Exceedingly Mundane

We’ve been trying to grow tomatoes in the summer for Tim, for about 3 years now (I don’t eat them!) The first year, I think, we put the plant in a planter on the deck, then last year, we plopped it in the corner of the big flower bed in the back yard. I so wish we had room for a nice big veggie garden, but our yard is tiny. We’re thinking about putting in a rectangular bed next year, behind the fence (which is technically not our property). However, we have some tomato plants back there this summer, and they are doing a LOT better than the one we planted inside the yard, in the flower bed. Go figure!

Anyway, I heard on the news that this year is a great year for homegrown tomatoes. I guess because of the mild winter/warm spring or maybe with all the rain we’ve had the last couple of weeks. Either way, that’s definitely been true. Tim’s plants are doing great. One day last week, he had six tomatoes, ready to eat!

He’s been making us some salsa, and he’s been eating a lot of tomato sandwiches. He’s really enjoying his bounty! I’ve been growing herbs, and I’m hoping to blog about them soon, maybe later today

Hard to believe it’s Friday… another week has flown by. I had to hear on the news that it is indeed Friday the 13th, and the third one we have had this year (apparently a bit rare). There was one in January and another in April. We appear to be clear now for superstitious days through the end of the year!

In the news… Tom Cruise is divorcing Katie Holmes. Yeah, I’m thinking Scientology and their control of that child might have had a bit to do with it. Presidential politics is on daily - Barak Obama will run against Mitt Romney in November. Steven Tyler and J Lo are leaving Idol.

Local news … our local paper is raising rates and also going to stop allowing “free” access to their website. Boo. Hiss. I guess I’ll follow the local news stations on Twitter and check out their Facebook pages more.

Local weather … we’ve had a nice, cooler, wetter week. It’s rained almost every day. Tim has not played golf at all this week. It’s been nice for me, but sheer torture for him.

Tomorrow is Tim’s brother Mark’s birthday… Happy Birthday Mark! We need to get him on Facebook or Twitter so we can talk to him. We need to get Tim’s other brother Terry onto the Internet, email and Facebook. He doesn’t have a computer or email, so he’s REALLY hard to get in touch with, LOL! I think they actually expect us to pick up a real phone and dial them or something, hahaha!

Oh, and a bit of aggravating news for me. The 10 pounds I had lost late last year before my colonoscopy have now all returned. Boo. Bad Stacy. Nothing like eating more carbs, bread, sweets, ice cream, etc to really pack the pounds back on. I need to get back to more veggies and less fattening stuff.

UPDATE: And right after I posted this, it came across the news that our favorite quarterback, Drew Brees, FINALLY signed his contract with the Saints today. Whew. Now we can rest easy and know that he’ll be in camp and heading up our offense this fall. Good thing, since we’ve lost so many players and our coach this year, to the much publicized “BountyGate”.

Right Now…

I’m reading… “Surrender the Wind” by Rita Gerlach

I’m waiting… on the next Harry Potter to be available for Kindle lending from the library (Half Blood Prince)

I’m watching… looking forward to new episodes of White Collar and Covert Affairs starting tonight! Also still enjoying “The Chew” on during the day, where my soap All My Children used to air

Wanting to eat… mangos and avocados this summer!

Craving… dark chocolate covered pomegranates

Playing… games on my iPad like Words with Friends, Scramble with Friends, Draw Something, and my new favorite, Hooked on Words. I like the change of Hooked on Words because I just play against myself and my score, not against others (like the other three do).

I’m needing… a haircut, this week, I’m getting a cut and color and I need both!

The weather… is finally getting a bit more bearable. After quite a few days in the triple digits, and no rain since about the 10th of June, we’re getting a break from the heat, and also a chance of showers in the afternoon. We got a brief shower this morning, and it made me all kinds of happy

I’m cooking… right now, making potato salad and cole slow to go with burgers (beef for Tim, chicken for me, and some turkey ones hopefully, have a lot in the freezer that needs to be cooked) tonight for supper.

