Exceedingly Mundane

We had a good time today, getting to see Tim’s parents and hanging out with them all afternoon. We ran some errands, had lunch, went shopping, went to Borders for coffee, then made a big run to Sam’s. We had a great time and were so glad they got to “come to town” 🙂

Tim’s mom brought me two books to read, the first two books in Lori Wick’s “Tucker Mills Trilogy”. She knows how much I love to read and had bought these and read them recently. I mentioned I might like to read them, so she was sweet and loaned them to me. I am going to try to finish “Memoirs of a Geisha” first, and then read them.

When we stopped at Borders for coffee, I caved and got a Borders Rewards card. Sigh, at least it was free. Bookstores are like crack to me. I don’t need incentives to go spend money in bookstores. And I definitely didn’t need a Borders card – Borders is the furthest bookstore from my house (B&N is closest, Books a Million is next and Borders is the longest drive). But, I got it anyway, and now I’m signed up and have a coupon for my first book. Hmmm, gotta find time to go back out there and spend some money.

Tim and I went out for a “date night” on Friday night – we went to the local pizza buffet and stuffed ourselves silly. Do you hear that – glup, glup, glup – that’s the sound of my arteries clogging up and all of those calories going straight to my thighs! LOL, it was fun and it was really good, but I ate altogether too much, then I have that sort of guilty feeling afterwards for overindulging on food that’s not really that healthy. Oh well 🙂

After we got home, we called and wished Tim’s brother Mark a happy birthday. We hope you have a good birthday Mark, he’s going to get to celebrate again today. Enjoy the movie!

We turned on the TV at 9 PM so we could catch the new show, Psych. We used to be big Monk fans, and although I still really like the show, Tim is a bit aggravated with it. He doesn’t really like TV shows that don’t stick to a normal scheduling routine. Monk tends to appear at odd times, like January, and run through March, and Tim hates that. I still love the show and would watch it, but sometimes the “King of the Remote” overrules me! But, he had seen a few minutes of the pilot episode of Psych last week and thought it looked good. And I must give Jane at Cozy Reader a shout out for blogging about the show last week. Thanks Jane, you were right – Psych is funny and we really enjoyed it! It’s sort of along the same lines as Monk, but rather than him being OCD and solving crimes, the main character (Sean) is just a really observant guy who is good at figuring things out, but he has led the police to believe he’s a psychic who is figuring out cases by his psychic visions. He was really funny when he tried to do his “psychic ability” routines. Good show and we enjoyed it! 🙂

Today, we’re going to get to hang out with Tim’s parents. His mom and dad are coming over to eat, go shopping and hang out with us! Should be fun, we love spending time with them and just wish we got to see them more often.

Have a great day everyone!

I blogged a looooong time ago, way back in March 2005, right after I started this blog, about a new Levolor rattan blind we had bought for our bathroom. We did a major construction project in our bathroom before I started blogging – we took down the hideous wallpaper, painted and put up a border. I say major, because we discovered the builder/contractor had not prepped the walls when they slapped on the wallpaper, so when we started peeling it off, huge chunks of drywall came down along with the wallpaper. Tim had to work a week or more on mudding the wall and getting it to a point where we could apply paint. I ended up having to do a faux finish on the walls, because they are so “bumpy”.

Anyway, I digress (as per usual). I found this rattan blind I really liked, and so we bought it and hung it up. It’s fine during the daytime, it let in light and I could sort of see out into my backyard and flower beds. However, we quickly discovered that at night, if you were in the bathroom and had a light on (duh, it’s nighttime) and someone was out back, they could see right in. Which might be fine if you weren’t say, naked, in the bathroom about to get a shower. Tim didn’t like it, and I didn’t like it. I originally blogged about it here, although back then, I didn’t do a lot of pictures. Here’s a picture of the blind, in the morning (that window faces east):

Tim has disliked this blind since the second day, and we’ve been procrastinating on getting it replaced. I found a 2″ wood blind, in a soft brown, at Home Depot a while back, and we finally went over there and picked it up last Sunday afternoon. Tim hung the new blind, which he likes a LOT better! In fact, I really do too, and part of me (not the frugal part), would love to replace our old custom-made Levolor blinds that are 1″ vinyl with some nice new 2″ wood blinds. The part of me that pays the bills would not like to succumb to this, however. 😆

Here’s the new blind, for those of you who are in any way interested!

Look what Tim brought me home tonight from the Pro Shop… he knows how much I love all of the “Life is Good” products! I am working on an online order of shirts, caps and a mug, but I might have to take that mug out of my cart now!!!

Yippee, can’t wait to use it! He’s such a sweetie!

When I was reading the book “The Secret Life of Bees” a couple of weeks ago, I ran across one sentence that conjured up some memories from my childhood. It’s a inconsequential sentence, on page 112. The main character, a girl of 14 named Lily, had just had a small fainting spell and the other characters were fussing over her. The book reads “We sat in the den, where I ate supper off a tray, which was a privilege in itself.”

