Exceedingly Mundane

I just posted my entry below for this week’s Blog Talkers, where I refused to talk about what is on the front page of my local newspaper (local politics, the mayor, the city council, the legislature, all politics, ugh), and instead I talked about stamps. I didn’t realize until I saw in the newspaper earlier this week that postage stamps were going up in May.

I actually don’t use a lot of stamps anymore. I pay a lot of our bills electronically, and that has really cut down on the number of bills and letters that I mail every month. Some bills do still get put in the mail, along with birthday cards, rebate forms, and various other forms of communication. But, overall, my stamp usage has gone way down since I started doing so much online. The main time of year I buy stamps is at Christmas, to mail out Christmas cards.

So, that is today’s Question of the Day: Do you use a lot of stamps? How often do you go and buy new stamps? Do you go to the post office to buy them, or another place? Do you get them through your mail carrier? Did you know that postage rates were going up in a month or so?

Leave me a comment and let me know 🙂

Karen, over at Blog Talkers, sponsors this every week. You have a whole week to answer at your own blog. Click on over and play along sometime 🙂

This week, Karen wrote: Please tell us: What story is on the front page of your local newspaper? Do you think the event is worthy of front page coverage?

OK, we get the newspaper every day (I’ve blogged about it before, here). I don’t read a lot of the stories in depth. I skim the headlines, and I like to read the local news that pertains to my area. You know, store openings, library sales, street closures, local people highlighted, the neighborhood kind of news. I do NOT like to read about local politics. Our nearby mayor and city council are a JOKE. I cannot stand to read about them, and they make the front page almost every day. I refuse to talk about them.

Instead, I’ll talk about something I found a couple of days ago in my paper, way back on page 8 or 9. Also consider this a public service announcement! I didn’t know that postage stamps were going up again.

Postal Service unveils 41-cent “forever” stamp

An image of the Liberty Bell adorns the U.S. Postal Service’s new “forever” stamp. The design was unveiled Monday at the National Postal Forum, an industry gathering. The forever stamp goes on sale April 12 at 41 cents. The rate for first-class postage rises to 41 cents May 14.

The stamp, which will carry the word “Forever” instead of a price, will remain valid for sending a letter no matter how much rates go up in the future. That will eliminate the annoyance of buying one- and two-cent stamps to make up a new rate when prices rise, and folks who want to hedge against inflation could lay in a supply of the stamps for long term use.

Ooh, how exciting! I go to check the Friday Feast meme this morning and find out that Susie has a new site, a great new look, and the cutest little buttons. Yippee, it all looks so good 🙂

Without further ado, time to feast!

Feast One Hundred & Thirty Seven

Appetizer
What are you proud of? I’m proud of our website that Tim and I have built, and of my blogs. When I started blogging, it was sort of on a whim. I’d never been able to keep a journal or diary in my life. I always gave up after a month or two at most. I’m proud that I haven’t given up on it. I’m also proud that I’ve been able to keep up my Project365 photo blog every day.

Soup
What is the best thing you’ve ever won as a prize? I’ve won two trips before. Once when I was a pre-teen, to the Bahamas. I took my mom for a week! 🙂 Then, a few years ago, I won a trip to Dallas to see the Dixie Chicks in concert at the Cotton Bowl. That was back when I actually liked them though, so that one doesn’t count as much now. They are much too controversial and against what I believe in now, for me to support them.

Salad
Name something you do that is a waste of time. Duh. Surf the Internet, read blogs, read message boards, look for recipes, etc. I can waste an inordinate amount of time online.

Main Course
In what year of your life did you change the most? Gosh, I don’t know. I guess the year that I got married, I changed a lot. For the better 🙂

Dessert
Where is a place you consider to be very tranquil? My backyard and deck, this time of year or in the fall. The birds are chirping and flying around. I can hear the church bells chime on the hour from the church near my house. Beau runs around chasing the birds, squirrels, bugs and lizards he thinks he sees. I can sit out on my glider, prop my feet up and read a book. The sun is shining, a breeze is blowing and all is right with the world. 🙂

I’m late, late, late, but hey, I have been without Internet access for two long days. Sigh. At least I got a little reading done 🙂

Location, Location, Location, Part 2

Where do you do most of your reading? Your favorite spot? (Show a picture, if you want to!) (And yes, I understand that these might not be the same thing–your favorite spot could be the beach, but you do most of your reading at home . . . in which case, tell me about both!)

