post #1174

Good morning.
Yesterday was mostly a wash-out. Drizzly rain, off and on all day.
Sooo, I spent a good part of it cleaning out the garage. That seems to be the accumulating point for everything. But I got it cleaned and straightened, and a car full of stuff I'm dropping off at Goodwill. Now Craig has room to park the Kia when the snow starts flying.
Craig did pick up his new glasses. And of course, balked at letting me take his pick for the blog. :-)
Today, I'm calling our electrical guy to replace a couple of sodium lights on the outside of the Salon. I think the sensors have fogged over too bad and the lights stay on most of the time., except one that keeps going on and off. I've tried cleaning them, but they're just too bad. And I know, "isn't that the landlord's job?" But anyone who's rented commercial space knows it's like pulling teeth to get any money out of them. And by the time they did get around to it, it would be spring, and the days are rapidly getting shorter, and the girls need dependable lighting at night.
Sooo, with that, its time to get ready for another work week. Looking pretty decent so far.

spring has arrived!

Good morning. I believe spring has arrived here in mid-Michigan! I took this pic of a clump of Dwarf Dutch Iris just starting to open, yesterday morning. We've had a fairly cold spring, but a gradual one. We may even hit the upper 70's on Sunday, before returning to our normal high of 60 on Monday. But even 60 will be nice after being stuck in the 40's-50's. :-) The salon has been steady this week, and steady is good. Craig got a call from his doctor telling him both polyps were benign, and he can go 5 years before his next colonoscopy. He was a happy camper. :-) Not much else to report, so have a great weekend!

just 2 means good for 5

Good afternoon. Craig had his colonoscopy this afternoon, and he had 2 polyps removed. They were very small, and the doctor said if the labs come back good, as he expects them to, Craig can go 5 years before the next one. He was sure glad to hear that! This one had been only 3 years because he had 5 polyps the first time. And he has not had a good experience with the prep. Both times now after the initial prep, he's clear when he goes to bed, and gets up in the morning, not at all clear, and had to do another 1/2 prep to get where he needed to be. That's why he made this appointment in the afternoon, just in case it happened again, so he'd have time to 'redo', and it did! But now it's over, and we can get life back to normal. On the way home from the hospital, we stopped at Finlay's for a late lunch. Craig had an American cheeseburger, and I had their really good ribs.

Monday, after we returned home from all our running around, While he finished some bookwork waiting for the prep to start working, I went on a cleaning binge. I cleaned out several kitchen cabinets. You know, the ones with deep shelves you never see what's back there? Well, I found a bunch of stuff to add to my spring yard sale.

One particular item, a few of you might remember, a hot air popcorn popper! We got this way back in the late 70's I think. Haven't used it in years! It's even got a little butter melting cup on top!

It still works, but with Craig's hundreds of fillings, (okay, maybe not quite that many) he doesn't eat popcorn anymore. So with this gradual house cleaning I've been doing, I'm filling up a space in the living room for a pretty decent size yard sale. I'll post more of these little treasures later. And if anyone wants any of the stuff, if your willing to pay shipping, you can have it!

Soooo it's back to work tomorrow.

Oh, ps, I was going to take a bunch of pics in the hospital, and even post the polyp pics, but Craig didn't seem to think it was a good idea. So, since he went through so much the last couple of days, I thought I'd humor him and be good. :-)

a birthday trip

Good morning.
My lack of posts means just one thing. A trip!
We left Sunday for Detroit, and the Greektown Casino Hotel.
The occasion?
Craig's really big birthday!
That's right! One of those 'milestone' birthdays.
He hit the really BIG 60!
So we splurged a little going for a corner room on the top floor of the hotel. That's 30 stories above the city with floor to ceiling windows on 2 sides.
I'm writing this as I let Craig sleep a bit longer before we head back to Lansing.
We had a great time! Ate way to much wonderful Greek food in Greektown. Actually won a little money, and really enjoyed our stay.
I'll post some pics later after we return home.

