Happy halloween!

From my homepage to you, Happy Halloween!

This is a snapshot of my homepage. I use Google for my home page. It's easily customizable. I change the banner when ever I'm bored with the old one. You can add , move, and change dozens of widgets.
Have a safe and fun Halloween!

It's cold, and wet, and I'm pissed!

Good afternoon. It's been a very rainy day here. We are currently under a flood advisory. Not that I personally need to worry. We are on fairly high ground. But it's been raining most of the month. And we made a new record! After having the 5th coldest summer ever, we've also just had the first and only October, on record, that hasn't reached 70 degrees. And now just try and convince me of global warming.......

And in other news, I'm pretty sure my laptop is toast. After scouring the Internet, I'm apparently one of the many Lucky buyers of a crappy HP Compaq notebook. My problems fit perfectly with dozens of other people. Even HP recognized this and extended their warranty. Unfortunately mine fell out of extended warranty 5 months ago. I bought mine in April of 2007.
Needless to say, my next one will NOT be a HP!

And if there's any techies out there interested, here's the link to the HP forum.
hp forum
I'm still going to get a friend of mine to see if it can be saved, but I'm not spending $400 to fix a $600, 3 yr old computer.
Well, time to start dinner. I'm making a teriyaki beef stir fry. I hope it turns out!

funny friday

For this edition of ff, a little screwing with your mind..........
This will confuse your mind and you will keep trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can't.

1. While sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air With your right hand. Your foot will change direction.

See! I told you so!
And there's nothing you can do about it!
You and I both know how stupid it is, but before the day is done you are going to try it again, if you've not already done so.

Have a great weekend!

leaves, leaves, and more leaves

Good morning. The pic below shows what we came home to. A mass of leaves. We have 2 large Silver Maples on the side of the yard. Our other shade trees are 2 Chinese Elms, and a young Sycamore, and numerous pines.

There were only just a scattering of them when we left Friday, but by Monday when we returned, there was several inches. I got out the blower/vac and cleaned it up pretty good, only to see nearly as many on Tuesday. Spent a good chunk of the day cleaning them up, and I see out the window this morning, the ground is covered again. I don't think I've ever seen the leaves drop so fast. At this rate, they'll be all down by the weekend. That would be just over a week that they were falling. Usually they come down over the course of several weeks. I'm usually getting the last of them up around Thanksgiving. And last year I was getting the last of them up as it began snowing. Hopefully I'll be way ahead of that this year.
And while Craig mowed up the leaves in the rest of the yard, I winterized the mo-ho. Now I need to remove all the liquids, all food stuff, clothes, bedding, linens, and batteries from everything. And once all the leaves are down and cleaned up, park the mo-ho next to the garage for the long winter.

But right now, I need to get ready for another work week.

my laptop kinda died

Here's a trip update! Scroll down for the trip in review.
I'd almost forgot about this part of our last trip.
Usually I get up much earlier than Craig, so I take my laptop along and play games in the morning. But this last trip, my laptop would not work. I'd plug it in, turn on the power, I'd see the keyboard light up and could hear the fan spin up. Then after about 5-10 sec. the fan would power down to low, and then another 5-10 sec. the laptop would shut off, then immediately restart. It would continue this same pattern until I unplugged it. There was never anything on the screen. It wasn't on long enough for windows to load. Does any of my computer savvy readers have any ideas? I'm thinking maybe the power cord with that big box thingy on it might be bad. Maybe it's not getting enough juice to keep running. Does that even sound possible?
I don't have a battery back-up, because the battery died 2 years ago. Probably because I only use it on trips, and it sat all the first winter after I bought it. I didn't know I needed to plug it in regularly to keep the battery charged. And I never replaced it because I always use it in the mo-ho where we have power and I always plug it in.
Anyway, any ideas would be helpful.

