And now this.....

Just a quick note to say I won't be online much.
Craig fell and broke 3 ribs Tuesday night.
He was taken first to emergency, and then the trauma center. He's having some respiratory issues besides the intense pain. May be in a week or more.
Spending all my time between hospital, work, and trying to get some sleep.
Well report when I can.

this was not the way it was suppose to end

Good afternoon.
As I said earlier, we returned today from our last RV trip of the season.   :-(
This was a short trip, just 45 minutes away to a place called Turkeyville, down by Battle Creek. They now have a fairly new RV park, and since we've never been there before, thought it would be a good time. It's quite an interesting place, with a gift shop, ice cream shop, restaurant, and a dinner theater. They even have a train, and live turkeys roaming around. We arrived on Friday afternoon, and got settled into our site. It was a miserable cold, wet weekend. At least 10 degrees below normal. But that didn't stop us. We have a nice heater in the mo-ho.   ;-)
Saturday, we had scheduled lunch at noon, followed by the show at 2pm. Turkeyville serves nothing but turkey. The restaurant has numerous choices of turkey meals, including a traditional turkey dinner, turkey stir-fry, turkey tacos and several different turkey sandwiches.
The dinner theater menu was a traditional turkey dinner. It was edible and forgettable. Craig makes much better turkey. The show was entertaining, but too heavy on musical numbers, and not enough on the plot. All and all, I'd give it a 3 star rating.
Sunday, we headed over to the Firekeepers Casino, where we had a much better time, even though we left 3 hours later down a combined $32.00. Not bad.  :-)
Back at the mo-ho, it was actually pleasant outside, and we took a walk. We had snacks that evening, since we had lunch at the casino.
This is where it goes terribly bad.........
Snacking on my favorite food, chicken wings, I felt like something was caught between my back teeth. I went to floss, and discovered I was missing part of a tooth!
Long story short, When we returned to Lansing, I called my dentist, and fortunately, he was able to get me in this morning for an exam. He concluded I had a stress fracture. Lost part of the tooth second from the back on the right side, and needed a crown. Even better, he had an afternoon cancellation, and could do it then.
I now have a temporary crown, while I await the final one in 2 weeks.
This afternoon was suppose to be a semi shutdown of the mo-ho, but now it'll have to wait a bit.
Between the mo-ho transmission, brakes, termites, and now this, it's been an expensive year.

we're back one last time

Good morning.
By the time  most of you read this, we will be on our way home from our last RV weekend of the season.   :-(
Will fill you in when we return.

blast from the past

Good morning.
It's been 37 years. Yesterday. Forgot to post. Bad me.
Here's a few pics from the w-a-y distant past, when I really had some hair!   :-)

1981 when we bought our first Salon

83 in Hawaii with the guys we bought the Salon from

A staff pic from 81

At a party shortly after we first met w-a-y back in 1976

 37 years seem like a long time, but it's gone by in a flash! Hoping for another 37.......maybe?

A busy weekend

Good morning.
It's been a productive weekend so far.  :-)
I worked late Friday and Saturday, so just came home and relaxed. Sunday, I started a couple of projects.
One was repairing the wall in the kitchen by the dishwasher.  The dishwasher butts up next to the wall, and apparently I didn't have it installed in it's space just right, and the door apparently wasn't closing tight enough to completely seal. Anyway, long story short, steam was leaking out and caused the drywall to crack. I was planning on just patching up the crack when I realized it was more than just a crack. The drywall was damaged farther underneath. I ended up removing roughly a 2x3 ft section.

Here the drywall is repaired and awaiting paint. We have an apartment size dishwasher. The kitchen's layout wasn't conducive to a regular sized one. But it's plenty big for just the two of us.
Another project involved the bathroom door, which wouldn't close. It appears to have swollen and so I sanded down the edge until it fit again.
Which brings us to a new purchase.

We didn't realize how high the humidity was in our home.  Our house has always had fairly high humidity, and I assume it's because it's brick and on a slab. But since we got the new furnace which is completely self contained, Our humidity has gone way up. It probably doesn't help that the summer was cool and we didn't use the air-conditioner much and this fall has been very rainy. Anyway, Yesterday morning, I spent an hour or so online looking for the right one.  Settled on a Soleus. In less than 24 hours, it has brought the humidity down to 58% from 74%. That high humidity was probably what caused the bathroom door to swell.
On Sunday, even though it's been raining nearly every day for a week now, It did let up enough on Sunday to get the yard mowed and pick some of my last flowers of the season.

