Exceedingly Mundane

Time for a silly, easy Question of the Day! What color is the main vehicle you drive? Is it your favorite color? Do you tend to always buy the same color of car? Is there a color of vehicle you would not buy?

My current vehicle is actually dark red, a sort of maroon. This was a big break from the norm for us – we tend to buy neutral color vehicles. The last 3 vehicles we had were either a tan or a grey color. We both really like black vehicles, but we never buy them. It’s hot here about 9 months out of the year and we hate getting into a really hot vehicle, so we tend to buy “cooler” colors, something that won’t get as hot. Silly, I know, but that’s our way of thinking and the reason we never seem to buy black. I’ve never owned a blue car or a white car, personally. I think one of Tim’s early trucks was white. We have actually both owned red vehicles before, bright red, before we met each other. This maroon SUV is our first “colored” car together 😀

What about you? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Today, I have to go to that doctor, so I’m not a very happy camper this morning. I know I’ll feel better later on, when it’s all over with. I like to plan something a bit fun to do after it’s over, so you know what? I’m going grocery shopping this afternoon 😀 I love to go shop for food, so that will be sort of like a reward for me.

Ok, today’s Question of the Day is short and sweet – are you a klutz? Are you clumsy like me? Are you forever tripping over things, running into things, slipping while chopping vegetables and slicing your finger? Yep, I do all of those and more. I burned myself on the waffle iron a couple of weeks ago, when I was making waffles. I ran into something (I have NO idea what!) and had a big purple bruise on my leg for several days. I came around the corner of the bathroom brushing my teeth, and whacked my elbow into the door frame. I’m forever doing things like that. Our coffee table in our living room has been in the same spot for years, but that doesn’t mean I don’t stub my toe on it every few months!

How about you? Do you consider yourself clumsy? Or is anyone in your family like this? Leave me a comment and let me know 🙂

This rather offbeat Question of the Day is about the color of your underwear. Now, no minds drifting to the gutters, here. I’m not asking about what kind of underwear you wear (if, heaven help me, you DO wear them!), just their color. I don’t particularly want to know if you wear a thong or “granny panties”. I just want to know if you have lots of colors to choose from. Are all of your underwear one color, or do you open your underwear drawer and have a rainbow of colors to pick from?

Me, I like choices and options. I like lots of colors 😀 So, yes, if you were to sneak a peek into my underwear drawer, you’d find not only white, but also pink, peach, blue, green and even a stripe or pattern thrown in for good measure.

There, was that more than you EVER wanted to hear about my underwear? Goodness gracious, don’t worry… I don’t plan to talk about this any more, or again in the future 🙄

I was going to post a “Question of the Day“, but thought I’d better post a “Happy Halloween” post instead. Or we could combine them! Yeah, that’s the ticket, let’s do that 😀

Hope everyone has a great Halloween, if you partake of this holiday in your house. Since we don’t have kids, we don’t really go out very much for Halloween. I put fall decorations out front a couple of weeks ago (mums, hay bale, scarecrow and pumpkin, NOT carved!) and a plastic lighted pumpkin and lighted ghost that I’ve had for years (and are quite faded, thank you!). We have a big bowl of candy to give out to the trick-or-treaters that we will get. We don’t get as many in our neighborhood as we have in the past. More and more kids in our neighborhood are getting to be teenagers and don’t go trick or treating. I’ll post a photo over at my Project365 blog of the before and after of the candy bowl, later today and tomorrow. 🙂

In years past, we have dressed up a little on Halloween, but it has been a while. I’m wearing an orange Halloween t-shirt and jeans today, and that will be the extent of it 🙂 Tim won’t wear anything remotely orange though 🙂 I went and got my hair cut this morning and the owner and stylists were all dressed up in full costumes! They were a hoot, and I wish I had taken my camera 🙂

How about you? Are you wearing anything today that is remotely Halloween-themed? Will you go to a Halloween function tonight, or take your kids trick or treating? Will you stay home and give out candy? Will you turn off the lights and pretend that today is not Halloween? Or do you just not recognize this day at all? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Today’s Question of the Day is a nosy one! What’s under your bed?

