After a craptastic week I am happy to report that the weekend was the recharge I needed!   Okay so maybe that super long walk on Friday helped too.  

Saturday we woke up to glorious sunny skies after being able to just sleep in for once.   I loaded up the poodles and just headed to town to run errands.   I have a number of projects going in the house and in the trailer and had some things I needed to see if I could find.   I'd say I was pretty successful with a couple of bonus items.  Of course when one has specific things in mind you never find them!   That is the joy of living in a small town and hey, there is always online shopping but sometimes I just need to SEE things.

I did pretty well only having to make 3 stops plus Home Depot to get the things I needed.  Yup, Home Depot because I decided since I couldn't find any containers that would properly fill in the depth of the bottom cupboards that I was going to make "drawers" - actually just wooden boxes that would fit in them.   I'm happy with the results - just plain old boxes but still I now don't have to have wasted space or have to get down on my belly to reach things in the back.  Because of the support in the middle however, there is a bit of space in between but I found that because of the propane hose in the one back corner I need that extra to push the right one all the way in.   Happy happy!

I also found that the storage compartment up front has an abundance of space and the electric cord and levelers are in there now.  What I didn't like is right next to them was plumbing run into the floor with the plastic valves for winterizing.  I didn't want things bouncing around in there and breaking that stuff so built another "box" or platform that sits over them so we don't have any accidents there!  Lightweight and I can just lift it up to get to the plumbing.

I had a couple of other trailer things I just wanted to look for.  One was a TV – small yet one that I could use to watch AND someday maybe use as a monitor for my laptop.  The other thing I wanted was the ability to play DVDs.  I’d found a couple online with players in them but there were always complaints about the players breaking.   Still I needed to think about space.   I plan to rig it so that the TV will hang on the shelves since they are where a TV would normally go (the wall there was reinforced).   But it also has to be thin so it didn’t interfere with the bed either.   Found a small thin TV but just couldn’t buy it.   I debated about just using my laptop for DVDs but honestly, it is a hog on batteries and I just don’t always take it along (sometimes no computer is a good thing).  So wanted to find a porable DVD player – nothing fancy.   Lordie – try to find that!  About as tough as finding a portable am/fm radio (that uses real batteries for when we aren’t hooked up).  As I’ve discovered sometimes our little Shopko has the oddball stuff I am looking for and both were there and on sale!   The DVD player can be used alone (on it’s own battery) or plugged in OR hooked up to the TV.   Small and lightweight.  Now for a TV.  The radio is simply a radio as sometimes I want to be able to hear local stuff where we are (weather and the like).   I have my ipod and the radio will also let me hook it up to use the radio speaker.  

After a lovely loooong visit with my brother (also a camping guy) he ended with telling me he’d found a TV for his trailer that also worked on 12V and was LED (so uses less power).   He’s got access to a lot more stores in CA but I found the same version in the size I wanted online and ordered it!   He’s a super wonderful geeky tech kinda guy to have around.   Just sayin!

I also found (lovin’ that Big Lots store) a paper towel holder that will work for toilet paper.   Go figure there was no t-paper holder in the bathroom!  Some guy forgot that!  LOL

I also found a super cheap mirror for the bathroom and a not white “white” board (magnetic) for the fridge.  YAY!    Sunday project – paint the ugly brown frame on the mirror and attempt to make it match the shower curtain.   Hey a girl has to get funky sometimes.  This is before I took the tape off the mirror.

After a busy day and such a lovely visit with my brother that evening, Sunday we got typical Spring weather (every 5 minutes was something different – sun, rain, wind, snow).   Decided to get paint for the mirror and since we were out a short walk with the poodles and this time – Elliott was in order.   They had a blast and I still am amazed at the energy of these poodles!   Yup it was too chilly for Elliott to go naked so he's in his snazzy jammies - which he hates by the way.  He had kinda cold feet when we were done but he was one busy boy sniffing everything.  He's not been on a walk with us in a very long time!

Monday is now just around the corner and I need to get my head back into the game.   Van needs to go in and I’m going to have them change out the battery and get the cables checked.   I’m sure there is other craziness that will come up but on the plus side I found someone to fix my barstools (welder) so am really excited about that (ones I bought a year ago but are too tall for my breakfast bar).   So we are heading back to the “good side”.   Just having the water fixed (still haven’t seen the bills) is a HUGE RELIEF!     Have a good week everyone and I'll share the macros and textures I got walking today (best way to salvage a gray day) in a later post.