Blaha, Blaha…….lol

Posted on Saturday September 22nd, 2007 by | Comments Off on Blaha, Blaha…….lol

I think I only have about 2-3 blog posts to put up about the trip. I hope you’ve been enjoying the sample of pictures that I’ve been putting up. Those have been only a small example of the pictures we have. We took about 7000 of them………lol

I worked on my passport application and saw that they need my birth cert…….well, I’m not giving up my one and only certified copy when one of the counties in Indiana lost my original………it happened about 16 yrs ago, but it still pisses me off to no end…..gggrrr So I went online to see what I need to do to get a copy of Harold’s and mine. His is a lot easier then mine. I was able to order it online, but mine I have to use snail mail! WFT?!?! Is this not 2007?!? So I’m not too pleased.

I don’t know backed up the passport apps are. So that is another reason for not giving up our birth certificates to apply, we won’t be able to head to Canada and get back without them. =(

Today was my great-aunt Mary’s service. I talked to Melinda, I guess there were a lot of folks who turned up. My great-aunt Ruthie was crying a lot. Aunt Mary was the sister she was closest to. Mom said the flowers we ordered were huge. But then I ordered from the local florist who my family has dealt with for almost 20yrs and she takes care of the local families very well, knew exactly whose services and her age.

The strange thing was that my aunt’s services wasn’t at the funeral home where all my family on that side have been taken care of. I guess the owner got very sick and didn’t have anyone to take over. So it has fallen in quality big time. Rumor is that it may be up for sale….. I don’t know, if her services had been able to be there, at least I’d be able to imagine the services better. So it is sad that the place that has taken care of all members of my family won’t be anymore.

My aunt Mary will be cremated and then have her ashes buried on top of her mother’s grave, (great-grandma Schinkel). My grandpa’s ashes on with his dad’s (great-grandpa Schinkel) and my grandma is with her sister-in-law’s (Aunt Charlotte). The Aunt Ruthie will be with her husband’s, Uncle Bob. So at least I know where to go to pay my respects when I head back there. That is where most of that part of my family is buried.

This is tough…..working from home, way too many distractions. I’m one who needs structure, a work schedule…….. I need to be able to focus.

If I’m going to work from home, I need 2-3 days of left alone work……and that is for the online job I have. Then I need at least 2-3 days of left alone work for our business.  I can’t get anything done if I keep getting pulled away from my goals. Then doing my normal hour or two a day for support and follow up. I’m really thinking of creating a planned calendar/schedule but I don’t know if I’ll be able to stick with.

Everyday I had a plan, it got pushed aside. Just because I’m working from the house, doesn’t mean that I don’t take my jobs any less then if I was working out of the house. Hell, if I did that I wouldn’t get anywhere.

I will say doing errands here is no different then Florida, they take forever. So that hasn’t helped with my time management. I think I’m going to have to put one day of the week just for errands. But that is a bitch, because you want to get them done before that brats are released from their confines……..lol………and sometimes you have more errands then that amount of time.

It is very nice not to really go anywhere this weekend. It has been months since we were able to do that.

We’ve been having issues with continously being knocked off line. It was pissing us off, big time. Well, Harold got on the phone with comcast and demanded a solution. The guy there wanted us to reset the router and restart our pcs everytime!! It would go off 3 times in 5min, so that wasn’t happening! So after Harold gave him an earful, we were able to get a guy out today. It was the splitter and the router was an older one that we should’ve never received. So the tech replaced and and so far, we haven’t been having the issues.

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Trip Part 4……..The Vegas Part

Posted on Friday September 21st, 2007 by | Comments Off on Trip Part 4……..The Vegas Part

***Picture overload!

But we thoroughly enjoyed Zion and then it was on to Vegas.  We stayed at the KOA campground right behind Circus, Circus.  It was actually a lot nicer then expected, but no grass…..that is about right for Vegas.

We went to this Italian restaurant in a shopping center, called Hole In The Wall…….I believe.  Great food……all the house wine you can drink, I was feeling very nice….lol  I just wish the salad and bread wasn’t so good…..I would’ve ate more of my chicken parm that was great.  It was another great suggestion by Holly.

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The next day, we had lunch with Holly at the Peppermill…….dang, those portions were huge.  We ordered dessert…..Harold, a strawberry shortcake and me a hot fudge brownie sundae….neither of which we would’ve been able to finish on an empty stomach much less just eaten.  It was good.

