Crack TV

Well it certainly has been a while since I've been on here. Don't know why. Anyway, just wanted to fill you in on the latest great thing on TV...DOWNTON ABBEY! It is seriously addictive. If anyone wants to start watching it, I seriously recommend you start from the beginning with season one. Also make sure you get the UK edition as a lot of scenes were cut for the US version. I tried getting into it last year during season two and didn't get it all. It's kind of British Soap Opera from around the turn of the 20th century starting before WWI. It's filmed at the actual home of the Earl of Carnarvon called Highclere Castle. It's a beautiful home and kind of makes me want to go to England to see it up close and personal. Oh well, maybe someday. Oh by the way, this series is under the Masterpiece Classic series on PBS. Sunday night 9pm EST. Enjoy!

Labor Day 2011

Well folks my vacation is over. I'm sad just typing that. Since it is Labor Day I decided not to do any labor today. My friend, Lorrie, and I went to the Gerald Ford Museum today since it was a free admission day and I really wanted to see the special Benjamin Franklin exhibit they have there. Lorrie had never been there before and really seemed to enjoy it. The Ben Franklin exhibit was pretty cool. It did not have as many artifacts as I thought it would, but I guess since he lived a long, long time ago maybe not a whole lot has survived. What was there was very well done. Unfortunately because everything there was fairly old the lights were pretty dim and my old eyes were having a problem reading everything I wanted to read.

After the museum, we strolled past the labor organizations that had tents set up on the bank of the river. Then we hit the craft booths and went and did a little craft shopping for ourselves. Lorrie wanted to make a fleece blanket for her grandson, Oliver. You know the fleece blankets where you cut and tie the edges? We went to Michaels and then to JoAnn Fabrics as they had fleece on sale. We found a really cute jungle animal print for one side and picked out a solid brown for the flip side. I was pretty proud of myself as I did not buy anything at either store. We also stopped at Subway for a sandwich as we were both hungry after our museum and shopping adventure.

But now my vacation is over and tomorrow I have to go back to work. I'm not looking forward to it at all and I'm sure tomorrow will be a very long day. So I should probably sign off on my vacation adventures and check out my work email. Maybe I can eliminate a few hundred emails before I get to work tomorrow.

Goodnight to all of you. Thanks for following along on yet another Bev's Wild Adventure.

WTH??? Where Did the Time Go?

My vacation is almost over and it makes me sad. (I'm saying this like the guy on the Geico commercial that says "and that's why yellow makes me sad." I think the commercial was written for a guy that worked for YRC.)

My sister left for home today so now I can begin work on cleaning up my apartment. For some reason it gets kind of junked up and more messy than usual when she is here. Of course it doesn't help that this place is less than 1000 square feet, I'm sure. We brought a bunch of paperback books from my storage unit to sort thru so that I can sell them so I think I have close to 300 books in my kitchen and dining room right now. I'm going to try and go thru a few of them today plus I am doing laundry. I decided it's time to wash all my bedding. Sheets, blanket, comfortor and pillows are all going to be clean when I go to bed tonight. Not that I want to go to bed because that means I'll only have one more day of vacation. Surprisingly, my stamp room is the cleanest room in my place right now. I even made two cards last night without having to hunt for stuff. YAY!!! It was awesome.

Tomorrow on my last day of vacation, I'm going to the Gerald R. Ford Museum as they have a special exhibit about Ben Franklin there right now and tomorrow it's free admission. I was planning on going by myself, but one of my besties, Lorrie, said she had never been there and wanted to go too. I try not to impose my love of history on my friends as many of them do not share my enthusiasim for the subject or just don't get it at all.

I'm going recap what we did on vacation just so I have a journal of it for future reference. Basically that is one of the reasons I started my blog in the first place.

Friday, August 26th, we didn't too much but did a little shopping, etc.

