Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Purse and shoes!

I finally found these shoes!  I saw them on the Target website (out of stock of course) and new I had to have them.  It didn't hurt that I had a $50 gift card to spend either.  This was like the 4th Target that I tried and they finally had them in my size.  Well...not really but close.  I normally wear a 7 but all they had was a 6.5.  I tried on a 7 in the same style, different color and they were a little big.  So, the 6.5 was perfect!  Excellent!

And then remember the purse I posted about?  Well I did end up buying it.  I got it in the punch color.


I'm going to test it out when I travel to Ottawa this week but I think it will also double nicely as a place to hold an extra lens when I'm walking around with my camera.  I can't afford one of those fancy schmancy, pretty looking messenger type camera bags and I usually only need to carry one extra lens anyway.

Just wanted to share my recent fun purchases.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Come on March 20th!

I heard from the seller the other day that she plans on having everything out of the house by late afternoon on March 20th. So that means we'll get the keys that day! WOOHOO! Now I can finally get excited about moving.

Now we just need to:

Get a lease together for the condo - really just figure out how this whole renting thing works
Move everything out of the condo
Go back and clean the condo
Have the carpets cleaned in the condo
Think about the first project we want to tackle in the house

I'm leaving this Sunday for Ottawa for work and won't be back until really late on the 12th so hopefully Jim packs everything up while I'm gone, lol. A girl can hope right?

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Hellooooooooooo!

Good lord, what a slacker I've been. I have been getting better at updating my other two blogs though so give me some credit there lol.


So we did the vacation thing in August - went "up north" for a week.

First we headed up to Munising, MI to see the Pictured Rocks...

Then we headed down to Mackinac and spent an evening on the island. Love it there!

They had a butterfly house on the island, so we decided to give it a visit...very cool.

We made a trip over to Hartwick Pines one day...

We also hit up Traverse City for lunch at the Mackinaw Brewing Company, headed over to Glen Arbor to go to Cherry Republic winery/store/cafe and saw the Sleeping Bear Dunes along the way. We didn't attempt to climb them. Been there, done that. It's a GIANT sand dune that takes FOREVER to get to the top...I'll pass.

Back home, in August they had an air show at the base so we went to that. I think I got some pretty cool shots. I have a few more on my photo blog too.



Let's see...what happened in the month of September. Well we celebrated my brother's 24th birthday. Did the bar thing and had some fun.

Here's me with my brother and sister...aren't we a cute bunch? lol

And then we went back up north for Labor Day weekend. Just hung around the cottage, did a little drinkin'...good times.

After I got back from the cottage, it was back to work. I headed out to Rock Island Arsenal with Jill for a work trip.

See how much fun we have?

Then throughout September we went to a Mudvayne concert, Sausagefest (hehe), a Beer Festival and I went to the International Gem and Jewelry Show. I don't go for the loose beads, although they have plenty, but I like the glass rings and bracelet watches they have.



I think that about catches us up through September.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Well Thursday sucked

Here's another vent post, but I felt I should share.


So Thursday morning Jim woke up early to take Cheeto to the vet around 6:15 so he would have enough time to get home and get ready for work. Well it was like 7:00 by the time he finally got back. Apparently the woman at the desk was a moron and Jim had to actually go back into a room to sign some papers. Seriously? It was just supposed to be a quick drop off. Whatever...it was fine, but he was a little rushed.

I get to work around 8:00 and notice I had three missed calls from Jim. I'm thinking something was wrong, so I call him back immediately. Apparently he had an interesting encounter after I had already left for work. See, we have this little tree outside our condo and we have a bird feeder hanging from it. The birds are pretty used to us by now and they'll fly away right when you walk out the door, but immediately come back to the tree. So Jim walks out the door, birds fly away, he walks to his truck and the birds fly back. Then all of a sudden they all fly away again and he notices a hawk swoop in and go after a sparrow. The sparrow flies to another tree about 6 feet behind Jim. Then the sparrow flies toward Jim and the hawk is following. Jim said in that split second all he saw was hawk claws and face and then felt the whoosh of the hawk's wings on his head. He needed a clean pair of shorts after that lol.

Then, at 11:00 I took our Edge up to U-Haul to have a hitch installed so we can take our bikes up north with us. I show up, tell the guy I'm there to have a hitch installed and he looks at me and tells me his hitch guy isn't even there. Well isn't that a great way to start off the conversation. I actually called on Monday to make the appointment and they told me a hitch wasn't in stock but that they would get one in by Thursday...fine. So the guy keeps asking me who I talked to (I had no idea) and he keeps telling me it isn't in stock. I said, I know it wasn't it stock which is why I called yesterday (Wednesday) to make sure it was going to be here. He basically did nothing for me and told me the closest one was in Toronto or Ohio. THEN he tells me that I must have talked to someone at the call center. Apparently if their phone rings twice and they don't answer it, it gets sent to a call center. Then when I made the appointment, how did the call center know where I wanted to go if they didn't ask me? None of that made sense and I left telling him I'd call him later if I needed the hitch overnighted from somewhere. I don't understand how you can operate a business like that!?!?

