Back in town

Not wanting to get trapped in "Round 2 of Denver Snow", we raced home on Tuesday.  Got most of the RV unloaded and scrounged around for dinner.  As before, Adjuster Dog was THRILLED to be home because she has the doggy door and a foot of snow on the deck!  Really wish we had video because it's truly hilarious!

Today Philoberto is updating his on-line profiles to reflect additional licenses, certifications, etc.  Annette is on the 6th load of laundry and Adjuster Dog assisted in sorting laundry.  Again, hilarious but no video!

So, we're home ... the Easter tulips are gone ... hope to see you all real soon!

Peace & love and pray for storms!

Professional Correspondence

We're trying to teach Adjuster Dog that when Mama's doing "professional correspondence" (e-mailing friends, blogging, etc.) she does NOT have a place on mama's lap.  Philoberto tried to teach her how to spell "professional correspondence" ... she doesn't care, wiggle wiggle wiggle.

Truly a bizarre day in Kansas.  Once we figured out that Denver was experiencing a stupid snow storm we put the skids on in Wichita.  We had a toilet malfunction so we located a repair shop that carried the part we needed for repair.  After the successful repair (this is where we all need to pat Philoberto on the back) we spent an hour trying to find cool things to do/tour in Wichita, and that went a big, fat, nowhere.

So, we made our way to Salina, KS hoping to stay for FREE somewhere.  This is where it gets interesting.  There is this old school "RV we take care of each other" community which lists free or cheap stops EVERYWHERE in the US of A.  Apparently it's been around for years but the old school part is how it's published; .pdf every year.

Anyway, the .pdf listed three places in Salina so we stopped at the most appealing for us.  County fairground @ $10/night.  Nope ... it's now $50/night.  Large local park @ $0.00/night.  Nope ... too many "gays" were migrating to the park at night so no more overnighters!  The final stop was a flat, gravel place next to a quarry @ $0.00/night.  Nope, they now have full hook-ups and it's $20.00/night.  Camp host "Bob" said that we would be the only unit, but DO NOT mess with the geese!  Apparently the geese are nesting and don't like to be disturbed.  Therefore, Philoberto splained the situation to Adjuster Dog and she understood the gravity.   We were too tired to move on so we stayed in Salina, truly undue drama.

Shhhhhhhh (so we don't mess it up), I don't know why, but I've been smelling some stuff for the past few days.  It's not the full blown thing like when I'm on predinisone, but I'm still smelling something (mostly bad stuff).  It's been 6 months since I've smelled anything so this is very interesting!

Maybe back home Weds or Thurs, if the weather will cooperate.

Must tend to dinner ... Peace & love and pray for storms!

Blackwell, OK

Here we are in Blackwell, OK (sometimes it's easy to forget where you are ... like rock stars traveling around the globe ... sometimes they forget where they are and they say hello to the wrong city ... then it's awkward for everyone ... but we're not confused right now), we're really in Blackwell, OK.  We just dialed into the over-the-air channels and we can see Lawrence Welk (ask your parents, unless we are your parents, then ask someone else), and Soupy Sails (sp), and two Spanish speaking channels.  Looks like someone needs to fetch the DISH.

We had originally planned on parking in a Casino parking lot (for free) but all were several miles off the interstate highway so we landed in Blackwell.  The bonus of staying in a Casino PL is FREE PARKING, FREE SECURITY, and access to at least one restaurant.  In Blackwell we have access to several fast food joints so we had us some Sonic burgers.  Can't remember the last time we ate at Sonic so hope is goes well.  Regardless, the onion rings were awesome!

We "checked in" at the police department, while the dispatcher checked my drivers license I looked at the wall where all the officer's photos were.  4 officers, 3 sergeants, 1 lieutenant, 2 detectives and a chief!  Looks just like the little Ft. Morgan department (well FMPD did have a few more guys) where I spent so much time!  True small town.....  Anyway, the dispatcher assured me that "the guys" would be around all night to make sure we have a quiet night, nice.

So ... till next time ... Peace & love and pray for storms!

Gun Show Day

Our first gun show and it happened to be in Dallas ... COOL!  We arrived early (as did everyone else) hoping to find ammo before it was all gone.  Boy did we find ammo!  Also found fun signs, very interesting people (I refrained from taking too many people shots), so I'll share a few of our favs:

These signs were posted in the entrance waiting line.  I guess it is obvious that we've never been to a gun show before, otherwise we wouldn't post pictures of signs!

This guy was selling I don't know what ... and he refused to put on the matching hat and pants.  Maybe Dennis Long knows what these are?

We liked this sign on the front of this helmet.  Mike Brown would appreciate this!


