Exceedingly Mundane

Toilets!

But first, less interesting news! My dad came this week, on Monday the 24th. He had a quick errand to run at the credit union, and then came to visit and spend the night. I had setup two appointments at retirement homes near us, and he agreed to go visit both of them and check them out. Tim and I really like one of them, it’s fairly new, very close to our house, and actually the cheaper option. The only problem is that there is a waiting list, and my dad is really dragging his feet on moving. None of us can really understand. I mean, we do, I know it would be hard to sell my house and most of my things and move into a smaller apartment with strangers. But, on the positive side, he’d have all his meals prepared and served to him every day, housekeeping to clean his apartment, activities available, a shuttle service to take him places, etc. But none of that appeals to him, he sees it as losing his independence and being around people he doesn’t know. So, sigh. It’s going to be a long road. My sisters and I just hope that he is able to move into one of these before something more drastic happens, and then his only choice might be a nursing home.

Poor Tim didn’t get to play much golf this week. He didn’t play Monday and Tuesday because my dad was here (and he burned a day of vacation too, to go with us on Tuesday, he’s truly a prince of a guy!). Then he played Wednesday, but wasn’t able to go on Thursday or Friday, they had outings and tournaments scheduled at his club. So he was really looking forward to playing today (Saturday) in a tournament with our church. He got the word late yesterday that they had a lot of people cancelling, probably because of the weather, and so they cancelled it. Poor Tim, he was SO disappointed. So, instead we decided to work in the yard.

We slept late this morning, watched a little Ryder Cup (he’s also really excited about that!) and then worked outside, and put out a bunch of bales of pine straw. After that, I tried to talk him into more tv, but he wanted to work on the toilets. We had bought new parts for both toilets a couple of weeks ago, new valves and flusher things, basically all the inside parts except for the handle and big black floating bubble thingie-ma-bob! He got the master bath done pretty quickly, and said “I’ll do the guest bath and then watch Ryder Cup”.

Well, that didn’t work quite as planned! He had gotten all the parts replaced, and had put the tank bank on. He went outside to turn the water back on, and when he came back in, I heard him say very loudly “Oh No! Oh Crap!”. Which, from Tim, is very unusual and very serious! He was trying to tighten something because it was leaking and BOOM! The porcelain tank cracked and started dripping lots of water. So, we ended up having to buy a whole new toilet. He worked tirelessly for hours, never stopped for lunch, and finally got it all done. I tell you what, that boy is a keeper. I am definitely going to hang on to him, there’s nothing he can’t do or fix or replace! 🙂

So, now we’re watching football, and listening to the rain. It was supposed to rain all day today, tomorrow (Sun) and Monday. It didn’t start raining till mid-afternoon, so I think they could have gotten their golf in, but oh well. At least I have pine straw in all the flower beds, a repaired master toilet and a brand new guest bath toilet! LOL! 🙂 I’m a lucky girl! 😀

Some random and assorted thoughts and things going on:

It’s been chilly in the mornings when we walk! Sorta feels like fall. I know it will warm up, so I’m really enjoying the cooler temps while I can. One morning (just one!) was 51 degrees, so it was nice! I even broke down and splurged on a mug of hot tea Friday morning and coffee Saturday morning… they were both awesome!

Gail came Tuesday night and stayed with us while Don was out of town. I had to get my hair cut (and colored!) Wednesday morning, and after that, she ran errands with me. We went to TJ Maxx and Marshalls, and I picked up 2 more pieces of cookware.

I have been sort of wavering on Cuisinart vs Calphalon for some new stainless cookware. I had bought a couple in the Simply Calphalon line, but there seems to be a lot more sizes, shapes and even levels available from Cuisinart. I don’t really want to get a whole set, there are pieces I don’t want, and I really don’t have enough room for a large set (Tim found a 14 pc set at Sam’s he wanted to get me). Anyway, I found a couple more pieces Wednesday at TJ Maxx in the Simply Calphalon line, so I went ahead and got them. I need to pick up or order a couple more, but I think I’m going to go with that one. What I like about them is that they have a silicon grip on the handles and lid, instead of being all metal (I’m worried they’ll be hot). What I don’t like about them is that they have that black silicon grip, it doesn’t look as sleek as the all metal ones, LOL!

