A saturday post

Good morning.
I got out of work early yesterday, so I went shopping for the weekends meals. We were having a new dish Friday, Beef Broccoli. Today will be home made pizza, and Sunday, Ham steaks, mashed potatoes and butternut squash.
When I got home, I tackled the bathroom. I hate cleaning, and always let it go until it's nasty. So I dove in and spent a good 2 hours on it. And it's not even very big. A very small bathroom that was typical of the 50's when this house was built. We've remodeled it twice in the 26 years we've been here.


We now have all the fixtures in bone which I really like. Not as sterile as white, but looks clean and neutral. And not only do I need to scrub the tub and shower, But it also needs to be 'waxed'. When we last remodeled the bath, we replaced the tub with a whirlpool tub. They make them to fit where a standard size tub fits. The sides are just a few inches higher. But it's fiberglass, and looks best if it's 'waxed'. I use a product called Gel-Gloss.
Oh, and in the first pic, the louvered door is only like that from the front. Once closed, the back looks like a 2 panel door. One need a little privacy in the potty. :-)
And here's a pic of our new dinner dish.
It was yummy! I'll post the recipe when I have a little more time, as for now, I need to get ready for work. My first customer is at 8am.

and it was good.

Good morning.
Thanks for all the birthday wishes here, on Facebook and e-mails. :-)
It was really a nice relaxing day. Let Craig sleep in while I washed the mo-ho and cars. Then we went out for the weeks grocery shopping. For lunch, I had a gift card to Red Robin. Never been there before. One of our stylist from the Salon who retired a year ago joined us. It was nice catching up. I had the Avocado, bacon burger, and Craig had the patty melt. Both were very tasty, but they were rather small for the $10 price. I guess they think the bottomless fries make up for it, but I'm not crazy about steak fries. To much soft potato and not enough crunch. Would not go back without another gift card. :-)
Back home we relaxed, read the paper, and I puttered in the yard.
For dinner, we cooked Craig's tasty wings! I must have ate over 2lbs by myself! Yummy!
Today will be filled with waiting. While Craig goes for an eye exam, I have Michigan Plumbing coming between 10 and 12 for an estimate on a new water heater, and Moore Plumbing coming at 1:30 for another estimate. Will be a good reason to clean . :-) I'll let you know where the estimates run....

the bug bit again

Good morning.
Another beautiful day yesterday, and I started off washing the mo-ho so it would have time to dry so I could wax it later. Then I showered, woke Craig up, made us coffee, and off we went. First the usual, bank, post office, then it was over to Walmart. We needed a new trash container for the salon ans saw the perfect one here. Stainless steel, with a step opening lid. It replaces an old white plastic thing we should have gotten rid of years ago.
Then we hit the salvage yard. Now that was quite the experience! Walking through a field of old and newer smashed cars in varying degrees of being slowly disassembled by whoever needed whatever parts from them. And here we were, looking to rip some cars face off. :-)
But, none was found that we thought we would be able to modify to fit. Sooo, we've decided on another grid type sheet we saw the other day. I'll try to remember to take pics of the process.
Back home, Craig mowed the yard and did laundry, while I did more waxing on the mo-ho.
Later, as Craig started dinner, I got the cleaning bug. First, it was the patio doors.
Craig thought it was cute to take a picture of me washing the windows. It was in reference to when I wash a Salon customers hair, I ask them to take their glasses off because I don't do windows. Now he says he has proof I do. Ha ha, very funny.
Anyway, I didn't stop there. I hit the bathroom next, followed by the vacuum.
Craig made a tasty dinner of glazed pork chops, fried rice, and broccoli.
Today, we'll get that grid sheet for the mo-ho. And now that it's getting daylight, I'm going out to finish waxing the mo-ho.

morning chatter

Good morning.
It's been a busy weekend so far.
My sister in Havelock NC made it through Irene. Lost power for several hours, but no damage.
Sunday of course, I cleaned the salon.
Back home, I woke up Craig, made us coffee, and read the paper. Then we hit the area big box home improvement stores, looking for something that might work for the grill. We did find some decorative punched metal sheets that may work. We've decided to hit the local auto salvage yards this morning. We've seen some plastic truck grills that we think would look better. I'll let you know.
Also I washed and waxed Craig's Honda Accord. Everything's waxed now except one more section of the mo-ho. Will try to get that done today.
We also vacuumed and cleaned the inside of all 3 cars.
After the busy day, we relaxed on the deck while I cooked a turkey breast on the grill with baked potatoes and corn on the cob.
And while I let Craig sleep a little longer this morning, I'm off to clean all the car windows......

