(LBE...FD...)

Not much is happening around here. Work is ULTRA boring, I think I might just go crazy if things don't pick up soon. Michigan was wonderful! The weather was perfect, the company was perfect, the food was perfect. It's about a five hour drive, we left about 7:20AM on Friday and arrived about 1:30PM. We stopped at just about every rest stop, so we could get out stretch, do whatever, and let the dog sniff around and do whatever she needed to do.

That evening we tried going to a restaurant my aunt had been told about by someone she met at the Cubs game last month. It was just down the road from our friend, but when we got there, it was smokey on the inside. Apparently, Michigan is not smoke-free yet, so we nixed that idea, as the smoke would bother both myself and my aunt. Instead we drove back to town and went to Frank's, which is a pizza joint that serves other food also. I chose a personal sausage and cheese pizza, and boy was it good! The crust wasn't too thin, not too thick, had a good flavor, yummy!

The next day we slept in till about 9:20AM, had turkey bacon and french toast. About 11:30AM we walked a few blocks over to a neighbors house, an elderly lady our friend helps take care of. She just turned 85, and twice every day our friend goes to her house to fix her lunch, and either help her do some exercises or bathe her. She is a such a nice lady, loves the company, and has many interesting stories to tell.

Afterwards, we went to do some shopping. I needed some new jeans and we discovered that Fashion Bug has a new sizing method on their jeans. So we headed over there to buy me some jeans. The lady measured me around the waist, we picked a couple pairs, neither worked. She grabbed a couple more, they didn't work. She grabbed one more...success! So I bought two pairs, and ordered one more pair to be delivered right here to my apt. They were also having a sale, buy one item, get another at 99 cents. For two pairs of jeans (cause the ordered pair was charged separately) and 5 tops (one wasn't included in the 99 cent sale) I spent $123. Then on the way home, we stopped by the apple orchard just outside of town.

It's been around for many years, the cider is delicious (even though it's unpasteurized) and they have several flavors of jellies plus apple butter. They sell donuts too, plus pumpkins, they have a corn maze, a hay ride, and of course...APPLES! We didn't buy any apples, but we got six cinnamon and sugar donuts, which were yummy! My aunt got some sugar free blueberry jelly for her sister, and we headed back to our friend's house.

Her daughter was going stag to her homecoming dance, so we needed to be there so her hair could get done. Also, it was about time for her to go over to the lady's house to feed her supper. We had hot dogs, potato chips and spanish rice for dinner, while we watched Penn State whoop on Michigan, lol. I was rooting for PS.

Sunday we got up about 7:30AM, had breakfast (monkey bread) then went to return some cans our friend had collected. Michigan residents pay a $.10 deposit when they buy pop/soda, so all the big stores like Wal Mart and Meijer have these machines where you can return them and get tickets for a maximum of $25.00 per visit. With money in her hand, she took us grocery shopping with her, lol. The rest of the day was kind of quiet, just relaxing and chatting, hanging out in front of the tv. For dinner we had bratwurst, sauerkraut, and pasta with meatballs and brown gravy on it for dinner. For dessert we had acorn squash with peaches baked in the oven. I had never had it before, it was quite good!

Monday we got up about 5:30AM to start getting ready so we could leave by about 8:00AM. We had gooey eggs (scrambled eggs with melted Velveeta cheese in them), sourdough toast and turkey bacon for breakfast. I got everything out to the car, and we were on our way at about 8:00AM, right on time. We stopped again at most of the rest stops, but then I missed an exit here in IL, and we had to go quite a few miles out of our way. I'm blaming it on the construction and that they messed up the exit so I wasn't expecting it where it was. Yeah, that's it, that was my problem!

It was nice to get away for a weekend, but it was also nice to get home and sleep in my own bed again. Now if I had something to do at work, I'd be a happier camper.