Goodbye July

Last day of July already.  Don's tomatoes are going great guns!  The cherry tomatoes are extremely full of flavor, so different than store bought.  The cucumbers are great and finally my green pepper plants are starting to set, may have some in awhile!

We went out for breakfast and then to Menards.  This time I was the one buying stuff at Menards.  They had a good price on school stuff and I got some things for our home office.

Then it was home to read the newspapers.  We grilled salmon for dinner, good!

Thanks to Lisa for this picture of the church I went to in my youth in Belle Fourche, SD.  It was torn down and now a bank which Lisa used to work at sits in that spot.

Nothing Saturday

We finally have finished cleaning the house cupboards and closets.  I had to have help with the upper shelves as a step stool is not a place I want to be.  We went to CVS Pharmacy for a couple things that are on sale, had coupons also and a 25% off coupon.  They about owed us money.

Then I finally resolved a problem with google where it would not let me in a web site that I had often used before.  Productive day?  Wrong.  Spent the rest of the day doing nothing much.

We went to Panda Express for dinner, been awhile.  Watched Magic of Belle Isle on Amazon.  Was better than I though it might be.

Live long and prosper!

Don finally got to talk to our neighbors insurance company State Farm.  Now they have to come and look at the damage, who knows how long the process will take.  We did get a name of a person that will fix the problem from a neighbor.  Its one of those things where the party who caused the damage gets to sit back and forget about the problem and the party with the damage has to do all the work and have all the inconvenience.  Same things happen when someone backs into your motorhome as we well know.

In the afternoon we went to the new Star Trek show in 3D, it was very good.  The sets were "out of this world".  I noticed where they usually say "Go where no MAN has gone before" they now say "Go where no ONE has gone before".

We got sandwiches from Arby's for dinner, we both have mildly upset stomachs so didn't want too much to eat.



And she is one of the good people!    For a change women were the heroes!

Breakfast and politics

Panera is now our mid week breakfast place.  We like their Asiago Cheese egg and bacon sandwiches and they have good coffee.  Afterwards we did a little grocery shopping at HyVee.  We had taken our travel mugs to Panera so brought home coffee in them.  So we had one of the good bakery items that landed in our cart at HyVee and our coffee.  They called the bakery items "turnovers" but a lot more like scones with raspberries.

Don made another visit to our neighbor John, whose water leak caused us some damage, to get his insurance information.  Put in a call to the insurance who did not call back.  Don found out from John that we have a new management company for Homeowners Association.  He had gotten a letter, we had not.  So I emailed our Homeowners Association president and she transferred my email to the new company come Sept. 1, who emailed us the information.  Heard the previous one was not responding as they should.

I watched some of the Democratic Convention last night.  President Obama gave an excellent speech.  Watched Hilary tonight, she gave an excellent speech.  The big news is Trump is now asking for help from Russia to defeat Hilary.  Many, even from his own Republican Party are stunned.  What next?

Drip, drip, drip

We were awaken at about 4 AM this morning to drip, drip, drip.  Turns out water was dripping from out hall light fixture.  Don went to the person who has the townhouse above us (we are in a group of four townhouses, two entrances on each side.  On the side behind us they have to drive up a small hill to get to the townhouses which are above the two facing the other direction.), he asked Don to help him look for the problem and they finally found the water hose that goes into his water softener was leaking.  Don shut off the water to the softener.  We called the Homeowners Association and they sent a plumber to look at the problem and to be sure it was off.  We have some water damage in one bathroom and the hall ceiling and of course the light fixture.

Too late to go back to bed so we got ready for the day.  Watched some of the Today Show and drank our coffee and then went for our monthly check on the motorhome which is in storage.  We turn on the generator and make sure the batteries are fully charged and check things over.  All was fine.  Then Don wanted to go to the Walmart by there for something he was looking for, which they didn't have and an early lunch at Culvers.  Home and an early nap.

For dinner we went to Wild Wings, we had good wraps and some fried pickles.

Hair cuts and Walmart

Hair cuts today, we went to a different place last time and were pleased so went there again today.  It takes a couple of days for my hair to settle down so won't be able to judge the hair cut until then.

Then it was to Walmart of a very few groceries.  We went to check out and again today only one staffed checkout was open with a long line.  The self checkout were open but 3 of them were out of order, so a line also at the self checkouts.  Guess they don't want our business.

We had the baby back ribs we brought home on Saturday from Fridays for dinner.

Sun, chicken and convention

Monday already, where does the time go?  We cleaned the house like usual on Monday.  In the afternoon we sat outside in the sun for just a little while, the sun was very intense.  The buckles on my Birkenstocks got hot and burned my feet!  Then we sat in the shade for awhile, decided it was just too hot outside and so went in to continue reading.