Saturday, August 27th, we ventured up to my storage unit and dug in and worked at sorting and donated a car load of stuff to charity. We also dropped my sister's car off to my friend's house so her husband could replace the shocks and struts.

Sunday, August 28th, we visited with my only remaining aunt at my cousin's house in Ypsilanti. We rode with my cousin Sherry and her husband, Ed. We visited with my Aunt Ruth, my cousin, Lorrie, and her son, Chris. It was Lorrie's birthday so I had some reprints made of some family history and framed them for her. This included a family portrait of the Cooper family in 1913 (my grandmother's family on my Dad's side), my grandpa and grandma's wedding picture and wedding invitation from 1913, and the immigration papers from my Grandpa Nickel's family from Germany in 1893 when my grandpa was 10 years old.

Monday, August 29th, let the burger tour begin!!! My friend, Deb, came over and we headed north for Shelby, MI, for a burger at the Brown Bear Tavern. It was awesome and tied for the top spot on our burger tour with Goog's in Holland. Since we drove all the way to Shelby, we took a minute and walked thru town. We checked out a pawn/antique shop across from the tavern where the proprieter was not really aware we were there. He would let out a crappy smoker's cough every now and then so we knew he was there. But he was pretty busy playing solitaire on the computer. We checked out the pharmacy in town and I bought a Tervis Tumbler for my collection at a ridiculous price. Then we headed over to the Shelby Gem Factory and were dazzled by sparkles beyond compare. The Country Dairy in New Era was our next stop and we had hot fudge sundaes and bought some cheese and brats to bring home. We headed for home then but somehow got turned around and ended up where we began in Shelby. Too funny.

Tuesday, August 30th, my sister and I headed to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and the second stop on our burger tour at the Choo Choo Grill. (Unfortunately we rated them last on the tour.) The atmosphere is so cool in this little restaurant and I would love to go back and have breakfast there sometime. Since we were half way to Sparta, we cruised up there and did a little more in my storage unit.

Wednesday, August 31st, my sister and I headed north once again but this time we headed to Rockford for the third stop on our burger tour. The Corner Bar in Rockford came in fourth in our review. We also visited the WWW Shoe Outlet and then back to Sparta for more fun in the storage unit. We donated another car load of stuff and came home with a trunk full of books and a back seat full of trash.

Thursday, September 1st, was supposed to heat up so Dianne and I decided to continue on the burger tour and cruised up to Muskegon to the Station Grill. We drove thru a lot of Muskegon and I'm not really sure how we found the place but we did and we really enjoyed our burger there. We gave it the third spot in our ratings. We also made a stop at Wal-Mart for some warm weather clothes.

Friday, September 2nd, was another hot day, so we checked off another thing we wanted to do during our vacation and went to the movies to see "The Help". It was an excellent movie and I can't wait to read the book now. Then we headed downtown to do a little shopping at Teerman's, Fustini's, and Home and Company. From there we met my co-worker and friend, Pam, for the fifth and final stop on our burger tour at Goog's Pub and Grub in Holland. Googs and the Brown Bear tied for first place on our burger tour but I suppose I'm kind of biased because I love Goog's.

Saturday, September 3rd, since we were burgered out by this time, we headed back downtown to the Farmer's Market. Holland has one of the best Farmer's Markets I have ever been to and we loaded up my market basket with goodies like apples, peaches, kale, summer squash, cupcakes, and a jar of meat rub. One final stop at Meijers for a few groceries as my sister wanted some yummy almond Dutch pastry,banket, to take home with her. Then we headed home to feast on fried summer squash and to roast some kale. We just kind of chilled after that and watched TV and we were not looking forward to going to bed because that meant we were one day closer to our vacation being over.

So there is my synopsis of my week. Hope it wasn't too boring for you but hey these are truly Bev's Wild Adventures!!!

