Exceedingly Mundane

The previous post (Snack Time #1), where I blogged about the Arizona Tea and popcorn, is actually an older post. I had made it a couple of weeks ago, and saved it to post later, then promptly forgot about it. 😳 Anyway, I still like those, but in the mean time, I’ve found some more new products I like!

One is a splurge, and the other is an attempt to try to make better choices:

Can you tell which is the splurge and which is not? Hehehe, thought so! The granola bars are a splurge. Each bar is pretty small and has 140 calories, but OHMYGOSH, they are so good! I found them in Kroger the other day, and they were completely sold out of the chocolate ones. I had a coupon (!!), so I bought the Vanilla Latte ones, and I just love them. They have just the right touch of coffee flavor. Yummy.

The cookies are my attempt to try to give us healthier choices for snacks. I have a whole post brewing about organic, but I haven’t been able to complete it. I am still really torn on the whole organic thing. But, these seemed like a good choice – they have no trans-fats, no high-fructose corn syrup and no preservatives. This is the second box of them I’ve bought. I like them and Tim thinks they are “just ok”.

Oh, and a cute story on these cookies, well, more of a running joke! The first time I offered them to Tim, I made the mistake of calling them “organic” cookies, which they are not. Tim’s brain translated the word “organic” to earthy or something, because now he calls them “dirt cookies“. 🙂 He’s not very fond of them, and would rather have Chips Ahoy or homemade, but hey, these are a good alternative. Better than Chips Ahoy (or so I convince myself) and less work for me to have them on hand and not make a big batch of cookies – where we totally feel compelled to eat every one of them.

I’ve blogged before about food we like to eat and new things I have tried. There were the soy nuts, the pita chips and hummus, the Veggie Chips, the Brownie Fudge Fantasy frozen yogurt, and even the Lipton green tea that my buddy Julie turned me onto. {Thanks Jules! :grin:}

Yes, folks, this blog ain’t called “Exceedingly Mundane” for nothing

So, to continue the pattern, here’s a couple of things I’ve bought lately, and liked:

The Arizona tea I really like, and I think I’m going to start buying it for two reasons. 1) My Walmart seems to be not carrying the Lipton bottles as much now. I’ve seen Nestea on the shelves, so they may be switching products and mostly because… 2) I’m the only one who drinks them and I’m just as happy with a big jug as the individual bottles. Tim acted like he liked the green tea blends at first, but now he won’t touch them at all.

The canister of English Toffee Caramel Corn was a splurge from Target. I think it’s great. It was a bit pricey at 3.99 for the container, but I was in a splurging mood the last time I went to Target (got a few other happies also!). Tim, while he likes it, made a face when I called it a splurge. He said “why don’t you just buy that stuff in Walmart in a cardboard box, I think it’s called Crunch N Munch”. So, the $1 box from Walmart it is, once I devour the remainder of this canister. 🙄

I did this meme a couple of weeks ago, and then missed last week. This is a relatively new meme hosted by Laura and Jess. There’s a new theme each week and this week’s theme is:

Show Me Your Green Thumb. Soil, water, sunshine, love… that’s what this week’s theme is made of. Outdoors or in, whether it blooms and grows beneath your watchful eye and nurturing touch…. or just plain exists at the bare threshold of greenness…. Show Me!!

I’ve posted many pictures here in the past of flowers blooming in my yard. Unfortunately, by the time late August rolls around, my flowers ain’t looking very splendid! I plant all of the summer annuals in either late April or early May, so by late August and September, they are really past their prime. As are most of the perennials in our yard that bloom in the summer. However, in the last couple of weeks, I did snap a couple of shots that I’ll use here.

My crape myrtles out front are about to fizzle, but a couple of weeks ago, they still looked pretty good (and that’s yellow purslane blooming beneath them):

I had some petunias planted in a planter on my deck in the backyard. Most of the petunias are about gone, but in their place, some moss rose have popped up. I didn’t plant them, but they do tend to pop up in other pots that I have growing. I also have a geranium in a pot on the deck and it has moss rose that has sprouted in it as well. Those seeds must travel easily and root easily.

OK, I showed you mine, now I’m off to check out other participants and see their entries. You can check out the other players here.

We got up early this morning, to go walking, and saw that we had yet another coon in our live animal trap. So, instead of walking, we had to go relocate him, as we have the other animals we’ve caught. I blogged about this earlier (here about the coons and also here about the possum), and wanted to report on our “critter count”.

