Exceedingly Mundane

I finished a really good library book last night, called “Match Me If You Can” by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. It is the story of a matchmaker in Chicago, who takes over the business from her grandmother, and is trying to jump-start her business by signing a high-profile sports agent as her client. She just has to find him the perfect wife, and believe me, he’s very discriminating. I really liked this book – good plot, predictable but good, great characters and a very good ending. I was thrilled with the ending and the way things were all wrapped up – always a big plus for me with a book.

For the record, that makes #51 so far this year, with a total of 18,029 pages read. Up next is the last book in the Tucker Mills trilogy by Lori Wick, called “Leave a Candle Burning”. I borrowed all 3 of these books from Tim’s mom and have really enjoyed the first two – they are light and sweet books. This should be a fairly quick read, and after I finish this borrowed book, I’ll probably head back to the library for more. 🙂 Then again, maybe I should try to tackle some of the ones I have bought, that are sitting on my bookcase shelf, all alone and unread. 🙄

I blogged over the weekend about our coon trap, and how we were trying to catch the little buggers.

See – the coons are tearing up our backyard. They climb up in the tree and break the branches, trying to get to the bird feeder. We find the bird feeder on the ground (along with broken branches), sometimes the feeder is broken and all the suet is gone. The other bird feeder that is on a shepherd’s hook will be pushed to the ground, and all the bird seed scattered all over the ground. And the big thing is that they LOVE the squirrel’s corn. The coons either eat the entire cob or simply take it with them. So, we bought a “HavAHeart” large animal cage at Lowe’s and put it out. Saturday morning, we got up and found this:

He was “playing possum” I guess 🙂 He turned around when I came up with the camera:

He was a pretty large little guy. Here he is up close:

I came inside and called the Animal Control number for our local police. I was politely informed that they only dealt with domesticated animals and he gave me the phone number for the Wildlife and Fisheries, or some state dept. I called that number and was told they don’t do that either, and he gave me another number to call. Basically, we played “pass the buck”. I called 4 or 5 places and never got any help, so we gave up on that. Tim, the consummate country boy, said “we’ll just take him up towards the Trace, in some woods, and drop him off”. Hence, we basically just catch and release them.

We caught another one Sunday night and released him Monday morning in the same spot. If they are related, then hopefully they found each other and can go rob someone else’s yard of all their food. Click on the extended page for pictures of the second coon, he was a bit smaller.

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Check out OrgJunkie‘s website for the specifics… in the mean time, here’s the plan for this week (plan being the optimum word!):

Sunday – we had hamburgers
Monday – Grilled Chicken Salad, grilled zucchini, homemade bread
Tuesday – Italian Tortellini Stew, salad, homemade bread
Wednesday – Tomato soup, cheese toast (didn’t have this last week as planned)
Thursday – grilled chicken (Tim)/grilled salmon (Stacy), roasted sweet potatoes, homemade bread
Friday – tacos, refried beans, mexicorn
Saturday – eat out at NFL preseason game
Sunday – TBD

1. Would you shave your head for any amount of money? If yes, how much? Probably not, I would look just pitiful without hair. I’ve often thought if I got sick or had chemo and lost my hair, I’d probably be the type of person who would go get a wig. I’d try to wear a bandanna or hat, but I think I’d cave and get a wig. So no, I don’t think I’d voluntarily do it for money.

2. What “whacky” thing might you do for a large sum of money? Probably nothing, I’m not adventurous at all, don’t like dares and I have so many phobias (heights, snakes, etc) that I wouldn’t even consider most things that would be considered “whacky” 🙂

3. What do you think is a “large sum of money?” $100,000 or more

4. Do you watch “reality” tv shows? Yes, we watch Survivor and Amazing Race and love both of those. We’ve been watching Treasure Hunters this summer and have liked that one also. I plan on watching “Dancing with the Stars” again this fall, and Idol next January. We don’t watch any of the others though

5. If so, which do you watch and in what order do you prefer them? If not, are there any you may consider watching? No order of preference, for the specifics, see above!