Burger Tour Day 5

Hello from Burger Tour 2011 Central!!! Today is the fifth and final day of the West Michigan Burger Tour 2011 for Dianne and Bev. In many ways I guess you could say we saved one of the best for last. Today we visited Goog's Pub and Grub in Holland. Like I mentioned yesterday we have dined at Goog's many, many times as I live in Holland now. It is close and yummy for burgers, burritos and pizza. We started off our meal with an appetizer. Their Bacon Bleu Chips are one of the best damn appetizers on the planet. They top home made potato chips with bleu cheese, melted mozzarella and bacon. It is yummy with each and every bite. Because of their yumminess it is hard to leave room for the huge burger they bring out. I'm fairly certain they are 1/2# and are very juicy and flavorful. There is a wide array of selection too. Dianne opted for her old stand by olive burger but I decided to go with one of their new menu choices, the cheezy tator burger. This burger has bacon and crispy tator tots topped with cheeze. Mmmmm, mmmmm good. Unfortunately, I could only eat half of it. Come to think of it, I've never eaten a full burger at Goog's yet.

Now comes the time to pick our winners. Dianne and I both agree that the Brown Bear and Goog's ties for first place. The Station Grill is next and then the Corner Bar and the Choo Choo Grill. It was hard to pick a winner but I believe doing five burgers in five days made it easier. But I don't think I will need a burger for a few weeks. I'm kind of burgered out if you know what I mean.

Burger Tour Day 4

Hello Friends!!! The Burger Tour 2011 continued today with a stop at the Station Grill in Muskegon. I've been there before and was not overly impressed but today I gotta say, the burger was excellent. My sister and I got kind of a late start today and i thought I knew where the restaurant was and I got off the freeway where I thought I should, but we spent a lot of time driving thru the hood of Muskegon. In case you've never been to Muskegon, there seems to be a lot of "hood" there. We finally turned around when we got on the freeway heading north. So we turned around and headed back towards Muskegon and ended up going towards downtown which is closer to the lake and was quite nice. By this time Dianne got the GPS going on her phone and found out that we were only about 4 1/2 miles from the restaurant. Somehow we found our way even when the GPS lost its signal and cruised in to the cute as heck restaurant. It's in an old filling station and it is really cute inside and out. It wasn't crowded and we quickly ordered up some bacon cheese burgers. The smallest is a 1/2# burger and it was very flavorful, juicy and the condiments did not over power the taste of the meat. It was very tasty. As a matter of fact, we both ate the whole burger which I usually can't do with a 1/2# burger. My sister said that to her the burgers from the Choo Choo and from the Corner Bar were just burgers. The Station Grill and the Brown Bear were really good burgers. So we have checked off four of the five burger joints off our list. One more remains and that is Goog's Pub and Grub in Holland. Since it is in the town where I live I have been there several times and I know it is excellent. I know it's going to fit in one of the top three spots for sure. It's going to be a tough decision. Come on back tomorrow for the final review.

No storage unit work for me today, though. It was in the 90's today and quite humid. I was sweating standing still. But we did drive by the beach in Grand Haven, which is one of my favorite places in Michigan. From there we went to Wal-Mart in Grand Haven since I don't like the Wal-Mart in Holland at all. I wanted to pick up some sweat pants for this winter. Nothing like thinking about cold weather wear when it's 90+ degrees out. LOL.

Burger Tour Day 3, Storage Unit Day 3

HOLLA!!! My vacation is half over. It makes me very sad. I've really enjoyed my time off and I have gotten a lot done so far this week.

Update on the 2011 Burger Tour. Today my sister and I were planning on visiting my storage unit again since today was supposed to be the last day of nice weather. Since we were going to Sparta, we decided to detour to Rockford to continue our burger tour at the Corner Bar. The Corner Bar in Rockford is known for its hot dogs and if you can eat 12 dogs you get your name on the wall. So it was kind of a surprise that they placed in the top five for the best burgers in West Michigan. The menu claims that they have "Dam Big Burgers" (or was it "Dam Good Burgers"?). There is a dam in Rockford so that is how they came up with the catchy title for their burgers. Dianne wanted just a cheese burger and I went with a cheddar cheese burger that came with lettuce, tomato, and onions. Homemade chips were on the side. The burger was very big and I could only eat half of it. It was very good and we felt that it beat out the Choo Choo's burger from yesterday. But we still think that the Brown Bear is taking the top spot so far for flavor and yumminess. Tomorrow we are going to the Station Grill in Muskegon. I've been there once before and the burger was good but I don't think it was as good as the Brown Bear. But we'll see how it is tomorrow. It will be a new experience for Dianne.

