and they called her MINImoo

before i get too far behind...

2012-01-10T14:30:00.000-06:00

I haven't blogged in a while. Can't believe all the crap that has been happening in our life.

While we were in Europe, we noticed that we had not received September's rent payment from our tenant. Then we received an email from our tenant that stated that basically she was unable to pay the rent this month...and really doesn't know when the next time she will be able to pay the rent.

She had just signed a new lease with us. Unfortunately we had to begin eviction once we got back in the states.

Then it was nearly 3 months of work on the Income Property in order to get it back in shape for a new renter. There was plenty of damage that cost us quite a bit of $$$ and time and energy.

By Christmas Eve, it was finally ready enough to show potential new tenants. We put it up on Craigslist on New Year's Day - and that day we pretty much had our new tenant; after a credit check and three showings to other couples. Anyway, they move in at the end of the month and we couldn't be happier about that. Tired of working on the house, tired of losing money...hopeful that this couple will thrive and leave the place in as good of condition as they received it...if not better.

In the midst of all of this work; going to the Income Property every day; after work, on the weekends; 300+ hours of work ~ my father landed in the hospital.

This was not the first time this year, as you may know if you keep up with my blog. However, this was a life changing visit. Apparently he suffered a heart attack, had a Urinary Tract Infection and a week into his visit we were told he had total kidney failure and would need to be on hemo-dialysis three times a week.

All of this is new territory for my parents and of course for us too. This changes a lot for my dad. He has to take an ambulance to the facility that is attached to the hospital in order to get his treatments. This will happen three times a week. The dialysis lasts 3.5 hours. The biggest issue is the transportation and the transferring from his wheelchair to the stretcher to the "lazy boy" chair, back on the stretcher to his wheelchair...this will take a lot out of him. And we may be adding a couple more transfers in the middle of all of that because he may need to get weighed before and after treatment. So, all of that feels very inconvenient to my dad. But on top of that he'll need to change up his diet a bit...well, a lot. He will have to say good-bye to his long time lover; salt. He can only drink 48oz. of fluids a day. He has to steer clear of all the things that he's used to having if he wants the dialysis to be successful.

Yesterday was his first "travel" treatment and I went along with him. I needed to be at my parents house before the EMS came. That was 12:30pm. Then stay with him the entire time while he is dialysizing and follow the EMS back to the house to help unload him. Made him a protein rich dinner and filled in my mom with all the stuff that happened while he was in treatment. I didn't get home until around 8pm. Long day.

I will most likely update this blog as the days go on, but this seems to be my current path until further notice. Go with dad to dialysis treatment. Keep him occupied. Make sure he gets home safely. Make him something to eat...every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

This is better than the alternative. He had decided that he was going to refuse treatment and see what happened. He didn't think the dialysis that he received in the hospital was doing anything for him and he was bored doing nothing but sitting there during treatment. It seems my brother and I talked him into at least trying the "travel" treatment. No guarantees that he will agree to continue. But at least it's a start.

france and italy trip...(Day 5)...

2011-11-02T13:13:00.002-05:00

MO, Sept 5 (Paris, France and the surroundings)

Today is the day we say good-bye to the Saint James...sad, it was really nice meeting you.

Jerome and Lou went to go pick up our rental car, which was going to be a Ford Focus, but turned out to be a Peugeot 3008 - whoa, pretty nice car (crossover/SUV). Apparently, when they were giving the Focus a wash, they left the back window open a tad and the back seat got soaked. So, we got an upgrade!

We drove the the St. Ouen Flea Market and walked around a bit. It's pretty huge and somewhat expensive. I have heard since that there are smaller flea markets around France that are not expensive...one of these days I figure this out!

We are always in search of a modern bathroom facility when we are in France. "We" being me and whomever we are bringing along ~ Jerome could care less. So, we are told that there is "the toilets" around the corner. Both Lou and I have to use it. This bathroom happens to be for men and women. In fact, you get to walk right by the open urinals in order to get to the stalls. Avert your eyes, ladies. Also, it seems to be where the flea market sellers do their dishes. There were some wine glasses being washed in a very large bathroom sink. Hopefully not the wine glasses we were about to drink from at the restaurant that is on site; Chez Linsette. This was an extremely gaudy restaurant, filled with Christmas decor as only the French can do. There was live music and luckily we got there just before the kitchen closed for the afternoon. The woman singing was loud and would sell you one of her CDs for the low, low price of 20 euros!

After our flea market visit, we traveled to Versailles. We came up what I would call the back way. This was a way I didn't recognize. You can nearly drive right up to the palace. Last time I was there (15 years ago), my sister brought us a different way, through some naked statues and gardens. Well, we found out some valuable information...Versailles is closed on Monday's. So, again, just a photo op from outside the gates.

The village my sister lived was not too far away, so we took a drive there to see if I could recognize the place. We found the roundabout that had the name of the village spelled out in foliage. Took some pictures for my sister and then headed to Uncle Dudu and Aunt Janine's place.

We stopped at Carrefour to pick up some flowers and the next thing you know, we can't find Dee. We looked for her for a good 10-15 minutes before we found her. She took a wrong turn looking for a bathroom.

Had dinner at Dudu & Janine's. Herve, Noemie, her brother Bastien and his girlfriend Matilde joined us. Noemie was very happy to see me; happier than all of the other French. I guess the three weeks she spent with us helped with my credibility...depending on if they find Noemie credible. ;)

Let me tell ya, a Murphy bed is very neat that it tucks away and everything, but man, their Murphy bed is so uncomfortable. Couldn't sleep AT.ALL.

france & italy trip...(Day 4)...

2011-11-02T10:26:00.003-05:00

SU, Sept 4 (Paris, France)

After enjoying an excellent breakfast at the Saint James of croissants, scrambled eggs and sausage, we found ourselves back on the streets walking to the Metro. Today we visited Le Louvre. Well, visiting means to go on the grounds and take some pictures but not wait in line to go inside. There is a little above ground tunnel that we walked through in order to get to the grounds and when we returned the same way and had to cross the busy Paris street, I was caught in the middle of the street with cars quickly coming at me and I acted as though I were a squirrel caught in the middle of the road. Those cars were not going to stop...or slow down. Luckily I am alive to tell the story.

We continued with our quick tour of Paris by heading over to Notre Dame. Again this was a photo op mostly, just to say we were there. Our friends were not interested in waiting in any sort of line in order to see the inside. Dee decided to bring out what we fondly refer to as "Palmy"...a blow up palm tree that their son gave them. He would be our constant companion on this trip and featured in many pictures.

Next stop was a place that Dee was interested in...The Bastille. She was born on Bastille Day and would like to take a look. We took a lot of subways in order to get to where you exit for the Bastille. It was rainy that day and we went over to the "you are here" map and tried to find the easiest way to get to the Bastille. A nice Parisian, YES, I said it...some are actually nice, asked us if we needed any help with directions. Jerome asked him in French where we could find the Bastille. The man showed us by pointing up to a statue that you could see from the subway station and answered in English "that was where the Bastille was". Jerome said he wanted to see the prison. The guy looked at him and said that the prison has been gone for 222 years! That is why the French celebrate Bastille Day - it was when the prison was destroyed! Oh boy! How embarrassing! Jerome not only is not recognized in France that he is French (and a French speaker), but he totally doesn't know the history.

Next stop was the Moulin Rouge and Pigalle. This is the red light district of Paris...at least a lot of sex shops and movie theaters. You can see a burlesque show, also known as the follies. We noticed a little train that would take us all the way up the inclined hill to Montmarte and the Sacre Coeur. It was pretty inexpensive and so much easier than walking. The train had a little recording continually running to let you know of the sites you were passing...it was not always telling us at the most appropriate times but you could figure it out...the voice of the English speaker sounded just like a guy I worked with at Chrysler; Cristian. This guy seemed to have an almost Australian accent.

We walked around Montmarte, taking in all the art that is jammed in that little square. As we were having lunch, Dee told us a story about fake artists and that she didn't believe that the artists that we see here, standing with the art are the same people who did the painting. She said she saw a courier going from one artist to the next dropping off pieces...interesting. I wonder if it's true? They don't seem to have the same pushy caricature artists any longer...at least with them, you see that they are the ones doing the work.

Over by the Sacre Coeur, there were some street performers. One guy I'll call "monkey man". He was climbing one of those famous Paris street lamps and using his upper body streangth to hold his lower body upright, horizonally, like a flag - plus so many other amazing moves. It was neat to watch.

Final stop on the tour for the day was the Arche Defense. This is an interesting modern "cube" with a hole in the middle that is in the financial district of Paris. It's an office building, but I don't know how it works...there doesn't seem to be any windows or anything.

Headed back to the Saint James and had some Kir in the lounge and then outside under the hot air balloons. Then off to bed for our next adventure in Paris.

france and italy trip...the beginning (Days 1-3)...

2011-10-25T15:12:00.001-05:00

TH, Sept 1 (Michigan to NYC)

Left early from work (3pm) to get on the road to NYC and my sister D's house. We arrived around 1am after getting a little lost in NJ. Only one bad traffic jam on our side of the highway and that was as we were heading into Toledo. A truck carrying a large spool of steel lost said steel and there it lie, in the middle of the highway. It made a huge gouge from the impact and I'm glad to say that it seems that the pot hole was the only casualty.

FR, Sept 2 (NYC)

D only had one job on Friday, so she was home pretty early since the job was just down the street from where she lives. She took us around her neighborhood and showed us all the changes; her neighborhood is revitalizing and there are a lot of new businesses opening up. She also took us to Ground Zero, but we were a week too early for the unveiling of the 9/11 Memorial. Still we were able to get a pretty good view from above, in the World Financial Building.

Later, she used our car to drop us off at JFK where we were heading for our great adventure...but first we needed to wait in a huge line. Our airline is an unknown airline called XL Airways France. We got the tickets from CheapOAir and Jerome informed me that the seating was going to be pretty tight...this didn't bother me one bit (ha!). We stood in line for nearly an hour and during that entire time, we didn't see our friends; Lou & Dee. We figured they would be waiting for us at the gate. And they were. They upgraded to First Class, which had more room in general and no line at check-in; lucky dogs.

Flight was on-time, but I would give the Captain and the flight in general a C- overall. The take-off was loud, there was constant turbulence, when the Captain spoke to us he was hard to understand and the landing was sort of rough. I was OK with the seating, we were one seat in front of the wing (one of my favorite places ~ hate the tail), it was tight, but not unmanageable. We saved around $500 a ticket by booking this airline, so, I suppose any discomfort was worth it. It was a 7 hour flight.

SA, Sept 3 (Paris, France)

After we landed, we met our friends on the jet bridge. They were standing there with a well dressed young man. They seemed relieved when they saw us and a little surprised it took us so long to get off the airplane...not everyone gets to fly first class ya know.

So this guy that is with them is dressed up nicely and seems to know who we are. He takes the carry-on luggage and walks us all the way to customs, cuts in front of everyone, asks us for our passports and hands them to the agent. The agent stamps our passports and we are on our way to the luggage area. He waits with us and grabs our luggage and escorts us all to our waiting van. Now that's service! Even Jerome's brother who works for AirFrance at CDG isn't able to get us that kind of service. I guess our friends set this up through our hotel and this is the job that this young man has. Pretty cool.

Our van driver spoke English and took us directly to our hotel; Saint James ~ Paris. And yep, it was everything the website said. It was a stand-alone building in the middle of Paris, which is rare. It was gorgeous!!! Way out of my league.

We took a couple of hours there to rest and recuperate before we headed out to see Paris.

Jerome had the thankless task of being our tour guide...even though I think I've been to Paris more often than he has. We walked a couple of blocks to our first Metro Station. Jerome had downloaded a free ap of the Metro Subway System so that he could easily figure out which trains to take to get to the Arc de Triomphe. However, at one point in the middle of transferring trains, we all tried to get into the #2, but only Jerome was able to before the automatic doors closed and the majority of our group were stuck on the platform. He waved bye-bye and motioned that he would meet us at the next station as the train sped off. Only one casualty of that debacle; Lou tried to use his foot to stop the subway doors from closing. Just so you know, the doors don't stop closing, even if you have a hand or a foot in the door. It's a subway door, not an elevator door. Lou moaned a little about his painful injury as we sort of looked at each other with only a small amount of panic in our eyes. Don't worry, we met up with Jerome at the next subway stop and then, reunited we went on to see the Arc.

We walked up the steps into a gloriously hot, sunny day. The heat was stifling but the view of the Arc was just distracting enough that we quickly forgot about the heat. We stood around taking pictures for quite some time and realized they were setting up for some sort of presentation. Apparently there was a kind of National Celebration at the tomb of the unknown soldier. We were shooed away so that a huge parade of soldiers could march into the space we were currently occupying. Once that happened, we were unable to get a good view again and decided to start walking down the Champs Elysee.

We took a look into some of the Automobile Galleria's, some shops (which we were informed we were not allowed to take pictures), we had a little snack at the Brioche Doree. All the while, some dark clouds were forming and seemed to be following us. It was getting windy.

We walked a little more, to the Avenue FDR when all of a sudden the clouds burst open and we were in a torrential rain storm! We were stuck under a line of trees and getting wetter and wetter. Jerome made a break for it and ran to the nearest phone booth (yes, they still have phone booths there!). I waited a while but soon followed him. Our booth door wouldn't close completely and it was pretty tight in there. We were still getting a bit wet,...but not as wet as our friends who DIDN'T run! They stood there like a couple of horseys left out in the rain - just standing there taking their medicine.

Eventually we got back onto the Metro, soaking to the bone and headed to the Eiffel Tower. When you leave the Metro at the Eiffel Tower exit, you head down the Ave. de Suffren and make a quick left when you get to the Cafe Castel and VOILA! There she is, seemingly hiding just around the corner! We got there as night fell and so all the lights were turned on. It was beautiful. We walked around and my eyes were drawn to the colorful objects flying around in the air around the Eiffel Tower. It's the Nigerians selling their wares. The first time I came to Paris, they were selling wind up birds that would fly around ~ I, of course bought one. This time they were selling little LED lighted helicopters that operated by a rubber band and flew way high up in the air. ~ I, of course bought one...for my granddaughter! Of course I paid WAY too much for it and as you continue walking, more and more salesmen come up to you trying to sell you more for a better price. But once you go past a certain spot, they all RUN the other way. It was weird; they were there and then they were high-tailing it out of there!

Walking back to the subway, we stopped at the Cafe Castel for some well deserved dinner. Kind of interesting, at one point our very nice waiter went running off after someone who didn't pay their bill. I believe he caught him. Excitement on the streets of Paris.

what do you think?...

2011-08-30T15:23:00.001-05:00

As some of you know, a couple of years ago we had our garage rebuilt. With that garage we added a deck on the top.

This year one of us made the suggestion that we should install a TV in that area.

I will not tell you which of us made the suggestion and which of us disagreed with this suggestion; all I want to know is what do you think? Is this something that you would consider?

The more opinions the better!

wedding + peyton's 1st birthday party...

2011-08-24T14:10:00.002-05:00

Well, it's done and it turned out really nice.

Over the weekend we had the double party for Sam & Justin's wedding celebration and Peyton's 1st birthday. It was a nice turn out; counting my family and Justin's dad's family, we accounted for just over 50 people. I'm not sure about Sam's side.

I was very happy because ALL of my brothers and sisters were able to make it. That was a little more on the last minute side, but I was relieved that the DeYonker's were totally represented at this function!

Peyton had her moment too. Everyone came to the basement where her cake and "smash" cake were located. They sang Happy Birthday and then Justin took her hands and actually smashed them into the cake. In my memory, this was my first time witnessing something like this ~ it's cute and gross at the same time. I'm not a huge fan of food on children's faces, but hey, I'm biased and it was fine for my granddaughter! She seemed to enjoy it. A new tradition for Justin I suppose.

Sam & Justin had their own little "smash" cake as well...only not so much smashing. This was nearly identical to the cake they had for their wedding.

Some guests enjoyed swimming in the pool, oh and the Selfridge Air Show was scheduled for that day - some planes flew right over the house, but this did not disturb anything.

As with any event, you can count on some glitches. Here are some talking points:

Glitch1: Hadn't had enough time to get a proper wedding card so I put Justin & Sam's gift in a blank greeting card that I had at home, didn't sign it, put a post-it with their names on the envelope and kept it open. I called Jerome to stop on his way and pick up a wedding card (2; one for us and one for my sister). Before Jerome arrived with our official wedding card, Justin was looking for something to do and I asked him to get the cards (Peyton's bday card and the unsealed greeting card) out of the car and bring them to me. A few minutes had passed and I saw Justin and asked him if he got the cards. He said he had and he put them in the card boxes. UGH! An unsealed, unsigned card with a post-it note is what they would have from me and Jerome to open since there was no way to retrieve it from the box once it passed though the slit at the top!

Solution: Well, really no great solution. I told them to wait to open our card so that when I showed up at the house the next day, I could take the greeting card and swap it with a signed wedding card.

Glitch2: The weather. It had been threatening rain the entire day. When we were putting the runners on the tables, they just kept blowing around and the candles kept blowing out. Around 4:30pm, it let loose! A downpour! Not the best for an outdoor party. Lucky for us it only lasted for around 30 minutes. And under the tent everything was dry!

Solution: We had Justin go out and buy some flat headed thumb tacks so that we could secure the runners to the tables.

In the future, we will buy those battery operated tea lights...they never blow out and you can use them over and over again.

Glitch3: We had two projectors going with the wedding DVD; one in the house and one in the tent. We used white sheets as the movie screens...this seemed like a good idea at first...after the party you can give the couple some new sheets, but they didn't lay right, they were a little ruffly.

Solution: No solution for this party, but next time we do something like this, we will borrow the big outdoor screen from my friend and/or use my parents old movie screen...

Glitch4a: I have to say it...the Karaoke guy. At first we were going to get a friend of Sam's parents who does karaoke, but that fell through and so we got someone different...who was filling in for the regular guy. At first he started setting up outside and was visibly annoyed by guests sitting at the nearby tables. We had to move everything because he was going to set up his speakers right where guests were sitting. Eventually they decided to move it indoors. He was supposed to start at 7pm, but by nearly 8pm, I still hadn't heard any music or singing. He was not trying to attract people to him so I went to investigate. I asked when he was supposed to start and was told that he had started.

Solution: I went to where my family was sitting and I told them that it was time for karaoke. Luckily they all came when I asked and we spent the next couple of hours in the basement karaoking!