our last one

Good morning,
We are home from our 12th, and last trip of the season. We went back to Indiana Dunes State Park, which was also our 3rd, 7th, and 9th trip this year. We stay at this park often because it's only 45 min to downtown Chicago, and all it has to offer. It was a wet dreary weekend, and we were surprised to see so many tenters this late in the camping season. The temps got down in the low 40's at night.
We arrived around 3pm their time. The coast of Indiana is on Chicago time. Lansing is eastern time, Chicago, central time.
We decided for our anniversary, we'd have a casino weekend. There are 5 casino's near Indiana Dunes. 1 in East Chicago, 2 in Hammond, 1 in Michigan City, and 1 in New Buffalo, just across the state line in Michigan. All 5 less than 30 min from our campground. Now I know what your going to say, 'why go if you never win'. Well, we realise that and go for just the entertainment aspect. If you go without expectations, you can have a lot of fun.
So with the afternoon open, off to the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, just a short, 10 min drive.
This is a nice small casino, and never real busy. Probably because the extremely nice Four Winds casino opened 3 years ago just 20 miles north of here. Now, we did real good here the last time we came, but today, not so well. So it was back to the campground after about 2 hours. And since it was our anniversary, a treat! We stopped at Popeye's for some spicy chicken. They have the best Cajun Chicken!
Then Saturday morning, it was off to Chicago! Who doesn't love Chicago! Well, maybe except for the traffic. But we went in, did some shopping, and then it was off to East Chicago, and the Horseshoe Casino. This was the first time we've been to this one, and it was Vegas all the way! Big shiny ornate Chandeliers hung everywhere! Very posh! And we didn't stay long. The machines were quite expensive. This casino obviously caters to a different crowd. So our next stop was the smaller Ameristar Casino. Now the casino's in Indiana have to be on water, and the Blue chip and Horseshoe are built on large barges, floating on water. The Ameristar is an actual ship, with four floors of gambling. So back to the car.
But then, an incident happens. We get in the car, and it won't start. And by that, I mean Craig puts the key in the ignition, and it won't turn. He tried and tried, and then tried my key and no go. The ignition was frozen. He jerked and jerked on the steering wheel hoping that'd free it up, but nothing! Great! In a parking ramp and the car won't start. I said, we'll just have to call Good Sam's emergency road service. But he kept trying, and it finally turned! So now, he's afraid to turn it off. So do we go to the Ameristar, or back to the campground? I said we have road service, so I say continue. He's worried. And for anyone who knows Craig, he's a worrier. So I say, if your going to worry about the car not starting and want to go back to the campground, we might as well cancel the rest of the trip, load up the car, and head home. And I knew what his answer would be. No, he didn't want to cancel the rest of the trip. But he decided, no more parking ramps, only lots where he can back in, in case we need a tow truck. I said fine, let's continue on then. So it was off to the Ameristar Casino. We parked outside in a lot near the ramp. Now this was a fun casino! the smallest of them all, but we were doing good on the machines. We stopped an hour in to eat at one of the restaurants, then back to the machines. After about 2 hours of fun, we actually left with about a $20 profit! Cool! But would the car start? No.....
Actually, it didn't start right away, but eventually it did start, so then back to the campground.
It was actually nice enough out, to take a walk, and see how busy the campground was.
Sunday morning was mild, and we made our coffee, and did our morning walk. Many more motor homes than usual. Probably people on their way south for the season.
Then, it was the off to the Four Winds Casino. But would the car start? Yes! It started right up! Go figure! Now unlike the other casino's we've been to, this is an Indian Casino, and it is really nice. Not posh like the Horseshoe, but very well decorated. And this was also a fun casino. We managed to spend a few hours, and left down only about $40. So we decided to finish back were we started, the Blue Chip. And this time we did a little better. All and all, we ended the weekend with more money to take back home than we planned, so not a winner, but certainly not losing as much as budgeted. And we cooked pork steaks on the grill, and Craig made a tasty pasta salad. We walked some more and had a nice campfire that evening. It rained all night, but quit before morning, so an easy time breaking down our site and loading up the car, which started right up again. And has since then, so I don't know what happened, but it seems to be fine now. And I know, if I take it in to get checked, because it is currently working, they'll probably not be able to tell me what happened. So I guess we'll just take our chances with it.
So we arrived back home safe, and now the process of emptying out the mo-ho, and getting it ready for another long Michigan winter.

we're back again!