it was a good day

Good morning.
I made it to Muskegon and back with no issues.
I arrived around 9:30 and visited with my sister and Mom. For lunch, Mom wanted Chinese so we headed out to the House of Chan. A Chinese restaurant that's been there for years. Well, we discovered it was closed on Mondays, and Mom didn't want to deal with all the traffic around the mall, (and I don't know why cause I was doing the driving) so we headed over to Applebee's. As we approached Applebee's we went past a place called the Red Wok. I said "there's a Chinese place, do you want to go there?" Mom decided to try it. It was, of course, was a buffet. Now I don't do buffets but Mom wanted Chinese so I was stuck. But I actually liked it! They had a huge selection of food and I love Chinese food, so I filled my plate twice! The place was clean and the food was well tended to by the staff.
After lunch, we of course went to the club for drinks and pull tabs.
A couple hours later, it was time to take Mom home and head to Grand Rapids to drop Linda off at the airport for her trip back to North Carolina. It was good to see her after so many years, and she enjoyed her time with Mom.
Craig had a busy day while I was gone. He said he got up at 9 which surprised me, went to the bank, the pond store for more Algefix, and grocery shopping. Came home, did more laundry and mowed the yard. Fixed Hamburger Helper for dinner, but used sliced sirloin instead of hamburger, and also added peppers from the garden.
It was a good day.

Spring is in the air

Good morning.
Another weekend over and it's back to work. And just in time for a weather warm-up of course. Most of the weekend was cold, windy and cloudy. Yesterday the sun came out, the wind died down and in the low 50's I was able to go outside and do some more yard work. And now that I'm going back to work, today is suppose to hit 70! and 80 by Friday! And of course, by the time my weekend rolls around again, it's suppose to drop back into the low 60's. Oh well.
Monday ended up as a lazy day. With crappy weather I was in no mood to do anything so I played on the puter all day. Craig did his usual bookwork and laundry, and for dinner made a tasty Tortilla Lasagna. It was very good and he made enough for leftovers, so that well be dinner tomorrow night.
Yesterday, with better weather, I did some more yard work, put out the deck furniture, and helped Craig change his PT Cruiser's winter tires to his summer tires.
We also picked up a balloon bouquet for our stylist Pat who is retiring Friday and dropped them off with a coupe of one time use cameras for the staff to take pics all week of her, them, customers, etc. for a final memento of her time with us. Friday I'll pic up and take in a cake we ordered and present her with gift cards we bought from a staff collection.
And for dinner it was Panko Chicken with fried cabbage and fried potatoes, yummy.
And... our first daffodil opened yesterday. In a couple of weeks, the yard will be bursting in bloom. Spring is nearly here!
Oh, and one more note, Mom has started her therapy on her newly healed fractured foot, and can take short walks. She's hoping to be well enough to go out to lunch with me when I go up for Easter. We'll see.
Now it's to the shower, and off to work!

I think spring is coming!

I'm hoping we're having an early spring. It's cold today, but the rest of the week is calling for mid to upper 50's. But it is only mid March........
Sorry I've been absent, but not much to tell you.
Work ended on a very busy note.
I was able to do my customer at the Alzheimer facility. I think they have a system figured out now.
The snow is completely gone and our pond is thawed.
If it ever quits raining, (5 days of off and on rain and drizzle) I'm anxious to get out and start doing spring clean-up.
Oh, and Craig and I, bored with the long winter, and way to wet to do anything outside, we decided to go to the new Fire Keepers Casino. It's near Battle Creek, about a 45 min. drive from Lansing. We'd been there one time before, back in the fall when we camped at Ft Custer State Park, which is on the other side of Battle Creek and didn't care for it too much. Well, we were lucky for a change, and came home with a nice amount of their money. And we ended up being there nearly 5 hours! We even had lunch there. I had a delicious Walleye sandwich and Craig had a quesadilla.
Today I leave Craig alone. We finally got our business returns from our accountant, and he's working on our personal tax returns today. So that means not saying anything unless he speaks first. ;-)
Well, I guess I had a little bit to say.
But that's all for now!

Craig update

Just wanted to let all of Craig's well wishers know his hand is doing much better. It was a little stiff yesterday morning, but after soaking it a bit it loosened right up. Still was a little swollen but that too did improve during the day yesterday. It should be back to normal by the end of the weekend.

Work has been steady this week, and I'll be working late today and also going to the Alzheimer facility to do my customer there.

With rain all night last night, the snow is pretty much all gone. I hope it stays that way. But with Michigan, we've had blizzards in April so I won't hold my breath.

I also received my new Tracfone in the mail yesterday. Got It charged up and went online to activate it and transfer my minutes and phone #.