Glitch4b: He had tons of CDs, but every time we asked for a specific song, he didn't have it, even if the song was on the list of songs you choose from the booklet he handed out. Or he had the CD (the original one with the artist singing) and no lyrics to put on the teleprompter. He shared with us plenty of excuses and was a bit grumpy at first.

Solution: Make lemonade :) I would say that karaoke was 97% The DeYonker's thing! We ruled the mic and dance floor all night. Tons 'O Fun!

The DeYonker portion of the karaoke party started breaking up around 11pm-ish...when some of my family had to go home since they had a long drive in the morning (back to Boston). The rest dispersed to mingle with the rest of the party and I think we got home around 2am.

Not sure how much longer the party went on, but there were still plenty of people milling around when we left.

decoration duty...

2011-08-04T14:41:00.006-05:00

My son and DIL got married in January, but they've waited until August to have the "reception". It's almost here! They are having the wedding party and also Peyton's 1st birthday party on the same day. The parties are being held at my DIL's parents house in Harrison Township. It will be an outdoor party, like Jerome and I had for our wedding reception. The big difference is that they have a pool!...but not much room for anything else in their backyard, so the neighbor is allowing them to set up a tent in their yard ~ I guess the neighbor has done this for past events as well (nice neighbor!).

I was lucky enough to score decoration duty. I was given the colors; white and lavender and with that information I was able to do some quick internet searches to find a theme. I sent .jpgs of the ideas to my DIL's mother (Kathy) and was given the thumbs up. Here are some of the ideas:

Table runner in light purple...

Another way to use the mason jar idea; with photos

Some paper hearts on sticks...

These are the handles for the mason jars...

Hanging mason jars with candles...

Mason jar with daisies...

One of the ideas is using mason jars (newer, clear ones) in a combination for a centerpiece; a tall jar with flowers; daisies in white and light purple, a medium jar with the kids photos from their wedding day (with a candle in the jar as well to illuminate the photos) and a small jar with some coarse beach sand (white) and a lavender tealight candle. To round off the centerpiece, I am spray painting some pine cones in shades of purple and white and I have made some colorful paper hearts using scrap booking paper and a heart paper punch, some floral wire and some jewel stickers. I may also have Jerome cut a log into thin slices to use as a stand for the mason jars...I haven't passed that one by him yet - I wonder what he'll say.

Note the nicely cut runner!

I purchased several yards of this nice airy fabric in a light purple. It has some beads and glitter attached to the fabric for some added interest and sparkle. This will be used for table runners. I was going to cut the runners myself and then hem them, but after the first attempt at trying to cut a straight-ish edge, Jerome told me that it looked like a "beaver creek special" and offered to take them to work and put the fabric in the machine that cuts the fabric for the airbags. I was concerned only because the fabric is very thin and fragile, but he returned home with pieces that looked fantastic! I won't even have to hem them, they turned out that well! We will put a pointy end on them so that they look more finished and make a little sewn tuck, but that's about it.

I've also made some handles for a few more mason jars. These will be used as nicely lighted, hanging decorations around the yard.

I have them hanging from yard art...

Kathy and I were talking about also incorporating some plain white Christmas lights inside the tent and other places in the yard and I've also thought of using white and purple balloons in a pearlized finish.

I've ordered some M&Ms in purple, light purple and white ~ personalized with their first names. I think that is going to be all we need for decorations. I've got a lot of extra scrap booking paper and may consider punching out a bunch more small hearts to use as confetti on the cake table or somewhere...I'll see what Kathy thinks.

Finally, Jerome just finished the wedding DVD and slideshow that will be playing in the house and projected somewhere outside as well. He's edited down the wedding to three important snippets with some nice music and effects; short and sweet and will keep everyone's interest. At the end he made a slideshow using both the professional photos and also some good ones that were taken by the guests ~ this also has music, one of my recent favorite songs; Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop.

tempur-pedic...

2011-07-21T10:58:00.004-05:00

I think the last time I purchased a brand new mattress was when I was 14 years old ~ and it wasn't me that purchased it, it was my parents. I didn't have a choice and I wasn't all that discerning at that tender age, so it was a fine enough mattress. My first Queen size.

Now I'm 45 and Jerome and I have been talking about getting a Tempur-Pedic for what seems to be ages now. We've been sleeping on an extra hard mattress for several years (it was a hand-me-down from my mother) and it was fine at first; nice and firm, but over the years my back, neck and hips have been starting to hurt quite a bit. I've been having trouble sleeping and haven't really looked forward to laying in bed for quite some time. Jerome was sick.of.it.

Buying a mattress is a very difficult process and quite personal. It doesn't seem personal when you are rolling around all these different mattresses on display at Art Van while shoppers are walking by, but you really need to get over the fact that you are also on display and you need to FOCUS.

Tempur-Pedic was having a special for the first time ever (according to the salesman). Something like $200 off the Deluxe, which is the exact mattress that we chose when we did the hour or so mattress test a couple of months ago. Plus a $125 gift card to Best Buy. And Gardner-White was also offering 0% financing for up to 6 years! My financial wisdom says to always go for the 0%.

Forward to last week Friday. The mattress was delivered and set up. I put the mattress protector on that not only protects the mattress, but protects the mattress warranty. Then I laid on it. Ummmm, comfy...

When Jerome came home, the bed was all made with freshly washed sheets and duvet covers. Later he told me that it has a smell. A polyurethane smell. I had been trying to ignore that aspect until he mentioned it, but then it all came flooding in. I googled it and it's a known issue! UGH! You may remember from an earlier post about a smelly Pottery Barn rug that we had in our room. My olfactory senses are so sensitive to smells and I get headaches and sometimes if the smell is really bad, I'll get dizzy.

I Facebooked my friends that had said that they purchased a Tempur-Pedic and asked them if they've experienced this issue ~ and they have, but they've said that you either get used to the smell or it does go away somewhat.

Tempur-Pedic doesn't really have a return policy per se, you can return your mattress for a harder or softer one (you will incur a re-stocking fee), but not a complete return and refund. My head was spinning. OMG! I've been HAD! This is a $2400 mistake!

What the Tempur-Pedic FAQ said was to remove the cover and let it air out. This is also what my FB friends were told by their salesman. Our salesman suggested no such thing. So, since last weekend, we've had the cover off, the windows open, the doors closed, a high speed fan in the window and the ceiling fan going. It has been in the high 90's this whole week and so the room is extremely hot and the air is humid...and it still smells. I had to re-wash all the sheets and duvet covers because the smell soaked into them as well.

We've been sleeping on our old mattress this whole week in a different room.

I really hope that the smell dissipates soon...we'd like to stay in our own room and really try out this mattress and see if it is at least what they all claim it to be.

it's that time again...

2011-07-20T14:55:00.006-05:00

Starting to gear-up for our upcoming trip to France. That's TEN times, if you were counting. This time we are including a side trip to Italy. I'm pretty excited about that trip because it will be my first time to Italy. What's better is that we have friends that live in Bologna whom we will be able to see for the first time in over a year.

Our plans have evolved from a trip to France and Italy, on our own, visiting the family and our friends TO a trip to France and Italy, with another couple ~ friends of ours from our MINI club ~ visiting the sites around Paris, visiting the family, visiting our friends in Italy and visiting Venice and all of this includes a massive Road Trip! I think we like road trips and it should be interesting doing one from France to Italy.

Keeping in mind that we are now traveling with friends, and our way of traveling may indeed be different. Jerome and I do a lot of things on the cheap, and traveling usually never keeps us in one specific spot for longer than a day. This will be our friend's first visit to Europe and they'd like to do some of it in a more special way. For instance, typically when we have to stay in a hotel in the Paris area, this is the style that is chosen:

Formule-1 (Hotel F1)

...isn't it glamorous? Aren't you now soooo jealous of me and my many trips to Paris?

In some cute email exchanges we were asked by our friends if we "wanna play lets make a deal???"

Behind door number one.....we each pay for our own nights in Paris and Venice. Behind door number two....you guys cover Venice and we cover Paris.

If you make the wise choice...not number one.... I will send the link to Mr. Crasher's choice of hotel in Paris which I just booked 2 rooms at.

With a choice given to you in such a way, how could you not choose door number two? To which we received the hotel link (click on the link).

And to that, Jerome responded "with this hotel link, this is the best I could do for car rental... Who's driving?"

So, all joking aside, they've graciously offered to pay for the hotel in Paris...and then they sent us the real link...and now, for your viewing pleasure,...

Hotel Saint-James, Paris

I guess I'm going to have to buy me some new britches! Actually, I'm still not completely sure they are serious and as soon as I am able to pick my jaw up off the floor, I will have to ask them. I'm sure the rooms look just like the Formule-1.

So, beyond this frighteningly delightful surprise, this is our current itinerary. Jerome and I leave after work on a Thursday, driving to NYC. Drive to my sister D's house in Brooklyn to visit and drop off the car. She takes us to the airport that Friday evening where we meet up with "The Crashers" (that's what they like to call themselves, and it's fitting since they "crashed" our trip to France with an email reminding us that they are The Crashers and they'd like us to consider the idea of them coming along with us). Take off to CDG that night at nearly midnight and arrive in Paris on Saturday afternoon. Spend Saturday and Sunday in Paris or the surroundings either going to the Palace at Versailles or perhaps visit the Monet gardens at Giverny. Do other Paris-y things; the Metro, the Eiffel Tower, maybe catch a show.

While in the area, I believe we will visit Jerome's Aunt & Uncle, possibly his brother and maybe even his brothers ex-girlfriend.

Once done with our little Paris trip we head to the country to visit with the rest of the family; mom & dad, big sis and other brother. Leaving the following Friday morning for our massive road trip to Italy. We think we will be in Bologna sometime on Saturday. We will stay with our friends while The Crashers will stay at a local Agriturismo. We will visit the Bologna area (maybe even visiting the HQ of VM to see the people I work with and only know by email address) and then Monday head to Venice.

Our first indication that we were not in Kansas anymore was a month or so ago when our friends let us know that they had a reservation held at the Hotel Cipriani. We took a look at the hotel and nearly fell out of our chairs. It is the most expensive and exclusive hotel in Venice. We quickly drafted an email to them to let them know that we have found a hotel down the street from there...that would be more in our price range and that we can't wait to meet up with them to check out the Cipriani! We know rich people! It was then explained to us that the reservations were for dinner, not the room and that they were quite happy with the hotel that we had chosen.

Domina Home Giudecca, Venice

Which, BTW, Jerome has informed me, this is not our typical cheap hotel either ~ so he's steppin' it up a bit himself.

When asked if they are keeping something from us, like one of their parents is a millionaire, they joked back "we might sleep in the car some other nights but not in Paris or Venice!!"

This is going to be quite a different trip than what I'm used to taking with Jerome. Other than the scary thoughts that I'm already experiencing at night about the flight, I'm really looking forward to this trip. I think it will be a bit of an adventure.

a short visit to sanford...

2011-06-09T09:23:00.002-05:00

Jerome and I went on a little road trip to Sanford, NC to visit Justin, Sam and Peyton.

How things have changed from 3 short years ago. It's mind boggling. Justin is the best advertisement for parents that want to have their kids join the Army. He has done a 180! He was always a nice and charming kid, just misguided...now he is an upstanding citizen, just what every parent wants for their kid.

He's got a good paying, good benefits job (with opportunities for advancement), a car, an apartment, "stuff" (like a nice flat/big screen TV that his dad bought them), a wife and a baby! Oh, and bills :) He was telling his wife to turn off the lights in the bedroom the first day we visited! That is hilarious to me. Then he mumbled something about bills. LOL!

I guess they all grow up at some point. It's really cute.

So, we stayed for the weekend; Friday evening to Monday morning.

Friday evening we took them out to a restaurant in the downtown of Sanford. It's not a huge town, but southern quaint. The restaurant we tried, The Steele Pig, was really good - they specialize in BBQ and "slow" cooking. I had the Slow Cooked Chicken with the Herb & Garlic Fries and the Sweet Corn Succotash. The chicken, I guess because it was slow cooked, was the kind that just fell off the bone. So good. The fries were a different spin on the mundane, also very good; highly recommended (along with their dipping sauce which is a type of house BBQ sauce). And I had to try something southern, so the succotash was a good choice, but probably not something I'd later crave.

Justin had wanted a burger, but this was not the place for that...so he had the Hickory Smoked Pulled Pork and I think he was fine with that. Jerome had the Pulled Pork Sandwich and Sam had the Caesar Salad. Peyton had some banana puffs and anything else that would keep her attention...at one point it was a (clean) diaper since we forgot to bring any type of toy. Oops!

Saturday morning we needed to be at the Open Eye Cafe by 10:45am to meet for the Chapel Hill / Carrboro Walking Tour. This was a really nice tour of the small towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. It was a food tour where you walk with a guide to the different restaurants, store fronts and farmers markets and sample some of the food and drinks that they offer. (taken from the website, but so true) We sampled innovative and upscale southern dishes, house-made chocolates, local cheese, made from scratch pie, organic wine, local beer, and more. Jerome and I had done this type of tour once before in Seattle with our niece Sam and her hubby Mike and thought it was pretty cool. This tour was even better, I think, however they both have different things to offer. Anyway, I would highly suggest doing a walking food tour on your next trip to "Wherever USA"...because I'm sure there will be one in close proximity to where you are staying.

Neal's Famous Pastrami Biscuit - sooo good!

So, the tour consisted of visiting the following: Neal's Deli, Carrboro Farmer's Market, Carrboro Beverage Company, Acme, The Chocolate Door, Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe & the Open Eye Cafe.

The tour itself lasted for just over 3 hours, but we were there either waiting at the beginning or at the end for an additional hour. Surprisingly, Peyton did fantastic during the whole tour. No crabby baby here!

Afterward we went back to the apartment and took a swim.

We bought tickets for Sam and Justin to go see a comedy show in Raleigh that evening and Jerome and I got to watch Missy Peyton! She was very good, but I got the steps wrong...I fed her a bottle, which put her to sleep...but then wanted to put her to bed, but needed to change her diaper, which woke her up and then she didn't want to go to sleep any longer. What we forget after 24 years! Eventually, everything worked out - but I think I still didn't do it right because she woke up crying a couple of times before Sam and Justin got home...and then again during the night. Not used to me, I guess.

Sunday was a lazy day...well, lazy for us. Sam and Justin worked to prepare our breakfast; pancakes, bacon and hash-browns and later that evening they prepared our dinner; brats, kielbasa with peppers and onions, chili and pork 'n beans. In between we swam, Jerome took a walk around the area (in the 100 degree heat - no thanks!) and we were all mesmerized by our iPhones and iPods. Someone should have taken a picture of all of us playing 7 Little Words. Justin needed to go to bed early so playtime was over around 10pm. Gave him a nice hug and watched a Netflix video in the bedroom, which Sam & Justin so graciously gave us use of during the weekend.

We left Monday around 10am heading to Burnsville, NC. This was my sister D's old stomping grounds when she was in college. She worked during the summers at the Parkway Playhouse and I enjoyed visiting her there when I was a kid. So, I dragged Jerome all the way there to see if it was still there. It was! Even the B&B that my mom, sister Terry and I stayed one summer. The only thing that was no longer there was the Yancey County Country Store. We stopped in at the Chamber of Commerce to see if I really remembered it correctly...if it had been there in the past. And it had been...but burned to the ground in the 80's.

Then we headed toward The Stairway to Heaven, which is a portion of road from Abingdon, VA to Elkhorn City, KY. It takes about an hour and a half to drive through this windy-curvy road. Someone from our MINI Club had mentioned it on the forum and so Jerome thought we'd try it. It was a really nice drive but I had to make Jerome slow down one time because I was getting a little scared. We were done driving around 9pm and then needed to get a hotel room.

Jerome had this great idea to go to a McDonald's and book a nearby hotel using Hotels.com at hopefully a lower rate. While in the McD's parking lot, Jerome started booking it and decided that before he hit the button to purchase the room, he would call the hotel and make sure we were getting the best deal. He called the number on the website and as it turned out, it was the number to Hotels.com. The guy on the other line told Jerome that there were no rooms at the Holiday Inn in Pikeville for that evening. Jerome told him that the website says that there are rooms. So he went though the whole process of buying the ticket over the phone with the guy on the other end of the line. At the end, Jerome said, well, I was able to book a room and the guy was dumbfounded, but said that there may have been issues with his computer and they hung up with each other. I looked over and said "well, it didn't work out the way you had planned, did it? You wanted to call the hotel and see if the rates were any better and now you've purchased the room anyway without finding that out." He agreed and then a thought crossed his mind about the date he put into the computer. He rechecked and it seemed to him that he had typed in the 5th rather than the 6th, but how could Hotels.com allow him to book a room for the night before...? We drive to the Holiday Inn and start explaining the whole thing to the clerk. As it turns out, Jerome not only had the day wrong, but he had the month wrong too. He had booked this hotel for September 5th. He hadn't changed the date from a previous search he had done on that website for a different vacation. Luckily, they still had one room available and they ended up charging us the same amount that we would have paid on Hotels.com. Jerome had to then log on to Hotels.com and cancel his September reservation, at no charge.

We go up to the room and the whole floor is a smoking floor and the room is a smoking room! I think we must have smoked 10 packs of cigarettes that night between us. It was really awful, but that was the last room they had.

The next day, we still had 9 hours of driving to complete before we were home. Since Jerome had driven the entire time yesterday, this was my day to drive the whole way. A long boring drive. We got all the way home on one tank of gas that we had filled up in Pikesville, KY. We had 15 miles to empty when we drove up our driveway.

Got into the house, which was HOT and turned on the TV so we could watch The Voice when Jerome heard the TV squeal and pop. There was a black bar on the screen that went from left to right and then he saw and smelled smoke coming from the TV. It died right there and the smell of burning electronics filled the air.

monthly post; springtime...

2011-05-31T13:52:00.006-05:00

Didn't really want to just stop posting, but work has been busy and didn't leave me much time to ponder my thoughts and write them down. I seem to have replaced Blogger with Facebook lately. If you wanted to find out what's been going on with my life,...it seems to be there.

So, here we go...

Last month, when my dad was in the hospital and my #2 sister (Terry) was holding vigil at his bedside, I was just leaving a doctor appointment*...