First, here’s the big coon we had to go relocate this morning… Tim says he is the largest one yet. He called him “big guy” all while we were moving him 🙂

So, here’s the official count so far:

Coons – 3 (caught and released in a wooded area miles from our house)
Possum – 1 (caught and released in same area)
Rats – 4 (dead as a doorknob, not moving those suckers)

I shudder to think how many more critters are out there, waiting to be caught or walk into the rat trap. Ewww! But, at least they are not eating as much of the squirrel’s corn (I actually had squirrels yesterday, for the first time in a couple of weeks), and are not pushing down the bird feeders every night. I have a lot of grass that is dug up from my back yard. Each time we put down the trap, the critters all try to dig their way out, so we are having large sections of grass being dug up all over the yard. 🙂

I finished the last book in the Lori Wick trilogy “The Tucker Mills Trilogy” last night, “Leave a Candle Burning”. Wick is a Christian writer and these are very clean, very charming, very old-fashioned books. They are set in Tucker Mills Massachusetts in the 1830’s, and cover many of the same people in each book, but each book focuses on a new couple that meet, fall in love, and get married. My review of the trilogy is up here on Hambones.org.

For the record, that makes #52 for the year, with a total of 18,343 pages read. Up next is a book I borrowed from my sister Gail, that she recently read – “Montana Sky” by Nora Roberts. I hope I enjoy it as much as the three books I just read by Nora Roberts – they were really good, easy reads.

Laura over at OrgJunkie sponsors this great meme each week. Go check out her new design by Susie at Bluebird Blogs — it looks great! I love planning menus, even though I don’t always stick to them 100%. Mine often have things rolled over from the previous week, and have to stay flexible on the weekends. We sometimes eat out a lot on the weekends, so you’ll often see TBD (to be determined!).

Here we go:

Sunday– tacos, refried beans for lunch. We splurged and had a big breakfast for supper – eggs, cheesy hash browns, turkey bacon and biscuits

Monday – grilled turkey cutlets, garlic smashed potatoes, sesame green beans

Tuesday – Easy Baked Fish (using tilapia), baked sweet potatoes, mixed veggies with cheese (frozen bag I’m trying to use up)

Wednesday – Light Night (my husband weighs in at work with his weight loss group on Thursday mornings) – either soup and sandwich or eggs, oatmeal and toast

Thursday – Stroganoff over yolk-free noodles, butter peas, homemade bread

Friday – Date Night probably 😀

Saturday/Sunday – TBD

Monday – Labor Day, not sure yet

1. Do you do dishes by hand or do you use a dishwasher? Both. I use the dishwasher for plates, bowls, silverware and glasses. I usually handwash things like my cookware (pots, pans, casserole dishes, etc) and all of the prep items. The one exception is that if something has touched a raw meat, I definitely put it in the dishwasher.

2. How many people have your cell phone number? I have no idea, about 20 maybe? Maybe more, not sure

3. Do you shower in the morning or at night? Morning

4. Do you ever have a song ‘stuck’ in your head? Yes, a lot! I will hear snippets of songs on the radio, TV, while surfing, and even reading them. My sister Gail uses song titles for a lot of her blog posts at her blog, and that will usually get a song stuck in my head!

5. Do you pay your bills when they arrive, or do you wait until closer to the due date to pay them? Closer to the due date, although the majority of our bills are setup on a draft from our bank.

6. Are you obsessive about anything in particular? Well, Tim doesn’t call me “Monk” for nothing! Yes, I am about little things – that keys are hanging on the key holder, that stuff in the refrigerator is in the right spot, things like that. I’m sure I could come up with a lot more!

7. What one thing would you say you have a zero tolerance for? People hurting children or animals

Not only did I attend my first ever NFL preseason game on Saturday, but I also went to my first ever “Friends of the Library” book sale. I had seen them mentioned before in the paper, but had just never tried to go. Since Tim had gone early to play golf with Don, and Gail was running some errands, I went up to my local library to check out the book sale.

Let me just say, for a bookworm like myself, I was in heaven. I was surprised at how many books they had, how many of them were fairly new, and what good prices they had on them. I asked a lady at the desk, and she said they had them twice a year, but I honestly thought I saw them in the paper more often (maybe 4-5 times a year). Then again, maybe different branches have them at different times of the year (I have 2 branches fairly close to my house). All I can say is that I am definitely going to go again. It doesn’t bother me to read a used book if it’s in good shape. As much as I like buying new books, I like buying books for a very cheap price even better!