A new chicken dish

Good morning.
Sunday was a complete wash-out. It was a constant drizzly rainy day. I got nothing done. I sat the entire day on my puter. Reading blogs, playing games, surfing the net.
Craig cooked a pork roast with onions, carrots, and potatoes, so the house smelled good. :-)
Monday was much better. Sunny and mild. I accomplished a lot! Washed the mo-ho, Kia and Pt, polished the mo-ho wheels, cleaned the mo-ho windows and polished the bike tire rims and added air to the tires.
Didn't do a thing in the yard. I'm over it. Now that the wedding pics are done, it can coast until fall when it'll be cutting back time.
Here's a late summer pic of the main garden....
The Zinnia's add a nice touch of color, since most late summer flowers are yellow.
For dinner, we tried something new........

Wanchai spicy garlic chicken. We've cooked chicken just about every which way you can, so we're always looking for something new. This was an easy and very tasty meal! It came with everything but the chicken. We cut up 2 boneless chicken breasts, and added some steamed broccoli. I highly recommend it!
And now, it's just about daylight, so I'm off to do some mo-ho waxing.....

yard, water heater, and the IRS

Good morning.

The week ended very busy. :-)
And the heat wave is back. 90 yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Sunday, I of course, cleaned the Salon, and spent the rest of the entire day working in the yard. This time of year, there's a lot of dead-heading to do. We also burned a pile of branches. Trying to keep up the looks of the yard for the up-coming wedding pics to be taken on the 13th.
For dinner we had tasty pork cutlets with a peach glaze, baked potato and grilled zucchini. Did you know, you can use almost any type of jam or preserve to baste meat with? Try it sometime, they're really good!
Anyway, this morning we've got someone coming out to assess our water heater situation. I'm thinking we'll have to bite the bullet and go with a power vent water heater. That well set us back nearly a grand. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.
In other news....
Friday when I got home, got the mail, I see a letter from the IRS. That's never a good thing unless it's a refund check. But this wasn't. It was a bill stating I owed $887.22 from last year. With all ready added penalties and interest, $992. 57. Okay, this couldn't be right. I got a refund this year! When Craig got home, I had him look it over. He got upset. It doesn't take much to set him off, and a letter from the IRS would easily do it. He dug up last years return and remembered we received a letter in April stating we miscalculated our self-employment tax. They corrected it, and would correct the amount of refund we'd receive. How much was the miscalculation? $887.22. That's right, now they say I owe it back! But Craig went back through the return, and he did miscalculate the tax, and we were due that extra money! So I said I'd call and get it all straightened out, He immediately went for a cocktail, knowing this wouldn't be that easy. I called the 800 number, went through the many menus until I found the one that would let me speak to a live person. The recording said I'd be waiting more than 15 minutes. I waited.................10..................15...................20........................25.........then a real live person picked up, and asked, "how may I help you today". I explained the April letter, and the one I'd just received. She said that didn't sound right to her either. She took down the specifics, name, SS number, address and such to make sure she knew to whom she was speaking, asked me to hold a couple of minutes while she went through my return. She came back on to say I didn't owe a thing. Someone must have reviewed my return and mistook that April notice as a tax, not a refund. Anyway, she corrected it, said I'd receive another letter stating so, as was there anything else she could do for me today. I thanked her for her time, said all was good, and hung up. I was amazed and shocked how easy and quickly it was resolved.
Sometimes things do work out the way they should. :-)