*(quick side note: I was referred by a friend to see her thyroid doctor to discuss some issues I've been having and when I met her doctor for the first time, he was irate that I would not have taken my current doctor's word, since, as he put it "this is her bread and butter"...as if she could not be wrong and that I should not even look for a second opinion. I was beyond frustrated because his belittling continued for the rest of the appointment without regard to what I had experienced or had to say. Have we not been told to seek a second opinion? Have we not been told that our health is solely up to us?).

...and started heading over to Henry Ford Hospital (formerly St. Joseph's). While driving, my clutch gave out. I made it to the hospital but didn't want to drive the MINI any further unless it was to the MINI doctor.

Chad (the MINI doctor) had Miss MINI for quite some time because she had the bad timing to decide to have issues the week before the Dragon and he wasn't going to be able to even really look at her until the beginning of May.

There were several things wrong with her other than the clutch and the bill came to well over $1700.

We've put a lot of money into our cars...way more than what I had ever put into my Neon when I had her. I may need to reconsider my mode of transportation...even though MINIs are so much fun and oh so cute.

A week passed and the "Check Engine" light came on! Yesterday while we were doing yard work and we had our cars out of the garage, Jerome noticed that I've got a crack in my windshield! Plus his car probably needs a new head gasket because it's leaking a bit...no A/C, just fixed his windshield and Henderson Glass forgot to put a little plastic piece back onto the car, so we'll have to go back and see what they can do about that, his brakes are squealing and on his way home from work on Friday, with 10 bags of mulch & topsoil, he gets a flat! CARS! We'll be paying Chad a visit today after work and Munk's tomorrow..

I've been wanting to post about the Rental house, which we refer to as 251. We drove by at the beginning of May to see how it was looking...we knew we had our work cut out for us because of the sewer issue we had last fall and we had been wanting to stain the deck since last summer.

The weather was not very cooperative this spring and we really needed to get the staining done before the cottonwoods started shedding. So, we drove by and it was sort of shocking how badly the place (imo) looked...we had been commenting on the drive over about how many dandelions were along the side of the road and talking about how they really are a pretty color and the negative connotation to them because they are weeds; broad leaf at that. And why things are considered weeds until someone calls them a plant, etc., etc...and then we drove up to 251 and Jerome looked at me and said "you must LOVE dandelions" because they were EVERYWHERE in the front yard. 251 was looking like the worst house on the block which was disconcerting because when I bought it in 1996, it was the worst looking house on the block...and over the years that I lived there - I got rave reviews from the neighbors as to how I was improving it. Back to square one...

It wasn't just the yellow flowers that were taking over the front lawn, it was the ground cover (ground elder) that was taking over the side yard and as I came to find out killed the ground phlox and was in the process of killing my rhododendron. Plus, of course the ground was uneven since fall because of the sewer tap-in. The next door neighbor was already working on his property because this spring, they tapped in to the sewer as well and things had been pretty much torn up on their side too. We needed to get to work.

We spent several days hauling topsoil and seeding. We power washed and stained the deck just in time - really, the leaf casings from the cottonwood were just starting to fall. If we had waited one more day, we would have had to wait until the summer to stain. We applied Turf Builder with dandelion killer. We sprayed Roundup on all the weeds we found in the driveway and sidewalks. The most time consuming thing we did was to pull up all the ground cover from the side yard ~ saving the rhodie and we planted a tree that I've been growing at our house for the last few years. The whole time thinking that we could be doing this at our house.

Since we'll be on that side of town this evening, we need to go and check things out. Some tiles on the front patio had popped off, so Jerome fixed them and we'll have to pick up the tools we left behind.

We did the MS Walk this year again. This time my mother's cousin and her daughter joined us. The weather was not the most ideal, but the rain held off for the entire walk and it went by quickly. We have so far this year collected $749.66, which is the smallest amount we've collected in our 9 years of doing the walk. I have a theory about this ~ I work in a considerably smaller place than I've worked in the past and my ability to network is stifled, but then again, $750 is nothing to sneeze at!

We were given the privilege to host my niece's HS Graduation party at our house for our side of the family. It was, as far as weather is concerned, I think the worst day of spring thus far. Amazing! Cold, Blustery, Rainy, Crappy day! So, instead of a nice relaxing party on the party deck, we were all snuggled inside the house as though it were the middle of winter. One really nice thing is that my brother Ray was able to make it to the party. He's been living in California for a couple of months now and was able to catch a plane for the event. It was nice seeing him and I'm sure he was happy to celebrate his youngest daughter's accomplishment. She not only graduated, but with honors; Summa Cum Laude. We're not sure where she gets her brains!

We survived the "Rapture"...not without some nervous thoughts of what if it's real...?

My niece Sam, who is visiting from Washington state came along with me on my Senior Citizen's Monday. I think she enjoyed the time and spending time with her is really nice. She is easy to talk to, funny and fun. We ended our day with one of grandma's short cuts with which she did very well...she later told me that she learned some patience this day.

We round off the month with one Confirmation (my nephew Jacob), one more HS graduation, with whom she is the Valedictorian! (my cousin Jill) and lastly a birthday party (my niece Jordan who turned 12).

weird...

2011-05-31T11:56:00.000-05:00

I woke up fat today again...

missy peyton at 7 months...

2011-04-30T11:55:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to be a proud gramma and post a couple of recent pics of my grandbaby!

update on the daddio...

2011-04-27T13:45:00.001-05:00

The last couple of hospital visits for my dad were on the scary side. They happened a year apart, nearly to the day. Last year when my mom went in to check on him in the morning, he told her that he had never felt as close to death as he did right then. Later, when the aide came to take him out of bed, she couldn't revive him. It wasn't until the EMS guys were transferring him onto the gurney that he finally woke up and wondered what was going on. He went to the hospital then and was kept in there for about a week for observation. They gave a diagnosis of a UTI.

He becomes a little delusional when he is in the hospital - that's been happening for the last few years whenever he goes. He'll see bugs on the walls, ladies on the edge of a hole about to fall in, people that aren't there. We're told this happens to older people when they are not in their element.

So, on to this hospital visit. I've pretty much went into the details of the visit in my last post and how he was behaving initially when he first came home.

I think we've learned from this last hospital visit that it takes about a week for him to return to "normal" once he comes home. Oh man, those first days home are so sad and scary. He was trying so hard to get himself out of bed because "he needs to go somewhere", he was going to hurt himself. He was talking so fast that all the words were all jumbled together. It was sort of a nervous speaking pattern. During these times of uncertainty, I am so prone (in my brain) to get the hell out of there. I don't want to see him like that and I don't want to lie to him when he is asking me (for instance) for his cane so he can "go walk somewhere"...what do you say? I tried the truth, but he looked at me like I was crazy. So, I told him that I was going to ask mom where it was. However, he could clearly see it in the corner of his room (it was not there) and wanted me to "just go get it for him". I pretended not to hear him and I walked out of his room...and nearly ran out of the house.

In these situations, it's good that he really can't walk...otherwise where would we find him?

Anyway, onwards to this week and a more uplifting outlook. He's all back! He's got good hand/eye coordination (as much as he had prior to the hospital) and he's painting again. Mom feels comfortable enough to leave him alone again for short periods...which is really good because otherwise she would be slipping into a depression.

Getting old really stinks from what I can tell. Maybe not so bad for those that still have their health, but for those that are compromised...niet zo goed.

emotionally beat...

2011-04-13T12:56:00.001-05:00

What a crazy week it has been. This week, I was the only kid in my family that was still in town. My sisters live on the east coast, my brother Ray moved to California, my brother Marty and his family were in Florida on vacation and my husband was in Germany for work.

My mother called me at work on Thursday morning to tell me that my dad was not responding to the aide (Donna) when she tried to wake him up.

Once in a while they'd be able to get some words from him but they were repeated and were eerie to those who had to listen. He would say "I don't know what happened" or "why am I hurting?".

He was taken to the hospital by the EMS where I was there to check him in. We were in the ER hallway for a couple of hours with many hospital personnel asking the same questions "What brings him in today". I think I answered this question to 5-10 different people...I wish they'd all have a meeting because my story seemed to be changing with each visit.

Emotional time when he would "wake up" and moan "ow, ow, ow, ow, ow"....and couldn't explain where he was hurting. If he hurts, he never lets us know about it.

I was with him from 10:30 that morning until 7:30 that evening with little change. I reported on Facebook that he was 20% of himself when I left.

He spent the next several days in the hospital. My sisters came in to town to be there for my mom. Our one sister is a little, I don't know, hypochondriac-like, by that I mean that she thinks about ALL the possibilities and asks a TON of questions. This is OK, but makes our mom nervous. But, if it wasn't for her, we would not have known until much later that it was not a stoke...it was not an infection (as previously told)...but it was severe dehydration that brought him to the hospital.

It seems kind of a weird thing, since it's not like he doesn't get fluids, but I guess the wrong kinds; coffee, wine, beer, juice. It also seems weird that the reaction to dehydration was so extreme; being unconscious at times and then being delirious (signs of dementia), so weak too.

He came home on Monday night. He's not fully recovered but nothing more could be done at the hospital and home is a better place for him. By not fully recovered I mean that he's delusional - seeing people that aren't there, thinking he can walk (he has been unable to walk for 15+ years). It's just really sad. I'm sad. I don't like this - he was painting everyday and now he's mad because the aides won't put him in a "regular" chair so he gets angry and tells them to put him back in bed. He hates bed...but he also can't physically sit in a regular chair.

Anyway, I wanted to share a little something that my sister wrote today about my dad:

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING PLEASANT....a lesson from my dad.

My dad suffered an "episode" this past weekend on his long journey with Multiple Sclerosis.

It appears that dehydration caused him to pass out for short periods of time and when speech returned, he only babbled the same word over and over again. It was as if he had suffered a stroke.

In the hospital, after several hours of IV feedings, he started to revive, though over the few days of his stay, he continued to have moments of delusions.

Many of his delusions had strings connecting back to a truth or an event.

I'd like to share one that was rather poignant.

Before sharing my story, it has to be pointed out that my dad rarely complains. We're all pretty sure that he is in physical pain on a daily basis. He was once a downhill skier, a mountain climber, a paratrooper, a water skier, a baseball player. Now he is mechanically hoisted from his bed, moved to his wheel chair, and well taken care of by a few angels, my mother included. He still paints every day. I can only imagine that his pain includes a certain amount of emotional pain over the other things he's lost along the way.

But you wouldn't know it - for he truly believes he is living a good life...and in some instances...a great life! When asked how he's doing, his favorite response is, "Fantastic, never been better!" (without a hint of sarcasm).

Yesterday, while he and I were chatting in the hospital, he mentioned that he "wanted to go up the street to St. John's (hospital) and visit Uncle Harry". Now, Uncle Harry passed away several years ago, but I was quickly learning that it's better to go along with dad's visions, so I added, "Oh, Uncle Harry was such a nice guy."

My dad responded, "Yes, Uncle Harry is a great guy, a very pleasant fella, good at making conversation and a great listener." "He's one of the most pleasant guys I know. And it just shows you how very important it is to be pleasant in this life. What goes around, comes around."

Aha! A family treasure, uncovered! A secret revealed!

We've often wondered where my dad gets his pleasant demeanor from. And in fact, after seeing both him and his brother, my Uncle Chuck together in the hospital (who suffered a stroke in his 50s, and is somewhat hindered on one side of his body, and can't really form words now)...the two of them are THE most pleasant men I know. (married to two of the strongest women I know!)

I was so touched by my dad's recollection of his Uncle...and moved to realize he was still trying to teach me something he valued....and what a lesson it is.

Grace in the midst of severe hardship...
And the importance of being pleasant.

3 years in a row?!...

2011-03-30T14:48:00.004-05:00

Last week Thursday we received a letter from our gas company; Semco. It said that they will be replacing the gas main on our street and also the line that goes up the property to the house "service". It said that the work was going to begin April 4th.

EGADS! Is my first response. We JUST had our driveway repaved! What could this mean for the structure of the driveway. And I was kicking myself that we were talked into only 4" of cement rather than 6". Our cement guy said that we wouldn't need that much strength since we were already done with the garage, etc. Oh why do we allow others to make us second guess ourselves? OH, and Jerome is in Dusseldorf starting April 2nd. Now I'm going to have to handle this on my own!...of course! Did the gas company know that Bruce Township had JUST resurfaced the street at the end of the summer last year? Does Bruce Township know that Semco is planning on chopping up the newly resurfaced street? Couldn't they give us more time and kind of wait until after the ground thaws so that we can relocate some plants (...again!).

This would be three years in a row that our yard will be trashed.

Jerome's response was to immediately go outside to assess where exactly the gas line possibly goes - engineers...so practical. The meter is on the east side of the house and if you look in a straight line down the property to the street, there are 3 trees and yes, several rose bushes in the direct path. Plus we have all those limestone slabs, but it seems like it may avoid all of them (fingers crossed).

I gave the letter to Jerome so that the next day (Friday) he could call the gas company to let them know about the driveway and the such. Also he wanted them to tell him where the line is currently. However, he was unable to call because he was so busy at work and didn't think about letting me know so that I could call. Now we had the whole weekend to ponder what is going to take place in the next week or two.

We checked on Google Maps to see where exactly this work is supposed to take place and we called our neighbors to see if they received the letter too.

So, on Monday, Jerome calls the gas company first thing. He then calls me to tell me what he found out. The lady told him that in their records they show that our line is already plastic and has been replaced in 1973, they will not be touching our property. YAY! Jump for Joy!...but then, hey, wait...they are going to leave in a line that is almost 40 years old?...really?...hummm.

Later in the day I thought I'd make a stop at the Village offices to see if they are aware of what is going on. The lady was nice enough as I told her that the gas company would likely be tearing up the brand new street. She said "yes, isn't that a shame". I thought YES! Couldn't they get their schedules together and have figured this out before they wasted the taxpayers money and created so much waste? I said "well, if they really do tear up the road and have to resurface it again, can I make a suggestion? Can they install cement gutters along the curb edge for the water to flow down the hill, because the asphalt is already crumbling from the water flowing underneath". She said "suggestion noted"...as she had a piece of post-it and a pen - which was still blank when I left.

That night I told Jerome my concerns about the line being nearly 40 years old and he told me that I should call. I think he was getting annoyed.

So, yesterday I called. I spoke the the same lady he spoke to the day before...but with a different result. She told me that our address is on the work order because our line is so old. They will be replacing the line. I tried to explain my concerns but it seemed to confuse her, so I asked if I could set up a meeting with the Field Service Technician...and could I have his number. She called later to give me the number and name of the Tech. We made an appointment for this morning - and before we left for work the guy came out and told us what we can expect.

He told us that they use a hydraulic boring device and it will bore from across the street, under the street up our property (2 feet below grade) and directly to our meter. There would be very little to no disturbance. They are able to direct the bore by remote. There may be some digging close to the meter and in regards to the rose bushes, they would dig them out in a large ball, put them aside and then when they are done, place them back. They will not start on our part of the street for another 6 weeks.

He made it sound all so nice and easy-peesie. Stay tuned...

some seriously good shots...

2011-03-25T17:02:00.001-05:00

Jerome took of the ice storm. Can't believe that the ice is still so thick...the storm was days ago.

Jerome and I typically carpool and as I said on Facebook, this is one of the many reasons we like to take the back roads to and from work.

We said to each other, the only thing that would have made these shots better would have been if there were some deer around.

Click on the photos to make them larger - that way you can see more detail.

Squirrel Road, Auburn Hills

Stoney Creek Road, Oakland Township

and my favorite...very twinkley.

just no time...

2011-03-24T14:47:00.004-05:00

I don't know how all those other bloggers do it - post weekly, if not daily with something interesting. My life is just not that exciting, especially during the winter. I have to wait for something to happen before I go blogging about stuff. And I'd really like to feel creative when I am blogging, otherwise it just ends up sounding flat.

So, with that, I'm not really sure I'm feeling all that creative, but I think I'd like to finally post something about the 53rd Annual Corktown (Detroit) St. Patrick's Day Parade that our MINI club participated in this year.

We weren't a huge group, but we were still well received...for the most part. I mean, we did have some people yelling out that we shouldn't have a British car driving in an Irish parade. Someone should tell her we are no longer British; we're German...BMW. Yeah, that's right, I drive a Beemer :)

We also had the occasional "I only like American Cars" being yelled out - in which I gave my typical response "it's got a Chrysler engine!"...but at least no one threw eggs or anything and most people seemed to LOVE us, especially when we attempted the MINI Ballet. Well, it would have been more of a MINI Ballet if everyone had their walkie-talkies. Since not everyone had one in their car, they were relying on their vision to know when to start doing the cross-over and thus we ended up looking more like a MINI Weave. But it all turned out just fine.

Since we didn't have anyone that wanted to walk out in front of our group with our club banner, it was discussed on-line that someone should make a sign. Jerome jumped to the challenge and created two signs; one with an outline of Ireland in the back with a profile of a MINI in front. The other sign had our club logo in the middle of an Irish flag, just in case someone would be interested in looking us up.

The Friday before, Jerome sent me to some stores to find St. Patrick's day paraphernalia such as hats and maybe something like those round styrofoam balls (of course with something St. Patrick'sy on it) to put on our antennas. Since we thought about it so late, when I went to stores like Target and various Dollar stores, they really didn't have much to choose from. I found a couple of hats and some knee socks and some buttons. Couldn't find anything for the antenna and when I reported that to Jerome, he said we should just make something. He came up with making shamrocks for the antenna. I thought that was great and that we could use some stiff felt. And so we did. Went to JoAnn Fabrics, picked up some of their thickest, stiffest felt - which happened to have sparkles in the fabric too - bonus! We used a template of a shamrock from the internet, I cut them all out, Jerome sewed them and stuffed them. But they were still a little floppy and wouldn't stand up on the antenna (most of us have "stubby" antennas). So, I thought we needed to have some kind of reinforcement such as a stick. We ended up using some wooden skewers from our kitchen drawer. It worked like a (lucky) charm :).

Sunday, the morning of the parade, we had a long wait from the time we all met at our "Division" until the parade began for us. We got to know the group that we were to follow. They were "The Wee Bit Tipsy Clan". Apparently they won last year. Their group has a float and then also some pom-pon girls whose pom-pons were made of empty Guinness cases. They danced to Pink's "Raise Your Glass". Fun. And from what they told us, someone in our group must have slept with someone in the Parade Committee because we were starting in the middle of the Parade when usually all newbies start at the end and work their way up. So, we're going to have to find out exactly what Chris did...or who he did (tee hee).