I have actually been working on this through the last couple of years. Our closets are a bit cluttered, and I do try to “hide” some stuff up under the bed. I’m ashamed to say that the biggest thing under our beds are the mountains of dust bunnies. I looked up under our master bed a few weeks ago and was so surprised to see literally inches of dust piled up. I guess I should clean up under there occasionally, but it’s just so hard to get to, and I don’t move beds. 🙄 Anyway, we have one of our guest bedrooms as the office, so we only have two beds currently. I use the space under the guest room bed for storage. I have one of those big Ziploc “big bags” under there (this is a recent project, I blogged about it here) and I have all of our old annuals from high school and college. I also have some spare photo boxes under that bed, as well as some jigsaw puzzles we have and have not worked. Under our master bed, I have one of those Rubbermaid or Sterlite under-bed storage boxes that holds memorabilia from my childhood. I also have some stuff from past vacations (I need to go through this stuff, throw some out and organize it). The other thing up under our bed are our big stadium seats. We don’t seem to have a good place to store them, and one time my husband shoved them up under our bed, and they’ve been there ever since!

So, how about you? What’s under your beds? Out of season clothes, books, memorabilia, toys, books, or you have no idea? Please tell me that I’m not the only one with piles of dust bunnies! 🙂 Leave me a comment – Inquiring minds want to know!

Have a great day!

Today’s Question of the Day is all about the dishes you use at your home.

This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart, yet terribly conflicting for me! I love dishes and dinnerware; I have no idea why. If I had the room, I think I would have at least 2 sets to use everyday, and some seasonal ones as well. As it is, I barely have room for the everyday dishes I do have and use. My “good china” is a set of fine china that I inherited from my grandmother, and I have never even used it. (It’s probably 75 or 80 years old, or more, and definitely not microwave safe!) It’s been packed up and stored in the attic as long as I’ve had it. For everyday use, I have had Mikasa French Countryside since before we were married, although I just had a few place settings before I got registered for our wedding. We now have a set of 12 dinner and salad plates, and both sizes of bowls (soup bowls, which are larger, and salad bowls which are smaller). Oddly enough, I use all of the bowls and cups, the small plates, but I rarely use the large dinner plates. They have a large “rim” or “lip” on them, and they just don’t fit in my dishwasher well. So, a couple of years ago, I picked up 4 red dinner plates that are “flatter” at Target and we use those for two nights meals. They’re cheaper though, than my Mikasa, and they are scratched up and getting really chipped after all of the use they’ve seen. I need to replace them, and hope to do that soon.

As I said, I’d LOVE to have room for another set of dishes, but I just don’t have the space. Part of me would like to pack up the 12 place settings of plain white dishes I have and go with a set of colored dishes, or a mix and match of two or three colors. I’d love to get some Fiestaware, in a couple of coordinating colors, or some other mix and match dinnerware. I realize that the white is much more practical, and that’s why I have been using it for the last 12 years or so 🙂

I also love seasonal dinnerware, especially at this time of year. I’d love to have something fallish, but more than that, I LOVE Christmas dinnerware. I actually have some Christmas dishes. Years ago, I started getting a few pieces of Pfaltzgraff Winterberry, and had slowly built up enough for us for a few days (not enough to host Christmas dinner, but then again, no one ever comes to our house for Christmas, we always have to travel everywhere). I don’t have room to keep it in my cabinets year round, so it is packed up in a Rubbermaid tote and is stored in the attic. Last year, for the first time in several years, I had Tim bring it down from the attic, and I packed up some of our everyday dishes, and pulled out the Christmas ones to use. It felt so good to have new dishes!

So, finally, I’ll stop blabbing about my love of dishes and what I have and mostly what I WISH I had! Today’s Question of the Day is for you – what dishes do you have and use? How many sets do you have? Do you have “nice” china as well as everyday dishes? Do you have any seasonal dinnerware? Are you happy with what you have or are you wanting something new? Do you understand my obsession with dishes and do you share it?! 😀

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Is there any chance that I could convince all of you out there to slow down and stop posting to your blogs? Please, pretty please?! I’m so far behind reading my favorite blogs. It used to be that I couldn’t keep up and my feed reader usually said I had over 100 new posts to check out. Now, for the last 5 or 6 days, that number has increased to over 200 new posts. Yikes. Talk about feeling overwhelmed!

