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Sunday, April 22, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVEIO - still camping - some motorhome stuff

Today is my darling Steveio's 54th birthday!    So far we celebrated with freshly perked coffee and baked muffins in bed, then a pile of presents and cards from everyone (that I snuck along)   and now a big breakfast that we both cooked together.  Look at this happy man!


Quick little muffin mixes from Betty Crocker--- just add water, mix up with a spoon, and they are ready to bake.  No eggs, milk or oil needed.  Wonderful for boondockers who don't keep fresh ingredients on hand all of the time!  This one was called "Triple Berry" -----  You can even bake all of the batter like a little cake in a small cast iron fry pan if you wish too.

My Birthday Boy thanked me for making him come camping this weekend.  He said he is getting too wound up with house projects and really really needed a break. awwwwww  

He will be fully retired in just one short year, and let us hope it passes with no complications, no health issues and no snags in our plans!

Steveio's project for today will be to WORK on his birthday!  What a guy... but this is something he WANTS to do!    Work on the motorhome, that is.

See, he wants to flush our radiator and refill it with the long life antifreeze.  To do so, it is recommended that one uses a special quality flushing fluid that needs to be circulated for 60-90 minutes at operating temps, and then drained out.

Well, how about that?  We just HAPPEN to be 60 miles from home?    
 (this was my subversive plan to getting him to come camping this weekend instead of house projects ya know) 

So here he is, draining out the old antifreeze (which he brought along 2 big buckets with lids to haul it home to dispose of at our mechanic friend's shop) and he is adding the special flushing agent and fresh water as I type this.


Once we get home, he will then drain that out, (also saving to bring to friend's shop for disposal) and then adding one more rinse and bringing up to temp by idling for 10-15 minutes in the driveway.  Then he can dump that and make sure the radiator is fully cleaned out.  Finally he can add the long-life coolant and reverse osmosis water he gets from work at the science lab.   We should be good to go for 500,000 miles.  WHEEEEEEEEEE

I mentioned in yesterday's blog about some projects I did around the motorhome.   Besides normal cleaning, vaccumning and sorting stuff, I also took care of some decorating.

Our motorhome has mostly windows all around...  and very little wall space for hanging things like pictures.   I have these two wonderful metal frames we had gotten for wedding presents and wanted to take them along in our rig.  I stuck heavy duty velcro to the walls, but the backs of the frames were velvet lined.  The Velcro didn't stick too well to that, so I had to use some very thick glue on the velcro where it attached to the frame.  It was actually Sevylor brand thick glue for patching air mattresses and swimming water toys!  Worked great....      and now the picture frames are on the only available wall space in the bedroom where we can gaze at them last thing before going to bed and every morning as we wake up.   Also in the same pic, you can see that we had attached two wooden bars of tall coat hooks for our re-wearable clothes, one on his side and one on my side.  We used to have regular shaped hooks, but our clothes fell off.  These taller coat hook style work much better.


Another thing I glued was some rubber skid proof shelf liner material to the bottom of this adorable raccoon crock I had gotten from Steve's mom a long time ago.   The Sevylor glue stuck great to the bottom crockery base.  I set the crock in the sink while travelling, this just keeps it from scratching up the corian type countertops in the rig.   Another cherished item in my camper kitchen is from fellow bloggers  Dee and Jim of Tumbleweed blog  when they came to visit us last summer.  Dee gave me this little swivel lidded garbage can for on the countertop in the motorhome.  Perfect to set next to the sink for tiny scraps, trash and plate scrapings instead of going down into the cabinet for the larger trash can.  It takes the small size kitchen waste bags, and is easy to grab and tie off and toss in the campground trash each time we go for a walk or at a gas station.  When I look at it, I smile and think of Dee!



My mother-in-law, bless her heart, also gave me this adorable pillow one year as a gift.  I love it and it's perfect for tucking under the head for a quick snooze in our recliners.  My mom had a Tshirt with the same saying on it.  How cute is this?   And my daughter Erin gave us the salt&pepper shakers and spoon rest as special surprise too for the motorhome.


Each little bit of our decor has a meaning and memory behind it.  We are taking along the best of the best as we prepare to hit the road!  Here is a link to another blog post about some of the things we have in our rig as decor and how each one is a special item from someone important in our lives:


Ahhhh the other camper here just pulled out.  Now we have the place to ourselves!   For a few more hours anyhow.  Then we too will have to turn towards home and get more done.... 


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11 comments:

  1. Steve looks very happy. I think the best gift you gave him was the camping trip.
    Melvio had Fabco CAT do our long life fluid but, I am sure they did not do the job as well as Stevio!
    Hugs

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  2. I can't remember if you have ever mentioned "earthquake putty" in the past. It works great to hold things in place on the countertop without being as permanent as the velcro. 3M makes one brand of it, it's the blue stuff which comes in strips but you take as much as you need, ball it up, and stick it down with the item on top of it.

    http://travelinglongdogs.blogspot.com

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  3. Karen, that looks like one contented hubby you've got there. Happy birthday Steve.

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  4. Happy Birthday Steve. You guys are such kids. But what a perfect way to celebrate a birthday - changing fluids. lol

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  5. Happy birthday, Steve. I love the little touches in your motorhome, and the fact that they all come with memories.

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  6. Say, how do you bake Muffins in bed & is that a bottle of Root Beer Steve has beside him there??

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  7. Heh heh good eye, Al! I whip up the muffins and hop back in bed while they are baking... and bring a tray to bed with plates, napkins, coffee, the whole shebang as a treat!

    and yes, that is his ummmm "root beer" next to him, with a J.W. Black Label on it..... a little drop in his ummmm"root beer" each week and it should last him a year, eh?

    this year we told all the kids to give him **consumable* items, so he got things like party peanuts, a 12.5 pound bag of popcorn kernals, cheesecake, a huge jar of his favorite Klausen pickles, restaurant gift cards and ummmm his "root beer" LOL LOL LOL

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  8. HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE!!!!!!
    ducky and duchess, riggs said he hasnt forgotten you just because he is in florida w/3 other labs.
    Duke is still the champ when it comes to tug of war. the girls here just arent that into it. he said he guesses its a guy thing.
    Donna

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  9. Happy Birthday, Steve!! Looks like Steve had a perfect birthday weekend...doing all the things that he enjoys!
    Love the decorations for the MH. I love taking things along that have meaning as well. In fact, everything I own has some kind of special meaning to it. Some we will have in the house and some we will take in the RV. :-)

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  10. Happy birthday to a youngster compared to most of us who are full timing! And wow, being able to retire in a year, that's fantastic! So important to do that if you can...We're excited for the both of you. Love the homey touches. We have almost zero wall space to hang stuff in the Tiffin, that's the only thing I don't like about it, but that means more storage cabinets, I guess, and more space for my crafts, tee hee!

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  11. Happy Birthday to Stevio!! what a guy. If you check out the MoHo you will see that very same little pillow tucked up on the header over the cockpit. We love it. You MIL made a good choice, Karen!

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