funny friday

Good morning! I'm exhausted! Worked 10 hrs yesterday, and my first appointment today is at 7am! What am I thinking!( I know, I'm thinking "money!")
But now on to our ff............


This ff is brought to you via Mike.

Recently, a large corporation hired several cannibals to increase their diversity.
"You are all part of our team now," said the Human Resources rep during the welcome briefing. "You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don't eat any employees."
The cannibals promised they would not.
Four weeks later their boss remarked, "You're all working very hard and I'm satisfied with your work. We have noticed a marked INCREASE in the whole company's performance. However, one of our secretaries has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?"
The cannibals all shook their heads no. After the boss left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, "Which one of you idiots ate the secretary?" A hand rose hesitantly.
"You fool!" the leader continued. "For four weeks we've been eating managers and no one noticed anything.
But NOOOooo, you had to go and eat someone who actually does something."

Have a great weekend!

Flowers, flowers, and more flowers

Well, we got the mo-ho back on Tuesday, they replaced a ball valve, whatever that is. And now the toilet works good as new. But it was fairly cheap, so that's good. Cleaned up the inside of the mo-ho so it's ready for it's next trip. Worked 11 1/2 hrs on Wed. and today looks to be about 10 hrs. The back door at work had been sticking, hard to open. Upon closer inspection, the bottom edge of the door and frame are rusting, and causing the frame to swell, so I filed down the frame and door, and works good now. Also the toilet at work, the handle sticks down sometimes when it's flushed, causing water to keep running. Discovered the lid slides back a little and catches the arm of the flush handle, so I wedged a piece of rubber shim behind the cover to keep it forward, and no more sticky handle. It's always some kind of maintenance, right?

And now, still more flower pics! I tell ya, I've got a very large yard filled with Plants!


Above, a planting of Goose Neck Loosestrife along a path. You need to plant these where they can't wander, cause they really do spread! These are between a path and some evergreens, so they're corralled. And below Ligularia dentata.

Above, Rudbeckia Indian Summer.

Below, another Ligularia called Little Lantern.

And finally, Soapwort.

just talk and Daylilies

Good morning all!
Craig got the car back, and he did indeed need rear shocks. Not surprising considering the state of our roads. Not sure if there's enough stimulus money to fix all the bad roads we have here in Michigan. Our mo-ho is still in the shop, should pick that up today. Mowed the yard and weeded, cleaned the bathroom and dusted. Craig did laundry and bookwork. All that normal house and yard maintenance stuff. It's been on the cool side , but very comfortable. The jet stream is dipping down over Michigan, and that's been keeping us cooler than the rest of the country.
On the travel front, our next upcoming trip is to Chicago land. Can't wait, love the city!
Grilled pork cutlets and served with fried potatoes and corn on the cob for dinner. Yummy!
And for your continuing viewing pleasure, some more of my many Daylillies currently blooming....

repairs and flowers

So here it is, Sunday afternoon. I cleaned the salon this morning as usual, and after Craig got up, we turned the mo-ho around and backed it into the driveway. I'm taking it in to the RV dealer tomorrow for some work. We're having a problem with the flush mechanism on the mo-ho toilet. It has a lever at the side of the toilet, and when you push to flush, the water doesn't stop running when you release. John had me do a few things to try and fix it, but no good. But I like Dennis RV. They have always been very good at fixing things and very reasonable in price.
And Craig is taking in his PT Crusier for possible new shocks. The bad roads in Michigan I think have destroyed them. So another expense. I wish Craig was as handy with vehicles as John is. Oh well, he does have his own attributes though. ;-) I did get a lot of yard work done today. And I'm really tired of the cool weather. We are lucky to hit upper 70's today and with the clouds, it's not that warm! But here's some more garden pics for your enjoyment......

Salon talk and more flower pics

A quicky post with pics.
Work has been very busy, partly do to our long weekends off. So I'm working late every day. And yesterday after working in the Salon, I made a house call to an Alzheimer's facility to do a customer of mine. She'd been coming into the Salon, but fell a few weeks back, and it seems to have greatly progressed her condition. Her husband asked if I could come. He didn't care for the Stylist they have on contract. So he got permission for me to go and cut and color her hair. They have a small one chair Salon right in the building. She recognized me so it was a fairly easy time. Her husband seems to think she'll get well enough to go back home, but from my past experience with customers with Alzheimer's, I'm not thinking so. But I certainly wouldn't tell him that. And when I finished up, he asked if I could do a charge card. Of course, I couldn't, so I told him to just stop by the Salon next week some time and we'll take care of it then. It's very sad to see customers slowly fade from this disease. I feel for the family.
But now I'm off to work! And here's some more daylilies currently blooming in the gardens for your viewing pleasure.

