October 2008

October 1st - Day Off - went and got mail, got my new Volunteer Pass for this year and a few other things.

October 2nd - Day Off - Drying Apples and doing laundry and other household chores.

October 3rd - Work Day, but first, go to work out place.

October 4th: Work Day, but for only partly, as we are going to Shenandoah National Park to visit with my parents and my Sister, Brother-in-law, and the kiddies. We had a nice picnic lunch before we went into our rooms and then took an awesome hike with the kiddies and folks. This picture here is a deer, who seemed unafraid of people, until the kids got too close for comfort. But interesting colors, I have not seen a deer like this.

Everyone went, including our 4 year old niece and 7 year old nephew. Our niece almost made it to the top, but she has never really done that type of hiking before, so it was a great first hike for her.

Our nephew, on the other hand, made it to the top, loved being on the rocks and really enjoyed himself. We got a couple of pictures, and my sister did too (hint, hint, sis, please send them to us!) Actually I got a couple of pictures of the two of us, here is one of them.

After the hike, we washed up, had cocktails and celebration of my birthday in my parents room, and then went to dinner at the lodge. My Mom, Dad, Sasha and I walked up to the dining lodge, but my sis and family drove up (I think the kiddies were tired even then.) We got a nice table and had good food, but I think it was already too late for the kiddies, they were a little tired. I guess we had run them ragged at the hike. After dinner, we went back down to our rooms, it was a little weird - the hiking trail was DARK, with only a few lights AND when we went towards one of the lights, it Turned OFF! So it was a little scary. But of course we made it back OK. I think next time we will have to remember a flashlight.

October 5th: We went out to breakfast, again at the lodge, this time all of us walking up the path. The kids were hungry probably because they did not eat as much last night. They had a buffet, which Sasha, Lindsay, and I had, which was good, because we were able to get something for Brenden to tide him over until his food came. The food was very good, most likely because we were all hungry. I had not had eggs in so long, I forgot what they taste like!

After breakfast my sister's family had to leave, so we said our good-byes. We packed up our stuff and then took another hike with the parents, this time a bit longer and steeper.

We went to some of the waterfalls that were near the lodge, walking also near or on a horse path for part of the time. We were near water on the way down, as you can see from the pictures, some cascading waterfalls, a great snack spot =========>>>>>>

and when we looked the other way from the snack spot, found a hidden waterfall so I took a picture of that.

We did about 3 miles, but it was either down all the time, or up all the time. My parents had gotten walking sticks after seeing how much we used them, and I think they came in handy for them on this hike. We saw several people with two walking sticks, one in each hand, again helpful when going up and down these hills.

The hike was worth it, especially when you see the views. We were pretty high up in these pictures, and it was a rocky ledge, I think most of us (NOT Sasha of course) are slightly nervous up high, and on ledges as you can see from the pictures.

Mom and Dad did not go out on the ledge with us to get this picture, so we took them where they were. But is was a beautiful day, perfect weather for hiking, and with the streams running, a perfect day. I could not ask for a better birthday present from the family. This is what living is all about, being out in nature, enjoying the day, and being with the ones you love.

October 6th: My Birthday! I had the day off for my birthday. I mean, how could I work on my birthday? It would feel weird to me. Especially since I turned the big 04 (turned backwards!) I don't feel like I have turned that age, although my healthcare company says I have and it is time to up the insurance amounts. Just like a health insurance company to keep you in reality.

Anyway, I decided to take a relaxing day off, going to some farmers markets, checking out some of the area where we were over the weekend and went to lunch at a really cool restaurant in the Shenandoah Valley, can't for the life of me remember the town. I thought it was interesting how a person with a couple of horses could just stop by for some lunch.

I encountered a bit of traffic on I-66 - something about a beam fell down onto the roadway below, and so we were being routed to Route 15 - not a very good place for lots of people. As most everyone else was going south, I went north, then got onto Route 234, which took me through Bull Run National Battlefield, and then back onto I-66. It took me about 3 hours to get to the Batals instead of the normal 1.25 hours.

I moseyed on over to Fairfax Station to party with the Jevtich side of the family and friends. We had a very nice dinner - it reminded me of my birthday dinners - steak, mashed potatoes and string beans. I usually asked for that for my birthday dinners growing up, so it was very nice to have it then. Good wine, great family and friends, and cake afterwards - what more could a girl ask for. I feel truly blessed to have such great family and friends to celebrate my birthday. A great day.

