100 Followers, and my magic hangers - before and after photos

WELCOME to our new Follower, Jaime Glatz!  Jaime doesn't show a blog, let me know if you start one so I can check it out.  We're happy to have you following along with us.  Welcome aboard.  : )

And WELCOME also to Maureen F., whose blog, 1961 Nomad, is about restoring her vintage camper named GIZMO.  It's going to be really nice when she's done.  I'm going to enjoy following your progress, Maureen, thanks for following along with me and Katie.

Me and My Dog has 100 Official Followers!  That's really great - I remember when I saw we had our first follower, Wild Blue Yonder, I was so surprised someone would follow my new blog.  So much as happened since then.  My first blog post was August 9, 2010.  I had been following so many RVer's blogs to learn what I could, and there was a LOT of information in your posts.  I started commenting, and finally decided to start my own blog so I'd have a record of how I  became a full-timer.  Here I am - ten months later - living in my RV full time and we have 100 Followers.  And over 26,000 page views.  It's amazing!  Thank you all for following our progress and reading my posts through thick and thin, rants and happiness.  I feel like we're part of a large family, and I hope to meet you down the road.

Now, on to my magic hangers - here are the before and after photos:

Before

After

Of course, I arranged the clothes differently in the "after," and put my shorts in a drawer instead of hanging them, so I had more room.  I need one more package of hangers, there are still some old ones, I ran out of the new ones.

They are really different than regular hangars, they are so not-slippery, that it's hard to get clothes on  and off them.  The clothes sure won't fall off while traveling!  But one good thing is that they fit easily in the holes meant for hangers in my closet, and they are easy to put in and take out of the closet.  The clothes seem to hang better because they are evenly spaced.  But you'll need patience for hanging things up and taking them off the hangers if you use these.

I woke up with a lot of energy for the first time this morning.  I cleaned The Palms, Katie and I drove over to the laundry and got that out of the way.  While they were drying, Katie and I took a long walk around that area of the park.  Lots of nice spaces there.  Each part of this large RV park has a different look, there are lakes, streams, concrete with no trees, lots of trees, big grassy areas, well groomed dirt areas, pretty much anything an RVer would want or need.  There are tiny spots like mine, and huge ones with lots of area to spread out.   There are some very nice rigs here.

I also hung a shampoo/conditioner dispenser in the shower this afternoon.  I think that will be easier than having the bottles on the shower floor.  I hope it works.

Katie and I started out taking pretty short walks along the shoreline of the lake near us.  Yesterday we started going around the lake. It's so much easier to walk in places like this, than on a city street.  We actually took two longs walks today.  Katie is going to be spoiled.

Here are a couple of photos from our walk this afternoon.

In different places around the lake there are "groups" of different kinds of ducks laying around, enjoying the view of the lake.  Kind of nice.

So...yesterday afternoon I'm sitting in The Palms minding my own business when a football hits the rig.  There are some kids playing football outside on the street, kicking it to each other.  The second time they hit The Palms, I opened the window and asked them to play somewhere else.  The third time I TOLD them to play somewhere else and opened the door and asked the woman across the street if these were her boys.  She was just standing there talking while her kids were kicking the ball all over the place. I asked her if they could play in another area where there's more room.  Once it went under a big rig, the people weren't home, but the kids went under the rig after the ball.  They were in and out of everyone's sites.

Then late this afternoon, they start again, but the Dad or some older kid, was tossing the ball to them, and I thought, okay, that's better than kicking it.  But the kids weren't good receivers, and it was still going everywhere.  I heard a few small bumps, and thought it might be lightly bouncing off The Palms.  Katie was nervously doing a low growl, on and off.  Then I hear the loud one.  I look out the window, and they area all looking in my window at me, waiting.  I go out the door, and the older guy apologizes and says it was his fault.  The ball was on top of my rig, and he wanted to climb my ladder to get it.  I told him he could, and that they should play somewhere else.  I told him people weren't supposed to be going in and out of other people's campsites, and he says, "Really?"  It's 8:45 and dark out, and I can still hear them outside, but at least they are up the street.  I hope they aren't staying long. 

