Exceedingly Mundane

I was going to post a “Question of the Day“, but thought I’d better post a “Happy Halloween” post instead. Or we could combine them! Yeah, that’s the ticket, let’s do that 😀

Hope everyone has a great Halloween, if you partake of this holiday in your house. Since we don’t have kids, we don’t really go out very much for Halloween. I put fall decorations out front a couple of weeks ago (mums, hay bale, scarecrow and pumpkin, NOT carved!) and a plastic lighted pumpkin and lighted ghost that I’ve had for years (and are quite faded, thank you!). We have a big bowl of candy to give out to the trick-or-treaters that we will get. We don’t get as many in our neighborhood as we have in the past. More and more kids in our neighborhood are getting to be teenagers and don’t go trick or treating. I’ll post a photo over at my Project365 blog of the before and after of the candy bowl, later today and tomorrow. 🙂

In years past, we have dressed up a little on Halloween, but it has been a while. I’m wearing an orange Halloween t-shirt and jeans today, and that will be the extent of it 🙂 Tim won’t wear anything remotely orange though 🙂 I went and got my hair cut this morning and the owner and stylists were all dressed up in full costumes! They were a hoot, and I wish I had taken my camera 🙂

How about you? Are you wearing anything today that is remotely Halloween-themed? Will you go to a Halloween function tonight, or take your kids trick or treating? Will you stay home and give out candy? Will you turn off the lights and pretend that today is not Halloween? Or do you just not recognize this day at all? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Let’s see, I haven’t written much lately about what all has been going on with us. Nothing exciting, but I thought I’d do a quick bulleted update 🙂

We did good last week, sticking to the menu plan, for every day but Friday. We ended up eating at home, but not what I had planned. Tim wasn’t feeling well, so we just had some souped up ramen noodles. We did eat out a fair amount over the weekend though. Seems like we end up doing that almost every weekend! Oh, and the one new recipe I tried last week worked pretty well. We both liked it. Didn’t love it but we did like it 🙂

Thanks to Laura over at OrgJunkie for organizing and hosting this each week! Go check out her blog and you’ll find tons more recipes and menu plans.

Sunday – we had Chinese take-out (sesame chicken for Tim, shrimp egg foo yung for me)

Monday – Chicken Soup with Barley & Mushrooms, homemade bread

Tuesday – Grilled Chicken Sausage Wraps, baked sweet potatoes

Wednesday – light night before Tim weighs in – Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

Thursday – Waffles, turkey bacon or sausage

Friday – Date Night, probably eat out

Saturday/Sunday – TBD

Feast One Hundred & Sixty Six
October 26, 2007

Appetizer
Name a great website you would recommend to others. Nothing new here, but I really like AllRecipes.com and RecipeZaar for recipes. Tim likes the Kim Komando site for PC and electronic related stuff (www.komando.com).

Soup
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 as highest), how often do you dream at night? Probably just a 3 or so. I don’t think that I dream a lot. I know for sure I rarely remember them.

Salad
Did you have a pet as a child? If so, what kind and what was its name? When I was really little, my sister Suzanne had a dachshund named Dusty. We didn’t have him all that long, because he got run over by a car. I got a golden retriever when I was about 12, and she was all mine. I loved that dog dearly. She passed away of old age after I had graduated college. I still miss her 🙂

Main Course
If you had the chance to star in a commercial, what would you choose to advertise? Gosh, I don’t know! Maybe Walmart or Sam’s or Target, since I go there all the time!

Dessert
What is your favorite kind of hard candy? Hmm, not big on hard candy. I don’t like hard peppermint (but I love the soft ones), but I do like cinnamon and sometimes butterscotch. I bought some Werther’s coffee flavored caramels a few weeks ago, and I love those. So yeah, those!

This week’s topic: Read With Abandon

I would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So . . . what books have you abandoned and why?

