This Old House

we got a new laptop also!

Here’s a picture from the Smokey Mountains. It’s late so I’ll just put up one for now

The New computer is here! The new computer is here. Now granted I’ve only had it up and running for a couple of hours and okay, most of that was spent trying to get my anti-virus software to run since the version I had was not compatible with Vista (go figure), so far Vista has not been that bad. It’s just a matter of getting used to it. Every thing else was compatible (all the hardware anyway). Time will tell. It is ALOT faster

I will post some more pics of the Smokey’s when the new computer comes. It’s just too hard right now with the freaking virus. I checked the status and it now shows preparation for delivery so I’m hoping by the end of next week we will be back up and running!!

On another note - Gas is down as low as $2.50/gallon here. Who thought we’d ever be glad about that price. It sure beats the $4.00 plus/gallon we were paying not that long ago.

Here’s an interesting question Tam posed to me today. The conversation went like this (she called me at work)

T: Quick question for you
J: Let’s see if I have a quick anwer
T: Let’s say your spouse has been very ill and has voted early and then dies before the actual election. Does their vote still count?

Let’s here what everyone thinks the answer to that question might be? Oh and if your wondering why she asked, after I get some responses to if it counts or not I’ll tell you why.:-)

Of course we did some other things while we were there besides enjoy the national park and the cabin. We went to a huge craft show at the convention center in town and of course I bought some pottery (I know -you’re all shocked!). We went to the aquarium in town one day. It’s pretty much set up like all aquariums are now adays. You start at the top and wind your way down to the bottom. The tube you can walk thru was supposedly the biggest longest one in the world. We’ve been in a couple so far and this one was huge. Here’s a couple of pics.

We also went to Cherokee, NC which is on the other side of the National Park and guess what they have there - besides touristy crap? A CASINO! And you all know how we love those :-). So we spent some time there.

On Lee’s Birthday we drove to Ashville, NC, which was only 90 minutes away and toured the Biltmore Estates. It was beautiful but we were exahusted by the end of the day. The house is 400,000 square feet. It took over 3 hours to tour just the parts they had open and then we still had to go thru the gardens and conservetory and the winery and the farm. Needless to say - we didn’t make it to the farm. We were just too tired.

A little side note: That night we went to dinner at this restaurant called “Bear Creek Grill”. So we get seated on the creekside which was right up against the foothills and it’s all lite up outside and our waiter was quite a character. He was orignially from the south side of Chicago (Beverly) so we had a little connection there. He told us that just 15 minutes before we got there a black bear had been down by the creek hanging out for a while. We thought, right… But then a little while later we look down and another bear comes out of the foothills and goes down by the creek. It was so cool. It hung out for about 5 minutes and then moved farther down the creek and then back into the foothills. I asked Lee if he thought the people at the campground that was right next door to the restaurnts property knew that the bears where that close :-). This is one of the many reasons no tents for me

I’ve got more pics and a couple of other humerous stories but I’ll save them for another time. And since you all know how much I post I’m sure I’ll need more stories for later

We rented a 2 bedroom cabin with a hot tub, fireplace, and jaccuzi in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains. I’m sure you’re wondering why a two bedroom. We’ll October is a busy season in the Smokey’s due to the leaf watchers. So cabins were hard to come by. I found this one online and we got a sweet deal on it. It was very clean and comfortable. It was in the foothills of the Smokeys. Mom would have hated the drive to it. Very high up and very windy roads. Here’s some pics

The living room area:

This is the kitchen area:

The pooltable and dining area:

The jaccuzi bathroom (This is actually the smaller 2nd bathroom- the bigger bathroom had a hug shower/tub stall and a washer and dryer in the room as well)

The master bedroom:

The 2nd bedroom:

The hottub on the deck:

Here’s why I picked this cabin. The view was spectacular!

Of course this is what the view from the deck looked like on Friday

I actually cooked dinner a couple of nights and we ate out on the deck while the sun was going down.