Life is just a little busier lately and I am spending less time on the computer. So, I’m really far behind. I’m going to try to get around to reading all of my favorite blogs later in the week. I have so many! So many family and friends blogs, so many great blog friends, a lot of book and foodie blogs that I enjoy reading. I just can’t keep up 🙁

That brings me to a “Question of the Day” – how do you keep up with the blogs that you like to read? Do you use Bloglines or Google Reader or another feed reader? Do you just have a list of blogs you liked bookmarked on your computer? Or maybe a listing on the side of your own blog that you use to check on your favorites? And about how many blogs do you read on average? Just a ballpark figure, you don’t have to count or go check… would you guesstimate that you read 10, 50, 100 or 300 blogs regularly?

As for me, I used to just keep a bookmarked list on my computer or blog, but I outgrew that rather quickly. Then I switched to Blogrolling, but later tried Google Reader, which I like a lot. I’ve been using Google Reader for a while now to check on all of my favorite blogs. I have over 150 in my list, so I get lots of new posts all the time! How about you – leave me a comment and let me know! 🙂

Hope everyone has a super-duper Tuesday!!!

Today’s Question of the Day is all about your watch. 🙂

Do you wear a watch every day? Do you wear it on your left wrist or your right? Do you have more than one watch? Do they bother you, or do you feel naked without yours on?

My answers: I wear a watch most of the time. I always wear one when I leave the house. I have two watches – a nice one and a sports one. I wear the sports one if I am going walking, going somewhere really casual, etc. Otherwise, I wear my nicer watch. I always wear mine on my left wrist. I have always heard that you do that if you are right-handed. Not sure. 🙂 I sometimes wear one around the house. It all depends. I am wearing one more now because we’ve taken down our clock in our living room. We’re looking for another one, a bigger one, and right now, there is not a clock hanging in the spot where there has been one for over 14 years. I find myself glancing at that spot all day long, trying to find the clock. So, I’ve taken to wearing my watch instead. Make sense?

How about you? Do you wear a watch regularly, and if so, which wrist? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Have a great day

Today’s Question of the Day is all about dishwashers. We’ve talked about this some before, because I was surprised to find out that several of my blogger buddies don’t have a dishwasher. For those of you who do, I have a few questions.

We got a new dishwasher back in late April, when our old one finally died. My husband had repaired the old one 3 times, but finally we decided it was time for a new one. When we bought it, it came with 3 or 4 Electrosol gel tablet things to use in it. I had a large Sam’s size of the Cascade gel that I had been using in my old dishwasher. I used the Electrosol sample tabs that came with the new unit, and I’ve also bought some of the Cascade gel “power” tabs and I do like those. I think the gel tablets are quite a bit more expensive, but I do like using them. Much less mess and a lot easier to just pop the gel pac in there and turn it on. I am not sure if they get the dishes any cleaner with those gel pacs, though. I’m still trying to decide whether to get another large jug of Cascade gel or get a large tub of Cascade power gel pacs on my next trip to Sam’s Club.

So… after all of that rambling, here’s my questions: 1) What kind and brand of detergent do you use in your dishwasher 2) How often do you run your dishwasher and 3) Do you enjoy using your dishwasher or is it just an awful chore to load it, run it, unload it and put up the dishes and then start all over again? 🙂

For my answers to these questions: 1) I use Cascade, either gel or the new action tabs 2) I normally run my dishwasher about 3 times a week. If we have company, I run it more often, every day or so and 3) I actually enjoy doing dishes! I enjoy washing dishes, and I don’t mind loading and unloading the dishwasher 😛

Have a great day, everyone!

Today’s Question of the Day is another “quick and easy” one – do you consider yourself musical? Can you sing, read music, play a musical instrument? If not, which would you like to be able to do, or do better? Are you the only one in your family like that (musical or non-musical)? In other words, if you’re really musical, is your spouse and children the same way or just the opposite?