We've just returned from our very last trip. Boo-Hoo.
Thanks for all the anniversary congrats.
I'll fill you in on the details of the trip tomorrow.

It's that time again!

Yep! For the 33rd year now, it's our anniversary. Here's a pic from the early years.

That's some shirt I'm wearing! And what about those owl eye glasses! And look at all that hair on Craig! God we were skinny! Times, they do change.
And we're currently on a little anniversary trip, and our last RV trip of the season.
I'll tell you more when we return.
Oh, and for those wanting to see our 30 year trip in pics, (especially my mullet time) check us out here.

funny friday

I'm sure everyone who blogs, has participated in memes, quizzes, and the such. I don't do many, but for this edition of ff, I took this odd little quiz...........


And after completing it this is what it said....


31%

Just a 31% chance I'd eat my friends. So that must mean................................................................. there's a 69% chance I'd be eaten, right? I mean we're all trapped and starving!

Okay, it's just a silly quiz, but I'm not going with any of you on a winter trip!
And if you like doing silly quizzes and such, here's a site that can keep you busy for days. quizzes, widgets, and gadgets

Have a great weekend!

weather, food and work

A good morning.
We've had a busy couple of days. The weather has been very cool, but at least not wet. Craig mowed the yard, I cut down more stuff. I'm now about 95% done in the back, and 25% done in the front. I'll try to get everything cut down before it starts snowing. Some people prefer to cut some things down in the spring, But at that time, I'm too busy weeding, and digging and dividing for my big plant sale, so I try to do as much in the fall as I can. Craig and I also pulled up the fake 'deck'. For those that don't remember, here's a link when we were putting it down one spring. fake deck
And for dinner yesterday, we had chicken with fried cabbage and fried potatoes. I wanted to coat the chicken with Panko mixed with Parmesan and garlic, but we had no egg beaters to coat the chicken with. But, there was a half jar of light Alfredo sauce in the fridge, so I used that. It turned out real yummy!
And it looks to be a busy week at the Salon. That's good because last week wasn't so much. Even though I was late every day, I had many gaps during the day. That's the downside to a service business, one week, everyone calls, and the next, sometimes not so many. If I could just get everyone to schedule their next appointment before they left, I could fill my weeks more evenly. But guys are the worst for making appointments. Most are the type that will wake up one morning, and decide they need a haircut, and want it that day. And I also have many customers who travel for work, and never know when they'll be in town. So If a lot of these people call all the same week, I tend to work more hours to accommodate them. But that's the price of doing business. Trying to keep the customers happy within reason, right?

flying saucers!!!!!

That's what they look like to me! What do you think?



I took this pic late afternoon, the sun had just peaked through the clouds, to light up the trees across the street.

If your done being mystified by the white objects floating in the sky,
read the following post......

fall

Good morning from a very cold Lansing. And this is probably how it's going to stay. Last year, the snow started in November and never quit. It was a very long winter. And the entire year has been colder than normal. Maybe we're heading for another ice age!

I took this pic late afternoon yesterday. The sun had peaked out of the thick dark clouds, and lit up the trees across the street.



Oh, and those 3 white disks in the sky aren't space ships, they're our track lights reflecting in the window. I took the pic from inside the house. But doesn't it look like I took a pic of flying saucers?

And....

I did get out and work in the yard. I now have about 90% of the back yard cut down, and 10% of the front yard.
I also checked the tire pressure in the mo-ho, car, and kar kaddy. They all were a little low, so filled them back to where they're suppose to be. I'm surprised how tires can just lose air. We still have one more trip to take!
I also grilled pork steaks for dinner. Got the portable grill out of the mo-ho, since I won't get a new burner for our grill till next spring. And soon it'll be to cold to grill anyway.
And today it's shopping! I got a gift card burning a hole in my pocket!

wacky weather

Good morning from a very cold Lansing. It's currently 28 out this morning, with a high to be only 47. This has got to be the coldest October ever! I read last week, Lansing had the 5th coldest summer on record! So this global warming thingy, where is it? Well apparently all the heat's been out with Lewis, in the great northwest. Portland and Seattle have simmered this summer. It's not fair! They don't even get a cold winter! Oh well.
I've had to leave the heat on in the mo-ho. I haven't winterized it yet, since we're going on one more trip. If the snow holds off!
And I've had late nights every day this week at the Salon. I'll be glad when today's over and the weekend begins. Between going in early, and staying late, I feel as if all I've done this week is work.
That's all I got for now. Have a good weekend!

funny friday

Why men are happier and less maintenance...........

Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
You can be President.
You can never be pregnant.
You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
The world is your urinal.
You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky..
People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
Everything on your face stays its original color.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can play with toys all your life.
One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one color for all seasons.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.
No wonder men are happier!

Have a great weekend!

It's Wednesday

Good morning. We had a fairly productive weekend. I ended up with nearly 2/3 of the back yard cut down. It's been cold, only near 50 for highs, but that's been our story all year. Monday we went to Kohls for some new slacks for work. Then to Walmart, for propane for our portable gas grill in the mo-ho, and Craig likes their frozen Turkey Burgers. They have them at Meijer's also, but they're nearly $2 cheaper at Walmart. But we do most of our shopping at Meijer's. They have mostly better prices, and by far, the best produce. Walmart's a joke when it comes to produce.
Then it was lunch at Smokey Bones. We've never been there before, but they had a $10 off $20 purchase flier in the paper, and I love a good deal. We had the ribs. Food was good, but overpriced, and forget cocktails at $5.50 each. We won't go back. Finley's ribs are just as good, cheaper, and only $2 drinks. Then it was to Sam's for work supplies, and Meijers for groceries.
On Tuesday, we mostly took it easy, Craig did laundry, bookwork, and made dinner, while I worked in the yard. I turned over all the birdbaths, and organized a mess of pots, and cut down more perennials.
And speaking of the yard, here's the pile of pots people have been bringing me all summer for my next year's plant sale. Do they look like enough?

Last year I sold just over 300 plants. And below is one of my compost piles nearing capacity.

I also have a large compost area behind some evergreens. I dig a large hole on one side and use the dirt for all the plants I pot up for my sale, and then put in all my clippings from the fall cut down. Throw some dirt over it and dig a hole next to it the next year and do the same. After 2 years, I can go back to the first one for good composted soil and start all over. So even though I have ton's of plants to cut down in the fall, it all gets recycled.

Now it's time to get ready for work.

OH NO They Didn't!

Oh Yes They Did!
The following story is why, at every campground, you MUST, sanitize your water hook-up.
On our last trip to the Cleveland KOA, we had a full hook-up site. For you non-campers, that means instead of just an electric connection, you get water, and a sewer dump connection. (If you don't know what I mean by a dump connection, e-mail me, and I'll give you a more 'detailed' description) That's nice so you don't have to be concerned how much water your using, or how full your tanks are getting.
So this couple shows up late in the day, on our last day there. They pull into a site across from us. We had just gotten back from our late afternoon walk, and were enjoying a cocktail in our mo-ho. The following pics were taken thru the windshield.
We were watching them as they were setting up. First, they stuck the hose through the back window of their RV, why, I'm not sure. Then the guy was attempting to hook up the dump hose, when all of a sudden, this massive mass of brownish water came shooting out from under the RV. I assume he didn't get the dump hose attached securely. The 'stuff' sprayed all over the gravel, grass, water hose, and water post! He apparently didn't 'dump' the last place he was at. I quickly grabbed the camera as I said to Craig, OMG! I've got to get some pics of this!
The top pic is where she brought out some type of cleaner, and was pouring it over the 'stuff' on the gravel.

He then starts spraying the area with water, I'm assuming to 'wash' it away. But 'it's' not going anywhere. He then rinses off the dump hose.

She gets a snow shovel out of their trailer, and digs gravel from the pad, and decides to 'bury' the 'evidence'. You can see in the bottom pic, gravel all over the grass next to the dump hose. All this time, I'm just saying, eww! eew!
They never washed off the water hose, or the water post, but did use the same hose to fill several water jugs that they took inside of their RV. I hope they were only going to use them to flush the toilet! Now they did wear gloves during this whole mess, but also touched everything including the water faucet handle! Think of the poor people who will be using this site next! Walking on all that 'gravel'!