The hardbacks were $2, the large paperbacks and softbacks were $1 and the small paperbacks were 50 cents. I got 7 books for 7 dollars – one hardback, 4 large paperbacks and 2 small paperbacks. I went ahead and loaned one to Gail to read, since I have plenty to keep me busy for a while. In fact, after the sale, I wandered back out into the library to check out books, then berated myself for the number of books I have purchased, that are sitting at home waiting to be read. Plus, I had more in hand, so I decided to leave without checking out any regular library books. It was hard, believe me, really hard! 😆

Here’s what I got (I’m also going to add them to my sidebar):

Hardback of “King of Torts” by John Grisham (we only lack 2 in our collection)
Large Paperback of “Confessions of a Shopaholic” by Sophie Kinsella (loaned this one to Gail)
Large Paperback of “Sullivan’s Island” by Dorothea Benton Frank
Large Paperback of “The Sunday Philosophy Club” by Alexander McCall Smith
Large Paperback of “The Preacher’s Daughter” by Beverly Lewis
Small Paperback of “The Devil Wears Prada” by Lauren Weisberger (saw movie but never read book)
Small Paperback of “Ten Big Ones” by Janet Evanovich (bought hardback of “To the Nines” but it’s still waiting to be read)

Sigh – I loved it, and ended up taking Gail back up there with me again later. I do love the library and now there’s something new to love – library book sales!

Tim and I went to our first NFL preseason game last night, the Saints vs the Colts. I had wanted to leave a couple of hours before the game, but Tim had played golf with Don, and we all went to eat a late lunch/early supper after the guys finished. By the time we got home and changed, it was much later than I wanted to leave. Tim thought we would be fine, after all, it’s just 15 or 20 minutes to the stadium from our house. WRONG.

Our little city’s highways are apparently not equipped to handle the traffic for a game like that, nor was the stadium and personnel equipped to handle that many people converging on one small space in a short time frame. The traffic on the interstate was a nightmare. People were backed up for miles on the two main exits to the stadium. Luckily, the stadium is near where I went to college and I had Tim go to a further exit, then we backtracked through some back streets and a neighborhood near my alma mater. As we neared my old stomping grounds, I said “gee, they must be having a game or event too, look at all the people”. Tim smiled patiently at me and said “no, sweetheart, these people are going to the Saints game too”. “NO! I said, the stadium is a mile or two from here!”. Wrong I was. People were parking miles away and walking in. We did the same, and before we were a few blocks from the car, the rain started. We had brought some light ponchos, but got soaked nonetheless trying to get them on. Our clothes were soaked, and the stadium seats we had brought to sit on. I had left my camera behind, as well as our umbrellas, after I reviewed a list of “prohibited” items on a local website. Apparently, not everyone read this same list.

We hiked in, and then soon realized that people were massed in two large groups at the stadium, one on the east side and one on the west side. We found out later that only TWO gates were open to handle the 60,000 people. What a nightmare. We were in a massive throng of miserable people. There were lots of reports of Security patting people down, but we didn’t see any of that. What we did see were huge piles of bottles and cans near the entrance that the Security people made people throw down. The same with umbrellas. I probably saw 150-200 umbrellas in piles strewn all over the entrance. I didn’t see any cameras confiscated, but then again, I didn’t see them confiscating backpacks and other things that the paper had said was prohibited. Anyway, it took us a long time to get in. We were some of the lucky ones, we got in before the first quarter was half over. The rest of the unlucky ones were still streaming in all the way to half time.

We found our seats, and realized some nice guys had taken them. Once we covered that we had tickets for that section and those seats, they sort of moved down. Not two full spaces, but they moved a little. Not enough room for us to set up our stadium seats. We barely squeezed in and Tim was half hanging out over the steps (he was in seat 1 on our row, I was in seat 2). We spent the entire time shifting – if he leaned forward, I had to lean backwards. If he sat back, I had to lean forwards. There wasn’t enough room for us to sit shoulder to shoulder.

It didn’t rain again, and thankfully stayed overcast and it was actually almost pleasant. We were up high enough that we got a bit of a cool breeze and it was not that hot – especially not compared to the 98º heat we endured when we went to training camp. We didn’t have great seats and we didn’t see a lot of what was going on. We had a guy who kept jumping up in front of us and we missed a bunch of the plays.

