Exceedingly Mundane

We’re headed out again today, out of town for a short trip. We had wanted to go to more of the Saints training camps, but alas, all of their practices this weekend are closed to the public. They’re getting ready for their first preseason game next weekend, which we were very glad to see, will be shown on one of our local TV stations. 🙂

My dad called and needs some help moving his computer, so we’re headed south to his house to help out. He had a toilet overflow and soak a couple of rooms worth of carpet and padding. The service people are coming to start drying the padding and carpet, and he wants to move his computer out of the way and set it up in another part of the house for a while. So, since we’re the computer experts in the family, we are needed elsewhere today. 😆

Hope everyone has a great day!

I finished a really long library book last night, “The Falls” by Joyce Carol Oates. This was my first book by this author and will probably be my last. I didn’t really like it, and was mostly just ready to be finished with it and start something else. I very nearly stopped reading it (something very difficult for me to do) several times, but I kept plugging away at it, but there was no joy in the reading.

I really hate to write negative reviews, or reviews in general, to be honest, because what one person likes and loves, another dislikes. Books and movies can be so subjective, you know?! But this book, I just didn’t like, and that’s a fairly strong statement for me – I generally like most every book I read. But, this book was not that way for me. The long, drawn-out plot and the writing style of this author just did not appeal to me on any level. I did not really enjoy it, and I was soooo glad when it was over. I rate it a 3 out of 10 stars, a very low rating for me.

For the record, that makes #45 for me so far this year, with a total of 16,011 pages read. Up next is a much lighter, more frivolous book, “I Do, But I Don’t” by Cara Lockwood. This is another new author to me, but I think I’m going to like this one better. Looks like some really good “chick lit”, yippeee! 🙂 From what I can tell, it’s going to be like a book version of the movie “The Wedding Planner”, which is a movie I really like. Check back in a couple of days for a review, I’ve got some time this weekend to read, and I expect to fly through this one in no time, LOL!!

Appetizer
Name an actor or actress you think is totally underappreciated. Well, this requires more brain power than I possess at this time of the morning 🙂 How about Clive Owen (King Arthur) or Christian Bale (Batman Begins)? I really like both, but I don’t think they got nearly enough press for those movies or others.

Soup
Impress us by using a big word in a sentence. {Spoken to Tim}… You’re trying to be very surreptitious, but I know what you’re up to!

Salad
What is something inanimate that you’ve given a name to (such as a pet rock)? I’ve named cars in the past. We bought a Pontiac Bonneville several years ago, so I named her “Bonnie”. Then, Tim got his big honkin 4×4 pickup and I named him Clyde. We traded in Bonnie for my new SUV (as yet unnamed), but Clyde stuck. 😀

Main Course
What color would best represent your personality and why? My favorite color is green, so I guess I’ll go with that. Green is rather calming and peaceful, earthy and homey to me. There ya go 🙂

Dessert
Fill in the blanks: ____________ is so ____________. Chocolate is SO Good!

I have blogged in the past, briefly, how years ago I thought the idea of bagged lettuce was a silly fad that would pass. After all, I’d seen lettuce for sale in the grocery store all my life, and for a lot cheaper, and more of it, than the price that they wanted for bagged lettuce. Then, as I realized that I was willing to pay more for the convenience of it, I started to think it a lot less silly idea. Now, I often buy bagged lettuce, although I still do buy the heads of lettuce (romaine or spinach, I try to stay away from iceberg since it has no nutritional value) and wash them for us to have. But, if I’m pressed for time or feeling particularly lazy, I go for the bagged stuff.

Same explanation applies to the concept of tuna, chicken, and salmon in those round aluminum tin cans vs the ones that are sold now in foil packs. I resisted even buying them for the longest time. After all, tuna is tuna right, and the foil packs cost a lot more. You’re paying for the convenience of not draining them, or whatever, right? Well, I finally caved a couple of years ago, and now I almost always buy the foil pack. Yes, I pay more, I know. But, I honestly think some of it tastes a lot better coming out of the foil pack than that old rusty tin can :mrgreen:, especially the tuna. I really like the new flavored tuna fillets that Starkist sells in the foil packs. I’ve tried the lemon pepper one and teriyaki ones and I like both of those a lot.

I’d love to hear if you still buy the cans exclusively, you now get foil packs exclusively, some of both, or you could basically care less – so be sure to leave me a comment. No, never mind, don’t comment if you could care less 🙄

Here’s a sample of what’s in my pantry today:

What’s that on the ceiling? A bird, a plane, a UFO? No, it’s the time and temperature displaying constantly.

HUH? Please let me explain. We love gadgets. All kinds of gadgets, but being the geeky techie people that we are, we really love electronic gadgets. For Christmas last year, I bought Tim a new atomic clock, probably this one. It’s made by Lacrosse Technologies and is an atomic clock with time, temperature and humidity displays. There’s a separate piece that goes outdoors to monitor the outdoor temperature. It sets itself automatically by the US atomic clock service, which I think is very cool. He tinkered with it Christmas afternoon and it’s been running fine ever since.

Then, the lights blinked one day last week, and for whatever reason, for the first time ever, this thing lost track of the time. So, as Tim was resetting it, he figured out how to get it to project not only the time, but also the outdoor temperature on our bedroom ceiling.

He’s tickled pink with it. Me, not so much. I am starting to get used to it, but it is a little disconcerting to wander into our bedroom after dark and see these large red numbers displayed on the ceiling. Or say, you’re laying in bed having trouble falling asleep and all you can focus on is these numbers above your head in red.

Needless to say, I tried to take some pictures, but it was hard to get it focused at night without activating my flash. I tried several modes and finally came up with a couple of shots. Of course, these are zoomed in, but you get the picture. Just imagine these numbers are on the ceiling above your bed in your bedroom. 🙄

Tim had to work late last night, so I stayed up late reading and finished another book – “A Good Yarn” by Debbie Macomber. This is the sequel to a book of hers I read last year and really liked, “The Shop on Blossom Street”.

This book is your typical women’s fiction – 4 women get together (in this case, for knitting classes) and form a bond, in spite of their different backgrounds, relationships, age, etc. Even though this was a sequel, it could easily be a stand-alone book as it introduces each character and covers who they are and why they are there. I like the way these books are ordered – each chapter is devoted to one of the women and tells their story of what is going on in their life, either in the knitting class or the other things that are covered with their storyline. A very enjoyable book (I don’t know a thing about knitting so I just skim over those sections, they are not involved and don’t distract from the storyline), and a good read. I own this book, if anyone would like to borrow it sometime!

For the record, that makes #44 for the year, with a total of 15,530 pages read. Up next, I’m going to read one of the 3 library books I checked out last Friday. I will probably start with the Joyce Carol Oates book, “The Falls”, but I’m going to read through the jacket covers again tonight and see if I don’t want to start on one of the others instead. See what I’m in the mood for, I guess 😀