We got chicken from KFC, usually good but it was very greasy today.

We watched some of the Democratic Convention.  Good speeches by Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders!

Give the abuser the same punishment they gave the animal.

Sunday in Apple Valley

Breakfast at Cracker Barrow, good as usual.  We had an outstanding waiter.  Then stopped at Kohl's to exchange a watch it had purchased yesterday that didn't work.  And home to read the newspapers.

Later Brenda and Becca came over for a visit and gave us some very fresh corn-on-the-cob which we had for dinner.  It was super good.

Just a few of the reasons I don't smoke:

Volstead House in Granite Falls, MN

About 10 AM it turned as dark as night, the street lights came on - we had all sorts of storm warnings.  We got some thunder and much needed rain.  Thankfully we didn't get any hail or much wind.  I got Don to help me clean a few more shelves in the kitchen.  Someday I will get it all done!

We went to TGI Fridays for dinner.  We were going to use our "points" for a free meal until we found out they had a special for a full rack of  baby back ribs for $10.99.  We brought home half the ribs and will have them for dinner soon.

From the small town we where we once lived, Granite Falls, MN/  Display now in the Volstead House.  We knew Dr. Kathy Jordan who was a driving force in tuberculous care.

http://www.mnsans.com/riverside.html

97 and humid

Another hot day.  I went to Kohl's to use my 30% off coupon again and my $10 off coupon.  We went to Menards for a stand for a pedestal sink like we have in the motorhome.  The first Menards did not have one so we went to another and got one, hopefully it will work.  We stopped for lunch at Culvers.   The car temperature gauge was 97 degrees.   It was just too hot, I didn't feel well when we got home so laid down for awhile, still didn't feel well until I slowly drank some water.

We stayed in the rest of the day, except when Don grilled some brats for dinner.

Yoda speaks

Hot day again.  On TV they think it is strange that corn fields sweat thus adding to the humidity.  We in the upper mid-west have know that fact forever.

We went to HyVee, just can't get past the bakery without something landing in my cart.  Today it was "elephant ears" a round crispy pastry that is very good.  Mostly picked up sales but it still came to about $30.

We got Reuben sandwiches from Arby's for dinner, not wanting to heat up the house fixing something. 

The Republican convention continues, what a farce.  Crown the king and get it over with.  They try to instill fear of a Democratic win where in my mind Trump is much more on the dark side.  He wants to do all sorts of things, how will he pay for it all?  Tax the middle class.  He is so rich that he doesn't know that if a person wants something they have to have the money.

Who you gonna call?

Today we went to the movie Ghost Busters (new one), we saw it in 3D.  Right at the start I thought for sure I was getting slimed!  Fun show and good to be in an air conditioned theater on a hot and humid day.

I made spaghetti salad for dinner (artichoke hearts, pepperoni, vegetables, etc. with spaghetti).  An old favorite of mine.  Don't want to heat up the kitchen/house cooking something in the oven.

Couldn't make up this stuff--

We went for breakfast at Paneria, they have great Asiago cheese bread breakfast sandwiches with egg and bacon inside.  And good coffee, of which I drank too much.  then we went to Walmart and Fresh Thyme for some groceries.  By that time it was getting hot and humid so good to get home to the air conditioning.

Lots of stuff on the internet and TV about Melanin Trumps plagiarism of Michelle Obama's speech.  There was an interview before the speech where she said that she had written her own speech and that she didn't need to practice it as she had written the speech herself.  Now Donald is going to fire the speech writer.  One friend of mine that has been a die-hard Republican forever is now separating from the Trump folks.  Just now I see where Hilary is being blamed for the plagiarism.  Please --- get a life.

Also saw where armed motorcyclists are going to break up any protesters against trump and the protesters are also armed.  Is that not a problem in the making?  The wild west in Ohio!

Monday, the start of a hot week!

The temperatures are forecast to heat up this week, getting to near 100 degrees and high humidity.  Looks like I will be staying close to the air conditioning.  Heat is OK but not the humidity!

Sheila came over for awhile to visit and catch up on their college tours.  Afterwards we watched some of Mrs. Trumps speech, she is hard to understand so turned off the TV.  Wonder how much her dress cost?  Could probably feed the hungry in New York for the cost.

Happy National Ice Cream Day

Breakfast at Denny's.  They have been advertising their new buttermilk pancakes, turns out they are very good.  Then to "services" at Menards for a couple things, I bought a big bag of popcorn.  Just looked so good to me.

We grilled salmon for dinner along with corn-on-the-cob and a salad.  Then peach pie for dessert!