Like I said the Mountains and the cabin were wonderful and I’d do that part of the trip again - just not so much the touristy crap part

We are back. We got back into Elgin about 7:30 last night. It was a very nice trip. The weather was fabulous. Most days it was in the 80’s. It turned cold and rainy (just a fine mist that kept up all day) on our last full Day (Friday). Althought I LOVED the cabin we rented in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains and I loved the mountains and the National Park, I HATED Pidgon Forge and Gatlinburg. It was like the Wisconsin Dells of the Mountains. The traffic was terrible. Most of the shops and attractions were just cheap tourist crap. So we spent no time in Pidgon Forge (where the worst of the tourist stuff was) and very little time in downtown Gatlinburg. Where we stayed was on the outskirt of town in the foothills and it was beautiful and peaceful there. Because I have so many pictures Im going to make multiple post. We went to eat dinner before we got home. While we where there my cellphone rang. It was a text from Den. This is how our conversation went back and forth.

Text from Den: Where are you?
My Reply: Manor Restaurant
Text from Den: Have you been home yet?
My Reply: No. What did you do?
Text from Den: Rich did it.

Isn’t it nice how she threw Rich under the bus.

So we go home. Now I was sure they had stole some of the “authentic Jesus” lawn signs that we have been making fun of and stuck them in our yard. If that was the case, I was going to wrap them up at Christmas and give them back. Nothing says Happy Birthday Jesus like a stolen lawn sign about him. But that is not what they did. Here’s what they did. (It was pretty funny)

Here’s how it went down. As most of you know we gave our old furniture in the living room to Denise when she moved into her apartment. We had the new furniture for the family room and so we just had the rocker/recliner in the living room. Maggie, the cat, gave Denise dirty looks everytime she came over for stealing her couch but I digress…… We talked about just getting a futon for that room because we were not sure what we were going to do with the room - leave it as a living room- turn it into a third bedroom. Here’s how the conversation went a couple of weeks ago.

Me: I want to buy a couch for the living room - and the sofa table that goes along with the new furniture we got for the family room.
Lee: I thought we were going to get a futon
Me: I don’t want a futon. I want to get a couch
Lee: I thought we talked about turning that into a bedroom
Me: That could be ten years from now. We have enough projects to do before we even start on that room. I want a couch
Lee: Ok

So off we go to Ashley furniture a couple weeks later and we buy the table , a couch AND a new rocker/recliner. I don’t have anymore open spaces so I think I’m done. I did let Lee pick it out. Okay, I narrowed it down to about 3 different choices but I did let him make the final decision.

And by the way, Maggie will not go near the new furniture and still gives Denise the evil eye!!

Here’s some clues. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMY!!!!

We went to Madison today to go the Farmers Market. Because of some travel snafu’s and the market closing an hour early because of The Taste of Madison, the market was closing up when we got there so we’ll have to go back another time. But it was still a nice day. We took a small tour of the capital, which I had never been in before and then headed over to Pasquel’s for lunch. Oh, and there was a football game that let out as we were driving by the stadium. I’ve never seen so many people in red before in my life! :-).

All in all a good outing.

No she doesn’t get an olympic medal but she did take 3rd place last week in the baking contest at my picnic. Her orange brownies won her a $20 gift certificate to Target. She’d like to thank Paula Dean for the inspiration for her recipe

I haven’t watched all of the opening ceremony’s yet. But what I saw was simply spectacular. The torn lighting ceremony was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait to see the rest of it tomorrow after my company picnic. Thank goodness for TiVO

I woke up this morning to a killer storm. We had another around 11:30 pm. I swear it looked like a typhoon outside! Then this evening the worse storm yet came through. I heard the sirens go off so naturally I did what everyone did. I went to the front door to look outside. It was perfectly still outside and a weird color. Did this make me seek shelter. Of course not. I went to the family room where Lee and the cat where (I needed to see where Maggie was just in case I needed to grab her to go downstairs). Lee went out the patio door to stand on the porch (Yes - he’s as dumb as me when it comes to tornado’s). The clouds were now moving super super fast and we could see the rain coming in PDQ. We got back inside just before it started pouring and the wind started up. Lots of wind, lots of rain, lots of thunder and lightning. It blew over pretty fast. So of course I just went on the computer and played a game

Den called to tell us a small tree had fell on Rich’s townhouse (see Den’s sight for the pics). I have some pics also but haven’t downloaded them yet. So we drove over to see it. There were a couple of trees down on the way - nothing big and some house lights and street lights were out. Nothing too major. Like Den says on her sight, it doesn’t look like there is any major damage to Rich’s house just some clean up. He said he didn’t even here it hit the house.

