Exceedingly Mundane

How very timely!

::Road Trip With No Stops::

Onesome: Road Trip– How do you feel about road trips? I mean, no planning, no prep, just up, up and away! Have you had any good ones? Lately? Love road trips, except ours are usually well-planned. Tim does a lot better with spontaneous than I do. We took 2 road trips/vacations last year and are leaving in less than a week for our big trip this year. Tim and I prefer to drive on vacation, and spend that time together in the car. We have worked out a really good routine through the years, and travel really well together. 🙂

Twosome: With– Ah! Who do you/would you/could you take a road trip with? …and where would you be off to? We can go anywhere, and plan to one day! We want to visit all 50 states, although we will fly to some! We have found we don’t travel as well with other people, and not very well at all with kids. Slows us down too much 🙁

Threesome: No Stops– Do you drive non-stop when you take your planned trips, stretching your endurance to the limit of your bladder? …or do you have your rest stops pre-programmed into your itinerary? Tim is a very type-A focused kind of person and he gets in the car and wants to go, go, go. That is more apparent on the way home, he is a bit more loose on the trip out, but very focused on getting home on the return trip. We stop for fast food breaks, but go through drive-throughs and keep going. Then we try to combine pit stops with gas fill-ups, although Tim is usually pretty good about stopping for me if I can’t wait! He is like a camel, whereas I think my bladder must be the size of a small pea! 😀

From this site:

1. What do you wear to bed? Pink pajamas

2. What side of the bed do you sleep on? Left

3. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? No, not unless you count Tim!

4. Blanket/bed hog? No, Tim is the hog, he pulls them away from me, and I only get about 1/8 of the bed 🙂 He thinks I’m his body pillow too. I learned long ago to sleep with arms and legs thrown over on me 😀

5. Do you make your bed everyday? Yes, absolutely. Even when I’m sick. Even when we get up in the AM to leave for vacation. Something my momma taught me to do! 😆

Feast Fifty-Two
Friday, June 17, 2005

Appetizer
What’s one word or phrase that you use a lot? Hmm… Whatever… Yeah Right… stuff like that! I also try to say “I love you” to Tim as many times during the day as possible. Unless I’m totally mad at him 😛

Soup
Name something you always seem to put off until the last minute. Making a doctor’s appointment for the dreaded female doctor. Mopping the kitchen floor (I will never have white vinyl floors ever again).

Salad
What was the last great bumper sticker you saw? I can’t remember.

Main Course
If you could be invisible for one day, how would you spend your time? Hmmm, I’m pretty invisible as it is most days. Let’s see, I’d like to follow our president GW Bush around for a day and see what he does.

Dessert
Describe your hair. Well, as of late morning, it’s shorter, shinier and very brown! 🙂 Got it cut and my roots done today

::Calling in Sick::

Onesome: I can’t come in– Have you ever locked yourself out of the house or the car? How’d it happen, and how did you get back in? I can’t ever remember locking myself out of the house or car. I think I’m too anal about checking, about having my keys in my hand, and then locking the car with my remote on my keyring. If I have ever done it in the past, I have no recollection of it. 🙂

Twosome: to work today– What is your dream job and why? To be a mom. Not gonna happen though.

Threesome: because I…– What’s the worst excuse you’ve ever given or heard of for not going into work/ school? Why did you really call in? Geesh, I was the most conscientious school kid and office worker on the planet. I can remember only cutting a class a few times in college – and that was for a freshman level computer class they added to my computer minor program track, that I had to go back and take when I was a senior. I could have taught the class to the freshman. My teacher (who was also my advisor and the department head) once asked me after class, why are you coming, you don’t have to come to this class. So I finally started cutting one day a week or so and even then I felt guilty. I don’t think I ever called into work sick when I wasn’t and would most often go into work even though I was sick. Must be that work-ethic from Fred and Dodie that was pounded into me growing up.

I do quite a bit of blog-surfing, and I frequently run across memes, quizzes and questionnaires that I like, and want to do in my blog. I found this one a few weeks ago, and filed it away “for a rainy day”. 😀 I really like this one, although for most of you, it’s a little on the long side. I have seen it several places, but I believe the first place was at Denise Pauley’s blog (she’s a scrapbooker). 🙂

It counts down, so click on the -More- link if you want to see the whole thing. 😀

Ten things I do everyday:

1. Eat breakfast
2. Watch TV
3. Check my email and check on Hambones
4. Tell Tim “I love you”
5. Worry about something
6. Read something (newspaper, magazine, book, mail)
7. Brush my teeth
8. Take a shower or bath
9. Take all my meds
10. Sleep

Nine favorite shows of all time:
{in no particular order}

1. Mad About You
2. The Cosby Show
3. Bonanza
4. Little House on the Prairie
5. Happy Days
6. Sisters
7. Survivor
8. Amazing Race
9. 7th Heaven

Eight junk food favorites:

1. Soft Drinks (Dr Pepper, IBC root beer, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, etc)
2. Pizza (pepperoni & mushroom or All the Meats)
3. Chili Cheese Fritos
4. Chili Cheese Fries (maybe some ranch dressing in there too!)
5. Funyuns
6. Banana Splits or Hot Fudge Sundaes
7. M&M’s
8. Anything chocolate!

