The quieter you become the more you can hear ~ Ram Dass



Sunday, December 28, 2014

Bad stuff

So there was some bad stuff that happened on our vacation, and I mean BAD stuff.

Sunday morning at 5:30 a.m. (Las Vegas time) my cell phone was ringing.  I didn't get to it fast enough but I saw it was the credit card company calling.  They left a message and I called back, to make a long story short someone was using our credit card fraudulently and I had to cancel the card, ugh.  We did have another card but after that I didn't want to take the chance.  Luckily, we had enough money with us.

One day, son, girlfriend and I were in a parking garage and I fell.   I was trying to avoid a column and went too close to the parking curb.  I didn't notice it and I tripped and couldn't get my balance, down I went. First on my knees, then on my face or more accurately my nose.  I was so lucky though.  I only scraped the bridge of my nose and my knees.  No broken bones, teeth or glasses.  Girlfriend went in the casino and got someone to come out and look at me.  Someone came and they called the paramedics.  Also, some guys from the hotel/casino came asking questions and taking pictures of me.  I thought the paramedics were going to come in an ambulance so I gave my phone to son to take a picture of it, ha.  Always a blogger.  I didn't see what the paramedics came in but they asked if I wanted an ambulance to take me to the hospital but I said no.  (so, no ambulance picture, lol).  At the time, I was mainly worried if my nose was broken but thank goodness it wasn't.  They really didn't have any antiseptic (what kind of paramedics were these?) and they told me I would be better to go inside and just use the restroom to clean up which I did.  They gave us some gauze and tape and girlfriend helped me with that.  Actually besides the scrapes, being embarrassed and a little worked up I was fine.  Unfortunately, I didn't fall from drinking I think it was a senior moment.

The day we left and got to the airport, it was like someone turned on a switch.  Before we got on the plane I started coughing and got a runny nose.  I took two Advil's and bought cough drops before we got on the plane.  All the way home, I got sicker as we went.  Turns out the section we were sitting in was hotter than h***.  I mentioned it to the person sitting next to me and she thought it was extremely hot as well so it wasn't just me.  I told the flight attendant and she said she would check.  A while later she came back and said it was one of those fluke things where the front and the back of the plane were good and the middle was just hot.  Nothing could be done, ugh!

Then there was the day before we left when the maid service didn't clean our room.  I called down and asked that they at least send up some coffee for the morning which they never did.

Also, when we got home, when hippie opened our luggage there was a notice in it that TSA did a random check and opened our suitcase, ha...  I figured maybe they x-rayed it and saw all the stuffed animals in it and wondered what the heck they were. 

Oh well, stuff happens ;-)

Friday, December 26, 2014

Las Vegas

We flew into Las Vegas on a Thursday.  First time on Frontier, it was a rather uneventful flight although we did leave a little late.  The only thing you get free on the plane is water.  I bought some snacks at a store in the airport.  We got in around 4:30 and it was already getting dark. I gambled a little the first night but went up early.

Son, girlfriend and I went to a show at The Wynn called Le Reve - The Dream.  It was wonderful.  If you ever go to Vegas, it is well worth the price of admission.  It is a very small theater.  It has dancing, synchronized swimming, people coming down from the ceiling on ropes and wires doing acrobatics (kind of like Cirque du Soleil ).  It was amazing.  I never saw anything like it.



We stayed mostly at the hotel/casino this trip.  We ate at the buffet a couple of times there.  It was very good and only $12.99 with our card from the casino.  Then hippie was able to get an $80 comp at one of the more expensive restaurants there.  He always gets coupons from there for different things and was able to get it changed for a comp on a meal.  It was very good food.  I got pork chop marsela, yummy.

We did a ton of gambling and a ton of losing but they were giving away free stuff for points.  We got two cake serving trays one for us and one for son and girlfriend.  Also, a bunch of stuffed animals.  At least there was that.  Ha!

Son, girlfriend and I went to Bellagio's to look at their Christmas decorations that were gorgeous.