BONUS: Something new I’ve tried and liked… Silk Fruit and Protein, sort of like a watered down smoothie. I’ve bought a couple of cartons and really enjoyed them (big plus, Tim won’t touch it!), and I need to get another one, and try a new flavor.

Happy Anniversary to my darling husband!

Fifteen years ago today, we got married in a little chapel in the Smoky Mountains. Tim’s parents drove up to be with us, and we took vows to love, honor and cherish each other all the days of our lives. I’ve been so blessed to have Tim every day since, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with him, feeling the love he bestows on me every day.

I love you sweetheart, with all my heart. Happy Anniversary Tim!

I normally go grocery shopping today (or the middle of the week, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday). But looking at the thermometer, it’s 29 degrees outside, with a wind chill of 19 degrees. Really too cold for a shivering girl like myself. I really think I’d much rather stay inside, all wrapped up, with some hot raspberry zinger tea, my Kindle or maybe a movie on TV. Doesn’t that sound better that schlepping groceries in below freezing weather?

Thankfully we never lost power over the weekend, nor did we get as much ice as I expected or they predicted (thank goodness!). I took some pictures, but lazy old me hasn’t loaded them yet. Probably not very scenic pictures. Snow photographs a lot prettier than ice!

So, I’ve about talked myself into staying inside today, and will procrastinate on going to the grocery store. Luckily, we went at 11 PM Saturday night (to stock up in case we lost power), so I’m not out of anything. I just hate to go on Friday or Saturday or Sunday, because it seems like everyone and his brother is out buying groceries.

Which leads to today’s Question of the Day: When do you do your grocery shopping?

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I normally do mine during the middle of the week, across the middle of the day, to avoid the crowds and be able to get what I want and get in and out. A lot of times on the weekend or evenings, the shelves are missing something I want or need. I hate that! How about you, when do you grocery shop, why then, and do you even like to go grocery shopping? Leave me a comment and let me know

Today’s been a good and bad day.

Good in that we went over to my in-laws to pick up our niece Brittany (17) and nephew Zack (15) to come stay with us for a couple of days.

Bad in that I lost my prescription eyeglasses today. Gone. Lost. And I’m rather lost without them.

Hope everyone has a safe, joyous and blessed Christmas!

I’ve decided that my handwriting has slowly evolved over the years, and now it borders on…. atrocious. Yikes. I used to have really nice handwriting, in school and then college. I remember going to an orientation type day at the small private, Christian college I attended. The professor or office attendant looked at the form I was turning in, and she commented “You didn’t have to type this dear!”. And I was like, it’s not, that’s my handwriting

But, then I started work, with all men (first in electrical engineering and then in IT) — who do not really write very well or very legibly, as a general group. And I began working almost exclusively on computers. As the days and years rolled by, I used my hand and a pen and paper less and less to write things down. Post-it notes here, scribbles there, thank-you notes at birthdays and Christmas, but that was about it. And now, today, I’ve decided that my handwriting is truly truly bad. I mean, some days, I can barely read it myself!

What brought this on, you ask? (no, I know you didn’t ask that, but thought I’d throw a little lagniappe in). I’ve been watching the new cooking show “Mad Hungry” on Hallmark channel since it premiered last week. I don’t really enjoy Martha Stewart’s show, but I do like her food editor, Lucinda Scala Quinn. I’m really enjoying her new show, and have tried to look up several recipes online to save in my “to-try” file. But — a lot of the recipes are not online yet, as it’s a new show and new website. So, with my handy DVR, I thought to myself, I’ll just write them down!!! And now, I can barely read what I wrote. Hence, the blog post

We’re huge TV junkies. I always have been and Tim has become one (not much choice when you live with me!). Of course, football is on now, and that is our most favorite thing in the whole wide world. We’ve just finished up with several “summer” shows that we like, including Leverage, White Collar, Covert Affairs, Psych, Royal Pains, etc. I believe most of those will come back in January (when we’ll be missing 24, I imagine).