weekend trip #6

Good morning.
This past weekends trip took us to a campground between the cities of Battle Creek, and Kalamazoo.
We arrived Friday afternoon, driving through a horrendous rain storm. But the storm had past by the time we got to the campground, so the set-up was easy. We took a walk around the campground to find it about 2/3 full. The park sits next to the Kalamazoo river, which is popular for boating. The river is still closed from the oil spill a year earlier. They estimate only about 10% of the oil has been recovered. The rest is sitting at the bottom of the river in various stretches. That may be why the campground wasn't full.
Anyway, we fixed turkey sausages for dinner and watched a couple of DVDs. No campfires this trip. 90 is too hot for a fire, although many campers had one.
I awoke Saturday morning to another rain storm. Thunder and lightening all over the place. Decided to put down the antenna. Just in case. By the time I woke up Craig, it was over. Had our coffee walk, and headed out to the MSU Bird Sanctuary on a nearby lake between us and Kalamazoo.

It was a really beautiful setting, with a large assortment of birds eager to get some of the corn they sell you when you come in.
The birds of prey they have are in small pens scattered through the park.
After that, it was off to the Taste Of Kalamazoo. We were quite impressed with the number of restaurants and the entertainment they had. We've been to the grand daddy of tastes, the Taste of Chicago, and this was every bit as good if not better. The food seemed expensive at first. Tickets were $.50 each and most things were 8 tickets. But we soon discovered that these were full size portions! I had some tasty ribs and a fried oyster sandwich, Craig gobbled down a beef tip wrap, and a beef burrito. Washed it all down with some beer, and to the sounds of live entertainment. A very nice afternoon. As the sky again darkened, we headed back to the campground, arriving just before another round of rain.
We finished the evening with cocktails, snacks and DVDS.
Sunday morning, I went for a bike ride, since it was a nice cool 73 out. :-) Came back, took a shower, woke Craig up, and had our coffee walk. Back at the campsite, fixed us breakfast of eggs, toast, and vegi sausage links. We really like these vegi products. Good texture and taste considering they're not meat. We use Morning Star brand.
Anyway, after breakfast we decide to get a little gambling fix. Fire Keepers casino is just a few miles down the highway. There, we spent a couple of hours, Craig losing as usual and me winning. Came out about even all together. We stopped at a Meijer store for ingredients for a pasta salad Craig was going to make for dinner. Back at the campground we decided to go to the beach. They have a nice lake inside the park.

Even with a rainy weekend, you can see how dry it's been here in Michigan.

We brought our camp chairs, relaxed on the beach reading the Sunday paper, and people watching. Back at the camp site, I helped Craig prepare the pasta salad, and as it 'rested', we went for a walk. They were talking of possible severe storms for during the night, so we broke down camp, taking down the lights, and rolling up the awning. I grilled chicken thighs and legs to go with the pasta salad. We finished the evening with more DVDs.
Monday morning, I went for another bike ride, and then strapped them back on the bike rack. Cleaned the grill and stored it away. Took my shower, woke Craig up, made him coffee, finished preparing the mo-ho for the trip home, and we arrived around noon. Another good trip!

I don't smell anything

Good morning.
Yesterday was another beautiful day. Sunny and 80. :-) But it could have been a deadly one.
We have a carbon monoxide detector, and all of a sudden it was showing various numbers. It's always been at 0.
During the day on Sunday, (that's the day Craig does all the laundry and it was also warm, so we had the air on) it would spike up to 150. The recommended exposure is below 35. It appeared to be happening when the air conditioner was running and the water heater was operating. At those times, the exhaust was being pulled into the room instead of up the exhaust pipe. Our house is on a slab, so the furnace and water heater are in a closet off the dining room. Our furnace has a 2 stage blower and it uses the high stage for cooling. It creates a lot of flow. So I called for a service call and opened windows to vent the house. It would fall back to 0 in about 5 minutes. I also turned down the water heater to vacation, so it wouldn't run during the night.
Long story short.....it ended up being a small baffle thingy in the top of the water heater. It wasn't set in it's slot properly. The tech explained the baffle, when in place properly, causes the rising heat to twist, sort of like a mini tornado. That helps to propel the exhaust up the pipe so it doesn't vent into the room. Once he re-set that, no more problems.
It's a good thing we had the co2 detector because the exhaust is odorless, and was already giving Craig a dull headache. Make sure you all have one and make sure it's operating right. Our mo-ho has one too, and we replace the batteries at the beginning of each season. Our home one plugs in.
Soooo, after that, I went out and washed the Kia and PT Crusier, and vacuumed them both out and waxed the PT.
For dinner, another new dish, Tequila-glazed grilled Chicken Thighs. They were sooo good! I promise to get this recipe and the pork recipe on Cooking with Craig, as soon as I get some extra time.