The purple/blue flowers are called Monkshood. That's because each individual flower looks like a little hood. I put them in a vase with some red Coleus I took out of one of the pots.
And the rest of this week looks cold and wet also. We're running a good 10 degrees below normal. I may not get the rest of the yard cut back if this keeps up.
I also spent time online yesterday afternoon, finding another source for Craig's Zetia. The company we were ordering it from nearly tripled the price. I was pleased to find another one charging the old price, and free shipping. Bonus!
Well that's it for now. I've got another busy day ahead.

a quick trip

Good morning.
It's been crazy busy in the Salon this week. You'd think I'd been off a month instead of just 3 days. I worked 10 1/2 hours Wed. and 10 hours Thurs. Today should be just 8 hours.
Here's a couple more pics of our hotel in Vegas....

The Flamingo has 4 towers that form a U. Inside this U, is a massive garden and pool system.
It looks like a tropical paradise!
Now, the purpose of this trip, was not to gamble, but to to a comprehensive study of Las Vegas. As we near retirement, we are looking for some place much warmer than Michigan. I love Michigan in the summer, but the summer here is very short.
So we spent every morning here in Vegas, exploring the city and neighborhoods. Long story short, we could live here. Just no where near the strip. The strip has become a crazy tourist area.
But the city is large enough, you could spend all your time never going near the strip.
Housing is reasonable. The city is large enough, everything is here. And you can't beat Vegas for cheap flights to anywhere. It's not too hot in the summer, and not real cold in the winter.
The only downside I see in Vegas, is it's in a desert type climate. A lot of the neighborhoods have nothing but different colored stones for lawns and yards. I've spent my entire life in the mid-west, and I'm not sure I could adjust to that. But between gravel or snow, I think at this point in my life, stones are better.  :-)
Anyway, Friday, after our morning searches, we headed out our hotel for some late lunch. We headed over to Circus Circus to redeem a comp I got on My Vegas Slots, for a $50 dining credit at Rock and Rita's. We ended up both getting a 4 mini sandwich sampler which was very good.
We did a little gambling there afterwards, and worked our way back to our hotel, stopping at about 4 casinos on the way. Trying to stay on Michigan time which was 3 hours different, we went back to our room for snacks and TV.
Saturday morning, we went for a little walk to a McDonald's near our hotel. It's funny to see drunk people that have been up all night wandering around. Vegas truly is a 24 hour city. Then it was off for another drive. We divided the city into 3 quadrants, and did each one a different day. Saturday was the south side and Henderson. We had a late lunch at a sidewalk cafe in Henderson. Back on the strip, we checked out the newer Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino. I swear, each one they build is bigger than the others!
Sunday morning's drive was to the west and north. Here was where we found the areas we liked most, and fairly affordable. Back on the strip another My Vegas Comp at the Nine Fine Irishmen at New York New York.  Then worked our way back to our hotel checking out Monte Carlo and Aria.
Monday morning, up early and to the airport for an 8am flight back to Lansing, arriving back home Monday evening.
It was a good trip.  :-)
And Las Vegas is a definite possible retirement home.
Here's a couple more pics of Vegas.

Crazy leaning towers in the Aria complex. They were either apartments or condos. Not really sure.

And a roof top beach volleyball court by the Monte Carlo.
As with any trip, it was here and over so quick.

The Flamingo Las Vegas

Good morning.
As I said previously,  we were in Las Vegas for my 60th birthday.
We left Lansing late Wed. afternoon for Detroit, where we spent the night at a Clarion Hotel near the airport. Because we were taking the rest of the week off work, we worked an unusual Tuesday, besides Wednesday. The Clarion had free shuttle service to and from the airport. and free parking while we were gone.
Thursday morning, we flew to Vegas, arriving in the early afternoon. We flew Spirit Airlines and the plane was packed! Not one empty seat. We were glad we paid extra for exit row seats.
After picking up our luggage, we caught a cab, and went to our hotel. We stayed at the Flamingo, right in the middle of the strip. This is now one of the older hotels on the strip. It use to be called The Flamingo Hilton, but now it's just The Flamingo. It's now owned by the Caesars hotel group, which owns several other properties on the strip. It's now considered a mid priced hotel. They have recently upgraded the rooms. Some as what they call Fab Deluxe. And others what they call Go Deluxe. We went with the Go rooms because they were remodeled where as the Fab rooms were just redecorated.
Here's our room....

Frosted doors on the closet, and frosted sliding door on the bathroom.

I liked the TV in the mirror while I was getting ready for the day.

