Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - "HomeAgain"

Today is not unlike any other working Tuesday. Not much going on at work today, I had to try and keep myself busy. I am teaching one of the guys how to do the day to day stuff on the computer, as they are not replacing me at the present time. Business is slow, so they think they will be able to keep up while I am gone, after all they can call me if they run into a problem or have questions.

Jesse got off at 12:30 and had no particular agenda today. I had partially baked a turkey breast last night to have for dinner tonight and he was to put back in the oven to complete baking.

We had an appointment for the boys to have a microchip implanted. The size of the HomeAgain microchip is about the size of a grain of rice (approximately 12mm). Because it is so small, the actual implantation of the microchip is quite easy. The veterinarian injects it beneath the surface of the skin between the shoulder blades, like a routine shot. The process takes only a few seconds, and is virtually painless; it requires no special treatment or anesthetic. It may be painless to the dogs, they didn’t even flinch, but it brought tears to my eyes, it was a big needle.

While we were on our way home we got a call from our son, Adam, informing us that he had to take our grandson, Gage to emergency room this morning. Apparently when he was getting Gage out of the car in a playful jester he hoisted him over his shoulder and hit his face on the car door. He was cut above his eye. They glued it rather than putting in stitches. We talked to him and he seemed to be fine. Adam said he was very brave.

Here’s a picture from this birthday party in February he is 5.



Once we got home I finished making the rest of the meal. We had mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, cranberry sauce and broccoli with our turkey. Yummy. After dinner we relaxed and watched “American Idol”.

I kept a close eye on the boys to be sure they didn’t have any after effects from their injection and they seemed fine.

Our Boys:

Bayer – 7 years old – A mixed breed (breeder told us Shih Tzu/Yorkie) the breeder also had long haired Chihuahua’s we think some of that went in too.



Buddy – He will be 5 this Saturday. He is a Shih Tzu/Poodle.



Mr. B – 5 years old – Yorkie. We have only had him since December 2006. He was on his way to the pound and we rescued him.



Until tomorrow have a good day.

See you down the road.

Monday, April 28, 2008 - Wild Life

We have lots of prairie dogs and burrowing owls in this area.

Prairie Dogs are the most social members of the squirrel family and are closely related to ground squirrels, chipmunks and marmots. Prairie dogs have an intricate social system composed of one male and several close-kin females and their offspring. Populations vary from 5 to 35 per acre. The prairie dog digs its own burrows, called "towns." There is a well-constructed and frequently reinforced dike against flooding from sudden rains. The entrance holes themselves are funnel-shaped, from 3 to 4 inches in diameter.

One litter is born to the prairie dog female each year. During a 4 or 5 hour estrus, a female prairie dog may mate with as many as 5 different males, allowing pups from the same litter to have different fathers. The white-tailed which are the kind in this area mates in March or April, with the young being born in May. There are usually 3 to 5 youngsters in a litter, but sometimes as many as 8. The young are blind and hairless. Their eyes don't open for 33 to 37 days. At about 6 weeks, they begin to appear above ground and are ready to be weaned. They probably separate from the mother by early fall.

Burrowing owls nest and roost in burrows, such as those excavated by prairie dogs. Unlike most owls, burrowing owls are often active during the day, although they tend to avoid the mid-day heat. Most hunting is still done at dusk or at night.
The nesting season begins in late March or April in North America. Burrowing owls are usually monogamous, but occasionally a male will have two mates. Pairs of owls will sometimes nest in loose colonies. Their typical breeding habitat is open grassland or prairie, but they can occasionally adapt to other open areas like airports, golf courses, and agricultural fields. Burrowing owls are slightly tolerant of human presence, often nesting near roads, farms, homes, and regularly maintained irrigation canals.

They are very entertaining and I love to watch them. When we 1st arrived in Pueblo we rented a house and we had lots of both in the back yard. Unfortunately the area where our house is located now has too much shale (a dark fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of layers of compressed clay, silt, or mud) for them to borrow in. We see them around and I took a picture of the owls. It is hard to get pictures of the prairie dogs because they hide, but I downloaded one.






Today being Monday and a work day not much to report. We were suppose to have a showing today, but I haven't heard anything yet and no signs that anyone showed up as no business card was left.

For dinner we grilled chicken breasts and I made some pasta with butter and parmesan cheese and vegetables.

We wish everyone a good week.

See you down the road.

Sunday, April 27, 2008 - Birthday and RV Shopping

Yesterday was a busy day for us. We were to have a showing from 9:30-11:00am, therefore we needed to get the boys and scram from the house early. Jesse and I are early risers. On weekends Jesse usually gets up between 5-6am and I usually get up between 6-7am, but we usually just sit around having coffee, reading and discussing our new RV life. Today we had coffee, while I wrote the journal and Jesse read the paper.