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Sunday, June 12

Are you game?
“Computer games don’t affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.” -Marcus Brigstocke

1) What is your favorite board game? Trivial Pursuit! I also like the new Scene It we got at Christmas, same type game but with a DVD in addition to the board.

2) What type of games are your favorite? (ie, board, card, participatory, dice, word games) Some of each – I like Trivial Pursuit, Mexican train dominoes and Tim’s card game of Liverpool rummy

3) How many games do you own, and if possible, list them. We own quite a few but rarely play them. Some of them, Tim won’t play with me (like Boggle, Upwords, any kind of word games). We have 2-3 Trivial Pursuits, Scene It, Uno Attack, Parcheesi, and a couple of others.

4) Do you enjoy computer or video games? Which one is your favorite? Yes, but I don’t play them as much as I could. I went through a Zuma phase (online) and then a Text Twist one. I haven’t played much lately, except the odd game of Mah Johngg now and then.

5) Describe a great childhood memory of an outside game. Well. I don’t have a lot of childhood memories, certainly not of playing games with other people. I have a vague memory of playing crochet, but I think I mostly played alone.

P.S. I can’t wait to see Gail’s answers, I know that Scrabble is going to be in there somewhere!! 🙂

Feast Fifty-One
Friday, June 10, 2005

Appetizer
Name one thing that made you sad this week. Thinking about my mom. I miss her every day, but this time of year, as we get closer to the anniversary of her death, I miss her more, and it makes me really sad.

Soup
What was the last object (not person) you took a picture of? my daylilly blooming out back. I’ve been meaning to post a picture here in my blog. Maybe I can post some this weekend. A lot of my flowers look so good!

Salad
Who do you talk to when you need help in making a decision? Tim

Main Course
If you were a weather event, what would you be, and why? A flash thunderstorm

Dessert
Suggest a website that you think your readers would enjoy visiting. Hambones , of course!

I missed doing this one yesterday, I was so busy working on the main site. Oops!

:: I could really use a shower!::

Onesome: I could really– get into what or who musically this week? Have you run across anything or anyone new to share with the gang? Musically, well, isn’t this timely?! 🙂 I’ve been on a semi-tear this week, looking for and downloading mp3’s and surfing iTunes. In my formative years, I liked pop, soft rock and a bit of heavy rock mixed in (think Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, etc). When I met Tim, he slowly but surely got me to fall in love with country, and I’ve been hanging there pretty solid ever since. The past few days, I’ve been on the hunt for music by Shania Twain, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Rob Thomas, Kelly Clarkson and the Backstreet Boys (who I watched on the Today Show this morning). Nothing earth-shattering, I’m fairly mainstream pop and country. 😀

Twosome: Use– Hey, what do you use for most of your cooking? The microwave? …or the toaster oven? Regular oven? Weber grill? (…and Mark, opening the bag of chips doesn’t count!) I use the toaster oven the most, I think. I try to use my crockpot a lot. I use the microwave for warming things up and defrosting, some steaming of veggies, not a lot else. I use the stovetop a lot too. Tim does all the outside grilling, which helps out a lot. This time of year, we grill a lot more 😀

Threesome: A shower– …and the softball of the week: shower or bath? What’s your preference. Okay, pool or hot tub (if you had one or both )? I like both showers and baths, but I’d have to pick showers.

From this site:

Tuesday, June 07, 2005
On a daily average…

1. How many hours of sleep do you get and is it enough? I try to get 8-9 hours a night, because I need that much. Normally, I get about 7-8 on most days. I love to sleep! 🙂

2. How many times do you get angry/upset and is it too much? Oh, I get upset a lot, but I get over it quick. I get stressed out about things way too easily and too often. A nasty habit I’ve tried to break, but it’s instinctual with me and hard to cure.

3. How often do you drink caffeine and is it too much? WELL. I would prefer to have tea or a soft drink at both lunch and dinner, but I’ve found that if I cut it out at night, I sleep a whole lot better. So, now I limit myself to a drink with caffeine at lunch, and water with dinner. I have coffee with Tim on the weekends, in the morning.

4. How often do you use your cell phone and does it distract from your responsibilities? I don’t use it that much. I used to use it more for long distance, but we just got the Vonage hooked up, so now I have free long distance!