I do most of my reading in bed. Supposedly propped up by pillows to help keep me awake, but that doesn’t always work. I also read in the den. We have two chairs (one recliner, one oversized chair with ottoman) on either side of our fireplace. It’s a totally cozy and comfy place for me and I read in there if it’s quiet. I can’t read with the TV or music on. I have also been reading more outside, since spring has arrived and it’s getting warmer outside. We have a glider on our deck, and I have a patio chair that I take out behind the fence to where Tim and Beau play in the afternoons. I won’t last too much longer outside though, between the heat and humidity and the bugs and mosquitoes 🙂

Hello? Anybody out there? Anyone, Bueller, anyone?! 😀

Our Internet service – computers and phone – have been down for the last 2 days or so. Thankfully our TV was not down, or else I might have gone stark raving mad!

To make a long story short – we lost power Tuesday evening early and apparently it shorted out our cable modem. Unfortunately, we got caught in the middle of the conversion of our cable/Internet/phone from Time Warner to Comcast. As I blogged about a few days ago, I’m not feeling very Comcastic 🙂 They had all sorts of trouble getting us a new modem (we drove to the office to get one ourselves, cutting our time from one week on a service call to a few hours for us to go pick it up), and then they couldn’t get the modem setup in their activation system or their billing system. Tim has spent countless hours on the phone with their customer service, trying to get it resolved. We still aren’t out of the woods yet – we still have to make the switch in our email address.

And, on top of that, Tim is so aggravated with the cable company, that he wants to shuck it all out the window and go get DSL through the phone company and mount a satellite on our house to get our TV that way. So, this may be the first of many outages for my Internet access and email. Oh, and to be safe, if you want to email me (provided I have Internet access), don’t use the roadrunner account any more. You can leave me a comment here and I’ll send you the email address I will keep and use through the conversion process.

On the bright side, I got a lot done around the house with no Internet access and no phone service! I watched some TV, did a lot of reading, caught up on the laundry and housework, baked some banana bread, and the biggie – started cleaning out our home office. You literally could not see the top of the desk, and I’m starting to see desktop wood now! Woo-hoo 🙂 I still have a ways to go, but I made a really large dent in it!

Hope everyone else is having a great week! Our technological woes continue around here. I hope they don’t rub off on anyone else

I realize my little blog has been more boring than normal lately. I seem to just be posting memes, and of course, I do post a photo every day (usually with a little story or blurb) over at my Project365 blog. Go check it out if you haven’t lately (shameless plug!). 😀

I thought it was time for another Question of the Day… today’s question is all about puzzles. Do you work any kind of puzzle- crossword puzzle, other word puzzles, Sudoku puzzles, or any other kind? If so, what do you do and what do you like? Do you work them online, in the newspaper, in books, or what?

Here’s my answer – puzzles are sort of a happy thing for me. I like them and go through phases of doing them myself. I went through a huge Sudoku phase last year, where I worked a lot of Sudoku puzzles. Mostly online, or ones in the newspaper. I know my sister Gail bought a book, and I think my sister Suzanne bought a book for our dad. We are trying to get him interested in something! Puzzles are a happy reminder to me of my mom. My mother got up every morning and worked the crossword puzzle in the newspaper. She worked the “Jumble” too. She loved puzzles and she was really really good at them. She knew all of those obscure “crossword puzzle words” that they use that the average person doesn’t know. It’s an omnipresent memory I have of her, working the puzzle every morning, drinking her coffee and smoking her cigarette. (I won’t jump on that bandwagon today. Cigarettes are nasty things and they took their toll on my mother before she passed away).

Lately, I’ve been doing these “word-seek” puzzles. You know the kind, where you find them forward, backward, vertical, diagonal, in a block of letters. I used to do those when I was younger, and I’ve been on a little kick with them again lately. I’m sure this too, shall pass 😀

So, how about you? Do puzzles of any kind interest you at all? If so, what kind, where or how do you work them? Leave me a comment and let me know!

This week – Ten Movie Characters You Love:

Ooh, tough one. I love so many movies and so many characters, it’s actually hard to narrow it down!

1. Aragorn – Lord of the Rings movies (Viggo Mortensen)
2. Legolas – Lord of the Rings movies (Orlando Bloom)
3. Kathleen Kelly – You’ve Got Mail (Meg Ryan)
4. George Bailey – It’s a Wonderful Life (Jimmy Stewart)
5. Trinity – Matrix movies (Carrie-Ann Moss)
6. Lara Croft – Tomb Raider movies (Angelina Jolie) – both #5 and #6 are kick-butt girls, love em!
7. Will Thacker – Notting Hill (Hugh Grant)
8. Luke Skywalker – original Star Wars movies (Mark Hamill)
9. Westley – The Princess Bride (Cary Elwes)
10. Jason Bourne – Bourne movies (Matt Damon)

Also, because I can’t pick JUST 10:

