Exceedingly Mundane

We’ve been busy bees around here. Too busy for me to spend ANY time on the computer, and really too busy for me to be doing my regular household chores. The dirty clothes and dirty floors and dust-covered furniture are starting to be very apparent 🙄

What have we been doing, you ask? Well, yesterday we planted the last of the pansies and also put out some mulch. We started prep work on some exterior painting. Tim is the painter in our house, thank goodness. I remember now that I don’t like painting. Actually, intensely dislike would be a much more descriptive term! 😀 Tim doesn’t like it either, but he’s better about sucking it up and getting the job done!!! 😀 We bought new locks and deadbolts for our outside doors and decided to paint the doors a different color. So, yesterday we did the cleaning, scraping and sanding prep-type work.

We got up right after sunup today (no walk, wah, I’m NOT a happy camper!) and started doing the primer coat. Tim is hoping it dries enough today to get the first coat of the new paint on. We’re having to leave the doors open, so it’s really weird to have all the outside, normally-locked doors wide open. Not to mention that Beau is rather baffled as to why the doors are left open, yet he’s not allowed to go in and out. We tried chaining him for a while this morning, and he was happy, as long as he could see us. When we were inside or at a different door, he was barking constantly, as if to say, where are you, where are you? He can’t run in and out because a) we’re painting the threshold over the door too and b) we don’t want his hair to get all in the paint!

I probably won’t be posting as much here this week. I’ll be posting some photos along over at my Project365 blog later on in the week. Hope everyone is having a great day and a great week!

Well, I don’t know why, but I’m having trouble coming up with a menu this week. I like to have a plan, but I don’t seem to be able to come up with a very good one. And with the upcoming “busy” season (more football, deer hunting season starts, birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas), I do imagine it’s just going to get worse! 🙂

As always, 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.

Monday – Shrimp Pad Thai, eggrolls, maybe potstickers (pad thai is a mix!)

Tuesday – Annie’s Crockpot Chicken Spaghetti, broccoli, bread

Wednesday – Breakfast Burritoes

Thursday – Crockpot Chicken Santa Fe over tortilla chips (Tim) and over brown rice (Stacy)

Friday – Sausage Corn Chowder or Cheeseburger Soup

Saturday – TBD or Date Night

Sunday – not sure… some kind of football food, probably wings!

Feast One Hundred & Sixty Eight
November 9, 2007

Appetizer
Which snack do you like to get when you go to the movies? Ooh, easy one. Popcorn. I love eating popcorn at the movie theater. I like eating it at home when we crank up a movie in the DVD player. At home, I’m good and eat plain popcorn sprayed with fat free butter spray. At the movies, we splurge 🙂

Soup
What year did you start using the internet? I think in 1995. It’s been a LONG time!

Salad
What is your first name in Pig Latin? (Here’s how to speak it if you don’t already know!) Tasy-say. I think.

Main Course
Name something you are picky about. The better question might be what I’m NOT picky about! I’m particular about being on time, about things being in their right place (towels hung up on the rack in the bathroom, utensils in the kitchen, clothes in the clothes hamper and not strewn on the floor, etc). I’m particular about quite a few things, actually. 🙂

Dessert
Fill in the blanks: I ____ ____ yesterday and I ____ ____ today. Hmmm, I stayed home and was cozy and comfy all day yesterday and I have to get out and run a lot of errands today.:grin:

Well, I still seem to be in a bit of a slump as far as blogging goes. Both in coming up with something to write about here, as well as visiting other blogs. I’m wondering how long this downslide is going to last. 😥

I’m still posting over at my Project365 blog. Check it out here.

Gosh, is gas way up where you live, or what? It’s gone up at least two times already this week at the gas station closest to our house. Last night, it was up to 2.99 a gallon. Ugh. And of course, we both drive gas guzzling larger vehicles. Tim has a big 4×4 truck and my Explorer doesn’t get the best gas mileage. All of this coming up at the time of year when we drive more than normal, with holidays and hunting season for Tim.

My doctor’s appointment on Tuesday was just ok. Some of the tests were fine, but one was not. I’m having to do additional testing and see how things go. If they don’t go well, I’ll have to go in and have a test run at the hospital. I’m feeling pretty down about that, needless to say. On the one hand, I want everything to be ok, and if it’s not, I do want to have it looked at and hopefully fixed. But, on the other hand, I don’t want anything to be wrong and I really don’t want to go into the hospital 🙂

We’re having wonderful weather here. It’s been in the mid 30’s the last two nights, so really cold in the mornings. I love it. It’s going to warm up starting today, but at least it won’t get any higher than the 70’s. Our days of 90’s are over for the year, thank goodness.

I seem to be in total denial about the upcoming holidays. I haven’t given a single thought to either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Sigh. We have Tim’s birthday coming up, so I have to focus on that too. I’m sure everything will get done and turn out fine, but it does sort of bother me that I haven’t really even thought about anything yet! 😀

OK, one quick question for you guys. I’m trying to eat more fruit. It’s harder this time of year, because I don’t like paying the higher prices for most of the fruit I like (strawberries, grapes, etc). I have been buying bananas and apples. My question is this – do you leave these fruits out on the countertop, at room temperature, or do you refrigerate them? And for bananas, do you have one of those hanging tree things? Do you think it helps keep the bananas from ripening as fast? I try to grocery shop once a week, and if I buy bananas and try to eat one a day, after about 3 days, they are really too ripe to eat. So, leave me a comment and let me know what you buy, and how you store it.

