Quote of The Week:

"Retirement life is a game. Happy people are the players. Unhappy people are the spectators. Which would you like to be?
from Ernie Zelinski's How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free"

— Ernie J. Zelinski

Welcome to our new look! For those of you that have visited in the past, you'll see that we've made some changes. I first must thank Lori for helping show me how to do some of the things we've done. I'm sure that I could have figured out many of them myself.....eventually! But why bother when you have a daughter that can do most of these things in her sleep!

Anyway, I just thought I should point out that I've now added a "links" section on the left side. These are links to other web sites that we frequent and you may find interesting. I'm sure we'll add some more over time.

Another BIG change, or maybe a better description is "addition", is the inclusion of "Tags". Frequent visitors to Live Journal sites understand what tags are, but some of the newer visitors probably don't. I'll try to explain them so that they make some kind of sense. Tags are a feature that allows the poster to "label" any individual post with a specific, general description. For example, if you look at the bottom left corner of this post, to the right of the word Tags, you'll see the words home and Lori. These are the two tags I've attached to this post. I could have added more if I had wanted to. But if you went and clicked on the tag "home", EVERY post in our journal that had the tag "home" applied to it would be listed in chronological order. The same would hold true if you clicked on "Lori". Any post that we had tagged with Lori would be listed and you could read them all. This provides readers with the ability to read about one aspect of a particular journal. If, say, you wanted to find out about all the repairs that we've had to do to the motorhome, you could click on the "repairs" tag, and they would all be listed. You will also find at the very bottom of the column of information located to the left of the posts a section labeled as "Entry Tags". This is the COMPLETE list of tags that we've used, and you can click on any one of these and all posts that have that tag will be listed.

You're also going to see some new userpics. We want to be a little more "entertaining" for you, so we'll (at least I'll) change these every so often. It seems like that's what most of the other journal users do, and hey, who are we to fight tradition!?

We hope you enjoy our new look. Please let us know what you think. And if you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear from you!

Lori arrived safely in Janesville around 5:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. As we don't have the room in the MH for her, she'll be staying with her grandparents (Jenny's parents). We spent a few hours with her before we headed off to Christmas Eve church, where I had to Lector. We just went back to the MH after the service, as it was almost 10:30 by then.

Lori came over around 9:30 a.m. Christmas morning so that we could have our "family" Christmas. It was really nice, except that Tom, Dani, and Teagan weren't here. Lori pulled another fantastic surprise on us. She exclaimed that all the years that she and Tom were growing up, Jenny and I always gave them Christmas stockings on Christmas morning with little stocking stuffers. She said that because now we were the ones who were "jobless and free wheeling", she was going to give us stockings. It was really neat. She had all kinds of little things in each of our stockings that were special to each of us.

So after exchanging gifts, and letting her get on the computer to update her journal, she left to go back to the grandparents house, and Jenny and I started getting ready to go over a little later.

Jenny's brother and sister, along with their children (youngest are 15), Jenny's folks and her aunt were all there. We all had a pleasant afternoon, an absolutely dynamite dinner, a lot of good conversation, watched a lousy football game (the Packers lost), and then came home.

It was a wonderful Christmas, and we hope you all had as a wonderful day as we did. I've attached just a few pictures to help document the day.


( Christmas Day )

With tonight being the last night we might have internet access for awhile, I thought I should get caught up on some of the things I wanted to post here.

We have to go backward for just a moment to Elkhart, IN. While we were there, I had an opportun ity to meet a couple of fellows that I've gotten to know through a different internet discussion forum. I may have mentioned (or may have not) that I'm a moderator at a site called TractorByNet.com. Here's a link if you're interested in checking it out:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/index.php

Anyway, I met 2 of the other moderators for breakfast that happen to live close to Elkhart. It was great to finally meet some people that I'd gotten to know over the last couple of years but had never even heard their voices! The fellow on the left is Dave, a.k.a. MossRoad. The fellow in the middle is Rob, a.k.a. RobS. And the fellow on the right is......well, let's just by pass him for now.

On to Columbus! Here's a picture of the entrance to the campground we stayed at while we were in Columbus. It's the Cross Creek Campground, and they received Campground of the Year for 2004. It's very nice, although I think we got the one site that has a bit of a drainage problem. There are actually concrete blocks placed from the road back to the concrete patio because it's so muddy. We didn't see any other sites like that. But other than that, it's a nice site.