6. Which reality show have you thought about participating in? Why?I would like to be able to do Race, but I know my limitations. I would crack under the pressure. I’m not a seasoned traveler by any means and I think I would have trouble with the pace of the thing, and the challenges.

7. Share one thing you would like to do in life but have not yet done….. think about why you haven’t done it and share if you wish. My lifelong dream is to go to England and Scotland. I’m going to get there one day!

Friday was a very busy day for us – we bought a new entertainment center and a big screen TV (plasma, high definition)!!! We’ve been busy trying to get all the old stuff moved out, and all the new stuff setup and working. It’s a lot of work and is going to take us a few days to get it all done. Our old entertainment center was very heavy and I think the new one is even worse! Poor Tim only has me as a helper and I cannot lift and move 200 lbs very easily 🙂

Last night, Tim reloaded the coon trap and caught our first coon. We have to figure out how to get rid of him now. We called Animal Control and they said they only deal with domesticated animals. HUH? They referred us to Wildlife & Fisheries, where we left a message on the answering machine and have yet to hear back.

Today, we’re headed over to Tim’s family for the day. We’re going to celebrate his mom’s birthday which is coming up next week. I’ll try to post some more news and hopefully pictures on either Sunday or Monday. Have a great day!

I finished another library book last night, “Track of the Cat” by local author Nevada Barr. This was my first Barr book and won’t be my last, even though I wasn’t particularly swept away by the book or the style of writing of the author. Don’t get me wrong, I did like it, but I didn’t just {gushingly} love it. It was a good book, good plot, and I am going to read at least another couple of the Anna Pidgeon books, specifically the ones set in my local area. This one took place in West Texas, in Guadalupe National Park, and revolved around some mysterious “accidents” and deaths in the park. Anna, one of the park rangers, gets curious and decides to investigate when things don’t add up. 🙂

For the record, that makes #50 on the list so far this year, with my total number of pages read at 17,646. Up next is the last library book I got on my last trip, one that my sister Gail had read and liked. It’s called “Match Me If You Can” by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, another new author for me. Hope it’s good!

Friday, August 18, 2006
Feast One Hundred & Seven

Appetizer
What color is your car? Burgundy red. Got it a little over a year ago, you can see a picture here 🙂

Soup
If you could wake up tomorrow with full training in another occupation and a job in that field, what would it be? Paralegal or Chef 🙄 Or maybe a food critic, I think I’d like that job!!

Salad
How many times in your life have you had the flu (or something similar)? Hmm, maybe 2 or 3?? I can remember at least 2, and one of them was terrible. I couldn’t really even get out of bed for days. Total bummer.

Main Course
What is something that has happened to you this week that you didn’t expect? To eat out twice on Thursday! Ack, it was really good and I enjoyed both times, but oh my, the extra calories are going to do me in 🙂

Dessert
How old were you when you had your first kiss? Apparently it wasn’t very memorable, because I don’t remember!

Tim checking out the hammock at Lowe’s:

We ended up eating out last night (I know, getting off track on my menu plan here, bad girl) at my favorite Chinese place, then running some errands. Tim offered to take me to eat Chinese, even though I had food defrosted for supper. I do not EVER turn down Chinese. He’s starting to get on a “I’ll go if we order from the menu and not eat a buffet” kick for Chinese, and I’m more than a little grateful. He’s been so burned out on Chinese food and me, well, I could eat it 3 times a week. He’s happy with once every 3 months. So, this compromise is working out well. We each had a huge bowl of egg drop soup, then split some chicken tempura, and ordered some shrimp fried rice. It was all yummy.