A day for Don (and yes, he had some on his pie)

Dinner at at grocery store???

I cleaned some more cupboards and got Don to help we with the low and high ones.  We still have some high shelves to go.  Will be glad to get that job all done.  Don waxed the car, they washed it at the Honda place on Wednesday so was a good time to wax.

We decided to try the new restaurant at the HyVee grocery store.  We had their $10 steak special which came with a baked potato and a side.  We had sauteed spnish with cherry tomatoes for our sides.  The whole dinner was very good, will go there again.

Won at the stores today!

Today I went to Kohl's.  I had a 30% off coupon and a $10 off household items.  I got a second set of sheets for the king size bed in the motorhome and also a electric can opener for the motorhome so I don't have to move the house one.  (Hurts me hands to use a manual can opener.)  I also got some pajamas that were on sale and a winter shirt that was marked down 80% so after my 30% coupon it was $2.80!  Then the gave me a $10 coupon to use next week because I spent more than $50.

Also stopped in CVS for a couple of their sale items, then we got a $5 coupon because we spent over $20.  I think I won on the shopping today!!!

We went to Panera for dinner, love their food and iced coffee!

Food

It was off to Cub Foods and HyVee grocery store this morning.  In HyVee I saw a friend that I had worked with at Rosemount High School.  She had two little girls with her, her granddaughters.  Last I had talked to her, her kids weren't even married!  Was good to catch-up as much as one can in the middle of the aisle in a busy store.

I put a roast with potatoes and carrots in the crock-pot in the morning for dinner.  Roasts were on sale this week.  Made for a good dinner.

Honda

Don took the Honda into the Honda garage to get the radiator flushed.  Just maintenance, no problems.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch (home), I cleaned some more cupboards.  I have just a little more to do before I will need help with the high and low areas.  All morning we had a storm sitting just south of us, we got no rain but some places had storms.

In the evening we went to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner.  The are one of the few places remaining with a salad bar.

Groceries and eating

This morning we went to Walmart and Fresh Thyme for groceries and a few other things at Walmart.  Storms were forecast for the middle of the night, once I heard thunder in the distance but no serious storms or rain.  There were some tornadoes yesterday around Minnesota but not here.

I fixed Don's favorite meal, Tater Tot hot dish for dinner.  Good to stay home this hot and humid evening.

Clean Monday

Cleaned our not to dirty house.  It is a hot and humid day, a true Minnesota summer day.  Glad for the air conditioning.  I downloaded the Amazon Prime Video app to make it easier in finding movies and serial shows.  Seems like we have trouble finding stuff we like.

We spent the rest of the day reading and watching some TV in the evening.

Just a usual Sunday

Usual Sunday, went out for breakfast and then Menards followed by reading the Sunday Newspapers.

 We woke up to thunder and it lightly rained the rest of the morning, clearing in the afternoon leaving it hot and humid.  Our air conditioner is running!   I woke up with a funny headache, a cross between sinus and migraine.  When we went outside the light hurt my eyes even though it was cloudy, had some double vision.  The coffee and ibuprofen soon helped.  It came back later but not so bad, I laid down for awhile and all the sudden my sinus drained causing a lot of coughing and chocking on my part.

We grilled some steak for dinner and then watched the first episode of Graceland on Netflix, not sure if we will continue.  We will witch a couple more and then make up our minds.

Saturday at home

A day to do those eeky jobs around the house.  Don cleaned out the bathroom vents from the outside.  We had the dryer vent professionally cleaned a couple weeks ago.  Then he put in a new inside vent on the dryer.  I cleaned some more cupboards.  My back prevents me from reaching too high or low, hate to ask Don for help but no choice if I'm going to do the job.

We decided to stay home for dinner and have left-overs for dinner.  Later we watched the last of the Scandal shows until next summer and then we watched Ridiculous 6 on Netflix, a western spoof.  At first I wanted to turn it off but we kept on, ended up laughing out loud at some parts, not something I usually do.

Happy Birthday Don

Don's birthday and he likes to celebrate every minute.  We went to Denny's restaurant for breakfast as they give a free breakfast on your birthday.  Then it was to Don's favorite store, Menards and also to HyVee.

In the afternoon we went to the movie Independence Day Resurgence.  It was good, not as good as the first Independence Day in my opinion, even boring in places - like they needed to add stuff to make it a whole movie.  For his birthday dinner we went to Outback Steakhouse.  The food was fine, I had to send my steak back - I ordered medium well and got rare.  Can't eat rare meat.  Our waiter was either new or not all with the program.  The manager brought out my recooked meat.