We decided to take Adjuster Dog along (as opposed to letting her be naughty in the unit) and the temp was perfect for a little hanging in the pickup time.  When we returned to check on her highness we found a shredded napkin in the passenger floor area.  Then I remembered that I left the top of a Jimmie Dean Delight muffin inside that napkin.  We checked the back seat and sure enough ... the muffin was there, pretty much untouched.  She has her priorities straight, napkins over muffins.  Maybe she really is low carb ... when we got home a pork rind blew off my plate and she RAN to scarf it.  No bread, only chicharrones ... so cute!

Back to the show ... it was fun checking out all of the guns (we didn't care about the knives) and special collections.  Some of the collections were uuber awesome; a lot of WWI and WWI as well as Vietnam uniforms, guns, helmets, etc.  Scored ammo for the boys as well as my bro and picked up some 9mm, 38+ and .22 for myself!  Glad to finally find some and not see bare shelves!  The prices were pretty darn good as well. 

Prepping the unit this afternoon for tomorrow's departure.  Not sure where we're headed other than North.  Therefore, we must sign off for now.

Peace & love and pray for storms!

Two Weddings today!

Anna Leigh Marshal and Jill Housewright are both get married today!  Such a coincidence!  Anna is my first niece and she is marrying uuber awesome Drew Hanna in Cancun.  Anna Hanna it is ... yay!  Jill is my cousin's daughter and she is marrying her longtime love Peter Bailey in Dallas.  Congratulations to all!  As long as we're talking about family coincidences:   Jill's bday is the same as Reid's bday ... only three years apart, very cool! 

Two days in a row (this is awesome) ... THE SUN HAS SHONE!  And the wind has not blown.  Feeling super blessed with great weather right now ... this is cool.  Adjuster Dog is soooo happy to be outside and we love that it's not WINDY!

If you're a Liberal ... please tune out NOW!  Tomorrow we're going downtown to a gun show.  Neither of us has been to one before so it will be exciting.  We've spoken to several "people" in TX and ammunition is difficult to come by so we'll see what happens.

Trying for a family photo op before we sign off:

Don't worry, we know we're dorks!  Just FYI, we attended another meet & greet today ..this company does flood only ... damn we like flood (no roofs).  Met a VERY COOL older couple there ... very encouraging info like who "not" to work for and who "to" work for.  I have a pretty good radar on sincerity to we both appreciate their input.

We'll be heading North soon so Philoberto has mapped our route home.  Don't see any storms on the horizon so Thornton, CO it is!

With that said,

Peace & love and pray for storms ya'll!

Scared Wiener Dog (recurring theme)

Adjuster Dog is a nErVoUs WrEcK!  The wind is howling, the trees are moving (heaven forbid), lawnmowers are making their way through the park ... it's just too much for one little doggy!  Some of you animal whisperers may need to jump in here and offer doggy psychiatric advice.

She's gone from not wanting to walk without Daddy to not wanting to go outside, period.  Weirdo!  Of course I did not give up so I dragged her along to inspect the happenings outside.

 

 

Check out the flowers that are in bloom ... what are they?  Someone must know ... maybe bluebells?  I'm mostly clueless about these sorts of things but they're pretty and I'm not sneezing!

 

 

 

 

 

This is a picture of the beach ... I took Adjuster Dog down there for excitement.  She cried so we left.  She's scared of water ... well I knew that she was afraid of pools but I thought she might like the beach ... she doesn't.  I'm pretty sure we are not related!

When her highness does go outside ... she loves to slither through the long grass.  I think that she thinks that she's invisible in long grass.  Don't tell her she is NOT invisible; at least I can get her to go outside this way.

 

 

 

 

So ... that about takes care of that.  Thanks for keeping in touch ya'll.

 

Peace & love and pray for storms!



Visitors

Wow ... what an active morning!  We had numerous visitors to the campsite; all within 5 minutes so you can imagine how exciting it was for Adjuster Dog!

These three were the first to arrive.  They parked right beside the unit and seemed to enjoy the poor little doggy's anxious fake bark/growl.

Next, the cardinal arrived.  Adjuster Dog did not even see it (whew) but it hung out in the tree beside the unit.  These little guys are all over the park, they're beautiful!    

Finally, Mr. Squirrel arrived to drink from the faucet.  It had a powerful thirst (he didn't tell me that) because he sipped for at least one minute.  Check out all the green and flowers ... very pretty here this time of year.

My assignment today is to figure out how to get Philoberto licensed in LA and GA.  He is already licensed in about 10 different states and apparently these two are "must haves".  All states have different requirements; I don't know why there is not "standard" in the industry.  You may recall that I sent in my TX application two months ago and it still has not been issued.

Not to rub it in, but it's 72 degrees outside and 77% humidity.  My hair is definitely curlier here with the humidity (AKA it's out of control).  Hope everyone in CO is safe and warm; I see that schools are closed so ya'll have a great day off!