I've included a couple of other pictures of the campground just a give a better idea of what it looks like.

We decided that we needed to some "fun" stuff on the one day we had in Columbus. Remember, the first day (yesterday) we did laundry all day and fixed dinner for Lori, Rachael, and their friend The Wonderful Nancy (and she is too! We had a great time talking with all of them!) So today we went down to the OSU campus and took Bailey for a nice walk around a beautiful little lake right in the middle of the campus. I posted some pictures of that activity.

Later in the day, we met up with Lori and went to the Easton Town Center to have dinner. We thought that this was "just a mall". Wrong! This place is a WHOLE city!! It is awesome! We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Yes, they have regular food too, but boy, do they have the cheesecake too! Umm, Umm, good!! Anyway, I snapped a few pictures of some of the things that I thought were interesting. If you ever get near Columbus, you HAVE to spend some time at Easton Town Center. It's like it's own little town.

We head out tomorrow for North Carolina. We're going to take 3 days to get there, as we don't want to rush. We may not have internet access for awhile, so bear with the lack of updates. We'll get on line just as soon as we can!

TBN Moderators These are 2 other molderators from TBN. On left is Dave (MossRoad) and in the middle is Rob (RobS). We met at a Cracker Barrel restaurant for breakfast.	Cross Creek Campground Entrance This is the entrance to Cross Creek campground that we stayed at in Columbus, OH.
Main Drive Into Campground This is the main drive into the Cross Creek campground.	Cross Creek Camping area this is one of the camping areas at Cross Creek.
OSU Lake Walkway The entrance stairs to the OSU lake.	Jenny & Bailey at OSU Lake Here is Jenny and Bailey sitting alongside the OSU lake.
Bailey Resting Here is Bailey resting after chasing some ducks.	Jenny & Lori Together Here are Jenny and Lori at Easton Center.
Easton Town Center Some of the gardens at Easton Town Center.	Easton Signs Some of the Easton Town center banners.
McDonald's at Easton This is the most awesome McDonald's I've ever seen!	Easton Train They have a wonderful G scale train running through some gardens at Easton.
Easton Train Bridge A picture of a great model train bridge.

Jenny did a nice job commenting on the activities of our "quick" trip to Columbus. We always love going there. Certainly because Lori is there, but also because we've just fallen in love with the community (even though they are big Wisconsin opponents!). It doesn't matter how long we're there, it's always too short.

Yes, I was very hesitant about going to the restaurant Jenny mentioned. When she described it to me, all it sounded like was stir fry heaven. I've never been a big fan of stir fry, so I was less than enthusiastic. However, I really have been trying to expand my experiences, especially when it comes to trying new foods. And Jenny is right (so what else is new??) when she reminds me that in almost every case, I find that I really do enjoy the new experiences. Soooooo, we went. And as usual, she was right! It was VERY good, and I might add that it is very reasonable considering that they charge one price and you can load up your bowl with as much as you can carry. I went with the New York strip meat, and added some broccoli, sliced potatoes, water chestnuts, and some pasta. Then I used teriyaki sauce on it. When you mix it with the rice they bring, there was almost too much to eat. So the next time we go back, I'll try something else and Jenny will get to say I told you so again!

It was wonderful that Lori had hired some movers to take care of hauling everything in. Sure made our work easier! Of course, when it was time to hook up the trailer to the truck and take it back to the motel to park it, it started raining real hard. And it rained the entire time I was hooking up the trailer and unhooking it. So I got absolutely drenched! I was able to go inside and change at the motel, so at least I didn't need to wear wet clothes all afternoon.

I did accompany the ladies on their little shopping trip. And that's all I'm going to say about that!

Dinner was wonderful, as Jenny mentioned. Since we were at Martini's, we all had to try different martini's. See, I told you I was trying to expand my experiences! Jenny had some kind of Mango fruity kind of drink, Lori had a yellow cake martini, which did smell and taste a bit like yellow cake, and I had a Key Lime martini. We all tried each others drinks, and I think I liked Jenny's the best. The Key Lime martini had too much of a bite to it. Later, Lori had a Grapetini, which was very good too. The restaurant serves Italian cuisine, and it was all very good.

