Exceedingly Mundane

Today is all about my DVR. I’m so excited! I have a bunch of Jon and Kate plus 8 episodes that taped during TLC’s mini-marathon last night. I just recently discovered this show, and am enjoying catching up on older episodes. I never could have taped all of these shows like this, when we were using a VCR. We often tape two shows at one time, too, since we got the DVR. I love that thing 🙂

I am going to take a break from blogging today, and from reading your blogs. Jon and Kate are calling, as well as the Idol Gives Back show from last night. Try to hold off on posting anything new today, will ya?! 😀

Have a great day!

Tim and I stopped after church last weekend at our new Fresh Market grocery store. I’ve been several times, and have been wanting to get some stuff from their meat and seafood counters to take home and prepare at home. They have some awesome looking food – fish that is coated in sesame or almond mixtures, seafood stuffed with crabmeat and other fillings, chicken breasts that are stuffed or seasoned, beef pinwheels, stuffed flank steaks, huge burgers that are stuffed with things like blue cheese, portabello mushrooms, etc, stuffed pork chops and even italian meatloaves already prepared and ready to bake. Every thing I have seen looks awesome 🙂

So, after church, we stopped by and got some cranberry-brie stuffed chicken breasts. I had sweet potatoes and salad mix at home already, so I was happy with just those. Tim was really sweet though, and knew I wanted to try more stuff there. So, we got some spinach-artichoke dip from the deli counter (delicious, as good as any we’ve had in a restaurant) and some of their bottled lemonade. I swear, the lemonade might also have been the best stuff I’ve tasted. I know I’ve had raspberry lemonade at Olive Garden or somewhere like that and it is really good, but this stuff is just as good, or better 🙂

I didn’t take pictures of the food, but I might next time! The chicken breasts were supposed to be cooked in the oven for about 50 minutes, but Tim was starving and didn’t want to wait that long, so we threw them on the grill. I don’t think they cooked as well, so next time, I want to follow the instructions. They still tasted good, but probably not as good as they would have if they had been baked in the oven.

The lemonade was so good, it tasted just like spring! It was perfect for eating lunch outside in the sunshine, on our deck. They had several flavors of this lemonade, but Tim wanted to start off “easy”. 🙂 He doesn’t tend to like really fruity stuff. I would have tried the blueberry or pomegranate or other flavors, but we started off slow with just the pink lemonade:

I’m hoping to make this a new tradition for the spring. I’ve told Tim that I want to stop over there after church for the next few weeks, and get something new to try every time. We’ll see how well that goes over, and for how long. 😀

We had some bad weather move through our area on Friday afternoon. I think the weather people are still trying to decide if it was a tornado or straight line winds, but either way, it was bad. Tim and I were home with Beau and we’d never heard it hail like that before. We’ve had bad wind before, with Katrina, but I think this wind was stronger, just thankfully a lot shorter duration.

There was a lot of damage in our area, mostly trees and power lines down, and some roofs blown off. A gas station about a mile from our house had the awning over the pumps come down on two cars that were parked underneath it. We drove by and saw that yesterday and it looked bad. We were very lucky and had almost no damage. Tim’s truck was parked outside and we were afraid he would have hail damage on it, but it looks ok. We had a lot of leaves down and a few small limbs, but that’s it. We were very lucky.

I tried to get a few pictures, but I was a bit late to the game. Most of the hail had melted by the time I got my camera out:

On the positive side, it’s supposed to be really pretty here today – sunny and 84 degrees! Looks like spring is about over here and it will be out hot, humid summertime before long 🙂 Have a great day!

No, not “pooped” in the sense that I’m tired and exhausted. Pooped in this sense:

This is what will happen if you take your brand new book outside, and sit in a chair under the trees, while the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, and you can hear birds singing, and it just feels warm and spring-like. Apparently, your new book is like a big ole red target for a bird to poop on. I’m just really glad that they didn’t hit me on the head or arm 🙂

Happiness is a new shopping center that opened today, right down the street from me. It has our first “nice” grocery store, a Fresh Market. It has a big new Barnes and Noble and several other shops that I didn’t visit. YET. I’m a simple kind of girl – books and gourmet foods are enough to make me positively giddy! I browsed to my heart’s content at all of the books and magazines, then cruised through the bookmarks and bookends and odds ‘n ends. I have got to get some bookends for my bookcase. 🙄

I also cruised every single aisle in Fresh Market, picking up my free coffee and tasting all of the free samples they were giving away. I had some fresh pineapple, some pistachio nut and fruit mix, some organic yogurt with granola, a cheese wafer and some yummy cold sesame noodles from the deli. I read labels and looked at gourmet ingredients and generally had a nerdy-girl good time.