My new phone is on the right. It's even smaller than my old one. I like the fact that I don't have to open it up to see who's calling. There's a screen on the front that shows the number. My old one I had to open to see the # and then push the send button if I wanted to talk. This one I open to talk. Of course, it'll take 24 to 72 hours for the transfer to be completed and I can't use the phone until then. You'd think in this computer age, everything should be instantaneous. I don't understand why it'll take so long. But it's worth the inconvenience for such inexpensive good service.

Well, have a good weekend!

Poor Craig

Good morning.
Sorry I missed my usual Wednesday morning post. I got distracted. Tuesday, I let Craig sleep in and went and did some grocery shopping. We're starting to buy supplies to restock the mo-ho for this seasons trips. After I returned and woke up lazybones, I made us lattes, and we were out the door. With the first real break in the weather, (it's been near 50 the last couple of days) we decide it was a good time to get back into walking. The first park we went to we discovered they weren't plowing the paths, (yes, still quite a bit of snow on the ground) so we went to another which was plowed. Just getting into our walk, there was a puddle on the asphalt path from melting snow, so I went ahead and to the side, and Craig followed. But he didn't clear the puddle completely, and quickly discovered it wasn't water after all, but black ice! And down he went before I even knew it. Spilled his coffee as he slammed to the ground. He landed on his left hand. He got up, and appeared to be okay except for some soreness in his hand. Needless to say, he was done walking. We went back to the car and finished our errands. When we arrived back home, he started to ice his hand. He could move all his fingers, but they were very sore. I decide to be productive and cleaned the kitchen. He iced his hand for 20 minutes about every 2 hours and it seemed to be better. Wednesday morning, while I was on the puter, Craig got up much earlier than usual. He came in and showed me his hand. It was very swollen. he couldn't even bend his fingers to touch his thumb. He was worried he wouldn't be able to work. I quickly googled his condition and decided a warm salt bath for his hand was in order. That was suppose to bring down the swelling. He sat for 30 minutes soaking his hand while I showered and readied for work. After soaking, he was able to bend the fingers a little bit. I said take your shower and come to work and soak them more before he starts. He notified his first client that he could do her color, but may not be able to hold a brush to dry her hair. He gave her the option of rescheduling, or drying it herself. She really wanted the color and would be fine drying it herself. After he got to work and soaked it some more, his fingers got more flexible. He soaked again while her color was on, and by the time it came to finish her, they were moving enough for him to finish her up. The hand continued to improve during the day, and he was able to do everyone. I'll be interested to see how it looks this morning when he gets up. It was still quite swollen, but flexible. I'm thinking it'll stiffen up during the night.
It looks to stay slightly above normal for the rest of the week with rain in the forecast, so hopefully by this time next week, all the snow will be gone. At least, for the time being. I'm really jealous that all my southern readers are in full spring.
In other news, our current gas bill came, and for the month of February, we used 6.7 mcf compared to last years 11.2 mcf. This trend has gone on for 3 months now. Well over a 30% decline in gas usage! Now last winter was extra cold, but even compared to 2 years ago, we're down nearly 25%. The new furnace and extra caulking appears to be paying off!
And I'm going in early today so I can stop by Sparrow labs to have blood drawn. It's time for my annual physical in a couple of weeks.
That's all I got for now!

Friday fun

Good morning.

We've had a few days in the low 30's and the icicle pic in my last post are now gone. But later this weekend it's back into the deep freeze. But February is just 9 more days, and then we have just March to get through. (I hope!)

The last couple of days at work have been very slow, but the phone started ringing yesterday, and I'm completely booked today and Saturday. And next week is looking good also. We always have some slow time in the winter, but when it happens, always makes me a little nervous it's going to stay that way.

The new stylists are meshing in with our staff very well. I think they'll be a good fit for our Salon.

I've been enjoying the Olympics, but just don't understand why curling is an Olympic sport. I mean, it doesn't seem any more athletic then say bowling or shuffle board and those aren't Olympic sports.

And if they were, I could have been an Olympian! Yes, that's Craig and I back in '83' on our Salon, at the time, bowling team. Did you know, after looking at pics from the early eighties, everyone had mustaches! Of course, the hair was something to!

Well, have a good weekend!

weekend update

Good morning. Back to my morning posting. It seems like most of the country is getting snow. Good for you! Now you can enjoy it with me! :-P
And if you haven't seen enough, here's some pretty icicles.


