I usually try not to be political here, as this blog is about us, but both The Prince and I agree...



This was written by an articulate woman from Colorado Springs. I wish I had written it.


http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/?source=nav_ins_op...

"So, many in this country decided Tuesday that the Democrats had plenty of time to undo the damage caused by the Republicans over eight long years. They have said that 21 months should have been plenty of time to restore the economy, get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan and put everyone back to work. Well then, I now give the Republicans in the U.S. House 21 months to undo the damages they initially caused themselves.

In a way, it is nice. Let them use their own methods to get us out of the messes they created. If, by October 2012, we are not all employed, living comfortably, have restored the deficit to where Bill Clinton left it in 2009, and are completely out of all wars in the Middle East, then I challenge those same voters to undo the damage they have done this week and put the Democrats back into office. Twenty-one months. That is all they get. Good luck, may the force be with them, and God help us all."

The reluctant blogger has returned.  We are currently in Springfield IL after a terrible month of trying to help my mother and her husband who is 90 and failing .  What a waste of time.  It's time to let these  geezers be on their own for awhile, just like they are demanding.  After all, we are plotting to put them in a nursing home, take over their assets and spend their money.  Yeah. Right.

Enough of the downer stuff.

We have had a pleasant summer, after Florida traveling to Georgia to visit Paulie's cousin, into Indiana to check out the Thousand Trails parks there, and visiting the eastern side of Michigan and Lake Huron.  We then attended a family gathering in the Chicago area and then headed to Iowa to visit another one of Paul's cousins.  We stayed in the Amana Colonies and had a nice couple of days to revisit some of the places we saw a couple of years ago.  Then we were off to Sioux Falls SD to do our change of address stuff, get our driver's licenses and other mundane stuff.  After Sioux Falls, we headed west to Mitchell SD and saw the infamous Corn Palace.  We also stopped at several popular places such as the world's largest truck stop, where we left some of our tourist dollars like most everyone else.  Wahl Drug was also on the list and we were not very impressed, however I will confess that they have the best handmade chocolate donuts I have had since I was a kid in Chicago from the Polish bakery.  We landed in the Badlands and stayed about three days.  The first time we saw the rock formations, we were awestruck.  By day three, it was monotonous.  We decided to continue west to see Mt. Rushmore.  We did a 12 hour tour which included all you can eat cowboy pancakes, all the sites like the Rushmore Monument, and of course, Crazy Horse.  We had lunch at a Lodge in the State Park, and for the first time, we had bison meat prepared in a delish stew.  Very tasty, but I would not go out of my way to have it again...well, maybe a burger.  From SD, we headed back east, heading for Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin.  Door County is a great place and we had some time to kill.  Had a nice time, but the place is totally outrageous in regards to prices.  A hot dog will cost you about $6...yeah, right.  After the frantic phone call from Springfield, we headed south making the trip in 9 hours of bumper to bumper traffic.  Female geezer sprained ankle, male geezer was acting off his nut.  In addition geezer husband had been scheduled for some type of heart "procedure" which both geezers insisted that male geezer must have.  Paulie kindly agreed to stay with the geezers so my trip to Cancun with my sisters would not have to be cancelled.  The trip deserves a post on it's own, but  suffice to say it was beautiful, very hot and I am truly glad that I never had a teenage daughter. I doubt I shall ever write that post to protect the innocent.

It is now the Labor Day weekend and we are getting to pack up and head to Goshen for the Escapee's Rally.  We will be early arrivals which means getting there on Friday the 10th. 
later,
dennise

