Exceedingly Mundane

Normally, my Mondays are very busy. We tend to “slack” all weekend, and I usually try to get things back in order and humming on Mondays. I do lots of laundry, lots of “chores” and a fair amount of cleaning. I also settle back into the rhythm of my weekdays, which I enjoy, although not nearly as much as the weekends, when Tim and I get to spend all of our time together.

This weekend was no exception. We stayed really busy both days, although Saturday was more of a work day and Sunday was more of a play day. We watched two new movies, and caught up on some TV stuff we had taped earlier in the week. Tim went with me to Walmart again, to do the weekly shopping run (although I had gone to Kroger on Friday afternoon and gotten most of it already). All in all, a really good weekend. I like it best when we stay home, and do things around here, and have fun and play and get to spend all of our time together. I’m selfish that way 😀

Tim is getting a lot done today… so far, he’s finished the gate, worked on the lattice underneath the deck and is doing some of his woodworking. Today looks pretty promising overall! Some of my new flowers are blooming, and right now the sun is shining, although it may rain later (if you can ever count on Weather.com to be right). More later 🙂

UPDATE – Tim cooked out some burgers for lunch and we ate out on the deck. It’s a gorgeous day, still sunny, slight wind, warm, just right, really. We had a great time! 😀

Yesterday turned out to be a booger of a work day, thanks to the Type-A workaholic himself (Tim) 🙂 I had “planned” to get some flowers and plant in the yard, and then maybe do a little reading and housework, while Tim worked on his woodworking. As per usual, things do NOT go as I planned!

We went to Gardenworks (and it was mighty chilly in my shorts, I might add) first thing yesterday morning to pick out some flowers (see what we bought in a picture on the extended page, by clicking the -More- link). Tim helped me with a few odds and ends around the house and yard, and also helped out a bunch by helping me get one of the beds ready for planting. We had lunch, then he set out to start doing his woodworking. He had been in search of a special bit for his router and had finally found what he wanted (one single bit – 35.96 at Lowe’s :cry:). He got everything all prepped while I started on the first few sets of flowers. Then, I heard him say “OH Crap”, which is a terrible utterance to come out of Tim’s mouth. I’m like, what’s wrong? He said, “I took the bit out of the package and it’s broken”. 🙁 So, we change clothes and head off to Lowe’s across town, and end up spending more time and money there on things. He gets a new bit, then he decides we should get lumber to rebuild one of the gates on the fence, and I find a Lady Banks climbing rose and we decide to branch out and try one of those for the first time. Anyway, that killed a couple of hours of otherwise productive work time.

When we got back, I got all of the flowers planted and he decided to work on rebuilding the front gate. It’s going to swing the other way now and hang off a different post (because of the weight or something or other), so it’s going to take a while to get used to. Suffice it to say that rebuilding a gate is not a quick project and we finally stopped right after dark, and didn’t get back inside till around 8 PM or so. We then got things ready to cook, and Tim cooked out for us (Asian BBQ flank steak, grilled asparagus and I fixed some sweet potatoes inside), and supper was delicious, albeit a lot later than when we prefer to eat. By the time I got cleaned up, it was nearly 10 PM and I was too tired to blog about things, watch TV, start the movie we had rented, or much of anything else. Sleep was really the only thing that was important to me! 🙂

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Well, we were way too busy today for me to stop and take time to blog… and tonight I’m too tired! So, I’ll be back tomorrow and blog about today! Which, by then, will be yesterday. hehehe!

We’re moving on up…

1. How many locations (dwellings) have you lived in? Hmm… one house growing up, 3 dorms at college, 5 or 6 apartments, and now this house

2. If you could place your dream home in any location, where would it be? In the mountains, overlooking a small lake, a huge cabin with a big deck

3. In terms of the act of moving: are you a packer or a box mover?
I’m a packer extraordinaire 😀

4. What one item do you own that you absolutely hate to move?the big entertainment center in the den is a booger

5. What’s worse: the act of moving or a routine cleaning at the dentist? Easy – moving! (I go twice a year to the dentist, but haven’t moved in almost 12 years!) 😀

Appetizer
Name something that helps you fall asleep. A warm bath. Sometimes reading. If all else fails, Tylenol PM 😀

Soup
Who brings out the best in you? Tim, of course

Salad
What do you like to do on a rainy day? Stay inside and read, curled up in my big chair by the fireplace. 🙂

Main Course
Complete this sentence: In our home, we never have enough…
chocolate!

