TIME FOR A HAIRCUT…

  I decided this morning it was time for a haircut….This is what happens when I get bored…

 

 

…Besides, I have more than enough facial hair anyway….Me thinks me needs to boost up the hormone dosage….

 

 

 

   Yesterday I got into my “Nanook of the North” outer gear , (yes, I have several nice outfits), and took the GMC for a spin to get some groceries…..

…Center Street …that slop really makes the GMC attractive looking….Also, notice the train car/restaurant is still “under construction”..I may have to go over there and “jack ‘em up”..Come ON you guys, let’s have something NEW to do in town!!

Do any of you bloggers clip coupons?? Or go to at least 3 different grocery stores to save a buck?…Well, I do all of that.

 

MY FIRST STOP WAS ART’S SUPER MART, OUR LOCAL SMALL TOWN GROCERY STORE..

 

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE GUYS THAT USED TO CARRY OUT GROCERIES FOR “LITTLE OL’ LADIES” LIKE THIS POOR FROZEN SR.? PUSHING THAT CART TO THE CAR IN THE SNOW IS CHALLENGING…HELP A GAL OUT, WOULD YA??

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My new best friend this winter in Illinois is our heated seats…At least I can have some “warm buns”.

 

 

 

 

 

My second stop is always Aldis…the world of quarter shopping carts and “bring your own bags”..The land where you can load up your cart to overflowing for under $100 (and that includes a couple bottles of Merlot!!)

..When it costs you more to fill your fuel tank than it does to buy groceries, it’s time to move out of Illinois…(not to mention the state taxes just went up 75%). Our GMC drinks out of the Murphy USA trough…it’s the cheapest fuel within 30 miles..and is right there at my last stop…

 

 

WAL-MART!!! AKA WALLY WORLD, ADVENTURES IN SHOPPING, CELL PHONE HELL, AND “CHOOSE THE WILDEST COSTUMED SHOPPER” CONTEST.

 

 

 

THEY HAVE ALL OF THOSE SHOPPING CART “RETURN “PLACES THAT ALMOST NO ONE USES..

 

 

Hey you peeps!! Do NOT get this close to my GMC..step AWAY from the truck…and PULLLLEASSE open your car door slowly!! (Yeah, right…like that works!)….We have lots more Wally “dings” in our truck door than we do  Arizona “desert pin striping”.  Well, as you can see, it is always a real pleasure grocery shopping for me.  No wonder no one will go with me… I like to call these trips “Combat Food Retrieval”, for obvious reasons.

  Thank the Lord, this weekend will be exciting, though.  The Chicago Bears are hosting the Seattle Seahawks here at Soldier Field, though you would never know it from nationwide TV… Most of the sportscasters totally disregard our Bears, as if they aren’t really there..like Rodney Dangerfield, they get no respect! ..The weather forecast??…Windy, 20 degrees and snow …PERFECT Bear weather…GRRRRRR!!!

  Many of you don’t realize that Soldier Field was built in 1919 as a memorial to those soldiers who died in wars.  The link I provided has some great photos and history of this historical stadium…

SOLDIER FIELD AT NIGHT…BEAUTIFUL..

 

SOLDIER FIELD SOLDIER’S MEMORIAL WALL….

 

HOPES AND DREAMS ARE ATTACHED TO THIS MAN AND HIS TEAM…

….JAY CUTLER, AS IF YOU DIDN’TKNOW!!

AND TO ALL YOU TV SPORTS “PUNDANTS”….SHOW SOME RESPECT ,@#!*#@!

 OK, I’ve sounded off enough.  This was a very crazy blog.  I jumped around to much you would think my hair was on fire…Oh, that’s right..now I don’t HAVE enough hair to set it ablaze!! Thanks for reading…disregard any rantings..(I guess that means you could disregard the whole doggone blog!)