Well, I haven’t participated in this meme in a week or so. I thought I’d play along today 🙂

This is a good one for me. I love to read, but I seem to be pretty settled in my reading habits. I don’t usually pick up books or authors that I don’t like. I think in the last 3 years, there have only been a handful of books that I didn’t really like or love. I can think of three off the top of my head, but I did go ahead and finish them. I didn’t really enjoy them, but I have a completion complex, so I usually struggle through until the end. I can’t think of a single book that I’ve read in the last few years that I abandoned and didn’t finish. I think I know what kind of books and authors I like, and I tend to stick with those. I don’t stray too much out of my comfort zone.

Let’s see, the ones I can think of that I didn’t enjoy (I didn’t abandon them, but I didn’t like them either) are: “Talk to the Hand” by Lynne Truss. This was just not something I’m interested in; it was more like a textbook than an enjoyable, escapism, fiction book, which is what I enjoy reading. “The Falls” by Joyce Carol Oates. Ugh. I disliked this book. I do not want to try anything else from this author. It was boring, depressing, and basically had no redeeming factors for me. Ick. The other one that I didn’t really enjoy was “The Last Days of Dogtown” by Anita Diamant. Now, I picked this one up without knowing anything about it, because I loved, loved, loved her book, “The Red Tent”. This one was just not something I wanted to read about though. Depressing and a huge downer. About a dying village and all bad things happening to the villagers. Didn’t enjoy this one. I like books that have a redeeming quality, good characters, a happy ending. 🙂

Happy Reading!

I finished a great set of books that I borrowed from my sweet mother-in-law a few weeks ago. They are by Christian author Colleen Coble, who was a new author for me. I will definitely look for more of her books, as I really enjoyed these! I think these will probably always be my favorite of hers though, since the subject matter is one I love – dogs. The main character – Bree Nicholls – has a search and rescue dog named Samson. I fell instantly in love with Samson! What a magnificent dog, and I loved reading about him, about Bree, her family and friends, and the plots that Mrs Coble wove in these three books. I’d go so far as to call them a Christian version of a cozy mystery, as there was a bit of mystery and suspense to each one. Whether it is kidnapping, murder, an unexplained death, something is always happening in the small town of Rock Harbor, located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I got totally caught up in their stories and really enjoyed them. I hated to see them end, which is always a sign that I love the books and characters.

I also discovered that not only does Colleen Coble have her own website (www.colleencoble.com), but she also contributes to a Christian writers blog called “Girls Write Out“. The group posting here includes Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter and Diann Hunt. It’s become a new favorite place to lurk and read. 🙂

For the record, that makes 93 books read so far this year, for a total of 27,611 pages. Up next is a cooking themed cozy mystery by another new-to-me author, Miranda Bliss. The book is called “Cooking Up Murder” and is the start of another series. After I finish this one, I’m going to read the next in the Cedar Cove series for me, #6 (6 Rainier Drive) by Debbie Macomber. I’m trying to be good and work on series I have already started, even though I have tons of other books I want to read, and lots more new series I want to start. I hope to find some time soon to make a separate page here on my blog to track all of the series books that I have started, completed, and also hope to read in the future. One day… one day!

Happy Reading!

Today’s Question of the Day is a nosy one! What’s under your bed?

I have actually been working on this through the last couple of years. Our closets are a bit cluttered, and I do try to “hide” some stuff up under the bed. I’m ashamed to say that the biggest thing under our beds are the mountains of dust bunnies. I looked up under our master bed a few weeks ago and was so surprised to see literally inches of dust piled up. I guess I should clean up under there occasionally, but it’s just so hard to get to, and I don’t move beds. 🙄 Anyway, we have one of our guest bedrooms as the office, so we only have two beds currently. I use the space under the guest room bed for storage. I have one of those big Ziploc “big bags” under there (this is a recent project, I blogged about it here) and I have all of our old annuals from high school and college. I also have some spare photo boxes under that bed, as well as some jigsaw puzzles we have and have not worked. Under our master bed, I have one of those Rubbermaid or Sterlite under-bed storage boxes that holds memorabilia from my childhood. I also have some stuff from past vacations (I need to go through this stuff, throw some out and organize it). The other thing up under our bed are our big stadium seats. We don’t seem to have a good place to store them, and one time my husband shoved them up under our bed, and they’ve been there ever since!

