holiday weekend

Good afternoon.
It's been a beautiful weekend so far. Mostly sunny and warm. Temps in the low 80's. A few scattered rain showers, but mostly at night.  :-)
Cleaned the Salon Saturday morning. We were technically closed, but I did go in for a customer. She was at 9 so went in at 7:30 and cleaned before she arrived. We later went downtown to the Waterfront grill outdoor patio that overlooks the skyline and river for a little lunch and a nice walk on the river trail.
With many good sales this weekend, for dinner, we had t-bones on the grill. They were great! Don't have them very often. Today, we did a 2 mile walk on the Sharp Park trail. Great weather! We'll be having pork steaks on the grill for dinner along with Craig's delicious homemade potato salad.
Looks like I'll be making some phone calls on Tuesday. We supposedly switched our auto pay for all the Vegas utilities to a new bank acct. But, one charged it to the old account and another has just apparently cancelled the auto pay and billed us. I even went online and confirmed the change of accounts. Nothing ever is easy is it.
And, we are closing on the sale of the Salon on Tuesday. She still won't have a lease. The management company has been very busy with 'other' matters and hasn't gotten the lease mailed out yet. But they have verbally agreed to terms so I feel we are good to go.  And the new owner is satisfied with everything so she has paid June's Rent, and will hold the security deposit until she signs the lease.
So with that, the balcony is calling. time for some outside time.   :-)

weeknd update

Good morning.
It was a beautiful weekend! Sunny and low 80's. Got some good walks in. There's a couple of neighborhoods near the apartments and looking at every ones yards gives me a flower fix but also reinforces all the work involved in maintaining a nice yard. 
And Craig had his physical on Tuesday morning. I have to say, blood tests seem like a crap shoot. We haven't been particularly good with our eating habits or exercise. So he wasn't expecting improvement on any of his results. And for the most part, he was right. His sugar is still the same and his bad cholesterol was a little worst. BUT, His good cholesterol was the highest it's ever been, (that's really good) his triglycerides were in the normal range for the first time in years, and his ratio was normal for the first time. So go figure! Now besides eating out more often, the other major change we've done is cutting out most of the fat free stuff we ate. Instead of using fat free butter, mayo,dressings, sour cream and such, we've switched to low fat versions. So we're actually eating more fat, but it's mostly good fat. That would help explain his high good cholesterol.
Anyway, some good news with the bad.
Also, we met with the lawyer planning on signing the papers to sell the Salon, but the lease hadn't arrived yet, so no lease, no sale. We'll meet again next Tuesday and try this again.  We may have to delay the closing date a couple of weeks. No big deal
And maybe, just maybe when I get to work and pick up the mail, my phone case will be there! I checked the tracking yesterday afternoon, and it said it had been delivered. Finally! Only 11 days.
And it's back to work and it's looking like another slow week. But at this point, that's not really a bad thing.  :-)

the inefficient post office

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the Salon. If all goes well, I'll be cleaning the Salon just one more time.   :-)
 It was a so-so week, and at the end of Saturday, we went over to Reno's to enjoy the sun and good food.
 Last week, I ordered a case for my new phone. The phone is kind of slick and I'd hate to drop it.

So I went on E-bay and ordered one. Was only $4.73 with free shipping. It was shipped the next day by the US Postal Service.
But the postal service is a mess! You remember the certified letter I sent to the landlord that disappeared?
Well, it's been over a week and I've yet to receive it. Look at the tracking info below. It reads from bottom to top.

It left CA and went to a regional sorting facility in Ohio (purple arrow). From there, to Grand Rapids MI (white arrow). It then should have come to Lansing, but instead went back to Ohio (green arrow). Then to Owosso MI (orange arrow) about 30 miles north east of Lansing. Realizing it was sent to the wrong place, it for some strange reason, then went to Pennsylvania (blue arrow), where it was last scanned.

It'll be interesting to see if it actually does eventually get here.
It's looking to be a nice weekend (for me) so hope to get some nice walks in.
That's it for now.

weekend update.