As for me, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket. I love music and I sing all the time – if no one else is around. I don’t have a good voice and I know it. I can’t read music and I can’t play any musical instrument. One of the things I wish I had been able to do growing up was take some kind of musical lesson. I would have liked to have had the chance to learn to read music, or to learn to play an instrument, or even sing in a choir. My mom knew that I loved to sing. I think she even wrote in my baby book that I was singing at an early age, and memorizing song lyrics long before I got to kindergarten. I love music, and I listen to it — a lot. My iPod has tons on it and I listen to music a lot on my computer. Surprisingly, I never think to turn on our TV and tune to the dozens of Music Choice channels we have. But I do love my iPod and I do love singing when no one can hear me!

How about you? Leave me a comment and let me know! 🙂

Background info… I have been working on going through some old magazines lately. I have magazines literally coming out my ears, as I get quite a few on a regular basis. Some are ones I have cashed in my “points” at an online points program to get a free subscription, and others are those that I really like and want, and actually subscribe to. Either way, it amounts to a lot of magazines coming in the mail. Which I love, but they do tend to pile up. I probably have 2 years worth of magazines piled up around here. 🙄

When I won the “Good Things” book kit from the delightful Barb, I decided this would be the impetus I needed to start working on my mountain of magazines. And it has! I’ve been working on going through my 2 year backlog and cutting out any pages I want to keep and put in my binders.

I ran across an article in a really old copy of “Good Housekeeping” on the “Flylady” the other day. Now, I’ve read for several years about the Flylady, and I know many ladies in the blogosphere have taken her suggestions to heart and had good success. I personally have not, but I find her concepts (get dressed and have your shoes on, shine your sink, 27 fling boogie, etc) very interesting! What really caught my eye though, was a block on the side of the article, entitled “The Great Cleaning Debates”. It’s subtitled “Is there a Right way to…” and apparently they did an informal poll of the Good Housekeeping staff and asked them a series of questions on the “right” way to do certain cleaning and household tasks. I thought I’d pose their questions here and see if we all “stack up” to their findings.

Chime in and let me know your answers to these questions!

Is There A Right Way to …

1) Replace the toilet paper (hang so the paper falls over the roll or hang so the paper falls under the roll)

2) Store Socks (Roll Them or Fold Them)

3) Hang Towels (fold in thirds or fold in half)

4) Vacuum and Dust (dust first or vacuum first)

5) Clean Mirrors (use paper towels or use newspaper)

Oh, and in case you wanted to know my answers! 1) Toilet Paper must go over the top of the roll, 2) roll the edges of socks to keep them together, 3) Towels are folded in thirds, always (that one thanks to my mom), 4) Dust first, then vacuum, and 5) I’ve used both, but 98% of the time, I use paper towels to clean mirrors and glass.

Time for a Question of the Day!

Today’s questions are an odd combination, but they all have a common theme – sleeping in your bed. 🙂 First, do you sleep with your bedroom door open or closed? Do you ever LOCK your bedroom door? Second, which side of the bed do you sleep on? If you spend the night at a hotel or another house, do you still sleep on that side of the bed? Do you ever switch sides for any reason? And Third – do you sleep on your back, your stomach, your side, or all of them?

Personal questions, I know. Sorry if it’s too personal. 🙂

Here’s my answers: 1) we sleep with our bedroom door open if no one else is staying at our house. If we have guests, the door obviously gets closed. We don’t normally lock our door, but I’m sure if we had kids, we might have been tempted! 2) The side of the bed thing is sort of funny. A little of my OCD tendencies coming out. I normally sleep on the left side of the bed. Always. We never switch at home (I flip the mattress regularly instead). But, sometimes in a hotel or at someone else’s house, I end up on the right. That has more to do with having a bedside table, with a lamp, and a place to put my alarm clock. I’m the “keeper” of the alarm clock. It never goes on Tim’s side, and he won’t fool with it. So if the only choice is the right side, I’ll have to sleep on that side because of the lamp/clock issue. Normally, I like to sleep on the left. 3) Lastly, I sleep either on my back or side. I can’t sleep on my stomach. It’s not something I can do at all. I really prefer to sleep in a sort of a modified fetal position, on my side with my knees pulled up some. 🙂

How about you? If you want to share your “sleeping habits” with me and the rest of the blogosphere, leave me a message and let me know! 😀

We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave, where I live! It’s been in the 100’s for the last several days, and we’re forecast to be in the triple digits until at least the end of the week. I’m already tired of summer, and have been daydreaming lately about wearing jeans and sweaters, candy corn and pumpkins, snowmen and angels, and mostly, just some cooler weather 🙂

My air conditioning unit is running nearly non-stop, and that’s mostly how I’m trying to stay cool. My preferred method though, would be to eat ice cream. When it’s hot like this, I could really eat ice cream every day. Seriously. Unfortunately, my hips and thighs are already large enough, so I’m trying to be good.