As soon as I was finished writing we got dressed and went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. We love to eat there, the food is always fresh and very tasty. Then we returned our rental movies and on to Wal-Mart for groceries and shopping.

We did some impulse shopping today for our RV adventure. We purchased solar yard lights. We have always had outdoor lights included in our landscaping at home in Maryland and I thought it would be a nice addition to our travel yards. Jesse also purchased a compressor tank for storing air. (Technical stuff I am not good with) I also purchased some of the Wal-Mart grocery bags. I have been wanting to get some rather than using plastic bags. While shopping I got a call from the realtors office to inform us that the people had changed their minds. They thought we lived too far North for them. Bummer. We finished our purchases and completed our food shopping and went home to put everything away.

We were attending our grandson 14th birthday today at Buffalo Wild Wings (His favorite place). He had gotten interested in participating in “Paintball”. So that was the theme for the party. His Mom and DJ got him a paintball gun and some accessories and we got him a paintball duffel bag and some accessories. He also got money which everyone likes. He seemed very pleased with his gifts.

Here are a few pictures from the party:

Ryan, his brother Tyler and friend Neil


Ryan and his paintball cake



Our daughter Elizabeth.


Elizabeth is a registered nurse. She works at the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center here in Pueblo and we are very proud of her.

During our conversations about RVing and writing our journal this weekend Jesse says he is going to write some information on the technical stuff. So you can look forward to that.

See you down the road.

Saturday, April 25, 2008 - Open House & Food

Yesterday was Saturday and Jesse and I had our coffee and went to our computers to read and write. We were having an open house from 3:00pm to 4:30pm. I think it was a rather late time slot, but ….. Only time will tell.

For breakfast I made Jesse fried matzo. It is made with matzo, eggs, salt,oil and sugar for the topping. I guess you could say it is similar to a pancake.He was raised having this and his Mother showed me how to make this for him, I do not eat it. Here are some pictures.

This is what it looks like mixed up



Frying in the pan



Finished product.




Weekends go by very fast. The day just flew by. Once we had the boys packed up and the realtor arrived we were off to the mail and in search of some place to have dinner. I needed to go to the mall to pick up something fro my son-in-law. He had asked me to purchase a specific item for our daughter for Mother’s day, which is coming up in a few weeks. We also went to Western Warehouse. I have been looking for a vest and thought I might find something there. No Luck. The search is still on.

Once we left there we were going to find a place for dinner. Jesse knew of some Italian place out on the Mesa that he wanted to try. Of course he wasn’t prepared, he didn’t know where it was, nor did he know the address. After passing it and going another 10 blocks, he finally turned around to find out the restaurant was not open. We were not sure if it wasn’t open yet or not at all. So now we needed new dinner plans. We ended up at Red Lobster and had a very nice dinner of fried shrimp and shrimp scampi.

After dinner we all came home and watched movies. We saw Juno and Cloverfield. They were both worth the rental, but Cloverfield was a bit different. It was made by having one of the actors do the filming with a Handi-Cam which made it very jumpy and hard to see the action.

We were tired by then and were off to bed.

Today we have a showing scheduled for the morning and this after noon we are going to our grandson’s birthday party. (Hopefully Jesse will not forget the camera).

See you down the road.

Friday, April 25, 2008 - TGIF & House Warming

Yesterday was TGIF. We only have 4 more weeks to work at our current jobs.

4 more Monday’s
4 more Tuesday’s
4 more Wednesday’s
4 more Thursday’s
4 more Friday’s.

Although if the house is not sold by the time we return from our 6 weeks of travel/rally/vacation we will have to go back to work until it does. I will hopefully be able to return to my current job on a part time basis. Jesse could return to his, but doesn’t want to, his job is physically hard on the old guy.

Once my work day was finished, (Jesse got off work at 12:30) I went home to freshen up, as we were going our son’s house. He had just bought a house about 3 weeks ago and was having a house warming party. His has 2 friends renting space from him (to help pay the mortgage). They had the house looking really nice and neat. I was surprised that 3 bachelor guys could be so domesticated. (I would show you pictures but Jesse left the camera home).

They were grilling hamburgers, hot dogs and kielbasa. THEY made potato salad, baked beans, pasta salad, meatballs, green chili, 7 layer and 8 layer dip, (our sons is allergic to avocado), salsa and a large variety of chips. One of his roomies even baked a cake. Of course they had lots and lots of beer and alcoholic beverages. Most of the guests are firemen that work with our son and they all seem to be having a good time.