We needed to run errands last night because the seal on our shower door broke yesterday, and we wanted to replace it before we took a shower and leaked water on the floor. So, after dinner, we headed to Lowe’s. We couldn’t find the seal there, but we found some other things we were looking for. Namely, critter catchers. Yes, we have critters, and a lot of them, in our back yard. I’ve been losing food left and right to some unseen critter that Tim thinks is a coon (raccoon for any of you not from the Deep South!). The coon keeps knocking over my bird feeders and eating the food and suet. He takes the corn cobs from the squirrel feeder if I leave it out there overnight. I’ve started bringing stuff in at night, which is a pain. He’s climbing my tree branches, and breaking them, to knock down the bird feeders to the ground so he can eat all the food. It’s either one really hungry coon or an entire family. Anyway, Tim has decided to play Daniel Boone and catch the coon and then take him somewhere and release him. We found this critter cage for 36 bucks at Lowe’s and he had to have it. We also were looking for rat traps. Not mice traps, we tried those and the suckers are too big. It’s only catching a bit of them (a piece of tail here, a foot there, EWWW!). There seems to be a family of very large rats living under our deck in the backyard. Between the rats and the coon, I’m not a happy camper. So, Tim decided to finally do something about it so I would stop complaining. 🙄

Anyway, we got the seal at Home Depot, and a lot of critter traps at Lowe’s. We also picked up a few groceries while we were out. We were tired by the time we got in, and then Tim had to work late again last night. Poor Tim, he’s been working on this project non-stop since last Friday and he’s getting fairly tired and grumpy. And he has to listen to his wife complain about the critters living outside in the back yard.

I’m going to take a bit of a stroll down memory lane here…

I know it’s not right, but I had a favorite grandmother growing up. This was my mom’s mom, and everyone in the family called her “Presh”. I believe it was short for “precious”. My grandfather passed away before I was born, but I remember my grandmother very well. She was so sweet and very sentimental (like me!). She always called me by a little nickname too – “my little ange” (which was short for angel). When I would go visit, she would show me things in her old house, which was a church in the Civil War (I always thought that was so cool!) Anyway, she would tell me that she was going to leave me things in her will, and asking me what I liked and wanted of her belongings, trinkets, things in her house. It was a sweet little thing she always did, and I’ve only recently come to realize that she did the same thing with my older sisters! And here I was, thinking I was special! 😕

Anyway, my grandmother fell and broke her hip in her 80’s and soon thereafter went to spend the rest of her days in a nursing home. My parents had to sell her house and her belongings to help pay for the nursing home bill. I was in school at the time, and not really aware of what was going on. Most of the things that I had thought I would inherit from my grandmother were sold to an antiques dealer. A few things she had already given me, and I treasure them now. One of them, an insignificant thing, is a set of pink and white Pyrex casserole dishes.

Now, my grandmother loved pink. To say it was her favorite color is an understatement. She had pink everything, and she left in her will which pink suit she wanted to be buried in, I’m almost positive. My mother, in obvious rebellion, despised pink. I learned early in life to never, ever give my mother any gift or clothing that was pink. She refused to wear it or use it. Anyway, I love pink, and I’m so glad to have these dishes. I don’t use them, but I keep them in my cabinet to remind me of my grandmother.

I saw on this blog the other day, a link to a site that lists all the old Pyrex cooking and serving ware. I was so glad to find this, for I didn’t know what pattern my grandmother’s Pyrex was, or how old it was. Now, thanks to this info, I know that it’s called Gooseberry and is from the late 1950’s.

Here is mine:

And here’s where I keep them, waaaay up on the top shelf, for safekeeping, out of harm’s way!

P.S. I think I may start doing more of this. I’m going to take some pictures of things that I have from my parents or grandparents, or from Tim’s family, things that are sentimental and mean something to me or to Tim. I will blog occasionally about them. In fact, I’ve even setup a special category called “Treasures”. 🙂

I finished another library book this afternoon, the final book in the Nora Roberts trilogy, the Irish Jewels series. I read all 3 of these books back to back, which is very rare for me.

I had not read any of Nora Roberts books before and I must say, I very much enjoyed this trilogy. The books were light and predictable, but also, since the subject was an Irish family and the breaking of a magical spell, they were fanciful and enchanting. They covered myths and legends in Ireland and painted a terribly beautiful picture of the place. Makes me want to go there and see it for myself one day! There was a bit more romance, almost bordering on the Harlequin-esque, in these books (compared to the fiction I normally read), but having not read any Nora Roberts before, I assumed that was par for the course. I really liked them though 🙂 I’ll try to write a review soon, that covers all 3 books, on Hambones.org.