Other than that, a really good, productive day.  Tomorrow I'm going to do some work for my son - I'm keeping track of the hours I work, and so far it's ZERO.  I'm actually looking forward to doing some research tomorrow.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Friday evening, everyone!  : )

A little interior decoration

WELCOME to our new Follower, ain't for city gals!  Sheryl has a neat blog - she refurbishes small travel trailers - in her words, "after complete renovation my goal is to have the trailer be like a little jewel box inside and bright and colorful on the outside."  What an undertaking - you go, girl!  And thanks for joining Katie and me in our full-timing adventure.  We're happy to have you along.

I'm finding it hard to keep The Palms neat and orderly.  It's such a tiny space that if I have a few things out, it looks messy.  And when I'm sitting at the table I need things, my cords, remotes, calculator, tablet, pens, my Kindle and MP3 are always nearby, glasses, etc., etc., etc.  I never realized how much "stuff" I need around me to function, but I always had enough room to spread things out in the condo and everything had it's place.  My desk had drawers and my living room end tables had drawers, too.  Now all I have is the table.  No drawers close by.  I started out with a plastic container that I put on the bench seat beside me, and started putting things there, at least they were off the table and nearby.  But I didn't like the way that looked.

When I got the two packs of tea for my cold/virus/whatever, I wanted to get a nice little box to put them in so they were handy on the kitchen counter.  A little "tea box."  So I went to Michael's, where they have tons of cute boxes and baskets.  I got one for the tea, and then decided to get a couple more - in fact I got five of them. 

One is a small box that looks like a book - I put it up by my pillow, and it holds the TV remote if I'm watching TV, Kleenex, my phone, etc. It looks like a book beside my pillow, but I have everything close by in one place and nothing will fall or get lost.  Just lift the lid to get a Kleenex, or get my phone.

I put two in the kitchen, the tea one, and another that matches the pot holders I got.  For now they, along with my new cutting board, are stacked on top of the toaster/oven.

 I picked some lavender at the condo today - I love this little vase.

It has a frog inside to stick the stems in.

 This is empty, so far, I just liked it and it matched my potholders.

 This is the box holding the tea bags.

Then I got two large book style boxes that are next to me on the bench.  They don't take much room and hold a lot.  The cover opens and there's a lot of room inside.  I love the way they look.

Aren't these cool looking? They hold quite a bit of "stuff." 

I can't believe I'm still getting organized, but I am.  Tomorrow - the closet!  The Magic Hangers.

I've been asked how Katie is doing in our new life in The Palms.  She's doing fine.  Who knows what she's thinking, though.  She's just started "guarding" me when I'm in the kitchen.  She will sit (or stand) with her back to the kitchen until I leave it.  It's very sweet of her to keep me safe in my kitchen.

 Katie the Brave, guarding her Mommy : )

Poor thing has to wait for me to lift her up and down when she's ready for bed, and ready to get up in the morning.   Last night I was up later than usual, and she was driving me crazy. I finally realized she wanted me to lift her up so she could be in bed.  I guess I need to learn new signals from her.

So far, so good.  She's eating and sleeping well, and loves her walks.  She's getting more walks than ever before, so that's a good thing for her.  And for me, too.

From Me and Katie, have a great Wednesday evening, everyone!  : )

Still getting organized, and noisy neighbors : )

WELCOME to two new Followers:  Lizzie Jack and Jim and Sandie!

Lizzie Jack I'm glad you are coming along with me and Katie on our new adventure.  I don't see a blog listed for you, let me know if you have one, or start one!  Jim and Sandie, I was surprised to see I wasn't a Follower on your blog, because I know I've read lots of your posts, but I wasn't, so I signed onto your post today, and it looks like you did the same on mine. Welcome aboard to my new followers, and I hope you enjoy following Me and My Dog! : )

Yesterday was a busy day. I was feeling pretty good, and I decided to take care of some of the things that needed taking care of.

