Hillary Clinton's Visit

When I heard Hillary Clinton was coming to Grand Rapids, I had to go. I don't think she wanted to go at first, but she was glad she went. When we got to Central High School on Fountain NE, we were surprised there weren't more people there already. A lady asked us if we would like to sit on the bleachers behind where Hillary Clinton would be standing, so we thought a second and said sure. The lady said we would be on national television.

Boy, did we get a great seat, too. We were in the front row, in the middle. Hillary came out on the stage. She is a pretty lady, but shorter than I thought. We both got to shake her hand after her speech. We watched WZZM13 and sure enough, you could see us right behind Hillary. Awesome!

Star 108

My friend Sue and I went on the Port City Princess for the Star 108 Workaholic Women's Wednesday. I had wanted to go on this all summer, but there seemed to always be something else going on, so we finally went. It was cloudy outside which was a bummer. I wanted to get some good photos of good ole Muskegon before I moved to Florida. At the time, I had no idea that my mom decided not to move until my grandfather passed. Needless to say, I am not happy to be staying here in Muskegon another 3 1/2 years, but that's life sometimes. But, once I am vested at work, then I will be moving somewhere else. Hopefully, I will be more financially secure when I move in 3 1/2 years.

Anyway, we enjoyed the cruise and got our picture taken with the DJ's from the radio station.

Computer Frustrations

I am in the process of getting rid of things before moving to a new place in a couple of months, so had to disassemble my computer from the desk that I am selling and rehook everything up on a different desk I have. I had my TIVO hooked up wirelessly to my computer so I could download my TV shows to my IPOD. I also moved the router to a different computer and the internet just wouldn't work, even though I know everything was hooked up properly.

The problem was simple....antenna wasn't catching the signal and one of the cords was not stretched out to allow the information to send to the modem.

After a few cuss words, I finally got it all hooked up again. I decided to sell my own desktop computer which is 5 yrs old that I really don't use. I prefer the laptop as there aren't so many cords to hook up and I can use the laptop anywhere. Plus, I have a built in web camera on the laptop which is a nice added feature.

So, tonight I tackle my next project. I have to back up files and take off programs off the desktop to get it prepared to sell. Life is always interesting in the Gonyo household.

Traverse City Adventure

We went up to Traverse City this weekend to visit an old neighbor, Anne Ruthkowski, from Lawnel Ave. She lived across the street from us for years. Her husband, Tony, passed away this past April. We have been wanting to go up to visit, but both of us got busy and the years went by. It had been about 9 years since we were up there to visit them.

Anne took us up to North Port which is where Tim Allen has a house. Also, we went to see the lighthouse at Old Mission. Also, went around Suttons Bay. Anne loves to cook so we had some nice meals while there. We had Reubens for lunch yesterday, spaghetti for dinner, and then today a big breakfast and for lunch/dinner, we had T-bone steaks, mashed potatoes, salad, and ice cream with strawberries. I am still full from that. We got to see the grand kids. Two of them came over. They have grown up so fast. That area up there is so beautiful. It truly is a paradise. But, it takes a while to go from the Leelanau peninsula down to Traverse City.

Each way is about 14 miles so you wouldn't want to be doing that in the winter. It is a nice place for a retired person who has a man in the house who can fix things, but for a single lady, I think it would be a lonely place to live. But, it is nice to go up and visit and enjoy the peace and quiet. Anne and Tony bought the house 10 yrs ago for about $200,000 and the value increases especially with the lake view. They live right on Lake Leelanau. She has big windows overlooking the lake which is really nice. Three of her grandchildren now live out of Michigan. Jessica is in Austin, Texas. Alison is in Las Vegas, and Karen is in Colorado, so none of them stayed around here, which is smart.

I will be glad to be able to move once I have my 10 years in with the county and have a small pension for when I retire.I wanted to go back to school to get my graduate degree from Grand Valley, but when I saw the costs of it, I about died. They want $600 per credit hour. Each class is 3 credit hours. At least, that is what I read on their online catalog. I don't want that kind of debt hanging over me, so I am going to postpone that until I am working in a company that will pay for it, as I want to be debt free in 3 years and be able to just move where I want to. I was bummed to see how much it costs, but don't want that debt. I am tired of paying off old debts and want to move forward. Maybe I could take a fun class at the local college to keep my mind working and meet some people. So that is the news around here.

Grandma Gonyo's Farm house in Brunswick

Mom, Grandpa, and I stopped at John and Kathy Morrison's farm house in Brunswick, Michigan today to get some peaches. I thought we should try and see if they were home. John is my Grandma Gonyo's nephew. Grandma grew up in this farm house up until the age of 5 when her father passed away. Then, she moved with her family to Fremont. I have never been in this house before. Kathy gave us a tour of it and we got to see the bedroom that grandma lived in. She was upstairs in the bedroom to the left with 3 windows overlooking M-120. We also saw where her sister, Pauline's room was. The house has been renovated/remodeled. It is around 146 yrs old. Kathy has the original deed to the house in her living room. It was bought for only $104.

John and Kathy have 3 boys. The oldest is teaching English in South Korea. The middle child just left for Michigan State University, and the youngest, Max, is a senior at Fremont High School.

I am really glad we were able to see the house and see them after all of these years.