So I call Jim, tell him the situation and he gives me another place to call. I call the place and after a few annoyances, was able to make the appointment for today.

I call Jim back to tell him crisis averted, we will have a hitch. Then Jim fills me in on the conversation he just had with the vet. See, the doctor performing the surgery wasn't actually the one that we had been dealing with and that recommended the surgery. The one performing the surgery is the main guy, but we're not really a big fan of his. He tells Jim that he doesn't think Cheeto needs the surgery! Are you kidding me?! He says his urine stream is fine and that they would run some tests to see if there is more of a problem.

Two hours goes by and we hear nothing so I decide to call to find out what the deal is since by this time it's like 3:30 p.m. So I get the doctor on the phone and he tells me he thinks that Cheeto can't feel the sensation of a full bladder. He thinks this because when Cheeto stands, his legs seem to buckle. Uh, ya think? How about he's been like that since he was born and 3 years ago we took him to a neurologist for that very problem. They told us his spinal cord is too short and that he'll never walk normal. How about you look in the effing chart and note that your practice told us to see a neurologist. Seriously? I need this right now? So I explain all that to him, continue to tell him that Cheeto's peeing problem has been going on for TWO MONTHS and that we've had this surgery planned since Monday. What if he has an emergency when we're gone and my brother who's watching our other (low maintenance) cat doesn't realize it because he doesn't know what's "normal" for Cheeto? Then he says, ok, well you answered my question, I'll do the surgery. UGH!

So that was Thursday. Talk about some completely unnecessary stress before we leave for vacation.

So now I sit here, blogging (and venting) away, and ready to go away for a week. We SO need this vacation.

I talked to the vet today and Cheeto is doing well. We'll go see him tomorrow before we leave and pick him up next Sunday when we come home. Let's hope he's back to normal.

Monday, July 06, 2009

ships, monkey jockeys, birthdays, fireworks and more

So it's been a pretty busy couple weeks. June 23-26th I was in Norfolk, VA for work with Jill. We had a few meetings to attend but we also got to do some of the touristy stuff. One night we ate at Todd Jurich's Bistro, had lunch at Kincaid's and then another dinner at Snappers. All of them were very good! We didn't get over to Virginia Beach but we checked out some ships.

...this one is in dry dock for repairs...very cool...


...this is the Battleship Wisconsin...

...here she is at night...

...and here's Jill and I atop the large vessel...

So we flew back to Michigan on Friday the 26th and on our way home, swung by a gem and jewelry show in Novi. I got some really cool glass rings and some bracelet watches for like $5/each. Can't beat that!

That night were the fireworks and Stars and Stripes Festival in Mount Clemens, so Jim and I and my brother headed down there. We met up with my sister and her friend Doug and just sort of walked around, checking out the goings on. So we're walking down a street on the way to the bar and came across the Banana Derby. Have you ever seen anything so ridiculous??


...yes...that's a monkey in a little jockey suit on a dog.

Moving on...

We stopped in at Orleans and had a few drinks and played some darts

...me and my boy...


...my sis and her pal...


Once we left the bar, we headed down towards the water to watch the fireworks. And that pretty much sums up that night.

Now my birthday was actually June 30th, but we celebrated on June 27th. A bunch of us got together to hang out at Fishbones for some drinks, music and pool. It was a good night!

...here's me and Melanie...


...Jill and Ken...


...me and Rachel...


...Rachel and her husband Fred...

...of course one of Jim and I...

...and my brother striking a pose for the camera...


Sunday (June 28th) we headed over to my parents house for a birthday dinner and some cake. Mmmmmmmmmmmm, cake.

Tuesday was my actual birthday. I got some cards, a bunch of birthday wishes on Facebook, Jim brought me flowers and we went out to dinner at Brio. All in all, it was a good birthday.

So this past weekend we headed to our cottage for the weekend. My parents were already up there and then Jim, my brother and I headed up there Friday. Saturday night we went into town to the beach for the big show. We got there around 8:00 so we had some time to kill.


...here's my sexy man...

...and Jim and my brother lookin' like badasses...

FINALLY at 11:00 the fireworks started and I was happy to get some good shots

I posted more on my photo blog.

And I think that's about it for now. I took a bunch of pictures at our cottage so I'm sure I'll be posting some of those in the near future.