October 7th: Work Day: We stayed over the night before at the Batals house, and Sasha went to work from there. Today is a work day for me, and I got there just in the nick of time. It just took a little bit longer than I would have thought to get there, because there was still some traffic from yesterday's detour, but was starting to see the fall foliage coming which was very nice. Also I spoke to Kris Goff at Museum of the Shenandoah Valley who asked if I could come out the next day to see the Museum. No Problem on that!

October 8th:  Work Day: Went to Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV) to check it out and to start volunteering there about 6 to 9 hours a week. I really wanted to get back to volunteering, I feel so good about it. You are truly appreciated because you are not paid and at MSV, almost all of the workers there are really volunteers. The place would not be able to run, if not for the volunteers.

I especially liked how I can do walking tours of the historical house there, called Glen Burnie, until the end of November and then on a few weeks in December. After that, I will do Orientation in the museum. I also requested doing some garden help on Friday mornings - so I get to get my hands dirty, and get to learn more about plants. The entire learning process will be most interesting, learning about the history of the place, the gardens, the Miniature gallery, the prehistory and history of the Valley, the decorative arts, and the portrait gallery. I am very excited about it all, it is such a nice place, relaxing and friendly.

October 9th: Work Day: Went to the gym beforehand and then got ready to go. Starting to read more books again, including Survival of the Fittest - and no it is not about good things. Scary book. I hope that this type of murder story never ever happens in real life, or if it does, that the bad guys go the way that they did in the book.

I also read, but did not put up on the side here, A More Innocent Time. Both of these books I was able to get for a dime each at a bookstore in Front Royal. You should be able to get them for cheap if so desired. The book A More Innocent Time was a love story between a 11 year old boy and a 24-26 year old woman, so it was a little weird. It shows the story over a period of 7 years, from the first flushes in the beginning to a full time love affair at the end. I kept reading it figuring it would end on a sad note, and it did. I hope real life does not have too many of these types of characters, as since this takes place in the 1960's in England, maybe not so much now. Like I said, weird but can't really expect much from a 10 cent book.

October 10th: Work Day, this weekend is going to be hopping, with two clubs coming in and it being Columbus Day weekend. I went to the grocery store to pick up some things, also checked out some places on the Scavenger Hunt that I am doing for the month of October, to find places for recommendations.

October 11th:  Work Day, then very nice day relaxing and having our anniversary dinner. My Parents had given us pasta, sauce and wine from Trader Joes, so Sasha made up a great meal, also using some of the veggies from the garden. He used the last of the bell peppers (I managed to keep them on the vines long enough to get some red in them!) plus some other stuff as well. We had a great meal and watched Into the Wild - OMG so unbelievably sad and unfortunate. Both of us had read the book and the movie pretty much is the same, with a couple of extras, like I do not think there was a girl within the book at all. But the guy did not have enough knowledge and Alaska is not a place to be trifled with. If you want to learn what NOT to do, watch the movie.

October 12th: Our Anniversary - 11 years ago today we were married. And we still seem like newlyweds! I had to work in the evening but we really celebrated on Saturday with the dinner, so it was a beautiful day, and an early night.

October 13th: Work Day, Stock market, after doing such lows, had the highest low to high ever, going up more than 900 points. Hopefully the decrease in interest rates won't harm us too much, and we will be able to buy a bond in November. We shall see.

October 14th:  Work Day: Going to work out, taking a Yoga class at the gym.

October 15th: Day off: Grocery Shopping, apple picking having a fabulous day, drying apples and other fun stuff.

October 16th: Day off: I started volunteering at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, a beautiful museum, historical house, and gardens. I spent the entire day here, from 10 am to 4 pm. I "shadowed" someone in the historical house in the morning, and "shadowed" someone else in the afternoon at the museum. Ultimately I will be doing my own tours. This is so exciting to be able to volunteer at such a place, the art and decorative arts are stunning, especially the miniatures and the artwork. Anyway, fun time had by me; if nothing else, it helps recharge the batteries.

October 17th: Work day, Friday: This day is going to be long, because of this being the biggest special event weekends. Lots of things going on, different festivals and other things going on in the area. BUT first, I was able to volunteer again for the museum, but this time in their gardens. They have a Friday morning volunteer session where a bunch of people volunteer at the same time. And at the end of the session, we picked some veggies which I brought home. 