I also got a call from my friend Shelly who lives in the City. Shelly is from the Pacific Northwest and they don’t get tornado’s out there so she is very scared of them. She was freaking out a little on the phone (which is kinda normal for her when it storms). The 1st time she experienced a a full blown tornado warning she actually called the police to find out what she was supposed to do. They told her to get in the bath tub so as you can guess we got her a minature bath tub for her cubicle at work. So when I called her back tonight I told her she should always have her bath tub with her like all good midwesterners do :-). They may not have tornado’s in the PNW but they have these disgusting things called Gooey Ducks and they are sick!! So it all even out.

There is also a hurricane on the way to Galveston. We are going there in October. Better to have them now before we get there.

I can’t beleive it’s been a month since I posted. Who am I Rog and Scott or the Ryans
It’ not like it’s was a boring month or anything. It was filled with many visitors - Mike & Liz and the girls over the 4th, Pete & Paula and the girls for a couple of days in the middle of the month and just this last weekend Lee’s sister Kathy stayed with us for a couple of days as well. It was fun to see everyone. I took hardly any pictures and haven’t downloaded the ones I did actually take. I’m so glad I got that new camera that fits in my purse so I’d have it all the time for photos!! As you can see it was money well spent

I went shopping with Tam and Steph yesterday to get things for Steph’s new apartment which she moves into in a couple of weeks. I also cleaned out some things from my house that she will need also. Things I have and never use. The house thanks me.

It’s been hot here the last week but just a couple days more of 90 degree weather and then it’s going to plummet into the 70’s. It will be a nice change. We are just hoping that any rain and major heat hold off until after next weekend since my company picnic is next Saturday. I’m on the activity committee (although I’ve tried to resign for years) and will be very busy this week during work and afterward getting things ready. Many of us are baking for the contest. Den is using an old tried and true recipe that has won for her before. If I can find the time on Friday I have a new cheesecake recipe to try out. Tam says she’s just bringing a pineapple and a coconut since it seems like anything with those ingredients usually wins. Let the games begin.

And speaking of games….it’s almost Olympics time! I can’t wait. I’m so looking forward almost all of the sports. Everything except baseball (And maybe water polo). It should be an exciting two weeks.

We went to Omar and Jessica’s wedding this weekend. It was held on Uncle David and Aunt Cecelia’s property in MO. It was a really good time and the weather cooperated wonderfully. It rained (a lot) Friday night and off and on Saturday but by Saturday evening it cleared up and the sun came out for the ceremony, the heat and humidity went away and so did the bugs.

It was beautiful wedding. We were asked to wear black or white and everyone complied and the only color was the red in Omar’s vest and Jessica’s beautiful red wedding gown. It was stunning. A good time was had by all. Here’s some pictures:

Doesn’t Gina look beautiful!!

M & D made a nice flower girl and ring bearer

Here’s the happy couple right after the kiss

The gracious hosts:

David and Carolina’s wedding is right around the corner!

Gina enjoying a rare moment to relax with K.

Josepsh - the morning after. I think this picture says it all.

A group of us went to the Current river to swim and float on Sunday. I floated down once but it really freaked me out because it’s over my head and that current is really really fast so after that we stayed closer to shore. Here’s a picture to prove I was in the river. I didn’t even freak out when the minnows touched me and they touched me A LOT!!!

We said goodbye to everyone at the Bonfire and fireworks on Sunday night and drove home today. A good time was had by all and we will definetly go back again.

Usually I forget so while I’m still thinking about I’ll post about Michaels birthday now. It’s really tomorrow. I really think that J looks alot like Michael did as a baby. Here’s the only baby picture of Michael I have. I’m sorry Pete but you and I are in it also.

Does anyone else thinks it’s weird that there is all this flooding of Biblical proportions in the midwest (especiall in Iowa) and a certain family who shall remain nameless moved into the midwest (IN IOWA!!) just this spring? Coincidence? You decide!!