First off, for those who asked. I don't frame puzzles. I undo the puzzles when we're done, and box them back up. I take them to work and give them to staff or customers. Any left go to Goodwill.
Now back to my latest update.
We started the day yesterday with Craig's regular trip to the doctor. He has his blood checked every few months since he's on Zetia for his cholesterol. And guess what. He had his best readings ever! I mean, his over all cholesterol was 199. His triglycerides where normal. His bad cholesterol was near normal and his good cholesterol was normal. Now what makes this so odd, you need to know a little history. His cholesterol use to be in the low 300's. He tried Lipitor, and his liver enzymes went crazy. So he tried Zetia. That eventually brought his reading down into the low-mid 200's. He's been on this for 2 1/2 years now. So last year, to try and bring it lower, I got Craig moving. He's not one to exercise so I got him walking. We'd walk everyday, where ever we could. The mall big box stores, anywhere we could get 30 min. or more in. Tried meatless meals, very low fat diet, red wine, cholestoff. Nothing would get his reading lower than 225-250.

So this year, I gave up pushing him. We've not eaten real good. Haven't walked all winter, and now he has his lowest reading ever! So now Craig thinks it's all a big crap shoot. Now I'll never get him to exercise ever again.

In other news. My new monitor went berserk yesterday. I restarted it after I downloaded some updates, and when it came back on, when I opened my browser, and tried to scroll down the page, it just went jerking slowly to the bottom. Very annoying, so I opened up my graphics card console and attempted to fix it. Nothing worked. So I googled the problem. Found out with my old puter, I needed a new driver for my graphics card to work with this new fancy monitor. Downloaded the new driver, installed it, restarted my puter, and............................................................................................It works perfectly!

I also called and talked to Mom. She's doing as well as can be expected. They are doing therapy everyday for her right foot trying to make it strong enough to use until the fractured left foot heals enough to start therapy on. She doesn't think it'll help, but like she said, "I've got nothing better to do". So her spirits seem good. And Bruce and Louie are really taking good care of things. Thanks guys!

I then check the tire pressure on the truck because I know I have a slow leak in one of the tires. Well, both the front tires were down to 12 lbs. They should be 30. It's a good thing I don't drive on the highway with the truck. I then worked on the puzzle, and played A-Train on the puter.

Then it was turkey burgers for dinner, and another episode of Spartacus.

And now it's time to get ready for another work week.

Stay warm.

Our Greektown adventure

Good morning.
For Craig's birthday, I booked a room at the new Greektown Casino Hotel that opened this past Feb. A trip we almost had to cancel. Read the past post about that.
Here's Craig in our room.

We booked a corner room since they have floor to ceiling windows. As you can see behind Craig, the only view we have there was the 14 story hotel parking ramp. We were on the 12th floor. You can't request a specific floor and the hotel was booked That surprised us since it was a Sunday, and it was right after New Years. But we soon found out why. We are only 5 blocks from Ford Field, where the Detroit Lions play football. It was a home game that Sunday with the Chicago Bears. Our hotel was full of Chicago fans going to the game. But it was okay. It still let in a lot of light, and we weren't planing on spending a lot of time in the room anyway. You can see the rest of the room here.

Here's a couple of pics of the view. Top pic, right behind the church steeple is the Renaissance Center and GM's world headquarters. And below, the Detroit river just south of downtown.

We arrived in Detroit around 1pm. Since we couldn't check in to our room until 4ish, we stopped at the Motor City Casino on the way in. Detroit has 3 casinos. in 3 different parts of town. After a couple of hours with little luck, we headed to our hotel. Checked in and decide to get a late lunch. We headed out into the neighborhood. Our hotel was right on the edge of the neighborhood. Greektown is an old area of the city, just to the east of the downtown business district. It's actually only a couple of blocks long, but with some great Greek food. We stopped at a place called the Golden Fleece. A small narrow restaurant with really good food.We started with the famous flaming cheese. I'm not sure what type of cheese it was, but they bring it to the table, pour brandy over it and light it. when the flames die out you have a wonderful crusty warm cheese you can eat with bread. Then of course we had the Lamb Gyros.
You can almost see Craig thinking, "you always have to take of pic of me eating don't you",

They were delicious! Here's a pic of the main street through Greektown.

