Pool Heaters, A Great Idea

Last fall my hubby knew my birthday was coming up and he wanted to do something extreme that I have been wanting for the last 15 years we have been together. His plan was to make that it happen by installing an in-ground pool in our backyard with a hot tub. I unfortunately had a business trip I had to go to right before my birthday, but it ended up working out perfectly for my hubby’s surprise plans.

When I had left after taking our daughter to her grandparents house, he jumped on the opportunity to install an in-ground pool while I was on a business trip for 2 weeks. When I had arrived home, hubby wouldn’t let me even come close to the backside of the house so I couldn’t see what was back there. The next morning after we picked our daughter up he escorted us to the backyard with his hands covering my eyes and counted to three, when his hands dropped I couldn’t have been more surprised, impressed and so excited at the same time.

I have been so excited to finally go out to the back yard and take a dip in our own in-ground pool since last fall when my hubby installed it. We have been getting it ready for this upcoming summer and we just finished cleaning it last week and are now starting to talk about the possibility of a hot tub as well, but came to the conclusion that we simply couldn’t afford it.

Hubby had a clever idea for us to search on the net for pool heaters and we took an a beautiful spring evening to search for one for or pool. We came across a site that offers raypak pool heaters at an awesome price and it didn’t take log at all for us to find the perfect one for our pool. When it arrived, only 3 days later, hubby and a few of our friends had gathered in the backyard to install our new pool heater, and we now can enjoy our pool even on chilly days and/or evenings with no worries. Life is good.

Bed bugs, ugh

It is sad but true that the bed bug is making a come back in these past several years. My daughter has a friend whose mother called me very upset a few months ago. They were finding marks on their bodies that looked like insect bites and were driving themselves crazy with all the itching and scratching going on and wanted to know if our daughter was experiencing the same things. I’m glad to say that my daughter was doing just fine, but I urged the mother to take the kids to the doctor to find out for sure.

Well it appears that they were experiencing a case of the bed bugs and wanted me to be aware of what it was so as to keep my eyes open just in case my daughter started itching. Her daughter and my daughter spend a lot of nights at each others houses and it would really suck if my daughter had brought the little buggers home with her.

Between bed bugs and head lice we are all in trouble. These critters are becoming more and more tolerant of the chemicals that are being used to kill them and they really are causing havoc all over the country, as well as around the world.

Heating For Our Outdoor Patio

Hubby has been working real hard the past few years in order for us to have a quality outdoor patio.  We really do enjoy being outside as much as possible in the warm weather months.  Our garden keeps getting bigger and bigger each year which requires a lot of work, so it is nice to be able to kick back when the sun starts going down.  Sometimes it does get a bit chilly so I have been contemplating on purchasing an outdoor patio heater, but I want one that looks nice along with our other things that Hubby has put together.

I have been seeing a few Bistro Table Patio Heaters that I think would suit us just fine, seems they run on either propane or LP, and I love the ones with the hammered bronze effect.  The idea of being able to use the table top is an awesome feature.  Guess I’ll have to run it all by Hubby before ordering it, just in case…….. hey he has been talking about checking out some gas garage heaters also.

table heater for patio
bistro table patio heater with hammered bronze effect

An Ideal Birthday Idea For Hubby

Hubby has a birthday coming up in a few weeks and I was thinking of how is back is always giving him such trouble.  I seem to spend a good amount of time rubbing his back for him and I have to admit that it would be a relief not to spend so munch of my time on his aches and pains so that I can deal with my own issues, mainly menopause, ugh..

I’ve been told by several people of a company that sells the Human Touch Quality Massage Chairs, these chairs are said to replicate the proven techniques used by professional massage therapists and chiropractors and are great in providing back pain relief which Hubby desperately wants and needs on a daily and nightly basis.

This company uses the most advanced robotic massage technology and systems in their massage chairs and I like the fact that it is a whole chair, not just a pad that you put on top of your chair or couch to simulate the hands and techniques of full body massage like the expert massage professionals.

 Massage Chairs really looks like something Hubby would really enjoy and use, and maybe even share with me at times.

South African Hunting Adventures Anyone

How about we pack up and head out for a really cool once in a lifetime adventure and try our hand in hunting big game in Africa.  My brother and his buddies went a few years back and he highly recommends using T. Jeffrey Safari Company, LLC a full time, full service, hunting and sport fishing consultancy.

I went online and see that they have a great website that offers big game hunting safari trips to Africa.  They can help arrange a hunt here in North America but if you are going to do it, might as well do it right and they offer such bargains for several traditional African Hunting safaris as well as numerous Namibia safari hunting trip packages that are all-inclusive, in the Southern part of Africa.

The variety of programs that they have to offer is amazing, everything you ever need is there in order to get your trip up and going.  I am amazed that there are so many women into this type of hunting such big game as leopard, cape buffalo, lion, elephant and rhinoceros.  So I guess if they can do it there is no reason that I can’t give it try, but I don’t want to go by myself that is for sure.

