older clients. He would say he was in a play and need it to look like that, but after a few years, we just did it and and never said anything about it.

I could go on and on. Bet you never thought about all the stuff that goes on in your Salon, did you!

maintenance

Today I'm gonna show you how important it is to do maintenance on your puter.


My computer is about 6 years old. (isn't this a massive tower?) And every year. I do a complete cleaning of it. If you click on the pics, you'll see why.


The vent holes are filled with dust. As are the fans and boards. Using compressed air, I blow all the vents and fans clear of dust.

You can see all the dust on the floor of the tower when I was done. Then a good vacuuming of it and back together as good as new!

Dust accumulation can cause over heating and premature death!

So make sure, once a year, clean your puter! Unless of course you like replacing your puter every few years.

And now that I've got my puter clean, and the Salon cleaned, I need to clean the driveway. Yes, we've gotten more snow! As of yesterday, 48.5 inches so far this season. Our normal season has a total of 54.5. And with over 2 months left of winter, I think we'll surpass that!

ummmmmm, foooood

I don't often do a Saturday post, but I got out of work fairly early yesterday. We have hit our usual winter slow down. A lot of our customers have gone south for the winter. And we've also been experiencing the economic slow down. We work near the Lansing Mall, and I'm beginning to wonder if the entire mall might close. Besides losing one of the 4 anchor stores, there are numerous empty store fronts. And in our strip mall, out of 21 store fronts, we have 11 empty. I wonder how much worst things will get before it starts to turn around.
Any who, since I had some extra time, I decided to whip up a little beef stir fry for dinner. Here's the freshly sliced ingredients ready to saute. And of course, we need a little vino to enjoy during the process. And served over a bed of brown rice. We are always picking up various marinades were ever we go, so as to have a selection depending on what we decide to cook. For this dish, I used a spicy Hawaiian sauce. Just enough bite to make it interesting! And as you'll notice, I did the cooking for a change instead of Craig. He doesn't do stirfrys. He says he can't judge how much time everything takes. So I get the job. I generally don't like cooking.
It seems like a lot of work for the results, but I'll cook occasionally. Mainly because I love to eat!

Well that's it for now, I'm off for my last day of work this week. And yes, it's still cold!

funny friday

For this edition of ff, An adult version of Doctor Seuss!

Have a great weekend!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, it's cold!
It's currently 6 below zero out. That's right, a -6 degrees!

And I had a long day at work yesterday, and another one today.

But in good news, our Michigan State Spartans beat Penn State, and are currently 10th in the national standings, at 14-2!

Gooooooooooooo S T A T E !

And we just got our Dec. gas bill, OUCH! They said it would be higher this winter due to the utilities having to buy such expensive fuel last summer when prices were sooo high.

Well, now I'm off to work! And here's another lovely winter scene for all those people who miss this crap our beautiful winters.

It's c-o-l-d!

Good morning from the cold white north! No, this isn't a pic of here, but it feels like we have that much snow! We have another weather system blowing through, bringing with it single digit temps. But now an update on our weekend. The cleaning bug left as fast as it came. After a massive cleaning on Sunday, Monday was a lazy day. Read blogs, worked on a puzzle, played on the puter, and checked out rv shows coming up. Not that we can buy anything, but it's fun to walk through the new models, and helps us get through the long winter. And of course I can see them all on-line, but it's always more fun seeing them in person.
Well, that's all I got for today.

winter

Here are a few pics of winter in Mid Michigan. I know all my southern readers are going to say, 'I'm soooo glad we don't live there!'

We've had way more snow then we normally get.

On the upside, the 'bug' got me again! I was a cleaning fool! Besides the Salon, I cleared the driveway, and cleaned all the kitchen cabinets. Craig vacuumed the whole house. And then he made a wonderful Chili! He refused to let me take any pics.

Said we already did that, so all I've got is a link to our last Chili bowls .

So when you think it's too dry, or too rainy, or not very warm. Just look at these pics and be happy your not here!

Coke Rewards

Craig got his new printer!

Thanks to everyone who sent me their Coke reward codes. Because of you, we were able to get this nifty 3-in one printer. It prints, copies and scans. Although it has a fairly low dpi, and it's an older model, he only uses it for documents. Mine does photos, so it's perfect for him. Now he doesn't have to 'disturb' my game playing when he needs a copy of something.


Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, keep sending those reward codes. They're always changing the rewards on the site. Maybe I can find some other nifty little item.

