Day 20: Happy Birthday Hubby!

We had an enjoyable day with my older daughter and her family. We were going to walk at the Lion's Den in Grafton, but it was closed for hunting season. We were bummed about that, but decided to make the short drive north to Port Washington. It turned into a fun shopping trip. My daughter and her hubby completed some of their early Christmas shopping at Port Washington's unique shops. We took a frigid walk in the wind around the park and took pictures of Lake Michigan. Then we went to Smith Bros. Coffee House to warm up and then shopping. Afterward we drove back to Grafton and ate dinner at The Ale House overlooking the Milwaukee River. Hubby and I had been there earlier in the year with his cousin. It was good, but maybe next time I won't have fish and chips. They seemed greasy this time. There are other places to eat in town. Time to explore more. Here are some pictures:

Port Washington, two lights that mark the harbor entrance

Bundled up against the chill, we took turns at the lookout

I zoomed in and cropped to you can see the waves out there on the lake

Grafton

Day 19: Short & Sweet

Hubby's birthday is tomorrow. We celebrated today. My daughter and her family are in town. We had a lot of fun. Made a cake for hubby. I am sooooooo sleepy, gotta go to bed!

Here is the cake. We were hoping the top layer wouldn't slide off (it didn't). Those are strawberries.

Day 18: Did We Fight?

Today's blog prompt is "What is the dumbest thing you and your partner ever fought about?"

I'm listening to the wind. The windows rattle occasionally. I can hear leaves blowing around outside. My husband is napping an hour before he needs to get up for the night shift. I'm listening to his soft breathing. He is the love of my life. I'm thinking about my blog. Did we fight about dumb stuff? Did we fight at all?

My hubby and I walking last June, a month after my neck surgery

Why, yes. Yes we did. When he was a new immigrant, he came face to face with all the laws and regulations we have here in America. "America is not free" he once told me. "In my country if you want to hunt you just pick up a rifle and go to the mountains." I restrained from the common American knee-jerk reaction of "why don't you go back, then" and explained that we have too many people here to just go off in the woods to hunt like that.

We argued over street lights. Apparently in the parts of Europe he drove in, when your light is green, all the on-coming traffic is stopped, so you just pop a left turn, or even a U-turn, with no danger.

"Stop!!! They won't stop, they will hit us!" I don't know how many times I yelled that at my husband as he cursed the drivers that nearly hit us when he pulled his daring left turns.

"Stop!! There is a stop sign!" is another one. Kosovo is devoid of stop signs. I think I saw two in the whole city of Prishtina. Most smaller intersecting streets have nothing, no light, no stop sign, nothing. Cars just drive at the intersection from all four directions. When they get there, they slow slightly and instantly figure out which way is busier. The busier street gets the right of way, so the others stop. But then, you must nose your car into the intersection to stop the other cars, or you will be sitting there All Freakin Day.

The first time my husband tried to nose my car into traffic to stop it, I freaked! STOP!!! They won't stop for you.

In Kosovo you need to drive like you are King of the Road, because there are no signs. Thankfully my hubby has learned to navigate the stop lights, street signs, arrows on the pavement and stop signs that are literally plastered everywhere. He is relaxed when driving, and a safer driver now. I'm pretty much over the fear of being T-boned.

Day 17: I'm Addicted to Rocks

Apparently I am addicted to the same rocks. Well, I like different ones, too, but since that majority of my collecting has been done by the Pacific Ocean, the Smith River, and now our Inland Sea, Lake Michigan, I mostly find rounded ones. My favorites are pure white round or egg shape, flat black ones I can stack, sparkly ones, and anything else that grabs my attention. I was looking through my California rocks and did a double take. California rocks on the right, Lake Michigan rocks on the left.

I thought it was interesting that I picked up almost identical rocks over 2,000 miles away.

Day 16: Summer in November

We had a foggy start to a sunny day. Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful, and then we crash into winter. We washed the car and then drove to the Lion's Den in Grafton. I got a few decent pictures. Of course I filled my pockets with rocks. We walked some distance along the shore. The air is very fresh here, no steel mills in sight. The brisk breeze was kicking up some rolling waves, the signature of our inland seas. You can listen here.As I panned across the lake, my hubby decided to recycle a stick of driftwood. You can hear me giggle as it goes ker-splat. (you might need to click twice to start the video)

Here are some pictures:

The Tide Pool

Looking north to Port Washington

Just a big rock too heavy to carry

The Dunes

Fog shrouds the Lake in the distance

One can never have too many rocks

Day 15: Shopping, Walking

My hubby bought a jacket, which seemed to fit great, except the sleeves. We really didn't notice until he wore it while driving and the sleeves crept up his arms. We took it back. He got another style. It fits great, and was $10 less. Hubby tried to find me something and I insisted that he not. I never knew a man who loved shopping more than a woman. If we had the money he would need his own walk-in closet. Just give me a couple pairs of jeans and a few tops and I'm fine.

It was a foggy, gloomy day all day. Finally, about 2 hours before sunset there was a break in the clouds, so we went for a walk along Pike Lake.

The colors were soft and muted

I call these "Poldark clouds". They are the same color as in the intro

Poldark is on Masterpiece Theater on PBS. One of my favorite shows.

I decided to try doing some surveys to kill time and alleviate boredom when hubby is at work. I think I've earned about $10 in 3 hours time. That's pretty low, but they are supposed to offer higher paying ones after some time. The biggest drawback in signing up for one survey company leads to half a dozen others. It also takes some judgement calls. For instance, the offer for a free iPhone 7 came along with an agreement to receive texts and/or phone calls from advertisers. The list must have had 200 companies on it. No way!

Day 14: Crazy Computer Day

Today I did a complete backup. Something is wonky with my computer. I ran scans. Everything seems to be ok. This morning I had problems with boot up. It's done it before. It boots up, but then my email won't open because my computer is "busy". No, I don't have a virus. It's not that kind of "busy". Once the antivirus program is finished scanning I can check my email. It's the processor. It can't multi-task. But today the issue seemed much worse.

Well, this was a free computer, given to me by my former "boss". It has served me well. It would probably work fine in Linux. I'm not sure my favorite programs would work in it, though. I would need to move all my photos to an external drive before taking such drastic measures. It's been a long time since I fiddled with Linux.

My hubby got his Wisconsin driver's license today. He tried to get it after we moved here but his 2 year Green Card was expired. He has his extension letter but they won't accept that. It took almost 20 months from filing for him to receive his 10 year GC.

We are still have mild weather. Here is a picture of the Super Moon tonight: