Exceedingly Mundane

Well, I got lucky again this afternoon. Like I did the day I took this picture. 🙂

I was sitting down in the den to read the newspaper and check out Oprah (yeah, I know, it’s a tough life, bon bons and all!) and I saw a squirrel on the deck railing. He looked like the same squirrel who had come here before that I took pictures of. He has a sort of notch in his right ear, like he got hurt or bitten or something. I saw him eyeballing the bird feeder from the deck, but he kept jumping below the feeder (as he did before), and eating seeds and hulls from the ground. Just to be sure, I went and grabbed my camera and snuck back over by the window, in case he did something photo-worthy.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, NO, we do NOT have a pet squirrel. No, we don’t feed this squirrel. I promise I’ve just been really lucky and have been in the right place at the right time with my camera. The other day, when he jumped on the windowsill, I was astounded, because I have lived here 12 years and never, ever seen a squirrel on any of the window sills.

That said – he tried this afternoon to get on the squirrel-proof bird feeder. Apparently, it’s not squirrel proof if you’re a really, really smart squirrel. Check it out:

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Well, today marked two firsts for me this spring:

1) Today was the first day I had to turn the A/C on for me. We’ve had it on a few times for Tim, but I can usually stand it a lot warmer in the house than anyone else can. However, this afternoon I got hot and had to break down and turn it on. I try to wait till May every year, but once again, this year I did not make it. 🙄

2) Today was the first time I’ve had a Skinny Cow since last summer. I discovered them last year, and fell head over heels in love with Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches. You can check them out here . I will go through many, many packages of these over the next few months. Till at least September.

Well, I’ve had it on a to-do list for a while to enter all of the fortune cookies we have collected over the last few months at various Chinese restaurants into the Fortune Cookie section of Hambones. I finally did that this afternoon. Whew, now I can get those 14 or 15 little slips of paper off my desk! With the ceiling fan on, they are always blowing around on my desk! 😀

Go check them out, if you want to find out your fortune for the day. Just click on Fortune Cookie on the Main Menu of Hambones. And have a great day!

Here’s the new red maple that Tim planted for us on Monday… in the same spot that the other maple was. I miss how much shade it put out in the summer on the back of the house. This one is going to take quite a while to put out any shade! But, it’s nice to have something new to nurture, water, and watch grow. 🙂

I was just blog surfing and read this on a guy’s blog… Monday Night Football is leaving ABC after this season, and will be on ESPN starting with the 2006 season. You can read all about it here .

Oh, and for those of you in the dark, the NFL draft is this weekend. I know what we’ll be doing this weekend, especially for the first few hours (until the Saints first pick, which I just looked up, is overall pick #16). Tim LOVES the draft. Tim LOVES football. Tim LOVES preseason. Tim LOVES football. 😀

Well, the house is quiet. Tim left really early this morning on his flight, and Gail just left a bit ago, going to Elizabeth’s honors program at MC. I have the house to myself, and it’s very quiet.

I learned several years ago to try to make the best of these times when Tim travels. They are very few and far between, and although my first instinct is to just miss him terribly, I have tried to be optimistic and make the best of it. I try to read more when he’s gone. I stay on the computer more when he’s gone. Normally I try to watch “girl movies”, but I doubt I will do that much this time as there is a lot of mindless TV on tonight (Tuesday) that I really enjoy. 😛

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Well, I have the TV on and they have had another papal vote. The smoke appeared dark at first, then white, and as yesterday, the commentators were nearly beside themselves trying to guess. I don’t know why they can’t be patient! It’s such an instant gratification kind of world. More on that in another blog entry!

Now the bells at St Peter’s Square are ringing and the smoke looks white, and there are thousands of people there, actually cheering in the plaza. So, apparently they have elected a new pope. Haven’t heard yet who it is or what name he will take.

I actually get quite a charge out of watching this stuff. I enjoy the history and ritual of it, but I must admit, I get quite a kick out of listening to these silly news commentators. 🙂

OK – Update, they just opened the doors (I guess to the papal apartment) and a cardinal has come out to announce the pope. It’s ….. the german cardinal they had considered the “frontrunner” – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany. He will take the name of Pope Benedict XVI (the 16th)

I had the TV on and they broke in to show smoke coming out of the chimney at the Vatican. At first, of course, the media being the media, jumped to the wrong conclusion that it could be white, which would signal the election of a new pope. It seems to be black now and of course, the bells are not ringing, so apparently it’s just the first vote. The commentator just said that the shortest conclave in the modern era had 3 votes, so I doubt it will be today or maybe even tomorrow. But I’ll keep watching, I love the ritual and tradition and history of all of this. Oh, and they said about 40,000 people are in the square outside the Vatican watching. I can’t believe there’s that many people out there waiting!

Photo of the Day:

If any of you have been reading closely on my blog lately, you might have noticed me lamenting the fact that my new bird feeder does not seem to be attracting any birds! Go figure – I had an el-cheapo 4 dollar plastic one from Walmart that they would empty in a day. We had all kinds of birds, tons of cardinals, bluebirds, sparrows, finches and probably a lot of other birds that I have no idea what they are. So, since we’re enjoying watching them eat from the bird feeder constantly, I decided that we ought to splurge and buy a really nice bird feeder. Which we did (pic Here), but the bigger birds like the cardinals won’t come near it. I don’t know if they haven’t gotten used to it, or they are just too big for it. The perches on this feeder are smaller.

