Life in Northern Michigan

Testing for travel

admin May 9, 2024 1 Comments

I am leaving for Italy in a few days and I wanted to practice doing a blog on my mini IPad. I have been packed for three days but now see it is supposed to rain most of the time so I am thinking of fewer capris and more pants. I love planning a trip. I love doing all the research and making reservations. I do not like trying to decide what to pack. I am usually wrong. So, to compensate, and I take too much. I always get nervous when it is time to leave. I have a great time one there though!!! Looking so forward to this on! The friends, the coffee, the apero spritzers, did I mention the coffee????

I have been helping to foster a six month old rescue. He was rescued because of neglect and he has to be crated for a good part of the day, so I offered relief. OMG six month old puppies never stop! He has the attention span of a gnat. He is into everything, including my yarn. He got on the kitchen counter and was carrying scissors around the house. I lined up some cans on the edge of the counter on a mat, thinking if he pulled it down, the cans would scare him. Wrong again. He walked through the house with a can of dog food. This afternoon he got in the shower with me. He will make a great dog if those around him live through his puppyhood. Oh, he is supposedly black lab and hound. His bark is definitely hound. I have to think there is also a bigger ancestor in there, maybe Great Dane?

I apologize for the size of the photo, but I cannot figure how to make it smaller on the IPad. He might look cute, but that was momentary. Anyone want a dog?

I found this great site that sells craft kits, and I am really considering the one for this afghan.

Each month for a year they send you a kit with everything you need to make part of it. I guess the last one helps you sew it all together. They send all materials and instructions. They also give you access to instructional videos. It ends up to be expensive, but if it works out, it will be worth it. I will have the pattern and can make others. Cannot imagine how many colors are in there.

Not a very exciting blog, but at least I know I can do it from Italy.

Things I Do Not Understand

Kathie Schmidt April 29, 2024 8 Comments

My neighbor set a toilet at the road the other night. Who does he think will pick it up?  If it did not look so nasty, I would raise the lid and put a flower arrangement in it. One a month our garbage pick up includes one large item, but that is the first pick up of the month. That toilet is going to sit there for over a week. I guess the across the street neighbors are following suit, and they have placed a sofa across from the toilet. It has rained two solid days. No one is going to want that sofa. Ahhhh,  the  beauty.

Why is packing for a trip so difficult?  I need clothes for thirteen days. We are staying at an AirBnB in Florence that has a washing machine. That should mean I need six and a half outfits. If you have ever seen me eat, you know I need a bit more than that. A tshirt dress can be warn twice, so that means with a washing machine that is four days of the thirteen.  Two dresses, eight days. A pair of capris and two tops, four more. Almost done, right? Hell no.  Right now I have three dresses, a pair of capris, two pair of pants, two tops each for both the capris and pants, ten pair of underwear, socks I will never wear, a rain jacket, a denim jacket and shoes. I also have another pair of capris on order.  I need someone to go through and minimize the stock.  

I want to go to Poland but no one is interested.  I still have family there, but would not know them if I ran into them. Actually, I would not know how to even say excuse me, if I ran into them.  Thank heaven my maternal grandmother was named Katherine, as I was named for her. My maternal great grandmother was named Theckla, and I think they should have named my sister that. Hee hee What a name.   Not much better on the paternal side. My dad’s mom was named Bertha Freeda, and she had two sisters: Ida Olga and Elsie Edna. She got even and named her sons Lloyd, Earl, Milton and Ellsworth. We do not good naming genes.

Did someone ask me about my trip?  Let me tell you. Flights are so frigging expensive that it is costing more for an eight hour flight from Chicago to Rome and return than my part of all the accommodations for the entire trip. I bring a sandwich when I fly. Not that I think it is a safety feature or anything but I would rather have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich than any of the stuff they call a meal. I did have a great banana on my last flight though. Bananas are bananas right? Wrong. This one was a perfect banana.   I  digress. They do beverage service, then feed you, then turn down the lights so you can sleep because it is really middle of night in Europe, but it is only 4PM my time. Thank goodness for pharmaceuticals.  If I can get four hours sleep, I will not be a zombie upon arrival. Note: Never chose a seat near the bathrooms….never, I don’t care how much extra you have to pay.  When you take off they are nice and have a fresh aroma. By the time you land you are having flashbacks to Greyhound bus stations.

When I travel I have more energy than when I am at home. Interestingly, about ten or twelve of you have actually traveled to Europe with me.   I have such fun. I did not enjoy Scandinavia, but it was pretty. Pretty boring actually.  I should do a blog of adventures I have had with some of you. I won’t use your names with the embarrassing ones.  Such fun. Ok, this does not fit with the title of this specific blog, but I am getting excited about going, and it is invading my thought process.

I might make it a tradition to end each blog with a photo of my dog. Why?  I love my dog. She is funny, a good companion and almost as stubborn as I am. Almost. She sleeps a lot. When you look at her from the angle toward her stomach she looks like a pig. I like pigs too. And I do not eat them.  Oh, that is another thing about travel, a difficult thing. I only eat fish and poultry. That is not easy in most countries. Italy is pretty easy, but in Germany I about starve. Thank heaven for beer and pretzels.  I looked into a tour of Morocco, and a review said, “If you do not like cumin you will starve to death. “ Hate cumin. Not going to see Morocco.

The next blog I will attempt from my IPad mini. If I can do it, then I can blog from Italy. At least I can upload some photos.

May 5 is now in honor of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women.  Wear red to acknowledge. That is my politics.