a little bit of Christmas

Good morning.
Our work week ended slow as expected and even though we got out earlier than normal, managed to get all our laundry done. We do our laundry on Saturday at the Salon since no one else works that day. That way we don't have to use the laundry room in the apt building. Saves us money too!   :-)
I cleaned the Salon Sunday morning as usual.
Craig wanted a Christmas tree for our apartment. We sold pretty much all the Christmas stuff when we sold our house. I did save one box of things I wanted to keep. But not a tree. So we bought this.....

It's about 3 ft tall. Craig thinks it will look good in Vegas on the kitchen counter behind the corner sink when we move out there.

I'm not so sure, but the tree lights and ornaments cost us a whole $16. So if it doesn't work out, not a big loss.
And that's the extent of our Christmas decorating this year. The box of stuff I saved from the house sale for Vegas is buried in the storage room. There's about a dozen boxes in there all in big Garbage bags, just in case there's a water leak and I don't feel like digging through them. I also don't feel like decorating the apt. The apt is comfortable and nice, but it doesn't feel like a 'home' if you know what I mean. And we have the Salon all decorated so that's enough.
Anyway, today is our usual running, and later this morning, Craig gets to go to the Secretary of State to renew his driver's license. He was able to go online and reserve a time. We'll see how good that works.  :-)
Now time to go.

a good Thanksgiving

Good morning.
We had a nice Thanksgiving. Dinner turned out great! The Lions won! Our Spartan basketball team won!  And, weather was mild enough we were able to go for an after dinner walk.   :-)
The turkey dinner turned out just fine despite our little teeny tiny kitchen.  I managed to get all the leftovers in the fridge for another dinner tonight.
I went into the Salon early in the morning and got it mostly decorated for Christmas. I'll finish up this morning before I start work.
And here's a fun little quote I pulled off Facebook.....

And I'm working today and tomorrow. Not real busy, which is normal for after Thanksgiving.
Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, and have a nice Black Friday!

another nice weekend

Good afternoon.
It's been a nice albeit cold weekend. Didn't do much.   :-)
I did get Craig signed up for a medigap policy.  With his Medicare, Prescription drug plan and the medigap policy, his total premiums will be about $215.00 a month. That's giving him real good coverage and only a $2000.00 deductible compared to his current $6000.00 deductible and current price of $275.00 a month.   :-)
The 8 inches of snow we got on Saturday is slowly melting and should be gone by the end of the week. It's way to early for this much snow. We actually hit a record for the amount of snow for that date. Yaa!  :-(
Tomorrow, it's back to work. Kind of a short week with Thanksgiving in the middle. But we are open Friday and Saturday also.
Have a nice Thanksgiving!

the good, the great and the ugly

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the Salon.
Friday and Saturday ended very busy. it was a good week.   :-)
 And even better, our Michigan State Spartans, a 13 point underdog, and without our star quarterback, beat Ohio State!

What a game!
And this is what transpired throughout the day yesterday....

Our ugly first taste of winter.   :-(
At least I don't have to shovel.  :-)
Craig picked up our thanksgiving turkey on Friday. Couldn't get it soon due to not enough room in our little apartment freezer. So no extra turkeys this year either.   :-(
And now....time to enjoy my weekend.

Et tu, brute?

Good morning,
I went to work on Wed. and upon checking my messages, received one from a customer I've done for over 25 years, Since my eventual moving is coming up, she's decide to try another salon. Wishes me good luck with my future move and thanked me for the many years of service....blah, blah, blah. And of course, she left the message on Tuesday knowing I don't work then so she wouldn't have to speak directly to me. Even though I've been telling customers we'll be here probably 2 more years, I'm losing more and more. I was hoping they'd stick with me to the end, but I should have known better. I should have never said anything to them. I've been doing this for 38 years. I knew customers were fickle. They'll turn on you on a dime.  I knew that. I should have kept my big mouth shut! But the damage has been done, and I'll just have to live with it. At least now, when I do move, I won't feel bad for leaving customers I've done for years. They will adjust, if they don't all dump me first!
Anyway, after an okay Wed. and Thur. I'm completely booked today and tomorrow. The holiday season bookings are looking pretty good so far. So hopefully a good end of year.
And it's looking like we will be getting our first taste of winter this weekend as 2-5 inches of snow are forecast, and lows in the 20's.
Have a good weekend!

a nice weekend

Good morning.
It was a nice weekend.   :-)
Saw my Mom on Sunday,  and went for nice walks on Monday and Tuesday.
Monday we also went for a nice little drive around town. Lot's of building going on. We haven't seen much of the area in recent years as the house and especially the yard, kept me too busy. It's nice having more 'free' time.   :-)
Tuesday I cleaned the apt and took everything off the balcony for winter. We may still have a day or two we could sit out, but with our balcony facing north, there's no sun, so not nice enough.
For dinner, Craig fried up some turkey sausage, and mushrooms and I cut up, bagged and marinated veggies to roast in the oven.

The summer squash, peppers, onions, and brussel sprouts had olive oil and balsamic, and the tators and carrots, olive oil,  garlic and Mrs Dash onion and herb seasoning.

Had too much for the big oven so the brussel sprouts went in the toaster oven. Yes, there's a lot, but I wanted leftovers to go with left over pork cutlets we grilled from Monday. We eat that on Thursday.
Also, Craig received his Medicare card and his Humana prescription card. So he's all set for January 1st.
Now, it's back to work.

road trip

Good afternoon.
It ended up being a decent week in the Salon.
I cleaned the Salon this morning, then headed over to Muskegon to see my Mom.
Craig decided to stay home, as he had a lot of paperwork he wanted to catch up on.
Took Mom out to Red Lobster where she treated me to lunch.  :-)    
She had won at pull tabs a couple of weeks ago. We started out with lobster and crab stuffed mushrooms and I had shrimp taco's and she had the wood fired Tilapia.  Then we headed over to the VFW for a couple of drinks and pull tabs. No luck with the pull tabs. I think she does better on them when I'm not around.   :-)
On the way back to her apartment, we stopped at the store to buy her cookies, nail polish, and bananas.
Got her back to her apartment, and then headed back to Lansing.
I then boxed up the clothes I'm sending out to a friend in Vegas.