First I want to show you my noisy neighbors.  Last night as I was laying there with my bunk window open, I kept hearing noises near The Palms.  The stairs to the lake path are pretty close to me, but this was closer.  Like right under my window.  I ignored it, thinking someone was veering a little close on their dog’s night-time potty walk.  But the noise kept up, and I thought, there must be some kids playing by the tree right near my window.  I looked out, and saw something going up the tree.  I climbed down and got my camera, opened the window and waited. 

There was a lot of rattling inside the tree, the leaves were really rustling.  I took a few shots, hoping to get something in the tree.  Then… here come a couple of raccoons.  One is coming down, and the other (if you click on the photo to enlarge) is partially visible in the leaves on the right side of the trunk. 

 My noisy neighbors, leaving the neighborhood.

 The second critter climbing down the tree.

They were fat little critters.  I don’t know how they nest, but I hope there isn’t a nest in the tree.  There were little squeaky noises when they were both in the tree moving around, and I wondered if they were feeding their babies.  Like birds.  Or if  it was the raccoons communicating with each other - like, "What was that flash??  Let's get outta here!" 

Katie and I went to Wal-Mart and then La Mesa RV and got a few things for The Palms.  We got an attachment for our Winegard Antenna, a Wingman - thanks Fred!   (He's been e-mailing me some great information.)  Fred, do you have a blog?  If so, leave me a comment and I'll give you appropriate credit for all your good ideas.

 Winegard Wingman

You were right; it did give me a few more channels in English. The attachment was really easy to connect to the antenna, except that my fingers and thumbs couldn’t push the plugs in completely. Luckily Larry, my neighbor, was walking by and climbed on the roof with me and pushed them in all the way.  

Fred also sent me a link to a site that tells you which channels are available in your area if you type in your address.  Click here for that site. 

I messed around a little more with my TV and the converter box. The box was in the cupboard, and it has to be out for the remote to access it.  So I pulled the wires through the hole in the side of the cupboard and re-connected them. Then I Velcro’d the converter to the bottom of the RV. It didn’t look super secure, so I Scotch taped it on the back to one of the bars.  Not too pretty, but it doesn’t show, and it’s holding, and now the remote works from the living room or bunk and I don’t have to keep the cupboard door open. I'll probably get some raffia or something stronger to secure it more permanently.

 Converter attached to bottom of TV

While I was in Wal-Mart I saw the memory foam mattresses, and they had a full size. My Wal-Mart only had twin and queen and I needed the "full" size, so I picked one up.  When we got home I opened it up and let it air out and puff up. It didn’t smell bad, I was expecting an unpleasant odor, I’ve heard a lot about that, but this one was okay.  I took down the twin air mattress and all the pillows and bedding and deflated the mattress. Then I got the memory foam in the cover it came with, wrapped my mattress cover around it, and hefted it up into the bunk.  Then I put on the sheet and comforter.  What a workout all that was! I’m thinking changing the linens on the bed might be the hardest thing I do on this adventure.

I also got some Throat Coat tea and and Organic Echinacea Plus tea by Traditional Medicinals – thanks Teri.  I’m going to try the Throat Coat today. 

Thanks to Jim and Sandie - I think your suggestion of using a paper towel holder for T.P. is a good one. After I sent you the e-mail, I realized you did say "paper towel" holder.  I have that on my shopping list.

Katie and I took a long walk late afternoon. We walked over to the pool, washing machine/dryer area and community building.  I thought we were further away, but it’s not a bad walk.  

I was anxious to try out the new mattress, so I decided to watch some TV in bed.  It’s pretty comfortable, but there wasn’t anything interesting on TV, so I gave up and turned off the lights.  That's when I heard the "noisy neighbors."  (I woke up without a back ache, so far...so good for the new mattress.)

