Exceedingly Mundane

Yippee! I won an auction on another points-type reward site. I have been playing the TV/movie games at this site for a while (over a year) and had accumulated a bunch of “points”. I tried cashing the points in for gift cards (similar to MyPoints.com), but you had to be one of the first 15 or 25 people to cash in points for a gift card. Needless to say, with the thousands of people (probably) trying to cash in gift cards, I could never seem to snag one. So, finally, I thought I would try their auction site. I bid on a gift card and didn’t win, and then bid on a DVD and didn’t win. I have never done eBay or any other auction site, so I didn’t quite understand about bidding. At least at this particular site, I finally learned — bid HIGH. So I bid a lot more points than the last person who bid, and put in an even higher maximum bid, and I won!

The site is RewardTV.com and I’ve been playing the games there for a long time. I answer questions about the TV shows we watch at night and occasionally about movies we see at the theater. I had only ever won a $5 Hollywood Video rental card before, so it’s nice to finally get something else from this particular site. The DVD I won is “The Wedding Date”, which we rented a few months ago and I thought was a cute movie. It cost me most of my points that I had in my account, so it will be awhile before I can bid on anything else. Especially with the summer coming up, we watch less TV in the summer, since all of our “shows” are on hiatus. Anyway, it’s nice to get something else for nothing!

P.S. If you’re interested in joining either the RewardTV or MyPoints website and giving them a try, please let me know and use me as a reference before you go and sign up. I’ll get points, so it would help me out a lot if you “used me”.

Thanks to everyone who voted last week in my little gift card poll. I ordered myself a $25 Barnes and Noble giftcard yesterday. They said to expect it to be delivered in 2-6 weeks, but I think when I’ve redeemed gift cards from MyPoints in the past, that they’ve usually come in after a week or two. So, hopefully it will be here soon and then I can go spend it and report back on what books I bought!

If you’d like to suggest any books for me to buy, please feel free to leave me a comment. 🙂

The theme for today is Medical.

1) Amanda had surgery this morning to have her tonsils removed, and we’re waiting to hear from Mark on how it all went and how she’s doing. They are supposed to do it outpatient and she should go home this afternoon. I think she’s planning to be off a couple of weeks from work to recover.

2) Tim’s dad came to town today for 2 appointments at the VA. He came to the house between his appointments and we all went to lunch together. He is having a lot of things looked at, and also has to come back next week for more appointments, so hopefully we’ll see him then also.

3) I’m doing new polls on the homepage of Hambones in honor of all these medical going-on’s. There will be a new poll every day. Today’s poll is “have you had your tonsils removed” in honor of Amanda and her surgery. 😀

UPDATE: We just heard from Mark and everything went well. They took out Amanda’s tonsils and what adenoids they found in there also. She is at home now, and resting, and has some pain pills to get her through the next few days. 🙂

Yesterday was a busy day, and I spent a part of it plodding around in the rain. I hate plodding around in the rain, especially in flip-flops or sandals. I hate getting my feet soaked in a puddle-filled parking lot 🙄

Don and Gail spent the night with us on Friday night (after we went on our double date). Tim and Don got up and left really early (about 7 AM) to go play golf, and Gail and I got ready and headed out shopping. We went to the mall and tried on clothes for a while. It was not a good day for me clothes-wise. Some days you can try things on and they fit and look good, and some days they don’t. Yesterday was one of those “don’t” days. 😥 However (drum roll please), I bought two new outfits anyway. Two shirts, a pair of drawstring capris and a pair of cuffed pants (longer than capris, shorter than regular trousers). Not totally happy with them, but they are better than nothing, I guess. Anyway, we shopped most all morning, and then met the guys plus Elizabeth for a late lunch at Jason’s Deli. All the girls went to Target after lunch, and the guys went home to take a nap. 😕 We got wet getting out of lunch, into Target, and then on the way out, it was pouring and we all got drenched. Such fun in sandals 🙄

Gail and Don left not too long after, and we hated to see them leave. We had a great time and were so glad they got to come visit.

We were both pretty tired, so we just stayed in, made some phone calls, and then watched one of the movies from our DVD collection (Bourne Identity). I think we’re going to watch Bourne Supremacy (tonight) Sunday night. Then it will be back to lots of good shows on TV all week. I love May, lots of new shows and some season finales too.