We’re back! We got home last night around 9PM. No delays going or coming back. The weather was PERFECT! In the 80’s, lots of sun, no humidity, no bugs! Here’s some pictures

Here’s a pic of Den, Lee and Kathy from our 1st night. We all had breakfast about 2am Vegas time. I stayed up until about 3:30am and the next morning we found out Kathy was downstairs until around 5AM. Den and Rich were up and around by 7AM the next morning - not so much for the rest of us

Tuesday night we went to a Luau at the Emperial Palace. It was a wonderful evening. A light breeze with the temp in the 70’s. Good food, good entertainment, good company.

Every year we take turn picking a color and then one day we all wear the same color. I know, I know. But hey - it’s Vegas and you should see what some people are wearing. At least we are all dressed approriately! This year we took it a step further. Kathy picked the color orange - I LOVE orange so that was not a problem at all. All the women had the same shirts on and the two guys had the same shirt. We were a full house! Note how Rich is glowing. He got a little too much sun the day before when we spent the day in our private Spa Villa.

This is a picture from the Strastasphere observation deck. It was pretty cool. Well at least for some of us. Kathy is afraid of heights but chose to go up anyway. Den wasn’t too thrilled with it either and Rich practically fell over a couple of times from the Vertigo it caused him. Suprisingly Lee and I were fine with it. I think if it had been daytime I would have had a problem but I just thought the view was great!

Once again we all stayed at Paris. They did a lot of remodeling and the rooms were very very nice. We had a great view of the strip and the pool. Here’s a daytime view and a nightime view looking out of our window.

Our last night we drove over to the Rio and ate at their buffet (the only one we did). If anyone goes to Vegas, that’s the place to go. The food is top notch and the choices are unlimited. Then we stayed for the floor show. It used to be very “family” friendly. Well not anymore. We heard one of the employee’s explaining to a patron that they are trying to get a more “adult” crowd into the casino now. Den and Rich - this picture is for you.

A good time was had by all. We were all exhausted by the time we came home but can’t wait to go back next year! Just 364 days to go!

Springtime: 2
Jeannine: 0

This thing just won’t go away. So I’m on my 2nd round of antibiotics and steroids. Still doing the breathing treaments. Even at work - I told everyone the 1st one that made fun of me was getting my shoe up their you know where I was smart this time and didn’t wait before I called for more drugs. I’ll be all done before Sin City!

Also, Congrat’s David Cook! Good Choice America!

Advair 250/50 Diskus, Prednisone 20 MG Tablets, Albuterol .83 MG/ML Solution, Azithromycin 250MG Tablet, Allegra-D 24 Hour Tablet - $90.00

Copay at Doctor’s Office - $20.00

Being Illness free for Vegas - PRICELESS!!

Springtime: 1
Jeannine: 0

Boy this time it came on so fast. I was fine up until about 8PM last night then I started to get a tightness in my Broncial Tubes. Okay - if we’re being totally honest here it probably started about a week and a half ago. My ears have been bothering me off and on for about that week and I have been wheezing a little more than usual lately. Anyway, it was so bad last I night I did a breathing treatment with the nebulizer (the 1st one I’ve had to do since last October). By 3AM I was up because I was coughing all kinds of crap out of my lungs (really just my broncial tubes but it feels like my lungs). So I went to the doctor this morning and now I’ve got MEGA drugs again. The doctor also wants me to use the Advair all the time, even when I’m sympton free (just like the commercial) Better to be proactive now and start the drugs then wait until next week and then still be sick when we go to Sin City.

I hate the Midwest weather!

I’ve recently discovered the music of Jason Mraz. I can’t enough good things about him. He has a new LP out today. I highly recommend it. The accoustic tracks are amazing. The accoustic track of “I’m yours” is so much better than the version they are playing on the radio and even that’s pretty darn good. Check him out please if you haven’t already - I’m usually the last to know about good artist so I’m sure you’ve all already heard of him.

Check out “I’m yours” and “If It kills me” - from “We sing, We Dance… We Steal Things” LP - Pete - you can listen to them on YahooMusic

Go See It! It was great!