All in all, Tim said he had fun, so that’s all that counts. Me, I think I’m much happier at home on the couch, in front of our new big screen. I don’t have people sitting in my seat, sloshing beer around and blocking my view. But that’s just me and I did have a good time. Mostly, we wanted to support the team. So we did. And I’m glad we went. I asked him if he would want to go in the future and he said probably; he wants to support them. After what we endured though, and the backlash I read in today’s paper, I seriously doubt if our little city will ever host another preseason game again. It was all poorly handled and I don’t imagine the NFL or the Saints would want to risk that happening again. Which is a shame, really.

I didn’t take my camera because it was on the prohibited list. I probably could have; I saw other people with them, and a lot of other things that they said were prohibited. But, it would have gotten in the deluge when we first arrived, and I’m really glad I didn’t take it and chance getting it wet. I tried to take a few pictures with Tim’s cameraphone, but with the lights and distance, they didn’t come out that great (as I expected). I’ll post them below though, just to show them 🙂

Today is going to be an action-packed kind of day for us 😆 Don and Gail are coming down so the guys can go play golf this morning. I think Gail and I will hang out and maybe go shopping or run errands. Then, this afternoon late, we’re headed to the stadium for the Saints-Colts preseason game. Hopefully, I will get a chance to blog some tomorrow – hope everyone has a great day!

UPDATE – I just looked at the list of prohibited items for the NFL preseason game tonight. It listed camera – darn it. Is that standard at all pro sporting events now? I know the last time we went to a game at the Superdome I took my camera, and I had intended to take it tonight to get pictures of Brees, McAllister, Bush and Manning. Dang, I’m pretty upset now. 👿

Friday, August 25, 2006
Feast One Hundred & Eight

Appetizer – If you could have a free subscription to any magazine, which one would you like to have? Hmmm, how about Cooking Light, Everyday Food or Real Simple Magazine. Or better yet “All of the Above” 😀

Soup – Describe your living room (furnishings, colors, etc.). Well, my living room recently changed into something I don’t like as much, since Tim bought his big screen TV a week ago. I still like the rest of the furniture, overstuffed couch, overstuffed chairs, one with ottoman (greens and browns, kinda earthy colors), cherry coffee table and end tables. I like my brick fireplace with mantle at one end, framed by windows. It’s the entertainment center that’s bugging me at the moment, but unfortunately, it’s a week old and we’ll probably keep it for a decade or so. Sigh 🙁

Salad – What does the shape of a circle make you think of? My wedding ring, which symbolizes God’s love for us, perfect and never-ending.

Main Course – Name 3 things in your life that you consider to be absolute necessities. Maybe my family, my home and food?

Dessert – What was the last really funny movie you watched? I am drawing a complete and total blank. I watched some of “The Princess Bride” last night, which I love, before the remote was taken away from me by you-know-who 🙂

I blogged a couple of days ago about the 2 coons (raccoons) that we have caught in our live animal trap (read about it here). We still load the trap every evening, thinking we might have more coons that are knocking over things and eating all the bird’s and squirrel’s food.

Last night, it was not a coon that got caught in the trap. It was a possum. What a hideous little creature (I’ll only post one picture here because the thing is so nasty and ugly; more on the extended page). The coons were rather cute in comparison and not nearly so disgusting. Ick.

I also failed to mention earlier that even though we’re glad to catch these things (and release them in woods several miles away), they are still doing their best to tear up my yard. Isn’t there something in Murphy’s law about “if it ain’t one thing, it’s another”?!!

They are digging up all the grass underneath the cage, trying to get out:

We learned after the first coon not to position the cage near the fence – they claw and scrap and chew on the fence boards, trying to get out:

If you can stand to look at the butt-ugly thing, there’s a couple more possum pictures on the extended page. It really grossed me out early this morning to see this thing and it was hissing at me too (oh, and in one picture, you can see the blood on the cage where the thing was gnawing, trying to get free)….
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Tim has a new love – his new big screen plasma TV. It still pales in comparison to his golf addiction – he is more than willing to leave his new TV sitting at home all alone and go play golf (he’s done that twice, and we’ve had the TV 5 days), but he does love his new TV. It’s definitely the object of his affection right now. 😆

Click on the extended entry for some pictures of the old and new …

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