major projects done!

Good morning from a very warm Lansing.
It hit 90 yesterday. It was soooo hot! :-)
Here's a pic before and after of the driveway....

Looks better edged and sealed. I wouldn't say it looks as good as new, but a lot better. :-)

After I got Craig up yesterday, we went out and got patio paint for the front entry, another paint roller, and some grocery shopping.

Dropped that stuff off at home and went out to Claddagh Irish Pub for lunch. I had a chicken flat bread and Craig had the spinach flat bread. We split and shared so we had a taste of both. :-)

Back home, I got the rest of the deck stained.

Above, scraped and ready to stain, and below, done.

I also spot weeded the lawn again. It takes a few applications to get all the clover and creeping charlie out.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the heat.

For dinner, I grilled chicken thighs and zucchini, and sided them with long grain wild rice. This morning, I finished organizing and pricing all the stuff for my yard sale next Sunday. Took a bunch of pics to post on Craig's list later this week.

I think today will be a laid back day for a change. I've got the majority of the spring stuff done now, so we can enjoy the summer. :-)

Right now, it's a little to early to wake up Craig, so I think I'll spray up and work in the yard.....

trip #2

Good afternoon.
We've just returned from our 2nd trip of the season.
The weather again wasn't the best. Cooler than normal temps only in the mid 50's and mostly cloudy. But at least we weren't in a tent. :-) And there were a few tenters in the campground.
This trip took us 200 miles north to Young State Park on beautiful Lake Charlevoix.

That weekend was Boyne City's Morel Tastefest.
Does everyone know what a morel is? It's a special mushroom that for some reason can't be grown commercially and can only be found this time of year. I understand they can be found across
most of the country, but grow mainly in certain soil types.
Anyway..... we left Lansing around noon on Friday and headed north. Part way up I let Craig drive. I usually drive all our trips. He doesn't like driving the big guy, but he knows he needs to once in a while, especially on longer trips when I need a break. Of course, while he was driving, the jacks down warning siren went off nearly causing him to lose control. But he got the mo-ho safely stopped on the shoulder of the highway. I turned on the hydraulic jack pad and saw the light showing the front passenger jack wasn't up. I pushed the store button, and the light went out instantly. I don't know what caused the alarm to go off, the jack wasn't down, but obviously wasn't making contact with a sensor that says it's up. So, Craig was happy to get me back driving. :-)We arrived at the campground with no other issues. :-)
We reserved a nice pull-through site with a view of the Lake.
Got all set up, and ordered pizza from a place we found on the net, Spicy Bob's. An easy drive from the campground there and back. We got 2 med pizza's, a traditional beef and mushroom, and a specialty, philly cheese steak. The philly cheese steak was very good, the traditional, so-so. We finished the evening watching Toy Story 3.
Saturday....

I awoke to cloudy and cool, 53 out. Played on the puter for while. Then, went out and scrubed the bug guts off the front of the mo-ho. It looked as if we drove through a swarm . It was nasty!Went back inside and wrote part of this post on notepad to be published when we returned. I took my shower, and discovered a small stain by the skylight. That means we have a leak on the roof around the skylight seal. The stain wasn't wet, so it was an older stain. Probably from the heavy rains we got during April. When we get home, I'll have to get on the roof and reseal the skylight.By time I woke up lazy bones, it had started to rain. And it rained a-l-l day. Little did I know, 53 ended up being the high for the day. :-\

But, we had plans, and a little cold rain wasn't going to stop them. We bundled up, I made our coffee, grabbed the umbrellas, and off we went to the Morel Mushroom Festival. It was just a short 15 min drive from the campground to downtown Boyne City. They had an arts and craft show, a farmer's market, and a carnival, besides the big tent for the Morel Mushroom Taste Fest. We wandered the grounds and Craig bought some cherry apple salsa.

