Exceedingly Mundane

Shanna sent out a few pictures earlier today of their new deck that Trent is building them. Grayson is sitting on the deck, eating a popsicle. The quintessential summer thing to me, to sit outside and eat snow cones, popsicles, ice cream bars, or anything cold on a hot summer day. He reminds me so much of Trent when he was younger, and I need to go dig out some pictures from then and scan them. In the mean time, I pulled this picture of my refrigerator – it has hung there for over 12 years now. We were all a lot younger then! 🙂 (The picture itself is probably 18-20 years old, but it’s been on my refrigerator so long, the edges are all curled up!)

P.S. The pictures from Shanna are on Hambones now, in the Photo Gallery. The ones of Grayson on the new deck are under Misc / Trent and Shanna’s House. There is also one of Ava Clair, and it’s in their album “Grayson and Ava Clair”, towards the bottom of the first page of the photo gallery. Enjoy!

Another one of those weekends where we are so busy working hard and having fun, that I didn’t ever stop to take a minute and blog about it. Saturday was work day, and Sunday afternoon we went to see Star Wars and run a bunch of errands. Click the -More- link if you want to read all the gory details! 🙂

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Well, our weekend was busy, busy, busy. But good, as always. I’ll post a recap tomorrow when I have more time! 🙂

Yesterday was Tim’s parents 38th anniversary, and they all came over to celebrate it with us! Terry and the kids came too, and we all went to Harbor Freight, then to Ryan’s to eat out. After we left Ryan’s, we headed towards Old Navy on Lakeland and proceeded to drive into a torrential thunderstorm. There were times that Zack and I couldn’t see the road, but Tim didn’t drive off into a ditch, so apparently he could see! Terry got the kids some new swimsuits, as he and Zack were headed to Philadelphia to Geyser Falls today. Brittany has a cheerleading clinic all day today! Anyway, we hope that Mitchell and Linda enjoyed their anniversary, since we really enjoyed spending it with them! 😀

Found this while blog surfing… go take it and see how you rate!

Click here for the Star Wars Quiz

I took it and scored 70. I only missed 2 questions – #9 and #14, although I do admit to guessing on one of the last ones, after having narrowed it down to 2 choices. My score of 70 puts me in the 61-85 range – “Be careful, you may be a Sith Lord.”

Appetizer
Approximately how many hours per day do you spend watching television? Well, probably 3-5, more in the fall and spring when new shows are on. Some days I might watch or tape 5 or more.

Soup
Which colors decorate your kitchen? Yellow and Barn Red

Salad
Name 2 brand names you buy on a regular basis, and what do you like about them? Crest toothpaste, the only one I will use, and Quilted Northern t.p. (buy it in the huge packs at Sam’s!) 🙂

Main Course
What is your biggest fear? probably snakes, followed closely by heights

Dessert
If you could wake up tomorrow and find yourself in another location, where would you want to be? Scotland

Bonus Birthday Question
What’s your favorite flavor of birthday cake? Chocolate. Is there any other?

I’ve had a quiet morning, catching up with stuff on the computer, and I have plans to get out and run errands for a while this afternoon. Then, Tim and I are going to take his parents out to eat for their anniversary tonight. I think this year is number 38! He called them this morning and invited them, and I think they are going to come over, but I’m not sure yet where we might go. We’ll let them pick, since it’s their anniversary!! Check back for more details later tonight or tomorrow! 😆

Oops, almost forgot this one. Was closing down the PC for the night, and saw my Post-It note to do this one! A favorite meme from this site…

::Full Moon Rising…::

Onesome: Full — Full? What meal fills you up the most during your day, breakfast, lunch or dinner? …or is it the ice cream you’re digging into as you wander around the blog world long past when you should be asleep ?

Probably dinner, just because it’s my biggest meal. Breakfast is usually cereal and juice, lunch is either leftovers or yogurt and fruit, or maybe a Boca or Morningstar thingie-mabob. Dinner is our “big” meal.

Twosome: Moon — Do you really think there’s any truth to the popular idea that “things” happen when the moon is full? Come on, it’s just us here…

No, but I know that Fred is convinced that it’s a better time to go fishing!

Threesome: Rising– …and shining?: What is your normal wakeup time on Thursday mornings? …and can you be described as a “Morning Person” or not?

My normal wake-up time on most any day is about 6 or 7 AM, roll over and look at the clock and hopefully go back to sleep! I’m definitely not a morning person. Never have been. Just ask Tim – I used to have a sign at work that I would put out in the mornings if I didn’t want anyone to speak to me! 😀

I’m constantly amazed by what I see when I stand on the inside of my house, looking out one of the various windows to the outside world.

First, it was a snake slithering up my front walk, to perch on my front doorstep and sun itself (a couple of years ago, thank goodness, haven’t seen one do that since). Then it was all sorts of cats, once we lost my beloved Sally girl. Then, when I remembered to fill my bird feeders with birdseed, it became rather enjoyable to watch birds coming and going.

We progressed to the squirrel, the one who loves to come scampering along my deck rail, and perch himself under the bird feeder to eat any leftovers or whatever else he can find. Normally, I don’t like squirrels – they’re like big rats with furry tails. But this one was sorta cute, and he’s very regular. He comes every day or two.