I left and got home around 9:30, played with the boys and watched TV. Jesse stayed, as he wasn’t finished consuming his share of beer. Our daughter was going to bring him home or he was going to spend the night. I got ready for bed around 11:00pm. I was in bed when I decided to call Jesse to see if I should expect him tonight or if he was spending the night. His response: “can you come and get me”. To myself I am saying “what, are you kidding me” BUT I got out of bed, got dressed and when to collect him. Once home, it was midnight and we havn’t been up that late in quite a while so we were off to bed.

Jesse wants me to fix him some breakfast(he wants fried matozs)so I leave you today with a few pictures of the boys:




Have a wonderful Saturday.
See you down the road.

Thursday, April 24, 2008 - Work and Nail Day

Yesterday was just another Thursday. The weather was really nice today sunny and 80 degrees. Tomorrow the highs are only suppose to be 60. Colorado’s weather changes often. The saying around here is”If you don’t like the weather wait 5 minutes because it will change”.

Thursday is the day I do payroll and accounts payable at work. So that was my schedule for today. I also had to complete the 1st quarter payroll reports and get them mailed. That took me most of the day.

This was also my day to have a manicure. I go every other Thursday to have my nails done. Back home in Baltimore I went to have my nails done every Thursday. Working in an office all day and doing paperwork and computer work I look at my hands all day long. I have always enjoyed having my nails look good, so this is something that I do for ME. I am going to miss having them done when we go on the road, I will have to do them myself. BUT, I will have the time to do them myself. I also got my hair trimmed today. I keep it long now, but she put some layers in it, so it wasn’t so heavy, but I am still able to pull it up into a ponytail.

By the time I got home and we had our “Bagel Thursday dinner” it was time to watch Survivor. Let me explain dinner. Back home when I went every Thursday to get my nails done it was agreed that Jesse would prepare dinner, so I wouldn’t mess up my nails. Well he started having bagels and it stuck, so that is what we have been having for dinner on Thursday’s for years. We have toasted bagels, cream cheese, muenster cheese slices, lettuce, tomatoes slices and potato chips. May not sound like much to most people but we really enjoy it and it is easy.

The rest of the evening we just relaxed, played with the boys and watching TV until time for bed.

See you down the road

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - Work Day

Hello

Yesterday was not much different than any other work day. I work from 7:30 to 4:30 for a family owned sheet metal/HVAC and fabrication company. Jesse works from 5am until his route is finished. Yesterday he got off at 1pm; he gets home before me most days. Usually he gets on the computer and naps, but yesterday he got a few things done.


We had a utility trailer that he sold. :~) He put it on Craig’s list, but sold it from someone who saw it in our yard with a for sale sign on it. That makes one more item gone. Last spring we had a few garage sales and were able to sell many items, but we have many more items to sell. Jesse also went through all his tools that were left. Now he knows what he is taking and what he wants to sell. :~)

We (I) still have a lot of items that need to be sorted through...crafts, decorations, and many household items. We plan to have another garage sale within the next few weeks, so we need to get busy.

Here is a picture of my boss and his two sons.



Note the picture on the wall, my boss likes The Duke.

Hope everyone has a pleasant day!
See you down the road.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - New Glasses

In preparation of losing our insurance when Jesse retires the end of May, we have been getting all our medical, dental and vision appointment taken care of. The last thing we had left was getting new glasses. We went for our exams about a week ago and they called yesterday to let us know our glasses were ready, so Jesse (who got off of work at noon) picked me up from work a ½ hour early and we were off. We had them done at Rocky Mountain Eye Center. When we arrived they were busy, but we were helped in just a few minutes. They were very nice and professional and we now have new spectacles.

Then the big decision what to do for dinner? This is always a dilemma for us as we play the game GINGER “where do you want to eat?” JESSE “I don’t know what do you want?” (answering a question with a question) GINGER “I don’t care whatever you feel like having” JESSE “Why do I always have to decide?” GINGER “Because, I am easy”. After silence I suggested stopping at Wal-Mart to get fixins for taco salad, and he agreed.

From there he dropped me back at work to pick up the truck. I drive the truck to work because it is only 22 miles round trip. Jesse drives the Explorer to Springs for work each day, it is 100 miles round trip.

Once home I prepared dinner. After dinner we relaxed and watched TV, American Idol and Big Brother.

We ordered a scanner from Wal-Mart on line and it was delivered. Jesse unpacked and installed it in the computer. We are going to scan all our pictures for storing. Hard copies will be boxed and stored in our Son garage.

We are having another open house on Saturday, wish us luck.
That is all for now, I warned you our lives are pretty dull.

See you down the road.

Monday, April 21, 2008 - Earth Day 2008

Today is Earth Day… If everyone does something today, how much better would tomorrow be?

