Salon maintenance

Good afternoon.
After 13 1/2 years in our Salon, things tend to start wearing out, and that's happening in now.
We use anti-fatigue mats around our styling chairs. They make standing on your feet all day less tiring. The current mats we have are starting to ripple along the edges instead of laying flat. That can cause a tripping hazard. Some of the mats surface is peeling also. It's time to replace them. I really liked these, the pattern is called Granite and hair and tint stains don't show badly. Unfortunately, they don't make this style any more. :-(

Soooo, I sent for samples of others and here's our choices....

3 shades of marbleized,

2 tiny texture,
and 1 large texture.

We immediately eliminated the large texture, although I really like the industrial look, but they would be hard to clean with all the raised edges, not to mention crud would eventually collect in the crevices.

So then that eliminated the 2 tiny texture for the same collecting crud reason. That leaves us with the 3 marbleized ones.


Now we also could have gone with solid black,
but that would really show the hair and such.

A pattern helps.
So out of the 3 marbleized ones, we eliminated the black. Some thought such a dark mat would make the Salon look smaller.

We then eliminated the gray marble since it looks to close to the floor color and would look like we were

trying to 'blend' it in.

So what was left, was Charcoal.

That actually looks good with

the stations and gives

the floor a nice contrast.

So with the decision made, I went

on-line to find the best deal.

The prices ranged from $67 to $98.

And when your buying 7, that can add up pretty fast.

I found a company in California for $67. But they only had 2 in stock. Next was a company in Minnesota.

They had them for $76.

But they wouldn't give me a shipping price until I entered my charge card info. I'll have to call them on Monday.
The other companies were a bit more expensive, so I'll have to wait until Monday, to see if I need to explore further.
Today was a busy day at work, and tomorrow is more so. It's also been ridiculously cold. A high today only 40. I've seen a few of those white things floating around in the air. Fortunately, there's no forecast for accumulation. We are suppose to get a bit of a warm-up early next week, so I hope to get more stuff cut down.
So, that's the latest. Craig is fixing turkey burgers tonight with oven fries and I just downloaded a movie called Grown Ups that I'm burning to disk to watch tonight.
Have a great weekend!

a Thursday post

Good morning.
It's been unseasonably cold this week and looking to stay that way. It's a good thing I winterized the mo-ho when I did as it's been getting below freezing every night. And tonight is forecast to be down to 24.
I got my teeth cleaned yesterday morning before work. It went fast. I wish I would have know 30 years ago that a couple of more minutes brushing would make the cleanings go quicker. :-)
I had a few breaks at work yesterday, so I took Craig's Honda in for an oil change and picked up some salon supplies. I also added some money to an account I have at a different bank than our usual.
Let me explain. I have a pay pal account I use to buy thing on e-bay and such. I don't want my home and business accounts floating around in cyberspace, so I opened an account at a different bank that I use just for that and only put money in there when needed. That way I don't have to worry about my account info getting stolen.
Anyway, we have a 9ft Christmas tree we put up at work. Last year when I decorated it, I replaced the few burned out bulbs with my last extra ones. Last year we looked and looked for the brand and no one carries them anymore. I was able to find a box on e-bay.
They are only red, but with some adjusting, I should be able to replace any bad bulbs and still have the tree looking good. Now if any of you see these anywhere, I'll gladly buy them from you.
They are quite large, nearly 2 inches across and come in assorted colors.
Well, the rest of the work week looks quite busy including a very busy late Saturday, so time to jump in the shower and get going.

the weekend recap

Good morning.

And now for the weekend recap.

After we returned home, Monday around 1pm, I checked my

e-mails and the weather forecast. It was to get down to 27 that evening, so I decided to go ahead and winterize the mo-ho so as not to use propane to keep heating it. And once I got the lines drained, the water heater drained, the by-pass switched, I filled the lines with antifreeze. I then removed all liquids from the inside and emptied the pantry, and bath cabinets. While I did that, Craig did his usual bookwork.

For dinner it was a quick easy Hamburger Helper.

Tuesday, after I cleaned the Salon, showered and woke Craig up I made our coffee, and we headed out to vote. We have to drive like 10 miles to our polling place since we live on the edge of the township.

The polling place was very busy as usual.

Then a stop for groceries, and home.

Fixed bacon and eggs for a late breakfast, and then I went out to blow and mow up all the leaves that continue to come down. I think maybe one more week and they'll all be down.

And then I removed the rest of the stuff from the mo-ho. Bedding, towels, DVD's, and also removed all the batteries from the remotes, clock, safe, flashlights, and smoke and monoxide detectors. We always put in new in the spring.

While I did all that, Craig continued his bookwork. See, there's a ton of bookkeeping involved in running a business. He discovered quite to his surprise, that he had forgotten to send in the rent check. We've been there 13 1/2 years and have never been late with the rent! So he quickly called the management company and offered to do an electronic transfer. They were very nice and said to go ahead and just mail it in. We're such dependable tenants, they seemed as surprised as Craig that they hadn't received it yet.

And for dinner, it was Chicken on the grill and asparagus.

