Well hello there! This week marks my 31st week of being unemployed. I have not mentioned being unemployed in the last 3 weeks on this blog and you, my readers, were probably thinking thank the good Lord!!!! But guess what? This just means I have a lot of catching up to do on the subject!…
We left Topeka, Kansas, on Friday morning in an ice storm and 20 degrees. I always hear about “golf-sized hail” on the news and now I got to experience it! Pressing on, we drove 746 miles from Topeka through tornado warnings in Missouri and rain, but much higher temperatures, in Illinois and Indiana to Columbus,…
We have started our trip back east. It’s a little earlier than we originally planned. We were going to do a ski-to-hut trip in the Colorado mountains with SILAdventure, DocDoc and their other friends. It has been planned for months. We would ski 5.8 miles uphill to a hut for New Year’s Eve and New…
I suppose this is Part VI or X of our road trip … in any case, we are still road tripping through Colorado! Where’s NH again? After leaving the wonderful cabin in Fairplay on Tuesday, we headed southeast. It was such a scenic drive and we stopped in a town called Cripple Creek. You might…
Before I get into the Christmas festivities, I have a BIG announcement to make. SILMeow and Napolean Dynamite FINALLY got engaged!!!!!!They have been dating for something like 15 years (okay, not really, but play along with me here). We all thought they were a good match, and they knew it too, but they chose to…
J & I arrived to “paradise” on Thursday. Paradise is actually a cabin tucked in the mountains owned by SILAdventure’s girlfriend, DocDoc. The cabin is my dream house, seriously. We will be spending the next 5 days here with family, but first, we had the cabin all to ourselves!We wined and dined on fondue and…
The drive across the ENTIRE state of Nebraska on Wednesday was about as exciting as the drive across OH, IN, IL & IA. Except that the speed limit was 75 MPH. Thank you Nebraska. NE is my 44th state. Why oh why did I take so long to get here??? I had no idea what…
On Tuesday, we crossed to the other side of the Mississippi on our drive. And the 800-mile trip from New Albany, OH, to Council Bluffs, IA, was … uneventful. We scoured the map for off-the-beaten places to stop and see. But, the flatlands of the Midwest were just that. We have both driven through IL,…
We drove another 675 miles today. Our final destination was New Albany, Ohio, but we took the road less traveled, as usual. And we got the snow I’ve wanted … So, we seriously tried to travel down this “road” to get to the fire tower lookout for Mt. Davis, the highest point in PA. That…
We’ve driven 670 miles so far, and this is what we’ve done. We packed up pretty much our whole house to take with us across the country. We even brought Mr. McKinley’s Christmas stocking with a new toy so he wouldn’t feel slighted that we left for the holidaze. The night before we left, the…
I will most certainly be taking a break from my unemployment updates during the holidaze. Partly because we will be busy driving 2,042 miles to Colorado next week and then back 2 weeks later. But mostly because what kind of update can I really give you? There ain’t much going on! So, again this week,…
J has his annual Breakfast with Santa yesterday. J pretty much has the event down to a T, even though it has grown tremendously in his four years here. He went from 8 volunteers the first year to 14 this year (could have even used more!). As for food, we just about ran out by…
There’s not much to report on the unemployment front. Pretty much the same as last week, although I did have a magazine assignment due this week. Other than that action, things are SSSSLLLLLOOOOOOWWWW. I’m just hoping all the seeds I am planting now will grow in 2011. Instead, I will use this post to report…
I don’t really want to see another gingerbread house for a long time. J had the first of his many holidays events this weekend: a gingerbread house making workshop. He puts together the gingerbread houses and the families just need to show up and decorate! J provides the very creative candy options for the decorations.…
Sad news for the millions of unemployed adults out there. Congress failed to pass the federal unemployment extension of benefits. So 26 weeks of benefits is the definite max for now. Gone are the days when people could collect unemployment for a year or even longer. Many are losing their benefits this week, 3 weeks…
We spent the day (weekend) of Thanks with J’s family, including his grandma, who flew in from Cali, and SILMeow & Napolean Dynamite, who flew in from Chi-town. Lots of highlights to mention . . . I consumed approximately 29,635 calories this weekend. And didn’t exercise one bit.I succeeded at making 2 pies. I think…
(This post is not about the Grateful Dead, although J would love it to be) Anyways, here are the things I am grateful for this year (in no particular order): Craigslist. In 2010, I’ve sold $205 worth of stuff on it. Plus, we rented our apartment in Danville through good ol’ Craig and his list.…
With cash flow still on the low side, J & I still try to fill our weekend with fun, free stuff. This weekend was no exception. First, on Friday, I went hiking during the day. Because I’m unemployed and I can. J didn’t go with me, because he works to make us a dollar. I…
My conference in Milwaukee was GREAT. I took my required classes for the certificate (I am hoping to get something in the mail … I am that person that needs something official in writing) and went to many informational sessions. Of course the challenge is putting some of those things I learned into action to…
I’m uber pumped this week for unemployment because I am flying out tomorrow morning to Milwaukee. Okay, that doesn’t sound right. I’m not terribly excited that I’m going to Milwaukee (oddly enough, this will be my second visit to the city this year–last time it was for a wedding. It’s actually a neat city.). Anyways,…