Sunday, January 30, 2011

What a nice weekend!

Our weekend was spent at the Los Gatos Bed & Breakfast, in Penn Yan, NY.


The owners, Burney & Susan, are terrific!
They greet you with smiles,
Burney makes a mean breakfast.

After our Saturday morning breakfast of
cream cheese pancakes with blueberries,
sausage, and fresh grapefruit,
we took off for a day of fun!

We started off at a park on the tip of  Seneca Lake, 
where there were hundreds of geese on the water.


We drove down the east side of the lake,
passing by some of our favorite wineries.
We decided only to stop at one,
Hazlitt..to buy a friend of ours a bottle.


After that, we drove over to Keuka Lake to
check out the wineries on that trail.

We went to 6 different ones..


We only brought home 12 bottles this time!
Saturday night, George took me to
our favorite restaurant up there, Ports.
He surprised me with a candle in a piece of cake..
was so cute!

It was a nice relaxing weekend!


Friday, January 28, 2011

Calgon, take me away.....!!

So I finally get to relax!!!

Woohoo!!

It all started with the moving day..


Our great friends, Bob & Karen
came over to help load our stuff 
into a chip truck.

Karen wrapped the rest of kitchen stuff..


I was looking exhausted & overwhelmed!

We sorted through everything that we had to pack...
and put things in another room that we will later
sell at a yard sale in the spring.

Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg!

Then we moved everything (in two trips!) to George's
 house in Plains, PA..(40 minutes north..)


I won't bore you with the inside pictures. I'll save
that for the inside of an RV someday ;-)

So then there was Monday..and the colonoscopy thing.
All went well, clean bill of health...all that was left
is this awful bruise on the back of my hand from the IV they 
had to put in.

Let's see..
oh yeah..
then there was that 'Operating Officer' promotion thing..

enough stress yet?? Huh?

The light at the end of this stress tunnel is..
a weekend away!!

My birthday is tomorrow...the 29th.
We had made reservations at the Los Gatos B&B..
in Penn Yan, NY, on Keuka Lake.
It's one of the 5 finger lakes.

We left at 2 today from work, and headed up.
Checked in, relaxed, 


then went out eat!


Prime Rib & Sweet potato fries.
Yum!



Our view from the sitting room of the B&B..

Tomorrow, a bit of shopping, wine tasting, and more relaxing!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I'll be baaaack....

I feel like I've been out of touch!!

Let's see...

I've been moving...
I did not have internet until Monday afternoon..
I had a colonoscopy...TMI :-)

of course, the stress at work...

More later..

with more pictures...
(but not of colonoscopy)

;-)


Thursday, January 20, 2011

What a week!

Packing, packing, packing. Sorting between yard sale pile, E-Bay pile, and 'take to George's house to use until RV' pile. We're already exhausted and we haven't even started loading a truck yet! Tonight into tomorrow it's supposed to snow 3-6", and on top of that it's only going to be 14 degrees on Saturday. Boy oh boy.

So, on top of all the stress of packing and moving...my boss came back from vacation on Wednesday morning, and handed in his resignation...*sigh*. It hit me pretty hard because we've been pretty close throughout the 15 years I've been with the company. We both came about the same time. I never saw it coming. Today, the higher powers up came, assessed the situation, and promoted me to Chief Operating Officer! Yay...(I think). Of course I didn't tell him that I want to retire in a year...(hopefully he won't read my blog!). I'll give it my 100% for the remaining time that I will be there. We were at work long after everyone else left, deciding how to delegate duties so that there are not 'under' utilized people, or 'over' utilized.

Fun stuff, eh? :)

Sunday, January 16, 2011

One weekend at a time....

Day two of this weekend..

Packed up some more boxes last night...
mostly kitchen things that I feel the need to keep
but haven't used. Like...

Tupperware

Why do we all feel the need for a cupboard full of

Tupperware

I'm sure I can do without every size & shape of the stuff.

So anyway..my job is/was the kitchen.



The cupboards in George's kitchen are approximately 
the same as in my house..
but..
not as many drawers...
Aaaargghhhh.
What the heck, if it doesn't fit, it goes in the yard sale pile.
We'll downsize...by hook or by crook!

There were some things that needed to be
run in the dishwasher..


and George fixed some things that needed to be..