Craig wanted one of these ugly large carved mushrooms and I said don't even think about it. he said it would look good in my shade garden. I said don't even think about it.

Then we went into the big tent for the tasting.
They had numerous area restaurants serving Morel infused dishes. We ended up trying, the Chicken bacon Morel spin rolls, the Home on the Range Buffalo Morel Perogie, the Steak and Morel Pasties, and the Morel and Steak Pizza. We wanted to try Cooper's Morel Mushroom Soup, but by the time we got through the others, the tent was so crowded, and the line for the soup was ridiculous.

We left the festival, and wandered through their downtown, looking through the different stores. Managed to not buy a thing. :-)

Since it was still raining, and we couldn't go biking or hiking, we took a drive around Lake Charlevoix.It was a nice drive. Back at the mo-ho, we played Parcheesi on the puter, where I beat Craig twice. :-) Then I played a couple of other games, while Craig fixed us kielbasas for dinner. With our TV only getting 3 stations, and nothing we liked, we watched a couple of DVDs. It was still raining when we went to bed, but we slept good.
Sunday.....
I awoke to 46, but no rain, partly cloudy. Played on the puter awhile and watched the morning news. Woke Craig up around 9. Made us coffee and off we went. Stopped at Micky D's for a sausage,egg muffin and headed about 20 miles north to Petoskey, MI where there is the Odawa Casino. And as you know, that's almost never a good thing. :-)
And today wasn't any different. But I left only about $10 down, although Craig was down a bit more than that. But it's a nice casino, and wasn't busy at all. On the way back, we stopped and picked up the Sunday paper. Back at the campground, we read the paper, and then got the car loaded on the car caddy for an early Monday departure. It had finnally gotten nice out. It was near 60, sunny, and the wind was being blocked by all the trees.

So we took a walk through the campgrounds. there's 3 here at Young State park.
The original Pines and Oak, and the newer one Terrace. Way back in the 80's when we camped in a tent, the terrace campground was new and just a big field with campsites. It's also huge with 8 loops compared to the Pines and Oak campgrounds with just 2. Well, the planted trees through that one too and now it looks much better, but still not near as wooded as the others.

After our walk, it was getting sooo nice, we got the chairs out and relaxed and enjoyed some nice weather and the beautiful lake.It ended up getting all the way to 65, after a forecast high of only 54. You can never trust the weather people. They're almost always wrong.
For dinner I cooked pork steaks on the grill and had them with a pasta salad we picked up with the paper.Watched some TV and called it a night.
Monday morning, 38 out with a beautiful blue sky.
Finished typing this post, and started to get the mo-ho ready for the drive back to Lansing.
And now I'm typing this from home, as we returned safely. Got there and back safe, and every thing functions normally.
It was another good trip.

it was a good day

Good morning.
We are in for a short stretch of summer like weather, with temps in the mid 70's all week, before falling back to the normal 60's this weekend.
I've just been lovin this weather! It took so long to get here, but It's here and the yard is quickly coming alive!
Yesterday morning, while Craig slept, I did some maintenance on the mo-ho. We have a small leak around the windshield. Apparently with all the road vibrations, the seal around the windshield has cracked in a few spots. Even though I now caulk the windshield every year, it eventually starts leaking again. And right now Craig doesn't want to spend money on a replacement, since the leak only causes water to drip on the dash. Well, we have managed to get some water stains on the accordion shade that pulls around the window. So I went out yesterday, and spot cleaned it with peroxide. It takes out the stain real good!
I then did some more weeding before I woke up Craig.
We did our running around, and back at home, I worked in the yard and he did more paper work.
I'm getting a real good handle on the weeds. :-)
For dinner, we tried a new chicken recipe, Orange Chicken with Sweet Potatoes. It was sooo tender, moist and tasty!