It was a very nice room.
I was surprised that being a Thursday afternoon, when we got to the hotel, there was a ridiculously long check-in line. 2 pm on a Thursday? Where did all these people come from?
Fortunately, we have a Harrah's players card that got us into a shorter line and waited on fairly quickly.
Heading out onto the strip, we discovered the place was packed! It's been over 10 years since we were in Vegas, and with all the newer hotel resorts they've built, it's just one big crowd all the time! We went over to Margarita-ville at one end of our hotel for an early dinner, since it was 6pm back in Michigan, and that place was packed also. But found a table and had very good food.
Did a little slot playing that afternoon, before retiring back to the room. We had a busy weekend planned and I'll share more of that when I get some more time.
Now it's time for a very busy work week, since we were gone for a few extra days.

Vegas baby!

Just a quick note.
Just returned home from my big 60th birthday trip to Las Vegas!
No...I didn't win enough to retire.  :-(
But....I did have a great time!
I'll tell you more when I get a chance.

termite update

Good morning.
I can't believe I haven't posted since last Friday!
Oh well.
It rained most of the weekend, so not much done then.
Now it's back to work for another very busy week.
In other news...
Rose Pest Solutions came out and checked the bait stations. It was suppose to be a month, but somehow got scheduled a week early.  They found termites in 4 of the stations. All on the side of the house where the infestation was. I was happy they found them so soon. I was hoping for even just one.
That means the beginning of the end for them. How soon? It all depends on a number of factors. How many termites in the nest. What other food sources they are also eating, and how soon the ground gets to cold.
And I've seen a couple of spots inside the house become active again. The tech said that was normal, as when they found the new sources of food, they pulled termites out of the house to go there. But once they have enough feeding at those sites, they'll send excess workers back to other feeding sites. Once the bait starts working and some start dying, they should pull out the rest to go feed on the bait, since they will prefer the bait over my house. It's just a slow process, but it will work.
Now you all know I'm not a very patient person, so this whole thing has been unsettling, but I'm trying to be positive about it all.
Anyway, time to go..

cautiously optimistic

Good morning.
It's been a crazy busy week in the Salon, and I booked today and tomorrow also.
And I'm cautiously optimistic about our termite issue.
It's been 2 1/2 weeks since the bait stations were installed. After about a week, I noticed a definite decrease in termite activity.  4 days ago, I removed all traces of the mud stuff they were pushing out the cracks, and as of today, still no signs. It's like they've all just left.
And that's why the installer didn't want to put the bait inside. He said when they find the bait, they will like it sooo much, that they may even pull termites from the house to send to the better stuff.
Termites, he said, prefer wet, rotting wood. If none is available, they will eat any wood. The reason we saw them around the windows, is when they found a way into the house, they weren't crazy about the hard, dry 2x4s in the walls, and soon found the softer wood the windows are made of. Well Dow, through research, created this bait that termites like 4 times better than wood.
Soooo, I'm cautiously optimistic, that they found the bait, told all their friends, and soon they'll be all DEAD!
We won't know for sure until they come out and check the bait stations. That's in another week and a half.
So cross your fingers and hope what I'm seeing is the end of the little bastards.
Now I'm off to work.

weekend in review

Good morning.
It was a busy beautiful Monday and Tuesday, and I was busy!  :-)
Sunday, did some indoor cleaning and spent the rest of the time on the puter.
Monday and Tuesday, we did our usual running and at home I started cutting down the flower beds. I believe I'm about half way done in just the two days.
Tuesday morning, while I was on the puter, I heard a crash outside the window. Peaked out the blinds to see my portable gas grill knocked over and had fallen off the table. Didn't see anything, but figured it must have been a raccoon, since we had just grilled chicken the night before. Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, I hear something outside the window. I peek through the blinds to see a small raccoon on the windowsill, working on trying to eat my grill scraper brush.  Then it climbed down and into the grill that had opened when it fell. As daylight approached, I discovered that the gas regulator had snapped off from the fall. So while we were out that morning, I tried to buy one at Lowe's where we originally bought the grill. Of course, they didn't have the part, nor even the grill anymore. It has been 8 years since we bought it for the mo-ho.
So back home, online I went. I found the part on 3 different sites, but including shipping they all wanted $35. I only paid $46 for the grill originally. Finally, after much searching, found a site for $24 with free shipping. Should have it by the end of the week.
And Craig tried a couple of new recipes this past weekend, and since I'm to lazy to post them on Cooking with Craig, I'll just post a link to site Craig got them from.

 Parmesan glazed acorn squash

Slow-cooker barbecue beef brisket

They were both very good!
And with that, time to get ready for a very busy week in the Salon. I start early today, 8:30, and will be there until 6:30.  I'm getting to old for these hours.  :-)