Go State!

O M G!

Our Michigan State Spartans beat the #1 seed in the nation to go to the final four!

What an awesome game! They completely dismantled Louisville! Now on to Detroit!

We just finished watching the game for the second time. It was that good!

And in other news........

I cleaned the Salon this morning and let Craig sleep in. He needed his beauty rest after staying up late on Friday to watch our Spartans beat Kansas. We had a low key day today. I cleaned house, played on the puter, and Craig did book work and laundry. It rained most of the day, and turned to snow this evening. YUK! We almost made it through the whole month without snow. But it's almost April, and spring is coming. The grass is starting to green up, and all the spring bulbs are coming up.

And for dinner, Craig fried a Ham Steak, with pan fried potatoes, and Honey Ginger Carrots.

busy, busy

Another quick post!

Work has been very busy this week, which is good!

I did get out a little early yesterday, and with the weather in the upper 50's, I spend an hour and a half cleaning out perennial beds, and scooping debris out of the pond. It felt good being out doors. I've got a lot of spring bulbs coming up, but nothing in flower yet.
March has been on the cool side, but at least we haven't had any snow this month which is unusual.
Craig used the leftover corned beef for dinner and made these tasty sandwiches. Mixed a little Hawaiian sauce with the shredded corned beef and served them on hamburger buns with fat free creamed cheese.
Then he stayed up to watch the Spartans play Kansas. He's not gonna be a pretty sight when he has to get up at 7 this morning for work. He needs 8-10 hrs, and the game didn't end till midnight. But at least the Spartans won! They now are in the Elite Eight! Ya!
And now I'm off to work!

funny friday

A blonde went to the appliance store sale and found a bargain.

"I would like to buy this TV," she told the salesman.

"Sorry, we don't sell to blondes," he replied.
She hurried home and dyed her hair, then came back and again told the salesman,

"I would like to buy this TV."
"Sorry, we don't sell to blondes," he replied.
"Darn, he recognized me," she thought.
She went for a complete disguise this time; haircut and new color, new outfit, big sunglasses, then waited a few days before she again approached the salesman.

"I would like to buy this TV."
"Sorry, we don't sell to blondes," he replied.
Frustrated, she exclaimed,"

"How do you know I'm a blonde??"
"Because that's a microwave," he replied.

Have a great weekend!

A quicky

Jeepers! I almost forgot to do a post!
Life gets busy that way sometimes. Any who, on Monday, I went to Muskegon to see my Mom. Cut her hair, cleaned up and shredded a bunch of stuff for her, took her to Finleys for lunch, (we both had their delicious ribs!) and then to the 'club' (VFW) for drinks and pull tabs. And she won $100 on a 50 cent pull tab!
With out me home, Craig slept in till 11am! And spent the rest of the day doing bookwork. Yesterday was windy and cold, so we pretty much stayed in. I did have my EBay auction end yesterday, and got $300 for our old satellite dish receiver. So boxed that up and took it to the post office.
And now I've gotta get to work!

the best brisket!

For this Cooking with Craig edition,
I'm sharing his wonderful Corned Beef Dinner!
This is the most tender tasty Corned beef you'll ever eat!


2 Cups water
1 Cup Chopped Onion
1 Cup Chopped Carrot
1 Cup Chopped Celery
1 Bottle Guinness Stout Beer
1 Can Low Salt Beef Broth
2/3 Cup brown Sugar
1 Can Tomato Paste
1 Tablespoon Dill Weed
6 Black Peppercorns
2 Whole Cloves
Combine everything in a slow cooker.
Top wit 3 lbs Corned beef Brisket. (trimmed of fat)
Cook on high 8 hours

And with it we had fried cabbage, and boiled Potatoes. And enough for leftovers! And they say to discard the broth, but we strained it into 4 pint containers, froze them and will use the broth for rice, mashed potatoes or anything you'd use water for.

Also on Sunday besides making this wonderful dinner, we changed the tires on his PT Cruiser, (took off the snow tires), did our walking, and watched our Spartans advance to the Sweet Sixteen!

Progress report

Well, it's been 2 1/2 months since I decide I needed to lose some weight. (I can't believe I let myself go so bad!) And you don't realize what you look like until you see a pic of yourself. But these long winters, and getting older hasn't helped. (Isn't getting older a bitch?)And although it's been very slow, (I'm only down about 8 lbs) And with the help of my work outs, I've gotten to looking better. Now sorry about the pics. For some reason, taking my pic in the mirror, no matter what I try, it turns out fuzzy. The first pic was taken Jan 4th. and the second one yesterday.
And in other news, work was busy this week. And the coming weeks are looking good also.

