Exceedingly Mundane

What comes to mind when you think of the following colors?

RED: Valentines, red roses
BLUE: blue skies
GREEN: green grass
YELLOW: marigolds in my front flower bed
PURPLE: verbena in my back flower bed
PINK: little girls
ORANGE: pumpkins
BLACK: black and gold, our football teams colors
WHITE: puffy clouds in a blue sky

Friday July 14, 2006
Feast One Hundred & Two

Appetizer
Name one thing nice that you could do for someone else today. Specifically or in general? Believe it or not, I try to do nice things for Tim every day. I try to be polite to everyone I meet, I try to let people turn out of side streets and businesses when I’m driving along the road, because I’m usually not in a hurry and they are. I’m going grocery shopping today, and I’ve often told people to go ahead of me in line if they have fewer items than me. I try to thank the cashier, the greeter, the bag person, whomever. Does ANY of that count?!

Soup
When was the last time you were frightened by the weather? Easy one. I’ve never really been afraid of the weather, but last year during Hurricane Katrina, I was very bothered by the weather. We weren’t in the direct path, but close enough to get hours and hours of wind and rain. After we lost power and it had raged on for several hours, the sound of the wind really got to me. I’ve never been affected by weather before, but the howling of the wind really affected me after a while.

Salad
What would you say is the most useful website or blog that you visit? Hmm…. I like search engines like Google and Blingo, for finding out almost anything imaginable. Also love IMDB for anything related to movies, actors, tv shows, etc.

Main Course
Who was your favorite singer/group when you were a child? Oh wow, I remember jumping up on my bed, holding my hand out in front of me like a microphone and singing Monkees songs. “Oh what can it mean, to a …Daydream believer and a homecoming queen” There, is that old enough for ya?!!!

Dessert
Do you have any rituals? If so, what are they? My, my, what a question for a girl like me! My sister made up a word years ago – she calls me “routinized”. As in the most routine-oriented person she knows. Now, assuming routine equates to rituals, then yes, I have a lot of rituals! Some are holiday or seasonal related, like I like to make the same things at Christmas (my hot cocoa mix, reindeer food, things like that). I also have tons of daily rituals, including that I do certain kinds of laundry on certain days of the week. For example, I always wash towels on Tuesdays and sheets on Wednesdays. Don’t ask why. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, except maybe that I liked the alliteration of “towels on Tuesday” 😀 Lately, I make sourdough bread every week, and I do the starter on Wednesdays and then bake the bread on Thursdays. I clean certain parts of the house on certain days, and run certain errands on other days. I’m exceedingly routine-oriented!

Friday, July 7, 2006
Feast One Hundred & One

Appetizer
When was the last time you visited a hospital? Gosh, maybe over a year and a half ago, when our niece Abby was born. Nothing else is coming to mind, although we could have gone to visit someone else, and I’m just not remembering it!

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how ambitious are you? Hmm, about a 2!

Salad
Make a sentence using the letters of a body part. (Example: (mouth) My other ukelele tings healthily.) NOSE – Never Overestimate Someone’s Effect

Main Course
If you were to start a club, what would the subject matter be, and what would you name it? I’d start a book club. I would have to think for a while, weeks, maybe months, probably, to come up with a name!

Dessert
What color is the carpet/flooring in your home? Light beige berber

We were gone most all day on Tuesday, so this is a day late 🙂

Independence Day Fun (for any country just think of what you do on your day)
1. Do you have any traditions for this day? Yes, we normally go to Tim’s mom’s family’s get-together (whew, that’s a mouthful!)
2. What are your plans for this one We went to the get-together, then we went to see Superman Returns last night
3. Do you like fireworks? I love them, but alas, Tim does not
4. Can you use them where you live? No, we can’t shoot them off, but the town where we live always puts on a good family-oriented July 4th celebration, complete with fireworks at 9 PM

Friday, June 30, 2006
Feast One Hundred!!!

Congratulations to the Friday Feast Meme for hitting that magical 100 mark… time to feast!

Appetizer
On average, approximately how many times per day do you yawn? I have never actually thought about it. I think some days I might yawn a half a dozen times, maybe more. When I see Tim yawning, I always pick at him (he thinks he can get by with very little sleep, but he can’t always) about being sleepy, but Tim always says “I just need oxygen”. So, I guess I need oxygen at least a half a dozen times a day, maybe a dozen on a good day!