Of course, if your interested, the recipe is here.
So it was a very productive weekend, and now, another work week lies ahead.

free is good!

Good morning.
We've had a couple of good days temp wise. Sunday, sunny near 60, and Monday, rain and 63.
With Sunday being such a nice day, I cleaned/weeded another flower bed. I also helped Craig install the new locking mailbox and repaired some landscape lighting. Craig has numerous 18 watt landscape lights all around the back yard. With the 2 porch lights on day/night sensors and 2 sodium lights, our yard is lit up like a freakin ballpark! But Craig likes to look out at night and be able to see if anything is going on. The lights make him feel more secure. It's just another one of his OCD issues. :-)
Anyway, a section of lights were out and replacing bulbs didn't help. So he bought a new light and it didn't work either. So it had to be the wiring, so I traced the problem back to a connector. Replaced that, and now they all work. :-)
And of course, being Easter, Craig made a delicious Ham for dinner. Had plenty for leftovers, and froze the bone for making broth later.
Monday morning, while Craig slept in, I went online to place our free lunch order. Then I went to the doctor for my annual physical.
Looks like I'm going to live another year. ;-)
But I swear, every year, there's at least one thing that's off. This year, it was my LDL or bad cholesterol. They want it under 130. Mine was 133. Last year it was 124. the year before that, 114. Before that, 134.
Last year, it was Glucose. It's suppose to be under 99, mine was 101. This year, 97.
3 and 4 years ago, it was Neutrophils, or white blood cells. They want them between 48 and 81. I was a bit low at 47.9 one year, and 48.8 the other. This year, 55.1.
I'm beginning to think some things just tend to fluctuate. :-\
After my physical, I came home to find Craig had gotten up all by himself, showered and was ready to go. :-)
We did our usual banking and shopping, getting the stuff home in time to go pick up the Salons free lunch from Chipotle Grill. They had everything ready when I got there, and it was indeed all free. It would have cost $61.47 had we had to pay for it. Got to the Salon, and only half the staff was there. Called and got various excuses. One completely forgot, 2 others were on their way, running late. You'd think people could remember a free meal wouldn't you? Anyway, we ate our free lunch, and decided it was pretty good, but kinda expensive for fast food. Had we payed for it, we probably wouldn't go there again. So if they hoped to get new customers, it didn't work for our group. :-)
Back home, since it was raining, I decided to tackle the riding lawn mower. It was in the garage, so I'd be dry. After some work, I managed to remove the mower deck, and with Craig's help, got the blades sharpened. It was actually easier to get the mower deck back on. :-)
Then, since the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out, I suggested to Craig we should change Cruiser's tires. So we took off the snow tires, and put on the summer tires.
So, it's been a productive weekend, and now it's time for my shower. Not sure what's on the schedule for today, it's raining again, and looks like it will all day. I might have to take a day off and just play. :-)

spring, finally, I hope.....

Good morning, and Happy Easter!
Spring seems to have finally arrived!
For now anyway. :-)
It got up to 63 yesterday,
and today should be similar.
I had a fairly short day at the salon yesterday.
I started at 7:30 and was done by 1:30.
I came home, changed my clothes,
and went outside.
I picked up sticks, surveyed springs progress,
and cleaned/weeded a couple of flower beds.
I've got sooo much to do and I'm sooo behind.
It's a good thing I decided not to
have a plant sale this year.
Craig informed me at this time last year
I had 264 plants divided and potted up already.
This year, being such a cold spring,
most of my perennials,
are barely up enough to see,
much less divide.
After Craig got home, we relaxed on the deck
with cocktails and soaked in the spring weather.
I've already cleaned the Salon this morning,
and took these pics so I
could add them to this post.
Today, I plan on changing the tires on PT Cruiser
from winter tires to summer,
and I hope to get
the deck off the riding lawn mower
so I can sharpen or replace the
blades depending on their condition.
And of course, Craig will make a ham for dinner.
Semi-boneless is the only way he claims.
More flavor.
And deviled eggs, augratin potatoes,
and cauliflower.
So it looks to be a good weekend. :-)