Dessert
Which shoe do you put on first? Left, I think. I’ll have to pay attention next time!

Just got back from running a bunch of errands. I went to the bank, two video stores, the library and grocery store. I got one free movie at Blockbuster (Spanglish) and another one with a one-free-rental coupon (we used part of our Discover cashback to get $40 worth of rental coupons for $20 cashback bonus) at Hollywood Video (Ocean’s Twelve).

I also went to the library. I had finished the 2 Stephanie Plum books I checked out a couple of weeks ago. It’s nice that they give me 3 weeks to keep books, just the right amount of time for two for me. I took my list I’ve been accumulating and found a couple more new ones to read. I had started my Nicholas Sparks book last night (True Believer), but had only read a few pages before I got sleepy. Since I own that one, it can wait a bit 🙂 I got “Blue Shoe” by Anne Lamott and “Shopaholic & Sister” by Sophie Kinsella. I have already read one of the Shopaholic books, and really enjoyed it. Very light and entertaining, and very funny! I think I’ll try the new one first. I have never read any Anne Lamott books.

I love the library. It’s like a bookstore – but FREE! I love that I can browse around and look at all of those wonderful books and magazines, and movies. Our little bitty library in Madison has a bunch of VCR tapes and even some DVD’s that you can rent for a week, completely free. I need to take advantage of that more. I do love to get books and browse around, and flip them open and read a bit before I decide whether or not to check them out. And the frugal side of me loves the fact that if I get a book, and I don’t like it, then I’m not out any money. Just return it and get another one! Going to a library or bookstore is usually an instant mood-lifter for me. Today was no exception.

I’m procrastinating severely on going to get flowers to plant in the yard. More on that later, maybe tomorrow. I was about to go this afternoon, but Tim and I have been IM’ing and he’s agreed to go to Gardenworks with me in the morning. It’s wonderful to have a really nice nursery less than a half mile from our house. Now, if they would just jump out of the containers and plant themselves, all would be dandy. 😀

Tim and I went walking this morning and it was mostly very quiet out. There were a few people leaving for work, and a few pockets here and there of school age children waiting on the bus.

We spoke to a couple of the kids in passing, just a simple ‘Hello’ or ‘Good Morning’ and both noticed (as we have many times in the past), that the kids don’t acknowledge us or speak to us or smile or anything. We started discussing how sad it is that kids have to be so cautious in today’s world, so wary of strangers. I’m sure it’s been told over and over to these kids in our neighborhood, “don’t talk to strangers”. Which is a good thing, I think, overall. But, I thought it was sad that they can’t respond when someone is being friendly to them, or show respect for their elders, or just sheer politeness in returning a greeting. Sad that they have to be so wary of people and their surroundings at such a young age.

Tim brought up an angle that I had not thought of. He said…

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Well, I got lucky again this afternoon. Like I did the day I took this picture. 🙂

I was sitting down in the den to read the newspaper and check out Oprah (yeah, I know, it’s a tough life, bon bons and all!) and I saw a squirrel on the deck railing. He looked like the same squirrel who had come here before that I took pictures of. He has a sort of notch in his right ear, like he got hurt or bitten or something. I saw him eyeballing the bird feeder from the deck, but he kept jumping below the feeder (as he did before), and eating seeds and hulls from the ground. Just to be sure, I went and grabbed my camera and snuck back over by the window, in case he did something photo-worthy.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, NO, we do NOT have a pet squirrel. No, we don’t feed this squirrel. I promise I’ve just been really lucky and have been in the right place at the right time with my camera. The other day, when he jumped on the windowsill, I was astounded, because I have lived here 12 years and never, ever seen a squirrel on any of the window sills.

That said – he tried this afternoon to get on the squirrel-proof bird feeder. Apparently, it’s not squirrel proof if you’re a really, really smart squirrel. Check it out:

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Well, today marked two firsts for me this spring:

1) Today was the first day I had to turn the A/C on for me. We’ve had it on a few times for Tim, but I can usually stand it a lot warmer in the house than anyone else can. However, this afternoon I got hot and had to break down and turn it on. I try to wait till May every year, but once again, this year I did not make it. 🙄

2) Today was the first time I’ve had a Skinny Cow since last summer. I discovered them last year, and fell head over heels in love with Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches. You can check them out here . I will go through many, many packages of these over the next few months. Till at least September.

