Javier says we had a Halloween Dinner!

I had to steal this from Caroline's post on facebook! Aren't they darling?

Well - maybe - it was Turkey and dressing and potatoes and Kale salad and sweet potatoes - so maybe we'll call that Halloween dinner from now on.

Really the turkey we bought last week finally thawed in the refrigerator and we promised Robin a turkey dinner for his birthday dinner - so he and Robbie and Joanna and Sheala and Caroline and Ayva and Javier came for dinner. Jesse had to work - we missed him.

We had a great time - the kids got ready to go trick or treating so we got to see them sort of in their costumes. Javier was Darth Vader and he looked great - Ayva decided she only wanted her antennae on for her lady bug costume - she looked darling too.

It was a fun afternoon - looking at toy magazines from the Sunday paper and the Hammacher Schlemmer catalogs with the $65,000 robot listed! Sheala and Robbie still like to go through those catalogs and put their initials on anything that catches their fancy - usually several things on each page - we certainly know how to dream in this household!

Retirement Paperwork

I turned it in today! It is now official - I am going to be all done working on January 14, 2011! I cannot believe that it is almost here.

5 more payrolls

8 more Fridays

8 Holidays

80 Days all together

YEAH!

NHS PROUD!

Proud Grandparents! Sheala was inducted into the National Honor Society - we are so proud of her accomplishments - she works very hard to keep her grades up along with church and sports and lots of volunteer activities. We are so proud of all she does - this was such a good affirmation to her of her hard work.

There is a down side here - Carrollton Schools have changed their grading system - only test scores count - so even though Sheala does extra credit and homework it doesn't count. I am very angry with the school board - they are not teaching these students how to work at college or to go on in life to a job.

But I believe with Sheala that if continues to work hard good things will come to her - I am a believer in my friend Jan's favorite saying "What goes around comes around" - I know it will work here with Sheala.

Again - we are so proud of her!

Saturday at Home!!!!!

Yes - this is a first - I'm home alone. Pat is working for a friend so I am at my computer entering sales slips into Excel to get a headstart on tax information! It's fun remembering the trips we've been on by seeing what we spent.

My goodness the amount of garage sales, estate sales and thrift shops is amazing - I've been entering for two hours and I still have 1/4 of the slips left.

We've been so busy lately that this is a good day for me - when I'm done here I'll be wrapping beads for the rest of the day.

Everyone should have to stay home once in awhile, right?

And a BIG THANK YOU to my friend, Robyn - she was going to visit her friend and offered to pick up the glasses Pat forgot at the hotel last weekend. This saved us a trip (thank goodness since Pat ended up working today). It was very nice of her to do this for us.

Wine Country

After scouring thrift shops, retail stores and estate sales, we found lots of dishes for the next couple of shows - so the trip was a success. Then before we left Pat suggested we stop at the Peninsula Grill out on the East Peninsula. (I've blogged before about how much we like the spot!)
It was a beautiful trip out there with lots of blue sky - big puffy clouds - pretty colors. We at the window with the sun streaming in and enjoyed a leisurely lunch. I had a glass of the local Chardonnay - it was really different - it was from Chateau Chantal a winery just a short ways down the road so we decided to go over there. WELL - if we thought the wineries were busy a couple of weeks ago this time the parking was unbelievable and we decided to skip it. But.... we got some great pictures.





There were so many people taking pictures of the beautiful trees and the landscape that it was fun watching them take the pictures. My favorite one was when we stopped at a house on a side road to take a picture and a young woman jumped out of her car and started taking pictures - it was so much fun watching her that I had to take her picture. I wish I would have asked her for her email so I could send this one to her.




We really enjoyed our short trip - I have said this a million times - but again - we love Michigan.

Trip to Traverse City

Well - we are in Traverse City for the weekend - we stopped at the Sleep Inn in Acme and Lewis the person at the desk suggested we go to TraVino Traverse Wine and Grill - in Williamsburg - just down the road - it was FABULOUS.



The most surreal moment happened - we started out in the bar because there was a half hour wait and the people next to us, Ray and Nancy were from Saginaw and she recognized me from this blog! She knew when I was retiring and all about me! It was so much fun.

I have to say the trip from Bellaire to Torch Lake to Rapid City to Acme was the most beautiful trip ever - the sun was setting behind golden trees with the lakes in the background - it was really and truly the best trip ever - I'll post pictures tomorrow.



We had the BEST salmon dishes ever at the restaraunt - Pat had the salmon off the menu and I had the special. Mine was the Pumpkin seed crusted salmon with curried squash, Risotto hot apple cider reduction and sauteed spinach. I would have had pictures but we both wouldn't leave our food to go to the car for the camera!

I asked the waitress to give me the Chef's name - The head chef is Kevin Paveglio - it has to be an art to get the crust so crispy and the salmon perfectly cooked! I will NEVER eat anywhere else when we get to the Traverse City area. We would have had a half hour wait but we ended up staying in the bar - the bartenders were the nicest and the best anywhere.

Can I say how happy we are!!!!!!!!?????!!!!!!

New Delhi!