Today’s Question of the Day is all about ice cream – what’s your favorite flavor? Do you eat ice cream at home or just out, at an ice cream shop or specialty place? Do you have favorite toppings that you like to put on your ice cream?

As for my answers – I rarely meet an ice cream I don’t like. Chocolate would be my all-time favorite, but I do like a lot of other flavors. This summer, we’ve been trying the Oreo, Reese’s peanut butter and Snickers ones. I need to try a Butterfinger one next. I also have a half gallon of plain vanilla on hand, because I’ve been making some banana splits. A banana, some low fat vanilla ice cream, Hershey’s chocolate syrup, maraschino cherries and nuts on top. Yummy in my tummy 🙂

How about you? What’s your favorites when it comes to ice cream?

You know what? I’ve decided that reading the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich are one of my guilty pleasures (we can’t forget about chocolate though; I think that will always top any list of mine!) I know these books have bad language, mild violence and quite a bit of s*xual references, but they are laugh-out loud funny and I do enjoy them. They’re light and fluffy and always easy to read.

I’ve read three of them lately, trying to catch up and get current with this series. I am always asking myself – would I pick Morelli or Ranger? How about you? If you read these books, which one would you pick? Who do you think Stephanie will end up with? Or do you even think Janet Evanovich will end this and let us know which one Stephanie rides off into the sunset with?

P.S. I just finished “Twelve Sharp” and it sort of looks like Evanovich is trying to decide. I’m thinking when I finally get Lean Mean Thirteen from the library, that Steph will be right back where she was before – in a love-love situation with both Morelli and Ranger. If you’ve read it, and she decides somehow, please don’t let me know!!!

P.S.S. If you’re keeping up with my book count and my quest to read more books this year than last, you can check out my sidebar. I’m up to 65 books so far this year, with a total of 19,478 pages read 🙂

Get a load of this thing!

{As seen on the Sur La Table website, here} It’s called the “SmartShopper Grocery List Organizer”. It …

Alphabetizes and groups items by where they’re found in the store. 7½” x 4″ x 1¼”.
Recognizes nearly 2,500 grocery items, or add your own to the database.
Coupon flag feature.
Add simple errands like bank or dry cleaning.
Built-in printer requires no ink cartridges
Uses four standard AA batteries.

Now, I love electronics and I actually really like grocery shopping. Heck, this time last year I bought myself the bottom level Palm PDA with an application called SplashShopper already loaded, just so I could keep my shopping, library, Walmart and Sam’s lists with me, electronically. But, this thing, geesh, I had no idea they made something like this! I think it’s pretty pricey at $150, but that’s just me. For years and years, I just kept a running tab of my grocery list on a magnetic pad of paper that was attached to the side of my refrigerator. The one thing that bothered me about that list was that it was inefficient. I added things to it as I thought of them, or if I used up one can of something from my pantry, I’d add another one. So, my list was not in order. Does that make sense? What would always happen would be that I’d get to the bottom of my list, or flip to the backside, and find something that I had missed several aisles over. An aisle I had already been down. Very inefficient, and that kind of stuff bothers me 🙂

Anyway! So, if you had the money, would you buy it? I am very happy with my Palm, but of course it doesn’t print anything out. Not a biggie for me. I like going totally digital 🙂

That’s today’s Question of the Day: How do you keep lists of things you want or need to buy? Electronically or on a piece of paper? Do you even go to the grocery store or Walmart or Target with a list? Is it organized, or do you find yourself circling back to get something you missed on a previous aisle or section of the store? How often do you go to the store to get groceries or household items? Do you sit down with the sales circulars and plan out your shopping trip, or do you keep a running list? Or no list at all! Leave me a comment and let me know!