Dollhouses... Really?

 

Too creepy...

 

A hawk went after a dove,

and it flew right into the back door.

 

This is the imprint it left on the glass.

 

The dove sat dazed on the sidewalk for a while,

and when I went to check on it,

it was gone.

 

Not sure if he flew away, or the hawk finished the job.....

 

but this picture is just eerie.

 

So, we have crossed over into new territory...

 

Found this old doll house at an estate sale for $20.

Turns out, it's twenty-five years old,

 and they sell these kits for hundreds of dollars.

 

This house was put together, but nothing more was done to it.

It probably sat in that basement all these years.

 

It was clean and dry, and we couldn't say no...

 

 

So this is our winter project.

We're going to fix up this old house,

 and maybe this will quiet my inner need

 to shop for a real new house.

This is gonna be fun...

It Was a Good Day

Plenty has been going on around here,

not just buying pumpkins...

 

 

Terry quit his job on 9/27/2016

 and started his new job on 9/28/2016.

 

 

So far, so good.

He seems much happier.

 



 

Nature has returned to our little backyard in abundance...

Petey is back, along with a couple of his friends (or children), we think.

Finches, and cardinals, and woodpeckers,

and this nasty guy.

 

This Bluejay is stealing Petey's nuts right off the table.

 

Amazing to watch.

 

***

 

Ooh, I'm so mad this picture came out blurry.

Today we went downtown to the Motor City Casino,

 and Terry ran into an old friend,

 who happens to work there.

 

Nice guy, and he gave us restaurant comps...

 

 

Oh my gosh,

we stuffed ourselves.

 

It was a good day.

It was the best day...

Life is an Adventure

 

Friday morning, set out for Bob and Peggy's

where we would take a trip west,

to Michigan City Indiana.

 

Should have known it would be a wild ride

when Bob couldn't get his seat adjusted in his driveway.

 

We wanted to take Route 12

 so that we could run by Irish Hills,

 and maybe some other places we'd never been.

 

Traffic and detours,

and more traffic and detours...

 

We made it to MIS,

and realized that we were going way too far

 away from our destination,

and wasting a lot of time and miles,

so we turned around and

got back on our westward course.

 

We encountered Amish carriages,

 and clydesdale's pulling tractors,

 and school buses,

 and detours,

 and more detours,

but the last straw was when we finally made it to Michigan City

 and entered the exit ramp...

 

Our 4 hour trip was already seven hours in,

 when we got caught behind semi trucks hauling windmill sections...

 

Oh my God, they were going -10 miles per hour

trying to round the off ramp.

 

After our long trip, we were pretty short on patience.

 

We just laughed when we couldn't even get a picture

 of the "Welcome to Indiana" sign

 because there was a construction sign in front of it.

 

We reached our destination,

 and signed in to our little shoebox of a room

at the Super 8.

 

We didn't realize that there was a Michigan-Notre Dame game

 this weekend and all the hotels were booked.

 

My God, the comedy of errors just kept coming...

 

We left our stuff in the hotel

 and started off for the Blue Chip Casino

 which was just a few minutes up the road...

 

We were immediately stopped by road closures,

 and detours, and even a train,

 and by the time we got to the casino it was 8:30 at night.

 

There it is, the "Blue Chip Casino".

 

The steakhouse restaurant had a two hour wait

 and the machines ate all of our money.

We went back to our little shoebox hungry and poor.

 

Tomorrow will be better...

 

We woke up to a beautiful day,

and had "GrandSlam" breakfasts at Denny's

and then we hit the Lighthouse Place Outlet mall

 where we all bought ourselves some new shoes...

 

and some other junk.

 

Oh my gosh,

this city has a nuclear reactor thing looming over the whole town.

It's everywhere you go.

 

It's a little disconcerting. 

 

After some shopping,

it was off to New Buffalo, Michigan,

to the Four Winds Casino.

 

and we made it there with no problem at all.

We even took a drive down by the lakeshore on our way.

 

I had an angel over my shoulder here,

as this little lady sat by and just winked at me

 every time my machine started ringing.

 

I was the big winner of the day.

 

But what I really want to talk about

 was the Bloody Mary that I ordered when we first got there.

