Let the Burger Tour Begin!!!

It is day four of vacation and we finally went for our first burger on the West Michigan Burger Tour. My friend, Deb, joined my sister and I to kick off our burger tour. We decided to hit the joint that was claimed to be the best by the news anchor at WZZM TV. Like he said, they were all good but the station made him pick a winner. The first place winner was The Brown Bear Tavern in Shelby, MI. When we walked into the bar, the first thing you notice are all these different chandaliers hanging from the ceiling. So totally unexpected and out of place but yet they all looked like they belonged there. The Brown Bear is known for the Bear Burger which is a one pound burger. Lucky for us, they also have a Cub version which is a 1/2# and a Wimpy version which is a 1/4#. We all opted for the Wimpy burgers. Dianne and Deb both ordered the olive burger and I ordered a Pine-a-Pino burger which had ham, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, onion, and bleu cheese crumbles and jalapenos. I asked for it without jalapenos but unfortunately, they left the pineapple off as well. But the burger was delicious even without it. They claimed on the menu that they used top quality meat and it made all the difference and I have to agree the meat was excellent. They also had bakery buns which were yummy too. Like Deb pointed out the condiments did not take away from the flavor of the burger itself. We all agreed that the burgers at the Brown Bear were excellent. We would all highly recommend the trip to Shelby for a burger at the Brown Bear.

We decided since we drove all the way to Shelby we might as well walk thru town. (It's like a block or two long.) They had a nice Good Neighbor Pharmacy so we stopped in. The cashier was very friendly and greeted us and told us about the sales that were going on. Dianne and I both ended up buying a Tervis tumbler.

Our next stop was the Shelby Gem Factory. We were greeted by Larry Kelly who started the company. He ushered us into a theatre to watch a 10 minute video about how their synthetic gems are made. When the video was over we oohed and ahhed over the gems themselves in the showroom. The gems there are really beautiful at a fraction of the cost of the real thing. According to the guy we spoke to in the showroom some of the stones they produce are stronger than the real stones especially the softer stones like amythests and emeralds.

Our next stop was Country Dairy in New Era. We missed our exit to get off at New Era and had to take a 5 mile detour to get there. We especially wanted some cheese curds and ice cream. We knocked around the store and picked up some cheese curds, aspargus brats (can't wait to try them), and garlic chive cheddar cheese. Then of course, we ordered hot fudge sundaes. Gotta say, those sundaes were delicious. We decided not to go on the tour of the dairy because it was getting kind of late and we didn't know if we really wanted to spend $6 a piece for the tour. So we headed home however we some how ended up back in Shelby. We were going in the wrong direction and didn't even realize it. Plus it was only like a couple miles down the road to the dairy that we had gone at least 10 miles out of the way on the way there. We all burst into laughs when we realized where we were.

It was a really great day. The weather was perfect, the burger was perfect and the sundae was perfect. We had a great time.

Tomorrow it's off to the Gerald R. Ford Presidental Museum and the Choo Choo Grill for another burger. Stay tuned for updates.

VACATION AUGUST 2011

Hey, hey, hey...it's vacation time!!! Six years ago my sister and I took vacation this very same week in August. We went to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and had a great time. We were planning on doing that again this year but we didn't have the extra cash to spend so she came to Michigan yesterday and we are just hanging around here. Our main goals are to clean out my storage unit in Sparta and to complete our West Michigan Burger Tour. One of the local TV stations had a contest to find the best burger joint in West Michigan then they visited the top five burger joints and picked a winner. So now we aim to visit the top five places and pick our own winner. The contestants are the Brown Bear Tavern in Shelby, the Station Grill in Muskegon, Goog's in Holland, Choo Choo Grill in Grand Rapids, and The Corner Bar in Rockford. Their pick was the Brown Bear in Shelby which is known for it's one pound burger. So stay tuned for our reviews.