I plan to stay in camp today and just take it easy. Watch TV, read blogs, Kindle reading, napping maybe.  Right now, time for lunch!

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  : )

I have TV! : )

I woke up feeling much better today - I wasn't expecting that!  But I'll take it!

Had a nice day, I went to two RV places to do some shopping, but they were both closed on Sunday, so I'll try again next week. Maybe tomorrow.

I need levelers still.  And a small cutting board.  I also don't have a T.P. holder. The bathroom is good sized, considering, but there isn't anywhere to put a T.P. holder, even a freestanding one, so I thought I'd see if they had any suggestions.  I've just been leaving the roll on the counter, and wouldn't mind continuing to do that, but I'd like to put it in a box or holder of some kind that would look nice.  I'll see what they say.

We went to Target and got a few things. They have a nice set of hangers that are pretty skinny and have narrow holder tops that fit into the slots in my closet, and they are fuzzy, so things won't slide off.  This is my closet now:

These are the new hangers:

Tomorrow I'm going to switch out the hangers and I'll show you the difference they make.

Here are a couple of ducks we saw on our afternoon walk along the lake.  I like the first one. I've never seen that kind of duck before.

 He's so pretty, and has a short neck.

 I think this is a Mallard, right?

I've been asked to post photos of the area around The Palms, so I took some pictures out the windows for you to see.

These are, of course, the actual photos, but in reality we are all pretty close together. Not all the RVs are really close, but right where I am, it's only for front-in, shorter rigs. Luckily I haven't had anyone pull in to my left yet, which gives me a feeling of lots of room, and the view out the cab windows is really nice, so depending on where I sit, I have a different view.

There are some kids here, and lots of people riding bikes around, walking their dogs, but everyone is pretty quiet. When it's dark, it's quiet.  Mornings are also quiet.  I was expecting more noise and more people congregating around their rigs, but I'm not seeing that.  Across from my kitchen window is a campground host, I guess a work camping couple. I've met a few people, but I haven't been out much except walking Katie.

 View out my kitchen window. On the right is the empty spot.

 View from the window over the couch.  

The stairs on the right lead down to the path that circles the lake.

 View out the small kitchen window - that's my neighbor with the flag.

 Another view out the couch window - the stairs and a little of the lake, and some cabins.

Looking out the cab window - in front of The Palms.

That is the path we take on our walks.

So, even though we're pretty close together, there are still nice views out each window.

Another thing I got at Target today was a converter for my TV. I have an older Magnavox TV that came with The Palms, but I wasn't getting any channels. I was going to just use my laptop for TV, but that didn't work. It took too long to stream the contents, and would stop and start, really frustrating.  Enough to make me start reading more!  So, today I broke down and got the converter.  It works fine, but I get only three channels in English. Since I'm so close to the Mexican border, I get LOTS of channels in Spanish.  I'm hoping that when I travel north I'll get more channels in English.

From Me and My Dog, I hope you had a nice Sunday, everyone!  : )

First cooked meal from the kitchen in The Palms...Magna pots review

From Monday, May 30

The spaghetti sauce I cooked at the beach was soooo good.  I was really surprised.  I threw away a lot of food from the condo, and still have food in the fridge and cupboard there, but did bring a few things to The Palms.  Here is what I found in the kitchen cupboards and fridge that was usable:

I had some little bags of angel hair pasta, and I used a half bag for the pasta.

butter
1 can of cut up tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1/3 large yellow onion
about 1/2 cup low fat sour cream
some marinated artichoke hearts
salt and pepper

I mashed the onions in my Magic Bullet and sauteed them in about 3T butter.  Then I just added the can of tomatoes, tomato paste and stirred.  It was kind of thick so I added the sour cream.  Then I looked through the fridge again and saw the marinated artichoke hearts.  I get the large jar at Costco, and transferred about 1/3 of what was left at the condo into a container and brought them with me.  I put in about 10 or so.  I think they added a little spice, too, because I only had salt and pepper.  Then I put in a little water to thin it more, put on the pan lid and left it for about 20 minutes while the noodles and bread were cooking.