We left on Thursday and I was ready to go lol.

What would a trip of ours be without things going wrong.  I'll write about that next.  

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.  Pictures from Las Vegas.


Sunday, December 21, 2014

Vegas

We got back from Las Vegas a few days ago and I've been sick in bed with a bad cold.  I haven't even unpacked yet , ha!  Here's a holiday picture I took there.  Will write more later when I'm up to it.  It was an adventure this time. 



Sunday, December 7, 2014

Gift Certificates

A  few years back I wanted to buy some Fiestaware. For Christmas, I asked for gift cards from Macy's. After several Christmas' I had enough and bought a service for four.  I still get gift cards from my brother for Macy's and since I normally don't shop there (I should probably just nix the cards from there) it's been a struggle finding something to buy.

I still had $100 worth of gift cards.  Friday, Magellan and I went shopping.  I decided I would buy a purse.  I found one I liked, it was $168.  Now some people might not think that's a lot of money but frankly, for me, I don't need one that costs that much.

And then I thought, $100 of it would be free because of the gift card and I would ONLY have to pay $68 plus tax.  $68 was something I was comfortable with. 

I took it up to the counter and it was 25% off.  It didn't have a sign so I didn't realize it.  With the gift cards, I only needed to pay an additional $2 and some change.  Holy Smokes!  I was ecstatic.

I was somewhat shocked when the woman in front of me bought a purse that originally was over $200.  It was 70% off, and with the additional 25% off, she paid like $95. I love the purse I bought but I'm thinking maybe I should have looked around more.  Ha!


Saturday, December 6, 2014

He's back

When Lebron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers they took his sign down.  Since he came back they put a new one up.  When we went to the casino, it was the perfect opportunity to view the new one.  I rolled my eyes when I saw it, then I took a picture so I could send it to son.  I texted it, he laughed.  I'm pretty sure he rolled his eyes as well. 


Thursday, December 4, 2014

Christmas with Dinner Friends

Christmas was on Wednesday with my Dinner Friends.  Some of us were going to take the rapid downtown but in the end, we took two cars, eight people.  It worked out well.  At least we figured it out the day before unlike sometimes when on the day we are going to dinner a wrench gets thrown in. Since I call myself the secretary of the group. I'm always the one texting people with the wherefores-going crazy trying to figure it out when it gets messed up then I start whining to them afterwards I don't want to be the secretary anymore, but no one listens lol.

When we got to the parking lot as we started walking to the walkway to the casino  lo and behold we see our friends are right ahead of us, ha!  How convenient to arrive at the same time.

Some of  us (me) lost our reward cards so; (I) we had to get new ones, others didn't have any and had to get a first one.

When that was settled we went to Tower City to the Hard Rock Cafe.  I had a really good pulled pork sandwich and a drink, but only one.   Here's a picture of the tree inside Tower City it was very beautiful.


When we were done eating, we decided to look at the windows outside of the casino that were supposed to be decorated.  Years ago, the casino was a Higbee's Department Stores.  At Christmastime the windows were so creative and beautiful with animation and usually themed.  The Casino is trying to bring them back.  Okay!  I was excited, braved the cold to go outside to look and they were blech.  Kinda cheesy I thought.  Although this is, I think, only the second year they've done it.  Hopefully, they will get better at it.


We were disappointed as well that Public Square wasn't decorated.  They had the big lighting ceremony by Playhouse Square this year. (When I came home and told hippie, he said because of the construction this year they moved it.)

Then we hit the casino.  I played $20.  I won some but when it was time to leave I was back to my original $20, so I would consider that a win. 

We hugged and wished everyone happy holidays and left.  We did drive around Playhouse Square to see the lights.  They were nice and did get to see the Chandelier lit up in the dark too.  All in all, it was a different kind of Christmas than we usually do but it was fun. 

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Those were the days...