funny friday

A young guy from Montana moves to Florida and goes to a big Everything-under-one-roof department store looking for a job.
The Manager says, 'Do you have any sales experience?'
The kid says 'Yeah. I was a salesman back in Montana'.
Well, the boss liked the kid and gave him the job.
'You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did'.
His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it.
After the store was locked up, the boss came down.
'How many customers bought something from you today?'
The kid says, 'One.' The boss says, 'Just one? Our sales people average 20 to 30 customers a day. How much was the sale for?'
The kid says, '$101,237.65.'
The boss says, '$101,237.65? What the heck did you sell?
The kid says, 'First, I sold him a small fish hook.
Then I sold him a medium fishhook.
Then I sold him a larger fishhook.
Then I sold him a new fishing rod.
Then I asked him where he was going fishing, and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department, and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft.
Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him Down to the Automotive department and sold him that 4x4 Expedition'.
The boss said 'A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a BOAT and a TRUCK?'
The kid said 'No, the guy came in here to buy Tampons for his wife, and I said, Dude, your weekend's shot, you should go fishing.'

Have a great weekend!

Bay City State Park day 4

On Monday, with all the Christmas stuff going on it was off to Frankenmuth and the worlds largest Christmas Store, Bronner's. I'm not kidding, when you go in they give you a map! And you'll need it to find your way back out! The purpose of this trip, was to see if we could find the same lights that we have on the Christmas Tree we put up at work. We've had them a number of years, and although I bought a few extra sets, I'm nearly out of replacement bulbs as they are slowly burning out. Well, as big as this place was, and with literally hundreds of sets of lights, ours was not to be found. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to shop Frankenmuth instead. And Frankenmuth is a neat little city. Very Bavarian. This pic below is the visitors center across the street from Tiffany's, a nice restaurant we ate lunch at on their outdoor patio.

And they have this cool covered bridge, this neat waterfall,

and even a riverboat for tours.

Didn't find much to buy, but it was a nice day. Then back to the park for more biking and then breaking down the campsite for the next morning's drive back home. And a light dinner of Sausage Wraps.

And the best part? We arrived back home from this trip without an 'incident'!

Bay City State Park, day 2 and 3

And now about our trip.

A lot of our customers were wondering why we were going to the Bay City area, and our response was we've never been there. And each year we try to add a few new places to our yearly favorites. And we've never 'camped' on the east side of the state. The campground is right on Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron. And near the 3 cities of Bay City, Saginaw, and Midland. so we felt there was a lot to explore. The first day took us to Bay City where they were having sidewalk sales and a street festival. Very disappointing. Nothing really worth shopping at. Though the music was good. Seems like a typical midsized city with a lot of empty store fronts. We did find a historic district with 3 blocks of mostly bars and restaurants where we had a nice lunch and enjoyed some very cool old architecture. The campground was a typical Michigan State Park. Cram in as many campsites as you can get. We did get a decent one though. Got a site in an outer row with a parking area on one side, so only one camper on just one side of us. We were surprised to see so many sites filled when we arrived, since we checked in around 1pm. All these people must have come in Thursday or earlier. And then we found out why, Christmas In July! Yuk! Christmas decorations everywhere! Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy holidays, but Christmas makes me think of winter, and I'm sure not ready for another one Yet. But they had a site competition, and we went around Sat evening and voted for our favorite 3. And they all won, though not in the order we pickedOn Sunday, it was off to Saginaw, where they were having a classic car show. Now this was very cool! 6 blocks of cars in old town Saginaw. They were selling passes for $10 and with that you got in drawings all day for prizes, and the area restaurants and bars were giving out free food samples for those with tickets.

And for those of you interested, here's the link to more classic car pics.

So after a very cold start to the day, it warmed up to near 70 and sunny. Back at the campground, we bike a few trails, and cooked steaks on the grill for dinner.

And tomorrow, the rest of the story!