She decided on 2 sweatshirts and 10 t-shirts. I will mail them out tomorrow. I also have an 8:30 appointment with the audiologist for what I believe will be my last 'adjustment'. 
I'm liking the hearing aid, and think it's working good.
And that's it for now....

No, I'm not in any way a Michigan fan.

Good morning.
We had a very nice weekend, taking long walks every day. Unfortunately, we both had a break in our work schedule yesterday,  so we wee able to take another walk.
One of our friends in Vegas, Ingrid, has a daughter out there that's a huge University of Michigan fan. Ingrid wondered if I could get her some Michigan gear. So, I went to our local Meijer store, and took pics of everything they had, and e-mailed it to her. Normally I wouldn't touch the stuff, me being a Michigan State fan, but Ingrid has been very nice to pick us up at the bus stop and take us back when we go out to Vegas.
I ended up sending 26 pics of the different t-shirts, sweat shirts and hoodies. She picked out 3. She wanted a Michigan sweat shirt,

 A Michigan t-shirt,

And the t-shirt with a wolverine on it.

I almost didn't want to tell her the pic wasn't a Wolverine. I wonder how many other Michigan fans have thought Chewbacca from Star Wars was actually a Wolverine.  :-)
Anyway, made me smile. I e-mailed her the correction, and she wanted it anyway. 
So, back to work. The rest of the week is looking pretty good.

busy Sunday.

Good morning.
It was a very busy 2 days, and I'm glad it's my weekend.
Yesterday, I cleaned the apartment while Craig got caught up on his paper work. I also went online and got Craig signed up for a prescription plan to go with his Medicare. He got the letter in the mail on Saturday approving his Medicare and now has a Medicare number. They say they will send him a card soon.
I also ordered more appointment cards for the Salon, and placed a supply order with Marlo Beauty. Marlo is a mail order only company in the Detroit area. Has no physical store front. But they do have the best prices for hair color, perms and such.
We also went for a very long walk. The weather was cool, only around 50, but sunny and low wind.
I also went to Kohl's with a couple of coupons to buy some much needed slacks for work.
So it was a fairly busy day.
And Craig topped it off with a tasty Tortilla Casserole.
Today will be our usual running and shopping and hopefully another walk.
And that's it for now.

Vegas trip details

Good morning.
This trip to Vegas was a busy one.
First off, we replaced a cold air return vent.

The one that was up there had a broken latch. So one corner hung down. I ordered a new one online a couple of weeks before we went out, so it would be there when we arrived. It eneded up being easier than expected.
Also, we finished up with the painting. Did the other closet, the pantry, and the rest of the garage.

Here's a pic of the painted pantry. I then put shelf liner down to protect the shelves.
We then had an electrician come out. The second bath had a light switch and an exhaust switch that back in July decided not to work anymore. I checked the breakers, and they were all fine. Even the wall plug next to them worked. I had no idea what was the problem. The electrician knew right away. It was a bad GFI outlet in the garage.   Way   out   in   the   garage.   :-/
I asked why an outlet in the garage would be tied into the switches in the bathroom. He said these homes were wired odd. And all the GFI outlets were a piece of crap. The builder used cheap ones made in China. So he replaced that outlet, and everything was good. We then went out and bought 3 more GFI outlets, and I'll replace the 2 in the kitchen and the one in the bath on our next trip.
I also repaired 3 more bubblers in the front yard that had failed and were spraying instead of bubbling. Then I trimmed up the tree in the front yard. It's an African Sumac. Has a very nice shape and small long leaves. But these trees grow quite fast and the branches tend to hang.
So it was a busy productive trip.
Now back here in Lansing.....
I  went online to the Healthcare.gov site and picked a new healthcare plan for next year. Got a policy very similar to the one I have now, but it'll be nearly $30 less. I know a lot of people hate 'Obamacare" but for me, it's been a really good deal. I have pretty much the same coverage I had before, but it's costing me nearly half as much, thanks to the subsidies. And we haven't heard about Craig's Medicare yet. The site says it has been processed and he'll get a letter in the mail as to the result. Don't know why they can't tell him on the site.   :-/
Now time for me to get to work. I have an 11 hour day scheduled.  :-(

another Vegas trip

Good morning.
We just returned from Las Vegas.  Got home late last evening.  :-(
Our flight from Minneapolis to Lansing was delayed twice.  But, we got home safe and sound, so that's the important part. We had a good trip. Weather was sunny and warm. Temps in the low 80's. Hooked up with some neighbors who were gone for the summer.
Finally went to The Farm. Our neighbor Obbie has been trying to get us there for a visit. She volunteers their a lot. That weekend was their Fall Festival so we decided to check it out.

Here's a pic with Obbie at the table she was volunteering at.

And here's a pic of the entire table I 'took' from their facebook page. A 90 some year old lady buys fabric, makes everything by hand, and donates them to The Farm for their fundraisers.
Anyway, The Farm is an animal rescue place. They also sell fresh eggs, veggies, honey, and jams to help defray the costs. They have children's parties there complete with a train ride around the animal pens. And even an area where they do weddings. It's quite a place, and they do good work.
I'll post more about our trip when time allows, but right now, we have a lot of running to do.