post Thanksgiving

Good morning, and a happy Black Friday! To those of you who partake in such nonsense. I tried it just once several years ago. Not worth it at all!
Anyway, I didn't get a pic of our turkey dinner, though i could have pulled a pic up from any previous years as our Thanksgiving routine is the same.   :-)
So instead, I show you the mess we make fixing a turkey dinner....

And then, the kitchen when it's cleaned back up.....

As you can see, we have a small kitchen, so I tend to clean as we go so as not to get completely buried under all the preparation dishes. Also, we have an apartment sized dishwasher, which was the only size that would fit there, so I ended up doing 4 separate loads during the day. But that does make the mess much more manageable.   :-)
I did get the salon decorated in the morning,and got home just in time to help Craig get the turkey in the oven.  Watched some of the Macy's parade, and then the Lions football game. They won.  :-)
So a good day. Good food, good game, and a nice quiet day.
Now....I've got to go back to work. Busy Friday and Saturday.

another busy day

Good morning.
I'm going to bore you with a few more pics of our Vegas home.
 Because I can.  And I like to look at them.    :-)

Didn't clean the eaves troughs as I had hoped yesterday,it pretty much rained all day.
So spent much of the day online looking at possible area rugs for the living room.
Today, I'm working 7:30 to 6:30. Long day. Partly due to our time off, and also due to being closed for Thanksgiving Thursday. I'm also very busy Friday and Saturday.
So I'm off to work now. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

wet and cold

Good morning.
It's a wet morning here in mid Michigan, though the temps have gotten back to near normal upper 40's. But that will be short lived as a strong cold front is due to sweep through this afternoon.   :-(
It's looking like it'll be another l-o-n-g winter.  :-(
So yesterday, between the rain drops, we managed to get snow tires on both cars, and I got the ornamental grasses at the end of the driveway cut down. Even though I need to do one final mowing to get up the rest of the leaves, it's to wet, and soon to be to snowy To finish, so they will just have to lay there until spring. Our 12 day trip to Vegas messed that all up along with a very early winter.  
We've just booked a couple of trips to Vegas for mid-winter and early spring. Without the mo-ho, we'll have more time for Vegas.  :-)
I'm hoping to get the eaves-troughs cleaned out today between rain falls and the outside water turned of.
Then we should be pretty much set for winter.

And I'm gonna bore you with some more pics of our Vegas home....

And that's all for now....

crack? what crack?

Good morning.
Here's the view from the front sidewalk of our Las Vegas home.....

 Even without grass, the street looks nice.
And I'm not sure if anyone remembers the cracked tiles in the new house?
Well, there were numerous cracked tiles. It seems a lot of the neighbors we met have some cracked tiles.

Well, Craig and I devised a system to nearly correct the problem without replacing them.

First, we filled the crack with spackling. You know, the stuff you patch holes in the wall with.

Then we used a cream colored nail polish over that. Whipped off the excess polish, lightly rubbed the tile with polish remover to remove polish residue, and the crack virtually disappears!
I didn't think it would work so well on mottled tile, but it does! Now, unless your really looking, you wouldn't even know there were any cracks. And nail polish wears very well through regular cleaning. And, we can always 'touch up' any areas that start to show again. So we are very happy we don't need to replace the tiles. We really like them. They're huge 20 inch tiles, and finding a match is appearing next to impossible.
It's been a very busy week in the Salon as expected, since we were gone for nearly 12 days.

our Vegas home

Good afternoon.
 This is what we returned to when we came back to Lansing yesterday.....

 Cold and snowy.   :-(
Just reinforces our decision to move to Vegas.

About our trip.....
We left Lansing way back on Nov. 7th. Drove Craig's 1998 Honda Accord. It took the better part of 3 days to get there. His car preformed perfectly! We arrived Monday afternoon and went promptly to the house to check it out. Remember, we had never been inside this one. But as soon as we entered, we loved it!
The floor person was in the middle of cleaning all the floors and carpet, so we went out and spent the afternoon ordering a mattress and refrigerator. Spent the night down on the strip at New York New York Casino Hotel where we had a free night courtesy of the facebook game, My Vegas Slots.
Tuesday, we we went out and got paint and cleaning supplies and spent most of the day at the house. It was filthy! Surprising since the house is only 8 years old. Spent that night at the Aliante Casino Hotel just outside the community the home was in.
Wed. another day cleaning and painting. We also had the mattress delivered along with the fridge and living room, bedroom, and dining furniture. We were then able to spend the next several nights in our new home.  :-)
All and all, we managed to paint the kitchen, living room and master bedroom and hall.
And here's a few pics of our new home in Las Vegas....

painting the kitchen

painting the front hall. have you noticed I'm the one doing all the painting?
Actually, Craig did help a lot. He just doesn't like his pic taken.

 master bath

 washer dryer closet.

Now, we just have the minimal furnishings, as this will just be for vacations until we retire and move out there.  But it already feels very cozy and inviting.
Monday the 17th, we spent the morning washing towels and bedding and getting the place ready sit for several months until we can go back. Then our realtor picked us up and took us to the New York New York Casino Hotel to spend the night. I discovered it's very difficult to get a cab way out in Aliante, and since we had a 6am flight on Tuesday, and another free night, we decided it was best to go to the strip, spend the night, and get a quick, short, taxi ride to the airport.
So, to recap...... we drove out, leaving a car for when we vacation, cleaned the home, got 2/3 of the home painted, and returned to Lansing safe and sound, and cold.....

We're back!

Yep!
We've  just returned from Vegas! Details  coming soon.                              

busy, busy, busy

Good morning.
It's been a very busy week in the Salon, and today is more of the same.  :-)
I called our mall maintenance guy because we have been having an issue with our front door. When the sun shines on it, it for some reason seems to swell and then the door sticks and you really need to give it a good push to open it. He checked it out and the bottom of the door is actually coming apart. Not good. So he's ordered another door. Should be in next week.
The leaves are pretty much all down, and fall temps have settled in. Not looking forward to another long Michigan winter. But wait......That's right......We now have a home in Las Vegas! And even though we can't spend the entire winter there, we can take a break from Michigan and spend some time there. Knowing that, I think I can make it through another winter.  :-)
And with that, I'm off to work!

is today election day?

Of course, how could you not know it's election day with all the fliers, post cards, and endless political ads on TV.
But what's really nice? Absentee ballots! Yep! When you turn 60, you can request them mailed to your home. No standing in lines for me! I actually voted last week!  :-)
In other news.....
Not much really, work was busy last week, and this week looks the same. I mowed up more leaves. Looking like they're just about all down. Maybe one more mowing next weekend.  That would be a little early since I usually do my last mowing around Thanksgiving.
Repairs are ongoing at the new house. The bedroom window was installed last Friday.  Most of the plumbing issues should be done this week. Can't wait until we can actually go out there and see the place.  :-)
And that's all I got for now, so GET OUT AND VOTE!  :-)