our latest Vegas trip

Good morning.
As I said yesterday, we've just returned from our latest trip to Vegas. The flights were good and we got there safe and returned back safe, so a good trip.   ;-)
This trip, we flew United through Chicago instead of our usual Delta flights through Detroit.  I have to say, Detroit, Minneapolis and McCarren in Vegas are all nicer than Chicago.
Anyway, we arrived in Vegas around 10am, and took a short cab ride to the bus stop. About an hour or so later, we arrived at the front pf our community. From there, an 18 minute walk to the house. Here's a pic we took on the way to the house......

That snow capped mountain in the distance is Mt Charleston. The highest peak in the Spring Mountain range which lies west of our community.
 And closer and just north of our community is the Sheep Mountains. as you can see on one of our walks around the golf course that snakes through our community.

And here's a pic of our weather station showing the inside and outside temp and humidity. That's right! The outside humidity was only 11%. I have seen it as high as 35% during showers.
We had a nice stay. The weather was all over the place with temps one day in the 80's and another only 66. We had a couple days of sun and a couple days of clouds and wind. I've been disappointed in the looks of our yard plants, and with conflicting opinions from the neighbors, I went to a large local nursery to see if I could get some definitive answers. Half my plants and trees look fine, but the other half look spindly and not very healthy. The guy at the nursery was very helpful. It appears I'm not watering enough. Only about half of what they should have. Also I bought some granular fertilizer since the soil isn't the best. So I made some adjustments and I'll see if they look any better the next trip out.
We had a couple of get togethers with neighbors. One day over to the Aliante Casino for Margaritas and another a patio party at a neighbor. We've met some very nice neighbors. We also took a couple of drives and explored more of the valley.
Here's a pic of Craig relaxing in our room at the Excalibur hotel before our next day early flight back to Lansing.

So another nice trip.

I'm back

Just returned from our latest trip to Vegas. Will update soon. Right now....I'm exhausted from travel.

it's always something

Good afternoon.

It's a beautiful weekend here in Lansing. Currently 76 out.  :-)
We've just returned from a nice walk.  Our walk took us to Reno's where we had a couple of drinks and split a tasty sandwich. It's so nice to be outside again. And the long walk there and back surely negated the calories we consumed there. Right?
Anyway, our work week ended on a very busy note. Worked much later on Saturday than usual. But not unhappy to have customers. I cleaned the Salon this morning and on the way back home drove over something that punctured a tire. Made it back to the apartment to find a gash in the tire. Didn't see anything I drove over, but the tire was flat. Soooo, I took off the tire and drove over to Firestone to see if they could repair it. Of course, the damage was to close to the sidewall to repair. So, I'll wait until tomorrow and call the dealership to see if it may hopefully be under some new purchase warranty. If not, I'll need to get  a new tire.  :-(
And this episode just reinforces why Craig wants a spare tire. New cars don't come with them anymore, but we will buy one now.
Sooo, Our new car sits in the parking lot while we wait for the dealer to open tomorrow. Firestone did say they could get us a new tire in a day or so if the dealer doesn't help.
Now I'm going to fix a cocktail and go sit on the balcony and take in the beautiful weather..     :-)

back to work

Good evening.
After a cold snowy weekend, and just in time to go back to work, spring is coming back. Should be nice the rest of the work week.  Our weekend was non eventful. We did book another trip to Vegas this summer.
Did a load of towels in the laundry room this afternoon. When I went down to put them in the dryer, the 2 tubs that the washer drains into were nearly full. Called the office and they sent over a maintenance person. His vehicle was there over an hour. Must have been plugged up real good.
And we've been doing some research on how we're going to move our stuff to Nevada when the time comes.
Right now, we're thinking of going with a pod type of container. It's dropped off, you fill it up, they pick it up and ship it to your destination and deliver it to your address.
The actual PODS is way bigger than we need since we will be taking almost no furniture, so we looked at these two....

U-Haul U-Box and ABF U-Pack. U-Box is just a big wooden box with a tarp over it where as the U-Box is metal. It's also nearly $1000 cheaper.
So ABF is the plan right now unless I run into some other option.
Now time to get to bed.

quicky

Good morning.
It's been a very slow week in the Salon, though I'm pretty booked today.
And this is what I came home to see.....

Yep, more snow.   :-(
Of course, it's only April, and this is Michigan.
We never did find the certified letter we sent the landlord over 2 weeks ago, so Tuesday, we sent another letter by FedEx which arrived on Thursday.
Now time to get to work....

weekly post

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the Salon. It was another average week in the salon.
Last Tuesday, we made the move and bought a new car. It is a Jeep Renegade.

These are stock pics from web sites as the weather has been to nasty to try and get real pics. But ours is exactly like these pics.

We ultimately decided to buy now because a special discount was to expire on March 31st. That saved us an additional $1500. Also, the interior that Craig wanted was found on only one car in the entire state.

The interior is called ski grey/bark brown. Most of the jeeps have black interior. Craig especially liked the matching orange trim on the air vents, speakers and center console.

And here's a pic of the 'keys'....

Actually, no 'key' at all. You put this in your pocket. As you approach the car and put your hand inside the door handle, it automatically unlocks. To start the car, you step on the brake and push a button.
The Renegade is the smallest SUV of the Jeep lineup. It's just a little bit bigger than my Kia was.
We test drove one and they searched and found the exact one we wanted over in Lowell and had it brought to Lansing where we picked it up Wed. after work.
Now we have to scour the instruction booklet and figure out all the fancy gadgets it has on it. It has 2 programmable touch screens. One where the radio is and the other where the speedometer is.
In other news........
Our meeting with the lawyer went well. Our buyer will use our lawyer to negotiate a new lease as soon as we receive the receipt from the certified letter we sent. And about that.....
We sent it a week and a half ago. I thought we should have gotten the return by now. Well, Craig said we could go online and track it so Friday after work, I did just that to find that it left Lansing and disappeared.
Called the 800 number on the receipt and the post office opened a case on it. Got a call on Saturday from the Pontiac post office saying they didn't have it and we should call our post office to track it. So Monday, we get to do that. What was that 800 number for?  :-/
We're not suppose to close on the business until July, so good thing we started all this early.
Also, Craig got a text from Humana that a prescription was up for renewal. Went online, clicked a link and it was done.  So easy! And it'll be delivered so no going out to pick it up.
So it was a busy week even though not busy at work.
And that's it for now.