I am deeply saddened about the sniper killing the policemen in Dallas.  I think all this goes back to all the wild, careless statements Trump makes on TV.   He seems to incite people.  Normal smart, good people are like they are joining a cult.  They can't hear or listen to anything but Trump, he is their god.  If he told them to shoot all the people he hates: blacks (or anyone of color), anyone of a different religion, women, immigrants - his followers would be right on the job.   We WILL see more horrible violence before this is over.

Motorhome visit

It thundered and rained during the night according to Don.  I slept through it all.  Didn't get much rain.

Mid morning we went to visit our motorhome in storage.  Don wanted to put foam tubes on the windshield wipers to protect them from the sun and also to check for any damage from Tuesday's storm.  It was fine.  We then went to Culver's for their good hamburgers.  It was getting hot and humid so it felt good to get back in the house.

What is this world coming to, open season on black people?

Don's birthday party

We went to Cub Foods and Fresh Thyme stores today for groceries.  Once again, hardly anyone at Cubs, I fear for this store.  Fresh Thyme had fewer people than usual, they all must be at our new HyVee.  We got groceries for Don's birthday party tonight and fresh fruit and vegetables.

In the evening we had the Peicks and Dennis for dinner to celebrate Don's birthday which is Friday. Most people will be gone on Friday and the whole crew not available for who knows how long with vacations, work trips, kids events, etc.  It was fun having everyone together.

Weather report

I was ready to sleep in this morning when Don woke me up at 7 AM.  We drank our coffee and then went to Sam's Club and Walmart for groceries.  It was already getting hot and humid outside, this is one of those days for which  Minnesota is famous.

Also famous for the storms that can cross the state.  In the early evening there were three tornadoes, none close.  High winds, we got some wind but not dangerously high.  Hail, no hail here.  We did get some much needed rain.  The warning sirens went off but we didn't shelter, it was almost as dark as night outside, turned on lights which blinked a few times but never went out.  So all in all we didn't get much of a storm, thankfully.

That is one shelf cloud!

4 of July******

Independence Day!  We sat around drinking coffee and then decided to tour the nearby campground - we miss the weekend camp-outs.  Some people had already left and many others were getting ready to leave.We would have taken another day so we could have enjoyed the holiday.

On our way to the campground we saw a cornfield right in the middle of Apple Valley.  Brenda and Rebecca said they were going to look for a cornfield today to see it the corn was "knee high by the 4th of July", so I texted her the location.  The corn is about shoulder high!

In the evening we went to the Dennis' house to watch fireworks from their deck.  We could see a couple "home" fireworks, one very good and also could see the Apple Valley fireworks show.

Here are both at once!

Sunday Sunday

We went out for breakfast as usual for a Sunday and then came home and read the Sunday papers as usual.  We are nothing if not predictable.  Daughter Brenda and granddaughter Rebecca came for a visit.

We grilled some very good smoked pork chops and had corn-on-the-cob with cherry pie for dessert.  We also had a salad with tomatoes from our deck plant and some sliced.  Nothing like a vine ripened tomato!

The weather is remarkably nice for the holiday weekend!  The grass is getting dry and could use some rain but OK if it waits until later this week.

The long weekend begins

The first day of the 4th of July, Independence Day weekend.  When I was a kid this time of the year was almost as important to me as Christmas.  In the small town of Belle Fourche, South Dakota it was rodeo time!  I was never a fan of rodeos, didn't like the animals being treated so rough.  I did like everything that came with the rodeo like the parade, fireworks, family reunions, band concerts and mostly the traveling carnival that came to town each July 4th.  I would hear the calyope music of the merry-go-round from our house and would get shaky excited to go for some rides.  It is not so exciting anymore----

We went to our daughter's house this morning to give our son-in-law his birthday gift, a neon sign that reads "Free Beer - Tomorrow"  and has a beer mug with "moving" foam.  Then it was to HyVee grocery store again for what we forgot the other day.  It was really crowded but we got a good parking place and made it through.

We decided to bring in a pizza for dinner.

Tomato!

This morning we went to Panera for an Asiago cheese breakfast sandwich.  They are so good and their "bold" coffee is powerful!  Then we went to Menards Home Store to pick up their "4th of July" specials.  I got things like paper plates and plastic forks and spoons and Don got a red, white and blue rope light to put around the deck.  Then to a gas station for bread, turns out Kwik Trip has good, fresh bread.

Later in the morning I decided, no time like the present  and began to clean the kitchen cupboards.  Didn't get too far as my back started hurting - maybe if I do a couple shelves now and again I will someday get the job done.

Again today, like most days, we sat outside and read.  Sat in the sun for awhile and then moved to the shade.

We went out and got salads to bring home for dinner.

Don picked the first tomato from his deck plant!