As soon as I read that line, I remembered this from my own childhood. Growing up, I really only remember being at home by myself. My sisters left for college by the time I started first grade. I remember all meals being at the kitchen table, with my mother and father. I have vague memories though, of being sick or it being a special occasion or something, and I would be allowed to eat in the den, on a tv tray. I remember doing this a lot more once I was older, like in high school. You know, once I was responsible enough not to make a mess and spill things on the couch or floor in the den. I think I can remember once, laying on the couch and I was sick, and I got to eat supper off the tv tray. It was chicken noodle soup and saltine crackers and a Sprite. My mom was big about Sprite if my stomach was hurting. And saltine crackers. And the soup from the red and white Campbell’s can. I also ate a lot of plain toast, no butter, if I was sick. When I started to feel better, she would scramble me an egg.

Anyway, it’s always been funny to me that I remember so little of my childhood. What I do remember is mostly from photographs, from stories others have told, or just very small snippets of things that will pop into my head at the oddest time. Like when I was reading this book. I remembered after reading that line that eating on a tv tray was a really big deal. I looked and looked for a photograph of me eating in the den on a tv tray, but of course I could not find one. My parents weren’t big on taking pictures at all (I think that’s why I’m so obsessed with it). What few pictures of me that exist are at Christmas or Easter. No everyday pictures, no pictures of things around the house, which I think is part of what spurs me to take so many “nothing” pictures. Anyway, I did find this picture of me in high school. I have no idea who took it or why, but I’ve always liked this picture of me! I liked the way my hair was pulled back in a ponytail! You can see the tv tray I’m talking about on the right. That’s the same set my parents had all my life. Some of those 60’s or 70’s models, thin aluminum and the legs folded flat against the tray. You popped them out and snapped the tray together. Eating off a TV tray was a big deal in my young life

We got back late last night, and had a good time at Gail and Don’s. The guys got to play golf, which always makes them happy. Gail and I got to run some errands, and hang out, which makes us happy (we didn’t have to go to the golf course!). Today, Tim and I are going to try to catch a matinee of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and then pick up some things at the grocery and maybe Lowe’s. Another quiet day, nothing blog-worthy going on around here!

We’re headed out in a little while, going to Don and Gail’s in the Delta. The guys want to get some golf in, so they are going to play this afternoon. Gail and I will probably just hang out, or go shopping, or basically – do anything that is not golf-related. I probably won’t get a chance to blog again until tomorrow, so everyone have a great weekend!

I noticed my first hummingbird at the feeder last week, and have been trying to get a picture of one ever since. Those little suckers are FAST! By the time I can pick up my camera (even if I have it close by), they fly away at supersonic speed. I had my camera out yesterday afternoon to take some pictures of some other birds, and noticed a hummingbird. I thought for sure I had gotten a picture, but the blame thing came out blurry. Darn, I will have to keep trying.

In the mean time, I got some other pictures of birds and things in my backyard. Once the rain stopped (we finally got about a 15 minute light rain shower), it looked like an aviary out there, birds of all kinds, tons of them. Plus, at one point, there were 4 squirrels playing in my backyard. Two were playing in the big tree and 2 were fighting on the fence for position at the squirrel feeder.

Click on the extended entry to see some pictures of my backyard wildlife 🙂

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I finally got my pictures transferred from my camera, from when we went to play golf the other day and the big family get-together yesterday on July 4th. Click on the extended entry for a couple of July 4th pics…

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Happy July 4th to everyone! We’re headed out to a family get-together at Tim’s aunt’s house for the holiday. Tim’s mom is one of eight children, and they all get together on every holiday. We went at Easter, but Tim loves to go on the Fourth, and see all of his aunts, uncles, cousins and family. There’s usually at least 75 people there, so he has a lot of family to visit with!! I hope to be back by late afternoon, and maybe we can take in some fireworks tonight.

Hope everyone has a great holiday!

UPDATE: We’re back from the family shindig, but you-know-who has nixed the fireworks. We’re going to take in Superman at the theater instead

I had a great time on Saturday, taking lots of scenic photos and getting to play with different settings on my camera. I hope to get to do more of that on Tuesday night… my camera has a fireworks setting, and I’d love to be able to go to a nearby park where they shoot a lot of fireworks, and practice some! Anyway, I digress. While we were going down the Trace, Tim let me take as many “scenic” photos as I wanted. I took a lot of churches, cemeteries, trees, grave markers, historic signs, etc. I even took some of figs, apples and corn! 🙂

Here’s an example of the 3 color settings on my camera… natural color, black and white and sepia. I tried to stand in the same spot and take a picture of the original Natchez Trace, at a spot now called the Sunken Trace, and take a picture in each mode. Take a look at the photos, and then vote in the poll and let me know which one you like the best!