The casino is behind the fake facade of the building on the near left of the pic. It wraps around behind the entire block. So after food, we headed into the casino where we did pretty good. Completely lost track of time and when we finally left around 9pm, we still had over half the money we brought to gamble with. Hours of entertainment for pretty cheap. Well back to the hotel for a little room service and TV before turning in. Craig wanted pizza, and the pizza they had on the room service menu was $15 for an 8in. Ridiculous! I said there's a pizza place right in Greektown. I found the number and ordered him his peperoni and mushroom pizza. By time I got out of the hotel and down the block to Pizza Papalis, it was ready. Brought it back and was that some good pizza! A bit spicier than we like, but that didn't stop us!

The next morning it was back to Lansing. It had snowed about an inch during the night, so the roads were messy, and it was slow going. We saw around 5 cars in ditches. People need to take it easy in this kind of weather. But we made it home safe, and Craig had a good time and was happy I made him go. And him having a nice birthday, that made me happy.

The trip that almost wasn't

A good afternoon. I know, your surprised to see me this time time of day, but I have a lot to say that won't wait until tomorrow morning.
And this is going to be a long post, so if your just interested in the birthday pics and trip, come back in the morning.
As I left you yesterday morning, I was headed out to clean the Salon. Well, it' gets messy from here. I get to the Salon, get the furniture all moved, vacuum the entire place, go to turn the water in the sink on to preheat for mopping, ..........no water. I'm thinking it must be the faucet. Tried another........no water. Go to the bathroom.....no water. Sh!t! No Water! It was extremely cold last night with a stiff northerly wind. Our water for the mall comes into a maintenance room in the middle of the back of the mall. Facing the fierce north wind. That's where the water meters are. It must have froze the pipes. Our damn landlord is too cheap to heat the room! So who do I call? The only number I have is for the management company we send the rent checks to. I call and of course no one is there because it's a weekend, so I leave a message knowing they won't get it until Monday morning, and they're in Pontiac, MI 60 mile east of here.
Now what to do. Craig will not be happy at all! And will want to cancel my little birthday trip I planned for him. He will not be able to enjoy himself knowing there's a problem. So I think I'll check the maintenance room to see if it's locked. On the way out the door, I see some employees going into another store to do inventory. I go and ask them if they have an emergency contact phone #. Yes, they do! They give me the phone # for the mall property owner. His name is Gino. Cute huh? I go check the door of the maintenance room, it's locked. I go back into the Salon and call Gino. It's only 7am on a Sunday, but I need to get this resolved if we're to be able to go on my little trip! He answers and says he'll get his people on it. He says he's sure he turned the heat on in the maintenance room, but not sure if he did the empty space next to us. Thank god the other business had his phone number. Everything should be okay, right? So I go home, and later wake the birthday boy. I tell him the 'good' news. He's not at all happy and thinks we should cancel the trip. I remind him there's nothing we can do sitting here. They'll come, thaw the pipes, and everything will be fine. He's not convinced. So before we head out, he has me call and make sure they're on their way. I call Gino again around 10am to see the status, he says a plumber is on the way. They don't need access to our unit. He'll make sure there's water running in each unit next to us, then we should be fine. That seems to placate Craig, so we head out. My birthday destination for Craig? Detroit! I made reservations at the new Greektown Casino Hotel in the heart of Detroit's Greektown neighborhood. Good food, fun, and a little gambling. He's still not real happy, but I do my best to sooth his mind. After 33 years, I'm getting real good at this!
Are you following me so far?
We make it 2/3 of the way to Detroit, and I get a phone call on my cell. It's Ben, the property manager. He's on his way to Lansing with the plumber. He's decided that when they get everything thawed, they should check the pipes in our unit to make sure they're not cracked or broken. He has keys to all the units, but didn't bring them all. Remember, he's from Pontiac? So Craig pulls off an exit ramp, ready to turn around. I said we were out of town, but would find one of our staff stylist to swing by to unlock the Salon. So, I check my cell phonebook, and I only put 2 of the stylist in it. I call the first, Patty, and her daughter says she's in Spring Lake, Mi ( 100 mile west of Lansing) on a family emergency. They were snowmobiling and one of the people has turned up missing. But that's another long story. I say that's okay, it's nothing important. I call the second, Pat, and she's up north at their cottage, but should be home by 2pm. I call Ben back, and he said that would be fine. I convince Craig to continue. We make it to Detroit. I get another call from Ben. Where's the stylist that was suppose to meet them? I said I'd call and see. I call her, and they're still nearly 3/4 an hour away. They got a late start. I knew it was because of her husband. But that's another story. I call Ben back, he said they'll wait. I then get a call from Patty in Spring Lake. Her daughter called and said I called, and she wanted to know what was going on. I explained the situation, and she said she had a spare Salon key in her jewelry box. So I got her daughter to run over to the Salon.(they live less than 5 minutes away) So every things good. The waters running, and all is right with the world. And Craig can finally relax.
Was this a long story or what?
His better part of the birthday trip, tomorrow.