Bay City State Recreation Area

We've just returned from a long weekend trip to Bay City State recreation area. Why it's not called a State Park and instead a recreation area is a mystery to me.
Now the posts you read on Saturday and Monday were prewritten on Thursday, and post dated so no one would suspect we were out of town. Fooled you didn't I?
But anyway, we had a good time despite the coldest weekend in July ever!
Nearby Saginaw MI and Flint MI reached a record low high of 67 on Saturday. That means Saginaw and Flint have never ever had a high temperture for that day that low. The normal high should be in the mid 80's. So, does somebody want to try and convince me we should be worried about global warming? Come to Michigan and try!
But like I said, we had a good time. We have a mo-ho, not a tent like a lot of the poor campers. And we had a warm ragging fire every night. And as soon as I get the pics uploaded from the camera, I'll tell you all about our trip.

An Asian Mayapple!

And since I have nothing of interest to post right now, I'll bore some of you with more garden pics. First up is a pond plant called Pickerel Rush. And it seems to also be a favorite for baby Tree Frogs.



And above, a very large Yellow Butterfly Weed. I can't seem to grow the orange ones.
And below, Rudbecia 'summer sun'. The plants don't seem to over winter well, but it self seeds very easily.

I have no idea what this plant is called, but the leaves are very cool, and it gets large sprays of tiny white flowers.
And below, a special plant. An Asian Mayapple. This plant is suppose to be hardy only to zone 6b, and Lansing is almost a 4b, so I'm really thrilled this has come back year after year. And not only that, but it's been blooming for a couple of years now, and if you look closely near the bottom pic, you'll see a brand new baby plant! The pic doesn't show the neat pattern on the leaves well, so look here to see this cool plant!
Well, that's it for today!

Globes and Rockets and Clouds

Well, it reached a high of only 69 yesterday, and today's forecast of more clouds and a high of only 66. That's late may or early June weather, not mid July! We should be basking in the 80's!

But anyway, here's some more flowers currently blooming in my gardens........

Above, Globe Centura. I think these are just soooo cool! And below a Blue Phlox.

Above, a Variegated White Meadow Sweet.
And below, another favorite of mine, Ligularia, 'the Rocket'.

And above is another Meadow Sweet called 'queen of the prairie'. They look like pink clouds floating about 2 ft above the foliage.

And it's another beautiful, if cool, weekend. Work was busy this week, and I'm looking forward to a long weekend.

funny friday

An elderly couple was watching TV when a TV evangelist came on air to pray for the sick.
The evangelist said. "For those of you who are sick, I want to pray with you so that you can be cured of your sickness. Place your right hand on the part of your body that is suffering from disorder, and raise your left hand."
The husband placed his right hand on his privates, raised his left hand, and closed his eyes.
His wife saw what he did, and slowly whispered,
"Honey, this prayer is to heal the sick, not to raise the dead!"

Have a great weekend!

more daylilies

Here's some more of the nearly 50 daylilies I have blooming in the garden right now. The garden is in full bloom. Nearly 3 Weeks later than usual due to our incessantly cooler than normal weather.

And we had the roof top heating/air conditioning unit at work serviced, and the heating unit is toast. But the air still works fine. Hopefully the landlord will replace it at no cost to us. We'll see.

And I'm actually typing this while Craig is watching some lame comedy on TV. But soon, Wipe out will be on! It is hilarious! Followed by a more hilarious, I Survived a Japanese Game Show!

If you haven't seen them, check em out! After a long day at work, mindless entertainment is the norm for us.

Tuesday

Another beautiful if cool day in Lansing. It's been sunny and mild the last few days, and I've gotten a lot of yard work done. Even though my yard is filled with perennials, there still is a lot of maintenance. Weeds to be pulled and dead flowers to be cut back. Bushes need trimming, and grass cut. I've also cleaned up the mo-ho for the next trip.
We've been grilling our meals the last few days. Marinated Pork Roast on Sunday, which was so good we used the same kind of marinade for a Turkey Breast yesterday. And served with a Macaroni Salad Craig whipped up. Yummy!
And I think we've decided on a different health insurance policy. To bring our total premium of $985.00 a month down to $756.00 a month. We're upping our deductible and co-pay to a combined $5000.00. And of course, no dental, optical, or prescription coverage with that.
And here's a pic of my Sedum garden.