Then, last week it turned ugly.

There were these rats. One of which I know is now dead because I can see part of his dead body under the edge of the deck.

Yesterday and today, it’s a slimy, ugly gecko that has decided to take up residence in my kitchen window sill. I was standing at my kitchen sink yesterday at lunch, washing dishes, admiring the flowers in my window planter, when I saw something move.

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Tim surprised me yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon when he IM’d me about 3:30 PM and said he was going to come home early, and didn’t I want to go out to eat or to a movie or just go do something fun together? 🙂 He knew that Star Wars was coming out, and thought I might want to go to the midnight showing. (Isn’t he sweet?!!!) But, I didn’t really want to go that late, plus I figured the tickets were probably mostly sold out. So, we picked another thing to do.

I spent most of yesterday online, researching the Grand Canyon. We’ve been talking about where to go on vacation this year, and Tim really wanted to go to the Grand Canyon. I had some books in my cart at Amazon, and I wanted to go and see if I could find them locally, so I talked Tim into going to Books a Million with me. We got a whole pile of books, then went to the Joe Muggs cafe up front to sit down and read them. Tim got a vanilla cream frappe and I got a decaf white chocolate caramel latte. We each went through a book or two, comparing things we were reading about which Rim to visit, when to go, what to do when you’re there, other things in the area, etc. Then, we talked about other places to go, including Washington DC, which has been on our list for the last 3 years. We decided a good old-fashioned game of rock-paper-scissors would solve our dilemma. So, we sat in Books a Million and played rock-paper-scissors and dueled down through our choices of San Francisco, Alaska, Grand Canyon, Boston and Washington DC. DC emerged as the winner, so we put up all the books from the Southwest and Grand Canyon! I decided not to buy a book today on DC, since we have one at home from 2002, when we first thought we were going. I might need to update it, though, but I will go through it first and see.

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Tim had to work late last night at the office, to get stuff ready for their weekly Tuesday night conference call. I took the opportunity to read more on my book while the house was quiet. When Tim got home, we watched American Idol and then House, and then he started back on his laptop and worked till about 1:30 AM. I sat up till about 11:15 PM and finished my book! It was pretty good. It took me a while to get into it, as her style is a bit different. But once it started clicking, it went very fast and was hard to put down. I really enjoyed it! I have to go do a review on Hambones sometimes soon. In the mean time, I am going to start on “A Year in Provence” by Peter Mayle soon, maybe today or tomorrow. It is an older book and has been on my list for years. I’m not sure if I will like the style of it, but since I got it at the library, it’s worth a try!

Chick Chat Meme from this site.

Lights… Camera… Action!

1. Do You Go To The Movies Or Wait For The DVD?: We do some of both… I prefer to see “big screen” kind of movies at the theatre, like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Spiderman, Troy, etc. Tim would go all the time, if I would go with him. Most of them, I can wait till it comes out on DVD.

2. At The Concession Stand Do You Get Popcorn or Candy?: Popcorn and a Coke (or Diet Coke)

3. Whats The Last Movie You Saw At The Theatre?: Probably Hitch last February, with Gail & Don. But, hopefully, we’re going this weekend (or next) to see Star Wars

4. Favorite Movie Genre?: I like romantic comedy, but Tim likes big screen action flicks

5. Favorite Actor/Actress?: Too many to list!

I just added quite a few more pictures to the Photo Gallery on Hambones. Gail was very kind to send me some pictures, and I have been remiss in the last few days to get them transferred, sized and uploaded. Those are done now though! She sent several from Fred’s birthday party here the last weekend of April, several from Elizabeth’s graduation the next weekend, and then some various and assorted pictures. Those that weren’t from the birthday or graduation were put in their own album. Gail has a “Misc Photos from Gail” album now, under Misc Pictures, so go check it out!

For the birthday and grad ones, just check out the 2005 album. For Fred’s party, the new pictures are on pages 2 and 3. For Elizabeths’ graduation, I put them all on page 1. Good people pics! 🙂

Enjoy! And thank you Gail, for sending them all to me for us to share!

I have been hard at it this afternoon, working at removing more dust and dirt from inside the house, and as a result, I think I stirred up quite a bit! As I tried to expain to Tim in my best Blues Brothers voice “I’m on a mission”, but I don’t think he got my humor! 🙂 I did stir up a lot of dust, but I think I removed quite a bit too, as I had to dump out the bagless canister on our vacuum 3 separate times today. The dust got my nose a bit stopped up, so I took a break and went outside on the deck in the early afternoon, and read my book for a few minutes. I’m really starting to get into it now!

Here’s what I had a view of, I think they are so pretty:

I also took a picture of the birds nest I spotted yesterday, out back in my Bradford Pear Tree:

Well, I went outside this morning and watered all of the plants and flowers. I spotted one dead rat, half under the deck out back. One down, at least one more to go, maybe more.

I will be kind and spare you guys a picture of the DEAD rat! 🙂

Hopefully one of the neighborhood cats will take care of him soon. If not, poor Tim is going to be forced to remove him to the creek out back after he gets in from work. Everyone send lots of pity to Tim! 😀