Tim and I went on a double date last night with Don and Gail. They drove down and we all went to supper at our new Applebee’s. Tim and I splurged (since he’s doing so well on his weight-loss challenge at work, and me, I just wanted to splurge!) and got some of their new steakhouse entrees. I had the sirloin and crab cakes and Tim had the ribeye. Don had a fajita burger which he said was just ok, and we made a mental note to avoid that one on a future trip. Gail had the roasted garlic and asiago chicken and it looked really good. We all enjoyed supper, and then went over to our new theater for Mission Impossible 3. I would have preferred to boycott the movie because of my intense dislike these days for all things Tom Cruise, but I knew the movie would be good. We’ve always enjoyed the MI movies in the past, and actually own both in our DVD collection. This was was just as good, if not better, than the past two. I asked the guys and they both rated it an 8 out of 10 stars. 🙂

After the movie, we considered going to Cold Stone for ice cream, but decided to go back to Applebee’s and order Don some dessert to go (the Blue Ribbon brownie). It looked really good! Don and Gail spent the night with us, and Tim and Don left really early to go play golf. Gail and I are going to run errands and shop today, so that should be fun. We’re really glad they came down!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 🙂

Tim and I went walking in our subdivision this morning. We’re trying to walk more, and the last couple of weeks, we’ve been averaging about 10 miles a week. It was really nice and cool this morning, very pleasant. When we turned the corner to our street, we saw a turtle on the sidewalk. Tim said it was a snapping turtle (not that this city girl would know the difference, I think he told me so I wouldn’t go stick my hand near it!), and so, of course, I said, let me go run get my camera. We went home, and I came back with my camera. By that time, he had crawled towards this sewer grate; I guess he was trying to make his get-away before I got back.

So, rather than a bird or squirrel, tada, today I have a turtle picture

Oh, and our squirrels are coming every day now, usually several times a day, to our corn feeder. We’ve determined that the most frequent visitor is the squirrel we nicknamed “Right Ear”. But, we’ve seen other squirrels on there that aren’t Right Ear, and one afternoon this week, we had a showdown: two squirrels on the fence, headed toward the corn feeder. We had hoped for a fight or a showdown, but alas, one squirrel just ran the other one off and proceeded to eat to his heart’s content.

Click on the extended entry to see a close-up of “Right Ear” and you’ll see why we named him that. He came up on the deck and sat on the deck rail for a long time, watching us watching him from the window!

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I saw a new kind of bird (to me) on my bird feeder this morning. I was walking through the den and saw him sitting on top of the bird feeder, just looking around. I walked into the office to get my camera, back into the den, and got all setup to take pictures, sure that he would fly away before I could get any. But, he was very happy hanging out on the top of my bird feeder. He must have sat there 4 or 5 minutes at least, and he let me inch towards the window and take over a dozen pictures of him.

I have been looking at several bird watching sites on the Internet, and based on this picture at birding.com and also this article at Bird Watcher’s Digest, I’m sure now that he was a rose breasted grosbeak. I’ve not ever seen this kind of bird here before, and by one of the maps that I saw at some site, he may be a little further south than normal. Or maybe he’s just making his spring migration back to where ever he should be.

He didn’t seem frightened by me and my camera at all, and I got several shots of him. Here’s a few:

And, towards the end before he flew away, he seemed to see me there and sort of started moving around as if to say …. “I see you, do you see me?!”

As I blogged about below, I ordered myself a little happy with the rest of my birthday and Christmas money. It came in yesterday, and I’ve been having a blast playing with it ever since:

No, I didn’t need a PDA. I’m not a busy working person anymore, and I don’t need to keep business contacts or appointments at the ready, or be able to read Word/Excel files, or check my email away from the office or home. But, this is an entry level Palm that is geared more towards a non-business environment. It keeps contacts and a calendar, and has several other nifty features that I can use (eReader with dictionary and thesaurus, CheckSplit, Photo Viewer, etc). I mostly wanted something to have with me that had addresses info (mailing address, phone, email accounts, etc), some calendar info (especially birthdays), and the main thing I wanted it for is lists. I LOVE making lists. I do it all the time, but I still do it on paper. I wanted something electronic to keep lists on.

