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!

Colds, yuk

We did so well at the show last Saturday - but we both had colds and our back hall is still filled with containers that need to be reassembled and put away for another month until the next show.

We don't often get sick but this cold has wiped us both out. Everyone at work has it so I didn't use up any of my PTO time at work - I figured they gave it to me I wasn't going to waste my days off being sick!!!

The weather here is perfect Michigan weather. In the 60's with blue sky and lots of clouds - it is so pretty. We are going to have our Maple tree cut down - I am so sad - it was the prettiest tree on the block. They said it might have been stressed by so much cement around it but just recently the two trees across the street are starting to look like ours did a few years back so maybe it was just sick. I know I have always killed my plants in the house but never a tree!

I've been trying to get so much done at work - I know they will never hire someone in time for me to train that person so I'm making a tickler file that has worksheets about anything I am doing. I would ideally like to spend two pay periods with the person but who knows what will happen.

SVSU

Well - I wrapped and matched knives to plates all week long - I'm ready for the show at Saginaw Valley State Univeristy at the Ryder Center tomorrow morning. I expect this to be a good show - can't wait to see so many of you.

I had lunch with Peggy and Shelly today - it was so nice to catch up with them. We stayed longer than we should have and we laughed louder than we should have and we ate more than we should have (or at least Peggy did after she went back to work and munched all afternoon!) It was so nice.

Joanna came over for a bit this afternoon - Sheala dropped her off when she was coming into town - then Robin came to pick her up. Robbie and Robin are going hunting this weekend - I hope Robbie gets a deer. Then Caroline came over later on and FORCED us to take her to dinner - just kidding - we had a nice visit too.

So - see you tomorrow at Ryder Center!

Frankenmuth Weekend

We sold over 100 plates this weekend - it was really a good show. Even though it rained and was really cold for most of Saturday we had great customers. We usually do not sell well on Sunday in Frankenmuth but this time we did - I think everyone was so happy to see the sun that they felt like shopping!

I met so many really great people - sisters outs shopping together - families having fun teasing each other - lots of dogs in strollers, just when you look in one to see a cute baby there is a little dog panting away looking up with big brown eyes at you - we had fun people around us selling, always a bonus!

I kept praying to St. Anthony for people to find my booth if they were looking for something small to buy for Christmas gifts. He keeps coming through no matter what I'm looking for (someday God will tell me I could have asked to find salvation and I spent all my prayers on finding stupid things around the house and selling plates!)

So this week I have to wrap until my fingers bleed in order to have enough knives for next weekend at Ryder Center at SVSU. So I better quit writing in here and go downstairs and wrap, wrap, wrap.

Getting Ready for Frankenmuth

This weekend Friday through Sunday I will be selling at the Frankenmuth show at Zehnder Park on Main Street.

We had Caroline and Javier and Joanna and Robin and Sheala and Robbie over for dinner last night and they were a big help bringing up the tables and dishes for the show this weekend. Now everything is a mess upstairs! But I wanted to get two more containers done by tonight so I wanted to get started on them.

I love it when I unwrap dishes I bought months ago - it's like a fall day when my Mom used to say all excited, "oooohh look at that tree!" and two minutes later, "oooohh look at that tree!" Same thing last night, "Oh look at this dish!" What fun it is. I forgot about buying a watermelon bowl - it is so cute. There are several Asian dishes on pedestals that are so cute - they would be great all together on a table with different dips in them. Some reindeer plates and lots of snowmen plates - I know, I know - it isn't even Halloween!!!!

We had a fun time last night with Javier - he talks and talks and talks - he went outside with Papa with the chalk and came back in for dinner - afterwards Robbie found a box of wind up monsters and superheros in the basement and he and Javier played with them.

Yummy Salad

We went to Harvey's the other night and I had the new Anti-oxidant salad - it was so good I decided to make a version of it tonight for our dinner. I used Spinach for mine and romaine for Pat's then I topped it with:

Strawberries
Kiwi
Dried Cherries
Red Peppers
Green Peppers
English Cucumbers
Walnuts
Turkey Hot Italian Sausages - hot off the grill cut in slices

The dressing was pomegranate juice, olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper

IT WAS REALLY GOOD! Pat loved it too.

I went to my doctor appointment and found out my bad cholesterol is down the good is up and my blood pressure was fabulous. I guess starting back walking is working! Really the first of September was such a turn around from the knee surgery - I can walk without feeling awful afterwards - no more leg cramps either - so maybe I'm on the mend for good!

We just got back from Huron House for our 38th anniversary weekend - we had such a nice time - the sunrises were spectacular - the room was warm and cozy and newly redecorated and we had two trips out to Tuttle Marsh with Eagles close by each time!

There was also a triathlon in Tawas that we got to see and that was fun, too.

The sunrise this morning was through the clouds - so instead of one line coming at us from the sun there were several - it was too cool.

We had the best time ever - we love Huron House in Oscoda, Michigan!

Last Day at Pier 23

We drove to Tawas on Sunday to have lunch on the deck for the last day of the summer for Pier 23. We love going there - the day was a little cool but with sweatshirts on we had the deck all to ourselves. It is our favorite pastime - watching sailboats skim on top of the waves in front of the lighthouse. We always feel sad when they close and go back to Florida for the school year.



I bought some beautiful beads Cloisonne Beads in Tawas - there were red beads, white beads and blue beads all with flowers on them. Round, oval and heart-shaped. I wrapped about 50 knives for the upcoming shows. I also set aside some of the heart-shaped ones to go on the forks and cake server that will go with a beautiful cake plate I bought for the Children's Museum annual auction in February.

Sheala and Robbie to the Rescue

We invited friends over for dinner but there was one problem - we wanted to have a chicken on the rotisserie but we had to go to church during the time it had to roast and it had to be basted every 15 minutes - thankfully Sheala and Robbie came over to chickensit.

While their parents went out for a romantic anniversary dinner they came over and basted that chicken to perfection. Then they set out our humus and cheese and crackers and everything was ready when we came home! What sweethearts! Thank you.

I made the salad that was on the first "Aarti Party" show on Food Network. She is the winner of this year's Next Food Network Star. It was fabulous - everyone liked it. I had never heard of it before. It was kale and mangoes that had to be massaged for two minutes - she said it would start smelling like bananas, and it did! Then added mangoes and (she had pumpkin seeds but I used sunflower seeds). The link to her recipe is below. You can see her make it On Demand if you have it.

Aarti's Massaged Kale Salad



Then I stole a recipe from Steve, the chef at Fandangles in Flushing, Michigan,
but I added to it - he grilled peaches and put them with Mango/Coconut Ice Cream - yum - but then I added a little stream of Apple Jack that our friend Jack made. Some concoction that has hard apple cider and rum - oh my goodness that was a great dessert.

We had a great time!

Dinner with Friends

We had dinner with Jan and Rod last night - it was so nice to catch up and hear all about their grandchildren. An extra bonus was Jamie joining us for dinner, too. It was a fun night - the food was spectacular from Rod's main course - chicken and roasted vegetables - to Jan's Aunt Maimee's pound cake in a delicious sauce with strawberries and cream! YUM - GOOD.

Jamie - I think he talked me into a Droid - we'll see what goes on sale before Christmas - I can't wait to buy one - my friend at work, Jim, has one and he really likes it - so I'm going to start looking around so I will be ready for a sale.

The weather has turned to Michigan Fall - I love it - I wish we were camping!