And now, I have to go. I have a teeth cleaning at 7:45am.

trip #13, the details

Good morning.
Trip # 13 details.
We left early Friday afternoon, arriving at Indiana Dunes State Park around 2:30 their time. They are on central time, so we gained an hour.
We should have known with it being Halloween weekend, the park was having all sorts of goings on, including trick or treating on Saturday. We got settled in at our usual site, 83. We fixed beverages, and took a walk around the campground. It was all ready quite busy, and was completely booked for the weekend. The weather was cool with a high only around 50. There were lot's of people decorating their sites. It seems a bit silly to go to all that work for just barely one day. I mean, by Sunday afternoon, there were only about a dozen of us left in the campground. So most people arrive Friday afternoon, have one whole day Saturday, and pack up and leave on Sunday. But I guess it gives people something to do. Us, we like to sit and watch everyone else. :-)
Then it was time for dinner. With this being our last trip, it was a treat of Popeye's Chicken. There is one just down the road from the park in a truck plaza next to the interstate. After we filled our bellies with tasty spicy chicken, it was time for a walk to check out all the decorations. Some people were going all out. Of course, there was also a site decorating contest with the first place winner receiving a $100 dnr gift card and 4 bundles of wood. 2nd and 3rd gets a $25 dnr gift card and 2 bundles of wood.We didn't do anything which is good because the site next to us was going ridiculous with the decorating, and ours would have looked quite puny. :-)

Later that evening we watched a DVD, 10,000 BC. A really good movie!

Saturday, the start of our casino weekend began, we headed west to East Chicago, about a 20 minute drive from the park to the Majestic Casino. In Indiana, Casinos have to be on the water. This one is one of the older casinos and is actually on 2 ships connected together. So you have several floors of gaming. They had a Sabarro's in the hotel lobby where we had lunch. After an hour or so of not much luck, we headed 10 minutes away to another ship, the Ameristar casino. This is just one ship with 4 floors. Quite a bit smaller. As it was very crowded and we weren't doing well there either, we left after an hour. We decide to stop at the Meijer store in Michigan City just north of the park to pick up dinner extras, and of course, candy for the trick or treaters.

Back at the campground, I started a fire while Craig prepped dinner, which was to be baked potatoes, pork steaks and marinated Zucchini. I then saw early trick or treaters and set up a table near the front of the mo-ho. I set out 3 little plastic pumpkins and a torch to make it look a little bit festive. We sat around the campfire and watched all the trick or treaters in all their cute costumes thinking that after today, they'll all go home on Sunday, and get to do it all again. They'll be on a sugar high for a month!

At one point, we were both inside working on dinner, when I heard a little girl say, "there's no one here!" I look out the window as she and her friends grabbed handfuls of candy. That's what happens when you have an honor system, there's going to be some that will abuse it. So I went back out to sit at the fire and left Craig alone to finish with dinner. Most kids would come by and take just one piece, some would take 2, but most, one.

Another little girl came by with her parents, took a piece of candy, and as they were leaving, she said, "they aren't going to win, they have just 3 little pumpkins!" Kids are brutally honest aren't they?

We were in a bad spot for trick or treating, as we were in a corner spot between the 2 campgrounds. So the kids would come by us twice. going from their campground to the other, and then back. There were so many, I'm sure we were 'double dipped' :-)

But we had enough candy for all.
Later, after finding our spartans were killed by Iowa for their first and humiliating lost, we search through the channels and found one called My TV. It shows old sitcoms and was a fun watch for the evening.

Sunday, With our morning coffee walk, we saw people leaving, and others taking down their elaborate Halloween displays. We stopped by the office to see who the winners of the decorating contest were, and not to our surprise, site 84 won. That's the one next to us. Back next to our site, they had 5 people helping to take down their decorations. I figured they'd be their most of the day with all the stuff they had. I said our congratulations as we left for another day of gaming. This day took us north, 20 or so mile across the border to the Four Winds casino. The place was packed! Apparently some contest going on all day. We were there less than and hour and left. Since it was lunch time, we drove into nearby New Buffalo, and found a nice restaurant called the Stray Dog. All the workers had t-shirts with the a mangy dog on the front and the name of the restaurant, and on the back it said, SIT, STAY. cute. I had a very tasty hot dog. It was stuffed with cheese, wrapped with bacon and deep fried. Craig had a cheese casadia.

The wall in the bathroom, covered with dog pics.

Than a short drive back to Michigan City, and the Blue Chip Casino. This is a nice small cozy casino. It also was very busy and we were there only about an hour. We don't like going to casino's and not being able to play the games we like. The good news about that, is we don't leave as much money as we could have. :-)

Back at the campground, our winning neighbors were gone. I was impressed how quickly they packed. We fixed beverages and walked around the campground. There were more people there than I thought. We fixed a campfire, and sat and talked and watched as more stragglers slowly left.

Dinner was chicken kielbasa's and left over candy for dessert. :-) Monday morning, as soon as the sun rose, (about 8am Lansing time) we packed up, dumped, and left.

Arriving back in Lansing, and being the last trip of the season, we filled the propane tank, filled the gas tank and added Sta-bil, and did a power flush of the holding tanks. And next week, we'll take it in for an oil change, and gen maintenance.

We went, and arrived back safe, no incidences. It was a great trip to end a very nice season.

Now it's time to winterize, empty out everything, and park him for the long winter.

But it's not all sad. After getting through the busy holiday season, we'll be able to spend the winter thinking about, and planning, the next seasons trips. Some fun regular spots, and some new, interesting spots. Any suggestions?

trip #13

Good afternoon.
Yes, once again my absence has meant we've just returned from another trip.
This one, our last of the season, was back to Indiana Dunes State Park.
Details coming tomorrow morning.
I just know you can't wait....:-)