Soup
What was your most memorable school field trip? I went with my junior high class (maybe 9th grade, not sure?) on a field trip down to Natchez to tour some of the antebellum homes. I think I had just gotten a camera, so I took it along and took a lot of pictures of my friends on the bus, of the houses, of the insides (china, beds, etc, I have always loved all that big old antebellum stuff). I still have all those pictures to this day, which is why I can remember that trip. I will have to dig them out and look at them 🙂

Salad
Fill in the blank: I was extremely __________________ this week. boring! Or even better – exceedingly mundane

Main Course
Which color do you think of when you hear the word “soothing”? probably a light blue, like the sky or ocean, or maybe a soft mossy green.

Dessert
What is something that, if you had to, you could save up the money to buy within one month? Well, I keep thinking we’re going to need to replace our washer and dryer soon. We have some money in an emergency fund, so hopefully we could cover those with that fund. I don’t want to be without a washer or dryer for very long, I’m very spoiled and I really don’t want to have to go to a laundromat. I guess for the saving, probably a new heating/cooling unit for the house. Again, I have this worry it will go out and we’ll have to replace it. I worry a lot, you know 🙄

This week’s questions are all about photography! Have fun and thanks for playing! =)

1. Do you own a digital camera? Yes!
2. What is your camera of choice? I’ve had only Kodak digital cameras and I’ve been very pleased with them
3. If you’re a digital camera fan, do you print your own photos, or do you send them in to be printed? If you send them in, do you have a favorite place? If they get printed at all – they get sent in. This happens very rarely though 🙂 I have only printed them at Sam’s and Walmart, and sent some off to online places. I think I’ve tried Snapfish (happy) and Picturebug (ok, but happier with Snapfish).
4. How many pictures do you take a month? Oh my, lots. Some months I just take “nothing” pictures, but I still take at least 75-100. On months where there’s a holiday or event, I might easily take several hundred.
5. How many of those pictures actually get printed? Lately, zero. I’m probably 3 years behind on printing pictures 😳
6. Are you planning on purchasing a new camera in the near future? No, Tim just got me a new one this past Christmas. It’s a Kodak P850 and I love it!
7. CHALLENGE: Go check out Favorite Five Photos and Foto Pherrets and choose just ONE photo to share. Hmm, will try to do this later. Instead, I’ll post one I took of some of my flowers a couple of weeks ago (you can also check out my Flickr stream on the sidebar for more scenic pics):

Time to feast again! Yeah!

Friday, June 23, 2006
Feast Ninety-Nine

Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you like your job? Well, considering I have the best job on the planet (housewife), I’d have to say a 10. I had a fairly high-pressure job for years before (IT analyst, on call 24×7) that wore me out and so I left to take a short sabbatical. Short term turned into long term, what can I say, it’s wonderful

Soup
When was the last time you think you were lied to? I have absolutely no idea!

Salad
Share some lyrics from one of your favorite songs.Wow, this is really hard. I have tons of songs I love and listen to. Lately, I’ve been listening to the new Brad Paisley album I got. There’s 4 or 5 songs on there I just adore and I can barely pick between them. Ok, I pick “She’s Everything” – here’s a link to the entire song, but like most lyrics, it sounds tons better when you actually hear it. Here’s some excerpts I love:

She’s a yellow pair of running shoes
A holey pair of jeans
She looks great in cheap sunglasses
She looks great in anything
She’s, “I want a piece of chocolate”
“Take me to a movie”
She’s “I can’t find a thing to wear”
Now and then she’s moody

Chorus:
And she’s everything I ever wanted
And everything I need
I talk about her, I go on and on and on
‘Cause she’s everything to me

Another section of lyrics I love:
She’s the voice I love to hear
Someday when I’m ninety
She’s that wooden rocking chair
I want rocking right beside me
Every day that passes
I only love her more
Yeah, she’s the one
That I’d lay down my own life for

And a snippet or two: She’s a bubble bath and candles, a stealer of the covers, She’s the answer to my prayer, And she’s the song that I’m playing

OK, that’s most of the lyrics! I also love “The World” and “Waiting on a Woman” from that album. They are great love songs, funny and sweet, that I think Brad Paisley probably wrote for his wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley. They all remind me of Tim and the things he says to me, the way he treats me and the way he loves me. I can totally hear Tim singing these to me, and telling me the same things in his sweet country-boy way 🙂 Of course, I can hear myself saying “I want some chocolate” and “I don’t have a thing to wear” to Tim over and over, ad nauseum 😀

Main Course
What do you do/take when you are in pain? Usually just Tylenol or maybe Advil.