Good morning.
Busy, busy, busy. That's what I've been the last day.
Yesterday morning, I went to Lansing Ophthalmology for my yearly eye check-up.
My appointment was at 8:10, and I was out by 9am. Nice. They weren't real busy that morning.
The exam went well. Nothing to exciting. Before I left, they gave me all my records to take with me since I won't be here for next years appointment. And of course, since they had to dilate my eyes, it was a brilliant sunny day.  :-/   Had to stay inside for the next 5 hours.
Then I spent a good part of the day getting Craig's phone up to his liking. I had to do a factory rest to wipe all my info out, as it kept trying to sync with my google acct. and I couldn't figure how to stop it. But the factory reset worked and even better, now it's like a new phone for Craig.
Then we added a new lock screen wallpaper and home page wall paper.

His is on the left, mine the right.

He's very happy with the new phone. Once he got used to it he says it's so much nicer than the old one.  I knew that!
We also picked up another personal mister.

 They're hand size and have a pump to pressurize it. When you press the button, a super fine mist comes out to help keep you cooler. It really worked!
The yellow/green one we got last year and used it for the walk from the bus stop to our house in Vegas last July. It worked so well, we wanted to each have one for our next trip this summer. It's exactly one mile from the bus stop to our house.
Oh, and I sold both sets of tires and rims. They went the same day I posted them.
And we went for a nice long walk since it was the only nice day of the weekend. Sunny and near 70.
And that's my update!

update

Good afternoon.
This is exactly why we're moving to Nevada.....

I went in to clean the Salon this morning, and while there, I looked out and it was snowing!. Mid May!
High today, only 48. Crappy Michigan weather.
But good thing? I'm not stressing about all the yard work I would have needed to get done.  :-)
It was a so-so week in the Salon, but expected due to the very busy week last week.
Spoke to the landlord and lawyer and everything looks good for closing on the Salon in a couple of weeks.
The landlord is giving her the same terms we currently have for another 2 years.
Just posted 2 sets of tires and rims on Craig's list. Hope to get rid of them soon. One set is from The Kia we traded in, and the other is from the Hyundai. Won't need winter tires in Vegas.   :-)
Also in the process of transferring Craig's really old phone to my newer old phone.

Even though my phone is small, it's a whole lot bigger than his ole flip phone.  :-)
And, he'll be able to text!
Tracfone said the process to transfer could take up to 2 days.
And that's all I got for now. Dinner is crock pot pork chops.

my weekend update

Good morning.
It was a busy weekend. Sunday, a visit to Mom, Monday I went to the Audiologist for a check-up. The hearing aide is functioning perfectly.  Later, I went over to a customer's home and spent nearly 3 hours debugging his puter. part of the problem is he's still running Windows xp. But it's cleaned up and working for now.
Tuesday, ordered a spare tire kit for the Jeep. Funny we couldn't get one through the dealer, but no problem finding one online.  :-/
And I got my newer phone.

Obviously, it's the one on the left.

A bigger screen, a newer operating system, a better camera, and it's a little thinner too!
It's another LG phone, so it works very similar to the old one. And it uses the same charging cord my old one does. Once I switch Craig's really old phone for my old one, I'll be able to get rid of his charger which is different from mine. It'll be nice just having one type of charger. Our tablets also use the same charger.
It was very easy to go online and transfer my number and minutes to my new phone. This coming weekend, I'll do the same for Craig. Then, he'll be able to text me when he wants to. His really old flip phone did text, but he didn't have a keyboard, just the number pad. So to type C for example he had to hit the 1, 3 times. A real pain. My old phone will be so much nicer for him.
I've also started the process of transferring all our auto-pays to our Chase checking acct. Once we move, we'll have to close our main accounts which are at Lake Trust Credit Union. They don't have a presence out in Nevada.
So slowly but surely we are making progress toward our eventual move.
But right now, I've got to get to work!

Mother's Day

Good afternoon.