busy week and free food

Good morning.
It's currently raining, again, and 41 out. A high of only 53 is forecast. Not only has it been a very cold spring, it's been a very wet one. We are under a flood advisory. Not to worry about our house or Salon, we're on high ground. :-)
It also appears we'll be getting a little break. They are forecasting 60's to near 70 for the mid week before plunging back below normal next weekend. So, if the rain ever lets up, I'll be out working in the yard this weekend, as I'm way behind my spring yard work.
The salon has been very busy this week, and looks to end that way also.
Monday I have my yearly physical, and then for lunch, our Salon staff is getting a free lunch from Chipolte Grill. Last week I received a call from the manager, and they are doing a month long promotion to get more exposure for them. This month they are targeting Salons and Monday is our day. I went on-line and printed out a bunch of order forms and been having the staff fill them out. I'll go on-line Monday morning and place our orders, and pick up the food at 11:30 and deliver it to the Salon. Only one person on our staff has ever eaten there, and she said the food was 'okay'. But hey, free food is free food, right?
And that's all I got for today.
Have a great weekend!

A fine day

Good morning.

Yesterday got all the way up to 83! It was wonderful! It felt soo good to be outside without a coat! Today, it's raining with slowly falling temps back to seasonal highs of near 60, but we took full advantage of the day we had.

And to answer a couple of questions from my last post about my 'dump battery'. We use a macerator pump to empty the grey and black holding tanks instead of those nasty accordion hoses. It is permanently attached to the dump outlet. It needs power to run. We didn't want to pay someone to hard wire it, so we use a 12 volt battery. After sitting all winter, I fully charge it up to use for the season. Hope this explains it for you. :-)

Now back to our day.....

After cleaning the Salon, I came home and drained the antifreeze from the mo-ho's water lines. Then I mixed a bleach solution, sucked it into the fresh water tank, and filled it with water. Ran all the water lines to fill them with the solution, and let it sit for 24 hours to sanitize the water system. I also put in a new whole house water filter for the new season.

I then went out back and removed all the 2x2 wood slats that ran across the top of the arbor by the pond. They weren't wolmanized wood, just regular wood, stained, and after many years, they are starting to rot and disintegrate. And this pic is just for visual. It's an archive pic. We don't have those flowers blooming yet. :-)

I then washed the front and back and one side of the mo-ho.

By then, it was time for a shower, and wake up lazy bones.

I fixed us coffee and we read the paper.

Then, while Craig did his usual paperwork and laundry, I washed the other side of the mo-ho, and trimmed up a few more bushes.

Then it was time for a late lunch. Leftover pizza. I think it's as good as fresh. :-)

Then Craig went to burn the 2x2's and a large pile of branches, while I cleaned and sealed the rubber roof of the mo-ho and polished 2 of the tire rims.

Finally, I turned over the 5 birdbaths we have and filled them with water.

It was now time to call it a day, and we relaxed on the deck with cocktails and soaked up the first warm day of the season.

For dinner, Craig made his tasty Turkey Rice Casserole, with a side of asparagus.

It was a perfect day.......

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. :-)

It's finally gone

Good morning.

We appear to be headed back toward normal temps by the end of the week, and the long term forecast looks like spring will arrive here in Mid Michigan soon. :-)

I forgot to mention in my last post, that we finally got rid of our old satellite dish.

As you can see in this older pic, it sat in the back yard in the back of a large flower bed that runs next to the pond. We had it installed way back in 1989. Back then, there was no cable available, and the small dishes weren't around yet. That sucker was 10ft across. But we loved it! What was especially nice, was the ability to subscribe to just the individual channels we wanted. If we wanted just espn, we could order just that. And we'd get the subscription for just 6 months for football and basketball, so we didn't have to pay for the entire year.

But with the proliferation of cable and the small dish, the big dish market quickly shrank. Soon, providers started pulling programing off the big dish and we lost most of the channels we liked. About 5 years ago, we discontinued service, and the dish has sat there, unused, since then.

