Detroit Tigers Spring Training

Back to back wins for the Tigers - Yeah

Ooooh 1-0 Tigers in the 6th

Listening to the first broadcast from Lakeland FOR 2011. Playing Toronto 5th inning 0-0. Tiger's won yesterday 4-0. GO TIGERS!

#1 Reason to Watch the Oscar's

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Tea Time

We had Ayva and Javier and Caroline over for dinner. Before dinner we had tea. We had so much fun.

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That's Done for Another Year

Just had my yearly mammogram. Have you had yours?

Starting to Sort

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Beads, beads, and more beads!

Oh my goodness! I sorted dishes until I ran out of boxes. So then I switched to beads. I have been saving spice bottles for the past couple of years and they are being used now! Hopefully this won't take more than a week.

Pat is outside shoveling and snow blowing the 8" of snow we got last night. I think he will be surprised to find thousands of beads in our living room when he comes in - but thankfully he doesn't mind too much.

OK back to the beads.

Tip of the Iceburg

I spent two hours on Friday and two hours on Saturday in the office - ugh - it is just the tip of the iceburg. I am almost done sorting silverware and the beads are all in one place. I sent a text to Sheala and she is going to help me sort loose beads. There are literally thousands! She is angel.

I'll start on dishes today. I would take a picture and put it in here but it might cause nightmares!

OK Reality Hits

I really have to begin my list of "Have to do when I retire" TODAY. I want to tackle the office first. So I thought if I owned up to it here I would actually begin today!

When I first began buying dishes to go with my wrapped silverware I bought differently than what I buy now. As I have sold at more shows I pretty much know if something will sell. So I have lots of dishes that need to be cleaned out. Many of those are in the closet in the office. So if I clear that out I can reorganize the piles in the office.

So I'll update later today and we'll see how successful I have been!

Diamonds

We woke up this morning to sunshine and blue sky and the road was calling our names.

We decided to drive to Traverse City. There is nothing more beautiful than a drive along Michigan's Great Lakes. The sun is making Lake Michigan glitter like a pool of diamonds.

What a gorgeous day!

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GREAT WAY TO HELP

This morning on Good Morning America there was a story about a Stanford student who is changing lives by recycling cell phones. If you have old cell phones this is for YOU! Click on the link below to learn more. Go to Hopephones.org to print a pre-paid mailing label.

Be the Change: Save a Life

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Family Dinner

We had everyone over for dinner last night. It was so much fun. I told Ayva yesterday that we had a new toy in the cupboard and the very first thing she did was run to the cupboard to find the toy tea set. She and Javier kept serving all of us tea and cookies.

Blake and Robbie and Javier played wii bowling. We had lots of laughs and enjoyed lots of good food. We made steak, shrimp, pasta salad, salad, mashed potatoes, garlic bread and eclairs and cream puffs. It is always amazing when 15 people fit into the duplex and we have enough room.

It was so good to be home!

Really Day 1 of Retirement!

WE DROVE 5,060 MILES ON OUR TRIP.

We are beginning our real first day of retirement today. The days before this were vacation. Today we are home and it is an amazing experience. I already had to remind myself there was no hurry to do anything at all.

I turned on the wii - well lets say I tried to turn on the wii - the batteries were dead. Changed out the batteries on the hand held device and the ones on the step were dead too. So on to the bike. Then breakfast, a shower and now I'm feeling guilty doing a post while Pat is out trying to fix the snow piles!

Oh well, I am off to buy a gift for my friend Robyn who is retiring next week. She made my life so much easier by being a very good worker - she was my backup and I never worried about payroll at all. She also knows EVERYTHING. Anytime any of us needed to know something Robyn always had the answer. She is amazing.

In the next few days I'm going to put pictures with the blogs that I did while on vacation. So you will be able to see the fun we had.

Hello Michigan

Even with the snow and cold we are glad to be back in Michigan! We have driven 4,900 miles so far and we can say for sure we would do it again.

Noreen's invitation to visit her was so nice. With Fran still working, we never thought of going to Florida. Next time we will go in March to see the Tiger's in Spring training.

We have three large containers of dishes and two new stores that have my dishes and plates - a great business trip too.

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Goodbye Louisville

We are on our way home - eight more hours of travel. This is the bridge over the Ohio River in Louisville. We have had a fabulous trip. I really do feel retired - I'm looking forward to being home.

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Landscape has changed

We have been driving in light snow for most of the last hour. There is snow on the ground and it's such a change from this morning.

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In the mountains in North Carolina

This is a beautiful drive this morning!

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On our way to Louisville

We had a pleasant dinner with Patrick. He took us downtown to eat dinner. The downtown is a fabulous array of shops and restaurants. Patrick told us several years ago it was filled with boarded up stores and no one went there. Then the last few mayors have worked hard at turning it around. There were so many people downtown last night that you would have thought it was a weekend.

We are going to Louisville today, the sun is shining and it looks like a good travel day.

Goodbye Florida

We have decided to go see Patrick, my best friend Janet's son, who is living in Greenville, South Carolina. We decided to go to a few thrift stores before we leave and then get on the road. We have so loved this trip but I think we are going to start on the trip back to Michigan.

We decided that if we save some of our money we can do another trip! This has been so relaxing and I have to say I really do feel retired.

Passing Tallahasse on to Jacksonville

It is still raining cats and dogs. So we decided to pass right by Tallahassee and drive on to Jacksonville.

We are so surprised that it really looks like Michigan on this drive. Lots of pine trees and farm land.