We've just returned from a Mother's Day trip to Muskegon.
Lot's of traffic on the highway, but we got there and back safe and sound.
Cut Mom's hair, took out her trash, dusted, then took her to Applebees' for lunch, and then to the "club'.
My brother Bruce joined us for lunch, and my brother Brian and his wife Ruth joined us at the VFW. Was nice to see everyone. Was a nice visit.
Got a busy day tomorrow. I didn't get the Salon cleaned this morning so going in tomorrow to finish that. Then I go to the Audiologist for a check-up on my hearing aid. Then in the afternoon, I go to a customers home to help with his puter. his says he's 'lost' his antivirus software, and his puter is 'acting funny'. I think that means he got a bug. So I put a few programs on a flash dive and will go over there to see if I can 'fix' his puter.
My new phone is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Looking forward to that.
And that's all I got for now.   :-)

trading up!

Good morning. I know, 3 posts in one week.   :-)
I've had a few things to talk about for a change.
I've finally decided to get a newer phone.
I've had an LG Optimus Dynamic 2 for a few years now and have enjoyed it immensely. It was my first 'smart phone' and came in really handy during the search and purchase of our house in Vegas.

But, the screen size is just 3.8 inches and that makes the keyboard very small.

The one I've just ordered is an LG Ultimate. It has a 4.5 inch screen.
It's still an older model phone, but the price of $59 was good, and it's a vast improvement over my current phone. I'll give that phone to Craig to upgrade him from his tiny flip phone so we can text each other.
We both have Tracfones. We like them a lot! I can't believe what people pay for cell service! Now I do understand those people who use their phones constantly need a higher priced plan to give them enough minutes, but for just $100, I can get 1200 call, 1200 text, and 1200 data minutes for a year. Even with buying the phone, that's less than $15 a month! And there's no monthly fee. For us, it's a no brainer.
And work has been very busy this week. I'm working late today and tomorrow. I'm not getting to excited that my customer base has rebounded, as next week looks dead. I think everyone has just called this week.
But it good to be busy so off to work I go.

vegas backyard plan

Good morning.
It was a beautiful day yesterday and we spent as much time as possible outside. Took a nice long walk and enjoyed the spring flowers.
Here's a few pics of the backyard....

These were from when we first brought the house. Most of the dead  plants have been removed.

It's a small yard, measuring 14 1/2 ft from the back of the house to the wall, and 39 1/2 ft long.
The yard is enclosed by a wall. 5ft high across the back, and 4ft high on the sides.

Here's the plans I did online. The first pic showing what is currently in the back yard.

The large round green tree on the left is the nearly dead apple tree I've mostly cut down. In front of that is some type of rose bush. I'm hoping  to keep the Desert Willow tree on the right, along with the 2 red flowering bushes.

This is what I'd like to have the backyard look like when done.
Extend the patio out into the yard with a sunny lounge area.  Put in a dry riverbed that would extend from the back wall down around the Desert Willow over to the side of the house. That is also how the drainage of the back yard now goes.
Of course, this is all going to wait until we move out there. And also depend on cost and what the landscaper we use suggests. But it's fun to play around and see what we might be able to achieve in that small area.
 We ended the day with Chicken thighs with roasted potatoes and carrots on our grill.
Now, it's back to work. Going to be a busy week!

hey, a post!

Good morning.
It was a crazy busy day last Saturday.  Happy to get home after work and looked forward to a nice weekend. Unfortunately, Sunday and Monday were cold, wet, cloudy and windy. Today looks to be the best of the 3 days. Sunny and warmer near mid 60's. So, one nice day out of 3.  :-/   Typical Michigan.
So Sunday I cleaned the Salon, and cleaned the apartment while Craig tried to catch up on all his paperwork. Monday, we did our usual running, bank, post office, and getting supplies for the Salon.
One good thing about the crappy weather.....I don't stress about not being able to get yard work done. That's really nice! Normally I'd spend all day today trying to work in the yard to make up for not working the crappy two days. But now.....it's not a big deal if the weather is crappy.   :-)
Here's a few more pics of Vegas......

These pics aren't very good. It was very sunny(  :-)  ) and I shot them through the window. But I wanted to show all the plantings on the boulevards around our community.

Another view of Mt Charleston in the distance.

So even with pretty much no grass, there is still a lot of greenery. And that's another nice thing....no grass to mow when we move out there.  :-)
And I'm working on a plan for the Vegas back yard. I found an online design site that seems to be very adequate for what I want. I'll post them when I finish.
And it looks to be a very busy week in the Salon. That will be good.