Anything exciting going on in your world today? Books and food, Dancing with the Stars and Idol, tomorrow night’s Lost… such happy things!

Hello out there! Long time, no blog 🙂 I don’t seem to be able to think of anything to blog about. Not a whole lot going on around here. We’ve had a lot of company, my sister and then my niece, here visiting. Tim and I had a busy, but fun weekend. We were really bad and ate out all weekend. We also went to see the movie “Vantage Point” and that was good. We watched a couple of movies from Netflix too. A newer one, “Dan in Real Life” and a classic, “The Maltese Falcon”. I’m not cooking a lot this week, so I didn’t post a menu. I didn’t particularly like the topic on today’s Ten on Tuesday (10 places you’d take a tourist to see in your home town). I don’t live in a touristy kind of place 🙂

So, instead, I thought I’d post a few pictures that we’ve taken lately. Tim actually came and got the camera one day a week or two ago. He saw one of our two woodpeckers up in the tree and got some good pictures of him. Here’s the red-bellied woodpecker in our tree:

More pictures on the extended page…
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Happy Anniversary Baby, gotcha on my mind….. who sang that song, the Little River Band? Gosh, I’m old! 🙂

Twelve years ago today, Tim and I stood in a little chapel in the Smoky Mountains and promised to love, honor and cherish one another all the days of our life. I’m happy and proud to say that we do, and we will continue to do so as long as we both shall live. I love you sweetheart, more every day that passes. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I love you more than words can say. Happy Anniversary, sweetheart!

Back later, I’ve got a day off coming, I think! The most strenuous thing I plan to do today is a load of laundry and a trip to the grocery store to buy steaks for Tim to grill out for us tonight. Hope everyone else has a great day, I know we will here

P.S. If you’re really bored, you can read last year’s post about our anniversary, or the year before that, or the year before that. LOL!

Well, here it is the fourth of March and I have yet to post anything this month. That’s a new one for me. Maybe after 3 years of blogging, I’ve finally run out of things to say 🙂

We’ve been staying busy. Tim is still working a lot at night and our schedules are all wonky. We sleep late, eat breakfast late, eat lunch in the middle of the afternoon and then a late dinner. Tim is up most nights until 1 or 2 AM, somethings 3, 4 or even 5 AM. I’m trying to keep to some kind of schedule, but it’s a losing battle. I’ll be glad when things normalize a bit around here.

We had a busy weekend. We drove down to see my dad and work on some things around the house for him. He’ll be 85 next month but he still lives alone and can do most everything for himself. We worked on his computer a bit, and Tim climbed up on the ladder and cleaned out his gutters all the way around his house. We definitely didn’t want him on the ladder 🙂 We’re still trying to teach him to use his DVD player. He got it a couple of years ago and I’ve been buying him old John Wayne movies, but he can’t figure out how to get it all going. Hopefully, he will soon. 🙂 I know he gets lonely and misses my mom.

I’ve been reading some really good books lately 🙂 I’m going to try to do a book post later in the week.

I haven’t been cooking a whole lot. Well, I cook every day and we eat three meals a day here most of the time. But it’s easy stuff like sandwiches, breakfast food, po-boys, soup, tacos, etc. I made a loaf of banana bread over the weekend that was really good though 🙂 We’re going to have a friend over Thursday to watch Lost and we’ll order pizza. Then Tim’s parents are coming for a visit on Friday, so we’ll all go out to eat. That’s one reason I haven’t been posting my menu every Monday. Too boring.

Hope you all have a wonderful day! I’m going to try to get some time in on the treadmill. That, cleaning and laundry!

Are you old enough to remember this old nursery rhyme? I think I remember my grandmother telling it to me…

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the king?

So, I thought I’d steal that nursery rhyme for the title, as my sister Gail does at her blog, More Than a Song. We’ve been having tons of blackbirds here lately (a lot more than 24, more like 124 at a time!) I must admit – I love birds. I have several birds feeders and a suet feeder and I love to watch the birds in my backyard. We have a lot of cardinals, wrens, mockingbirds, sparrows, finches, chickadees, woodpeckers and other backyard birds. I saw a robin on the way to church last Sunday, but I haven’t seen any in my yard yet. Hopefully, soon! Lately, we’ve had tons of blackbirds. One day a week or so ago, I was inside the house, with the TV on, and I could hear them outside. I got my camera and got a couple of photos as some of them were moving over. It’s funny how they move in such a swarm:

Believe me, the photos don’t do them justice! They were everywhere. I think they are my least favorite bird.

