another year done

Good morning.

I wanted to squeeze in one more post for the year.
It's been quite a year, with the new house in Vegas, selling the mo-ho, and starting to prepare for the next chapter in our life as we inch closer to retirement.
Over the next year I plan on continuing the downsizing of all the stuff we've accumulated over the 30 years we've lived here. And getting the house back into shape for eventual selling. I've discovered that I have overlooked a lot of little maintenance issues over the last 30 years that will take some time to fix.
I'm very happy we decided to begin this process so early. I can't imagine needing to do everything that we've done so far in a short time frame.
That said, I look forward to 2015.
I hope 2015 is good for you too.
And with that, I'm off to work. Long day today, and back to work for a busy Fri. and Sat.
Happy New Year!

playing catch-up

Good afternoon.
I should be house cleaning, but I realized I haven't posted in a week! And I knew you would be worried about me.  :-)
 Okay, here's what I've been doing......
We watched the controversial movie, The Interview....

It's basically a 'B' comedy. Entertaining, but not great. I can't see what North Korea is upset about.  :-)

Anyway, it'll probably bring in more money because of the hacking.

Also watched  The Maze Runner. 

That was good!

Also, I think some one's been in our house in Vegas..... 

 Our house is equipped with a smart meter. I can go online and see daily energy  usage. 
Look closely at the graph, and you'll see a small spike on the 21st.
That would probably mean someone was in there and turned on lights.
So, it could be our realtor checking on the place, or the handy man doing a couple of things we arranged for before we left. 
On the work front.....
Last Friday and Saturday were quite busy, and New Years Eve and the following Friday and Saturday look even busier.
Craig is starting his year end stuff, so I try and lay low and out of his way.  :-)
Preliminary figures point to a good year.  :-)
Now I need to get back to house cleaning.

sold another game

Good morning.
Finished up a very busy week in the Salon, and yesterday, headed over to Muskegon to visit my Mom.
Took her to lunch at Applebee's where she bought me a gift card thanks to some recent winnings she had with pull-tabs, and then we went to the VFW for drinks and more pull-tabs. No luck with them yesterday. On the way back to her apartment, stopped for some groceries and made it back to Lansing.
I also sold another game on eBay......

This one was called Broadsides and Boarding Parties. I managed to get $62 for it. Might have gotten more, but the game board was slightly warped. Got it boxed up and ready to ship this morning. I wonder if the post office will be busy.   :-)
 Then we are heading over to Home Depot to look at area rugs. We want to get one for the house in Vegas, and we'll need to be able to have it delivered during the short window we'll be there.
We saw this one at Lowe's......

 It's called Faded Panels. It's approximately  8x10. We thought this would look good with the black furniture and the warm woods of the accent tables.
Craig originally wanted something with a little more pop!
like this copper shag......

Then I said...."Craig, you put this with black furniture, and it'll look like we're ready for Halloween".
 So what do you think? And remember, it's going on a light, mottled, tiled floor.

 I kinda like the first one, but we'll keep looking.
Now time for our usual Monday running around.

just one more day

Good morning.
As expected, it's been an extremely busy week in the Salon. One more day, and I can rest a bit.  :-)
Here's a little bit of our Christmas cheer....

It appears we've finally got our Homeowners Association fees finally straightened out. Only took 2 months.  :-/
The last check has finally posed to our online account, and now we have a nice balance to use for the next 6 months, since we paid it up before we left, not knowing if/when it would get processed, and we didn't want to get stuck with interest and late fees.
I haven't heard from our Vegas handyman to know if he's finished with the last few projects we wanted done, but since we won't be out there for a while, I guess there's no hurry. I'll wait until after the new year before I bug him.  :-)
And now, time to get ready for work

Would you like a garden obelisk?

Good morning.

 We've had a fairly nice weekend for December. Cloudy and damp, but temps near 50. Did a little yard work yesterday, and took these pics....

They are a little difficult to make out, so you may need to click on the pics to see them better.
One's a arching trellis, and the other an obelisk. In my continuing reducing of stuff for an eventual cross country move, I'm slowly getting rid of things I won't be taking with me including yard ornamentation. I've got a customer possibly interested in the obelisk, so I took a pic to e-mail to her. Both of these are made from rebar. The metal they use in roads to give them strength. Many years ago, we had a coffee shop a few doors from our Salon. They put in an outdoor patio, and at her request, I put in a flower bed along the sidewalk. As a thank you, she commissioned a local artist to create these for my yard. I never had much luck getting anything besides annual vines to grow on them, but would like them to go to someone who could use them.
And I've got one more day off before a very busy week. This is the last full week before Christmas, and I'll be working late every day. I already wish Christmas was over.  :-)
That's all for now.

a profitable weekend

Good morning.
It was a pretty good weekend. Didn't do a whole lot.  :-)
Saturday, after work, Craig made us nachos for dinner. Yum!

On Monday, Craig fixed a new chicken dish......

It was easy and tasty! The recipe is here.
Over the years, we've accumulated a lot of board games. I've been going through them, and since we hardly play them anymore, I've been adding them to my growing pile of yard sale stuff. At one point I thought, 'I wonder if any of these are worth anything?'  I hopped on E-bay and did a little research. Found I had one game worth quite a bit!
So, I finally got around to listing this game on E-bay....

I started the bid at $100 with a buy it now price of $200 after looking at previous sold listings. It sold in 2 days!
I boxed it up and mailed it out yesterday.
Who knew a game I bought back in 1981 for $39 would now be worth $200?   :-)
I also managed to get a tree up and decorated and also put up some other decorations. The house feels very festive now.  :-)
 And now, it's back to work.

I'm still here

Good morning.
I'm still here, just nothing much to say.
Last week was fairly busy in the Salon, and the weekend has been cold, so been indoors not doing much.  :-)
There's been some good sales at a couple of our supply stores so have been stocking up on Salon supplies.
Today, Gordon's Food Service for Folgers Coffee.
We also switched health ins. plans. It's open enrollment at Healthcare.gov, and we were able to find a policy with similar coverage for about the same price we've been paying. Our old policy was going up about $60 a month, but this year, there's quite a few more companies offering policies. I don't know what we'll do if the Supreme court strikes down our state's marketplace because it's run by the fed and not the state. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Watched Guardians of the Galaxy the other day. Good movie!
That's about all I know for now.

weekend catch-up

Good morning.
I tell ya. I'm getting lazier and lazier about posting.  :-)
Anyway, It was a busy work week. And so far this weekend, I've gotten the outside in pretty good shape for winter. We managed a decent day Sunday with temps around 50 and no rain, so I cleaned out the roof valleys and gutters, and changed the oil in the mowers. I also cut down some ornamental grasses. Monday was cold and windy, so stayed inside and cleaned.
Craig made a new dish, Brat 'n' tot bake. It was OMG good! I'll try and get it on Cooking with Craig's blog when I get a chance.
And here's a pic of the timer that controls the watering at our Las Vegas house...

You can see why I had the landscape guy program it for me.
I did manage to find the program guide on line when we got back home and printed out all 16 pages of it so I can familiarize myself with it when we go back out.
Craig has been putting a list together of things we want for the Las Vegas home and things he wants done next time we we go out. An area rug for the living room, paint the baths and second bedroom, change the light fixture in the hall, buy a cappuccino machine so we can make morning coffee instead of going out, order a coffee table, another dresser and night stand for the other bedroom, and a new kitchen sink.  It looks to be another busy trip.  :-)
But that won't be until after the holidays.
And with that, time to go.