Lori's gift that Jenny described is absolutely unbelievable! She's always been so good at thinking of very unusual and thoughtful gifts. But this really topped them all! It certainly isn't because of the cost, although clearly it cost a bit. It's just that Lori thought of this and put it all together the way she did. THAT is what is truly amazing. She's always so busy and involved with so many things. That's one of the reasons we're so proud of her. She never stops looking for new things to participate in or to use to expand herself. This gift was one of the most memorable that we've ever received or in all probablity will receive. Thanks again Lori! It was awesome, just like you!

Have you ever received a gift that was so unexpected yet wonderful that it left you speechless. Beleive me when I tell you that I am seldom speechless. On our trip to Lori's we received just such a gift.

First let me tell you that for my whole adult life I have had a difficult time accepting presents from my children. Having them spend money on me is very difficult for me to accept. When Lori was here last time, I actually was able to let her buy something for herself without offering to pay for it. I also was able to watch her pay for the moving help and not offer to reimburse her. MAJOR PROGRESS.

When Lori had told me that she was working on a gift for our retirements and travel, she also said that I could not get mad about it. I had no clue what she was doing, but vowed to accept this gift with appreciation, grace and love. I also would not say a word about the cost or prevaricate about her doing it.

Well that was not a problem. We were so blown away by this gift that we couldn't even talk!!!. Not only was this gift completely perfect for us, it showed a depth of caring and personal insite that few have. We received from Lori, a DVD Library. Yes LIBRARY. Over 150 titles all in special DVD wallets. These movies consist not only of current favorites, but of movies we have loved for years. Movies like Camelot and John Wayne favorites for Garry and Doris Day movies and Mr Blandings builds his dream house, (my all time favorite). Musicals like Fiddler on the Roof and Music Man, Christmas movies and mini series titles THE THORN BIRDS !!! Wow. How incredible and what a wonderful gift that will keep on giving.

Lori spent many hours searching for these movies and arranging them in Wallets, (whith Rachel, TLR, help. Thank you Rachel). It was an amazing gift and we will enjoy it immensly. What a wonderful thing to do.

We are back from Columbus Ohio and our daughters home. We took her things to her that were still stored here and took her our old couch, mattress and box spring and the treadmill. We borrowed a trailor from one of our friends at church and it went very well. Lori had hired movers to move everything into her home. That was a good thing !!!!! We then had a great time shopping and hanging out for a while. We took Garry to a place for lunch that he was a bit resistant too, but in the end really liked. It was a Mongolial barbeque. You go up and choose all the elements for what is essentially a stir fry. Then you proceed to the cooking area which is a large round grill with several chefs around it with looooong knife/turners whick cook your food in front of you. Then when you get back to your table, there is rice and tortillas waiting for you. It is very healthy and depending on what kind of job you did selecting your items, very good. I usually do a terriaki type dish with shrimp and veggies, Garry did a terriaki one with new york strip pieces and veggies.

A good time was had by all.

We also went to a great restaurant by Cameron Mitchell, called Martini's. Cameron Mitchell is the restaraunt guru of Columbus. He has seveal different very!!! good restaurants in Columbus. They are all somewhat themed, and very upscale/casual with great food and atmosphere. If any of you are in Columbus you must try one or several of them. Martini's, The Fish Market, Cap city Diner and Camerons. There may be more, but these are the ones I know of.

Of course you can not go to Columbus with out getting some Graeters ice cream. If you like ice cream, it is a treat unparalleled. It is the creamiest and best ice cream I have ever had.

Then of course I had to make a trip to the bead store Bysantium. I have recently started doint beaded jewelry. I wanted to have a craft that I could easily do on the road and maybe hopefully sell some for extra $$. It was so wonderful. A true beading paradise. It isn't so much like a huge store with row after row of beads. It is truly an experience that appeals to all your sences. It is a wonderful building that inside is not only beading supplies, but has many examples of other crafts and ethnic items. The center of the store is a large square cases of beading supplies in inumerable drawers with dividers. If you want to see anything, you can ask for that drawer to be brought out. It is a visual feast of colors and textures. It gets the creative juices flowing and your mind just reels with the possibilities. What a geat experience.

For us we can't go to Columbus without visiting the Book Loft in German village. It is a block long old brick home that has evolved into one of the most unique book stores in the US. It is a rabbits warren of narrow halls and little alcoves of books. You could spend hours and days exploring the store and still not see everything. We always come away with something.

The trip was much too short, but we will be seeing Lori again on our way to our first volunteer position in North Carolina.

We realized that his was just another item on the list done that brings us closer to the big adventure.