For the record, that makes #49 so far this year, with a total of 17,408 pages read. Up next is another new author to me, local favorite Nevada Barr. I’m going to start with “Track of the Cat” and learn about her heroine, Anna Pidgeon. I hope it’s good!

I saw this new idea posted over at Laura’s blog, The Noodle Incident. She and Jess are co-hosting this fun new photo meme, called “Show Me Yours, and I’ll Show You Mine”. They’ll have a new theme each week. This week’s theme, according to Jess’s website is:

This week is all about the Dining Room Table. Or your Kitchen table. Or your Breakfast Nook Table. Whatever you call it, whether you eat there every day, or its mostly just a household decoration…. Show Me! We wanna see it! What surface in your pad is meant for eating?? Or what do you do with your table?

So, without further ado, here’s my kitchen table. Yes, I cleaned it off before I took the picture. It had one pile of mail and papers and another of coupons and stuff needing to be filed. No – we do NOT eat at this table. We are total couch potatoes during meals – we eat on the couch, with the TV on, with our feet propped on the coffee table. This table is for show and when people come over to eat who do not deign to eat on the couch with us 🙂

(FYI – for those who don’t know, we don’t have kids, it’s just adults here. If we had kids, we’d have the “eat at the table” rule and also probably the “clean your plate before you get up” rule. Unfortunately, we were unable to have children).

I showed you mine, now go on over to Jess’s website and check out the others who are showing your theirs! 🙂

We got two movies in the mail today, both totally free!

One was way overdue, from way back in May (I blogged about it here), from the Reward TV website. It’s a free copy of “The Wedding Date” with Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney. I cashed in all of my “points” on their auction site, and even though it took 3 months, I’m glad to get the movie for free. We actually rented it after it came out on DVD, and even though it wasn’t the best movie ever, it was cute. And, like I said, it was basically free to me. 🙂

The other is a free movie from the Kellogg’s cereal offers, an old movie called “Catch That Kid”. Neither of us have seen it, but it was free, and it looked fairly clean and cute from the blurb I read at IMDB. Has anyone seen it? Again, it’s probably not a great movie, but it was free. Are you getting the point that I love free stuff?!! 🙂

OK, back to your regularly scheduled programming. I was just really excited – it’s so nice to go get the mail and have two free movies sitting in my mailbox!

I really enjoyed this last week, so I’m going to try it again this week… and also do a little updating from last week’s menu plan, which I posted here. We ended up eating out less over the weekend than usual, and I cooked a bit more 🙂

Here’s the plan for this week, and an update to last week is on the extended page (just click the Read more button):

Monday – Turkey Burgers, homemade coleslaw, oven fries

Tuesday – Grilled Chicken (Tim)/Grilled Salmon (me), baked sweet potatoes, veggie (maybe sugar snap peas)

Wednesday – tomato soup and cheese toast

Thursday – Spaghetti, Broccoli, homemade bread

Friday – Date Night

Saturday – Out of town; eat out

Sunday – TBD

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1. How many “people” pictures do you have displayed in your house? A bunch. That’s mostly what I have sitting on tables and hanging on the wall. And mirrors, we have a lot of mirrors (easier to pick out than art or pictures). I would say there are at least a dozen, either hanging on the wall, sitting on my console table, in my book shelves, or on dressers/tables.

2. How many times a month/year do you rearrange your furniture? If our furniture would fit more than one or two ways, we would probably do it more often. Tim grew up with his mom moving furniture often; me, my mom probably never moved anything in 30 years. Our den furniture and one bedroom are the only rooms where the furniture will actually fit more than one way in the room. Still, we probably move something every year or so.

3. Do you check your email every day? If so, how many times a day?Good grief, do I. Every day, many many many times a day. I keep it up, so I just have to glance to see if I have anything new.

4. How often do you generally look at a clock/watch on any given day? Hmm, not sure. Maybe half a dozen times a day? Maybe more, I really have no clue.

5. How do you handle telemarketer phone calls? With caller id, we don’t pick up the phone unless we recognize the name or number. So I don’t have to hassle with them nearly as much any more. Thank goodness!