During all our trips to Vegas we had never seen the light/water show.  When we 1st got there in was in the middle of “1st Kiss?” by Faith Hill?…..that wasn’t very good.  When you come to see the light/water show pop music, especially that one, does not fit.  But they do shows every 15 minutes and the next one was a duet Italian opera…..it was great!  That was so fitting.  We can’t come to Vegas again without seeing that.

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Then we decided to do the tourist, another 1st for us.  We are usually here on business so we barely get out of the hotel & convention centers to see the sights.  So we tried to walk a very small part of the strip.  I will say, I now know what Toni Braxton has been………lol…..I use to love her stuff and seen her open for Kenny G years ago.

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I just thought this was kind of cool looking.

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We then headed over to old Vegas, since I barely had any life left in my feet….ggrrr, and wanted to see the light show there.  It is called Freemont Street, I believe.  It had some of the old gaudy signs from the 60s/70s.  So that was cool.  The only thing I didn’t care for is that the light show was only at the top of the hour……….so we had to wait like 40 min.  I expected at least every 30min., but it was a cool show to see.

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Later that night we realized that we never had supper………but we were so full from lunch that it didn’t make much of dent on us.
=)

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Later that evening Holly took us to a great Mexican place.  Other then Portland last fall, we haven’t had good, much less great Mexican food since Indiana……I know, so sad.  But dang it was excellent.  Another too much food and barely ate it all….I even had 2 pina colas, I usually only have 1.

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For the end of Tuesday night, we just had a really fun time and it was thanks to Holly.  Thanks hon!

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Trip Part 3……warning……Picture Overload!

Posted on Tuesday September 18th, 2007 by | Comments Off on Trip Part 3……warning……Picture Overload!

*** Saturday 1st Sept 16:23

We had to leave camp to get to the shuttle that took us to the General Sherman Sequoia tree. It is the 1st year for the shuttle here so a lot of cars were still driving to the viewing. Even though we HATE depending on others for rides and getting around, I believe that they should limit the amount of cars to get into those parts and require shuttles. Way too much pollution and wear on the roads….anyhow enough of that soap box.

More of our campsite.

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It was really cool to see the most massive tree in the world. We tried to take pictures, but you really don’t get a sense of the size until you are there. The General Sherman is estimated to be 2,200 yrs old! If you never seen it, you have got to come here.

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Where the down branch came from, in the picture above.
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There was (what we 1st thought) a huge tree down by it, but it was one of it’s branches! We were blown away.
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Well, back to the original order of happenings.

After Meteor Crater, it was on to the Grand Canyon. We visited the south rim of the canyon. That was so neat to see the different colors of sediment in the cliffs. And knowing how big it actually is and you are only seeing a small portion of it?!? It was hard not to take a picture every 2 feet. It is amazing to see that over thousand and thousands of years that a river did that.

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The steam engine was really cool looking. We had to take a few pictures, knowing that Harold’s dad would enjoy them.

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Just some pictures of the scencery as we were driving and making stops.
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After the Grand Canyon we stayed at Lake Powell. When Harold booked this, it was Lake Powell RV & Marina……..we had no clue that it was a National Park and a stunning one at that. If we would’ve known we would’ve booked 2 nights. We had a beautiful view of the man made lake with the huge colorful cliffs around it, beautiful clear sky with the moon….another place to come back to……….the list keeps getting bigger……………grin

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While going thorough a town we ended up in the middle of a parade along with a miniature cattle drive.
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Then the next day it was on to Zion National Park. Wow, wow, & wow…..the colors, the cliffs……damn. It was great! You have to drive on some long and winding roads, with huge cliff drops. There is a tunnel through the cliffs that was made in 1929, so RVs can’t fit with incoming traffic. The tunnel is about 1 mile long and they stop traffic coming from the other end, so you can drive down the middle of the tunnel. To do this, you have to pay an extra fee to take care of the man power involved…..but so well worth it. They have caved out windows in the tunnel so you can see the heart dropping cliffs……even if you can’t stop.

Where we camped, we were totally surrounded by the canyon walls….giving you a stunning view. Our running joke through the last couple of places was “this view sucks, it is so not worth it”……well, for the natural awe inspiring wonders you got to see…….totally worth it. Plus with it being national parks, it is so less expensive then you would expect and its worth. Our national park system is great for making sure that everybody is able to afford these great wonders of ours.

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During 90% of our trip, we got a hell lot less connection then we thought we would. That was a disappointment. The work was piling up, so while at Zion there as a little town across the river with a café with internet. So we spent about 3 hrs there just getting things caught up. The sad about working online, is you about have to do it everyday. =(

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Weekend Summary

Posted on Monday September 17th, 2007 by | Comments Off on Weekend Summary

• Started Sept 15th @ 23:47

We are here at D’s chilling out with everyone. They are playing cards. It has been a great visit.