We have a ton of shows that start back in the fall, that we like to watch. Many nights, our DVR is nearly smoking from the exertion There are even a couple of new shows that I would like to check out, but we already have 2 things in that time period, and that’s all the silly DVR can handle. Wouldn’t it be nice to have it record more than two at one time, LOL!

Some of the returning shows that we like and look forward to are:

Survivor
NCIS
NCIS: Los Angeles
The Mentalist
V
Chuck
Fringe
Human Target

Some of the new shows that we are wanting to check out are:

Hawaii 5-0
The Event
Undercovers

I miss watching Dancing with the Stars and Amazing Race, but those never work out for me. I love DWTS and would love to see Kurt Warner this season. But alas, those shows are on Sundays and Mondays, and we have football on those nights. And we have a lot of shows on Tuesdays, when I think the DWTS results are on. Sometimes I might record them and watch later, but it doesn’t happen often. I just keep up with them online and watch some clips.

How about you? Is there a returning or new show that you are looking forward to seeing this fall?

I have a love/hate relationships with magazines. I love to subscribe to them, love to get them in my mailbox, love to flip through them when I first get them. But then…. I don’t read through them completely, and so I end up putting them in a magazine rack in my den. You know, to read more thoroughly later on. First I had one magazine holder, then I had to get a second one. So, you can imagine how many magazines I have sitting around here. Some of them go back two years, gasp!

I’ve found through the years that as I’ve aged, I’ve changed the kind of magazines I read. I guess we get to be more like our mothers the older we get!

I don’t tend to pay for most of the magazine subscriptions that I have, so I guess that is good. I do pay for one or two, but the majority of them I get through point programs that I do online. I get several from MyCokeRewards (since Tim drinks so much Coke Zero, we have a lot of codes from Coke Zero 2 liter bottles and cases)! I also get one of Tim’s golf magazines through e-rewards.

Here’s some of the ones that I have gotten in the last year, or are currently getting. Several of them are running out and I’m debating about renewing the subscription. I think I’m going to let Taste of Home go, although I do like it, but I’m trying to cook with less processed food products and also low-sodium, and that magazine is not strong in those areas.

Some of the magazines I get are:

Southern Living (Amazon deal)
Everyday Food (points)
Taste of Home (letting expire)
Good Housekeeping (points)
Redbook (points)
Better Homes & Garden (points)
Ladies Home Journal (points)
Everyday with Rachael Ray ($10 sub, but letting expire)

So, how about you… do you read magazines? Do you buy them at the store or subscribe? Do you read them and toss or recycle them quickly, or let them pile up? What’s your favorite magazine? Leave me a comment and let me know!

I don’t know what it is about this time of year. Something about the proverbial “dog days of summer” I guess. Or the simple fact that when it’s 100 degrees outside, I would just really rather stay inside. You know — in the air conditioning! This time of year, I tend to want to do a lot of “projects”.

Now, mind you, I have a wonderful track record for starting projects. Completing them… not so much!

Here’s some of the “projects” I am currently working on:

- Cleaning out old magazines. This is a blog-post in the making. I have a thing about magazines. More on that coming soon.

- Ripping old home movies from tape to DVD

- Getting all of our Flip videos (digital) copied onto my new Mac. They are languishing away on my old, broken down HP and backed up in various places. Need to get them all uploaded to my new baby, Mr MacBook Pro

- Finding some new software to organize our DVD’s on my new Mac. I’ve done this twice before, but keep repeating this project. The first time was on our website, Hambones. Then again a couple of years ago on my new HP. Now, I have a Mac and I need to start ALL OVER and catalog the 100+ DVD’s that we own (and rarely watch, I might add).

- Once I find said software, then there’s the actual entering of all of the DVD movies we own. I’ll be lucky to get past the letter F

- Scrapbooking. Printing digital photos.