Thinking Spring…

First off…I had a comment from “anonymous” (Hermit)on our Alaska blog…He did some tweaking on Al's photo showing the Bighorn Sheep on the rocks…He was kind enough to tweak my photo of my Aunt and Uncle’s photo I had inserted..It was taken on the Alaskan Highway in 1948…

 

LEFT IS THE “BEFORE” ENHANCEMENT….RIGHT IS THE “AFTER” HERMIT’S ENHANCEMENT…..

WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!….THANKS HERMIT, WHO AND WHEREVER YOU ARE!!!!!!!

Yesterday morning we had a female Cardinal in our feeder…our first one since we hung the dang thing out when we got home! I think they have been hiding in the local Blue Spruce and sneaking into the feeder after we go to bed!!!

            AHA!! CAUGHT YA, YOU DIRTY BIRDY!!!!!!!!

  I decided to be covert later in the day….I sat by the window, camera in hand like a perverted window peeper, and waited….

Just about the time I was ready to give up my sneaky stance…BINGO!!!  I’m not sure if she was “flying solo”, scoping the area for males, or if she was a taster and making sure the safflower seed wasn’t poisoned…No males ever showed up….(but we ladies know how slow men can be.)

  I’m in a blue funk here with this cold weather and snow…I am used to walking 2 miles a day, but my sinuses cannot take the cold winds.  I need to invest in a ski mask, then I can look like I’m in the witness protection program.  Actually, I cannot walk in the snow either…I have boots, but they are stiff and heavy and I have to walk like Mrs. Frankenstein…Hey, maybe a combo of boots and ski mask would complete the illusion…At any rate, McGuyver walks by himself until the degrees stay well over 30, the wind stays well under 20mph…and the snow melts…HMMMMM ..Looks like I won’t walk till Spring..

  I hate sitting on my gluteus and getting zero exercise…so….I came up with a plan.  If I run up and down our stairs, circle all the 3 bedrooms upstairs, circle all the 4 rooms downstairs about 20 times, maybe..….OK, maybe it’s not 2 miles , and the stair climb alone will probably kill me…but I had to try….

CAN I JUST SAY THAT A TREADMILL MIGHT BE A BETTER PLAN…?

OR MAYBE I COULD SLIDE DOWN THE BANNISTER..”BUT,” I CAN’T FIT MY “BUTT” UP THERE!

Al talked about the elusive donkeys of Hickiwan Trails in his last blog…When we were there last year, we could hear them every night, but never could actually SEE any….It was my firm belief that they were brought in by truck after dark, so they could bray for the tourists all night, then they got hauled out before sunrise…That was my theory….UNTIL….

I WASN’T EXCITED OR ANYTHING……LOOK CLOSE!!!! …DONKEYS AT 12 O’CLOCK!!

 

 

THERE WAS A WHOLE FLOCK OF THEM…OR WHATEVER…..HERD?? PRIDE??? HOW ABOUT BUNCH???

….Speaking of a bunch….

 

…..Hey, Judy !!! What the Heck kind of birds are these? They flew into Hickiwan Trails Feb. 2nd last year for about 1 hour, bellied up to the “trough” to get themselves a drink…and left…Never saw them again …(Not unlike some transients we have run into at the local pub.)

MEMORIES OF HICKIWAN…..

OK, enough of the nostalgia trip already!!! It’s getting close to cocktail hour….. 

The following “little gem” caught my eye online somewhere….I found it pretty amusing, but then, my humor is somewhat, shall we say, skewed?????

“Some people are like a slinky...not really good for anything, but you can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs!”…..

…Sorry about that, I just couldn’t help myself…..

OOPS…ALMOST FORGOT TO WELCOME  Roxi and Annie to our blog followers….Above is just a sample of how tacky this can get…Hang on and welcome aboard!!

Football Party, Beer Fest or Cook-Off….Maybe All Three!