Six years ago when my sister and I took vacation one of our fondest memories was staying in a hotel across from the Soo Locks in Sault Sainte Marie. We both love the locks and it was so nice looking out our windows and seeing the locks and the ships going by. If you've never been there, it is definitely a place you should visit at least once in your life. Put it on your bucket list for sure. So while we were there Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. This time around Hurricane Irene is going to hit the east coast. When ever we had the TV on while we were on vacation six years ago it was pretty much non stop hurricane coverage. My sister is already searching the TV for hurricane programing.

Speaking of the hurricane one of my best friends is an insurance appraiser. My friend, Deb, (that just moved here from Denver in June) was called out this morning to head east. I called her this afternoon and she said they were packing up the camper to head to Richmond, VA, tomorrow morning. We stopped to see her and Gordy for a few minutes this afternoon. She said they could be gone for a few months to a year. I hope it's a quick trip for them and I hope they are home soon.

So stay tuned for more of Bev's Wild Adventures. I mean what could be more adventurous than a burger tour? TTFN!!! (Ta-ta for now!!!)

Crap, Crap and More Crap

Hello to all my friends from Bev at Crap Central. So as many of you know I am a recovering Crapaholic (or hoarder if you prefer). I have a storage unit in Sparta that I have had for oh I don't know maybe six years now. My goal is to elimate this storage unit and I have been working hard on it when I can but as many of you are aware, it has been an unbearably hot summer. The last time I went to the unit was the second weekend of June and loaded up my trunk with 15 boxes of stuff to go thru. Well they rode around in my trunk up until the last weekend of July. The only reason I unloaded them then was because I got up at 6:30 in the morning on a Saturday to move my car back in front of my building (they were redoing the parking lot and I had to park away from my building that night). I decided since it was only like 80 degrees instead of 90 and I hadn't taken a shower yet, I would unload my trunk. Plus I had a primo spot right by the stairs.

So I decided I had to do something with it today and I tackled some of the boxes in my kitchen. I threw away pretty much all of two boxes really quickly. Then I started on a box that was marked "Living Room-Unpack" so I was thinking it was from when I moved from my house on Preston to my Mom and Dad's house in 2001. Yeah, NO!!! It was stuff I packed up in 1986 when I moved into my house on Preston. OMG!!! I had three beautiful stacking ash trays. I can't tell you the last time someone smoked in my house. An alarm clock that was probably one of the earliest models of digital alarms. A Santa bank with $2 in quarters in it, a wooden ANR semi model, a really fancy cut glass candy dish, a pine cone (from where? not sure), a cute donkey figurine and my favorite, a figurine of the RCA dog. He's on my shelf now. The donkey is going to work tomorrow to live with my Smart Ass and Dumb Ass statues. So anyway I have a couple of boxes packed up for charity and I huge bag went to the dumpster. I also got caught up on my shredding today. That felt really good. I have been putting it off for along time and it is finally done. YAY!!!

So small accomplishments today put I am really pleased with what I got done today. Just praying for the strength to carry on and keep on keepin' on. So if you could say a prayer for me too, I would appreciate it.

Hello Friends!!!

Hello my faithful followers. It's been a while since I entered a post. It's been a really hot week here and every where else too. It's almost like we have been living on the f'ing sun this past week. Of course, in Michigan that also means humidity up the wahzoo. It's been a week of 90+ degrees but the heat index has made it over a 100 most of the week. Today it finally rained for most of the morning which was really nice. We needed it. It's been so hot, I havent even walked my girls this week. But I don't think they minded too much.