When we finished lunch, we headed over to the Wolverine World Wide Shoe Outlet to see if I could find new boots for this winter. I found some slip on clog like ducks there a few years ago and was hoping to find some new ones but no such luck today. It sucks to have such huge feet. Everything that fit was kind of ugly and the stuff that was cute was too small. I guess I need to check out the clown shoe store next. LOL.

So on to Sparta to my storage unit. We dove right in and pulled out empty boxes and empty totes into the driveway so we could get to the small mountain of junk that we still had to go thru. We dug right in and started loading stuff into the car for charity. I cannot believe the Christmas stuff I had that I had forgotten about. It seemed like the car was full in no time so we headed off to Mel Trotter's Mission Store to donate the stuff. When we got back from dropping the stuff at charity, we came back to kind of organize the empty bins and boxes and I just ran out of steam. I could not concentrate and was flitting from box to box. I decided it was time to put the stuff back in the unit and head for home before traffic got too bad. I did find the nativity set I bought years ago that I thought was so cute. Now I can put it out this Christmas and enjoy it. We also brought home a few boxes of books to go thru so I can sell them. It felt so good to come home and just stand in the shower and get the storage unit dirt off me. My sister thinks I should feel good about how little is left but I cannot wait until the unit is empty and it is all behind me. Then I can tackle the next pile of crap that I can find to go thru. It's never ending. NEVER ENDING!!! But I just keep praying for patience and persiverance to keep going and keep elminating my hoard.

Burger Tour Day 2

The Burger Tour continues today!!! My sister and I have sampled yet another burger joint.

We started out the day at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. It's been a while since my sister has been there and she wanted to go so we spent the morning there. It was not busy at all and I always enjoy my visits. The 20 minute movie they have was just starting after we got there so we sat thru that and then headed to the exhibits. I always learn something new everytime I go there and I always get a kick out of the beginning of the exhibits when you step back into the 70's where leisure suits, platform sneakers, macrame and eight track tapes were the norm. When we got to the end of the exhibits we found out that a new traveling exhibit about Benjamin Franklin is starting on Friday. I was bummed that we didn't know about it. But I did find out that the museum is free on Labor Day and even though Dianne is going home on Sunday, I might just take myself down to the museum to see the new exhibit. After strolling thru the museum we went out to see the President's and Mrs. Ford's graves.

After the museum we headed out to our second burger joint on the 2011 West Michigan Burger Tour. Choo Choo Grill here we come. Luckily when we got there there as an open booth that we could slip right into. In case you have never been there this is a very tiny restaurant. I think it might hold 18 people total at one time. My sister had an olive burger with cheese and I had the Depot Burger which was a deluxe burger with ham and cheddar cheese. It was very good but I have to say it was not as good as the Brown Bear's burger that I had yesterday. We played tourist when we left there and I made Dianne pose for a picture on the steps under the awning.

Since we were halfway to Sparta, we decided to head up to my storage unit up there to get rid of more stuff. We didn't stay long but we did pack up a bunch of stuff that belonged in the dumpster and some books that I am going to sell. It's amazing the stuff I have. This storage unit has made me realize that I have accumulated way more than I ever needed or wanted. Plus I know that the stuff that is going away will never be back and I will never be going down this road again. I have a much more critical eye when I look at things now. Retailers are so good at marketing crap to the vulnerable masses. I don't want to be a collector of crap again.