Now I carry a bottle of bleach and water spray, and always spray the connection. You never know, being out side, what it might have been exposed to. But I've never thought of spraying the handle! I will now! I'm not even sure I want full hook-up sites anymore! We may be better off leaving the dumping at the dump stations! At least those are concrete and easier to clean up if an accident occurs.

So, there was an 'incident' this trip, but at least, it wasn't ours!

It's pretty much over

Sunday night it really hit us. Temps down to 26. For you non gardeners, that means a hard frost. That means goodbye to most annuals. But it is mid October, and we've had the entire year now cooler than normal, so it shouldn't surprise me. But even in the cold, I still have some things hanging on. Here are Toad Lily's. Plants about 3-4 ft tall covered with theses little 1 inch flowers.

And my white Japanese Anemone's are still going strong. Both are fall blooming plants.

And despite the cold weather, (it reached a high of only 45) I bundled up and went out and started cutting down the perennial beds. Got the entire bed next to the pond done, and even some of the bed across from the pond. I always stress about all the work I need to do, but once I get out there, forget how fast I can actually do it.
And for dinner, Pork steaks on the grill, nope, the grill flame heady thingy was cracked and not flaming right, so broiled in the toaster oven, with Craig's tasty homemade potato salad. He dislikes making it because it's so time consuming, but I asked real nice, and it is my birthday weekend. That's right, I milk that sucker as long as I can! hehehe

It's that time again!

Yes, it's that time again, another birthday. I use to get excited and plan all sorts of things to celebrate, but not so much anymore. For me, birthdays now are more of a reminder how old I'm getting. The body really starts changing in your 50's. My hair's getting thinner, laugh lines are becoming wrinkles, even the texture of my skin is looking different.
But get away from the body issues and my life's looking pretty good. No big health issues, I'm living with my best friend, everything we have is paid for, so life is pretty good. Now if I could just get my 30 year old body back!
But today is a work day, and after work, I'll 'celebrate' my birthday with a special sparkling wine, and Craig's wonderful Teriaki Wings! I am a wing freak, so they'll be a treat.
And just for fun, I took this Rate your life quiz, and it backs up my thoughts on our life.

Compared to the average quiz taker, my life is better than average, and I pretty much knew that. So life marches on, at least for now. And here's hoping I'll be here next year to do this post again!

funny friday

Have a great weekend!

Cleveland day 3

On Monday, it was back to downtown Cleveland. Our first stop was the Cleveland Science Center. Here's Craig with the center in the background. It's right on Lake Erie, between the Cleveland Browns football stadium, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We were going to do the Rock and Roll museum also, but since it takes a lot more time, we decided to save it for another trip.



We parked in the warehouse district, where we decided to have lunch afterwards, and walked the 8 blocks or so to the science center. Here's a couple views of downtown from the center.

The Science Center wasn't as much as I had thought it would be. It was very large, but most of the stuff was only interesting to kids. We were entertained by some of the displays, so not a waste of time.
Then back to the Warehouse District for lunch. I love the old buildings, and we found a very cool one for lunch.

I think Craig has given up trying not to have his pic taken. hehehe
Then it was to the west of town looking for Big Fun. And I mean the Big Fun toy store. Playboy magazine has called this one of the 20 coolest stores in all America. Well, that's quite the complement. And since we're in Cleveland, we should see this right? Well, it wasn't very 'big', nor a lot of 'fun'. I said to Craig, "this is it?" We were there for less than 20 min. I sure didn't see many toys from my youth. The coolest thing was an aisle they 'tiled' with old game boards.

Oh well, it's not like we went way out of our way to get here, and it was kind of on our way to our next stop, Avalon RV Center. Now this was a nice RV dealer! Dozens of motor homes to look at. And fortunately, not one I liked well enough. Not that I could have afforded one, but it's nice to think I like our layout better than most.