Melanie – Sweet Home Alabama (Reese Witherspoon)
Toula – My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Nia Vardalos)
Ouiser Boudreaux – Steel Magnolias (Shirley MacLaine)
Lucy and Jack – While You Were Sleeping (Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman)
Alex Hitchins – Hitch (Will Smith)

UPDATE: Well, as my dear friend Susie pointed out in the comments, she had done this one before, and lo and behold, so had I! I wasn’t completely consistent, but pretty close. I named almost the same ones before, with a couple of exceptions. All depends on what movies I have seen recently or are stuck in my head, I think 😀

I haven’t played in a while, so I thought I would play along this week. Click here to go and answer for yourself. This week’s questions are all about our vehicles 😀

1. What kind of automobile do you drive? Ford Explorer. Love my SUV’s, I like being up where I can see
2. What kind of automobile do you WISH you drove? I wish they would come out with a hybrid in a larger SUV. We thought about getting a hybrid Ford Escape, but I liked that the Explorer was bigger. I’d get an Expedition, except it wouldn’t fit in my tiny garage, LOL 😀
3. When is the last time you bought a vehicle (new or used)? We always buy new vehicles. Mine will soon be 2 years old, so 2005
4. What is your color of choice as far as vehicles go? Normally, we buy neutral colored vehicles. Tan, Gray. Tim “made” me go all out this last time and we got a dark red, burgundy color. Love it 🙂
5. Do you regularly have your oil changed? Yes, by my adorable, he-can-do-anything husband. It’s GREAT to be married to a handyman. Tim can build anything, fix anything, do anything. It’s wonderful. When I start reminding him that it’s time to change the oil in our vehicles, he does it all for me.
6. How long do you generally keep a vehicle before thinking about buying a new one? We are old school. We are both of the mindset to get a car and drive it till the wheels fall off. We normally keep our vehicles 8-10 years. We take excellent care of them, and unless we’re having problems with them, we keep them a long time.
7. What kind of automobile will you buy next? Not sure. Either a new truck for Tim or another SUV for me, but it will be a while. Depending on what gas prices are doing when it comes time to buy, we will probably buy a hybrid vehicle next.

Time to get all organized and plan all of the meals for the week. I have to scoot out to the grocery later today, so this always helps a lot. Keeps me from overbuying 🙂 As always, thanks to Laura over at OrgJunkie for hosting this every week. Be sure to stop on over and check out all of the other yummy menus!

Sunday – leftover steak fajitas

Monday – Maple BBQ chicken sandwiches, oven fries, corn

Tuesday – grilled pork chops, rice, green beans

Wednesday – Light Night before Tim weighs in – egg mcmuffins, oatmeal

Thursday – Sausage dogs (deer sausage we have in the freezer, wheat hoagie buns, grilled peppers & onions), pasta salad

Friday – Chicken Fajitas, homemade guacamole, black beans

Saturday – Date Night or TBD (burgers or pizza, maybe)

In keeping with the recent movie motif (I blogged Friday on my Project365 blog about the movies I picked up at the rental store, and I did that fun movie meme yesterday), I thought I would do a quick review of the 2 movies we watched this weekend.

Friday was the first time I had walked into the video store in a couple of months. We’ve mostly been watching TV or movies we own, or some on HBO (we’re still getting free HBO a while longer through our cable provider). I have quite a few movies on our rental list, and so I went ahead and picked up a couple of them. One for me, “The Holiday” with Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Kate Winsley, and the Disney movie, “The Greatest Game Ever Played” for Tim.

Both were good movies, in their own way. “The Holiday” was cute and light, although it wasn’t the greatest chick flick I had ever seen. It was a decent rental though, and one I am glad that I got to see. I liked both of the British actors the best, Kate Winslet and Jude Law. I’m not a big Cameron Diaz fan and even less do I like Jack Black, although he was ok in this movie and didn’t annoy me. Tim watched it with me, and we’d give it about a 7 out of 10.

The other movie is in the same vein as all of the other Disney sports movies we’ve seen and enjoyed. Movies like “The Rookie”, “Remember the Titans”, “Miracle” and “Invincible”. All good movies, all true stories, all heartwarming and inspiring, and best of all, all very clean. Good family movies. This one, “The Greatest Game Ever Played” is a golf movie, which of course is Tim’s favorite thing on the planet. So, I knew he would like it 🙂 I really enjoyed the movie too, and we both rate this one pretty high, probably a 9 out of 10. We were both tickled at the beginning because it starts off by saying on the screen “This is a true story”. Unlike the standard, “Based on a true story”. It’s an obscure story, about an amateur golfer way back in 1913, but it’s a good one.