Anyway, it’s been almost a week now since we hung the bird feeder. I watch quite a bit to see if any birds larger than a sparrow or finch are on it, which they haven’t been. Then, today, a squirrel decided to spend the better part of 2 hours hanging out near the bird feeder.

Now, granted – Gail had told me to be sure to get a squirrel proof feeder, which we did. He didn’t really seem interested in getting on the feeder. Noooo, he was interested in all the stuff on the ground below the feeder. He spent a lot of time jumping from the deck railing to the ground under the feeder and shepherd’s hook. He rooted around for a bite, then would jump back to the deck railing to eat it. One time, he did get brave and jump from the deck railing to the side of the shepherd’s hook, then he scurried to the top. But, he seemed to realize he was on shaky ground, and he didn’t even try to jump down to the bird feeder.

Needless to say, one time, he must have sensed I was inside the den taking pictures of him through the window. For, he jumped up on the window sill and looked in at me. For some odd reason, I had my camera there, and ready, and so I snapped the picture above. I do believe it’s quite a good picture! Except that it would have been clearer if that window didn’t have a screen on it, but I think you get the general idea! I thought it was great, of course, but that’ s just me. It doesn’t take a lot to make me happy!

If you want to see a couple more pics I took of the squirrel, click the -more- link. 🙂

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I just checked out the Yankee Candle website and they list these on the home page as some of their new scents:

Granny Smith
Cherry Lemonade
Juicy Cherry

Now, granted, I would want to go smell them, but both of those cherry ones sound great to me! I think I sense a new candle in my future 😀

Go check them out for yourself here …

If you dare!

I know in the grand scheme of things, that things like a “bad hair day” don’t really matter. I’m grateful to have all my limbs working, to be able to see, to hear, to not be grossly disfigured from a fire, things like that. And, I’m not really even trying to impress people, but darn it – I hate it when I have a bad hair day! Another thing that really chaps me is to have a huge zit on my face. Such is the case today. Not only am I having a bad hair day, but yesterday this red zit started growing on my lower cheekbone, and today it’s an Uber-Zit. Able to terrify small children in a single glance. Large enough to reach out and smack people if I should get too close. So, that’s what I’m headed off to do – terrorize small children and old people. I’ve got to run a couple of errands up in Madison. With my bad hair and Uber-Zit. Gee, I wish I had something to counteract those two, like a cute new pair of shoes or a pretty new bracelet. Not that it would really work, I suppose. 👿

Yes, I know, I’m silly and shallow. No smart comments. I will delete them! 😀

I posted a couple of days ago about the plants, planters and bird feeder we picked up at Lowe’s last Friday night. I took a few pictures on Saturday, and they are posted on the next page. Just click the -More- button to have a peek, if you are interested!

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It started raining here about an hour ago, and it was getting dark before that. Something inside me said, go light one of your beloved Yankee Candles. So, I went and lit two 😀 Anyway, it made me realize that I really just burn candles mainly in the winter, when it’s darker and colder and greyer. I don’t burn them much in the summer, when it’s 95º and bright sunshine. Something about it getting dark and cloudy makes me want to burn them! Is everyone else like that too?

I do LOVE my Yankee candles. They are a recent obsession for me, I finally broke down last year and splurged on one and was instantly hooked. They smell so good, and they burn really well. The big jar candles burn for hours and hours. And, being the little frugal thing that I am, I love being able to get them at Bed, Bath and Beyond with a coupon!

So far, I’ve tried Pumpkie Pie, Cranberry Chutney, Mistletoe and Clean Cotton. The first three are seasonal ones for me, although I’ve got a little bit left in each one! I love Clean Cotton in my bedroom and bathroom, it smells so clean. Tim thinks it smells like a dryer sheet though (like a Bounce sheet)!! If anyone has a scent to recommend, let me know. I’m always willing to branch out and try new ones! 😛

I’ve been having such a good time this afternoon IM’ing with Shanna and telling her all about the different programs I do online – reading emails, answering surveys, answering questions, etc, to earn points at reward sites. I do three different programs, and earn points or credits that I can apply towards gift cards, to places like Hollywood Video, Blockbuster, Walmart, Target, Bath and Body Works, Linens and Things, Eddie Bauer, etc. It takes a while to earn the points, and you have to read a lot of emails, answer a lot of questions and surveys, but like I told Shanna – heck, my time is real cheap, I enjoy doing it, and then I love getting a $5 or $10 gift card in the mail. 🙂 I know, I’m a geek, but I like it!

Shanna, if you’re reading this, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you start getting some gift cards soon! Have fun!

Well, mostly I’ve just done some meme’s today, or “thought provoking questions found in one blog, and answers posted in another, to promote the blogosphere”. Or whatever! I haven’t really posted much personal lately, because things have been fairly quiet, and life is trudging along quite smoothly. Just not exciting, nothing “noteworthy” to blog about.

So, since this blog is mundane, here’s another mundane thing.

I had the hiccups earlier. Which is not unusual for me, I get them a lot. I have this peculiar habit of always getting the hiccups in groups of three; I get them about 3 times in a 24 hour time span, usually, and then I will go weeks before I get them again. This is unlike Tim – whom I swear I can’t remember him ever getting the hiccups. For me – when I get them, I have to have peanut butter. It’s the only thing that works for me.

Although, I got them when we went geocaching a few weekends ago, and Tim tried twice to scare them out of me – the second time, he caught me off-guard and scared the bejeebers out of me, and I had had the hiccups for probably 20 minutes, and he was able to “scare them out of me”. He was very proud of himself!!!!!!
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