Sometimes, I just want to slap the crap outta The Polish Prince. Yesterday, it took all I could muster not to turn towards him while driving and just bitch-slap him. I needed to go to the dollar store just down the road for a new container for my cherry tomato plant. He insisted on going, and then followed me around complaining about how long it was taking. Jeesh. Finally he went to sit in the car. Why did he insist on accompanying me if all he was gonna do was bitch? I find what I am looking for, checked out some stuff, and check out. When I get to the car, he is talking to a gentlemen about SSI, which neither he nor I have any knowledge about. After what seemed like an hour, I told him we needed to go. As we are pulling out of the parking lot, he asked me if I wanted to go to Wal-Mart and see if I could find round labels for my new spice jars. I thought he would go to the Wal-Mart in Seffner, down the road about 5 miles. He insisted on going on route 301 which meets I4 which then you can exit on the Camping world exit and go to MLK drive where the store is located in SEFFNER. I told him to just catch the county road just behind our campground and we’d be there in 5 minutes. We have used that road to GO to Camping World for heaven’s sakes, and we are there like I said, in 5 minutes. No, not our direction challenged Princy. He stays on 301 and tells me to put in Wal-Mart into the GPS. OK, I comply even tho I am starting to get a little steamed. We get to I4 and follow the GPS directions then all of a sudden the Prince decides to pretend he is Hernado DeSoto and disregards the GPS. Putz. From this point it is all downhill. He is lost, he knows it and the sob is too stubborn to admit it. For the next hour we are getting a tour of a part of Tampa I have no idea even existed. He keeps making turns and more turns and then and behold we are at Busch Gardens. At this point, I cannot even LOOK at him I am so pissed. After being lost for an hour, he inputs into to the OLD GPS that hasn’t been updated since we got in 5 years ago. He continues driving and we find a Wal-Mart. A new, non-super Wal-Mart mind you. We get out of the car and I leave him in my dust. This damm Wal-Mart is so different from any other Wal-Mart I have been to I can’t find anything I supposedly needed. I find nothing. A real bust. We get back into the car and silently drive back to the rig. A ruined afternoon, waste of gas, anger and frustration not to mention the threat of potential violence(on MY part, not The Prince’s) all because DeSoto ‘s evil spirit entered the weak soul of the Prince and he was looking for the fountain of youth or the Lost City of Gold or some such nonsense.


Just another day in the life of adventure. Even adventures that piss me off.

Well, it has been a while again, hasn't it?  OK, so you’re right. I am a lazy ol’ blogger. What do you expect? I am a creative loafer. I am retired. I try not to schedule, stick to guidelines, do things from habit or anything remotely linked to our former working lives. ‘Nough said .



Well, we are still in Florida. Who would have thought that? We did get a fantastic deal at this RV park…$199 for the month plus electric. We have really enjoyed our stay here. It is a nice quiet park…lots of working people. Many of the trailers are single wides, some nicely kept, some not so much. The atmosphere is very “old Florida” with lots of oak trees with moss hanging down. The units are quite old also, which would turn off a lot of RV’ers. The spots are varied in size…some incredibly small, others large, like the one we occupy.


We are breaking “camp” here on Sunday morning, May 2 and actually are going south for a 5 night stay at one of the most beautiful county parks in Florida, Ft. De Soto. Located on the water, and almost impossible to get, we snagged a waterfront site. We will be heading north when our stay there is over. We will be headed to Atlanta to visit Paul’s cousin Gene. We will be parking in the driveway of their lake home on the shores of Lake Lanier. After that we will continue up to Central Illinois to see Zack, my mom and maybe get a chance to attend the first Cenois FMCA rally. We are hoping to get to South Dakota to get some business done. We have registered and paid for the Escapee’s Rally in Elkhart the second week of September and then want to head west. The Prince says we will hit bad weather, read SNOW and we can’t do it. Pffft!


The Polish Prince bought some cheap hair clippers and proceeded to scalp both of my babies. Oh well, it’ll grow back…will be OK for hotter weather.


Gene seems to be doing fine, and since the weather has warmed up in The Valley, he is using the pool and hot tub. Of course he wouldn’t be Gene if he didn’t complain even about this…the hot tub is not hot enough, and the sail type cover over the pool is not to his liking…he has to “chase” the sun. I wonder if he will say the same once the temps hit 100 soon.

hugs
dennise

We took the kids to the vet for their checkups and to settle them in for their boarding this week.  Off we go to the Caribbean.  Miss Lucy is over 9 lbs! The Mack Attack is now a robust 5lbs, 6oz!  He is such a little cutiepie, all the girls in the office and even the lady vet were ooohhhing and ahhhing over the little stinker.  He just eats that stuff up.  After getting them settled, arranging for Lucy's surgery(no puppies in the future), we wrapped things up by paying $595!.  Jeesh, these kids are expensive!

