Other Fun Things

This post is the catch-all from the past month of fun or interesting things that we've done that I didn't feel fit anywhere else.

I snagged a picture of Juliet, from the team fb page, presenting with her group in Englis class!

Aunt Wanda sent us these cool Jerusalem Roses to enjoy.  We had fun watching them refresh, but they didn't ever get quite as luscious as the pamphlet showed.

William's was a dud, so we replaced his four days in.

Grace is writing for her school newspaper this year.  She was doing an article on space exploration, and Megan, my friend who works for NASA, kindly agreed to an email interview!  Sadly, when the teacher went to print, she pulled Grace's original article, not the cool one, where she interviewed someone with inside information!  I was so disappointed. = (  Her article was still pretty good, but I got to read the real one, which was much richer, of course.

I didn't quite snap the picture of the coupon fast enough, but when I found an empty soda can in the Walmart parking lot, I took it inside, and recycled it, so I got cents off of my purchase, thanks to the refund coupon.  Maybe you had to be there, but I was excited.

Billy's grill cover was looking pretty sad after two years outside, so we replaced it with the exact same cover.  The color difference is pretty telling.

For my birthday, Billy bought me some new luggage, and it was the easiest product registration that I'd ever done!  10/10 would recommend.  Also, I'm super excited about my new luggage.

I took some pictures of my girls at their fall fest, while they were in the Bingo room.

At an estate sale, my mom and I were using some baskets to hold all of our treasures, and when I got home and washed them, I found that I had the matching large one already!  Small excitements!

At the thrift store I was so excited, then so disappointed.  I thought I'd found a Skippy Jon Jones stuffy!  My mom and I have been searching for this stuffed animal since Emily was in first grade, and we've found one, ever.  = (  So, this one would have been number two, and the coloring was right, but once uncovered, I found it was not Skippy Jon Jones.  After some consideration as to what price I would pay to buy a 'fake' Skippy, we checked out and he came in under budget!  Emily made a collar with a name tag, so now Ms. Jones is the proud owner of Skippy Jones Jon..  = )  She and her students were delighted, and we will continue to look for the genuine article.

Kristy took me out for coffee for my Birthday, and while we were out, we hit the table Goodwill in Charlotte!  We spent two and a half hours there, finding lots of good, funny, and odd items.  This pair of long johns reminded me of a M*A*S*H episode, so I sent it to Billy. = )

One early release Wednesday, I promised Emily that I would take her to Plato's closet to sell the clothing that she cleaned out of her closet. In order to beef up her budget, she helped me return some cans and bottles to Kroger before we went, and we got $6.70 back.  This is obviously a big deal. lol. (6-7)

While shopping, we found some interesting things!  I had warned her that she would probably only get a couple of bucks for one or two items, but they offered her over $60 for her items!  Despite trying on many pairs of jeans, she only found a single pair to bring home, and after a discussion about what would be fair, split the rest of the profit.

Grace got the only child treatment one day, because she came with up on a Sam's Club run, and we went to explore the newly renovated fish ladder park.  It was very musically themed!

Billy and I have been watching the Longmire series, and I talked him into a least trying out the audiobooks, because I enjoyed the entire book series.  He listened for a few days, and enjoyed it, but never found a way to permanently incorporate it into his schedule.  It probably didn't help that he was trying to look up a character, and it spoiled the book because that character was the murderer.

Speaking of Longmire, we're watching it on Roku, with ads.  So, we have this game going where we try to guess the next commercial.  It's been pretty entertaining, though with the Christmas season upon us, the ads are way more varied (and harder to guess) than they were.  One of the ads was for Ulta, which Billy had never heard of, so when I saw it advertised at the gas station, I felt compelled to send it his way.

William had his tooth extraction surgery, which was a far less stressful procedure than when they extracted the bottom tooth with minimal anesthesia in the spring.  Poor guy, it was awful.  We had to get his dentist added to his pre-approval page, and wait until after his thirteenth birthday, which was no problem.  However, two days before his procedure. they called to say his doctor hadn't been added!!!  I was so stressed.  I called my insurance contact at the state, and she was able to pull a blinder, and somehow got the doctor added (they had given me only one of the two NPI numbers that needed to be added in May) in under 24 hours!!!  I couldn't believe it.  I had already called the office (and left a message, because they were shorthanded and didn't have people answering the phones.) So, had to call them back to let them know it was still on.  Luckily, it had never been cancelled.

He had to fast, so his appointment was at 8am.  My mom came over to get the girls on the bus.  While we didn't have snow, it was dark and misty out.  He did great though, and is already back on a regular diet.

I know it's December, but we finally took Grace out for her one-on-one birthday dinner!  Her request was for a place with Boba Tea and Ramen.  Billy used AI to find a place in Frandor that serves both!

She was very pleased!

I also got a boba!

And Billy and I split a teriyaki chicken bento box.  It was quite good!

Last week I took Billy's car in to get his oil changed.  While I was driving along, his tire pressure sensor warning was also cycling through the warnings.  So, while I was in the oil changing bay, I called to see what the wait looked like at discount tire.  He estimated 1-1.5 hours, so once I finished up at the oil change place, I got his car signed in at Discount tire.