So speaking of my girls, Mabel has a little bit of an issue with health related problems. She has non contagious mange that causes an auto immune deficiency. She has battled this her whole life and it causes her to be very itchy. We were finally getting that under control and last year she started really going overboard on the itching. She has a big bald crappy looking patch on the back of her neck and her shoulders are pretty bad too. I think she might have an allergy issue with the carpet here or something. Well because she does so much itching, she tends to "preen" herself with her teeth. Well little Mabs has an underbite and in February I noticed a gray patch behind her bottom teeth. It was spongy and looked bad and I was afraid she was rotting from the inside out. So of course I took her to the vet. They took her in the back room and when they came back with Mabel the vet also had a ucky gray patch on a napkin. Turns out it was matted hair woven between her teeth. So anyway, I've been checking her mouth every month to clean out whatever hair is stuck between her teeth. This past Saturday I looked and saw some hair to get out of there and kind of picked it out. Well she was licking a lot so I figured there was some hair that I didn't get and she was trying to spit it out. Sunday night she started licking again like she was on Saturday. I figured I better check it out and it turns out that one of her front teeth on the bottom was really loose. I tried to get ahold of the tooth but I couldn't with my fingers so I went to my stamp room and got a pair of hemastats, poured some alcohol on them and then grabbed hold of the tooth. It came right out but it kind of freaked me out because of all of Mabel's health issues. So I took her to the vet on Monday to make sure she didn't have an infection or anything. She didn't but now whenever she smiles at me, she looks so funny. I know I will learn to love her new smile as much as I did her old smile. She is my sweet Mabel after all.

Tuesday, June 28th...Day from Hell

Today was a day from hell at work. I think I have ADHD. That is all.

Two Months Later...

Where has the time gone??? I can't believe it's been two months since I posted anything. I've been busy with a couple of things. I've been trying to clean out my storage unit in Sparta. The crap has been in there way too long and I'm finding that I have an emotional attachment to very little of it. I have found some great treasures though. Like my favorite salt and pepper shakers that I kind of wondered if I would ever find them. They are now where they belong in my cupboard filled with salt and pepper. I've donated a lot of stuff but I have thrown out much more than I've donated or kept. The stuff has been breeding over there and everytime I go back, it surprises me how much more stuff is there than I remembered from the last time I've been there.

Another thing I've been working on are the yearly calendars that I make. I started late this year and really didn't get going until the middle of March. But I've been smokin on them and I plan to be done with all 12 months by the end of June. So far I have 10 months completely finished. So eventhough I haven't been working in my stamp room as much as I wanted to, I have been plugging along on my stamping project and will have plenty of time to relax closer to the holidays.

I did take a week's vacation in May and my sister came up. We were going to finish cleaning my storage unit in Sparta but the Friday before vacation I found out Mabel needed surgery because she had a growth on her gums. The vet was certain it was cancer, but we got really good news that it was just a calcium growth. My prayers were answered. It kind of disrupted the whole week as she had surgery on my first day off. It did not help keeping me focused. My sister and I went up to the storage unit after dropping Mabs off at the vet but I was pretty distracted. We did take a big load of stuff to charity and brought a load of trash home. Here's the funny part...I pull up the dumpster at the apartment complex and they are painting the damn catwalk. I was freaking out because I had two huge bags of stuff in the back seat to dump before I had to go to pick up Mabel. So I ran the trash over to my storage unit here in Holland. Went back the next day to get the trash out of storage to throw away. What a day. I tell ya!!!

Anyway...not much else is new. Oh wait...my friends Debbie and Gordy that lived (yes I said "lived") in Denver and said they would never leave there have moved back to Michigan. WTF???

So I leave you with that!!! Talk at you soon!!!

Been Busy!!!

Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've been busy organizing my stamps that are on wood into my stamp cabinet and cataloging what stamp sets I have. It's been a daunting task but I've been keeping at it. Slow and steady wins the race, right? Well I have my wooden stamps done and tomorrow I start on organizing the stamps I'm going to mount on foam.

I've been praying that I would have the determination to keep going on this project and I think I've been going steady for about a month. All I can say is "thank you God for answering this prayer". It's been so great to just keep plugging along and not get discouraged on the progress I'm making. It didn't become a mess overnight and it's not going to get organized overnight either but I am extremely pleased with the progress I've made. My goal is to have my stamp room 90% organized by the time my sister gets here for vacation in May.

I only have God to thank for helping me get through this. Thank you, thank you, thank you for answering this prayer.