When our son was young, his friends would congregate in his bedroom and play video games.  As he got older, getting friends that didn’t live within walking distance and we didn't know, we bought a pool table for the basement as well as moving the video games down.  They played poker down there, watched TV and did boy things (like eating us out of house and home).  Eventually, we even got a ping pong top to put over the pool table

When son graduated from high school, he completely moved down there.  It was like his own little apartment.  He commuted first to community college and then to college downtown.  The pool table wasn't being used and with the top over it became a catch all for our son’s junk. 

When he moved to Vegas, hippie cleared the table and it was clean for about 5 minutes until he started using it for a catch all. 

Pool tables are huge, taking up a lot of room. We recently gave it away to our nephew’s son that got married in May.  He had it re-felted from green to red.  



The pool table had served its purpose for us.  At the time, we wanted a place where son’s friends could come and we would know who he was hanging with, getting to know them. I loved that our son’s friends liked spending so much time here.  Sometimes I miss those days but I don’t really miss the pool table, there is so much more room down there now, lol. 

Friday, November 28, 2014

Thanksgiving

Did you have a good Thanksgiving?

We did.  We went to my brother's and brought leftovers home lol.

When we got up in the morning there was a small amount of snow.  Throughout the day there were light flurries.  When we left to go home from brother's and got on the freeway, it was pretty scarey, part of the way it was white out conditions.  By the time we got closer to home, it had stopped.

The heavier snow finally came to our neighborhood when we got home, ha!  I fell asleep around 9 until I heard the next door neighbor snow-blowing passed the bedroom window.  So much for sleeping.

We've had quite the amount of snow for November, not as bad as some though (thank goodness).  It gives me a foreboding of winter.  

Friday, November 14, 2014

Snow

More than I thought...


Thursday, November 13, 2014

First Snow

We are getting our first taste of snow. blech.  I don't think we are in for much.  It is starting to stick on the garage roof and garbage bins, ha!  I hope we still have an Indian summer...


Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Zodiac

Check out other Z words at Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday  http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2014/11/alphabe-thursday-letter-z.html

In the zodiac, I'm a Libra.  What are you?

Monday, November 10, 2014

Random thoughts

1.  I like to send my Christmas cards on the 1st of December.  That means I have to get going on them.  I decided to write a dreaded newsletter which I've already started.  I don't send them to many people though. 

2.  It's hard to believe Thanksgiving will be here soon.  My brother and his wife are having it again, thank goodness.

3. Cleveland Browns 6-3, Wow!  The Buckeyes are doing pretty well too!

4.  I think I'm a book snob or more precisely a listening snob.  When I listen to fiction audio books, I never listen to one that a man reads although I have tried.  It was hard at first when I listened to a woman read and she had to sound like a man.  For some reason, it's even more difficult for me to hear a man trying to sound like a woman.  Kinda crazy!

5.  Wednesday is the last of Alphabe-Thursdays for this round.  Eh, at least I posted for each letter.  It really hasn't got me back much into blogging as I had hoped.  I guess I'll just muddle along like I did before.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Yesterday











One of my favorite Beatles song.

Check out other Alphabe-Thursdays at Jenny’s blog. http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2014/11/alphabe-thursday-letter-y.html

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Eection Day

I hope everyone votes today. 

Although I must say, I'm not excited but I will go and do my duty as a citizen of this country. 

I'm mostly thrilled that the political calls and surveys will end, ha...

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Halloween

I always think I miss when my son was little taking him out for Halloween.  Then you have a day like last night and I remember how much I don't miss it, HA...

It was rainy and cold.  The poor parents with their umbrellas. 

The weather people even suggested there might be some sleet, but it didn't happen.

I remember in 1993, our son was 11 and we had snow.  That year hippie took him and his friends, lol.

I did miss not being able to sit on the front steps and handing out the candy, having to hunker down in the house.  Maybe next year will be better.  


Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Xanthophyll

Check out other Alphabe- Thursday's at Jenny's blog http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2014/10/alphabe-thursday-letter-x.html

I got this from the unusual words dictionary...  

xanthophyll - substance causing yellow color of autumn leaves

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Weddings

Check out other entries at Jenny's for Alphabe-Thursday http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2014/10/alphabe-thursday-letter-w.html

You know how sometimes you don't go to a wedding for years and years, then bam a lot of them.  We had three weddings to go to this year.