Well, I’ve had it on a to-do list for a while to enter all of the fortune cookies we have collected over the last few months at various Chinese restaurants into the Fortune Cookie section of Hambones. I finally did that this afternoon. Whew, now I can get those 14 or 15 little slips of paper off my desk! With the ceiling fan on, they are always blowing around on my desk! 😀

Go check them out, if you want to find out your fortune for the day. Just click on Fortune Cookie on the Main Menu of Hambones. And have a great day!

Here’s the new red maple that Tim planted for us on Monday… in the same spot that the other maple was. I miss how much shade it put out in the summer on the back of the house. This one is going to take quite a while to put out any shade! But, it’s nice to have something new to nurture, water, and watch grow. 🙂

I haven’t done an online quiz in a while, as I’ve been doing memes lately. And I don’t feel like writing anything remotely personal, mundane or thoughtful (not that I do much of those any of the time, it just ain’t me!) 🙂

So, from this site: What kind of chocolate are you?

You are Milk Chocolate A total dreamer, you spend most of your time with your head in the clouds. You often think of the future, and you are always working toward your ideal life. Also nostelgic, you rarely forget a meaningful moment… even those from long ago. What Kind of Chocolate Are You? Take This Quiz 🙂

I’m happy to report that I finished another book last night. This makes number eleven for the year, since I started back on my reading phase in late January. Last night I finished up the next one in the numbered Stephanie Plum series, “Four to Score”. I am really enjoying these books. I like the characters, I like the plots, and I enjoy how easy to read they are. I do not like the language, but I consider it part of the overall package – after all, our girl Stephanie is a bounty hunter who deals with low-life scumbags, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, etc. If it didn’t have some bad language, it wouldn’t be true to its genre.

I think I will probably read the new Nicholas Sparks book I picked up last week, called “True Believer”. Then again, I may go back to the library and get more from my ever-expanding list. And more temptingly, I might, just might, break down and do some online ordering. I “window shop” all the time at various online sites, and most of the time, I’m happy to just put things in my wish list or cart, without actually buying them! But, every few months, I get the itch to order stuff, and buy new books and cookbooks, and I do feel that that urge is rearing its ugly head again. I’m trying to fight it, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to resist. I feel that an order to Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com or even Overstock.com may be coming up soon. Real soon. 😀

I’ve mentioned it in passing a couple of times in different blog entries that my memory is atrocious. I really don’t remember much of anything from my childhood, school years, high school and college years. Heck, I just don’t remember that much about anything. Tim thinks it’s the Diet Coke I drink that is zapping my brain cells! I don’t know what to think – I used to have a pretty good memory and I still do about certain things (trivia, history, all-things-Tim) 🙂 But a lot of things just don’t stick in my brain. One of the worst for me is people – people’s faces, where I know them from, and mostly, their names.

One thing I am fairly decent about remembering, though, is food. I remember different foods I have eaten at certain places. I remember a few things from my childhood that relate to food, although probably not nearly enough.

I have thought of this often and have meant to blog about it. I read two articles last week in the local papers, plus this blog entry that Amanda wrote. The first article was in the Clarion Ledger, by one of the food writers (Robert St. John), and he wrote about “Pixie Sticks and Marathon Bars: A Sweet Childhood” (the article is here on the Clarion Ledger website, but I have serious doubts that it will be there long. They don’t seem to keep content for more than a week or two.) The other article was in the Madison County Herald, by a guy named Rusty Reeves. It was entitled “Old Food Joints fed more than just your stomach”. Again, I found the article online here but I doubt it will be there for long. Both of these jogged up memories for me (BEWARE – extremely long and rambling post ahead):

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Another cute little meme I like to do… from this site:

Vacation…

1. Where Do You Visit The Most On Vacation?: Well, since we’ve been married, we’ve been to Gatlinburg more times than anywhere else

2. What’s Your Idea Of A Dream Vacation?: my lifelong dream – to go to England, Scotland and Wales (in that order). A close second is France.

3. Ever Been To Disney World or Disneyland?: Not as a child, but Tim and I went to Disneyworld a few years ago and had a blast. It was GREAT!

4. What Has Been Your Favorite Vacation So Far?: Either Disneyworld or Big Cedar, probably. Although we have fun on every vacation we go on. We went twice last year, to Texas and back to Gatlinburg for my birthday and I thoroughly enjoyed both of those! 😀

5. Have You Taken A Cruise?: I went on my high school senior trip, but I don’t think Tim has ever been on one. We haven’t been together yet. I would love to go on an Alaskan cruise, that’s high on my list. 🙂