Yesterday was Monday and a work day for both Jesse and I. Not much happened to write about. Jesse was very tired when he got home, as Monday is his hardest day.

We had dinner (leftovers from Saturday’s birthday celebration), then relaxed and watched TV until time for bed.

My nephew who lives in Maryland just bought his fiancé a horse named Rink. Here’s a picture.



Have a great day!
See you down the road.

Sunday, April 20, 2008 - New Friends

Today is a work day, which is where I am.


We had a fun day yesterday meeting new friends. After having our coffee and computer time we got dressed to leave the house. We had a few errands to run; needed dog food and wanted to go to the mall to buy Crocks. Everyone tells us how comfortable they are, so we thought we would try a pair. Jesse bought a pair, I did not. They were very wide for my feet and I didn’t like the way they looked when I looked down at my feet.


Then we took off to the KOA in Colorado Springs to meet Jim, Ellie, and their two schnauzers, Jasmine and Mr. BoJangles. They are very well behaved dogs and are very sweet. Jim and Ellie sold their house in Colorado Springs and became full timers and seem to be very happy with their decision.


They just purchased a new 2008 Tiffin Phaeton class A motor home. It is BEAUTIFUL!! Very spacious and I really liked all their cabinetry. Ellie made snacks and we ate (Jesse wants me to get the recipe for the biscuits she made, they were delicious). We shared our stories about starting our new life styles. After a while we went to a nearby Applebee’s for some dinner. We talked more and enjoyed spending time with them very much. As we left the restaurant Jesse and I were shocked to find that it was 7:00. We had spent 5 hours with our new friends and the time flew by. We dropped them at their home on wheels and needed to get home to our boys. They will be here for another month so we plan to get together with them again :~)


Here is their picture:


Once we got back to the house we watched TV and relaxed until time for bed.


It was a very good day. :~)
Until tomorrow
See you down the road.

Saturday, April 19, 2008 - Birthday Celebration

As I stated yesterday we had the family over for a birthday celebration for our son. We all ate, laughed and had a good time. Here is picture of the candles going out.


Today started as most Sundays do. We have coffee and each go to a computer and read blogs, Jesse surfs and reads forums. I rarely read forums, I play games. We have a Dell laptop that I was able to take with me when I left my position as the accounting manager for a building material company in Baltimore. We also have a Dell desktop. We plan to take both computers when we take off in May.

Our plans may have changed AGAIN. Jesse has flipped back and forth about where to become residents, South Dakota or Texas. He has changed his mind many times over the past year. Needless to say he will probably change again, so I have decided to just wait until we leave, then I will know where we are going.

We are excited about today because we are going to meet Jim and Ellie Meacham. We have been following their blog. justravelin.blogspot.com. They are from Colorado Springs and are home for a visit before going to Branson for the rally. When I mentioned to our daughter yesterday that we were going to meet with them, she asked if we were concerned about "meeting with someone we met on the internet". We assured her that it was okay, as there is a circle of people you arrange to meet when you are close to them.

I am going to close today with a picture of out youngest grandson, he is sooo cute.





Have a good day
See you down the road .

Saturday, April 19, 2008 - Morning

Good morning

Today is our Son's birthday. He is a firefighter for the city of Pueblo. We are having the whole family over to the house for a celebration with steak and steamed shrimp (His favorites).

We had a showing on our house yesterday. The feedback: ours was 1 of the 2 they were interested in and would take the weekend to decide. So send lots of good wishes our way.

I will be signing off for now, need to get ready for the family.

See you down the road.

Friday, April 18, 2008 - Pueblo, CO

I have decided to start this blog early. We actually do not start our adventure until May 24, 2008. We both retire from our jobs on May 23, but to date we have not sold our house yet. We plan (if the house hasn't sold) to take off on the 24th of May for a 6 week vacation. We are attending the RV-Dreams Rally in Branson in June. We are both looking forward to meeting many of the people we have been reading about for quite a while. Jesse and I both read 15-20 blogs per day.



During that time we plan to go to South Dakota and get our registration on our Montana 3400RL 5th wheel and our Dodge 3500 one ton truck and get set up as residents. We are going to spend some time with our nephew and his family in Oklahoma. The rest of the time is open to just see the sites and relaxing.

We are both from Maryland, but moved to Pueblo, CO in February 2006 to be near our 2 children and 5 grandchildren. We have talked about traveling when we retire, but had no idea we could afford do it sooner until we came across Howard's and Linda's web site' rv-dreams.com (Thanks to our wonderful sister-in-law Margaret). Thank you Margaret! :~)

I hope to post often, but do not want to bore you with the mundane life of 2 working people and their 3 dogs.

See you down the road.