So it was time to get back to the campground, and get ready for the trip home on Tuesday.

And as I said, we arrived home safe with out any incidents.

And now the finally 3 days of work are going to be terribly busy. I'm working 12 hrs today, and it looks to be at least 10 on Friday and Saturday. So I better get going!

It's Akron time!

On Sunday, our travels took us to Akron, Ohio. As I said, we were right between Akron and Cleveland. And this weekend was the show at the Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens. This is a magnificent old estate in the suburbs of Akron. It is available to rent for functions. The gardens cover acres, and throughout the gardens on this weekend, they were having an arts festival, complete with food vendors and a beer tent and wine tasting.

This was one of many tents throughout the gardens. They give you a map when you enter. It was that big!

This was an enormously long trellis for grapes.
And here is the conservatory.

There were many things I could have brought, but not really having any room for more stuff, we enjoyed just looking.

Afterwards, we headed to downtown Akron for lunch at a nice sports bar, then farther south of town to Sirpilla RV and Camping World. When ever we travel, I always find RV dealers where we can look at new mo-ho's. Not to buy of course, but it's always fun to see the new styles. And then it was back to the campground for a grilled chicken dinner.

It's picture time in Cleveland.

We've returned safely home yesterday. It took over 5 hours for the drive due to numerous road construction. Another trip without any 'incidents'. Cleveland is a very large city with many 'neighborhoods'.
We arrived Friday afternoon. The closest campground was the Cleveland KOA , It was actually right between Cleveland and Akron. About 25 miles to each downtown. We usually stay at state parks. They're cheaper, and always clean. A lot of private campgrounds can be gross. But this KOA was quite nice. They separate the 'seasonals' from the 'campers'. We were surprised at how busy the campground was considering they close Oct. 15th.
So anyway, on Saturday we headed into the city. Our first stop was the Westside Market.

If you've followed our travels, you know we're a big fan of unique architecture, so this place was right at the top of our to-see list. Built in 1912 to replace an older one, it is truly very cool! And it was packed with vendors and customers. Every kind of fruit, vegetable, meat, cheese, and bread you can imagine.

This market is right across the river from downtown in a neighborhood called Ohio City. It was originally settled before Cleveland, but Cleveland grew bigger and faster swallowing up everything around it. Ohio City is now one of many Cleveland neighborhoods. After shopping for fresh produce for our evening meals, we stopped for lunch. Then it was across the river to Terminal Tower, and Tower City. Another magnificent building. Built in 1930, it was second in height only to the Empire State Building.

This was the country's first indoor mall. And also includes a light rail station in the lower level.

This last pic is an addition they built onto the back of the tower to add more shops, restaurants, and theaters.

Then it was back to the campground for dinner, and relaxing.

Day 2 tomorrow.

It's Cleveland time!

Good morning from the Cleveland, Ohio, KOA.
We are just about ready to pack up and head back to Lansing. They have wi-fi here, and when we checked in on Friday, said it may or may not work at our site. What is it with campgrounds where the wi-fi only works in certain areas? So it was as she said, some mornings I had it , some not. Sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes less. So if you see this post, it's because I finally got smart, and wrote it on notepad, then just copied and pasted it to Blogger, so I didn't need a long connection time.
We had a great time here. The weather ended up a bit better than expected. They called for rain the entire weekend, but it ended up party sunny, to mostly cloudy. Cool, but no rain.
And since I forgot to bring my cord to connect the camera to the puter, no pics today. But it probably would have taken to long to upload anyway. So I'll post the trip when we return home.

funny friday and such

Here it is, another wet cold weekend coming. Yesterday morning, frost on the ground. The highs for the weekend are barely 60. But it's been a strange year weather wise. Baking in the northwest, and cool in the Midwest. But work has been busy. Yesterday was perhaps my biggest single money day this year. But boy was I tired when I got home last night around 8! But then I did 17 clients, with a mix of cuts, perms, and colors. A long day. But I slept very soundly. And I'll be back to work at 7:30 this am.

And now, for this edition of ff, some interesting names for restaurants.......

Have a great weekend!