This is what I love about the Internet – I wanted to see how to use a wildcard with an if statement in Excel. I typed in the Google search:

wildcard if statement excel

The very first listing gave me the answer from someone in New Delhi. I love finding the answers so easily – right at my fingertips. This is what I will miss when I retire – finding solutions to spreadsheets!

1. Wildcard in an If statement - MrExcel Message Board
Wildcard in an If statement Excel Questions. ... work around using the left function - but still think the if statement should have worked. ...

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26915


Search and Find in an if statement

Results
Find Search
Big ___________________ OK OK
RED ___________________ No OK
red ___________________ No OK
Next___________________ OK OK
next___________________ No OK
big ___________________ No OK

=IF(OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH({"Nex","Big","Red"},B132))),"OK","No")
=IF(OR(ISNUMBER(FIND({"Nex","Big","Red"},C133))),"OK","No")

so if I want to find something exactly as it is typed I'll use find - if I want to find something that is not case sensitive I'll use search. AMAZING!

UP or bust

Well it was a bust - we didn't buy anything - I was sure that we would find some Christmas plates in St. Ignace but they weren't out yet! But we sure had a good time. We stayed at the Quality Inn in St. Ignace and had such a beautiful sunrise this morning. I love our remote control for the camera - we had to put a chair on the table inside the room to get the picture but it is fun trying to get one!

Then we drove to the Cut River and took the old detour that we had to take when the road was closed. It was so beautiful. This was the ONLY red tree we saw on our whole trip. Pat thought that the old detour would be the best viewing and he was right.



As we left the Cut River detour I saw this old truck - I asked Pat to back up and I loved the history - it screamed art to me!

Vince

Our good friend has gone to Heaven and I just want to mention how much we love him. He was a devoted husband and a wonderful father to eight great grown children. He died peacefully at home surrounded by a loving family.

A couple of weeks ago when they put out the "no more visitors" I just had to run in for one more kiss. I only stayed 2 minutes but I am so glad I went. I got to tell him again how much we love him and how much he and Olympia's love meant to all of his friends - to be friends with such a loving couple made such a huge impact on all of our lives.

I sent him an email after the visit telling him how much it meant to me to be friends with a man who would have been peers with my father. I wanted him to know how important strong, loving fathers were in my life. Along with him and Leo Novak, Mr. Slaggert, Mr. Quinnan, Mr. Witchger and Leo Lynch - they all meant so much to me as I grew up without a father - and then to be so blessed to have Olympia and him as our friends for so many years. I like to think that I would have been friends with my Dad if he had lived into my adult life and being friends with Vince affirmed that to me.

I just stopped over to their house for a minute - there is so much love all around that house - in and out - we all know this was the way we all want to go to Heaven - quietly with courage and determination with family and friends and all the love in the world pushing us right to Heaven.

Until we meet again our dear friend, Vince thank you for being such a good friend.

Weekend Travels

Well – St. Anthony came through – you all must have been saying prayers! We had such a great time on our shopping spree. We went to Traverse City, Charlevoix, Petoskey, Mackinaw City and all the little places on our way. We found lots of Christmas dishes so I’m set for the next show. Now I have two weeks to find enough for the December shows!

The colors are so beautiful in Northern Michigan. Lots of gold colors and a few bright reds spattered in between. Driving through the hills the sky looked so big – it was bright sky blue with tons of fluffy clouds – it looked crisp and clean. I love Michigan – but especially in the fall. I remember whenever we used to take my Mom out for a color ride every few miles she would say, “OOOOHHH look at that tree it is the most beautiful tree I’ve ever seen!” Now I do it – the apple didn’t fall very far from that tree, did it?

We stopped at a few of the wineries but there were so many people we only tasted at one stop. There was about a 45 minute wait to taste at Chateau Grand Traverse so we decided just to buy a couple bottles of wine and leave – we were so happy when we looked and found out that just that morning they had just put out their first bottles of the "Barrel Fermented" Chardonnay for the year. We didn’t even care that we hadn’t tasted it – we were positive we wanted some – and of course when we got to the register he mentioned we would get a discount if we bought a few more and I didn’t even wait for him to finish saying it before I went over and got them off the shelf. This is the only Chardonnay that I drink that is served at room temperature. It is YUMMMMM.

And we stopped at Turtle Creek Casino, too. I found two Wizard of Oz penny machines and I gotta say – I had fun losing my money! Since we got our hotel room for free with our Choice Privileges (we always try to stay at Choice Privileges hotels to get enough points to stay for free for a night) I didn’t feel so bad losing my money and having fun, too!

Going Shopping

Okay - say your prayers to St. Anthony - I'm going out on a shopping spree to buy Christmas plates - I just have to find them. I need LOTS - I have a list of estate sales and garage sales and several stores to visit. It's raining right now so it would be nice if the weather cleared a bit!

We had a very nice time with Bill and Amy last night - lots of renewed friendship and great food - the cards sucked - even Bill admitted that Amy and I got crappy cards!

I made my first apple crisp of the year - I bought a bag of cortland apples - our favorite. YUM. I put a batch in the freezer because I promised to bring a treat to my training day at City Hall. I also got bamboozled into bringing ice cream - sometimes you just got to bribe those people into learning!