We really had a great time - the weather was Irish-like; cold, cloudy, some rain, some snow. But the inside of the car was warm...which was a good thing since Jerome decided that he wanted to show off his knee socks, so he wore shorts! Brrr.

He always goes all out!

We ended the day at Foran's Grand Trunk Irish Pub. This was a place that I had just heard about as it was mentioned in this article (most underrated cities) and wanted to try. I will have to give them another chance when it's not such a big day for them. The service was friendly but extremely slow. I think we were there for more than 2 hours. Food was average.

oh, and a crack...

2011-02-28T19:28:00.002-06:00

We noticed a crack in the new garage floor.

more basement fun...

2011-02-28T19:22:00.003-06:00

So, it's going on week 2 that the basement is a complete mess.

Over the weekend we removed the duct work from the area that lead to nowhere and we reused (recycled) the ducting in an area where it could then be connected to the furnace. You know, you need that cold air to be pulled into the furnace and forced (hot air) out...circulation...I hope we start to notice a difference.

Sure it looks like Jerome is doing all the work...

Hubby also closed up any other holes that used to be a part of this cold air return which was not working, using some recycled pieces of the original ducting. He used some Great Stuff and some insulation too. Almost done. One more weekend.

Someone's got to take the pics and be the supervisor.

I just couldn't believe that an owner would spend the money to finish the basement and totally neglect having the cold air return reattached to the furnace...and then my husband reminded me..."contractors". Ah, yes. I was thinking (more like projecting) that the former owner's (which ever one of the many it would have been) would have done the work themselves...since that is most likely what we would have done.

In the meantime, he found this little guy.

Too bad for him,...poor guy, he is completely intact.

alleviate the draftiness...

2011-02-21T12:28:00.002-06:00

One of the things that we wanted to do when we bought this house was to alleviate the draftiness.

We spend a lot of time in the basement since that is where we have our office and computer. It's been very cold down there. Sometimes we wear coats. Not nice.

Jerome was doing some investigating and found some major drafts in certain corners of the basement, so he went to Lowe's and purchased some insulation and some Great Stuff. He was busy applying that stuff and decided to investigate further.

Needless to say, the basement is now a wreck. He's moved a bunch of ceiling tiles and after a lot of head scratching, found that the cold air return that is supposed to run up to the bedrooms & dining room is not attached to the furnace in any way...and hasn't been since the owners (whomever they may be) finished the basement.

The duct stops here...at a rafter. It does not connect to the furnace.

Could this be a reason that the bedrooms and the basement are so darn cold?

After removing many, many ceiling tiles, we figured out how this needs to be addressed and hopefully this will be a very quick fix...and free. We will be moving some of the ductwork over a few rafters and close up some holes - and things should start working better after that.

A couple of years back, we had a company come out to clean the ducts because a chipmunk fell into the ductwork and died...and the smell was tremendous! They claimed to have cleaned all the ducts and yet they never told us that these ones were not attached to anything. They never found the chipmunk either. We did. Yuk.

what's new?...

2011-02-11T14:58:00.003-06:00

We've joined the Y...it's in the same city that we work and is on our way home. We are averaging a couple of days a week, which I'm sure we will be able to keep up with. I'm hoping that some improvement will start to show soon, so that I can feel that this is worth it. We've been members now since the last week of January, but used some free passes earlier in January. So far nothing's changed on me...maybe Jerome sees a difference in him. He had gained a pound or two over the winter and it was bothering him (he's still 20lbs less than me) + he loves to swim and so now he can swim to his hearts content.

We've had a lot of snow lately (we even had a snow day from work!), but it's soon to melt away. Our temperatures are supposed to spike - into the upper 30's this weekend and those temps are to last into the following week. I predict that most of the snow will be gone by the end of next week. Usually we don't have snow that lasts the entire winter, but we have only experienced one melt this season so far.

Jerome had planned a Kart2Kart evening with people from work. He also included people from my job and then extended the invite to the MINI peeps. It ended up being a really good turn out; 14 people. However, I hate to report that Jerome's winning streak ended with this race. He came in 4th! YIPES! I felt I needed to report this since I always report when he wins.

Dad has been selling a few more paintings on Etsy lately. Always a surprise. He's sold 26 paintings so far and as he would put it, he's tickled. He continues to crank out the paintings; several a month - so as long as he's painting them, I'm posting them. You never know what people will find attractive.

My sister Terry has finally landed a job since she arrived back in the USA from Austria (October 2009). It's not a bad job. She'll be illustrating a childrens book. The author is located in London, England and it's a Christian Children's book...right up her alley. I'm pretty happy about this. She's been beating herself up for over a year that she hasn't been able to bring much to the table - but now I'm pretty sure she'll feel like she's doing her part.

Lastly, I received Valentine flowers yesterday; delivered to my job. My hubby,...what can I say. He wanted to have them sent to work and since I don't work on Monday's, he chose Thursday...it's also much cheaper delivery charges on Thursday than any other day that is closer to Valentine's Day. It was really sweet and I really love them. He's OK too.

out of the ordinary...

2011-01-24T20:59:00.000-06:00

Well, a little out of the ordinary...

As of this morning, I have passed the $2200 mark with things that I've sold on Craigslist with the sale of a humidifier. Yeah, it's been 2 whole years of selling, but still I think it's kind of an accomplishment. A perpetual rummage sale. All that stuff is out of the house! YAY! I've given away lots of stuff too.

The big draws this weekend were Jim Beam bottles. I only have 12 more. In the past year, I've sold 23, given away I don't know how many and have kept 3 for myself.

I still have a lot of stuff hanging around. I guess it will get there. I may have to break down and have an actual rummage sale in the Spring.

movie review...

2011-01-20T10:00:00.005-06:00

Soraya before being buried halfway...

Jerome and I watched a very disturbing movie last night; The Stoning of Soraya M. It's one of those movies that just sticks with you - always a sign of a good movie.

I won't get into the plot because you can read about it here and here. Also here is a really good review of it from a Muslim woman's perspective. I will say that it brought up a lot of anger in me regarding religion and the "man and woman" relationship/role in most religions.

My husband is not a religious man and in the middle of the stoning sequence he exclaimed something about man creating God to justify their own selfish ways.

While driving into work this morning, hubby and I were discussing the movie and how it made us feel. The part that stunned both of us was the ritual that goes along with stoning; from the women of the village preparing the accused adulteress, to the male children of the village collecting the stones as if it were a game, to the line drawn in the sand and chalked out in the village center (a circle around where she will be set in the middle), to the burying of the accused halfway up their bodies (I assume so they can't run), to the indignity of the accused father throwing the first stone(s) and making her young sons throw stones at her as well and not being allowed to bury her body and leaving it for the dogs to eat.

Head scarf language; she sort of points it at the person she is intending to speak to -or- similar to when you were in school taking a test and you hid your paper from the other students watchful eyes...

Something that was interesting to me was the way the head scarf or covering (burka) was used as a communication tool as well. Soraya's aunt Zahra was using it to signify that she was only speaking to a certain person, she used it as a screen to make it so a husband could not see his dead wife (different husband and wife, not the one that was stoned), she used it almost like a bird of prey; as a scare tactic, spreading it out like the wings of a bird to keep the men at bay. Very interesting. However, after reading some reviews, I'm not certain that was an "authentic" way they use the covering.

we bring you a special report...

2011-01-16T09:08:00.004-06:00

Some interesting things have happened since this little trip out east...in the photo of the kayaks, you'll notice the two up front that are orange...? Well, those WERE my sister's families kayaks. The sea TOOK them a little over a month ago, along with other things, like BIL Bill's little wooden sailboat from his childhood (the blue boat behind the orange kayaks). Also, the wooden staircase that took you down to the beach was washed away during the Christmas holiday. My sister said that it was just built within the last year. The sea must have been very angry that day...

Other than that, I wanted to report that also during the Christmas break my sister FINALLY delivered our piece of art that I purchased from the Plymouth MA Art Center while on this trip. She was able to enjoy it in her home for 3 months!

Last evening, Jerome and I finally hung it! Which meant that I needed to find new homes for the photographs of Ireland that had adorned that wall.

I think this sculpture is pretty unique and cool and goes well with the old photos of my parents and grandparents wedding.

out of the ordinary...

2011-01-14T08:56:00.001-06:00

This could be a theme for some of my blog posts - just a little something that was out of the ordinary for the day...

While Jerome and I drove to work this morning, we were narrowly missed by a running deer. She was really booking across the street. I was in the passenger seat and saw her first. I gasped loudly which gave Jerome enough time to brake and make a slight veer. I know, "Don't veer for deer", but when you're on a dirt road and you're the only one on that road, I say veer-away. I would say that if Jerome hadn't braked and veered, we would have had miss deery-poo on our laps.

That concludes today's episode of "out of the ordinary...".

last time seeing Miss Peyton for a while...

2011-01-09T18:37:00.005-06:00

Today was my last opportunity to see my little granddaughter...at least for a few months.

Today Justin and Sam and a couple of their friends came by to pick up a dresser, Peyton's playpen and any other items that Justin had here. Tomorrow morning (at 0 dark 30, as they all like to say) they head out to North Carolina to begin their new married and new family life!

Grandpa Jerome dancing with Peyton.

I hope they have a smooth trip. They will be driving a large Budget Rental Truck while towing his VW Passat! Then Sam will be in her car with Peyton. If you see them, HONK! :D

a great start to the new year, my son got married!...

2011-01-05T12:27:00.002-06:00

Justin and Sam tied the knot on Sunday, January 2nd at 3pm in Waterford, MI.

It was a small ceremony held at the Victoria Wedding Chapel that sits on the shores of Silver Lake.

In attendance for the nuptials were the parents - Bill & Kathy Risse (for Sam) and Danny Bruce, Jerome & Yvonne Bosch (for Justin), the siblings - Derek Risse and his girlfriend Elizabeth Zielinski (for Sam) and Trevor Bruce (for Justin), the grandparents - Mr. & Mrs. Risse (for Sam) and Markus & Pat Bruce and Eugene & Josephine DeYonker (for Justin). Of course our beautiful granddaughter was present and Sam's Aunt Laura was Peyton's babysitter for the afternoon/evening.

It was a very nice looking chapel and after seeing it for myself, I would recommend it for a small wedding. They really decorate the chapel in a nice way and make your day feel special, even if it is only for 30-45 minutes. If I had done my research, I think Jerome and I would have chosen to use this chapel for our wedding rather than the Clinton Township Courthouse.

A limo picked them up and drove them to the restaurant; Filippa's in Utica, where we enjoyed some tasty appetizers, then salad and then a very filling dinner; your choice of chicken, fish or steak.

After dinner was the wedding cake which was very classy with chocolate covered strawberries. The top cake was made with banana nut bread and the bottom was vanilla.

They headed out to Motor City Casino for the night via the limo. She stayed in her wedding gown the whole evening while they did a little gambling. His father and I sent Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries and Jerome and I sent a bouquet of flowers to the room.

All in all the quickly planned event turned out quite nicely. And now, my son is all grown up. I even told him that I am handing over the responsibility of his finances and to change his passwords so that I won't be curious and check on the balances.

a synopsis of 2010...

2011-01-04T16:01:00.006-06:00

2010 started off not very pleasantly with Jerome breaking a rib in January and some strange feelings regarding certain friends. I think we both spent a lot of our time this past year trying to sort out our emotions about the whole "friend" thing and what it really means to be a friend. Things are still up in the air about all of that, we are definitely still gun-shy.

Jerome's job continues to interest him. There are some fun things happening there and the future could be bright. We'll see as time goes on. And I still have a job, which is always a good thing (knock-knock), in fact I've been asked to work an additional day a week, which is good for the pocket book, but bad for my 4 day weekends.

We had some visitors in 2010; starting and ending the year with my sister Terry and her family doing their (now annual) holiday trip from Massachusetts to Michigan. Jerome's parents from France. My son Justin (from NC & Afghanistan) and my sister D (from NYC) at different times throughout the year. On his trip home in April, he asked his girlfriend to marry him.

We had several people in our lives turn 50 this year; our friend from Italy - Roberto, my brother Ray and my BIL Bill! Lot's of partying.

We also hosted several parties at the house - kind of to commemorate the new deck. We hosted my brother Ray's 50th birthday party, we had a going away party for our Italian friends Roberto and Agata, and we held our annual (anniversary) pot-luck - only a month earlier than normal because our lovely granddaughter's due date was scheduled for the date when our picnic is usually held. And just last week, we had the family New Year's Eve "Bash"!

We also traveled a lot this year. We went on a trip to visit Louisiana with Jerome's parents, went to Washington state to visit my niece and her husband, we traveled out east to pick up my son's car from my sister's partner's house in New Jersey; stopping in Sagamore Beach, MA and Brooklyn NY along the way. We did some MINI Cooper trips to Traverse City and Port Austin Michigan and then headed down to Fayetteville, North Carolina to welcome my son home safely from Afghanistan.

We did our share of home improvements this year, but not to a "burned out" status. The driveway was the biggest project and we didn't really have much to do with it other than paying the guy :) We also spent hours and hours painting the rafters above the deck that is above the garage.

We Feather-bowled and Curled!

Jerome awaiting instructions as to how to use the broom.

But yes, the biggest news for the year 2010 was the birth of our first grandchild at the end of August; Peyton Isabella. She is the best baby that I've had the pleasure of holding and is completely beautiful!

merry new year!...

2011-01-04T12:55:00.006-06:00

It was a bummer that we didn't get to go to Florida this year, but our friends were very thoughtful and remembered us by sending a box of tangerines and oranges!!!

Bill receiving a "Crepe Facial"

I was really looking forward to the holidays this year because we were going to have a full house; my sisters, their families, my son and his family and then all of the activities that center around them.

Justin arrived on the 19th after being delayed a day out of Fayetteville, NC. I was at my very first ever Cookie Exchange at my friend and co-worker Diana's place when his plane landed. Sam was itching to pick him up on her own anyway, so it ended up working out for both of us.

Back to the Cookie Exchange...it was really cool to hang out for a while and then be able to take all these cookies home with you. Several of the ladies put their cookies in really nice packaging and tins. I used Ziplock bags...

I do have a suggestion for next year (are newbies allowed to give suggestions???), have a list of all the types of cookies there are and make the ladies choose one type; otherwise you end up with several of the same...sugar cookies, which are not my favorite. Most of the cookies were the same color and from what I learned in High School cooking class, it is not esthetically pleasing to have all the same color on a plate.

Still had to work a couple of days, but they were pretty easy going. One day we were taken out by our Chrysler co-worker to the Moose Preserve and the next day we had our Penske Holiday Dessert which featured Coldstone Creamery and a $50 gift card to Meijer! All very nice.

We've gotten to see Miss Peyton a lot during this time. She even spent the night a couple of nights, but then had a really bad evening where she cried horribly so I guess the consensus was that she was afraid and didn't know where she was, so she hasn't slept here since. Makes me sad but it's not my call. They still visit.

We spent some time visiting friends during the break. We went to Sara & Shane's for dinner and an evening of looking at their Africa photos. They had missed out on Thanksgiving because they were in Africa for their honeymoon. Shane is a fantastic photographer and the pictures were amazing. They did a lot of fun things and stayed in some very nice accommodations. Justin and Sam came with us to their place and enjoyed dinner with us, but left before we got to see the photos.

Christmas Eve, my sister D and her partner Linda arrived at my parents house after driving from NYC/NJ. We gathered there and visited with them, my oldest brother Marty and his family and my cousin Martine from Belgium. Had a nice night with appetizers and gave our niece and nephew their gifts, which they promptly ripped open.

Which makes me ponder the question, How do you handle gift exchange, gift opening and what day do you get together with your family? It used to be the tradition in our family to draw names on Thanksgiving and buy a $40 gift for the adult you picked and then buy for all the kids, until they turned 18. Everyone would sit around the living room and individually open up their gifts, sometimes starting with the youngest or sometimes the opposite way. It would take a long time, but it was felt that if you are spending that kind of money, you'd like to see the reaction when your gift is opened. The only one that disapproved of this is my brother Marty. A few years back, he and his wife put the kibosh on the drawing of names, since they figured that most people were just exchanging gift cards in the same dollar amount anyway. Also they don't "do" Christmas with the rest of us. They do it on Christmas Eve and then head up north to her families cottage, which means that is the only time you can give their kids their gifts AND the kids just rip open the present/envelope without any organization. Plus the rest of the cousins haven't seen their kids in years. Can you tell I'm not a fan of these "new" traditions? Anyway, I digress...

Miss Peyton on Christmas morn

Christmas day, D and Linda arrived at our house just in time to watch the gift exchange with Justin, Sam and Peyton.

I know you can't see him, but this is Justin showing off his Camouflage Snuggie

D with the Chinese Food

They stayed for a while and we ordered Chinese from the take-out in town. We laughed that we were just like all my sisters Jewish friends back in NYC - and of course "A Christmas Story" :D

The next day my sister Terry and her family arrived. I had organized the house a little so they would be comfortable. My niece Erin picked "tails" and had to sleep on the air mattress in the basement along with the dogs. At one point during the holiday, we had the following people staying at the house: Me and Jerome (of course), Terry & Bill, Nick, Erin, her boyfriend Chris, Justin, 2 dogs and 2 cats.

Almost all of the cars; missing Sam's and D & Linda's

A FULL house. This required 2 air mattresses and the use of a couch, but it worked. I'm trying to think if that was the most amount of people that we've housed...NOPE! We had 10 people when Jerome's siblings came in 2008. So, this was a piece of cake :D

Most of the cousins; missing Sammy Paducha and Jake & Jordan DeYonker

Monday the 27th was our Family Christmas at our parents house. Talk about a full house! We had 19 people (including the baby) + 3 dogs! This was the year of appetizers and we all filled up on them! Everyone had to hold the baby, we had a nice evening of opening presents and then playing games. No big drama which was excellent!!! There were chances that drama could happen, but they were squelched pretty quickly.

In front of The Bavarian Inn Restaurant

D and Linda headed back east the next day and my sister Terry and her family, Jerome and I headed to Frankenmuth for the day. We ate at the Bavarian Inn...yes, chicken dinner :D We had other German types of food as well. We walked around Main Street and I made them stand there and watch the WHOLE ordeal of making fudge. My niece and nephew who only lived in Michigan for a short while when they were small commented that Michigan seems like a place that is trying to recreate places that never naturally existed there. Bring Germany to you, bring Greece to you (referring to Greektown). A little German town in the middle of farmland. After walking into too many gift shops, my BIL Bill remarked that Kitsch is a German word!