Peace & love and pray for storms!


 

The Miller

So, on Saturday we landed safely in the Cedar Hill State Park (just 20 minutes from downtown Dallas).  Because the conference was scheduled to begin on Sunday morning we headed to Duncanville for Saturday evening Mass.  We attended a Sunday morning Mass at the same church in February but this experience was completely different:

FEBRUARY AM MASS                             SATURDAY PM MASS
Packed                                                 Empty
Culturally diverse                                   Bunch of white folks
Warm & welcoming                                Cold & rushed

Sunday we headed downtown and met with mucky mucks in charge of hiring adjusters.  Of course they were very encouraging (it's their job) and we are excited to work for this company.  When?  I don't know ... it's frustrating and we hate waiting!

When we got back to the park we moved to a different campsite; it happens to be next to the site where we stayed two weeks in February.  As before, we're backed up to the lake but the wind is CRAZY BIG today and expected to be stupid windy on Tuesday.  Then huge, possibly damaging hail storms on Wednesday.  You folks in Denver are bracing for a big snow storm so I guess I won't complain (until the unit gets damaged, then I'll complain).

Dean & Kranny (adjuster friends) drove over for dinner on Sunday; it was great to catch up and compare notes.  This morning Phil headed downtown for the conference and I'm in charge of, well, everything else.  Adjuster Dog found a miller to play with; I tried to edit the video but couldn't find the tool.  It's kind of long, sorry.

 

 

 

Welp, need to take Adjuster Dog for a walk (if she'll go without you know who). 

 

Until later, peace & love & pray for storms!

 

 



 

Coming Out

I've been so anxious about this day.  Knowing that I would have to come out to ya'll has been very stressful.  (I just tried to insert an anxious smiley face but I couldn't figure out how, now I'm even more stressed).  What day? you might ask yourself.  Don't ask yourself, that's just silly; ask me!  You probably think that I'm going to reveal something about my sexuality ... well, OK then.  I'm heterosexual ... there, I said it.  Are you surprised?  Philoberto is not surprised and Adjuster Dog is status quo ... confused.

This is what I'm really talking about; "Food".  Again I'm distracted so before I get to explain "Food" ... yes, it's another picture of the Easter tulips ... I'll probably take pics of them until they are no longer photogenic.

Back to "Food" ... what you're seeing is a typical breakfast meal for someone who avoids Dairy and Grains (aka Paleo).  Yep, I've been experimenting with Paleo for the past month and I kind of like it.  Not because I'm losing weight (ughhh), but because I feel better.  Many of you will recall that I can't taste or smell so I came to ask myself why I was eat things that upset mi estomago?  Things like fat-free coffee creamer, oatmeal, whole wheat bread (all which I've eaten for years thinking that it's uuber healthy).  What I accomplished was an upset belly and some awesome burps (I once won a burping contest in college; I'm very proud of that)!

Today I fried up some bacon, then fried me some shredded sweet potatoes in the bacon grease (I adore sweet potatoes in any form ... except when people slather them in sugar or syrup or marshmallows, then they're just stupid).  Some mornings I'll fry an egg along side the sweet potatoes but this morning I remembered that I needed to consume the fruit that came all the way from Thornton, CO so I sliced up an apple.  Man, it was good.

By now you are probably asking, "how did I have time or space to shred sweet potatoes while traveling in the unit"?  I actually have an answer for once.  Philoberto and Anne became super creative and put the food processor to work the day before we left.  He loves "riced" cauliflower and I love shredded sweet potatoes.  Below please see evidence of shredded sweet potatoes (posing with Easter tulips).  They travel nicely in the over-stuffed fridge and they just make me happy.

 

So, you're probably bored to tears and wondering what the heck this has to do with Adjuster Dog.  I don't know, it has nothing to do with the her.  Perhaps the Blog is having an identity crisis?  Yikes!

 

 

 

 

Today little Ms. Adjuster Dog slept and slept and slept (we were both bored).  She prefers to hang out in the window seat so that she can protect her humans.  However, it was too hot in the sun so she slithered down onto the couch and sought coolness under her doggy bed.  My camera shutter disturbed  her highness or you would have seen a better pic.

 

We're off to the Dallas area this morning.  Have a conference that begins tomorrow and goes through Friday.  Hope they have some good stuff lined up!  Gotta pack up the unit so peace & love & pray for storms (so we can work instead of attend a conference)!

 



San Antonio

Happy Birthday to me (yesterday)!  Twas a wonderful, beautiful, productive day and thank you all for the birthday happy greetings!