Oh, and if you want to play along, let’s see how much gas is where you live.

Have a great day, everyone! 😀

Today, I have to go to that doctor, so I’m not a very happy camper this morning. I know I’ll feel better later on, when it’s all over with. I like to plan something a bit fun to do after it’s over, so you know what? I’m going grocery shopping this afternoon 😀 I love to go shop for food, so that will be sort of like a reward for me.

Ok, today’s Question of the Day is short and sweet – are you a klutz? Are you clumsy like me? Are you forever tripping over things, running into things, slipping while chopping vegetables and slicing your finger? Yep, I do all of those and more. I burned myself on the waffle iron a couple of weeks ago, when I was making waffles. I ran into something (I have NO idea what!) and had a big purple bruise on my leg for several days. I came around the corner of the bathroom brushing my teeth, and whacked my elbow into the door frame. I’m forever doing things like that. Our coffee table in our living room has been in the same spot for years, but that doesn’t mean I don’t stub my toe on it every few months!

How about you? Do you consider yourself clumsy? Or is anyone in your family like this? Leave me a comment and let me know 🙂

We stayed pretty much on schedule last week. The weekends are so hard, and this past weekend was no exception. We just tend to get busy and eat out a lot. I’m not really sure about this week… for some reason I don’t seem to be able to come up with a lot of meals that appeal to me right now. Here’s the general plan though 🙂

As always, 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 that I put together really quick – fried rice and potstickers

Monday – Crockpot Chicken and Veggies over biscuits

Tuesday – Black Bean chili, cornbread muffins

Wednesday – light night before Tim weighs in: eggs, oatmeal, toast

Thursday – Fish Sandwiches, Sweet Potato Fries

Friday – Date Night or if we stay in, Sloppy Joes and Oven Fries, maybe coleslaw or pasta salad

Saturday – TBD

Sunday – Game Day food – maybe burgers or grilled chicken sausages, chips, dip

This rather offbeat Question of the Day is about the color of your underwear. Now, no minds drifting to the gutters, here. I’m not asking about what kind of underwear you wear (if, heaven help me, you DO wear them!), just their color. I don’t particularly want to know if you wear a thong or “granny panties”. I just want to know if you have lots of colors to choose from. Are all of your underwear one color, or do you open your underwear drawer and have a rainbow of colors to pick from?

Me, I like choices and options. I like lots of colors 😀 So, yes, if you were to sneak a peek into my underwear drawer, you’d find not only white, but also pink, peach, blue, green and even a stripe or pattern thrown in for good measure.

There, was that more than you EVER wanted to hear about my underwear? Goodness gracious, don’t worry… I don’t plan to talk about this any more, or again in the future 🙄

Feast One Hundred & Sixty Seven
November 2, 2007

Appetizer
How much money do you plan to spend this upcoming holiday season? Well, we don’t set an overall budget, but we do set a budget range for each person in the family. As for Tim and I, we don’t budget for each other. I think we’re going to spend more this year though, based on what Tim said he wants to get for Christmas

Soup
What was the last television show you watched, and was it good? We watched Survivor: China last night. I really enjoyed it! One of the players thought she had the immunity idol and she didn’t, and it was a hoot.

Salad
If you had to paint the walls of your living room tomorrow, what color would you choose? We’re actually going to do this soon, hopefully over the winter months. Probably just a nice normal khaki or beige color. We have textured walls in this house, which I detest and Tim loves, and paint doesn’t go on the same ways as it does on smooth walls. We’ll have to see how it looks and might have to get a different color. We’re thinking about painting one wall a different color, but not sure about that right now.

Main Course
Name something clever or practical you have thought of that should be invented, but hasn’t yet.Tim is always thinking of things, me not so much. I’m not very inventive. Ok — I asked Tim and he said he didn’t want to give away any of his inventions, so I will have to pass on this one

Dessert
List 3 things you would like to receive as gifts this upcoming holiday season. Hmm, a telephoto lens for my camera, a new winter coat and some Yankee candles 😀

This week’s topic: Oh, Horror!

What with yesterday being Halloween, and all . . . do you read horror? Stories of things that go bump in the night and keep you from sleeping?

I thought about asking you about whether you were participating in NaNoWriMo, but I asked that last year. Although . . . if you want to answer that one, too, please feel free to go ahead and do both, or either, your choice!

Well, another really easy one for me this week. No on both counts!

As for horror, I don’t want anything to do with books or TV shows or movies that are even remotely scary or suspenseful. I don’t like things that go bump in the night. I don’t like things popping up on movies where I gasp and my heart beats. I don’t like to be scared. And believe me, I’m easily scared. I can be in our bathroom, brushing my teeth and Tim can walk around the corner and say something to me. I yell, scream and spew out toothpaste because he frightened me – in the middle of the day, when I knew he was in the house. So, no – horror is not a good genre for me 😀

As for NaNoWriMo, I don’t participate. I’m not much of a writer, although I have visions of grandeur and imagine I could write a best selling book one day. Of course, I have very little interest in actually sitting down to write a paragraph, much less a chapter or book. 🙂