5. How much time do you spend on the internet and is it too much? Oh my. Way too much time. I know it. I know I should cut back. I just can’t seem to do it. Oh well. I could have worse vices. 😀

I’ve been terribly remiss the last several days at checking some of the meme sites I like to visit. A couple of them had memes that I liked, so I’m going to do a big huge catch-up meme blog post here. I know a lot of you don’t like these, so I’ll put them on the extended page. Just click the -More- link if you want to go check them out. And, as always, please play along and put your answers in a comment if you want! I love reading all of your answers, and seeing what we have in common and where we differ! 🙂

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What color are your kitchen plates? well, mostly white. I have 12 place settings of Mikasa French Countryside, and also 4 burgundy ones from Target. I love the Target ones, but they are chipping badly. I’ve been looking at new ones lately… mostly burgundy and yellow, to match the kitchen. The problem with that is that when we move or paint the kitchen again, I will want to change them yet again! I’ve been looking at these from Pfatlzgraf, and also at Fiestaware in Cinnabar and Sunflower Yellow. Just daydreaming though! I imagine we’ll keep the Mikasa for a long time. It holds up really well, it’s never chipped or cracked and barely shows any kind of scratch from knives. Good stuff.

Favorite Board Game? Trivial Pursuit, or Mexican Train Dominoes, although that’s not a board game!

What’s on your mouse pad? Legolas

What’s your favorite color? Green

What’s your least favorite color? Hmmm, dunno

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Another good meme, so I gotta do it too! It’s tough being gone all weekend, lots to catch up on! 🙂

This week I’m asking you to choose a letter of the alphabet. Now list the ten items below that begin with the letter you chose….

OK, I choose the letter “T”

1. a family member – Tim
2. a movie– The Two Towers
3. a game – Trivial Pursuit
4. an automobile – Truck, as in Ford Truck, like Clyde
5. a fictional character – Theoden, King, from Lord of the Rings
6. a famous person – Tom Cruise, or Hanks 🙂
7. a food – Tiramisu
8. a household item – Telephone
9. a book – The Testament, by John Grisham
10. a song – Traveling Solder, by the Dixie Chicks (gee, that one was hard, I had to go look in my Real Player library!)

I say … and you think … ?

Crowd:: lots of people
Hamburger:: and fries
Choker:: necklace
Lights:: switch
Tinsel:: Christmas tree
Testament:: Old and New
Best part of the day:: Tim coming home
Election:: George W Bush
Clarinet:: instrument
Dead Sea:: Scrolls

Well, I’m going to catch up on a couple of memes. I know, I know, a lot of you don’t enjoy these, but I do, and as I’ve said before – it’s MY BLOG and therefore, I do the ones I like! 😀

Dining out
“The murals in restaurants are on par with the food in museums.” -Peter DeVries

1) Do you enjoy eating out and why? Oh. My. Goodness. Yes. We love to eat out, although I actually think Tim likes it more than I do, but we both love to go eat at different places. We have lots of favorites, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, BBQ, etc. Tons of places we like to go, and we like to try new places too.

2) Where is your favorite restaurant? Can’t pick just one. I might be able to narrow it down to one per category, but that would also be difficult. For Mexican, I would probably pick either Cinco de Mayo in Madison or El Torero in Flowood. For Chinese, either King Buffet in Jackson or Hong Kong Buffet in Madison (for convenience). For Japanese, I’d probably pick Little Tokyo. For Italian, it would either be Panino’s or Fratesi’s. And for BBQ, I would pick Haute Pig in Madison, but I think Tim likes the new place Ubon’s better. And the list goes on and on!

3) What are your standards for tipping? We tip 10% if the service is marginal/just ok, 15-20% if it’s good to outstanding.

4) Do you have one entree, appetizer or dessert that you specifically go out to get at a restaurant from time to time? Well, I love desserts, but when I go to an Italian place, I love, love, love to get tiramisu. I love any kind of stuffed or fried mushrooms for appetizers at any place.

5) Describe a horrific experience that you had while dining out. Well, not horrific, but memorable. We went to eat at the Cuco’s on County Line (which is no longer in business), and we sat down, and then got ready to order, and still no chips and salsa. They brought out water, but no chips. So we flagged down our waiter and asked if we could get chips and salsa, and he says “we ran out”. What kind of Mexican place runs out of chips and salsa? We were a little put out, but hey, if they ran out, they ran out. Then, we proceeded to watch other waiters walk by time and time again with chips and salsa on their serving trays, taking them to other tables. We finally flagged down another waiter to bring us chips and salsa. Another person brought out our entrees. Finally, after we had eaten and waited about 10-15 minutes on the check, our waiter finally shows up. He makes a joke about how he was out on break, he had to go take a smoke, and hoped we didn’t have to wait long. Geesh. He lies about the chips, then disappears, then jokes about it. Tim left him one penny on the table. Needless to say, the place closed down months or years later. We didn’t notice. We never went back!

I always like this one, good questions! From this site:

Questions For May 24th
Fruits And Veggies!

1. What’s Your Favorite Veggie?: Probably broccoli. OOH, or mushrooms! 😀
2. Do You Have A Favorite Salad Dressing?: Honey Mustard
3. Strawberries /or/ Cherries?: Both!
4. Brown Pears /or/ Green Pears?: Green Pears
5. Celery With Cream Cheese /or/ Peanut Butter?: Neither. BLECH. I hate celery. I will eat cream cheese on anything though, and peanut butter on most things, although I love to smear it on a banana! 🙂