We visited with another set of friends the next day; Lou & Dee. They live in St. Clair near the Canadian border. We ate our weight in appetizers and dinner. They opened us up to Chocolate Wine - YUM! Exchanged stories of our very similar sons and just had a nice visit. When they called to invite us Dee asked if there was anything that we couldn't/wouldn't eat - I told her that Jerome doesn't like cold/hard cheese, pickles or spongy white bread (Wonder Bread), so as a joke they made some hors d'oeuvres out of those three ingredients! Jerome actually took a bite before we couldn't keep it a secret any more. Good times.

The day after Christmas I had received a message from my niece Erin's boyfriend Chris. They had plans on meeting in Chicago during this time but it seems as though that fell through. As a surprise to Erin, Chris asked if he could come to our house and stay for a few days between Christmas and New Year. Absolutely! I was the only one to know that he was coming until my sister and fam arrived. I promptly told my sister and learned that she's got about a 5 minute rule when it comes to secrets. She told her husband Bill and her son Nick...which was all fine and dandy, but then told my mother. The next day (the day Chris was to arrive), Terry and Erin went to my our mother's house and my mom asked Erin when her beau was coming. And when she denied he was coming, my mother persisted. So, the jig was up, but not completely, we were still going to try to keep the if, when and where a secret.

Greek Town - Monroe Street

Opa!

So, we headed to Greektown and Mr. Chris met us at Pegasus! Even though the cat was out of the bag, she was still very surprised and even made a lady in the restaurant cry from the touching scene.

Reunited!

Took a little tour riding the People Mover and then from there we drove to Rochester to view the light show and have some Sander's Ice Cream. It's a good day when somewhere within it lies ice cream :)

New Year's Eve. More family stuff at our house. We made...appetizers! We had wine and we all stayed up until 1:30am! Brought in the New Year right!

Nick showing us a few things on his computerized drawing tool.

Most everyone left on Sunday morning, but my sister (and her goggies) remain until this weekend. Actually so does Justin, Sam and Peyton; who will be moving to NC at the end of the week. However, I can almost wager a guess that they won't stay at our house during the remaining time. Sad :(

My sister helped me with my Meals on Wheels route yesterday and today I'm back to work. I am starting to work 4 days a week beginning this week - they believe they have enough work for me to constitute an additional day...we'll see. I told my boss that if I find myself to be without much to do, I would rather stay home. So, I'd say this is a trial.

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone - I wish you all (and myself!) only the best for this year.

justin's homecoming...

2010-12-15T14:26:00.006-06:00

Due to the security of the troops, the Army waited until 48 hours before his plane landed to let us know when he would arrive. The bad part about that is it really doesn't give you much time for planning ahead; hotel reservations, travel arrangement, etc.

I was going to leave on Sunday, then Monday and it ended up that I left at 7am on Tuesday because the Army had finally called to tell us that he would be in Wednesday at 1:15pm. Jerome would drive down on Thursday.

I drove straight through, with a 20 minute stop at the toll road service center for a nap. I had been doing "the nod" and I didn't want to fall asleep while driving. I arrived just on time to meet up with the Risse's in the parking lot. They had just finished dinner; it was around 8:45pm. I looked like $h!t...probably smelled too.

Jerome had reserved a room for us at a discounted rate using Hotels.com, since I was going to be there from Tuesday night through Saturday, it was nice to receive the discount. Sam had tried to jew-down the hotel manager and was able to get a pretty good rate, but Jerome's deal on Hotels.com was a much sweeter deal - too bad they didn't trust us to make the reservation for them. Sam did want us to try to negotiate the same deal with the hotel manager that we got, but you had to do it on-line and use coupon code BEMERRY10 for an additional 10% off. Even that the hotel manager was taking issue with. He tried to argue a little that he, as a hotel manager, had to sign up with Hotels.com for that promotion, and he hadn't...but gave us the rate anyway.

Wednesday, I had a few hours of relaxation before we all headed to Pope AFB; Green Ramp to wait for Justin's brigade to arrive. I figured that I could ride with Justin's dad (my ex-husband) since he has a military sticker on his car while the Risse's (including my grand-baby Peyton) drove in another car. Peyton has a military ID card, so we thought it would work. It didn't. They had to turn around and have their vehicle searched before they were allowed to enter the base.

Once at Green Ramp, we entered into the hanger. There were many family members already milling about and the Army band was playing Christmas music off to one side. They had sandwiches and a cake ready for when they arrived. The Green Ramp hanger is where the Airborne paratroopers come to wait before they get into the plane to do their jumps, so all the benches have a little step in the back, right behind where your butt would rest. Justin told me that is to support the weight of the parachute since you could be waiting there for several hours before you do your jump.

We waited for some time outside in the cold...however not as cold as Michigan. We watched the plane land and waited for the troops to file out of the plane, which took an excruciatingly LONG time. Finally, they were marching into the hanger and then had to wait again in formation while they sang the Army song and some Commander made a small speech. I mean - REALLY!? Is that necessary? These guys and gals have been gone from their loved ones for nearly a year (they left Christmas Eve 2009) and here they are, torturing them with their family members at arms-length. Disgraceful!

Finally they could drop their rucksacks and come plow down their mothers (yes, I was nearly plowed down by my own son running to see his new baby and fiance - what a welcome!). He apologized later.

He was interviewed by the local newspaper about being a new father and seeing his baby for the first time.

It was a nice reunion.

Went out to eat several times in the next few days. Justin signed his first lease while we were there, on his own merits. And we visited the house where he will be spending this week until he flies home to Michigan on Saturday. Got to meet his roommates - characters; all of them. They do have a house "mother" of sorts - the only girl that lives with all these guys. Her name is Peyone. She is very nice and will be out of the Army by February. She's going to school to be a social worker. She's got some training with these boys.

Jerome and I drove back all in one day. We were trying to avoid the upcoming bad weather. We left around 1:45pm Saturday and arrived home by 2:30am, and I guess the snow started at around 3am. We totally missed it.

Sam and her parents were not as lucky. They drove out the next morning and right into bad snowy, icy, windy weather in the mountains. They spun around at one point and were facing an oncoming semi-truck. I had told Justin that they should leave when we did, but it's pretty typical that when I say something, there is a nod of acknowledgment but nothing happens. Well anyway, they arrived safe and sound, so I guess it worked out for them.

my year in (facebook) status...

2010-12-14T19:40:00.001-06:00

Thought it was cute, so I'm sharing.

my first wreath-making class...

2010-11-30T14:36:00.007-06:00

Yesterday, my DIL2B came over with my lovely granddaughter. She wanted to make a wreath for her mother as a birthday present; her mother's birthday is in December. So you could say that I gave my very first one-on-one class yesterday.

Before heading downstairs to the wreath making workshop, I walked Peyton over to the nearly bare Christmas tree in the living room. She was awestruck by the lights; she just stared and stared.

Then off to go work on wreaths...however, missy Peyton had other ideas for a moment. She cried like I'd never seen her cry before - for a good few minutes. Sam thought maybe she was overstimulated, so I turned off the overhead lights and Sam gave her a bottle to calm her down and then put her down for a nap by making a makeshift bed from one of the chairs using the throw pillows to block her from rolling over. She slept for almost an hour which gave us plenty of time to work on our wreaths.

Sam picked Pink, Red and Gold bulbs and because I was making one for my sister Terry who had already told me that she wanted one in Green, Red and Gold, those were the colors I was working with that afternoon.

Normally it takes around 2 hours from start to finish but today it took about 4 hours, with Peyton on Sam's lap for the last 5 or 10 minutes. By the time we were done, the house was completely dark.

Well anyway, I tried to "instruct" without leaving blanks in my sentences - a difficult feat if you know me - I rarely complete a sentence. I think I did OK...you'd have to ask Sam for a more accurate critique. I should have made her fill out an end of class survey - Haha.

Both wreaths turned out well - first time I didn't use a ribbon. I find that when you hang the wreath from the ribbon that the top portion falls too far away from the door - as though it is top heavy, so I decided that we'd use a wire hoop/hook. This brings it much closer to flush against the door. But it is missing the extra loveliness of a pretty bow.

So, other updates to the wreath making and selling process...so far I've made 6 wreaths. I've sold only one so far and made one for each of my sisters and one for my friend Diana at work. The other two are still for sale on Etsy. Maybe I should knock off $5 or $10 from the price...I don't know,...I think I will.

Today I heard from the lady that purchased my wreath. She lives in North Carolina and told me that the wreath is beautiful. There were some broken ornaments (2 white ones with the candy canes) and a few bulbs fell off but she hot glued them back on. Parcel post only took half the time they claimed it would.

I'm sad about the issues, but happy that it wasn't worse. She still seems to be happy with it, so I'm going to not dwell on it. As I had stated in my previous post, that one was the one I was worried about since it was on that evergreen wreath form. NEVER again.

The wreath that fell, I was able to repair. It's great that when I buy the ornaments from Estate Sales that I get the whole box of stuff as well, because in the box were these pointy sticks used for floral design that I pressed into the styrofoam wreath form and secure the broken form. Then it was just a matter of cutting off the ornament fragments and regluing some new ones in their place. You can't even tell that anything happened. Oh, and I wrote 3M, they responded and asked me to call them. I did. They were interested in hearing about what type of surface the product was stuck to, etc. They said that on the packaging it says not to use them on heirlooms or irreplaceable items. I'll have to check that out next time I see them in the store. Then they asked what I would like 3M to do for me...I told them I have no idea. It's not like they could replace the wreath.

I also made a smaller wreath using a grapevine wreath form for the base. This one was for my sister D. - I don't think she reads my blog, so I'm safe putting the pic up here. She wanted a small Silver wreath. I didn't have much Silver ornaments left, but I did have some White, so she's getting a Silver and White wreath. It's a little kitschy, but it grows on you.

Well, there you have all the updates about the different wreaths I've made so far. I hope that I can sell the others...otherwise next year I'm going to look into being in a Christmas craft show or two. I do like making them - I like the way they turn out for the most part and I'm starting to perfect my method.

There's a lady on Etsy that makes vintage ornament wreaths and I absolutely LOVE THEM! According to her profile, she spends all year hunting down the most beautiful vintage Christmas ornaments. Shiny Brites, Polands, West Germany and Made in the good ol' USA. (kinda like me :D). Then she spreads them all out and crafts wreaths until all the ornaments are gone. Each year is a limited production. Once they are gone, that's it until this time next year. I really like the way hers turn out. Anyway, she's sold out already this year. I think I will try to be more like her; creating wreaths in her style...we'll see if I can.

buying frenzy...

2010-11-23T18:23:00.004-06:00

Since my post about making the wreaths, I have had two different people purchase two wreaths from me on my Etsy shop...within a week of listing them!

I was so excited when the first one was purchased until I after I read that her feedback rating was at 92%. I've never seen one that was under 100%. Most of the bad comments were "never received payment", "don't buy unless you plan to pay" and "never responded to contact". My heart dropped...and unfortunately, that first "buyer" fell through for me as well.

Then the next buyer wanted the large gold and white wreath. This wreath is the one that I was most worried about because it was the most flexible and the one I've decided never to use that type of wreath form again because of the relatively unstructured soundness of it.

The person who bought it lives in North Carolina - to send it parcel post is the least expensive way to do it, only it takes up to 10 days to get there and according to the postal worker that I spoke to, it's handled quite a lot. So, I'm just waiting to see if it arrives in one piece. Fingers crossed! It's been a week since I've sent it and I still haven't heard from her. However, I did "Bing" her house and if the wreath survives, it's got a nice place to live.

I'm serious about putting a class together to show people how to make these. And since I'm serious, I need to buy, buy, buy vintage ornaments!

I'm constantly looking on craigslist, going to Salvation Army and looking into Estate sales. There's an Estate Sale website that I stumbled upon and it led me to a very nice Estate sale that was in my neighborhood(ish).

I made a list of 4 different Estate sales to go to on Friday. I was armed with my clipboard. Friday was the day to just write stuff down with the possibility of going back on their last day - be it Saturday or Sunday and hit them up for their 1/2 off sales. Well, I'm not that controlled and I did purchase some ornaments that day, as long as they were reasonable. The least I've paid per ornament has been 6 cents and the most I've paid was 20 cents. But that is not exactly accurate either, since when you go to these Estate sales they don't always let you just have the ornaments - sometimes they want you to take the whole box. So you end up with all kinds of other Christmas crap that you have to figure out what you're going to do with.

On Friday, I ended up with 3 plastic storage boxes of differing sizes. Only one of those boxes was only ornaments. The other had other Christmassy items and the third had WWII articles...which I'm keeping for another project.

I have since put the whole box of Christmas crap up on craigslist for cheap - we'll see if anything comes of it. If not, I will give it to charity.

I made Jerome come with me to one of the Estate sales, on its 1/2 off day. The immaculately clean and neat condo was nearly empty compared to the Friday before, but there were still some items that I had written on my list that I would like to buy that were still there. I bought a decorative birdhouse, a Ball mason jar, metal nutcrackers and picks, some ear muffs, a watering can,...and that's when I noticed this really cute "shabby chic" table.

Small round vintage table with sides that close down. I was able to get it for $35 (this table is a great place to display my parents and grandparents wedding photos. I was actually thinking that I was going to buy it for my son and his fiance, but I think I like it too much - we'll see). Jerome found himself down where the old cameras were and bought an old Cannon flash that is really in MINT condition, a self timer and a really nice tripod. He's thinking we can sell these items for way more than what we bought them for. We paid $18.50 for them. I'll report later what we got for them.

Anyway, I have upwards of 800 ornaments now. It takes nearly 100 of all different size ornaments to make a nice full wreath. If I really want to have a class in my home, I will need to have enough ornaments to satisfy everyone. I think I'll keep the class size low; 8 to 10 people...if I can get that many people interested in taking a class.

I have two more wreaths to make; one for my sister Terry (she wants a red, green and gold wreath) and one for my sister Deni (she wants a small silver wreath). Also, I'll be having my daughter-in-law-to-be over on Monday to help her make a wreath for her mom. That will be my first attempt at teaching.

A quick update: Apparently last night one of my 3M Command hooks failed and so, one of the wreaths fell to the ground and broke a bunch of bulbs and cracked the styrofoam wreath base. I'm sad, but I think it's repairable, but unsellable. I guess I'm going to have to write a little letter to 3M.

we should just sell it!...

2010-11-14T20:51:00.006-06:00

Back in April of 1996, I bought my first house. I bought it on my 30th birthday. My mother was my realtor. It was a little house in an established neighborhood; by that I mean old. Big mature trees everywhere. I was a single mother, making $10/hour.

The house needed a lot of work, but I was determined to buy it and even though my mom thought I could do better, why would I listen to her?

Anyway, over the 9+ years that I lived there and the additional 5+ years that I (we've) rented it out, I (we've) had EVERYTHING done to it that could have been done to it other than bulldozing it down and starting over.

I was even interviewed for the local paper about the work that was done on the house.

The "troubles" started on the day I received the keys (6/24/1996), when I noticed that the previous owners had a jar in the lower cabinet in the kitchen that was collecting the water that was leaking from a water pipe. The disclosure had said that they had the plumbing inspected...this was soon followed by a complete tear out of the galvanized plumbing and install of copper plumbing.

Well, a little over a year passed and it was winter and I was having issues with the water draining from the toilet, bathtub, utility tub, sinks, etc. I had the septic tank pumped out a couple of times by now and it was starting to become an emergency. I contacted the local Township offices and also the nearby City's offices to see about tapping into the sewer. It seems that the offices spoke to each other and they figured out a way for me to get tapped into the sewer line in the alley behind the house (still not sure if that alley is owned by the city or the Township).

Since I didn't have the money to pay for such an expensive project, I was able to apply for one of the Township's grants. These grants that the Township gives out are liens on your house that are 0% interest loans and don't need to be paid off until you sell the house.

The Township worked with a local plumbing company; A&E Plumbing...and the job got done. Because of the pitch from the house plumbing to the sewer in the alley, they needed to install an ejector/grinder pump, which I lovingly call the shit shooter. It grinds up all the waste and ejects it down the pipe into the sewer.

Total cost was $6500, which I ended up paying off in 2002, when I needed the Township's help again...I won't get into that story now.

In October of 2008, all the residents of the street got a letter from the Township stating that they were planning on bringing the sewer lines through. They would be coming along the front yard and this would be the time to tap in if needed. Well, I didn't have to tap in, I was already tapped in the back - so the sewer was brought through and I was happy that I didn't need to spend any additional money to tap in.

Over the last couple of years, our "on-call" plumber, Don has been out to the house 4 or more times fixing drainage issues. The last time we called him was last week Tuesday, when our renter called to let us know it was happening again. This time Don could not fix the problem. He said it was the ejector/grinder pump and that is not in his repertoire. So, I called the company that installed it; A&E Plumbing.

After being at the house for a couple of hours and not being able to make any headway trying to open up the pump, they decided that they needed to leave and come back the next day with a backhoe. In the meantime, they installed a sump-pump so that my renters could still use the facilities. The bill for that night was $675. Uh-oh...I couldn't sleep just thinking how much this was going to cost by the end.

They came back Wednesday morning and were able to free the pump from the outer containment unit using a backhoe and a lot of leverage...as the main contractor got sprayed with sewer water from the force! YUK!

The pump was encased in tree roots and they were surprised that it even worked for the amount of time that it had. I guess the 3 or 4 times that Don came to fix the drainage issue was just a precursor to the major fail. And we would need to replace the whole unit; pump and containment unit. Could cost another $5500!

The contractor kept informing us of the progress, however he was very concerned that if we replaced this unit that we would need to continually maintain the pump since the source of the problem - the huge mature tree - was still there and looking for water.

That's when we were reminded that the Township had brought the sewer through the front of the house 2 years prior and maybe it would be a good idea to tap into the front sewer line. However, they were unable to get ahold of anyone at the Township offices that day...they just kept leaving messages. Curtis, the main contractor told us that if they needed to tap in under the road, it could run us closer to $10,000! None of this was sounding very good.

Curtis, continued to do all the running around for us. He called the Township and found out that when they brought the sewer line through, that they had installed a lead. He negotiated the situation with his boss who was able to somehow have the Township waive any of the connection/frontage/tap-in fees...maybe because I had already paid for all of that back in 1998 with the first tap in, but none the less, we were tickled pink to only pay an additional $4500 and never have to deal with this problem again (as she knocks on wood)!

feeling a little crafty...