So Thanks again! You people are great!

funny friday

Greeting from cold snowy Mid Michigan. We've been busy at work. Besides customers, Craig is finally almost done with all the year end crap paperwork, and I did the year end inventory.
And now, on to our ff.......

bug's gone!

Well, I guess it was a one day cleaning bug I had, because I didn't do any more cleaning yesterday. Instead, I worked on shredding last years papers. Craig saves everything! Every bill receipt, utility bills, everything. So every year we need to clean them out.
And after nearly a week of clear roads, it's snowing again.
And for dinner, we were going to have Teriaki Chicken Breasts with fried potatoes, but the breasts looked more like Cornish Hen breasts. Unbelievably small! Sooooo, he cooked them along with a small tip steak, cut them into bite sized pieces. Cooked the potatoes, and cut them up and made this wonderful casserole! I believed he used cream of celery soup for the filler, and Pa panko crust on top. We had that along with Baked Acorn Squash with honey and bacon bits.
I tell ya the man can cook!
And now I'm off to work!

I got the bug!

Okay, not 'a' bug, but I got into this cleaning frenzy yesterday. I dusted, vacuumed, moved furniture, and spot cleaned the carpet. Craig did 1099's and more end of year crap bookkeeping.
I told you there's a lot of paperwork when you own a small business.
But Craig did find time to make his delicious Tortilla Casserole! I don't know what's in it exactly, because he always 'modifies' recipes, but it was yummy! And he makes enough so we'll have leftovers on one of our long workdays.

Oh, and you can see one side has more

tomatoes, and one more green onions. Craig like onions, and me, tomatoes.

And, we have 5 weekend destinations planned so far out of our 11 camping trips. They are, Columbus, Ohio, Muskegon, MI, (mother's Day weekend) Chicago, Ill, and Toledo, Ohio. And now I must get with our camping friends to coordinate others.

What's on your desktop

Good morning. Craig and I spent a good deal of time yesterday putting together a tentative camping schedule. It looks like we'll be doing 11 long weekends this year compared to 14 last year. Which will be okay. 14 gave us little down time between trips. And this year we'll be adding an extra day to many of them, so we'll actually be gone as many days, but fewer trips.
Also Craig's Visa/MasterCard reimbursement totals for the year wouldn't balance, so I helped him go over all the entries and re-add and cross match, and finally after about an hour, we got them to balance. I'm glad Craig does all the bookkeeping, because with a business, it's like balancing your checkbook times 50! So much bookkeeping! It'd make me dizzy!
And I recently changed my desktop pic, and thought I'd share it with you.


I change mine about once a month. I'm on the puter so much, it's fun to have something fresh to look at. So, what's on your desktop? And do you change yours often, or is it the same since you got your puter? Just curious.

Morning all. Despite a freezing rain advisory, I did get the Salon cleaned this morning. There was a coating of ice on the truck, but the main roads had all been salted in anticipation. And with all the snow we've had this winter so far, and the over exuberance of the company that salts our mall, I've needed to mop the Salon 2-3 times a week to keep it looking decent.

After work yesterday, I took Craig to Applebee's for a birthday dinner. We both had the 'pick 3' platter, which was way more food than we needed, but of course not wanting to waste it, ate it all. We then came home and started going through our appointment books selecting weekends to take off for the up coming camping season. I'll spend the weekend surfing and checking out the various possible destinations. It'll be good to have something besides our long winter to look forward to.

Oh, and I'll be adding a lovely winter pic with each of my posts. Not of anyplace in particular, but just because I like to have a pic in my posts, and I'm sure your tired of seeing me all the time. ;-)

Ummmmm steak!

Had a very busy day at the Salon yesterday, and looks to be another one today. I'm surprised at the number of Salons that closed for the long weekend. But they obviously don't need the money like me! We had a very nice quiet day on New Year's. Except that our Michigan State Spartans lost their bowl game. ugh!
We did have T-bone Steaks for dinner.
Along with Grilled Marinated Zucchini, and Baked Potato with sour cream. It was yummy! I haven't had steak in a long time! It was so large, we had to put the potato on a separate plate! But I ate every bit! I went online and found a steak seasoning recipe that was awesome!
Craig's been looking at the atlas thinking of places to go for this years weekend trips with the mo-ho. We'll soon start going through our appointment books figuring out what weekends we can take off, than match them with destinations.

Well, now I'm off to work!
ps, it's Craig's birthday today, send him birthday wishes! crgjohn@tds.net

funny friday

I didn't forget this weeks ff.....

Have a great weekend!