So, how about a Question of the Day: Do you have a bird feeder in your yard? Do you enjoy feeding the birds and watching them? And, are you nerdy like me and like to take photos of birds?! 🙂

Have a great day!

Good day today so far. Our church is doing a series on “Desperate Households”, about families and couples and parents being “desperate” for God. It’s been such a great series and we have thoroughly enjoyed it. I almost hate that it’s going to end in a couple of weeks, right before Easter. It’s made us want to get up and get to early church as soon as we can every week. 🙂 We had a quick lunch, and then after watching some golf on TV, Tim decided to go head to the driving range to hit some balls. Beau and I are hanging out at home. I’m doing laundry and catching up on reading newspapers and going through piles of mail. It’s a beautiful day here, all sunshiney and just a little cool (58º right now). It’s supposed to hit 70 degrees tomorrow before it starts raining again.

I obviously just transferred a bunch of photos and decided to play catch-up on here. Here’s a couple from today:

Beau taking a nap – look at the two toys curled up in his feet, so cute!

And yeah, the doorbell just rang and guess what finally came!

I’ve been lax lately about transferring and posting photos. Time for a little catch-up!

What’s a boring, old married couple do for Friday night excitement? Why go out on a date to eat at a yummy restaurant, or to a movie, when you can stay home and watch TV shows like Bones, Monk or Psych? Then, instead of actually watching the whole show word for word, you crank up the computer and play Text Twist? We’ve been playing Text Twist online at Yahoo since right before Thanksgiving. Our previous high score (together) was in the 130’s. After several (read: more like 5 or 6) hours of playing, we broke our old record and attained a new record. Unfortunately, I had used Firefox to open Yahoo with and Text Twist won’t save our score. So I had to take a photo for proof. New high score:

202, 040 — in case you can’t read it. Isn’t that awesome?!!!! And who on earth knows the word “fakirs” as the “long word” solution? No wonder we were stumped and couldn’t keep playing! 😀

Tim and I have been tossing around several big ticket items to get for the house. New flooring, a new stove/range, and several other things are on the agenda. I also have been looking for a Wii to get for Tim, but haven’t been able to find one in stock anywhere. Another thing we talked about getting was a treadmill. I was really resisting that, because I didn’t want a “crutch” to keep us from taking Beau out on a walk. We haven’t walked much lately, between Tim hurting his knee, his work schedule, the weather, etc. The list is long, but basically, none of us were getting much exercise.

Tim woke up Saturday morning and decided we should go get a treadmill we had seen at Sam’s. So we did! It’s an early anniversary present, as our wedding anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks. 🙂

The thing is a LOT bigger than I thought it was going to be. We really don’t have room for it in our tiny house. I had wanted to put it in our spare bedroom that serves as our office. But a) we don’t have room without a major cleaning and overhaul and b) Tim didn’t want me to be on it while he was working. He works from home almost every day, and he didn’t want me in there distracting him while he was trying to work. That left the den and the garage. We’re trying it out in the den for a while, but boy – it does NOT go with my idea of home furnishing and home decor 🙂 It’s basically an eyesore, but we are enjoying it so far. I like having it in front of the TV, so I can catch up on stuff I’ve recorded or watch something on TV. The treadmill does have a plug for the iPod, so I can listen to music while I walk, instead of watching TV. Right now, I’m enjoying TV 🙂

We’ve only had it 3 days, but so far we’ve both used it every day. Tim is jogging some, and I’m just walking. Tim is convinced that we will keep up with it, but I’m worried that the newness will wear off sooner or later. Tim says if we start not using it as much, or it REALLY bothers me being in the middle of the den, that we can move it out to the garage. But, I keep telling him – I won’t use it in the garage in the summer. When it’s 100 degrees outside, I don’t plan to be in the garage, which is basically a sauna, on the treadmill.

Anyway, it’s a great new toy and so far we are really enjoying it! Tim has even gotten Beau on it twice! We watch a lot more of “The Dog Whisperer” since we got Beau, and we’ve seen Cesar putting dogs on the treadmill. After Beau’s first attempt, we decided that those dogs get in a lot of time on the treadmill before they put them on TV! Beau is going to take a few more times before he’s really comfortable on it 🙂

