Last Days in Arkansas...

At least for now...  I have 5 days left on my workamping assignment here -- tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and next Monday.  Not that I'm counting or anything...  Friday I had the opportunity to help interview my replacement.  There was supposed to be another young lady interviewed, but she FORGOT about the interview.  Never a good sign...


I'm getting anxious to move on.  It sort of feels like our official start of fulltiming.  We will still have things to take care of at the house, but this next move signals a shift for me.   While we're heading back to Austin for a couple of weeks, we will be staying in the RV rather than the house as we work on the continuing downsizing project.  We're hoping to have some friends over to the RV  for a barbecue so that they don't worry that we'll be one step away from living under a bridge and that we will actually be quite comfortable in the RV!


We've done next to no sight seeing while we've been here in Arkansas, so we're hoping to get out and see a few things before we head to Austin.  Maybe a day trip to Hot Springs and a visit to the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock.  Maybe I can manage to add a few pictures to our next post... 


Welcome to our new followers:

• Lee and Loralie: Thei blog Ready to Roll has some great pictures of the NW
• JoBeth and Catherine & Grace:  I've been following your blog,  R-V Crazy Travel Journal, as you too shift to fulltime travel
• Loretta Perno: I couldn't find a blog for you Loretta, but if you comment I will add it.

Oh, and if anyone knows how to add a "Contact Us" link to our blog I would like to add our email contact info.  I can't seem to find an easy way to do it yet!

Found a new blog to follow...

It's so cool to find we have new readers!  Especially ones whose blogs I've been reading.  Welcome to Doncat and Cheryl.  They are shopping for the perfect motorhome.  Oh how we can relate to that!  :-)  


Also want to welcome more fellow Texans, Jerry and Carol.  They have a 5er and are doing some remodeling that I'll be anxious to see.  From what I've read, Carol and I not only share a name, but also a love of sewing.


This afternoon I was busy at my workkamping job (By that I mean I was reading blogs while I was waiting for the sales people to sell a membership so I could spring into action.) when I ran across a new blog to read.  I was catching up on the adventures of some other recent Texans in their blog, On the Road of Retirement.  He mentioned going to visit some friends at their workkamping gig, so I decided to check out their blog, Two Tools and a Dream.  A little reading and I was hooked.  Very entertaining.  Still not caught up, but I had to share something posted last year...   Jill's title works just fine for me as it's also not from me but it made me laugh too much not to share...  Hope there's something here that makes you laugh as well...

Not from me, but too good not to share

Truths for Mature People

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your
computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize
you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I
know how to get out of my neighborhood.

6. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person
died.

7. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

8. Bad decisions make good stories.

9. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when
you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of
the day.

10. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't
want to have to restart my collection...again.

11. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I
want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not
make any changes to.

12. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to
answer when they call.

13. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday
night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

14. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

15. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

16. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and
smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

17. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to
prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

18. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not
know what time it is.

19. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys
in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but
I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about
1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

20. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the
first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to
realize that their brain is also important.

Continuing Education Done!

Since the weather is ridiculously hot and Johnny's in Louisiana I decided today was a good day to tackle my continuing education requirements to maintain my Texas Real Estate License.  So the day was spent in front of the computer plugging away.  Just finished a few minutes ago.  My license is up for renewal the end of August so I finished a little better than in the nick of time!  Good news is that I'm good for another 2 years now.
  
Welcome to our new followers Rollie & Gina and Phil & Rudee!  I've been reading both of your blogs for a while now -- just don't comment very often.  We're thinking we will spend some time in Louisiana early next year so maybe we will see Rollie & Gina down that way as we both appear to have relatives there.  And Phil & Rudee seem to be in a similar transition to us (RV living but still working), although I think you guys have gotten rid of the house all together.
  
Johnny spent today babysitting the other 4 young men in my life...  They spent the rest of the day in the pool.
  

Bennett (the littlest one) Conly and Preston (back to the camera)

Barrett

The other thing I did today was spent some time playing with the blog layout.  It's getting closer to what I want to see.  Still need to tweak it some.  Trying to find a good location for the "Blogs I Follow" list.  It's so long it doesn't fit well any where.  But similar lists on other folk's blogs is where I've found most of your blogs so I want them to be visible.  Any ideas?
  
I keep playing with our Amazon store.  It's sort of fun to piddle with when the weather is too hot for other things.  I've figured out how to add some of our favorite products.  I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to put a note about why we've included each one.  I think I would appreciate that if I were looking at it.  

Working on Odds and Ends

Welcome to our new followers!  It's so much fun to meet folks virtually and I'm enjoying your blogs tremendously!  I'm hoping that our chosen lifestyle will allow us to meet live and in person some day down the road.
  
Johnny is in Louisiana this week visiting his daughters and the grandsons.  I wish I could have gone with him, but I'm committed to be here for my work kamping assignment and that meant we couldn't take the 5th wheel down there. Since we couldn't take the RV we couldn't take Sage, so I'm here working and puppy sitting.
  
I'm hoping to get a few things more organized on my days off and do a little cleaning in preparation for hitting the road again.  So far I'm off to a very exciting start.  Had to defrost the refrigerator for the first time in the 3 1/2 years we've had this RV.  Not too bad.  About 30 minutes with the hair dryer and one thing crossed off the list.
  
I also downloaded a cookbook software the other day.  My old one apparently doesn't work with Windows Vista which is what I have on this computer.  So I downloaded a 30 day trial of Living Cookbook.  So far so good.  I love cooking, recipes and trying new dishes.  Since it's tough to take the cookbook collection along in the RV, I thought transitioning to an electronic cookbook would be a good idea.  Besides, sometimes I take ideas from a few recipes and put them together in MY version.  Unfortunately, I can't always remember what I did the next time I go to make whatever dish it was I came up with.  So far I'm very happy with it.  It's easy to copy recipes that I try and like from the web into the cookbook so I can find them later.  It also lets you add pictures and notes and change the portions.  Added features are the ability to create menus and shopping lists.  Not sure I will ever get that far, but I have been able to clean up one little pile of printed recipes!  I'm also hoping it will let me publish recipes that turn out particularly well to this blog.  Not sure if it can do that or not yet...

The other thing I'm playing with is creating our own personal Amazon store.  It seems like a good way to share products that we've found particularly useful, fun or interesting.  AND if you order something from Amazon via our blog we get a small paycheck.  (I'm sure most of you already know that, but I had to say it anyway...)  Hopefully it won't be too distracting on the blog as I figure it out.