Angel hair pasta drained and ready to serve

 And here we are:  first meal cooked on the stove in The Palms

See the artichoke hearts in the sauce?

In a past blog post I wrote about throw-together meals using just what's on hand, sometimes it's a success and sometimes it's in the garbage.  This one is a definite success.  And I have enough left over for another 3 or 4 meals.  I'm not sure I like spaghetti that much, but I might freeze some.

I swear, if I have sour cream and/or artichoke hearts in a recipe it's a winner (for me).

The new pans were great, cooked evenly, seemed fine, no problems.  Nothing spattered on the stove top, I don't know why, maybe I put the lid on early enough - usually I get the stove dirty when I cook something like this.  The lid fit perfectly.  They cleaned up easy, too.  I put the left overs into a container and left the pots on the stove while I ate.  Later when I went back to wash them, I was surprised at how easy it was to clean the leftover sauce from the pot.  All in all, completely happy with them. I washed and dried them, and put them back - nested together and attached the bungee cord. One thing I will say, though, is there is a small scratch inside the large pan. This time I wrapped them all in the plastic bags they came in, and brought coffee filters from home that I will put in between the pots next time I use them so they won't scratch each other.

The stove cook-top was big enough, and the burners lit easily and were easy to cook on. 

I used the oven part of my toaster oven for the bread, and it was perfect.  It's small and close, so halfway through I turned the toast over to toast both sides.  In my oven in the condo I didn't have to do that, but this was toasting it pretty fast on one side and not at all yet on the other, so I guess I'll have to watch for that to make sure both sides of things are getting baked/toasted through.

I just finished cleaning my plate while I'm typing this, and it was really good. The pots get a two thumbs up, and so do the stove and toaster/oven.

Thursday, June 2

I know there are a lot of problems with Blogger lately, I've experienced some, too.  But you know what it's doing to me  - that I haven't read anyone complaining about?  I've been reading your blogs every day, hardy missing any.  Then I'll click on one and there will be three days worth, or more.  It keeps happening, and then  I have to go back and and leave comments on old posts and work my way forward.

So, if you aren't getting many comments from me lately, that might be why.  It's not happening with everyone, but enough that I'm aware of missing some.  I was up to date with Gypsy, and all of a sudden she was in New York, and I missed half her trip, same thing with Travels with Emma and Happily Hitched - and those are just a few. Are you having problems with that, too?

Saturday, June 4

Now we're up to date.  I had bits and pieces that didn't fit anywhere, and since I've been sick all day I haven't done anything to write about.  And I don't feel like writing tonight.  This is a good day to post the older snippets.

I think I have a full blown sinus infection, if it isn't better by Monday I'll call the doctor and see if I can get something to knock it out. I slept in late, than took a long nap and now I'm going to bed again when I finish this.  Katie and I did take a couple of walks today, there is a duck in the lake with five ducklings, so cute. I'll bring my camera tomorrow and see if they are still along the edge where we've been walking.

I just had hot tea and toast for dinner.  It's all that sounded good, and all I felt like fixing.  I got some Dudley's bread at Henry's Market, and it's really good toasted.

Katie is really friendly with the kids we've met during our walks, but she is kind of leery of the dogs. I'm hoping she will get more socialized while we're here. She's very submissive.  

I hate being sick, but one of the good things about being sick on a weekend now that I'm retired is I don't feel like I'm getting cheated out of a day.  If I sleep through the next few days getting better, I still have tons of days following to do what I want.  I used to hate wasting a day off being sick. 

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get to an RV store.  I need something to better level The Palms. We're not bad, but not spot-on level.

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a great Saturday night, everyone!     : )