2010-11-14T14:40:00.001-06:00

Not sure why, but I've picked up some sort of bug. A crafty bug. Can't remember the last time that I've done anything quite so time consuming...other than this blog - LOL.

Earlier in the summer, on one of my days off, I noticed that there was an Estate Sale on Main Street. I decided that I'd go check it out. While I was there I purchased some vintage Christmas ornaments. I had purchased a couple of ornament wreaths at a holiday craft show last year...

...and thought that I might like to make one of my own - for cheap; either to give away or to sell or to keep, not sure which. These two wreaths were made by my SIL's friend from Richmond, MI.

On Labor Day weekend when we were on a camping trip that got rained and colded out, there happened to be an Estate Sale going on in that little "Thumb" town. I convinced Jerome and our friends to stop and I was able to score even more vintage glass ornaments.

Then I thought that the Salvation Army might be a good place to go and check out to see what they had. I scored big time because little did I know, everything was 1/2 off that day. So, 149 ornaments cost me just under $9!

So, I created a spreadsheet with the colors and sizes and tried to figure out what color wreath I could make with all the different color ornaments that I bought. The final choice was Blue, Pink, Silver; with hints of red and green. I used a preformed (extruded) styrofoam wreath that I purchased at Michael's. I ended up using 102 different size glass bulbs:

I thought that a good place to start gluing the bulbs was kind of in the middle of the wreath, but soon learned that it would have been MUCH easier to start from the bottom and work my way up. And as usual, I waited until AFTER my first wreath to do a search on the internet to see if there were any instructions for making these types of wreaths...and of course, there are plenty. I could give step by step instructions, but I would just be mimicking this persons blog. I followed her instructions with the next wreath:

Only I would change the type of wreath base that she used. She used one of those fake evergreen wreaths that you can buy at Michael's, but it makes the structure of the wreath very flexible and no amount of glue will keep everything tight. Bulbs won't fall off, but it just seems not to be structurally sound. So, from now on, I will make the wreaths with just a regular styrofoam wreath base, which I wrap with tinsel-ly garland:

Here's a shot of the back:

In fact, Jerome had a great idea; just purchase a large slab of styrofoam and cut our own wreaths from that using either an electric knife or a jigsaw. From what I can tell, you can make 3 wreaths from one styrofoam slab, and save $8 - or more if you have a Michael's coupon.

After having made all of these wreaths, I thought I'd see if I could actually sell them, so I put them in my Etsy shop. It only costs .20 cents to list an item and if it sells, then there are commission fees to pay, but they are very minimal. Anyway, I've sold two in a week! I hope they arrive safe and sound.

The next thing that I decided to tackle was something that I saw in a blog I follow; a teacup bird feeder. Very simple and I had all the materials at home, so it turned out to be a 3 minute job with an overnight drying time for the glue.

The neighborhood squirrels love it :D

a year...

2010-10-27T14:30:00.002-05:00

I've made it! 1 year today! I'm happy about that. This part-time temporary position has lasted me longer than I thought {knock, knock...oh that's not wood...}.

It helped out a lot to conduct that little experiment on positive thinking back in February. It "forced" me to think about all the good things that this job entailed. I learned to appreciate it more. I may still have my complaints, but who doesn't, right?

I still love, Love, LOVE that it's part-time. Gives me much more time for myself and errands, etc. Really not sure how much longer my boss is going to allow me to only work 3 days a week...he "threatens" to make me full-time every now and then, but I'm not sure they can afford all those added benefits for an additional employee - however, it does seem like things in the auto industry are starting to recover. More of a possibility he will ask me to work 4 days.

The other day a recruiter called me on my cell and I answered it in front of my boss...not unusual since we share a cube. I was awkward in my responses to her and he knew instantly that it was a recruiter on the other end of the line. When the call ended, he had no issue asking all about it. He was wondering if I was "looking" for full-time. I told him that I think I have it pretty good here and that if full-time is something that is required, I'm willing to do it...but I do like my part-time-ness...

fall color and winery tour...

2010-10-13T13:34:00.002-05:00

For the past 4 years, the third week of September was dedicated to the Michigan MINI Cooper Club's only charity event; The Great Lakes Crossing. The past three years, Jerome and I have been involved with the planning committee.

Typically the charity is Make-A-Wish, but last year we tried to accommodate some others in the club and we chose 2 local charities; one in West Michigan and one in Eastern Michigan. This did not go over very well with some others in the club. In order to appease them, we added Make-A-Wish to the list...but it did not satisfy them. So much so that Jerome and I decided that we would no longer be a part of the planning committee for this charity event in the future...if anything. Yes, it got THAT bad.

There was only one more Great Lake to "do" and that was Lake Ontario. We gave over everything to a Canuck that is a part of our Michigan club. However we knew just how much time and effort this event takes up and we were not very confident that our brother to the North would be able to handle it, especially with what little "committee" that he had (one other guy). As it turns out, he let his life get in the way of the event and thus, this year there was no Great Lakes Crossing.

Predicting that this event was going along the wayside, a couple of couples in the club decided that they would plan a different event; The M-22 Fall Color and Winery Tour; sans charity. A bunch of people became very interested very quickly in this trip. As did we.

So last weekend was the Winery Trip and it went very well. Any time there are a bunch of MINIs caravaning down the highway with walkie-talkies, is a good time. There were a total of 20 MINIs and 40 people.

The weather was gorgeous; couldn't have asked for any better - the trees were changing colors - the temperature was pleasant.

{Look how the water changes color as it gets deeper}

{Stopped at the Grocer's Daughter Chocolates...}

{A beautiful barn along the way...}

{Lil' Bo's in Traverse City - if you click on this pic, you will see that they had a sign welcoming our group...}

We celebrated Jbo's (Jerome's) 35th birthday while we were on the trip...Larry and Kris informed the staff and they brought out this wonderful cake...that Jerome had to cut into 40 pieces - Happy Birthday Hun! :D...

{We stopped at Meijer and found this funny looking. To us it looked like a dog driving a Durango...}

Some of the colors...however, others in our group have some really GORGEOUS pics of the fall colors...

{Photo op at the 45th Parallel...}

Blackstar Farms Winery. Jerome has never seen the netting over the vineyards before and he's from wine country in Cote d'Or France...

I'm not much of a wine drinker, but it was still a lot of fun. We visited 5 wineries in the Traverse City area. I acquired a wine glass from each winery we stopped...

{The old Asylum...made into a mall. Really cool place...}

This was shot on the morning of the 10th...it looks like the edge of the earth...the sky and the water were the same color...

{Martha's Leelanau Table...I HIGHLY recommend this place. Fantastic breakfast...}

Yum.

quick trip out east...

2010-10-03T23:04:00.013-05:00

Last weekend, we headed east on a mission; to pick up my son's car in New Jersey.

Both of my sisters live out east; one in Sagamore Beach, MA and one in Brooklyn, NY, so while we were on that side of the country, we thought we'd stop in for a bit.

My sister Terry and her husband Bill moved back to the US last year around this time - you may remember from an earlier post that I drove out to Boston to surprise them at the airport. Since then, they purchased a really nice place a block away from the ocean. This was our first time visiting this new place.

The evening we arrived after taking a short walk down to the ocean, we ate real live (at first) lobster...that was by our request. You can't go to New England without having some lobster, can you?

We were only visiting for about 48 hours, and for one full day, my hubby was sick. He's been working very hard for the last couple of weeks; staying up very late working on a project for work and it finally caught up to him. So, he was in bed for the entire day on Monday.

Terry and I went to visit Plymouth and the Art Center where she is volunteering her time. Right now is the biggest event that the Art Center throws; The Plymouth Guild 43rd Annual Juried Art Show. I got to walk around the Center and vote for which piece would be "Best in Show" and play a little scavenger hunt game where they give you a paper with 20 or so pictures of a portion of different art pieces and you had to find them within the Center and write down the name of the art piece. I won! I think everyone wins if they are playing. I suggested that they should offer 10% off a purchase of an art piece if the scavenger hunt paper is completed and correct.

I really could have used that 10% off coupon because I ended up purchasing one of the 1st Place winners for its category..."Sense of Sight" by Hollianne Wood-Carruthers. This sculpture is made from old metal negatives (dry plate negatives or printing plates) and the wood from the printing frames. The metal has been oxidized so each negative has a different color; purple, orange, black, white. The only thing that I've seen on-line that is close to this sculpture is this. I am anxiously awaiting my sisters next visit when she will be bringing me my sculpture.

Which brings me to my question of the day...What is the greatest amount of money that you've ever spent for a piece of art? If you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine :)

I'm pretty lucky - I come from a family of artists, which means I didn't have to pay for any of their pieces...and we mostly have only original art work on our walls. We have purchased a photograph from a friend - otherwise we have friends that have actually GIVEN us their artwork; even if it's something we're specifically requesting (sort of commissioning without paying). We have great friends! Mostly, we spend our money on framing and in some cases, matting.

Also while there, my sister showed me her finger. Two weeks prior, she had been walking her dogs on the beach and needed to have the one dog retrieve the other and the dogs leash which was wrapped around my sisters ring finger yanked the finger and it was sprained or something. (There's a longer story about this having to do with my sister not being in her right mind at the time because her daughter who had spent a month and a half in Africa during the summer had just been admitted into the hospital that day with Malaria..etc, but I won't get into all of that). It was pretty swollen, still. She could not get her rings off and was worried about going to the hospital. I told her that all we needed to do was go to the fire station; they have the equipment there to remove rings (I saw it on Design Star a couple of years ago). So, as she was driving me around her neighborhood, I asked her where the fire station is located. So we went and the paramedics took care of removing her rings without too much pain.

Anyway, the next day Jerome and I needed to leave Massachusetts for New York City. About a 4 hour drive. We would only be in NYC for a few hours before heading to New Jersey. Enough time to take a gander at my sister Deni's new kitchen that my brother Ray put in last year. It looked really nice and opened up her apartment quite a bit. She prepared dinner; pesto ravioli with some ingredients that she grew in her urban garden.

We had plans to head out for a square dancing evening, but since Linda was waiting (in New Jersey), we thought it best to head out. It's about a 45 minute to an hour drive from the city to where Linda lives in New Jersey. She is the one that was housing my son's car that he purchased on the internet while he's been in Afghanistan.

We watched the first disk of the birthday project for my dad and played games and then headed to bed.

The next day Jerome and I would spend it entirely in separate cars. We brought our walkie-talkies so that we could keep up communication with each other. He drove Justin's car the first half and I drove it the second half. The car does not have a radio, so you basically listened to rattling noises and a high performance engine...for 6 hours (each). Luckily the seat was comfortable.

Anyway, it made it home and will have to make it down to North Carolina in November and then it's all his :D

Mission Accomplished - for real!

**I was just informed by a close friend that the above image is disrespectful. I thought it was funny...but to be more "non-partisan", I am adding another equally disrespectful image below. I say disrespectful because it didn't happen.

I was really only trying to convey that MY Mission was Accomplished - for real.

And then my husband reminded me that this is my blog and I can put whatever I want in it; whether it offends people or not. This is why people have blogs...I will try to keep this in mind for future posts.

dad's 80th birthday...

2010-10-03T21:29:00.004-05:00

Just this afternoon we finished the final DVD of the 8mm home movies. We went to Mom & Dad's at around 5:30pm. Brought some Boston Market for dinner and I made an apple pie this afternoon.

His actual birthday is next week Sunday, but Jerome and I will be on a Wine Tour with our MINI peeps, so we came a weekend early to share some birthday love. Jerome and my dad share their birth date,...only 45 years difference.

Gave Dad (and Mom) the gift and they both were so happy. Dad cried (not unusual, if you know my dad)...and my mom nearly cried (VERY unusual, if you know my mom). So, I would call it a success. We even got a request to burn one more set for my God Mother; Aunt Pat...which we may do, but at a later date - this was a huge project and we're happy to be done with it.

Here's a little sample of one of the movies. It's of my sisters at Christmas in 1957...please don't mind the music - this is NOT the music that went into the DVD. When you put something on YouTube, you usually can't use copyrighted music...so this was one YouTube suggested.

Oh, and the tricky camera work was my father back in the day.

dad's birthday project...

2010-09-16T14:38:00.002-05:00

I changed the design of my blog. I picked one of the pre-made templates. I like it, but I'll see if I like it enough to let it stay. What do you think?

Jerome and I have been working on a project that was started a few years ago but has come to a point that it needs to get done - and it's a perfect time to get it done because it will be a birthday present for my dad. He is turning 80 this year.

The project that I'm talking about is putting my parents 8mm home movies into a digital format.

It's a little complicated since we don't have the equipment to do this the way professionals would, but we hope it turns out OK anyway.

Luckily the old projector is still working so that we could set it up with the film, point it at the screen (also the original) and use our digital video camera on a tripod and record the movie on the screen.

A little off topic,...I have a question. When did your household first have color TV? It seems from what I can read on Wikipedia that it wasn't until the summer of 1954 that color TVs were made available to the general public. I am too young to know that for sure, but I do recall something being said to us in Kindergarten about the first color TVs coming to households in September 1954 and I remember marking that in my mind, because that is when my oldest sister was born. I thought "WOW, my sister is really old". Anyway, the reason I ask is because all of the home movies that my mother and father took were on color film. I'm guessing that they didn't own a color TV at the time, but they could record their own lives in true Technicolor. The first home movie is Christmas 1956. This is when they purchased the camera, projector and screen...I know this because you can see all of the boxes for these items under the tree.

We recorded the 8mm in the late winter last year - we had a trial run of this about two years prior, but decided to just re-do it all last winter. We set this up in the basement, so it was very dark. The 8mm film itself is starting to deteriorate by either getting really bleached out or getting really dark. The projector is running a bit slow (probably needs oil on some gears) and so everybody looks to be in slow motion.

However, we have a Mac and they are supposed to be great with pictures and movies. It came with the software iMovie and iDVD, but Jerome is an avid reader of computer magazines and articles discussing new technologies and software, so he found one on the internet that he thought would work for what we would want to do in the future and downloaded it along with its very large manual. The software is called Final Cut (Pro, I think).

So, after we sat through nearly 4 hours of home movies, recording them all with the video camera, Jerome then transferred them onto the computer. And then it sat there for several months while spring and summer came and (nearly) went.

We've (mostly he) started pulling the movies into Final Cut, where it gets edited and pieces fall on the cutting room floor. It's good that he is the one editing because he can provide some objectivity since these are not (in a lot of cases) people he knows and whom he is emotionally attached to. Clip, clip, clip.

So, now we have ordered the movies by year and event, we have edited the length, we have added chapter markers and transitions, have made freeze frame images with titles to each of the movies (I think there are 44 in total) and placed them at the beginning of each movie. We have removed the ambient sound, which consisted of the projector noise and my commentary on each of the movies, we lightened the dark films and darkened the light films and sped them up just a tad. We went online to find the old drive-in intermission clips from the 50's and 60's so that we can use them at the end of two of the three DVDs that these movies will fill.

Now we are trying to get music that they liked from that era. Once we find what we want to use, we will add it to the program and voila! No more silent movies!

Then we will still have to set up the DVDs with the movies and some still photos and also "Chapters" so that you can choose the movie you want to watch. Then it will be rendering and burning time. Can only hope all goes well. Dad's birthday will be upon us quite quickly. Jerome and my dad share a birth date (October 10).

We would also like to be done with these for our trip out east at the end of next week. So that we can get approval from my older sisters.

It's quite a process and this is not the first movie/DVD that we've done on the Mac. We had to purchase an external hard drive and a back-up. These movies take a LOT of room/memory.

update to the tale...

2010-09-11T16:41:00.003-05:00

Today was my "Bad Driver Class".

I called to set up the class right after I got home on Wednesday from court. I had up to 6 months to complete the class. I wanted to get this over with and behind me as soon as possible.

It was at the Class A Training Center in Armada. This is where they teach people to be over the road truck drivers.

The class was pretty full - mostly teens and young twenties. I was the oldest...I think I was even older than the teacher. They made thousands today. I had to pay $85 cash for the class, but I could see that some had to pay more.

The class was very basic. The class commentary was much more entertaining. We all got the chance to learn about just how many BAD drivers there are out there on the road...and in this class was just a small percentage of them.

The teacher wanted us to share with the class how we ended up there.

Without any prompting, we found out that a couple of the guys had two or more DUI's, plus accidents and speeding tickets. One girl was driving on a suspended license and didn't update her tags, so that's how she got nailed. Others blew through stop signs. It was starting to get ridiculous. These are semi new drivers. And the bravado in the room was hard to take. They all seemed rather proud of themselves.

But the funniest story was from an 18 year old guy. He lives at 24 Mile Road and Dequindre. He left for the class at 8:30am. The class started at 9am. It would have taken him 15-20 minutes to get to class, but he decided that he was in a hurry. He was clocked doing 99 in a 70 zone. The State Trooper that wrote him up, wrote him up for the whole thing; 29 over! He was in the class for a speeding ticket and then he shared with us that he needed to clear up yet another ticket. I think this guy will be used as an example and will end up in jail for a while.

Crazy, getting a ticket on your way to "safe driving school"...or I think I'm more appropriate to call it "Bad Driver Class".

a tale of woe...

2010-09-09T14:36:00.001-05:00

All I can say is NEVER get a ticket in Romeo.

Here's my story (excuse?...maybe)...

It was a Monday. I had just finished up my Meals on Wheels route and was heading to my parents house for the afternoon. I call it my Senior Citizen Monday.

I headed east out my driveway and down the VERY steep hill going toward downtown. I was not paying attention to my speed, but I was not using the accelerator because I was heading down the hill. There is a traffic light at VanDyke (Prospect) and Gates, but if you don't have to stop for that, your momentum continues and you are most likely picking up speed as you pass the cheesy motel (La Juliette a.k.a. The Romeo Inn). Right about the area where you start to curve around to go into town; where Gates changes into Main Street, there is a small dirt driveway that has a dumpster at the end...and there he was; Officer Gorgeous (inside joke between Jbo and me). Now, I was not going any faster than the people that were in front of me, but I was the last one around the curve.

The next thing I see are the lights. Oh Geez! I remember seeing him in that spot when I was finishing up my last delivery and was heading back to the Senior Center on Morton. Damn! I wish I had remembered he was there.