The first one was in May.  Our nephew's son got married.  It was at a kid's campground. They got married outside.  It happened to be a beautiful, sunny on the warmer side day.  To save money, they did all the decorating on the inside for the reception. The mom, aunt and the bride made the food which was excellent.  I don't know how they did it for all those people.  I thought they had such a unique cake.  Naturally, it's a crummy picture (typical for me) but I had to crop it from a bigger(kinda shaky) picture, but I think you can get an idea of what it looked like.  It's like slabs of a tree.  It was so neat and like nothing I've ever seen before.  Something you also can't see, is their initials in a heart on it like it was carved into the tree.


The second wedding we went to was in August.  One of my Dinner Friend's daughter's got married.  She is a physical therapist and he is (wait for it) a rocket scientist, no kidding.  They had a beautiful ceremony in a Church and they even hired a gospel choir that sang a couple of songs.  At the recessional, the choir sang 'O Happy Days' and we all clapped.  How fun!  I didn't know until we were at the wedding but a week before the wedding my friend had to have an emergency appendectomy.  Wow!  She was in good shape though for the wedding. Their reception was at a ballroom at a golf course.  Before you came inside they had a sign.  I thought this was such a cool idea, writing down the distance of how far it was for the guests to come.



The third wedding was for a Dinner Friend's son.  Her son and my son were in junior and high school together and would hang out sometimes.  He lives in Columbus now so we had to travel there. Magellan's boyfriend drove.  It's about two hours and we spent the night. Another beautiful Church wedding.  They  had their reception at a country club.  The cocktail hour was outside.  The bride loves Disney. This was their wedding cake.  After the wedding they were going to spend 3 days there before going on a regular honeymoon at a later time. 


The bride had flip flops that people could change into at the reception (which was a cute idea).  They also had favors of glasses etched with their names and the wedding date and matchbooks.  They had a memory table with wedding pictures of their grandparents that passed away and also wedding pictures of them as well. Luckily, we were able to take a shuttle to and from the reception.

All in all, three weddings and three absolutely gorgeous weather days. 

Monday, October 20, 2014

Corky

When Mom left my house, after living with us for almost a year, and had to go to the nursing home, we kept her dog, Corky.  After a couple of years when hippie and I went on vacation and he stayed with my brother, he decided he would keep him.   This week my brother had to put him to sleep. He was about 14 years old or a little older.  He was having a hard time walking, he hadn't been in good shape for a while.  Here's a picture of him from last Thanksgiving.  He had really gotten gray.



He wasn't too happy getting his picture taken, ha!

He was such a good dog, although my brother and sister-in-law always called him 'Rain man.'

I feel sad but my brother is crushed.  I think it has something to do with mom and it's really the last tangible connection he had to her.  











Thursday, October 16, 2014

Ebola

Just my luck, that nurse that has Ebola traveled to and from Cleveland Hopkins Airport on Frontier Airlines, ugh.  I made travel plans for hippie and I to go to Vegas before the end of the year.  Guess which airlines I picked to fly on?   Frontier, OMG.  We've never flown with them but the price was good plus the flying times were perfect.  It just figures!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Vignette

Check out other Alphabe-Thursdays at Jenny's.  http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2014/10/alphabe-thursday-letter-v.html

I bought some new fall decorations and made this little vignette. Not sure about it but it will do for now.


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Uproot

Check out other Alphabe-Thursday's  at Jenny's blog.  http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2014/10/alphabe-thursday-letter-u.html

I mentioned that hippie didn't plant a vegetable garden this year as well as flowers in the front.  Therefore, this is what out front has looked like most of the summer.  Nasty, huh?

However on the other side, some of the mums came up and a few marigolds popped up by themselves.  Still not pretty though.