Not really a project, but reading. I’m still struggling with the reading. Some days are better than others and my tinnitus is not as loud. Those are good days to read (usually with soft music playing in the background, classical or contemporary Christian usually work best for me. Although I have a nature thing I play a lot too, surf and ocean waves and rain).

Do you have a certain time of year that you are drawn to projects? I know in the spring and fall, I usually go on a cleaning out / decluttering kick. We live in a small house, so it’s a constant thing with me to clean out closets, drawers, etc. Do you do more projects in the winter when it’s cold out, or in the summer, or does the weather have nothing to do with it?

Let me know if you have any projects you are working on, or hope to get to!

I don’t know if I just took a long break, or more likely, I had nearly given up on blogging. Either way, it’s been a while since I updated my blog.

The last time I posted was late March, which was when I developed tinnitus. I went to sleep one Friday night and I was fine. When I woke up Saturday morning, I had this loud screeching noise in my head. Well, actually, at first it was a loud pulsating noise, like I could hear my pulse pounding inside my head, very loudly. After several doctors visits, and being treated for what they said was a middle ear infection, it changed over to “traditional” tinnitus, a loud buzzing or screeching sound in my head. I took decongestants, mucus thinners, a Z-pack, a steroid pack, and finally they said the fluid was gone, but the noises remain. And apparently will for the rest of my life. I saw an ENT (who I disliked immensely, she was cold and uncaring and had the worst “bedside” manner I have ever encountered) who told me that I probably had Meniere’s Disease and that is why I have tinnitus. Except that my father-in-law has Meniere’s so I know all about it. I do not have vertigo, which is one of the hallmarks of Meneire’s. I just have tinnitus. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day. I’m getting better. And I’m trying lots of things on my own. The doctor said “learn to live with it”. When I told her I was having trouble sleeping, she said “turn some music on”. That was the extent of her helpful medical knowledge. HA! So, I’m doctoring myself and taking vitamin and herb supplements. It is better, but it has not gone away, and probably never will. I will have to learn to live with it, and I have somewhat, but I still have quite a long ways to go. Luckily, I have an awesome God on my side, who loves me, and the most loving spouse on the planet. So I know I’ll be fine, one way or another

Hearing the loud noises in my head and trying to cope with it consumes most of my days! I no longer read much, because it’s hard for me to read with the noise. I am getting better, but my reading pace and the number of books I have read is way down. I won’t come anywhere near the number of books I used to read in a year, this year. But I am enjoying most of the ones I do read, so I guess that’s good!

I’m walking 6 days a week. Most mornings, Tim gets up and goes with me, and we take Beau. We walk anywhere from 1 mile to nearly 3 miles. We don’t walk on Sundays, because we go to early church. In April, I got pretty sick and was having so much trouble sleeping and eating, that I lost 6 or 8 pounds in a couple of weeks. While I was ecstatic over the weight loss, I didn’t feel well. So once I got to feeling better, I got back to eating, and I’m happy/sad to report that I’ve gained all of that weight back!

I’ve gone back to scrapbooking, at least on a smaller level. I can turn music on when I scrapbook, which helps to mask some of the tinnitus. I’ve finished my Disney album (I won’t even tell you how many years ago we went to Disney World) which is way overdue. I’m working on pages for my Christmas album and also some in my regular chronological albums. I’m way behind, so I won’t ever come close to catching up. In addition to working on pages, I’ve also gone back and gotten a few pictures printed out. I’m about, oh, 6 or 7 years behind on printing pictures. To say I’m totally digital now is an understatement. I didn’t even know where to start at looking for places to print out photos!