cold

Good morning.
It's currently 5 out. Our coldest weather so far. Finished up the work week yesterday with my last customer a no-show. That happens sometimes, especially around holidays. People get busy and forget. I also took down more Christmas stuff in the Salon. It's now back to 'normal'. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and fixing dinner. Craig made spaghetti with homemade meatballs. Very good.
And today is Craig's 59th birthday. I have a special little trip planned for him.
And now I'm off to clean the salon. I hate going out in the cold, but you do what you gotta do.
Birthday details later!

It's Sunday

Good morning.
The work week ended up busier than expected, so I still haven't got a haircut. But I did get out of work early yesterday, and with a one day of temps in the low 60's, I went home and cleaned all the windows. Inside and out. They sure look good! I should do this more than once a year. :-)
I then got out the caulking and re-caulked around some of the windows.
Then for dinner, Craig made his home made pizza. Yummy! Click the link if you want the recipe. Today, I've already cleaned the Salon, and after this post, take my shower. Poor Craig's on the floor in the living room with the heating pad. His back just isn't getting better as quick as it has in the past.
Today, with temps back down in the low 50's, I'm going to do some more winterizing of the house.
Have a good day.

back to work Wednesday

And a good morning.
We had another decent day weather wise. Not as warm as Monday, but mild in the 50's. I put away the deck furniture, and the hose cart. Put insulators over the water faucets, and turned off the water to the outside faucets. Craig did laundry, and mostly took it easy. His back has been giving him problems again. What seems to help is he lays on the floor with a wet towel on his lower back with a heating pad on that, topped with another towel and a couple of heavy books. That creates deep moist heat that helps to loosen his back. He goes through this a couple times a year. I think if he would exercise, that would help his back, but I'm not going there again!
I also cleaned the portable grill for winter storage.

Here's a before and after. It cleans up really good. I do this every season. We got this 4 years ago for the mo-ho. It's about the best portable one we've seen. It has 2 racks for cooking, where most only have one. And the legs fold up and it fits easily in a storage bay of the mo-ho.
In other news, work looks pretty slow this week. I was sure this week would happen sooner or later with us having such busy ones the last month or so. Oh well, maybe I can finally get a haircut and highlight. And we've got another stylist leaving the end of the year. She says she is finally retiring. That will leave us with 3 empty chairs. But it's like this all over. Every Salon on this side of town has empty chairs. And people I've talked to say business is down across the board. I'm sure Michigan's 15% unemployment isn't helping. Even though they say the economy is getting better, from my perspective, it looks to be getting worst. I'm glad Craig is a good money manager. We're still able to take all our mo-ho trips. And it helps a lot that we have no outstanding debt.
Okay, I've rambled on long enough for today.

A halloween party

Good morning from Lansing.
Last night we did something we hadn't done in years, went to a Halloween party. We'd been invited to a good friends, Kristi and Jay's, annual party. We've never gone before, and decided we should. We dug out a big box of costume stuff we've saved over the years. I ended up wearing a Pharaoh costume, and Craig, the butterfly naturalist costume.

The Pharaoh costume was originally Craig's, but it doesn't fit him too well anymore for some reason, tee hee, so I inherited it. It is completely hand made. Craig fashioned the serpent on the head piece from modeling clay, and I macramed the jeweled thing around the neck way back nearly 30 years ago when I did that stuff and when macrame was 'in'.

Anyway we had a great time. They we're happy we came, and they had quite the decorated yard with lights, music, stuff all over the place! Jay goes crazy for Halloween and really does it up big! They also had a fire with a cauldron and steaming ghoul juice, which tasted like a warm spiced cider. It was a blast!

My eyes are still a bit tender this morning after trying to get off 30 year old make-up. I think we need to update some stuff if we plan on doing this sort of thing again.

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.

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.