  First of all, I would like to welcome new followers, Taz , Cyndi, and Pidge.  You three need to be warned that this is sometimes a hugely politcally incorrect blog and the fashion police are frequently summoned..(Must be McGuyver’s wardrobe, it COULDN’T be MINE!)…Welcome aboard..Unfortuately we are’nt traveling right now, so you can sleep on the living room floor with the rest of the brave souls who follow us…Feel free to use the blankets on the back of the couch and chair….

Yesterday, our son Kelly and his wife Cindy (our personal medical staff) came over about noon…and from there the day just kept getting crazier and crazier..(NO, REALLY?) They called last week and told us they wanted to bring  a roast over here and cook it for dinner.. MEALS ON WHEELS??? NO WORRIES, WE’RE IN!!….

I had put together some snacks for us while we watched the football games (AS IT TURNS OUR IT WILL BE BEARS VS. SEAHAWKS NEXT WEEK!!)…

 

Kelly and Cindy had brought a 6-7lb Prime Rib Roast to cook for later in the day (and  Kelly slathered it with his secret sauce)….

 

 

 

My contribution to the meal was roasted asparagus, twice baked potatoes , and salad….I made parmesan crisps for the salad in lieu of croutons…

Kelly and his father thought we should work on our “building” skills while we watched the games, so he , McGuyer and Cindy began a Busch Lite pyramid… Those 3 are all beer drinkers…I am a wine drinker, and I was not allowed to pile up wine glasses with their beer cans…(That’s the beauty of drinking wine….no one can count how much you drink by the empty “evidence”….) You are witnessing a “recycling tower” in progress…

We sat around, watching the games, snacking by the fireplace…I  had to document everything, of course, with photos… Dennis and Kelly were playing with Den’s new Android “Smart Phone”…..sending pictures of the Busch Lite Tower to our two daughters…

……WHO IS THAT BIG MAN ON THE RIGHT?? .Hard to believe…Did I actually give birth to this large man???? OH YEAH!!!! THE STORY OF THAT DAY COULD BE YET ANOTHER WHOLE BLOG!!!

The prime rib roast went into the oven at 3PM….After the first (and most boring ) football game was over , we settled down to watch the Packers game…,About 4PM, we moved our TV watching into the kitchen TV , so we could do some “prep work” for our feast and still keep track of the Packers ….

Cindy was making her signature cornbread dish, made with sour cream, jiffy mix and canned corn….As you can see, she had Lots of good help…Hey, who is that nut case making faces behind us ???? You can’t get this kind of cooking show on The Food Network, that’s for sure….(maybe Julia Childs).

Kelly took the rib roast out of the oven to let it rest, and put the cornbread in the oven with my baked asparagus then we went back to watching the game…and continued to work on the Busch Lite Tower.

 

I PRESENT TO YOU …THE FINISHED BUSCH LITE TOWER

…..LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON….

MAKES A WIFE/MOTHER PROUD THAT THEY HAVE A COMMON GOAL!

……LET THE FEASTING BEGIN!!!!

 

We ate ourselves into oblivion, and the Busch Lite Tower remained in tact, …until……….we suddenly had a catastrophe….Cindy just happened to be close, but swears she didn’t touch the tower…..but it DID come “tumbling down”, and , as you can see by the remains of it, she WAS in close proximity!!…..HMMMM…she looks a little guilty to me, just sayin’.

…Well, that was our Sunday of football, beer fest and a cooking show audition….We certainly had a great time…and yes, I DID laugh until snot came out of my nose….I think we all did….And no good get together is complete without desert….soooo……

 

 

 

Our last trip into Mexico resulted in this bottle of wonderful Kahlua…..and Cindy and I decided this was even better than brownie sundaes….OH YEAH…IT WAS…

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom….It is now time for my shower, and the donning of my “uniform”…Tonight’s dinner creation shall be a homemade chicken pot pie with puff pastry, bread stix and a salad, all prepared by yours truly….I sure ain’t Prime Rib, but any comfort food is good when there is 2-4” of snow coming our way…Oh, yes..I did say the “s” word….See ya later!