Dessert
Fill in the blanks: My love for Tim is very strong and deep. (OK, no fair, the sappy song lyrics got me going on this one!)

I used to do this meme a while back, but I had not seen it updated in a while. Then, I checked again today, and there’s a lot of questions for the last several weeks. Which is weird, because I didn’t think the site had been updated. Irregardless, I always liked doing this one, so hopefully I will be able to play along again. These questions had last Tuesday’s date on them, and there were no new questions up for today (maybe later, I’ll check again), so I’m going to do these.

Here we go 🙂

Grillin & Chillin

Warm weather and weekend cheer… Who does not love a great time with friends?

Do you have a BBQ? (85% of all households in America do)? Yes we do
Gas/Or Charcol? it’s gas
What do you LOVE to grill? anything and everything. We grill fish, chicken, ribs, pork chops, steaks, veggies, fruit, tons of stuff. Tim LOVES to grill
Grill disasters? None really, Tim truly is a grillmaster. Probably the only thing that has ever happened is that he has run out of gas in the middle of cooking and had to stop and change out the tanks (we have 2, one for the grill and a spare)
Fav recipies? My favorite things to do are very simple – just marinated meat or fish. And I love to do portobella mushrooms on there. Oh, and here’s a couple of good recipes that go together – one for grilled pineapple chicken and grilled pineapple. Yum!

From LizzieDaisy‘s site:

(¯`’•.¸(¯`’•.¸A Lizzie Quizzie!¸.•’´¯)¸.•
Early… am going out of town to see my family sans my own. Wheeee….

1. Are you doing anything special for Father’s Day? We went to Tim’s family and got to see everyone, eat lots of good food, play games, hit golf balls, eat homemade ice cream and just generally have a good time!
2. Have you ever rented a limo? Nope
3. Fingernails… like long or short? Short (except mine are all chewed up, a nasty bad habit 🙂 )
4. When was the last time you traveled out of town? Well, yesterday to my in-law’s house, about 1 1/2 hours from here
5. What was your favorite thing to do in the car on trips when you were younger? We didn’t go on many trips when I was growing up. But I did like doing the car tag game (spotting tags from out of state) and the ABC game, finding letters in order on billboards, road signs, etc.
6. Favorite current tv show? There’s not much on right now I’m watching. In the fall, the list is long 😀 You can check out the list on my sidebar if you’re just dying to know 🙄
7. On a scale from 1-10, how good a cook are you? I think I’m pretty good. Not gourmet or overly adventurous, but good. About a 7, I guess
8. When was the last time you told someone you loved them? This morning, to my husband
9. How good are you with directions? Pretty good, as long as I have precise directions and/or a map. I think I’m a decent navigator
10. What is the most amount of money you have ever lost gambling? Won? (cards, Vegas, bets, pools…) None, don’t gamble. I only bet on sure things 🙂

Monday, June 19, 2006

This week’s questions come from one of our fellow players, tricia! Thank you Tricia, for your fabulous questions. Look for more from Tricia in the upcoming weeks. Thanks to everyone for playing, and have a great week! =)

1. How many cop shows can you name? Hmm, the 3 CSI shows, NCIS, all the Law and Order shows, Without a Trace, things like that? If you mean those reality shows where they show footage from police cruiser videos, I don’t have a clue what they are called 🙂
2. Do you send text messages? No, so far I’ve been able to stay away from that vice
3. If you could be on a gameshow (current or old), which one would you be on and why? Probably Wheel of Fortune. I think I’d have a better chance of getting the answers than on a show like Jeopardy or Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I don’t like the new show Deal or No Deal, and I am drawing a blank on any other show at the moment!
4. What are some of your favorite websites? The list is long! I have several blogs I read (they are listed on my sidebar), SBA message board, CL message board, and I have several that I use for news, reference, etc. I also like Flickr, I think it’s a cool concept. I also use and recommend MyPoints and RewardTV, I’ve gotten several “free” items from there. There’s so many good ones out there!
5. What are your favorite things about the internet? That I can go look up anything I want, anytime I want, that I can shop at home in my pajamas, that I can read so many interesting blogs, that I can go find a recipe for anything, using any ingredient. And the list goes on and on!
6. What about least favorite?The nasty content that is out there, getting spam.
7. What are some good ways to deal with a pet loss? Well, I would have a hard time giving advice on this one. I still grieve the loss of my dog Sally. I think time helps, and I think, for me, getting another pet would be a good way to deal. I wouldn’t know though, we are still pet-less. 🙁

Friday June 16, 2006
Feast Ninety-Eight
Time to feast again!