Typically, when I stop my car and turn off the engine, the next thing I do is immediately take off my seatbelt. It's an impulse. In a case where I'm getting pulled over, I do the same thing, but then I worry that the officer didn't notice that my seatbelt was ever on in the first place...then I think, maybe I can sneak it back on, but if I do that, he'll think I never had it on and will question me about why I'm putting it on and I'll get an extra ding when he writes me a ticket. So, instead I just sit there and wait and see.

First thing the officer says to me is "Speed limit on Gates is 25". Smarty me says with a sort of surprised questioning tone "I live on Gates...?". He says he clocked me doing 40MPH, why do I suppose I was moving that fast? Smarty me says "I would think it has something to do with the hill". He says that from where he clocked me, there is no longer a hill. I beg to differ (I didn't say that), but if you had a marble and you placed it where he clocked me, it would be flying down the hill (that no longer exists) and probably would be clocked doing 40. Then he asked me what my license plate means. I told him that it has to do with our online MINI club and that it's me and my husbands screen name. He asked me if I've received a ticket lately and I told him that yes, I have. He goes back to his car.

When he comes back he tells me that where I live, the speed limit on Gates is 35. So, he is going to write me up for 5 miles over the speed limit. He asked me where I received my last ticket because it hasn't shown up yet. I told him in Waterford (or wherever I was). When they write you a ticket, all you do it pay it and it "goes away". He said that it is similar here in Romeo, but that I would have to go to court.

My court date was yesterday at 2pm. I was not going to worry too much about it because I've been through all of this before (I think this was my third time in 28 years that I've had to go to court for a ticket).

I believe the judge was related to one of the previous owners of our house. One from the early 70's - the Romeo Attorney. Same last name and I believe when I spoke to said Attorney last year, he mentioned that his son was a Romeo judge.

There were 3 kids (16+ years old) and maybe 4 or 5 adults to be judged. The session started out with a little lecture from the judge stating that 30,000+ people die each year to traffic accidents and, in his words "nobody cares". Then he went into the whole cell phone and texting distractions that cause auto accidents. I was thinking that I'm probably the only one who actually pulls over to text and even sometimes to talk on the cell phone (like when I was headed to the hospital last week).

The first guy that was up was in his late 30's and the judge chewed him a new one. He had something like 7 points already, so he was not going to get a break (like removing the points he was about to receive). He was a little too mouthy for the judges approval. He was told that he would need to take a class + the $120 for 5 miles over the speed limit.

Next guy was one of the 16+ year olds. He was dressed in a suit. He was very nice and accepted his judgment. The judge told him that he would need to pay $195, which he then made a side note that if you don't receive the points, you are charged an additional $50 and that is why his judgment is more than what was written on the pamphlet. Nice to tell us now. It said on the pamphlet that we needed to be sure to bring the correct amount of our charge, but I'm not sure any of us knew that we would need to pay an additional $50 to have our points erased. Don't worry, they have an ATM machine in the lobby or if you want to use your credit card, an additional charge of 5% will be added.

Next up - me. He asked me my driving record. I said I believe I have no points on my driving record. He asked if I had any other violations in the past two years. I figured from the first guy that was in front of him that he was well aware of what violations we've had, so I told him that yes, in the last two years, I have received a ticket for speeding. He asked me what happened with that one and I told him that all they required from me is payment and the points would "disappear". He said we don't do things like that around here; otherwise how do you know who the bad drivers are. I'm thinking many things at this point like - I see "bad" drivers out there all the time and I'm not one of them. I'm not darting through traffic at outrageous speeds. I was just caught in a speed trap; down a hill, where the limit changed from 35 to 25 and within a few feet, it was back up to 30. I was also thinking that I see a lot of police officers driving very poorly. Doing things we would be stopped for, but for some reason, they are "allowed" to do these maneuvers - just not fair. But alas, I said nothing and took my medicine.

The medicine was $120 for the ticket (5mph over), $50 to have the points disappear AND a driving class, which I found out at the cashiers desk that would cost me an additional $85 and 4 hours of my time.

Yes people, that's $255, + 1/2 a day off work, + 4 hours of my precious weekend time...all for 5 miles over the limit, caught in an obvious trap at the bottom of a steep hill.

At the cashiers desk I looked over at the 16+ year old boy, dressed in his suit, paying his outrageous ticket (for 10 over) and asked him where in Romeo was he pulled over? He told me it was as he was entering the expressway. I asked him if he felt it was a trap? He grinned a little and nodded then said that he was a little distracted that day because he had just picked up (or dropped off) his sister at rehab. It's too bad we don't feel confident enough to fight our fines. He nodded. I told him that mine was bad too (however, probably not as bad)...I got pulled over on my own street.

Peyton Isabella Bruce is Born!...

2010-09-02T23:31:00.001-05:00

Got the call from Kathy at 9:08am on Monday to let me know that Sam was admitted into the hospital and was dilated 5cm.

Took a shower, finished up the dishes and called Meals on Wheels to get a sub for me that day. Frustrations; the MonW voicemail that tells you to call back during regular business hours kept picking up and then hanging up at the end of the message. It WAS regular business hours!!! I called 5 times before I got a hold of a human to let them know I would not be able to do my run that day. As it turns out, I could have done my run. But you just never know when things are going to happen.

Started driving to the hospital a little after 10am. While driving, my cell was going off. I can't immediately identify where the bugger is, so I pull over and fish it out of my purse. It's Jerome, I'd missed the call so I call him back. The connection is bad and then goes dead. My cell phone is dead! UGH! I don't have my charger with me!

Got to the hospital and decided to park in the parking garage on the North side of the hospital. I pull into the first space I find, which I notice once I'm all the way pulled in that this space is reserved for Large vehicles...and I'm driving my MINI. I start backing out when I nearly get rear-ended (completely my fault) by a pick-up truck that doesn't see me backing out of this spot because I'm so small next to these huge trucks.

When I finally arrived in the Labor and Delivery Room (room 7 - good luck!), everything was nice and calm. Really nice room; a little cold. We all stayed there and chatted for a few hours. There was Sam, her mother Kathy, her father Bill and her brother Derek - and me.

There was a point in time where she found it possible to Skype with Justin...after he ate dinner. It was nice to see his very pixalized face. Then he needed to leave again to use the restroom. Talked for a moment and then said he needed to get off so he could go to sleep. Nice. Good for him, I guess. Guys, they have it so easy...especially when they are away fighting a war.

She remained calm the entire time we were all in the room. She was really doing good until she started feeling the pain. Then the mood changed and it was time for us to leave. The doctor was determining what to do to bring her along since it seemed her progression had slowed down.

We all retreated to the actual "Waiting Room". A short while later we were joined by Jerome. He was coming from work. Had some dinner, watched some TV, browsed the internet...

Three and a half hours later, our little angel was born.

We found out later that she was facing the wrong way and that was the reason she was having a hard time coming out.

She was born Monday, August 30 at 9:37pm. She was weighed in at 8lbs 1oz (first time she was weighed, the scale was wrong) and she's 20 3/4" long.

the place to be...

2010-08-29T16:37:00.001-05:00

I was debating on whether I would write this on my blog or not. But I figured, you don't know who I'm talking about anyway (the names have been changed to protect the innocent) and this would be one of those strange stories that either I or Jerome would tell you when we saw you next, so what the heck.

Last Saturday we had a graduation party to attend in Livonia (Aino-Vil, as my co-worker calls it). We were there for several hours and on our way home, we stopped by my brothers place in Commerce Township to visit. We stayed for about 45 minutes and then headed home.

By the time we got home, it was very dark and as we approached the back door, we noticed a note taped on the glass of the storm door. Jerome tried to read it in the dark and thought it was from an old acquaintance Jean-Marc (the baker). I snipped at him to wait until we got into the house and turned on the lights to see who it was from (I do not understand his propensity to try to do everything in the dark, when it's so much easier just to turn on a frickin' light!). Anyhoo...he finally read the note and it was from a girl that used to work with the previous owner at the library. She also happened to be the ex-girlfriend of Jean-Marc (the baker). She's come over to the house on a couple of occasions when we had a dinner party, but it has been about 3 or so years since she's been to the house. The note said she had stopped by and said she liked the porch (above the garage); actually, I think she called it a shed.

Well, we were sorry we had missed her.

The next day I went up to the porch/deck/patio (still not really sure what to call it, so mostly we say "upstairs" - which is also confusing since we have an upstairs in the house) to continue painting the rafters. That's when I noticed a purse and a scruffy looking rain jacket sitting on the couch. I thought about the possibility of some teenagers using our deck in the middle of the night. I walked over to check to see if anything was in the purse and it was empty. I also came across a pencil sharpener on the table. It was an odd find, but I quickly realized that these items must be (we'll call her) Lady R's. So, I went on to Facebook (because I remember seeing her there as one of the previous owners friends) and sent her a message.

Later in the day, we were visited by our across-the-street neighbor, Al. As he passed me and headed toward the garage to visit with Jerome, he asked if we were out yesterday evening. I said yes, that we were at a graduation party. He then told Jerome that we had a visitor that evening. We said that we knew that Lady R had stopped by because she left a note.

He told us that he noticed her looking in the garage windows and then walking toward the steps that lead to the upper garden. Then he didn't see her any longer. He said he got curious and walked across the street (since he didn't see our car either). He found her on the couch on the deck and asked her who she was and if she lived in Romeo. She told him her name and said that she knows Jerome and also that she knows Terry (the previous owner). Al said that when she said she knew Terry, he thought uh-oh, is this a stripper that Terry knew? But soon came to the realization that Lady R was not a stripper...because of the obvious (flat as a pancake, as he put it). Anyway, he let her be and walked back home.

He came back about an hour later, as it was getting dark and wanted to be sure this person was not still there. However, she was - and she was sleeping on the couch. He woke her up and said to her that she seems like a nice girl but since we are not at home and he doesn't know her, he would ask her to leave before he needed to call the police.

He said she got up kinda slowly and finally left. He said that when he first noticed her, she was walking on the next door neighbors front lawn and then turned onto our driveway - she had walked there - and so she walked back (home?).

He jokingly asked if we were running a flop-house. And as it turned out, we did have an overnight guest the night before. One of our MINI friends who lives in Canada spent the night after having dinner with us at another MINI friends house.

We sort of had a puzzled feeling the rest of the day. We hope she was alright because we know that she has some health issues. That's about when I noticed that in the recycle bin there were a couple of other notes from the same notepad that Lady R left her note to us on. I read them both; one said to remember to ask Chris out to dinner and the other had three different kinds of medication names, which happened to be seizure medications.

The next day was Monday. It's my day off and I was doing my morning cleaning. I was taking a vase of water from an already spent flower outside to throw onto some dehydrated plant when I noticed our "neighborhood watch" Al with his bike and sporting his bike helmet. He was on the driveway, just parked his bike and was starting to walk toward the steps to go up to the deck! I surprised him. He said OH! I didn't know you were home, I thought you were at work. There were some awkward pauses and then he said he was going up to the deck to see if I had anymore boarders.

I found this hysterical and I called Jerome once Al left. Jerome (he's so quick witted) said I should have said to Al that he seems like a nice guy but he should leave before I need to call the police. LOL!

Anyway, we just had a good laugh about that. The deck must be the "place to be".

what i did last summer...

2010-08-17T12:42:00.008-05:00

It's still summer and in fact we still have several weeks of this hot, humid weather - but for some reason, it feels like summer is nearly gone. But then again, if I really think about it, one year ago today we were getting the walls of our garage poured and that was really the beginning of a long summer project that didn't end until mid-October.

We've done a lot of fun stuff so far - and not all just fixing up stuff at the house (which I think will be the death of us). Here's just some of the stuff we've done in the past 6 weeks beyond painting the garage and stripping the windows...

The company I work for has a suite at Comerica Park and every now and then, they put your name in a pool and if you get picked, you get tickets to the Tiger's game for that Friday evening. You can even specify how many tickets you want...next time I will ask for 4 tickets because it is really cool to watch a game from a suite and we'd like to bring another couple. The Penske suite is right next to the broadcast booth, so that is kind of cool as well.

There was a huge wind storm on July 11th. At our other house in Clinton Township, one of the big trees from our neighbors yard came crashing down on to our property. There's a new neighbor living there now since my old (favorite) neighbor, Dolores passed away. If she was still living, it would not have been an issue whatsoever - she knew this was her tree and she would have had her sons take care of it right away. The new neighbor was not sure where our property lines were, so he was thinking (hoping) that the tree belonged to us since it was going to cost hundreds of dollars to get it removed. I was about to say to him that we'd share the cost, but Jerome stopped me - it's not our tree, it's not our cost, it's not our fault, it has nothing to do with us other than it landed on our yard. He is right, so I shut up.

We did the Romeo garden tour, which was really nice - always is. We waited until the afternoon to go - as soon as we got to our first place, the sky opened up and downpoured (the last downpour of the season, so far). Then it became suffocatingly humid. But it's still really nice to see how people do up their garden spaces. It went from one house being so "natural" to another house that was professionally done and everything in between. There was one that looked like a garden you would pay to see...actually we did pay to see all of them...hummm...well, you know what I mean.

July 18th was the baby shower for my son and his fiance, Sam. She is due the end of this month. She is HUGE!!! I'm not sure how she's going to be able to pass this baby. Maybe she'll have to have a cesarian. Anyway, the shower was really nice and she (they) received a lot of great, helpful items. Justin was not able to make it to the shower because he is still in Afghanistan. He won't be able to make it for the delivery either. Very sad really. He'll come home some time in November and see his baby for the first time. Voila! Baby! (above are the infant photos of Sam and Justin).

Check out that look she's giving me!

While my big sis was in town (for the shower - which she was unable to make...long story), we took one of my day's off to head to the Ann Arbor Art Fair. I can't remember the last time I've been there...if ever. It was a freakishly humid day with strange weather. We could actually see the rainstorms heading up the street. By the end we were wet, sweaty, tired and just wanted to be in the A/C...which my car didn't have. In fact, the MINI kept trying to overheat. We decided we'd stop and let the car cool down along with the traffic and go watch a movie. Then afterward we tried to find our way home (without GPS! YIPES!). Took some extra time, but we finally got home.

The MINI...we have participated in a lot of MINI activities in the past month. Some MINI related BBQ's at friends houses.

I'm sure you all remember the sky those couple of days. Strange, almost like there was a forest fire somewhere. And a huge full moon. I think everybody and their brother got (and posted on FB) a picture of the sky from that day...

The local MINI dealer has been showing a lot more interest in our club recently and has thrown a couple of really cool parties, where they feed us! The one in July was called "Dog Days of Summer" where you could bring your doggie with you and they had a fashion show with a winner. Our MINI club member MaryBeth won - actually her dog Lani won for best costume.

This past weekend was the Woodward Progressive. We have several club members that live along Woodward and about 3 years ago they decided to get together and do a Progressive to commemorate the Dream Cruise (only a week before the big event so as not to have to drive in all of the cruise traffic). We visit 4 members houses; appetizers at one, bean dip at another, hot dogs and hamburgers at the third and finally dessert at the last. It's pretty cool and usually a good turn out.

After the last place, a few of us headed out to Memphis Smoke to watch yet another MINI club member play his harmonica in the band he just joined about a week or so ago; Rev. Robert Sexton and the All Star Blues Review. They were competing with 3 other bands and won the chance to move on to the next level!

Oh, one thing that I forgot to mention, one of the MINI club members that has his house in the Progressive is the son of one of the guys I used to work with at Chrysler Liberty; Bob Malcolm. He was at his sons house with his Hot Rod that he has spent years working on. It's all done now and looks fantastic. It was nice seeing him again after all these years and we'll make a time to get together with other old Liberty people for lunch sometime very soon.

Oh, and I should not forget that we also had our 7th annual pot luck at our house. This year we had the most MINI people attend; 28. But also had a bunch of other friends and colleagues (total of 76 peeps). It turned out very well - the first year that we had rain - but it was much needed and only lasted an hour at the most.

We need more rain! Bring on the rain!!! We no longer have grass...we have straw. Watering is one letter away from Wast(e)ing according to Jerome. He's really not all that bad about the thought of watering, but we just don't do it enough, and we don't have integrated sprinklers, so to drag the hose around is a real drag...literally!

DAY 10 (Sunday, July 4)...

2010-07-29T10:15:00.003-05:00

Whew! This is a long vacation...but one of Jerome's favorites, he says.

Drove to Hoh Rain Forest and did all the touristy hiking trails. So let's see, as far as wild animals on this trip, we've seen raccoons, deer, elk (babies), bald eagles, spray of killer whale and on this hike we got to see, up close a tiny squirrel sitting on the side of a tree eating a pine cone of sorts. No bear. And that's all Jerome wanted to see. Oh well, maybe next time.

Walked on the beach of the Pacific Ocean. The ocean was cold, the outside temperature was cold. Glad I bought that wool hat!

Drove to the rental car place and stayed at the airport for a couple of hours before we flew home. We were home by 6:30am on Monday, July 5. Our friends Terry & Theresa picked us up with our MINI. :)

Life is good. Vacations are cool.

DAY 9 (Saturday, July 3)...

2010-07-29T10:04:00.004-05:00

Began the day taking the Ferry (almost an ocean-going ferry) back to the US; Victoria to Port Angeles.

It was really a beautiful day - the water was calm enough. There was a group of ladies providing entertainment by playing the violin in the ferry which reminded me of the Titanic.

When the ride was nearly done, I was walking through one of the common areas and saw all the passengers looking off to the one side of the boat - making the boat keel a little bit. I asked what they are looking at and was told that there was a whale sighting. As I looked in the same direction, I saw the spray of a killer whale breaching.

Once in Port Angeles, we decided to eat. Stopped at a nice looking sandwich restaurant. We will call our waitress 'Miss Butt Crack'. It didn't matter what she did, a good inch or two was continually showing. Took us over an hour to get our food. After 45 minutes we already had too much time invested to leave. Miss Butt Crack kept coming to tell us that she was sorry. But one of the remarkable things was that it wasn't just us that didn't get served - there was absolutely NO food coming out of the kitchen the entire time we were there waiting. Eventually we got our food and I'm glad we waited because mine was fabulous. Jerome didn't have as much luck - his ended up being a cold sandwich which is not his favorite - he sent it back to get nuked. We didn't have to pay for our lunch. Bonus for waiting.

Drove to Olympic National Park, Hurricane Ridge and the Olympic Mountains. All I can say is OMG!!! It's really gorgeous! You MUST go!