Works like a charm

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We wanted to be able to mount the Galaxy Tab on the dashboard. The cover I purchased has a fuzzy inside cover so I knew velco would work. First we tried velcro with the sticky back. It worked fine in Michigan but once it got over 50 degrees the glue started to melt and the velcro slipped making a big mess on the dashboard.

So we went back to Ace Hardware and bought velcro luggage id straps and Command refills. We put the Command refills on the dash, cut the tags to fit, and the Galaxy stays put. There are a few things that I had to learn, such as, I put my hand under the cover and hold the velcro down when I have to take it off - otherwise the velcro comes off and you have to put it back together. Also I put a rubberband on the side to hold the cover straight.

We had to replace the command refills once but it is well worth it.

Now that we are back in Michigan guess what? The velcro strips don't want to stick onto the Command strips - but if you warm up the car they work again.

Solution for dashboard mounting of Galaxy Tab

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On our way again

After a great weekend with Fran we are on our way again. We are going to Tallahassee this morning then on to Jacksonville for the night. It is raining cats and dogs but hopefully it will clear up this afternoon.

We have purchased so many plates I will have to buy another container! I wrapped knives yesterday just in case I find another store to put them. This has been a fun trip.

A Night Out in Florida after Shopping All Day

We must think we are Patsy and Elinor - we shopped all day and then stopped at the Naval Aviation Museum. What a fun day.

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Money on the Ceiling

We went to an Irish Pub with Fran, her daughter Amanda and Amanda's husband, Karl. The ceiling is covered with signed dollar bills. Last year they said it was over a Million. So I signed one "Patsy and Elinor best friends forever and ever after." Then we took it to the gift shop and the saleslady stapled it to the ceiling. We told her our Mothers were shopping in Heaven.

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Breaking News

Another place to purchase my dishes and knives in Florida!

Debbie Brooks has a cute booth in an antique market. She is going to display my sets for sale. She has taken several candlewick plates and other glass plates with my hand-wrapped knives to display.

The booth is at:

De'France Antiques and Collectables
230 Eglin Parkway SE
Fort Walton, Florida

If you are in Florida you must stop!

Survived the Pedicure

Noreen was so nice to treat me to my first pedicure - my toes are very ticklish and I was worried about getting this first pedicure. And I got a prankster guy who thought that was funny! However I did not tell him that it was when they put the thing between my toes that is when I want to go through the roof. So he did that fast and I got through it.

I did okay - and having the lotion on my legs and feet made me feel like a queen with the massaging chair. Mmmm. . . . I could have taken a nap!!

Then we ran to the car in the cold and rain with those stupid little flip flops they put on our feet so we wouldn't ruin the polish they just put on our toes.

Then we went out for a delicious Mexican dinner.

Tomorrow we are off to Fran's. Our visit with Noreen was so much fun. And we were so lucky to have such a good friend to invite us for this visit.

Lots of stores very few dishes

We drove to Port St. Joe yesterday. We stopped at several Goodwills on the way. For some reason the stores in this area do not have a housewares area. Instead the put all there housewares on top of their clothes racks. I am just over 5 feet tall and several times I have to go up on my toes to see something - it is very annoying. Anyway we only found a few dishes.

But the ride was nice. We saw lots of jets taking off and landing while driving through the Tyndell AFB area. We saw a small community that looked like a ghost town. It looks brand new - with very modern store fronts, small waterfalls, restaurants, condoes - no cars and we only saw two people - it was like being in the twilight zone. When we got to Port St. Joe we saw a restaurant called Joe Mama! It made us think of our friend back home that we always call Jo Mama.

Then Noreen took us out to dinner to watch the MSU/Iowa game. Good dinner - bad game. MSU never made up the 20 points from the beginning of the game.

Later today Noreen and I are going for pedicures. I know Carolina Moon and Joanna Balanna are laughing right now. They know I have a fit when someone tries to put those things between my toes because it tickles so bad. Can't wait to see if I survive this!

Destin

We went to Destin today. Fran suggested we go there on our way to her house on Friday. However, we did not want to use up time we could be visiting with Fran. So while Noreen did errands we took a trip to Destin.

We stopped at a couple Goodwills, a thrift shop and Old Time Pottery. We found several dishes. Then we stopped at the Number 1 "restaurant" in Destin according to Trip Advisor. It really is not a restaurant, it is a take-out store front. It is called Sarah K's Gourmet (Yes, Kay, I thought about our Sarah Kay).

It was very pricey - we bought a couple crabcakes to have with dinner tonight. They were amazing. Fresh, fresh crab in huge lumps. Each one was a half pond so we cut them in thirds so we each had two small pieces. Of course we wanted to lick the plates! Well worth the money.

The weather was nice all day. It got to 70 and the sun was shining in the morning into the early afternoon. Then the clouds took over, the wind picked up and the thunder and lightening and rain started. I don't mind the rain if we get most of the day with sun!

Fun in Florida

We stopped at the store that has my knives and plates and left a few more. I am very excited to have them in Florida at this gallery. I have been busy buying plates on the trip and have already filled two large containers. We bought another container yesterday so I can start filling that one.

We cooked dinner last night, steak, spinach salad with fruit and veggies and pomegranite dressing and our favorite potatoes, onions and carrots on the grill. With enough leftovers to make a frittata today.

We played Trivial Pursuit with Noreen - she won - we had fun.

It is supposed to rain today but it looks nice out right now.