 

 

No Lobster For Me Tonight, Bummer

Hubby had to work later than he expected and came home tired and a bit under the weather, looks like I will have to wait another week for my much anticipated lobster dinner.  I hope he isn’t coming down with something and if so I hope it isn’t contagious, I don’t think this house/family can stand another bout of illness just yet.  We all get our flu shots each and every year, so we haven’t come down with the flu since getting these wonderful and affordable flu shots, but we have had our share of other nasty junk to nurse.

I was looking through my downstairs deep freezer and found a turkey from last year’s holiday season that never get cooked.  I’m letting it thaw out and I think we will have a nice turkey dinner on Sunday with all the trimmings, just like Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. It looks like it will be very cold on Sunday, so we will have the fireplace going and everything!  I love the way it makes the house smell so good.

Turkey Dinner
Turkey Dinner, Just Like On Christmas and Thanksgiving

 

What happens in Las Vegas…well you know the rest

We still receive phone calls now and then from people that we knew from way back.  I love hearing from them, you never know what to expect from these phone calls.

Laurie and I go back 25 years or so, she was a bartender at the bar Hubby and I used to go to back in day.  She is now living and working as a card dealer in Las Vegas, while still going to college, and still has her son living with her.  She seems to have done pretty well and is in the process of looking into buying a condo and wanted us to look at the one Web site hone-lasvegas.com  and check it out.

These Las Vegas condos include five towers, each one is 18 to 20 stories high, with loads of spacious grounds which is guard gated, it looks like they offer all of the goodies that one would expect at such a beautifully landscaped residential community, such as spas, pool, boutiques, exercise and fitness rooms, I mean the whole kit and caboodle.

If she decides to purchase one I can’t wait to visit her and check it out my self. I have only been to Vegas once in my life and we were broke, not the best place to be when you are broke!

Reality Shows – A Bunch Of Nonsense

For the most part I don’t mind once in a while watching one of the many court room judge television shows, but I can tell you that I never, ever watch Divorce Court (how very depressing is that show) nor will I watch Judge Judy. That is one scary woman with a lot of attitude and a lot of power bestowed all onto one menopausal woman.  I can’t imagine allowing myself to be put on national television in front of God and everyone, to be belittled by this wacky woman and have her try my case for any reason what so ever.  As far as going on national television during a divorce, are you frigging nuts or what?

I don’t know anyone personally that has made an appearance or knows anyone who has. I can tell you that when and if I ever do I will have so many questions for them that I really want answers to. I have a relative, through marraige, who made an appearance on the Jerry Springer show about 5 years ago. I never got to see the episode, but hubby did and wasn’t impressed. It was all 100% nonsense. Our relative made the whole thing up and was urged to act “over the top” by the folks that got them on the show. That was a real eye opener as to what is really going on with many of these “reality shows” that people are enjoying more and more these days. I say that if you want to see what goes on in a court room, then get your butt down to your local courtroom and spend the day in the various courtrooms there!

Gas Prices Hinder Visits With My Sister

Just hung up from talking with my sister that lives a little over an hour away, she sounds so miserable that I have decided that I am going to drive down for a visit on Sunday.  I don’t work that day and Hubby will have the youngest with him at the flea market, so I see no reason to jump in my car and spend some time with her and her family. The cost of gas is the only concern, it will take over $20 to drive there and back and gas is getting really close to the $4 a gallon mark. It hasn’t been this high in a good long while, this is really scary folks, I’m tired of this roller coaster ride that we have been riding year after year after year – a carnival ride from hell is what it is, with no opportunity in sight to get off of that ride.

Good thing that I have a gas charge card that I can use if needed, it seems as if it is needed now more often then before, which sucks.  I am trying not to use my charge cards at all. This was the first year that I didn’t use a single charge card for anything the whole Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season. I just now paid one credit card off last week and hopefully next month I will pay another off as well, that will help when paying bills time comes around again the first of the month.

 

The 2012 Macanudo Cru Royale Collection – Sampler

Even though I have been a smoker of cigarettes, I have never tried to smoke a cigar. I have been offered on numerous ocassions to try one through out the years and always have turned the offer down thank you very much. Now don’t get me wrong I love the smell of cigars, always have, but smelling one and inhaling one are completely different. My grandfather always smoked a pipe or a cigar. I remember that enjoyed getting a variety of cigars throughout the years, getting him a present for Christmas and his birthday was always about picking out a different cigar for him to try. With as many kids and grand kids as he had, you can bet his humidor was always well stocked. And I remember that he always liked macanudo cigars the best. And now when I see cigars for sale I still find myself looking at all of the varieties with my late grandfather in the back of my mind and I always look to see what is going on with his favorite – the macanudo. I think he would really like this macanudo cru royale collection 2012 cigar sampler.

macanudo 2012 sampler
macanudo cru royale collection 2012 cigar sampler

I don’t think I’ll ever try a cigar. There are a lot of woman out there that do enjoy smoking them which is cool. What I’d really like to do is to stop smoking cigarettes all together. Something that I’ve been thinking about more and more of these past couple of years.