This entry-level Palm comes with an app called “SplashShopper”, which is exactly what I was looking for. I can keep grocery lists, Walmart lists, Sam’s lists, movie rental lists, library book lists, music to buy at iTunes, movies at the theater and the show times, Chinese take-out menu (this was already on there, but I will have to modify it for our favorite restaurant!) – and basically, every other type of list imaginable on here.

I’ve got a lot of work to do to get it all on here and the way I want it, but that’s half the fun of it. I plan to do a lot of that today. And, on the next several trips to the grocery and Walmart, I will enter aisle information, price information and things like that, so I can keep up with prices and also sort my list by aisle. 🙂

Yes, I’m a nerd. Not that there was ever any doubt

Tim and I took some pictures the other afternoon of all the critters that come to visit on a regular basis in our backyard. We love our backyard. Well, the deck – I love my deck and all of my flowers, bird feeders and squirrel feeder. 🙂 We’re working on flower beds and a new project, so that part of the yard doesn’t look that great right now. But, it’s a work in progress, so hopefully it will look better soon. We had intended to work outside today, but Mother Nature is not going to cooperate. It’s supposed to rain off and on all day, so I’ve talked Tim into staying inside and working on other things. Plus, watching the NFL draft

Anyway, I digress. There’s some new pictures of birds and squirrels on the extended page. Our pet squirrel (nicknamed “Right Ear”) comes regularly. We got some cute shots of him with corn and pecans, eating to his hearts content. 🙂 Also, a pair of doves. Check ’em out. 🙂

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Happy Birthday to my dad! This was taken way back when, when he was a pilot in the Navy 🙂

I recently ordered something for myself from Amazon.com. Is it me, or does Amazon seem to be a lot slower than they used to? Maybe it’s because I picked the free shipping option, but they sure do seem a lot slower than in times past. I ordered one big item, and one accessory for it, and it took them 6 days before they pulled the order to be shipped. I’ve been checking every day to see if it’s gone postal. Now, it’s shipped and I’m anxiously awaiting my package. Nothing like getting happies in the mail.

For the record, I spent the rest of my birthday and Christmas money on something I absolutely did not need. But, I wanted it. 🙂 (OK, stop right there – hush. I know – birthday and Christmas were months ago. It takes me a while to decide what to splurge “my” money on. Hush).

Time will tell if I actually wanted this thing or it was just a passing fancy. Oh well, I had money left over, so I guess that it’s good to be impractical and splurge on something you don’t really need, rather than nickel and diming the money on practical things that you do need or want.

You can play the guessing game if you like – we’ll see if anyone correctly guesses what my new item is. Post your guess in a comment, and I’ll post a picture of my new toy when it comes in.

In the mean time – where’s my stuff? I’m getting impatient! 😀

Hump Day Ramblings…. Yesterday was spent dodging the rain and planting flowers most of the day. Along with lots of housework and laundry. Today, I’ve been gone most of the day. I went and got my hair cut this morning, and then when I got home, my dad was there. He had an appointment at the VA this morning, and came by afterwards. Tim and I took him to lunch at Chili’s, and he’s now headed back home. Tim is leaving soon for a golf lesson, and I’m going to blog some, do a few chores and hopefully, if I’m very lucky, curl up for a little while with my book. It’s dreary and cloudy here today (having rained quite a bit yesterday and last night), it’s a bit cooler, and overall, it just seems like a great day for reading. Of course, that’s if I get everything else done first. Gotta do the work first, work before play. 😀

Look what Tim brought home for me… he definitely knows the way to my heart!

P.S. Now, we’re headed out for a walk. Like a little exercise is going to counter-act all those calories

I’ve been busy all day, planting flowers outside. I have gotten most of the ones I have bought planted, but still have a lot left to do. Several more beds to get ready (pull up pansies, rework the soil, etc), and then more to plant. I haven’t even started on the front of the house, I’m working solely in the backyard and in all of my many planters right now.

Click on the extended entries to see all the pictures…
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Do you play Sudoku? We go through phases, but we’re back in a full-on Sudoku playing phase. They have started printing them in our daily newspaper, and then there’s the website I like to get them from, Brain Bashers. I prefer to play them on the PC, but have been printing them out lately (or doing the ones in the paper), so that I can be in the den with Tim. We played quite a bit last night while watching TV, and are playing now, on a quiet Saturday morning.

So, today’s question is… do you play Sudoku? 🙂