So, how about you? What’s under your beds? Out of season clothes, books, memorabilia, toys, books, or you have no idea? Please tell me that I’m not the only one with piles of dust bunnies! 🙂 Leave me a comment – Inquiring minds want to know!

Have a great day!

We’ve been eating out a lot over the last several days. Time to buckle back down and cook us some homemade meals. Don’t get me wrong, I love eating out and picking up food. But, boy oh boy, I eat a lot more that way! 🙂

As always, thanks to Laura at OrgJunkie for organizing and hosting this each week! Go check out her blog and you’ll find tons more recipes and menu plans.

Sunday – we had leftover Chinese, plus potstickers from our freezer (big box at Sam’s, these things are really very good!). Tim had leftover Spicy Chicken in Garlic Sauce and I had leftover shrimp with broccoli

Monday – Panko Chicken Strips, smashed potatoes, veggie

Tuesday – Chili

Wednesday – Light Night before Tim weighs in – eggs, oatmeal, toast

Thursday – new recipe for Crockpot Pork Chops with Apples, veggie (if it turns out good, I’ll post the recipe later)

Friday – Date Night or if we stay in – Shrimp Fried Rice, potstickers, egg rolls

Sat/Sun – TBD

Well, I had a great day yesterday. I got to do what I wanted all day (no housework or cooking!), and Tim, of course, went all out for my birthday again this year. He’s such a good guy. He knows that birthdays and holidays mean something to me, even though they don’t really to him. Tim is much better with the “every day is special” kind of mentality than I am. I tend to put stock in birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, things like that.

I just posted a short entry, with photos, of what I got, over at my Project365 blog. (click here) I know a lot of you guys don’t peruse that blog, but I hate to double post, so I’ll just have to ask you very politely to go check it out over there.

We have the “birthday rules” around our house. The birthday boy or girl gets to pick where they want to go eat on their birthday, and what they want to do on their special day. In addition, we also observe extended birthday rules. Which means if your birthday falls on a Thursday through a Monday, you get the whole weekend thrown in, for free. 😀 I’ll try not to be too pushy this weekend, but it’s nice to know I can pick something.

I had asked to go to our new PF Chang’s for my birthday last night. They opened last month, and we’ve heard from lots of people that they have long lines and waits up to two hours, since they’re new. Tim called yesterday for reservations. The lady told him, we’re booked between 5 PM and 8:30 PM, but you can come before 5:00 or make a reservation for after 8:30. Well, I definitely wasn’t hungry at 4:30 and I hate to eat late (yes, 9 PM is late for me!), so I chose to go to my favorite Italian place instead. Besides, when I go there for my birthday, I always order tiramisu! Tim got me an ice cream cake this year, something new, rather than my standard chocolate cake. It’s still in the freezer since we had tiramisu last night. We’ll have to pull it out over the weekend and taste it 🙂 Lucky for me, PF Chang’s is really close to our house and maybe in a couple of months, the crowds will die down and we can go check it out. I really do want to eat there soon, but I just didn’t want to eat at a funky hour on my birthday!

Now, we have to find a way to celebrate Beau’s birthday tomorrow. I got him last year for my birthday. Hard to believe he’s been with us for a whole year. 🙂 I bought him a new Kong toy a week or so ago, and so far, that looks like it’s going to be all he’s going to get. I went to Target yesterday to get him a new bed, but couldn’t find one I liked. I’m sure he won’t mind not getting anything else. I’d like to be able to observe his birthday when he was born, but since we have no idea how old he is or when he was born, we will just have to use the day we brought him home from the rescue as his birthday. I don’t think he’ll notice 😀

Feast One Hundred & Sixty Five
October 19, 2007

Appetizer
If you were a dog, what breed would you be, and why? Oh, I’d be a golden retriever. They are loyal, happy and love their owners unconditionally