Today Craig is making a wonderful Corned Beef dinner. (I'll do a separate post on that!) And we'll watch our Michigan State Spartans as the try to reach the Sweet Sixteen.

funny friday

It's currently 19 out this morning, but the weekend is looking to be in the mid 50's. Not bad for Mid March. The work week has been busy, which is good considering we had the worst week ever last week. And now on to our ff........

Husband and wife are waiting at the bus stop with their nine children.
A blind man joins them after a few minutes.
When the bus arrives, they find it overloaded and only the wife and the nine kids are able to fit onto the bus.
So the husband and the blind man decide to walk.
After a while, the husband gets irritated by the ticking of the stick of the blind man as he taps it on the sidewalk, and says to him, "Why don't you put a piece of rubber at the end of your stick? That ticking sound is driving me crazy."
The blind man replies, "If you had put a rubber at the end of YOUR stick, we'd be riding the bus, so shut up.

Have a great weekend!

Wayne got ran over by a reindeer!

Well, not a reindeer, but a real deer! I was working on the mo-ho in the driveway. We live on a very busy street. We have a large business that sells windows, doors, siding, etc, next door to us, and a golf course across the street. I had just finished washing the front of the mo-ho, and went over in front of the truck to dump the soapy water in the gravel. Just as I was leaning over and dumping the water, I hear something russeling in the leaves. I look up and right there between the truck and fence is a deer going full tilt towards me! I barely had time to stand up and lean back as it shot past me down the side of the garage and into the back yard! Craig is on the other side of the mo-ho, hears me scream, SH#T! Comes over to see what was going on I point and yell, A Deer! And as he looks, it shoots through the evergreens across the back of the yard and is gone. Now where the hell did it come from at 2 in the afternoon? It was a beautiful 66 out and the golf course was busy with people, The business next door has 8 ft fences, and we live on a very busy road.
But anyway, if I hadn't moved, I'd been trampled! That's the closest I ever want to get to deer going full tilt!
And in other news, Like I said, it was a beautiful day! The warmest it's been since last October! And we took full advantage of it because today it's gone. Colder weather with rain and possibly snow later this week. But that's March, a little bit of everything.

So yesterday's job was to wash and wax the caps on the mo-ho. The caps are a curved piece of metal that connects the rubber roof to the sides. This is the worst area for streaking. One good waxing at the start of the season, makes cleaning the rest of the year easier.

I also trimmed back some shrubs, and Craig put our new State Park stickers on the car and mo-ho. Then it was barbecued chicken and marinated zucchini on the grill.
It was a perfect day! (well, except for the damn deer!)

Ahhhhhh

Greetings from a warm Mid Michigan! It's currently 62 out! And I've taken this bout of warm weather to clean and seal the mo-ho roof. And here's a few pics of the progress. It wasn't very dirty, but I've done this every year since we bought it, and each year it seems easier. But we've loved the warm spell. And this is Michigan, so next week could bring us a snow storm. That's Michigan in March. So we take advantage of what ever nice weather we can get. Tomorrow is suppose to be 68, so I got the grill out and we'll have barbecued chicken and grilled marinated zucchini. I love cooking on the grill!

It's Sunday

It's been a wonderful day here. We reached a high of 54 and I was able to get a lot of yard clean up done. Picked up branches and raked out perennial beds. Still not very spring yet, no flowers, just a few daffodils coming up. I did notice this Rhododendron looks to have been hard hit this winter.

Parts of it look dead, but I'll wait and see. All the others look good.
The weather for the next couple of days look to be in the upper 50's to low 6o's so I'm hoping to get the mo-ho roof cleaned and sealed.
Oh, and Saturday at work was crazy busy! I got more calls on Saturday, then all week!

We did it!

Here's a mo-ho blower fan update!

I got out of work at 3 today, so I thought I'd have enough time to put the new blower fan in the mo-ho. Of course, plans don't go the way we envision them some times.

Here's the original blower fan we removed from the dash. And here's Craig with the replacement.



As you can see, the replacement has no 'fan' on it, so we had to take the fan off the old one. And no easy task! The fan blade unit was rusted on the shaft, but with a little effort, we got it off, and we proceeded to install it in the mo-ho. And of course the new one didn't have a connector on it so we had to 'splice' it. And of course, we didn't have a splicer tool to do the job, so Craig ran down to TSC to get one. But we got that all done, and............................

it went in easier than it came out! That's not a usual thing here in the Craig/Wayne household. But I'm not complaining! I got it all together and told Craig, Let's roll!