Also, one of our co-workers quit, so now there are just two of us at the store until the other workcamper comes in. So it looks like we will be working more hours for the next week.

October 18th: Katy Jevtich's Birthday - Our Niece: Saturday, work day, in the morning, it was a little tough getting up. But I got up a little early, and tried making a crock pot stew. Unfortunately, it did not turn out that good, and I lost a bunch of veggies that I had gotten from the museum. I got to make sure that the crock pot does not have any soapy residue next time, boo hoo. Sasha made dinner instead. 

October 19th Sunday: Work Day, but first went and bought plastic and PVC pipe. We heard it was going to freeze this evening, so I was worried about my peppers, basil and nasturtiums and wanted to protect them. I'll have a picture later, but Sasha was able to help me out and get the materials and then help me put it together. 

October 20th: Monday:  Work Day: Well, I went to check the plants and I lost the basils, pepper, and nasturtiums. The lettuces, chives, radishes, carrots and mint all seem to be OK. So I guess I have to return the extra plastic that we got. Even covering the plants in not enough, I guess because it really was a hard cold snap. It was so sad to see the leaves and flowers wilt like that. 

October 21st: Tuesday:  Work Day & Class Day: Working in the morning so that I can take a class tonight called Basic Hunter Safety. Although I am not going to go hunting, it was a free class in this area, and I thought it would be a good idea to take, if nothing else, I might learn to get over my dislike of guns. So the class runs for three days. I am one of 5 women in the class of about 45 people. 

October 22nd: Wednesday: Work Day & Class Day: The mornings are killing me, I stay up late with Sasha and then have to get him ready while I am getting ready too. I just can't do mornings. I forgot to bring my lunch and a snack to eat at work, and had to have McDs yet again (had it yesterday too!) At least today, between work and class, I will go for a small workout. And tomorrow I have off, yahoo.

We have another workcamping couple that came into the campground today, I met one of them, and I am sure I'll met the other before too long. They have a huge rig, with a HUGE towing vehicle. It is the kind that you would see with 18-wheelers. And no other vehicle.

October 23rd: Thursday: Day Off: Back to the museum today, then a class tonight.

October 24th: Friday: Work Day, but a trip over to the museum first, worked on getting some plants pulled and repotting them. I then got some mustard greens, hoping that Sasha would like them (got lots and lots) plus some radishes and a strange squash, After work, I peeled the squash and boiled it with pasta for our dinner. It was kind of bland, but with other stuff put into the pasta, not so bad. We will have the mustard greens another day.

October 25th: Saturday: Work Day: I worked in the evening rather than the morning as they are training a new work-camper. So we were able to sleep in but I am not used to it. I am drying more apples - I did get a lot the last time and most of those apples are going into the dryer for winter. Sasha was working on his music files so I did not get the computer much today.

October 26th: Sunday: Work Day: Man, I am not used to working on a Sunday morning. I stayed up late on Saturday night and the alarm did not go off Sunday morning. I woke up at 7:56 am - had to be at work by 8:00. Let's just say it was 8:05 am with no breakfast. I was yawning most of the morning. When Sasha brought me lunch (am I one lucky gal or what?) I quickly consumed every morsel. Sasha was working on winterizing the rig, as we plan to be in it over the winter and had to get the water hose taped up. I will take a picture so that you can see what I am talking about.

October 27th: Monday: Work Day: I will be working in the evening today, but Sasha is going in a little later as he is going to work late.

October 28th: Tuesday: Work Day: And OMG - the computer died. It just did not start. Let's just say that today was a bad day and leave it to that.

October 29th: Wednesday: Day Off! Sasha and I went into work together today, and I got a new internal hard drive. THANK GOD I had been doing backups like there was no tomorrow. The Outlook file is the only one that was a little off, by about a month, but everything else was up to date. So I got a new internal hard drive, Sasha installed it, and then came the job of re-installing everything and UPDATING everything. Because of course, my Windows operating system is XP - the original! Service pack 1, 2, and 3 had to be installed, Microsoft office 2003 and all of the updates had to be installed, and every other little thing.

But the good thing was that tonight was my book club meeting, so I got to see everyone. Sasha continued to work on my computer for me. The book club was a great way to reconnect. We decided for November to read whatever book we wanted and to bring our explanation of the book we chose to the next meeting. As I just started to read this Black Dagger Brotherhood series, I think that is my next book. You can see the one that I just read on the right, I will have the November books that I read on that page.