We talked to the guy cutting our grass and he suggested if hippie didn't want to plant flowers anymore (which he said he doesn't) that he could put stones down.  We also then can put some kind of planter stands out with flowers.  I think we've decided to do that but will wait until the spring.  Magellan said she would take the mums so in the spring hippie will uproot them and we will give them to her.


Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Tattoo's

Check out other Alphabe-Thursdays posts at Jennys http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2014/10/alphabe-thursday-letter-t.html

One of my friend's who had no tattoo's got two tattoo's in two months (say that last part a few times, ha tongue twister).  The first one she got in May.  She is a big Brown's fan so she got the Cleveland Browns Elf logo on her leg.  If you want to read more about how the elf came to be check out this site.





The second one she got was in June for her birthday. It's for her three children.  She wanted it on her wrist but she is very small and thin so they had to move it up a little. 

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Stand

Check out other Alphabe-Thursdays at Jenny's  http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2014/09/alphabe-thursday-letter-s.html

We don't have a lot of counter space in the kitchen.  We've had the Kuerig on the kitchen table but I wanted to get some kind of stand to put it on.

Lo and behold, when I went to Old Time Pottery I found exactly what I needed. What I like about it is the fact that it has two drawers that I can put the coffee, cafe mocha and hot chocolate in.   ( I guess I could have moved the beer cans from behind it, ha!)






Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Rocksino

Check out other Alphabe-Thursday's at Jenny's.  http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2014/09/alphabet-thursday-letter-r.html

Have you ever heard of a Rocksino?  It's the gambling place they put at the Northfield Park Harness Racing place.  Actually it is called The Hard Rock Rocksino.

Ohio was late to the party as far as gambling goes.  For years, gambling was voted down.  Then finally a few years back it was finally voted in to allow it and we moved into this century. They were allowed to put up four casinos; Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Cincinnati. 

Then the state decided to allow only slots at six horse racing venues.  (Ha, ha)

In August, one of my dinner friends picked the rocksino where we ate at the Hard Rock. I'm not much of a slot player.  One of the friends put in $20, lost a little and then got 600 free spins.  She ended up with this...



Wow, wow, wow.  Magellan started with $20 and ended up with $158.  Me I lost about $35, ha.  At least I wasn't the only one who lost.  I had fun though.

I didn't get a chance to see much of the memorabilia but I did see Eddie Van Halen's motorcycle.


 Also, outfits worn by Shakira, Fergie,Will.I.Am and the best was a red cloak worn by James Brown.  I'm sure it was one of the ones that he used to shake off and they used to pick it up and put it back on him LOL (what a showman he was).


Monday, September 15, 2014

Golden

Imagine a boy meets a girl who lives on the same street, marries and are still together 50 years later.  Yay!

Last week (I believe it was September 12th), my cousin and her husband celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. 

On Sunday, we celebrated with them at Church, a brunch and went back to one of their daughter's homes.

Her sister was 13 at the time and I was 12.  We were junior bridesmaids.  Do they even have those anymore?

Over the years, I'm sure they've had ups and downs but they got through them, together.  They are an inspiration to me. 

Sunday, September 14, 2014

43 degrees

We had to get up early this morning. It was freezing in the house.  Yikes, it was 43 degrees when I looked at my phone. 

Holy Smokes!  I had to turn the heat on before we took our showers.  Too cold not to.  At least I know we don't seem to have any issue with the furnace.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Quickly

Go check out Jenny's blog for more Alphabe-Thursdays.  http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2014/09/alphabe-thursday-letter-q.html


I don’t know about you but sometimes when I read a book, I skip over some parts.  I usually think it’s too much detail (blah, blah, blah, blah, blah).  Therefore, I get more quickly to the parts I’m really interested in. 

However, listening to audio books, I find I don’t skip things.  (Frankly, because it’s not as easy to do, ha.) 

There’s something about listening to someone else read though that make the parts I normally would have skipped over so much more interesting.  Not always, but mostly. 

How about you?  Do you skip quickly through parts of books when reading if you are not interested or do you trudge through it anyhow?