We also went to Kroger, the bank and post office. Gail left going home, and Tim went to play golf. He’s really enjoying the weather and his golf, his game is going well right now and he’s shooting lower scores than ever. He has one more tournament coming up at the end of the month. The days are getting shorter, so he can’t get as much golf in as he would like.

Survivor is back on and we watched the first episode Wednesday night! Hard to believe it’s the 25th season and we’ve watched every episode except the first one or two of season one. I tried the new Jeff Probst daytime talk show, and only gave it one day. I didn’t like the format. I much prefer The Chew and Rachael Ray for my daytime nonsense. I would give Katie Couric’s show a try, but no affiliate here is airing it.

Bought a jar of apple butter recently and tried it on toast, pretty good. I’m getting excited about fall and cooking more seasonal stuff with apples, pumpkins, soups, etc, and of course, Tim grilling out for football games and stuff. Love this time of year!

P.S. Saturday turned out to be a nice day together! Tim has been playing golf every Saturday for a while now, so when he said he wasn’t going to play, I got pretty excited! He’s been busy around the house and yard. We went to Lowe’s and got all new floodlights, and he’s put all of those up outside (the old ones were rusting and peeling). We also got pine straw, but haven’t gotten it out yet. We had to make a second trip to Lowe’s to get stuff to patch the roof, he found a hole in one of the shingles, yikes. Going to watch our college football game on the computer tonight, it’s not on regular tv, just ESPN3.com, so it’s hard for us to watch on the little bitty computer screen! 🙂

found this cute button on an old post at Jen’s blog, a Good Cup of Coffee, and she said it came from another bloggy buddy, Karen at Over the Backyard Fence. Both wonderful ladies, with terrific blogs. Hope they don’t mind me swiping and using!

This was the weekend that I could have done without. Tim was happy, oh so happy, since he played in his club’s two day championship tournament. He ended up doing really well, he came in second in his flight (although he was upset, he only lost by one stroke and he *really* wanted to win, he said!). I knew he was playing, and had some girly movies all lined up, a book to read, things to do, so I was more than happy to stay home with Beau and hang out. Tim was gone about 9 hours on Saturday and about 8 on Sunday, so I watched 2 football games by myself, then re-watched them with him when he got home. Both our teams lost (USM to East Carolina and the Saints to the Panthers, boo hiss).

No, the bad part was that I started getting a horrible headache on Friday. Saturday and Sunday were miserable. Friday wasn’t too bad, we went out to eat at Zaxby’s (since it’s next to Sam’s) and also ran to Marshalls and TJ Maxx and then did a huge trip to Sam’s. I may have spent more in Sam’s than ever, our bill was atrociously high. Anyway, Saturday morning I woke up and my head was so much worse. I don’t know if it’s just the weather or time of year, but I always seem to get sinus and a bad sinus pressure headache in September. Ugh. Sunday was a smidge better, not much. I did get out and go grocery shopping at Kroger, and also made a big batch of homemade calzones for Tim. He had one when he got home, and now he’s set for lunch for a few days.

Today is supposed to be rainy. It wasn’t raining this morning yet, so Beau and I headed out on our walk. Tim had to work last night, so he slept in and didn’t go. I walked a whopping 19 miles last week, so I was happy. Of course, I haven’t lost a pound (all of those cookies, homemade bread, ice cream, etc are not helping), but the exercise is good. I had hoped it would help my head, but alas, not much. It’s supposed to rain later, so maybe once that moves on through, my head will get better.
🙂

It seems like grocery prices just keep going up and up. I totally sound like my mother these days! I used to roll my eyes when she said things like “I remember when I could buy x in the store for y price”. Now, I always find myself thinking or even saying things like that out loud! And recently, Tim and I were talking about the price of gas, and especially how much it spiked after Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, and now, it’s more than double that. So, I thought for posterity’s sake, and because I love numbers, I would start trying to do a random posting of the price of items. Mostly because I think years from now, it will be easier to go back and see how much things cost!