We got the dining room completed..


and the bathroom..


The rest of the afternoon, we hung some roman blinds
up in the master bedroom, and one on the hall window.
I was so tired by then, I forgot to take the camera upstairs.

Every night this week we will be busy packing more boxes.
Next weekend we move the furniture..oh boy..
anybody around wanna help??


Saturday, January 15, 2011

I really don't like moving..

As you know, we have been working on George's house, and slowly moving things from my house up there.
Today we took up about 4 boxes filled with wall decorations, things from the bathroom closet, and the rest of the dining room furniture. Having a pick-up truck certainly helps!

The carpet was installed today, and while they were doing that, I finished putting things away in the bathroom, and hanging pictures in the dining room. It's all starting to come together! Of course, I took a few pictures, but left the camera up at George's house, so will post tomorrow.

On the way home, we stopped at Kohl's and used up some of our gift cards on a few things. We needed to buy an inexpensive microwave, as the one in my house is built in. George picked up a few shirts, and I bought a new sweater and pair of pants. No money exchanged! That's the kind of shopping I like!

After coming back to my house, we packed the kitchen cupboards up, and we'll take that up tomorrow. While we're clearing out the cupboards, we're sorting things out, one box for using now, and one for yard sale. We asked ourselves, if we don't use it, and it won't fit in the RV, it's going in the yard sale box.

I guess that is one good reason to move, it makes 'thinning' things out a lot easier!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

More work on house..

Another busy weekend working on George's house.
We were very busy!
George put a shower door on the shower..


while I lined all the shelves in the kitchen with red & white checked paper.


We added some more storage to the bathroom..


and wire shelving to the coat closet that is off the kitchen..


Bathroom turned out nice!


We did all that yesterday.

Today we ripped the old carpet out of  two bedrooms..

the master bedroom..

Gotta love that blue carpet!
and the 'middle' bedroom..



This room had olive green carpet.
When we pulled it up, underneath was
this linoleum, made to look like carpet!
Weird :)

We had painted both rooms last weekend, 
and in a few weeks, new carpet will be installed.

George's house is about half the size of mine.
We both keep saying it will help in the 
transition to FIVER :-)

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Progress on house #2

Yesterday & today we spent up at George's house painting.

A bit of an explanation is in order, perhaps...
George has property that he lived in before we got together. It includes his parent's house  (his Mom died in 2005, and his Father died in 2007), and a house trailer, all on 2 acres on the Susquehanna River. It really is nice property.



We have decided to move into the house, to save some money while my house is on the market. While we're living there, we can work on updating it a bit to get it into a nicer condition to sell.

So...we painted the master bedroom yesterday and the 'middle' bedroom today. We stopped and ordered new carpet for both of those rooms. We used a Lowe's gift card from George's daughter to buy some wire shelving, a new shower door, and a new front screen door. We also picked up some inexpensive window treatments.

I had every intention of taking pictures of the progress, but once we got started, neither one of us took the time to do that! We were just happy to get both rooms painted :-)

Next weekend we plan on putting up the shelving, window shades, doors, and, oh yeah,  a new and improved mailbox. I think that the upgrades will go a long way to marketing the house in the spring!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Resolutions, goals, and what-not.

Happy New Year!

Since I had yesterday off, but poor George did not..
I did some mental planning, and then some.
I took a look at our finances, which at the moment
ain't too shabby.

I'm not a big fan of new year resolutions..
or resolutions of any kind.
I usually end up kicking myself for breaking them anyway.
So I don't make them :-)

Now goals....
that's another matter.
Are they the same?

When I woke up this morning..
(yes we did stay up to watch Dick Clark)
(is that morbid curiosity or what??)
I realized that it's 2011. That means I can now
say "next year" when referring to George's retirement!!

Woo Hoo!!!

So, "this year", 2011...
we intend to:

  • Move into George's house - closer to work, no mortgage, will save us SOME money
  • Keep my house on the market, with minimal expenses
  • With the money saved...pay extra on MY car to pay it off before 2012
  • Sort through our things into 'RV', 'sell', 'give away' piles
  • Start selling things via yard sale, e-bay, craigslist, etc.
  • Keep our eyes on the Montana we want
I'm sure there are other things...
so many things to do, but now since it's
"next year"..
we have to get serious!!

Woo Hoo!!