We got up here Friday later then we planned, made good time until Seattle…ggrr That city is horrible on I-5 no matter what time of day. We hit there by 3pm and it was worst then Indy at rush out. That pushed us back on time.

It wasn’t too bad crossing the border. Only took us about 30 minutes. We are leaving early tomorrow to try and miss the border rush. We are going to start the passport process next week. It will make it so much easier. Then we are going try and apply for the Nexus….it is a prescreened pass for crossing the border. We want to try and come up every few weeks so it will make life easier.

We were staving when we got up here so we were going to get a quick bite and head over, well didn’t happen. Eliza was cooking dinner for us. That was totally unexpected and so cool. It was great timing. She cooked up some great chicken with a thailand chili sauce. It reminded me of a slightly spicy sweet and sour sauce. I haven’t eaten that many wings in forever. They were great.

• Finishing up Sept 17th @ 21:25

After a late night, we went back to the hotel and crashed. We were exhausted.

We meet with a couple of our friends for breakfast. Didn’t think we would spend so much time, but we were having so much fun catching up. We haven’t seen them in years.

Then we headed to D’s for some of his great BBQ & potato salad. That man can cooked. It also helps that Eliza loves to cook herself. When they cook, they cook a lot. The grill stayed filled for a couple of hours.

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We got to meet some of their friends. That is one that is so Diesel is that amount of people that he knows, so you are always meeting someone new. You end up hearing some really cool and interesting stories.

After a late night we headed to the hotel for some shut eye, since we were leaving very early Sunday for the border. We left just before 7am and got to the border about 30 minutes later. It took us about 15-20 minutes to get through. It wouldn’t have been so bad but they only had 2 lanes open at that time.

It was a rainly drive home, but at least Seattle wasn’t as bad, but still worst then you would think for a Sunday. I’m happy that we didn’t decide on Seattle based on traffic alone…….icks

Today was a day of work once we got a few errands done. Then we stayed around the house since we were expecting some deliveries. Which pissed us off when we didn’t get our stuff! The UPS site said they were suppose to be delivered today, but now says that it was left at the facility……..and we paid for 3 day! We are mad as hell.

When it is ground, it is no big deal. But we paid extra! And we wasted our day waiting for it when we should’ve gone to the grocery store and other errands. I’m so pissed, that I’m calling them again and demanding that they be delivered 1st thing in the morning…..it is such BS!

Well, I called them……..Harold’s words “you are a bitch”, I’m like damn right, I’m pissed and they screwed it up and wasted our day………ggrrr

Otherwise, we had a great weekend. =)

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Getting Settled

Posted on Thursday September 13th, 2007 by | Comments Off on Getting Settled

I hope everyone has been enjoying some of the pictures I took. I know I have been posting them like crazy.  And these are just a few pictures from my camera.  We took 1000s on the Nikon and neither of us have touched those.
I’m thinking I may need to find a new blog design that will let me do the bigger pictures then this one does. Sometimes you really can’t enjoy the pictures until you really see them.

The house is slowly but surely coming together……it seems to be a never ending battle.  The last major project is the garage…..or storage unit, for a better description……..lol

We finally, finally have cable!  Thankfully!  Now we can actually watch the news and see what it going on in the world……..what a concept.  They came out today to do it.  Ended up 2 hrs late and then took almost 3 hours since they had to drop a line in the office.  This townhouse has never been hooked to cable, so he had some work to do.

We went and got our DL for here in Oregon.  Ok, here is a few strange things………they issue you a temp paper one and mail you the other, you can have EITHER a DL or an ID, but not both, they take only cash or check…..no credit, we had to take a written test even though we have nothing against our FL lic and they cost over $55…….not including $5 to take the test.  Now the cool thing, the DL is good for 8 years, only cost $125 to register your car that will last for 2yrs, not 1.  Out of all the DMVs we have been in, everyone was friendly, helpful, and happy……..you normally don’t see that.  Even the comcast guy had the similar nature, so that was cool.

Tomorrow we are heading up to see D & family for the weekend. Wish us luck on crossing the border…..we are taking lots of id stuff with us.  We are so looking forward to seeing them.  Next week we are going to apply for our passports now that we are here.

Well, I need to balance our books and then start on packing.  I may not be able to post tomorrow since I don’t know if our hotel in Canada will have internet.

Live Strong

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