So, I’ll post a couple of “Questions of the Day” and a photo on the inside page. Click for more!
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Happy Valentines Day to everyone! It will be a very low-key day here at the Exceedingly Mundane house. Tim has been working so much lately. They’ve been doing a lot of work at night, and he’s been up until 3, 4 and even 5 AM several nights a week for the last few weeks. Last night was no exception. Irregardless, Valentines is not a huge thing in our house. I always love the “excuse” to get extra stuff, candy, a card, but it’s just not a big deal to Tim. Slowly, over the years, I’ve come to understand and agree with him. He told me when we first got married, that he didn’t need or want someone, a card company or whatever, to tell him when he needed to buy me something, surprise me with chocolates or flowers, or tell me that he loved me. He wanted to do it any day of the year, every day of the year, in whatever way he wanted. And he has, and he does. I’ve come to know what he meant – that means so much more to me than something on Valentines Day. When he and the rest of the known world went out to buy a card or flowers or candy. 🙂 OH! And yesterday was a hoot. I ran to Walmart for some things, and you should have seen the people flocked to the Valentines areas. They were putting out tons of flowers and balloons in the aisles up front, and the people were swarming around them like bees to honey. It was actually kind of funny to watch! So anyway, we will celebrate today with some chocolate cookies I got us yesterday at a local bakery, and some steaks on the grill tonight. We’ll watch Survivor and Lost and it won’t be a big deal. No more going out on Valentines for us. One year we waited two hours for a table at a favorite restaurant, and then had very sub-par food and bad service. Never again!

Hope you all have a great day!

We’re still in a post-Super Bowl haze, post party weekend mood around here. Sort of a Manic Monday, to say the least. 🙂

We had a great weekend, busy, but fun. Friday night was date night and we finally went to the new P.F. Changs that opened last fall really close to our house. We called about 5 PM and they had reservations booked through 9 PM, but we went ahead and got on the list anyway. We had a great meal – appetizer (Sizchuan style chicken flatbreads), two entrees (spicy chicken for Tim and Shrimp with Candied Walnuts for me) and then, as if that wasn’t enough, Tim wanted to get dessert and coffee. We splurged and got their 6 layer “Great Wall of Chocolate” cake with raspberry sauce. Suffice it to say, we were stuffed! It was delicious though, and I look forward to going back and trying more items on their menu. Saturday was spent going to several stores to get food for our party, and cleaning up the house beforehand. Sunday morning, we went to early church and then hurried back to start food. We had about 20 people here, at differing times, from 12 noon until after 10 PM. We 6 slabs of ribs, burgers, hot dogs, sausages and cheese, boiled peanuts, wings, potato salad, chips, veggie tray, Li’l Smokies, cheesesticks, cookies and hopefully everyone had enough and enjoyed it all. I know we did!

We were thrilled with the outcome of the game, of course! The last few minutes had most of us up on our feet, cheering, clapping, hi-fiving and everything else. 🙂

I haven’t planned a menu for this week yet, and probably won’t for a day or so. We have a little bit of food left that we’ll eat for the next day or two. I won’t plan meals until we’ve exhausted all that we bought and had. After we’ve cleaned all that out, I’ll probably fix breakfast food one night for dinner, maybe a pasta dish or maybe get Tim to grill out meat and me fix some veggies one night. I’ll be back next week with a “regular” menu. 🙂

Today is all about cleaning. My very small house is not really a place to entertain more than about 4 or 6 people 🙂 I have quite a bit of cleaning up to do. I’ll be pretty busy today and tomorrow getting everything cleaned up, and laundry done, etc. I’ll try to be back tomorrow with something interesting to blog about 😀

I didn’t take a lot of photos on Super Bowl Sunday, but I thought I’d post a couple. The ribs going on the grill, and poor Beau, who was confined to our little laundry room for most of the day. Pathetic, isn’t he?!

Well, for once, the weatherman got it right! Yesterday, they said we’d have some rain last night (Friday night), with a chance that the precipitation would turn to flurries this morning. So, when I woke up, I went and looked out the back door and sure enough, we were getting flurries! We got just a little bit of accumulation, on places like our patio table and the grill:

And on the top of Tim’s truck:

I tried to take some photos of it actually snowing, but most of them didn’t come out. I did like this one of a cardinal on our fence, because you can sort of see the snow flurries flying around:

You know, of course, that no blog post of mine is complete without a photo of Beau. After all, this was Beau’s first snow! At least that we know of. I know it has never snowed or even flurried in his lifetime here. We have no reason to think he lived out of state before we adopted him, so in all likelihood, this was his first snow. I know he was very intrigued by it. The first time we went out, he stayed out about 10 seconds, then ran back inside! He did get more adventurous later on and had to check things out:

My favorite picture from this morning is, oddly enough, not one that I took! Tim took some from the kitchen, as Beau and I sat at the back door, watching it snow. We stayed that way a long time, me and my Beau baby. He was very patient with me and stayed by my side for at least 20 minutes, just watching it snow and enjoying the peace and quiet and beauty of it:

It snowed off and on for an hour or two, but a couple hours later, it had pretty much all melted and turned to slush. It was pretty while it lasted though!