Appetizer
What is a word that you use that would not be considered common? Well, believe it or not, as I was trying to go to sleep last night, I was thinking about a blog entry for today. I was going to write about how I’m so very Southern, that I use the word “fixin” all the time. I don’t realize it most of the time, but sometimes I catch myself saying it in conjunction with everything. It’s not really uncommon where I live, but it’s something that is probably not prevalent in other parts of the country. You know, “I’m fixin to jump in the shower”, “I’m fixin to head out right now”. 🙄

Soup
What theme of calendar do you have on your wall this year? It’s called Solitudes – very peaceful, beautiful natures scenes. Lakes, waterfalls, mountains, fields of flowers.

Salad
Name 3 people you speak with by telephone a regular basis. My sister, my husband, my dad

Main Course
If you could buy a new outfit for someone you know – who would it be and what would you purchase for them? Probably my sister Gail. We have very similar taste and I think I might could come closer to finding her something that she likes and would fit. We’ve been shopping a lot lately while our husbands are out playing golf. Second choice would be my nieces and nephews. They’d be easy – shirts, shorts, little skirts. You know, cute kid stuff 🙂

Dessert
What is the last beverage you drank? Orange juice and then coffee with breakfast

My first time to play this meme… hope I ‘m doing it correctly!

Thirteen Things I Need to be Doing Today Instead of Blogging 1. Thursdays are bread making days, have to make the bread and let it rise 2. The kitchen stove needs cleaning… it’s very icky 3. The flowers and plants all need watering. It’s in the 90’s regularly here now, and my pots dry out quickly! 4. Actually, the grass needs watering too. I really hate setting out and moving the sprinklers around 🙂 5. I need to fill up the bird feeders while I’m outside. We have hungry birds here 6. There’s always laundry to be done (but I’d rather blog or blog surf) 7. Father’s Day gifts need to be wrapped… running out of time! 8. Must mail other Father’s Day card to the dad we won’t get to see this Sunday 9. I need to go through my coupons and pull out the ones I will need when I hit the grocery store this afternoon 10. Ah, yes, grocery shopping today 11. Then there’s the items that need to be returned to Target 12. Really should work on decluttering some closets 13. And the biggie, that I keep putting off, starting to declutter the office. It’s a huge, giant, messy nightmare. I definitely think I’ll keep putting that one off!

Let’s do some more fill-in-the-blanks this week! =) Thanks for playing Monday Madness, all of my faithful participants!

1. I have a picture of an ocean scene on my computer desktop.
2. There are lots of family pictures hanging on my living room walls.
3. My big goal for this week is to get things ready for the weekend.
4. I plan to visit all my regular (about 15) blogs this week.
5. The weather we’re having right now is blazingly hot.
6. I really should work out and drink more water more often.

Time to feast again! 🙂

Friday, June 09, 2006
Feast Ninety-Seven

Appetizer
About how much money did you spend on gas this week? I haven’t filled up this week, so none. The last time I filled up (maybe last week), I think it was about $45 bucks or so (of course, the tank was not empty, I fill up somewhere around 1/4 of a tank or 1/2).

Soup
What is your favorite brand of toilet paper? Quilted Northern

Salad
When was the last time you discovered something that you thought was pure genius?Hmm, that may require more thought than I can muster this morning. 🙄 Years ago, I thought buying lettuce washed and cut up in a bag was a stupid idea and a waste of money. Uh, well, I’ve totally changed my mind since then! Same thing with the iPod, when Apple first came out with them, I just didn’t get it. Now, looking back, I think that is probably near genius – iPods are smart, fun, easy to use and a total money pit. Look how much iTunes sells, songs and even TV shows – who would have ever thought you’d pay 2 bucks to watch a TV show on a tiny handheld device, when you could sit and watch it on your big screen at home!

Main Course
What is the least amount of sleep you can get by on per night? I am a sleep addict and I require a lot more than most people. I really need 8-9 hours a night, but I can squeak by on 6-7 hours a night. Only if I must. I’d have to make up for it the next day or night!

Dessert
June is a popular month for weddings. Do you know anyone who is getting married this month? Nope.

This week’s topic:

10 ways you like to relax

1. Sleep!
2. Watch TV
3. Watch a movie (preferably a “chick flick”)
4. Read
5. Surf the Internet
6. Take a Bubble Bath
7. Sit outside and listen to the birds singing, my windchimes chiming
8. Take photographs of anything
9. Listen to music on my iPod
10. Play mindless games on the computer