I’m trying to stay busy, because when I’m busy or out in noisy places like restaurants, stores, etc, I don’t hear the tinnitus as much. Tim is great about getting me out and keeping me busy. I was always such a homebody, and it’s been so hard, such an adjustment for me, not to be able to enjoy being at home, enjoying the silence, being quiet and content. We’ve been going to a lot of movies this summer (although this is hard on me, the noise bothers my ears badly now, so I try to take ear plugs, which helps, but my tinnitus always spikes after we go to the theater). We go out to eat some, and get out and about whenever we have time.

Tim is still playing a lot of golf. He changed golf clubs a few months back and now has two courses that he can play at. The bad news is that he can no longer take Beau to the new place he joined (it’s a country club, not a golf club any more). When the weather was cooler, I was going with Tim and walking some at the golf course. It’s been really hot lately, though, so I have not been going. Tim still goes when it’s outrageous hot, but not me, I like my air conditioning! We had triple digit weather a week ago, and he was still out, on the days it was 103, with a heat index of 112. Yikes!

Anyway, this is not a very interesting blog post, nor am I promising any interesting ones in the future. Just thought I’d do a long, boring update!

Saw this at a couple of blogs I peruse, and thought it might be fun to play along. If you do so at your blog, be sure to let me know so I can come by and see your responses!

Name a film that you have seen more than 10 times.
The Sound of Music, You’ve Got Mail, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, all of the Star Wars movies

Name a film that you’ve seen multiple times in the cinema.
Ooh, tough one. I don’t usually see a movie more than once in the theater. The only one that comes to mind is the original Star Wars. Saw it in 1977 and the 20 year re-issue in 1997.

Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a film.
I see movies based more on plot and reviews than on a single actor or actress starring in them. That said, I do like Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, etc. For women, I like Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, etc.

Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a film.
Will Ferrell. Don’t like him and don’t watch his movies.

Name a film that you can and do quote from.
Ooh, lots of these! You’ve Got Mail, O Brother Where Art Thou, all of the Lord of the Rings, all of the Star Wars movies, etc

Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
The Sound of Music. I know every song, every syllable, every note.

Name a film that you would recommend everyone to see.
Hmm, last year we recommended both Star Trek and Avatar, good movies to see, especially on the big screen. I personally liked The Blind Side a lot, we really love a good football movie. And I always recommend good clean Christian films like Amazing Grace, One Night with the King, The Nativity Story, etc.

Ever walked out of a film?
Dune, back in the 80’s, I think is the only one coming to mind. I fell asleep during one when Tim and I were dating, I think it was called Forget Paris (not sure though, we went to the late movie and I slept through most of it, LOL!)

Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.
Titanic, Marley and Me, many others…

There’s more questions on the following page, click here:
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Just for the record, the largest container of Shout laundry detergent from Sam’s lasts me approximately 2 1/2 years, LOL!

I posted this entry on my Project 365 blog way back in July 2007.

I got a couple of comments back then about how big the container was. And it was, but I always figure that things like toilet paper, dishwashing detergent, laundry detergent, Shout and things like that don’t go bad or are ever going to stop being used in our house. So those are the kinds of things I buy in large quantities at Sam’s Club. So, for the record, that 128 oz container worked for us for about 2 1/2 years. And today, I threw out that container of Shout and opened a new one (also from Sam’s, but not quite as large).

I thought you might like to know, hardy har har!

P.S. You know, sometimes it is really nice to be able to look back at the REALLY important things in life, like when you bought a giant container of laundry cleaner. You know, the special moments

P.S.S. This blog ain’t named Exceedingly Mundane for nothing!

I know not everyone has an iPhone, but I do, and I LOVE mine! Tim and I got ours over a year ago, for each of our birthdays, so we’ve had them about a year and a half now.