October 30th: Thursday: At the Museum: It is so refreshing to go to the museum, they appreciate you so much. I would strongly recommend to anyone that is feeling down about themselves, to go and volunteer for something that you enjoy, the ego boosting capabilities of being a volunteer are outstanding. The feeling is amazing and you really can't get that from anything else.

I feel ready enough, after watching for three weeks, to do my own tour. I might have to refer to my notes just to be safe, but I think I can handle it. While exhilarating, it is a little scary too, but in a good way.

October 31st: Spooky Day - Halloween! Friday:  SCARY day: I did not have to work this day, but went to the Museum to help plant more pansies in the garden. Got a little tour by Mary Stickley, the Master Gardener of MSV. There were parts of the gardens that I had not seen yet, so that was pretty cool. Getting your hands dirty and having fun doing it is neat.

Expenses: Hopefully not as bad as September.

OK, so this was not as bad as September, I mean, how could it be? We got hit with personal property tax in September. And with quite a few vehicles and the trailer, it was a big expense. Still, not as big as say, a house!

We spent over $575.48 for food expenses: $368.72 in just regular food shopping and $206.76 in restaurants and such. But as you notice on the sheet above, I spent more on "provisions" than on regular shopping. Just so you understand what provisions are, here are a couple of examples: we use olive oil almost exclusively, rather than butter, so when I went to Costco for a few things I also got 5 L of olive oil (at $25 it is not cheap - costs more than gas!) I also spent a bit on dried berries, Costco again had dried mixed berries for $11 for 20 oz. I got 4 bags. (Note to self - this was a crazed purchase, found berries at Aldi for less, next month, sigh.)

So we spent a bit this month for things that we use throughout the year, but especially at breakfast time. This month, we went out to eat a little more, because of my birthday and our anniversary.

We actually bought some clothes this month, with me volunteering at a museum, I'm not about to wear jeans. So I got a nice pair of pants and a nice pair of shoes, that I only wear to the volunteer gig. Sasha got some workout clothes - thank God - as his workout shorts were getting pretty bad. And a couple of whisk-away-the-sweat shirts, those shirts are just amazing.

We again did not get diesel for the truck, and did not spend way too much on gas for the Car and Motorcycle. We almost spent as much on Tolls as gas for the car. Sasha also got heated gloves for the motorcycle, he says it makes a world of difference, does not feel the cold when wearing those gloves. They plug into the cigarette lighter (why a lighter in a motorcycle - I have not a clue), and the wires go up the arms and into the gloves. Pretty amazing and if it keeps the Honey warm, then I'm all for it.

Camper Expenses were laundry and some stuff for the camper, to keep the place a little warmer.

Communication: Well, as I stated up above, my computer fritzed out - the internal hard drive went down. It had been going for almost six months, that was why we had gotten an external hard drive last month. So this month it was the internal hard drive, which meant time to get everything back to the way I used to have things (it is still taking a while with that), and hopefully next month we will not have to worry about it. We figure, if we can get another 6 months to a year out of our 5 year old laptop, that would be just dandy. Why have the expense if you do not need it? The other big thing of course, Can I get away from using FrontPage, Outlook, and Excel? We shall see.

Health insurance is the same as always, and the gym membership does not get a payment until November.

Around middle of October, they were calling for a hard freeze, so I tried to get plastic and PVC pipe to cover my plants. It did not work and the poor plants froze. Boo Hoo, I felt so bad for them. So hopefully we can put the plastic to some other use later.  Other fun stuff, I got headphones so I could listen to the TVs at the gym while doing my workout. That place is really cool.

OK, the last two expenses there were totally crazed. I transferred some money out of Citibank to another bank for a CD for Sasha, and Citibank dinged me $5! Hello - what the heck - never had that happened before. I swear, we have been customers of them for over 15 years and they do this? I guess the banks are pretty desperate to hold onto your cash and so will do whatever type of fees they possibly can.

Speaking of fees, we also got dinged for paying on time - with American Express. We paid the bill on the due date, but it seems as though that is not good enough, because the payment was made during the day, not in the morning. So they hit us with finance charges. Again, you got to wonder about banks and credit card companies doing this to loyal customers, might explain why some of us are not going to be too loyal to them. Enough said.

Check out Next Month: November, an important birthday or two, and the start of winter and much cooler weather!