Soup
What does the color purple make you think of? Royalty. Or occasionally that movie and book 🙂

Salad
Approximately how long does it take you to get ready each morning? About 45 minutes to an hour, depending on where I’m going and what kind of clothes, make-up are involved 🙄

Main Course
How many cousins do you have, and are you close to them? OK, this opens up a whole different can of worms. I had one uncle I knew, and one I did not. The one I never had any contact with (he and my dad were not on speaking terms), had 3 children, I think, so they would be my cousins. However, I don’t know their names and have never met them. I grew up without an extended family – never really seeing uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. Then, I marry Tim. Tim who has a huge family. His mom is one of 8 and his dad one of 5. He literally has dozens of cousins. I tried to count them one time and wasn’t sure I got them all. I think I counted 27 or 28 first cousins. I’d be hard pressed to name them, but I’ve met almost all of them through the years. I know some of them pretty well, he had some really great cousins 🙂

Dessert
Take your initials (first, middle, last) and come up with something else those letters could stand for. (Example: SFO = Sweet Funny Otter) Ugh. I haven’t had any coffee yet, so these kinds of things are hard. How about SKH — Some Kick Heroes ? Or Stuff Kelvins Heat? Gosh, I’m not good at this 😀

Not going to blog much today. I’m going to be lazy some today, go run errands later and hopefully read some on my book. Isn’t that exciting? I won’t be blogging though, or spending much time reading other blogs. I’ll try to catch up tomorrow.

Last year, I posted this bit about “On this day in History”. Apparently, today is a bit of a mundane day in history, as well!

Two years ago, the post was “What does your Birthdate Mean?”

It’s sometimes hard for me to believe that I’ve been blogging over 2 1/2 years. This is post number #1875. Yikes! 😀

Back tomorrow with Friday Feast and maybe something remotely interesting 🙂 Have a great day, everyone!!!

As seen on Kailani’s blog, An Island Life, a couple of weeks ago…

What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now? Tons of different ones. We have Lever 2000 body wash, I have some Dial body wash, then two scents of Bath and Body Works

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? Nope. I have some other fruit, but not watermelon

What would you change about your living room? Gosh, where to start!

Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? Dirty. I ran it yesterday, and always unload it as soon as it’s finished.

What is in your fridge? Lots of food! Hehehe. Milk, orange juice, leftovers, yogurt, lots of cheese, lettuce, carrots, condiments out the wazoo

White or wheat bread? Wheat

What is on top of your refrigerator? a decorative plate, some cookbooks, my George Foreman grill

What color or design is on your shower curtain? Maroon, striped

How many plants are in your home? 3 live ones that I want to get rid of and several fake ones

Is your bed made right now? Of course!

Comet or Soft Scrub? Both

Is your closet organized? My side is. You know who hasn’t worked on his.

Can you describe your flashlight? Pink. Really old. Tim has a lot of black, guy type flashlights in the garage and cars though

Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home? Plastic most of the time

Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now? Yes

If you have a garage, is it cluttered? Hmmm, a little. But that’s outside, so that’s Tim’s domain

Curtains or blinds? Both.

How many pillows do you sleep with? One

Do you sleep with any lights on at night? No way Jose. I have to have it dark to sleep. Just the little LED glow from electronics is more light than I like

How often do you vacuum? Once or twice a week

Standard toothbrush or electric? Regular one

What color is your toothbrush? Pink!

Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch? Yes, it has fall colored leaves on it and actually says “Welcome” in the center!

What is in your oven right now? Not a thing

Is there anything under your bed? Yes, and this is a forthcoming Question of the Day

Chore you hate doing the most? Probably dusting or cleaning the shower

What retro items are in your home? Nothing really. I have one antique, a love seat from my grandmother’s family that is probably 150-175 years old

Do you have a separate room that you use as an office? Yes, our spare bedroom

How many mirrors are in your home? I had to count! Six, decorative plus bathrooms

Do you have any hidden emergency money around your home? Umm, possibly

What color are your walls? Most of them are a neutral with a hint of a light peach to them. I hate them. I want to paint but I hate to paint. Master bathroom is a faux two-tone khaki and the kitchen is yellow. The only rooms we’ve repainted!

Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home? Yes, Tim does

What does your home smell like right now? the Yankee Candle “Harvest” candle I’m burning right now

Favorite candle scent? anything that smells like something baking or sweet

What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now? kosher baby dills

What color is your favorite Bible? Black

Ever been on your roof? No. But Tim has been up there many times.

Do you own a stereo? By stereo, if you can count the conglomeration of receivers, cd changers, woofer and surround sound speakers, yes!

How many TVs do you have? Three

How many house phones? Three

Do you have a housekeeper? Me!

What style do you decorate in? Comfy cozy

Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints? Most everything is a subtle print

Is there a smoke detector in your home? Yes, two sets. The builder installed electric ones, which we thought was stupid, because if the power is out, HELLO, they wont’ work. So right beside each of the electric ones, we installed battery powered ones.

In case of fire, what are the items in your house which you’d grab if you only could make one quick trip? Assuming Tim and Beau were safely out, I’d grab my laptop, my iPod, and as many photo albums and scrapbooks as I could get

Feel free to grab and play along at your blog, if you’d like. Leave me a message if you do, so I can come visit and read all of your answers! 🙂

I was going through another old magazine yesterday and saw another one of these fun polls. These are in Woman’s Day magazine, in case you’re interested (since I keep stealing their ideas and posting them here!). This is one of those magazine subscriptions I get for free – I cashed in some points at one of my “read emails/take surveys” points sites online, and I get several magazine subscriptions free every year from doing that. Anyway, here’s another good one.

If money were no object, where would you go on vacation?

1. A Theme Park like Disney World, in style with deluxe accommodations
2. On safari in Africa
3. A cultural tour of Paris, Rome and London (museums and art, baby!)
4. The sunny islands: Hawaii or the South Pacific

Cast your vote now 🙂

Wow, I am always so humbled and appreciative when you lovely people stop by, read my boring posts and leave me such sweet comments. Then, when someone goes out of their way to give me an award, I’m even more amazed! 🙂

Theresa, over at Theresa’s Life, awarded me with this “You Lift Me Up” award recently. Thank you so much, Theresa! I am so glad to have found your blog, and that you found mine 🙂

Shawna, over at Scamp’s Place, awarded me with this “Fabulous Award” – and believe me, she will beat me in any kind of contest as to who’s more fabulous. Shawna rocks! Thank you so much Shawna, for thinking of me, and believing that anything about me or my blog is fabulous 🙂

You ladies are all awesome. All of the wonderful friends and family who stop by here, all of my old and new blogger buddies, and everyone who comes by to visit. I pass both of these awards on to all of you – as an open kind of tag. I think you’re all great 🙂

Last week went according to plan. In fact, I even cooked more meals than I had planned. We skipped “Date Night” and I cooked (or at least fixed food, football food), all weekend. This week is going to be a lot easier – lots of eating out and a sandwich night! Not very exciting, but nice for me to not cook as much 🙂

Thanks to Laura at OrgJunkie for organizing and hosting this each week! Go check out her blog and you’ll find tons more recipes and menu plans.

last Friday – we skipped “Date Night” – I fixed Shrimp Fried Rice, Potstickers and Eggrolls

last Saturday – we didn’t go out of town, and our alma mater played football Saturday night on TV – we had cheese sticks and “Pigs in a Blanket” 🙂

Sunday – more football food – this time Wings

Monday – Tacos, refried beans

Tuesday – Grilled Pineapple Chicken, Grilled Pineapple, Pan Roasted Potatoes

Wednesday – Sandwich Night

Thursday – hopefully dinner out at PF Chang’s (our new one opened a few weeks ago and we haven’t been!)

Friday – hopefully Date Night, if I get to pick, I want to go to my favorite Italian place

Saturday – TBD, may be out of town

Sunday – TBD, football food of some kind