I download free apps all the time, but only a very few pay ones. I go through phases of my favorite apps on the iPhone, but here’s what I am really liking lately:

Grocery IQ - my new grocery shopping app. I downloaded Splash Shopper when I first got my iPhone, because I had used it for several years on my Palm Pilot. And I really liked it on the Palm. On the iPhone, I don’t like it so much. It’s slow, its cumbersome, and you can really tell that it wasn’t designed from the ground up to use the iPhones many features, as Grocery IQ is. Grocery IQ is now one of my most used apps, and at 99 cents, was a steal

Bejeweled for the iPhone - I have loved this game for years! I played it on my desktop for years, then when I joined Facebook, I found it on there and played. I must say though, that the iPhone version for me is the most fun! It has 3 modes, and I like being able to play in timed or untimed mode, as well as being able to save my game and come back to it later. Plus, they have it connected to Facebook now, the Blitz version, so I can play there and have it post my score at Facebook (of course, it seems harder to score big on the phone version!) It was a little pricey, 2.99 when I bought it, but hey, I had credit in the iTunes store so it was a great buy for me!

One of the first apps I downloaded is still my most used - the Facebook app and the iTV app. Both have recently had big upgrades, and they are much improved. I really enjoy both, and love what they allow me to do from my phone. The iTV app not only shows me tv listings, movie listings, let us watch clips and even full length shows (although I haven’t done that), but most important to me - it lets me handle my Netflix queue from within iTV. I had another Netflix app, to manage my queue, but I don’t need it since iTV lets me do that, and more. The Facebook app is really nice, and much improved. I like that you can take photos from your phone and easily upload them.

There’s more, but those are a few of my favorites. I like the Weather Channel app too, especially to see the radar for my area. I twitter from my phone alot, and I personally like Tweetdeck, although I have 2 other free apps loaded on my phone. I go through phases with games, but have recently liked both Toobz (like the old game Pipe I used to play on my desktop computer) and Boxed In. I like playing Scramble on my phone too, because it interfaces with my Scramble on Facebook. However, my scores are really low from the phone.. for some reason, it’s harder to type in words quickly with your fingertip as opposed to using a keyboard on the computer, hahaha!
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My walking buddy and I are attempting to transition to jogging. She wants to do the C25K program, which takes you from the couch to running a 5K in 9 weeks (or in our case, probably a lot longer, LOL!) She has an iPhone too, so we both downloaded the C25K app, which tells us when to walk, when to jog, warm up, cool down, etc. I like using the app (2.99) versus the free podcasts, because the app lets you play your own music on your phone, rather than using the canned music that comes with the podcast. I have a walking playlist, of music that I like, so that makes it a lot nicer.

OK, I will end with a picture that proves that we are not the only ones who are addicted to our iPhones! Chris and Liz come over to hang out sometimes, and Chris has an iPhone. Usually one of them is playing on his, and sometimes, one of them will borrow one of ours, and it looks like this in the living room:

If you have a smartphone, whether its an iPhone, Blackberry or other, what apps or programs do you use the most? Some for fun, some for productivity? Leave me a comment and let me know! Oh, and …Have a great day!

P.S. I’ve had this post in my drafts for a while, but had never gotten around to posting it! With Apple’s announcement yesterday about the new iPad, it made me think about it. I think I want one of the new iPads, but we’ll have to give it some thought and see how it does. And try to justify the cost.
How about you, are you interested in getting an iPad?

OK, so I totally and completely hijacked Karen’s post here, and stole all of her cute ideas I have a lot of these same pet peeves, and I scored exactly the same on the cute little quizzes.

I don’t cuss in real life, so it is definitely not something I do on my blog or on Twitter or Facebook. See how you do:

Created by Oatmeal

I have a lot of the same issues with words and spelling. Although, I do think I use “alot” for “a lot” occasionally here on the ole blog. Sort of, I am not thinking of it as two words, since I tend to use “a lot” as one slurred together word. The others, I think I’m better at. It certainly helped having an English teacher (substitute) / crossword puzzle fanatic for a mom, it helped me a lot growing up with spelling and grammar!

Created by Oatmeal

Thanks again to Karen, and to theoatmeal.com website (new one for me!) for sharing these! If you play along on your blog, or take the quiz to get your score, be sure to let me know