Tonight, we’ll do the Sci-Fi thing – watch The Dresden Files and then the season finale of Battlestar Galactica, my favorite show on TV. We’re still boycotting Amazing Race, but we’ll be back in the swing of heavy TV watching tomorrow with Prison Break, 24, and Dancing with the Stars. Tuesday is even busier – we’ll have 2 VCR’s going and be watching a third set of shows.

How about you – have you seen a movie lately that you like and would recommend? 🙂

Snagged this one from Deb over at Sugarfused. Thanks for letting me swipe it, Deb!

Movie Meme

1. Name a movie you have seen more than 10 times. Star Wars. You’ve Got Mail
2. Name a movie you’ve seen multiple times in the theater. Star Wars
3. Name an actor who would make you more inclined to see a movie. Clive Owen; Christian Bale
4. Name an actor who would make you less likely to see a movie. Will Ferrell. Blech.
5. Name a movie you can and do quote from. Star Wars. Lord of the Rings. You’ve Got Mail. O Brother, Where Art Thou
6. Name a movie musical in which you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs. The Sound of Music
7. Name a movie you have been known to sing along with. The Sound of Music
8. Name a movie you would recommend everyone see. All of the Lord of the Rings movies
9. Name a movie you own. All of the Star Wars movie, all of the LOTR movies (and a hundred more!!!)
10. Name an actor who launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops. Mark Wahlberg
11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what? Nope.
12. Ever made out in a movie? Not much
13. Name a movie you keep meaning to see but you just haven’t gotten around to yet. See all the ones listed on my sidebar!
14. Ever walked out of a movie? Yes. Yanks years ago and “Forget Paris” in 1995
15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater. Titanic
16. Popcorn? YES!
17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)? We go sporadically during the year, but a lot in the summer when all of the blockbusters come out
18. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater? Hmmm, not sure? It might have been “Facing the Giants”
19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie? Comedy or Romance
20. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater? not sure, maybe The Sound of Music?
21. What movie do you wish you had never seen? Any Given Sunday
22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed? Memento
23. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen? Sixth Sense
24. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen? What Women Want

Friday, March 23, 2007
Feast One Hundred & Thirty Six

Appetizer
Who is your favorite news anchor/reporter? Why? You know, I really don’t have a favorite. I don’t watch a ton of news in the traditional news hour/anchor format. I guess I like Brian Williams on NBC and I do like Charles Gibson on ABC. I also sort of like Shephard Smith on Fox, but I wouldn’t really have a preference to any of them at this point.

Soup
Name 3 foods that are currently in your freezer. Boneless skinless chicken breasts, bone-in pork chops, whole green beans (and tons of other stuff; I’m a hoarder!)

Salad
If you were to have the opportunity to name a new town or city, what would you call it? How about Happiness or Sunshine or something cheerful?!

Main Course
What will most likely be the next book you read? After I finish “44 Cranberry Point” (4th in the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber), I’m going to finish the 5th and final book in the Abram’s Daughter series by Beverly Lewis. After that, I haven’t decided yet! 🙂

Dessert
What’s the first thing you notice about the opposite gender? Eyes, smile

Now this is a holiday I can totally and thoroughly embrace – today is National Goof-Off Day! Click here to read a little bit about it. I thought it was sort of interesting that it all sort of stems from Nintendo and a study they did that showed males of a certain age would rather spend their free time playing video games than anything else. Well… DUH!

I’m actually going to do my very best to observe this most wonderful of holidays today. I’m hoping to goof-off and watch some TV, maybe catch up on reading blogs, and read a book. What about you? What would you do if you could goof-off some today? For an hour, for a few hours? What’s your favorite way to goof-off? That’s today’s Question of the Day! Leave me a comment and let me know – and be sure to enjoy today! Have fun goofing off! 😆

Keeping it Short

1. Short Stories? Or full-length novels? Full-length novels for me. Mostly fiction. I don’t read short stories much at all.

2. And, what’s your favorite source for short stories? (You know, if you read them.) Don’t really read them.

Not too much blog-worthy going on around here, but I thought I’d do a short set of bullets:

My sister Gail came yesterday, and we went shopping and hung out all afternoon. Lunch was at Chick-Fil-A (Gail let me pick!) Love their chicken sandwiches and diet lemonade and I love that I can get fruit instead of fries. I feel like I’m eating better 😀 We bought stuff to make an Easter wreath for my door and Gail helped me put it all together. She did the bow, which was wonderful. I can’t tie a bow to save my life. Heck, I can barely tie my shoes! I just posted a photo of my new wreath over at my Project365 blog. Check it out here