Actually, I said, start it up! ..................................................................................................And it worked! Yaa!!!!!!!! So that just saved us a couple of hundred bucks!

And do you see the bandage on my thumb? I'm an accident waiting to happen! I don't know what I did, but all of a sudden I'm bleeding. so I had to go inside and get a bandage because it just wouldn't quit.

But it's done! And in a few more weeks, (end of April) we'll be our first trip!

funny friday

A professor at Mississippi State University was giving a lecture on the supernatural.
To get a feel for his audience, he asks, 'How many people here believe in ghosts?'
About 90 students raise their hands.
'Well, that's a good start.
Out of those of you who believe in ghosts, do any of you think you have seen a ghost?'
About 40 students raise their hands.
‘That's really good. I'm really glad you take this seriously'.
Has anyone here ever talked to a ghost?’
About 15 students raise their hands.
'Has anyone here ever touched a ghost?'
Three students raise their hands.
'That's fantastic. Now let me ask you one question further...Have any of you ever made love to a ghost?'
Way in the back, Bubba raises his hand.
The professor takes off his glasses, and says, 'Son, all the years I've been giving this lecture, no one has ever claimed to have made love to a ghost. You've got to come up here and tell us about your experience.'
The big redneck student replied with a nod and a grin, and began to make his way up to the podium. When he reached the front of the room, the professor asks,
'So, Bubba, tell us what it's like to have sex with a ghost?'
Bubba replied....'Shiiiiiiit!! From way back there I thought you said 'Goats...'

Have a great weekend!

bla, bla

Well, there was no yard work yesterday. It rained allllllllll day. So instead, I cleaned house. It's amazing with just the two of us how dirty this place gets! I also cleaned up the puter. I have a program called CCleaner. That really does the job. Then I run my antivrus software. I have 3 different ones. AVG, Super Anti Spyware, and Spybot. And then Defrag the hard drive. This all helps to keep my old puter (2002) fast and speedy. And if any of you are interested in any of these, just click the individual links, or go to PC World to download.
And this week at work looks to be the slowest one ever! Part of that is the last 2 weeks were the busiest this year so far, and also the snow birds aren't back yet. And there has been a drop in business. We've noticed some customers are going longer between haircuts. But then Michigan has the highest unemployment in the nation. But hopefully the phones will ring a lot this week.
And speaking of work, I better get going!

Outside finally!

Good morning! I finally got out and worked in the yard for the first time this year. It felt good to be out side and not freezing. Got up to around 47. And today looks to be a bit warmer, so more yard work.

What I did yesterday was rake out all the gravel thrown on the grass by the road from the snow plows. You can see in the top pic, the grass is completely covered. I hauled away 7 wheelbarrels of gravel and dirt. I've never seen it this bad! But we did have a lot of snow this year, (64+ inches) so a lot of plowing.

And this is the only sign of spring so far. A few Dafodils emerging behind the house. Even the Pussywillows aren't out yet. It's been that cold! But with the milder weather we're having, I expect to see a lot more next week.

The mo-ho dash tear up

Well, I decide today was the day to tear out the dash in the mo-ho.
The dash blower fan has been squealing, so the bearings are probably going.
So here's the dash, and me with my screwdriver. Now Newmar said I needed to take out the Instrument Panel Assembly first so as to be able to remove the dash cap. But Craig thought we should take out the drawer on the right side first, He thought the noise was coming from that side of the dash .
So, since that looked easy, that's what I did.



And wouldn't you know, there right under the drawer was the blower fan! Now was that luck or what! Usually my projects get more involved than I first think. But of course, I wasn't done yet! There were just 3 screws holding the fan in the assembly. I took them out and nothing. The fan wouldn't budge! I looked and couldn't find any reason it wouldn't come out, but it wouldn't budge. So, I e-mailed John for help. He figured it was just stuck from the foam seal and time. Told me to use a putty knife to gently pry it apart. So I did, and then it popped right off! Thanks John! Of course, then I have to find a replacement. I go to 3 different auto parts stores before I find a a place that knows what they're doing. I ended up at Napa Auto parts. This guy was on his game. Found the part in Indianapolis, and I should have it Thursday. I'll let you know if it all goes back together as easy as it came apart!

puzzle # 6

As you can see here, we've finished puzzle # 6. And I think this one was appropriate for our last puzzle of the winter.

