Posted in April, Baer House Inn, beach, Birthdays, dessert, desserts, eating, Family, food, friends, Holidays, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, laughter, spring break, travel, vacation, Valentine's Day, Vicksburg, weather, writing, tagged appetizers, cold, freezing, freezing temperatures, gross foods, Groundhog, ice, ice storm, icy roads, main course, meals, snow, spring, strange food, sunshine, winter on February 22, 2021| 6 Comments »
I think we can all agree that 2020 was not the year any of us expected it to be. Unless the conspiracy theorists are right and somebody did viciously release the coronavirus on purpose, then that person(s) had an epic year. But, it for sure was a pretty crappy year for the majority of the populace.
Posted in Amazon.com, Baer House Inn, deserts, dessert, dieting, eating, Family, food, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, laughter, writing, tagged appliances, baking, Cooking, Cuisinart, dinner, food processor, hand mixers, kitchen appliances, meal planning, meal prep, meals, mixers, smoke, warning labels, warnings on February 1, 2021| 4 Comments »
A few weeks ago, I was in a baking / cooking kind of weird mood. I don’t think I was bored exactly, just looking for a creative outlet other than writing. My hubby and I have been trying to eat sensibly so I thought that if I pre-made some meals, we could have half the portion now and freeze the other half to eat later. It was a good idea and it worked, until I stopped pre-making the meals and we ran out of the frozen stuff. Now it’s back to “what are we going to have for dinner tonight?” (sigh)
(more…)Posted in Baer House Inn, blogging, breakfast, drinks, eating, Family, food, friends, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, money, travel, vacation, Vicksburg, weird, writing, tagged B&B, bed & breakfast, breakfast, fun, hotel guests, innkeeper, innkeepers, noteworthy, observations, tourists, travel advice, travel tips, traveling, weird behavior on January 19, 2021| 3 Comments »
This is a re-post.
About three years ago I wrote a blog post about some interesting things I had noticed about innkeeping and inn guests from my two years experience in the business. If you’re interested in reading that, here’s the link: https://jansenschmidt.wordpress.com/2017/06/26/observations-of-an-innkeeper/
While it’s still sometimes hard to believe that we’ve been doing this for five and half years already, I am even more amazed that I continue to notice quirky and interesting things that happen frequently. Therefore, I present to you, Observations of an Innkeeper – Part Two:
Posted in blogging, Disney, Disney World, Disneyland, drinks, driving, eating, Family, food, friends, goals, Holidays, humor, Jansen Schmidt, love, motivation, resolutions, roses, travel, tv, vacation, Walt Disney World, watching tv, writing, tagged Auld Lang Syne, ball drop, celebration, countdown, fireworks, good luck, Happy New Year, midnight, new year 2021, new years, new years day, parade, rose parade, Times Square, tournament of roses parade, traditions on December 28, 2020| 13 Comments »
Well, it’s the final week of 2020 and almost a year since we started on our journey of frustration, confusion, boredom, angst, and trying not to go bankrupt. We’ve come a long way. We’ve learned things. We’ve adapted. We’ve grumbled and complained. We’ve cried. And cried some more. We’ve prayed. But, above all else, we’ve carried on.
(more…)Posted in Baer House Inn, blogging, chocolate, Christmas, dessert, desserts, eating, Family, Fiction, food, Holidays, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, laughter, travel, tv, vacation, Vicksburg, watching tv, writing, tagged B&B, baking, Christmas, Christmas cookies, cookies, Hallmark channel, Hallmark movies, holiday baking, hot cocoa, ice skating, innkeeping, small town, snow, snow angels, snowman, tourism, winter on December 14, 2020| 12 Comments »
I don’t normally do a lot of holiday baking like some folks. Not because I don’t enjoy it, but it hardly seems worth the effort since I have no one to share the goodies with. Well, that’s not true. I have my husband, who loves sweets and baking for him is totally worth it, but you know what I mean. He’s actually really happy with plain ole peanut butter cookies most of the time anyway. I don’t have to go to the trouble of chilling and rolling out dough and letting yeast rise and chopping fruits and nuts and all that other fancy stuff. He’s not into the ornately decorated sugar cookies or gingerbread men that are so popular this time of year. So, it feels like a wasted effort to spend the entire day baking fancy holiday goodies.