Anyway, I've got a customer whose husband collects scrap metal, usually from construction sites, and takes it to a place that recycles metal for extra cash. I told him he could have the dish, if he wanted to take it apart. It was gone by the time I got home from work Saturday.

Sunday, we managed to get the mo-ho out of it's winter parking place and out into the driveway. I'm happy to report that the furnace is working properly, and the hydraulic jacks are functioning good, and the slides and automatic steps are working. As soon as it gets a bit warmer, I'll un-winterize it and make sure the water pump and water heater are working. Our first weekend trip is coming up in a few weeks. :-)

On Monday, with the weather still bitter cold, we decided to use a couple of gift cards we received for Christmas. We used one for lunch at a place called Dusty's Tap Room. I had a ham and green olive pizza, (very tasty!) and Craig had a Chicago hot dog. The we used another gift card for the NCG Cinema and saw Battle: Los Angeles

The storyline was just okay, but the special effects and Aaron Eckhart made it very enjoyable. :-)

And after lunch and movie food, we didn't feel like a big dinner, so with the evenings programing, it was snack time, and we had wings! The first ones in months! They were very good! :-)

Oh, and Sunday, blogger wouldn't let me do paragraphs, and today, I get huge gaps between them. :-\

road trip

Good morning.
The picture says it all. We're under a winter storm warning for the next couple of days. Rain, freezing rain, and snow. We should be in the upper 40's, and we'll only be in the mid 30's. Yuk!
So you southern bloogers, keep sending me your spring pics to help me through. :-)
Spring will eventually come to Michigan....it will.
Yesterday wasn't as nice as forecast. No sun, and windy, but we had planned to go to Muskegon to see my Mom, so the weather didn't really matter.
Had a nice visit. Cut her hair, took her to lunch at Applebee's where she had boneless chicken wings, Craig had a quesadilla, and I had a ribblet platter. Good food! Then to the 'club' for drinks and pull-tabs. No luck with pull-tabs this time. But it was good to see her, and we got there and back safely.
So today will be our usual Monday stuff. Banking, shopping, and back home before the weather turns bad this afternoon.

I'm a slacker

Good morning.
Sorry no Sunday post yesterday. I didn't do nothing yesterday! Except of course, clean the Salon. But the rest of the day, I was a slacker. I planned on going out side to work in the yard, but it was cold, (low 40's) and windy. So I pretty much sat in front of the puter all day. Played games, downloaded more games, and read blogs. How many do I read? About a dozen. And for the people that don't do blogs, I follow on facebook. And 'gasp' for those that don't blog or do facebook, I e-mail. Which seems awfully slow. :-) I wonder, does anyone still do snail mail?
And it looks like we're in for some winter like weather this week. :-( Forecast highs of only mid 30's. Yuk! It's hard to believe it's full blown spring in a lot of places like Alabama, Charlotte, NC, and even Portland, OR. It's just not fair! Okay, I done with the pity party, let's move on....
For dinner, Craig made a tasty corned beef in a slow cooker. It was really good! Not to mention cooking 8 hours in a slow cooker makes the house smell good. :-)
So today is our last 'warm' day for a while, ( a high of 50 is forecast) so I plan top get out and enjoy it!

spring is in the air

Good morning.
First off, the pic of our barbecued pineapple chicken from Tuesday.

It was as good as it looks! And sooo simple. Broil the chicken for 20-25 minutes and baste with barbecue sauce the last 15, turning frequently. Then top with pineapple slice and broil another 5 minutes. Drizzle Catalina dressing over the top. We cooked 4 breasts so we'll have leftovers tonight. :-)
So Wednesday at the salon was fairly busy. And almost all the snow is gone. :-) Just some piles left as the temps are getting around 50. I've noticed a lot of singing/chirping birds, and I've even seen the tips of daffodils coming up behind the house.
I have a busy early day today, starting at 7:45, and I've marked off time in the middle to go get my blood drawn for my upcoming physical. Which means no breakfast or morning snacks. :-(
I think I'll survive. :-)
And I'm pretty much booked Friday and Saturday, so it's looking to be another good week.
So time for my shower and to get going!