We drove all the way up past the clouds and into the snow. Jerome made a tiny snowman. I think it was something like 100 degrees in Michigan that day :D

Once we were up at the top, we stayed for a little presentation that the Ranger did about the Cougars. She had a skin and a skull that she showed us. Basically she told us that they don't know much about them because they are elusive.

As with anything with us, we don't stay for long. We saw what we came there to see, took pictures and then we were on our way. We did that with the Grand Canyon as well.

Started driving to the Hoh Rain Forest. Drove past Lake Crescent and into Forks, WA - home of Twilight (the movie). Stayed at a (sort of) B&B in Forks. The decor was very Christian...everywhere. She needed to get to church early in the morning the next day, so we were asked to be out of there around 7:30am...oh, and no breakfast.

Forks is a small town that seems a bit depressed. But with the Twilight series, it is breathing a bit of life back into the town.

While we were taking the picture of the lumberjack with the arrow through his head - were were nearly assaulted by some local boys in a huge, loud pick-up truck. Apparently they are none too pleased that tourists are coming to Forks and providing their depressed economy a little burst of revenue.

According to our B&B hostess, Forks also was where they filmed the Ewok scenes for the Star Wars series; Return of the Jedi. She said that the Ewoks huts were just recently torn down. However we have not been able to find someone who is willing to collaborate that story.

DAY 8 (Friday, July 2)...

2010-07-29T09:15:00.001-05:00

The hotel we stayed (which was VERY clean and nice for an older hotel) had a shuttle service to downtown Victoria. We were dropped off a couple blocks away from the harbor and we just walked around the city.

There were street vendors; one of whom I purchased a cool wool hat and performers. The Empress Hotel. The Parliament buildings, etc. We walked around the old city and into China Town - at one point using a very narrow alley.

We decided that we'd do the Butchart Gardens in the evening. We were told that the gardens are very pretty when the landscape lighting comes on (around 8pm).

My most favorite part of the garden tour was the "Sunken Garden" where Mrs. Butchart took over the quarry where her husband worked and made it into a breathtaking garden. Really, they should have that as one of the last gardens you visit because it's just awesome.

There were other gardens as well, the Japanese garden, the Mediterranean garden, the rose garden - but really, none of them compared to the Sunken garden.

After we were done with the garden, we drove back down to downtown Victoria to see it at night - all lit up.

DAY 7 (Thursday, July 1 - Canada Day)...

2010-07-29T08:22:00.002-05:00

After a lot of thought, we decided the easiest way to do this was to keep the car at Travlelodge and walk to the train station through an Indian Reservation. It only rained on us a little.

Today happens to be Canada Day and when boarding the train, the Rocky Mountaineer, we all got a little Canadian flag to wave around.

The train was headed to Whistler, and took the the same route we took with the car the day before, only a bit further north.

The train was on the edge and sometimes they had to slow the thing WAY down to make it around the sharp corners. The guide told us a little story about several cars falling off the tracks down to the water - quite a fall - so at some point they determined that it would be a good idea to make some tunnels and slow the train down when they came to those curves. I had to hide in the bathroom for a moment. Anxiety. But quickly realized that hiding in the bathroom won't do me any good if several of the cars fall off the track. The bathroom would be pulled down with the rest of 'em.

Whistler seemed to me like Disney for adults. Seemed too fake and brand new, but I guess, in this stage, it's more like 30 or so years old.

Got there just in time to experience the Canada Day parade!

Walked to the creperie. Went to the museum to check out the Olympic stuff, but there wasn't much.

For me a very anxious day - took the train in and knew to get back to Vancouver I would be taking a sea-plane! YIKES!!!...so, it made for a very quiet day at Whistler with many trips to the bathroom.

I'm such a chicken.

At the end of the day we met up with all the others that were taking the plane back. A van waiting for us on a side street with sea-plane decals all over it. As it turns out, the driver of the van would also be our pilot!

I was not the only one that was nervous...even someone who WORKS ON planes was not too sure about the construction of the plane.

The lake was like glass when we took off. The views were beautiful! I kept looking for places where he could do an emergency landing. Thoughts of killer whales or being lost in the forest of trees on the mountains, being eaten by bears...if I survived. OR we'd have to eat each other!!! Oh man, I'm nuts!

We landed safely in the Vancouver harbor. It was pretty neat - not sure if I'd do it again, but I can at least say I did it.

Found our way to the bus and headed back to our Travelodge. Grabbed our car and headed to Victoria by Ferry.

My Facebook post from the day said: "started the day on foot, then train.bus.foot.van.(sea)plane.bus.foot.car.ferry.car.hotel. what a day!"

DAY 6 (Wednesday, June 30)...

2010-07-28T15:31:00.004-05:00

Woke up in the morning with a sense of adventure - planning on doing the Sea to Sky Highway. While driving there we happened upon a little park that is next to the Cleveland Dam. While we were looking at the reservoir, there was a film crew and an actress filming a sort of a public service commercial regarding the reservoir and dam. She was stating that Vancouver gets most, if not all its fresh drinking water from here. They were making her drink bottle after bottle of water and re-shooting. I'm sure that by the end, she was pretty waterlogged and didn't care where Vancouver gets its drinking water.

We then hiked down to the Salmon hatchery...which meant eventually we'd have to hike back up. This is the kind of "hiking" we did on our trip. Not too many real wildernessy hikes, just trails to things like fisheries. However, there were people on the same path that came with their hiking poles. Interesting.

Did some more driving and got up above Vancouver to the scenic overlook across the river.

Jumped on the highway...the Sea to Sky Highway and started our journey to Squamish. By the way, did you know that the Squamish (aboriginal people) translation for Squamish has a 7 in the middle of the word??? Sḵwxwú7mesh. When Jerome was reading the street sign, he was like "what the fcuk is that??? There's a 7 in the middle of a word!" Come to find out that the 7 is actually used as a pause in the word.

We made plenty of stops; Shannon Falls and The Stawamus Chief (rock formation), the beach in Squamish to watch some kite-boarders and then Squamish the town have lunch at the Grilled Fromage sandwich shop. Such a picturesque town, with beautiful snow covered mountains as a backdrop. Then we headed back down toward our hotel and stopped at Horseshoe Bay. Had a nice drink on a deck that overlooked the bay and watched boats and ferries come and go.

Finally drove around Stanley Park in Vancouver. At one stop we saw some raccoons that were out begging. They were so cute and the memory of them kept us busy nearly the rest of the trip.

DAY 5 (Tuesday, June 29)...

2010-07-28T15:05:00.002-05:00

Had a nice quiche waiting for us when we woke up this morning. The proprietor sat with us and we chatted about the house and our vacation so far.

Then off to Boeing.

The Future of Flight tour was pretty cool. First you walk in this long corridor under the building. Eventually you get to these large elevators that take you up a few flights (no pun intended). Once up there, you stand on a platform overlooking the assembly line. There are about 6 planes in various states of construction in the hanger/warehouse; which they call the largest building in the world (by volume).

Andy couldn't make it to the tour because he had a meeting but met up with us afterward for lunch. As we drove to the restaurant, we showed him where we ate the night before and the street that the B&B is located.

After saying our good-byes after lunch, we were off to British Columbia; Vancouver. At some point, we found ourselves on another Ferry. When we arrived in Vancouver, it was surprising to both of us. The large buildings all seemed to have the same shape and color; silvery-blue. But it still seemed less chaotic than a US big city.

We arrived at our hotel; Travelodge. Not the best looking, smelling hotel room and it was oddly shaped - I needed my binoculars to view the TV screen, but we would keep it for two nights.

We relaxed, watched some TV, got on the internet. I had some Denny's take-out and Jerome ate the leftover quiche from the morning; microwaved and served to him on a Travelodge in-room tray. Delish!

DAY 4 (Monday, June 28)...

2010-07-22T13:37:00.003-05:00

It was so sweet,...Sam looked online for some "gardens" for us to visit, but left out "botanical", so we ended up at a garden store.

From there we headed to Bremerton. Had lunch at Bostons, which is not the same as the Boston's franchise in Michigan. Had a calzone, which was yum.

Drove by the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard - walked around the newly created space within downtown Bremerton that had naval themed fountains and sculptures.

It was time to say good-bye to Sam and we headed out to see Mrs. Dorothy Diamond Adams; the lady who spent her honeymoon in the house back in 1947 - she is the one who "dated" the house...as in, put a date when the house was built...not as in, went out with the house. Stayed with her for a little over an hour, chatting. Met her daughter as well. Dorothy has recently moved to a "retirement home"...as in the previous week of our visit. She was unable to show us any pictures of her and the house since they were in storage.

Started in the direction of Everett, WA. Trying to get close enough so that we'll be able to do the Boeing tour first thing in the morning. Called Andy and told him where we were (hint, hint - very close to their house...) but yet, no invitation...

So, we found a local B&B - with a BEAUTIFUL VIEW! Walked the trail down to the railroad tracks and yet still very high from the water.

Went out to eat at Arnies - fancy restaurant, also with a pretty nice view.

Went back to the B&B and spent some time in the jacuzzi! Fun! Watched DVD about the history of the house. Apparently, this house was in a couple of shows of the TV series "The Fugitive". They had those episodes on DVD as well and we watched a little bit of that. Another brush with fame!

DAY 3 (Sunday, June 27)...

2010-07-22T13:04:00.002-05:00

Today is Sleep in Seattle day!!! We finished watching a movie with Sam and Mike's on the awesome TV that she won at the Navy Christmas party. It's HUGE!

Walked into Port Orchard. Stopped at a little mobile petting zoo to pet the goats and piggy. Port Orchard was having a little festival and art fair - we perused. Found a restaurant we decided we'd eat at that evening and then we walked back to the house (uphill...both ways!) to get the car and drive to Manchester Park and the Port of Manchester.

Very nice drive, nice walk.

Had dinner at Amy's on the Bay then came home and sat around. Watched our Sunday night shows; Food Network Star and Design Star - all with the nice view of a strait of the Puget Sound. Very relaxing.

DAY 2 (Saturday, June 26)...

2010-07-22T12:38:00.004-05:00

We made plans to meet Sam and Mike in downtown Seattle and so we did, in the Post Alley by the gum wall.

We had about an hour before our Zerve Food Tour, so we walked through Pike's Market, sampling whatever was free. I found out that Sam really likes free things - don't we all :D

Met up at the Tea Room with our tour guide around noon. She was waiting for 8 more people, but no one showed, so we were "it". That was kind of nice because we had more hands-on attention AND we got to eat much more food! Some of the food was really good, like the seafood chowder and the crumpets and the other was not all to my taste, like the antipasto. But I would recommend the food tour. It gives you a nice taste of a bunch of different things and a little history.

For instance we learned that Pike's market was created by the farmers of the area trying to sell their goods without a big "middle-man" mark up. It's been around since 1907. And if you start a business in other areas of Seattle that will become a franchise; the original needs to be in the area of the market.

After we were done with the tour, we walked around by the water with Sam and Mike. Looking in antique and gift stores.

Later, Sam and Mike headed home while we met up with our old friend Andy at a restaurant in downtown Seattle called Steelhead Diner. We were expecting his wife Helena to be with him, but she was not there. That was an elephant in the room. We had clues that in the past 5 years our friendship must have been waning, for instance, she returned to Michigan to finish her studies. We invited her out with the "group" a couple of times, but she never responded - or if she did, it was to decline. They got married while they've been living in the Seattle area and we were only sent an announcement. Now, since we've tried to come out and visit them twice before and had to cancel because of their schedules - I felt that the marriage would have been a great opportunity to visit, so the announcement was sort of a slap in the face. Well, our deduction of the situation is that Helena must have something against us. Genius, aren't we? It was still nice to see Andy, even though he was covering for her - still we made plans to meet up with him again at the Boeing plant later in the week.

We had to rush from there to the Ghost Tour. Which is too bad because we had the WORST tour guide EVER! I keep giving these ghost tours a chance, but really there were only two that were any good; one in Edinbourgh Scottland and the other in Charleston South Carolina. I'm basing all my good thoughts about ghost tours on those two and am always disappointed.

Once that was finally over, we headed to the ferry to take to Port Orchard area (Fauntleroy/Southworth) and then drive to Farragut Arms, where my niece and her husband live. Nearly 1am...they were still up waiting for us.

DAY 1 (Friday, June 25)...

2010-07-22T11:32:00.002-05:00

Our flight wasn't until after 9pm...and then it was delayed.

We drove to Terry & Theresa's place - our MINI friends that live in Taylor and are willing to be our free "parking service". We visited long enough to take a tour of their garden. Very unique plants and interesting garden art. Ideas...Ideas.

While flying over the Iowa/South Dakota border, we encountered a very long, very tall electrical storm. Here's a video I found of the storm that someone took from the ground.

We have a similar video, only from above:

We flew next to it for over 45 minutes. It was beautiful and scary at the same time. The lightning just never seemed to stop; flying from one end of the row of clouds to the other. Good thing we were 50-100 miles away from it.

Jerome took a picture of the satellite map on the plane so that we would know exactly where it was. That was a great idea because it helped me find the video above. The person who posted the video said...

this electrical storm was entering Aurelia at approximately 10:43pm. The video is long and the quality may not be that good. However, you can appreciate the lightning. As the electrical storm passed over Aurelia, there was no rain, no wind nor thunder. Later that night, we heard in Aurelia about the possible rotation near Cherokee.

I assume that by "rotation" they mean a tornado.

We landed alright and headed by shuttle to our hotel by the airport. It was very late for us since we had just left EST and now we were in PST; which is a 3 hour difference.

trip to the great north west...

2010-07-22T10:36:00.001-05:00

We've been trying to head out to Seattle ever since our friends Andy & Helena moved there nearly 5 years ago. We even had tickets purchased at one point and had to cancel the trip because our friend had to go on a business trip. We tried again only our friend and his girlfriend were heading off to India. So, as I told him, the third times the charm...and other things about thirds.

Well there were a couple of other reasons we wanted to head over there; my niece and her husband moved to Port Orchard, WA about a year ago AND the woman who spent her honeymoon in our house back in 1947 lives in Bremerton, WA and we thought it would be kind of cool to visit her.

The final reason was that Jerome, when he agreed to move to Detroit some 10 years ago had initially thought it was located in the north west of the United States - well, he was sorely mistaken.

Since then, he's wanted to visit the Seattle and British Columbia area.

That's our story and we're sticking to it.

lost in translation...

2010-06-23T09:10:00.002-05:00

I think Jerome and I are just not very good communicators.

Check out the area where I circled in the photo above. Giant birdbath, you ask? Otter swimming pool? Mausoleum?

We wanted the top edge of this patio to be flush with the rest of the driveway/ground, but that being said, we also knew that there would be a slight step up…however, we didn’t think we had asked for this dramatic of a step up.

It's not always the easiest to convey to someone what you were thinking. It's also hard to put this into action when you are not home, but at work.

It’s strange but we will work with it…we have to! Or get out the jackhammer!

The inside edge is just as high as our paver bricks – something we had asked for because the plan is to bring the paver bricks back on this slab. The slab was just to be used as a nice foundation for the pavers…now it’s a FEATURE!

Last night as we stood looking at this new cement "thing", scratching our heads, we tried to figure out what we were going to do to make it better. Jerome thinks that if we move the fence and anchor the posts to the top of the ledge, it will give the roses more room and will look a little more like we meant to do this.

We'll see how it goes - none of this will take place until we are back from vacation - Seattle, HERE WE COME!

getting closer...

2010-06-22T11:59:00.000-05:00

They finished removing all the cement down to the apron of the driveway at the street. Today I assume (daring, aren't I?) they will be cutting the cement they poured yesterday and if the rain holds off, they may start to pour the main driveway. However they still have to dig out and put in the forms and pour the foundation for the patio...which I feel they could have done when they poured the stamped path and the garage approach. Now it's going to be a bit trickier. They still need to add the ledge to the window well too...not sure how much longer all of this will take. We're leaving for our vacation on Friday. Maybe we'll have to give Al (the neighbor who takes care of the cats and house when we're gone) the rest of the cash to pay Vince (the cement contractor), since I'm not sure it will be complete by the time we leave.

So, a three day job is turning out to be about twice, if not three times as long.

just so you don't think they haven't made progress...

2010-06-18T22:38:00.000-05:00

But that's about it so far - they did their cuts today and put sealer on the stamped path, but that's it. Hope to see them on Monday, so that they can finish before we leave for vacation.

touchdown jesus...

2010-06-17T10:32:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why this story made me laugh; maybe the irony but earlier this week the statue was hit by lightning and engulfed in flames.

I was looking at the story all day that day - the YouTube video of it burning and then what was left afterward - just the steel structure with its stick arms outstretched to heaven - and laughed.

I learned about this Butter Jesus, as it was also known, by going to Roadside America website to figure out what kind of cool things we would find along our road trip with Jerome's siblings two summers ago. Jesus was one of the many roadside attractions that we encountered.

I guess it's sad that this very gaudy statue is gone...but no worries, the church is accepting donations to have it rebuilt. Butter Jesus will be back!

today's driveway update...

2010-06-15T17:24:00.001-05:00

This is the exciting part for me; a little stamped path from the back door to the limestone steps!

Oh, and btw, this is our 5th anniversary of getting the keys to the house!

it has begun...

2010-06-14T18:12:00.001-05:00

Before:

After:

driveway...

2010-06-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

May 3rd we started getting estimates for removal and replacement of our driveway. We started that early because we were hoping that by the end of May, it would all be done and over with and we could enjoy the rest of the spring. I was hoping that it wouldn't interfere with the plants growing and that it would then give us time to clean things up before we would have any parties or people over the house.

We were given very similar estimates and so the decision was based on personality. This guy seemed like an up-front guy - but I'm not the best judge of character.

The contractor, Vince told us that they would start in 3 weeks...end of May. Perfect.

Then it became June 5. OK.

Then the 9th...then the 11th...

8:30am, got a call.

I want to believe that he was thinking in our best interests today when he told us that he wouldn't be coming. He claimed that it was going to storm and that all the material that he would be putting down today he was afraid that it would wash away, down the driveway and into the street. Plus, earlier in the week I had told him that we were having a party this weekend and I feel he used that information against us.

He says he'll be here Monday at 7:30am. So far next week looks like good weather. I surely hope so. Gotta get it done in the following two weeks, otherwise we'll be in Seattle. And it would kill me to be postponed behind other "jobs".

and he does it again...

2010-05-25T21:03:00.000-05:00