This is the famous Cactus Viper Margarita from the Zuni Grill on the RiverWalk.  I'm pretty sure that I had it three years ago, but it wasn't my birthday then so it didn't really count.  Some of you may remember that when we were last in San Antonio it happened to be the one week in the year that the RiverWalk is drained for cleaning.  It was yucky, stinky and the trenching equipment was loud; we always try to be in the right place at the right time.

This year it was full of yucky brown water and the sidewalk was full of hot, young, newly graduated Air Force dudes.  Well, some of them were young, some were hot, but all were cool to look at!  Their families were so proud of the graduates.

 


This is a picture of the Easter tulips from Mary Ellen (they're still beautiful), the fruit all the way from Thornton, CO and my almond cappuccino in the mug from Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.  Technically we're not "allowed" to have glass-ware in the unit but I got sick and tired of drinking coffee out of plastic mugs so we made an exception.  And it's not really cappuccino, I just pretend it is cuz it makes me feel special. 




Philoberto is off to USAA Certification today.  We hear that USAA is a great company to work with so pray that the exam goes well!  We did have one hiccup this morning; somehow the bedroom clock set itself back one hour so he got off to a late start.  Apparently the training company provided Phil with an incorrect address so he was technically late, but we'll blame it on them and not the mysterious clock time-change incident.

As for Adjuster Dog ... I am the proud pet parent of a doggy that won't go for walks if her daddy isn't along.  Last month I thought it was because she was scared, now I know it's all about him.  She begs and begs to go then when she realizes he's not along, she puts on the brakes (it's actually kind of cute if you can visualize a 9.4 lb. dachshund stopping me from moving).  She is weird, just weird.  I'll try to snap a photo of the event next time.

I should probably make some things happen here so for now, Peace and Love and Pray for Storms ya'll!

Yawn .... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ....

What?  Was I snoring again?  I'm so embarrassed ... oh well, you'll just have to get past it ya'll!

What a long, boring drive it was today.  We were in a "Severe Winter Weather Watch" this morning; Amarillo was on accident alert (black ice) and we were dreading the treacherous drive.  Fortunately, we left NM early so we were ahead of the storm and only had light snow/mist/wind stuff.  Yay for us!

Adjuster Dog is probably dehydrated because her only POP (points of potty) were Clayton, NM ... Amarillo, TX and the final resting place for the day (drum roll please) ... Sweetwater, TX.  If you were following the blog last month you may remember that we day-tripped to Sweetwater for the Annual Rattlesnake Roundup.  No such festivities this time (whew) so we're parked in their City Park with electric & water.  It's ridiculously cold here because of this storm, but tomorrow promises to be a much warmer all day!

Oh ... this is a really cool picture of Easter flowers from my Sister-In-Law +MaryEllen Davey.  They were so beautiful on Easter Sunday and now they're on the road with us.  Thank you +MaryEllen for brightening our home!

Did I mention what a long, boring drive it was today.  Therefore, I taught Adjuster Dog how to "high-five".  We were bouncing down the road (literally) and "someone" kept pulling Sadie's tail so she would wake up.  If you can, turn up your speakers so you can hear Outlaw Country in the background.  I can never tell if the videos upload correctly ... hope this works!

After our long drive we decided to treat ourselves to a local favorite, "Allen's Family Style Meals".  Every review we read on the world wide web touted their chicken so we meandered over to place a "to go" order.  It was difficult, (I'm not sure we were all speaking the same language) but the chicken was puuurrrrrfect!  Need to sign out so we can sample today's special of "Peach Cobbler".

With that said ... peace & love & pray for storms!

On the road again ....

So nervous!  Haven't blogged in awhile and have NO IDEA what to expect on this trip!  We thought that we'd be departing Denver in a snow storm but that didn't happen; very cool! 

Philoberto is pumped because one of the companies that we work with/for posted that they are deploying adjusters to areas affected by recent storms (TX, LA, AL).  We'll be in TX tomorrow so we'll contact them to update our location.  Adjuster Dog is also pumped to be on the road.

This here is a picture of her highness being measured for whatever needs may arise.  I think the tape shows 20 inches; I wanted to measure nose to tail but Philoberto was in charge of the tape measure, so she's 20 inches.

Oh ... I also wanted to let you know that it's easy to subscribe to this blog by e-mail.  Near the top, under the Title and description is a looooooonnnnngggggg white space with the word "Subscribe" at the end.  Just enter your e-mail address and do the verification process (if required) and Shazaamm, you'll get an email as updates are posted.  There, wasn't that easy?

To those of you that are following along, we really appreciate you.  It's hard being away from our friends and family so this helps us feel like we're in touch.  I think I also made it easier for you to post comments so please do so when the spirit moves you!

We'll be staying in a New Mexico State Park tonight and that normally means no cell service.  Therefore, we'll bid adieux for today.

Peace & love & pray for storms!