This area is between the pond and a gravel path, so it just bakes in the sun, but Sedum loves dry soil and it does extremely well here. I have around a dozen varieties.

temps, tech tip, and talk

Good morning from a sunny cool Lansing. It's currently a cool 54 out. Going for a high of 75. A beautiful June day.......wait, isn't this July? Where's the heat? I'm really beginning to think this global warming is a bunch of bull. We had a long colder than normal winter, a long cold wet spring, and now we're having a cool summer so far. Projected high tomorrow? 71.
But enough of that. I just got back from cleaning the Salon, and have spent the last couple of evening cleaning up my puter. First, I went through and deleted tons of stuff I no longer needed. The more you have on your puter, the slower it gets. Then I defraged the hard drive 4 times. 1 time won't get everything back in order. Then finally I used ccleaner . If you've never used it, give it a try, it really finds a ton of gunk! Just make sure you carefully check what you want deleted. And now this old puter (2002 running XP) is just zipping along like new!
And now for your viewing pleasure, some daylilies currently blooming in the gardens.

funny friday and such

I got the socket and extension I needed to put the wheel back on th mo-ho. Then I checked all the other nuts and discovered one on the other rear tire was loose. I couldn't budge it with my fingers, but it turned twice with the ratchet wrench. I guess I have another thing to add to my before trip check list.
I've got a very busy day today and tomorrow at work, but that's what happens when you take a long weekend. Can you imagine what it would be like if I took an entire week off? Your crazy busy the week before you go, and crazy busy the week you get back. That's one reason we take mainly long weekends, easier on the workload.
But now, on to our ff........

A farmer walks into his bedroom carrying a sheep in his arms and says,
"Honey, this is the cow I make love to when you have a headache."
The wife, lying in bed reading a book, looks up and says,
"If you weren't such an idiot, you'd know that's a sheep, not a cow."
The farmer replies,
"If you weren't such a presumptuous bitch, you'd realize I was talking to the sheep."

Have a great weekend!

stuff, stuff, stuff

On Tuesday, Craig mowed the yard and did paperwork while I cleaned the mo-ho inside and out. I cooked chicken on the grill, enough for leftovers for Wed. and Thur. since we work late.
I also called our mo-ho dealer to order new lugs for the wheel cover. They came yesterday.

Aren't they pretty? But of course, I don't have a socket large enough to put them on. I have this huge socket wrench set with maybe 60 different sizes, but of course, not one over 1 inch in size, and I need about a 1 and 1/8. So during a break at work, I ran over to Harbor Freight Tools. They have by far the cheapest tools around. And of course, you can't buy just one, you have to buy a whole set. I was just about ready to get a $20 one when a salesperson asked if I needed help. I explained my situation and he said to go to Auto Zone or Menard's. They sell them individually. How about that? Sending a customer some where else! Another reason I love that store! So I thanked him and went back to work. I'll stop there on the way to work this morning.
And then I get a call from work on Tuesday, the Washer won't work. So I fixed that Wed. morning when I went in. For some reason, there's a 2amp fuse inside the front cover, that about once a year, decides to blow. And after paying for a service call twice for the same problem, they told me how to fix it. So I now have a bag of 2 amp fuses that I can replace myself.
Then I called and set up a service call for our rooftop air conditioning unit. We have lot's of Poplars around and in the spring, they release tons of 'cotton'. That's how they spread their seeds. But the 'cotton' clogs up our unit sometimes, and now that they're all done, thought it would be wise to get it cleaned up before a problem arises. Not to mention that unit is at least 20 years old and we want to keep it in good shape.
Well, I think I've bored you all enough for now.

Another near disaster averted

As promised, our latest near disaster!
I'm beginning to wonder each time we take a trip, "what's going to happen on this one!"
Out of our first 5 trips, 3 have had near disasters, and this one was no different. We left Toledo Monday morning, got just over the border of Michigan, and I said to Craig, "Let's get an Egg Mc Muffin". So we pulled off the highway and there was a McDonald's in front of a truck stop. There was not enough room in the parking lot for us, so I pulled into the truck stop and drove all the way around it and parked near the exit drive. Went in, got our food, and walking back to the mo-ho, noticed the rear tire on the drivers side looked funny. As I got closer, I realized the 2 nuts that hold the cover on the wheel were gone, and the cover was barely hanging on because we had value stem extenders put on and they attach to the cover. If not for them, the wheel cover would be gone.

Can you imagine this big sucker coming off on the highway? It could have caused some serious damage had it hit someone.

So I got out the tools and disconnected the valve extenders from the wheel and put the wheel in side the mo-ho. Then to keep the valve extenders from flapping all over, I duck taped them together.

So I had to order 2 new nuts from our dealer, and they should arrive today or tomorrow and I can put it back on. I checked the rest, and they all seem snug. I don't know how these 2 came off. The last time the cover was off was 4 years ago when we had the valve extenders added.

I wonder what's going to happen the next trip!