Color:

Black and White:

Sepia:

We spent all day Saturday on a very long road trip. We set out to drive down the Natchez Trace from our house to Natchez, stopping along the way to have a picnic and take in some of the historic and scenic stops along the Trace. We did all this, but once we reached the outskirts of Natchez, instead of turning and heading toward home (via a faster route, the posted speed limit on the Trace is 50 MPH), we decided to go somewhere else. Tim was reminiscing as we drove into Natchez, that he used to drive this way to his last base when he was in the Air Force. That base was in Alexandria, LA and has since been decommissioned. I said something along the lines of “we should go there sometime for you to look around”, which Tim interpreted as “hey, let’s go there now!”. So, we took a several hour detour and also drove down to Alexandria so he could see what was left of the base and show me around his old stomping grounds.

I took a lot (160+) of pictures on our day-long trip, and I’m trying to decide whether to post them all on Hambones. We made several stops along the way, including a couple of geocaching-related stops, as well as our picnic at Rocky Springs. I took lots of “scenic” pictures – pictures of churches, cemeteries, the old Trace, trees, historical markers, pre-Civil war buildings, etc. I’m going to post a few, along with the info, on the extended page, so check them out if you’d like. If you’d like to see them all, drop me a comment and I can load them all into Hambones.org.

OK, here we go….

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We’re headed out for a road trip today. We thought we’d get in the car and drive down the Natchez Trace some. We’ve done this once, years ago, when we had Sally. She had a blast, riding in her kennel with us (in the air conditioning, natch), and then every time we stopped, she got to get out and explore. The dog had more fun than we did, I think. I still miss her…. Anyway, we’re going to drive down towards the Natchez end and stop and get out at all the marker points (points of interest). There’s a cool Indian mound that we went to before and a couple of places we can stop and have a picnic. I have us some hot dogs and chips ready to go, and our picnic basket. I hope to take a lot of good photos, and post some soon.

Oh, and I just dug through my old scrapbooks and found a page I did on our last trip. It was 6 years ago and this was one of the first scrapbook pages layouts I ever did. Yes, it’s old and yucky. Yes, my style has changed (most notably, I now scrap 12×12). But, I thought it would be fun to post it, check out the extended page.

Hope everyone has a great day!

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Tim calls on his way home from work every day, and we talk the whole way home. It’s something I look forward to every day, and a ritual that I’m so glad we have.

Today, I heard him go through Sonic and order a Hot Fudge Brownie Blast while we were talking, and I got excited, knowing he was bringing me home “a happy”. Which he did. Those things are really good! But, when he got home, he had not only the Blast, but 2 bunches of beautiful irises as well!!! Isn’t he sweet?! I told him I had to take pictures and put on my blog, and he was like, “you don’t have to do that, people will think I’m a wimp”. WRONG. Mostly women read my blog and I think everyone else will think it was as sweet as I did. 😆

Anyway, he changed clothes and went in the backyard to hit golf balls for a while. He called me to come out with my camera (I was taking flower pics inside). He wanted to show me a bunny, who was hiding in some brush behind our fence. He said when he opened the gate, he was out in plain sight, but had hopped to some bushes for cover. We walked up ever so slowly (you know, hunting rabbits), and I got a picture of him:

So, even though they are totally unrelated, I thought it would make a cute blog title. You know, some bunny loves me:

I haven’t done much “personal” blogging lately, because, frankly, there just hasn’t been a lot going on that is even remotely “blog-worthy”. 🙂 Tim has been working and playing golf non-stop, and I’ve been hanging out and keeping busy with chores, TV, computer time and reading. Hardly exciting stuff. So, to fill the space, I’ve been doing some memes lately, and really enjoying them. I love when new people come to visit my site and leave comments. Way cool

Anyway, we finally had a night out, and while it’s not very exciting, I thought I would blog about it! Tim had to work a bit late yesterday (Friday), but after he finished, we left and went to Red Lobster. I’ve been really hungry for seafood, and so Tim took me to eat to my heart’s desire. 🙂 I tried to be good and semi-health conscious; so I got the broiled seafood platter. It was really yummy – broiled scallops, shrimp scampi and stuffed broiled flounder. Good stuff and I really enjoyed it. After dinner, we had a couple of extra minutes, so we stopped by Barnes and Noble on the way home. Tim gets the football magazines every summer, in preparation for the upcoming season. I hadn’t been able to find his favorite at Walmart, so we went to B&N to look for it. We found it, and also bought a couple of books from the bargain table (see my sidebar for the latest one for me by Anita Shreve). We got Tim a Robert Ludlum book, but I’m not going to hold my breath about when he might actually sit down to read. The current obsession with golf is still very strong. He plays or hits balls about 7 days a week lately, if the sun is shining. Since it doesn’t get dark till about 8:30 around here, he’s out till pretty late every night.

Anyway, we came home to watch the last” Love Comes Softly” movie on the Hallmark channel. We watched all 3 movies back to back this week, and I really, really enjoyed them. I am looking forward to reading the books one day. The one last night was “Love’s Long Journey” and it was as good as the others. I’m so glad I found them on the TV lineup and we were able to watch them.

Saturday is more of the same – golf for Tim and Don, and probably shopping or hanging out for me and Gail. Maybe we’ll have something else to report other than the guy’s golf scores later today or tomorrow. 🙂