(more…)Posted in Baer House Inn, blogging, cars, driving, eating, Family, food, health, Holidays, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, resolutions, social media, travel, vacation, weird, writing, tagged causes of death, danger, death, doom, doomscrolling, fear, fearmonger, fearmongering, gloom, hype, living, media, medicine, pandemic, panic, shut down, social media, stastics on December 7, 2020| 6 Comments »
So, I guess the second, or is it third, (fourth?) wave of this “pandemic” is upon us. Now that the election is over – sort of – the doomscrolling has begun again. The media, and apparently half the population, has dredged up all the doom and gloom crap again. Only this time around they have expounded on its horribleness by adding the convincing caveat that assured death awaits if you so much as open your front door without the protection of a facial covering. The reporting was absurd the first time around and even more ludicrous this time.
(more…)Posted in Autumn, blogging, breakfast, cars, Christmas, eating, Family, food, Holidays, humor, Jansen Schmidt, laughter, sports, success, toys, words, writers, writing, tagged auto mechanics, batteries, Black Friday, food, food packaging, good old days, key fobs, keys, mechanics, medicine, packaging, reminiscing, safety, safety seals, Shopping, technology, Thanksgiving on November 16, 2020| 7 Comments »
I want to go back. Back to the good old days. Not that I want to be younger or actually GO back in time, but rather I want things to stop changing. I like stuff the way it currently is or used to be. Some things nowadays are designed to make our lives easier, but they just make it harder. And when things break down, it takes a skilled technician, two weeks and a thousand dollars to fix them.
(more…)Posted in authors, blogging, breakfast, driving, eating, food, friends, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, success, trivia, weird, writers, writing, tagged being prepared, crash dummies, do better, doing better, Edwards Air Force Base, excellence, experiments, failure, internet, Murphy's Law, not working, overpacking, random, volunteers, weird, wrong on November 9, 2020| 6 Comments »
We’ve all heard of Murphy’s Law. We’ve all probably made reference to it at least once in our lifetime. If you’re not familiar with the expression, basically it means everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But I bet you didn’t know that time has distorted the law’s intended meaning entirely. It’s quite the opposite of the commonly used version.
(more…)Posted in authors, Baer House Inn, blogging, breakfast, eating, Family, Fiction, food, humor, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, tv, watching tv, writers, writing, tagged breakfast, check-in, chores, coke, differences, knock-offs, Louisiana hot sauce, not the same thing, opinions, options, Pepsi, substitutions, sugar, sweet tea, switches, switching, Tabasco on October 19, 2020| 8 Comments »
Have you ever tried to pass something off as something else? I don’t mean outright lying about something, but like buying a knock-off brand name item hoping others will think you have the real thing? My mom used to tell me that the cheap sneakers I got at K-Mart were the same as the expensive name brand shoes (Puma’s was my choice back then). My mom would say, “They’re the same thing.” In my adolescent mind I’d scream back, “No they’re not.” Notice I said in my mind. Arguing with my mother always resulted in me sulking and my mom telling me to stop sulking. (God, I miss my mom.)
(more…)Posted in Autumn, Baer House Inn, breakfast, dogs, eating, Family, food, friends, innkeeping, Jansen Schmidt, pets, positivity, resolutions, sports, travel, vacation, Vicksburg, weather, writing, tagged B&B, bed and breakfast, breathe, fresh air, inns, Mississippi, no masks, normal, open, open for business, opening up, precautions, regular, respectful, sunshine, travel on October 5, 2020| 14 Comments »
I knew it was going to happen. At some point it was bound to. But, I wasn’t really ready for it to happen quite so quickly. Slowly the country is phasing back into normal operating procedures. We’ve been getting a few more reservations over the past few weeks. But, I don’t know what happened the last three weekends. BAM! Full houses every Friday and Saturday night. Just like that. No warning. The phone kept ringing and the I kept saying “come on.”
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