So, for this week, here’s what I’m price checking:

Milk – last paid 3.78 a gallon for skim (at Kroger)

Gas – it was 3.44 on the sign at Kroger, and we usually use the regular 3 cent discount with card, or the 10 cent discount I amass for every $100 I spend in groceries

Eggs – 1.83 for one dozen large

Cream Cheese – regularly 1.69 a brick at Kroger, it was on sale a week ago for 1.00 each, so I stocked up. I remember when this stuff was like 79 cents a block 🙂

Ground Turkey – can’t remember how much I paid recently, and can’t find it on the sales receipt. But I try to buy the 97 or 99 perfect fat free ones from Honeysuckle brand from time to time

Ground Chuck – just bought a package of a little over 2 lbs, and it was 8.34. I don’t buy a lot of red meat, but I do buy some in the fall/winter for burgers for Tim

Greek Yogurt – Chobani brand at Sam’s, 32 oz container, 4.68 (it’s more at Kroger)

Bisquick – 5 lb big box at Sam’s, 4.94 (Tim loves biscuits and these are the easiest)

I’ll do more, and hope to remember to do this from time to time… I’ve actually gone back on my blog looking for prices of things. Oh, another biggie that we talk about it that when we were dating and first married, we would go to Sonic and get their brown bag special (2 burgers, fries/tots and drinks) and it was 5.99. Now, I think it’s 8.99 or something awful! Eating out, even at fast food places, is not cheap. I need to price check those too!

Once again, I’m playing catch-up here at my blog. 🙂 I haven’t blogged in about 11 days, so a lot to chatter about. I won’t talk about today’s date, although it is the 11th anniversary of 9/11. I remember that day well. 🙁

Labor Day was good this year, but quieter than in years past. We had gone to Terry’s house the Sunday before Labor Day, to celebrate Zack’s 17th birthday. Good grief, I remember the day that boy was born! He’s just about all grown up now. We got him golf stuff and money, which of course is all Tim’s idea. Zack is as “eat up” with golf as his Uncle Tim is. Labor Day, Tim played golf all morning and barely got home in time to start the fantasy football draft at 1 PM. We did the draft (I’m never happy with my team, but oh well!), and then ran to Chick-Fil-A for sandwiches. After we ate, we took out the baby back ribs I had defrosted, and Tim got them ready for the smoker. They smoked for several hours and we had ribs for Labor Day. No extended family here as in years past, but that’s ok. It was kinda nice to have a day off just for us 🙂

The rest of the week flew by. Tim is still busy at work during the day but is not working late hours any longer. His foot seems to have healed enough for him to be back to playing golf most every day (he normally doesn’t play on Tuesdays and Fridays, and plays every other day). He played most of the week, and both days on the weekend. Saturday was cloudy and cooler. So nice to have good weather for a change! Tim played golf all morning, then we went to a late lunch at a new place, Signa’s Grille. Tim got the philly chicken and I got a shrimp po-boy and we split sweet potato fries. Portions are smaller than most other places (although I’m sure more in line with what we SHOULD be eating), and prices were a bit higher, but it was good.

Sunday was busy with church, cooking out burgers, and the first Saints game! They lost (BOO) to the Redskins, and both of us are always cranky after the Saints lose. So, Tim went to the golf course and I ran to Kroger for food, and then piddled around the house. We watched Sunday night football and some tv when he got in. And checked on our fantasy teams!

Sunday night was cool, I woke up Monday morning and it was 57 degrees! Tim slept in and Beau and I went out walking. My app I use for walking (DailyMile) said that I walked 17.69 miles last week, and I hope to walk that or more this week. It’s cooler this week, so I’m trying to get more in. Yesterday and today, I’ve walked nearly 9 miles. Of course, I’m eating cookies, homemade bread and ice cream, so I need to be doing a lot more than walking!

Oh, and yesterday I had another incident with bugs in the pantry. This time, I opened a package of Gold Medal bread flour and there were bugs in it. I had bought a bag of unbleached all purpose at the same time and both were unopened in the bottom shelf of the pantry, and both had bugs in them. I went through everything else in the pantry (most things are in Oxo or Tupperware containers) and couldn’t find bugs in anything else. Thank goodness. Tim was SO sweet and took them back to Kroger for me last night, after he got finished at the golf course. He exchanged them (they didn’t complain or ask to see a receipt or anything, I didn’t want to go because I thought they’d fuss or say I had them in my house!) for me. He brought home new bags of each flour and I opened them up … and, NO BUGS! I was so glad. One is now in a tupperware and the other in a ziploc bag. I hope that’s the end of that!