I watched him check the sensor on each tire, so I got to learn how the sensors work!  One battery was completely dead, and the other three were on red, so we had all four of them swapped out.  While I waited, it was a pretty enough day, that I went to get a Thanksgiving pedicure!  It looked really good, but I had to leave to go get Alice, and unfortunately not all of the paint had set, so it rubbed in my shoe.  So, a picture against my dirty floorboard is the only one I've got.

Billy found an entertainment center and food court in downtown Lansing.  They have 'inside' shuffle board in an enclosed patio.  They did have heaters going, but it was still pretty cold in there!  Alice didn't want to go, as she wasn't feeling great, so we were just a group of 6, and played on two teams.  We ordered some nachos, sushi, taquitos, and baklava from various shops around the food court to enjoy!

It was really fun, and William was quite good at it!

In addition to cornhole, they also had a Nintendo switch setup, sadly, it hadn't been charged the night before, so the kids didn't' actually get to play.

The twins did get to watch Bluey for a little while, but they were just watching while waiting on their turn for the switch, so when that didn't pan out, it was time to go.

I'd like to go back when the weather isn't as cold, and the patio overlooking the river is a perk not a detriment!  There were a few empty storefronts too, so maybe in the intervening months they will be filled with new culinary delights!

This was a good month full of fun little moments, but you can tell the weather has changed, since all the pictures were indoors!  Here's to even more fun indoor moments!

later days

Birthday Trip to Clare

Forever ago, Billy and his coworkers were driving 'up north' to meet with a vendor, and he would go through this little town of Clare.  It's been on our list, though pretty low, for a while now, so when my mom gifted me an overnight babysitting with Billy, we decided to finally check it off the list.

There's really only one hotel in town, so we stayed at the Doherty.

Our room was simple, but clean, and had a view of the pool atrium area.

They also have a hot tub, which Billy reminded me about multiple times, and I still forgot to pack my bathing suit!

Nearby was a single screen theater, which was only showing a movie we would not have ever watched,  but since it was the only game in town, Predator Badlands was on the itinerary! 

After checking in, we visited the rock shop first, lest they close before the movie ended.  Billy ended up finding the perfect clover shaped ornament, made out of an Irish marble even!   He also found a pewter character to represent him in our D&D games with the Cornishes.

Once we finished at the rock shop, we went to eat lunch and played some bar trivia.  The game was fairly repetitive, but it was a fun way to spend time before the movie.  Once three o'clock rolled around we headed to the box office to purchase our tickets.

The first half of the movie was every bit as boring as I thought it would be. I couldn't believe that I had over an hour left of the movie when I ran to the restroom.

*****Spoilers***** This movie was totally a hallmark movie.  The grumpy old man finds out that family is who you want them to be, and between the quirky sidekick, and loyal pet, the ending is happy and sweet, you know, for a predator.*

*****End Spoilers*****

After the movie we went and checked out a local eatery.  It was quite a bit like Nico's here in town. Nothing special, but overall inoffensive.

Then, came the real reason Billy thought I would like Clare, a basement speakeasy!

It was so well done.  The waitresses were in period dresses, and the feel was very themed.  It was well done, though I would have liked some swing playing on the speakers, personally.

I ordered one of their seasonal drinks, and it was pretty!  Not very tasty, but really pretty.

Billy's ice cube had a fleur de lis imprinted on it!

Since we had just eaten, we ordered a chocolate fondue desert to help us stave off the cold! It was delicious.

B

There wasn't much else to do, so we retired early, and woke early to eat at the Mulberry Cafe!

We shared a pot of breakfast tea, but each of our cups had a unique pattern!

The food was really tasty, but of particular note was their mulberry jam, it was so good!

After breakfast, we thought we would explore a little more, since this is likely our last intentional stay in Clare.  We found the alley art walk!

This art took us some pondering.  The cooler there reads "city morgue" and it took the second "deliveries" door before we realized that this was the backside of the Cops and Donuts store.  Well played.

We stopped into a shop that we found on google, but it turns out it was primarily a liquor store.  They did have an old timey milkshake machine though, so I got a coffee milkshake! 

They were out of milk, so I bought a Starbucks Frappuccino to use as the milk component.  It was very coffee, but really good!  While I enjoyed my cold drink, out in the cold, Billy ran into the brewery to get a to go beer from their local brewery.

Clare has installed an art walk along their main thoroughfare, so I grouped them all here together for your viewing pleasure, though they were taken over the course of our stay.

It was sad to leave, but we opted to stop off in Alma, to buy a beer from their local brewery.  It was snowing there, and felt much colder than Clare, though it's not far.

We also stopped in Ithica and St. Johns, but neither of them had breweries, and both downtowns were pretty much closed up on a Winter Sunday.

Sarah dug the cans out of the recycling for me, since I neglected to take pictures of our brewery 'tours'.

When we made it home, we found that there was quite a bit of snowfall!

The girls built a snowman!

It was a lovely birthday getaway with my favorite person, though sometimes the temperature has me wishing one of us had a better weather birthday!

later days

*After we got home, Billy went out to see how bad the reviews were, and it turns out, this was the highest grossing of the entire Predator series.  It's the only one that I'd ever seen, so I contributed to their 'success' despite being unimpressed by the movie.  oh dear.

edit 11-27-25: backdated for continuity.