 It was strange to me that it had a stack of olives in it,

 but I nursed that delicious drink the whole afternoon

 and I kept going back to the bar,

 and asking them to add ice and more olives.

 and they did, and I probably had 20 olives

by the end of the day.

 

Here's Bobby throwing in his last $10,

before we left.

 

Back to Indiana...

 

After we regrouped,

we drove down to Washington Park,

and walked on the beach to watch the sun set on the pier.

 

What a beautiful place.

 

We couldn't believe that you could actually park right next to the shoreline

 and walk down to the water and enjoy Lake Michigan,

 and the lighthouse, and the ambiance.

 

You just can't do that anywhere near Detroit.

 

Then we went for ice cream. 

 

Ahh, Sunday morning,

we said good bye to our tiny motel room,

ate another giant breakfast at Denny's.

and hit the road.

 

We made it home in 4 hours.

 

It was a great weekend.

It seems that the more crazy stuff that happens,

the more fun we actually have.

 

Life is an adventure.

Bobby Likes Tools

 

The picture doesn't represent what I saw

 when I walked downstairs in the morning

 and looked toward the front window.

Through my bleary eyes all I saw

 was a sea of orange out my front window.

It was a giant moving van

across the street.

 

Here we are at the vet.

Shorty had a coughing thing

 going on for way too long,

 so we took her in, and sat for three hours,

 and paid $50.00 and she was fine.

 

Went to mom's last weekend to finish the painting there.

Nice surprise...

 

Bobby showed up to help.

 

We painted the back of the house in no time at all.

 

Then we got to visit for a bit,

and plan our trip to Michiana next weekend.

 

Every night this week we've been out in the garage,

sorting through Terry's brother's crap,

and trying to make sense of it all.

 

Tools, tools, tools,

that's what the garage sale sign is going to say.

 

I've never seen so many tools in my life.

 

I don't even know what I'm taking pictures of,

giant saws, and drills, and wrenches,

 and car stuff, and plumbing stuff, and

just, "WOW". 

 

We'll try to have a garage sale this weekend.

 

This guy parked himself on the garage door,

and he's not leaving.

 

This guy is in my onions.

 

I like nature,

but not that much.

I Should Post More Often

 

Aahhhh.

It's still too hot, but the rats are gone,

 the rains have finally come;

 and although the vegetable garden is a total loss...

the grass is greening up again,

and here's a single beautiful bloom. 

 

Had to take the brother to a doctor's appt.

Terry had to take another afternoon off;

and we had to drive downtown to pick him up,

then drive to Utica for the appt.,

and then take him back downtown,

and then all the way back home.

 

Here's what gets us through...

Giant McDonald's Cokes.

 

Oh yes,

and Shawarma from the Bucharest Grill, downtown.

So good!

 

They replaced some sidewalk slabs earlier in the summer,

but this corner has been marked for work, and ignored until now.

 

Every day for a week, they came back and re-evaluated,

and took out more slabs,

until the whole corner was torn out.

 

Here they are taking out more slabs of concrete.

 

Terry has been working massive overtime,

 but he works on little projects when he can.

 

He's taking all of the old paint off of the fan vent.

 

Not sure what we're going to do,

probably just paint it again...

 

We did find some time to do some work at mom's house...

 

Painted the garage siding,

and it looks great.

 

Stripped and sealed the fancy front porch tiles.

 

We still have to paint the back of the house siding;

just waiting for a cool day.

 

Back to our little corner...

Here it is,

ready for concrete.

 

Oops, another trip downtown to take supplies to the homeless guy...

 

The Woodward LightRail project

 is really making it hard to get around downtown.

 

Back home,

and the concrete has been poured.

 

Look at the fancy curbs they had to install here,

because our property is raised...

 

and handicap bumps too.

 

Thank goodness it's over.

I am sick of their machines waking me up every day at seven o'clock.

 

Look who's back from vacation...

 

Petey must have a summer home,

because he has been gone for weeks.

But he surprised us one day

and we were ready with the peanuts!

 

And finally...

 

for my birthday weekend,

Terry and I went to Mount Pleasant for some R & R.

 

Nice weekend at the Soaring Eagle Casino,

and Terry even won a little jackpot,

that paid for whole weekend.

 

SWEET !