As March progresses here in Mid Michigan, we get a varying weather pattern. It reached all the way to 60 on Friday! We even got some deck furniture out! Today it's currently 35, reaching a high today of 44. Not warm, but still beats below freezing. Nothing blooming yet. The daffodils are up about an inch. But if this milder weather holds, they'll 'spring' forth!
Our weight thingy didn't do so well this past week, as we both gained about a pound. And we even walked most days. 'sigh' But we'll keep working on it. Maybe I need to cut back on the cocktails. I'd like to get a few more pounds off.
And my big project this weekend is tearing the dash of the mo-ho out. I need to replace the dash fan motor. I e-mailed Newmar, and they said it's under the dash. So if I can do that myself, it'll save us a bundle. I'm not real mechanically inclined, but John said he'd try and give some long distance assistance if I need it. (he's in Texas right now) He also told me to take lot's of pics as I progress, so as to make sure I know where everything goes back. A very good idea!
I'll let you know how I do!

funny friday

For this weeks ff, I'm sharing some fun little info I bet a lot of you didn't know.
From Dave in Florida............

Was this something we were supposed to learn from our Mom's?

I can't believe it's been there all this time.

I had to go into the kitchen and check this out for myself.

Whoever looks at the end of your aluminum foil box?

You know when you try to pull some foil out and the roll comes out of the box.

Then you have to put the roll back in the box and start over.

The darn roll always comes out at the wrong time.

Yesterday I went to throw out an empty Reynolds foil box and for some reason I turned it, and looked at the end of the box. And written on the end it said, Press here to lock end. Right there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place.

How long has this little locking tab been there?

I then looked at a generic (Publix) brand of aluminum foil and it had one, too. I then looked at a box of Saran wrap and it had one too! I can't count the number of times the Saran wrap roll has jumped out, when I was trying to cover something up.

Okay readers, how many of you knew about those little tabs?

Have a great weekend!

pre spring cleaning done!

I can't call it spring cleaning, because it's not spring here, yet. But when spring does arrive I'll be out side, so that's why I cleaned this when I did. It's taken several weeks, but I finally got all the grid cleaned and everything above the grid cleaned. Now you know why I only do this once a year! I finished up yesterday morning. Went in at 8am cleaned till about 9:30. My first customer was at 10, and I left for home at 6:30. A long day. Today my first customer is at 8am, and my last one is 6pm with only 2 small breaks during the day, so another long one. But Friday and Saturday are only 7:30 to about 3, so I'll end the week easy.
Oh, and speaking of spring, it looks like we may be seeing some. Today it'll be into the 40's, and the highs will stay there for the next 7 - 10 day's before dropping back into the 30's. But it looks like the day time temps will start staying above freezing, so spring won't be far behind!

Cooking with Craig and other things

I got good news from the doctor on my eye thingy. It's just a Chalazion. And what's that? Well a Stye is an infected eyelash follicle, and a Chalazion is a plugged up oil gland. So I got some drops to help prevent infection, and am to use warm compresses to help clear the clogged gland.
It's been bitter cold here. Currently 4 degrees out right now with a high in the mid 20's. So even though the snow's gone for the moment, it's too damn cold to do anything outside yet. So, we're working on puzzle #6, walking every day, (indoors) and yesterday, Craig made a final batch of broth. In a large pot, he put the last Turkey carcass, and bags of veggies he'd saved. Things like trimmings of Broccoli, celery, onions, carrots, etc. Let it all simmer for a few hours, and double strain and put into freezer containers.
And this is some good stuff! Would be wonderful as a soup base except we're not much soup people, so he'll use it to make rice, mashed potatoes, and anything that he can substitute water for.
And for dinner yesterday, he prepared baked pork cutlets over stuffing. But instead of plain stuffing, he added a can of pinto beans, corn, onions and salsa. It was great! And today he's using some leftover Turkey to make his Turkey Rice Casserole. And we'll use some of this broth for the rice!

I spy a stye in my eye

Greetings from a bitter cold mid Michigan. A whopping 13 degrees out! No it's not spring here yet!

But here's another pic of the grid at the Salon. I've got it all cleaned now, and I'm working on dusting all the stuff above the grid.

We backed the mo-ho out of it's storage spot and turned it around. Tuesday morning I take it in to have a recall fixed. Apparently there is a potential problem with the gas service to the refrigerator. Can you believe it's a 2002, and getting a recall.

The snow for the time being has all melted with the last mini warm spell we had, so we decided now would be a good time to get this taken care of before spring arrives and they get busy. Or before we get more snow, and I can't get it out.

Also, tomorrow morning I get to go to another doctor. When I had my physical, my doctor said my eye thingy was going on too long and wanted an Opthamologist to look at it. He thinks it's a stye, but I've had it too long.

Well, that's all I got for now!