We had a nice breakfast at the local cafe called Ram's where the food is good, service is with a smile and the prices so so.  We came back to the rig and started packing.  I also started the "dismataling" for breaking camp early tomorrow in the morning.  We will leave the rig at Suncoast window repair, and hopefully we will be able to stay plugged in.  We had made prior arraignments to leave the rig there while we are gone so we could have a place to store the rig as well as getting it repaired.  Paul talked to the office manager and even if they have to move us out of the hookups area, we will be plugged in with a 20amp cord so the fridge doens't get turned off!  I don't want to come home to spoiled meat and rotten royal red shrimps that are $14 a pound.  I think they understand and even if no outlet is available, they will make sure the refer is on LP.  That very thing happened to us while we were on a five day cruise with Grandpa, and I was one unhappy momma.  Yuck.


We can board the ship at 12:30 p.m. but am not sure what time we will get there.  No use getting there early and have to wait for hours to board.  I have read on several cruise critic sites that Carnival has the embarkation down pretty well, and there isn't a lot of waiting.  I am taking my scooter, and I am sure I need it, even if we just disembark at one port where a lot of walking would be involved.


So, we are hoping to have a great cruise, and celebrate our 25 unbelieveable years together!  Never thought that would happen!


later,
dennise

Photos speak a thousand words....here are my "babies"....Lucy is now almost 7 months old, and Mack will be 2 in May!

Mack is still under 5lbs but Lucy, who knows?  It's like picking up a ten pound sack of potatoes!

We will get an update on Saturday when we drop the kids off at the Vet.  Lucy will get spayed and they will be boarded while we are off on our anniversary crusise.  We leave Sunday afternoon for 7 glorious days.  We are sailing with Carnival this time, a first, and don't know what the ratio of spring break kids will be on this crusie. Oh well, we'll see...I am just going to enjoy it all, especially not having to cook or make meals for 7 whole days!

Here are some recent updates to the Aluminum Assylum:

We added some storage by taking out the hard to move island storage (which had replaced the paltry dining table and rickety chairs.

There is a lot of storage under the benches which are actually higher...about 27" tall.  Considered "counter height" seating. I keep my daily use appliances in here on the right side and store my hand held Orek vac in a backet and lesser used stuff on the left. While traveling, the pillows get stored in the right side also.

This is the setup I usually use while cooking.  The island is a foldable, portable one with  lot of storage.  I use baskets so when breaking camp it is easy to just grab the baskets, put them on the bed, and go.  I have one for dishtowels which saves drawer space.  I have a bread/snack/cookie basket, a veggie/fruit basket and a puppy supplies basket.  All easy to just place on the bed while traveling as they don't slide around on the bed..  Behind the island you can see my other can't be without folding shelving.  I bought this a number of years ago at El Boutique Target.  This also holds various baskets, the two Mexican  pots that I store my kitchen utensils (yes, two...I like kitchen gadgets ok?) I also store my toaster and my huge canister of protein on it.  It too simply folds up and along with the island and stores in the bedroom while traveling. I have a foldable canvas box where the stuff on the shelving unit goes and it too travels in the bedroom.

When set up for dinner, we just roll the island to the bench area and viola! Dinner is served.

Here is a shot of the kitchen area and the new backsplash I put it. It is really just plastic panels from Lowes, and is cutable with a scissors.  A very cheap way to protect the walls and I think if you didn't know it was plastic, you would think it was metal...which I eventually hope to replace it with sometime in the future.  You may also notice we put in lineolem which I hate as it doesn't cover the slider rollers.  Not too terrible in the living area where the throw carpet covers it, but I hate the other one sticking out like a sore thumb.

Here's another view...

I still have some honey-do's for the Polish Prince....new sink and new faucet...I get so frustrated with the ones we have now....one side of the sink is normal the other is a tiny useless dinky thing and you can't even fill water in anything with that short faucet.  So far though I like the space I have gained.

Here is a picture of my "lamp table"...a file cabinet topped with a square wood top and a table cloth.  I need a different cover, but overall the double use is good.  I do worry about the weight of the stuff IN the file

cabinet!  One more shot....

Ok more pictures of the puppies coming in a while...

hugs,

dennise