Exceedingly Mundane

The latest meme from a favorite site, and always on Thursdays!

Nothing is certain but death and taxes –Benjamin Franklin

Onesome: Nothing is certain- Have you ever thought you had “Sure Thing?” Did it pay off or not?
My one sure thing is Tim 🙂

Twosome: But death- Do you belive in life after death?
I believe in heaven and I believe in life everlasting because Jesus died for me. I don’t believe in coming back in another life and getting another chance to live here on earth again

Threesome: and taxes- Have you got all your tax documents squared away and ready to work on? Or are you one of the people at the post office on April 15th?
We have all the documents now, and I bought TaxCut a couple of days ago. I still have to get it installed and get it all done and e-filed. Yuck. I hate it. Dread it every year. 😡 I will, however, get it done in the next few weeks. We normally e-file anywhere from early March to mid-March. Ours is usually taken care of long before the 4/15 deadline. I don’t like to wait till the last minute.

I checked the site I use for the Tuesday Meme http://tuesdaytwosome.captive-heart.com/ off and on all day today, and was always disappointed to find that a new set of questions had not been posted. I was afraid that site had bit the dust! Luckily, they were just running late, and now the new questions are up. This week’s set is about Valentines! Yippee!!

1. Do you have plans for Valentine’s Day? If so, what are they? Nothing fancy. We used to go out when we were first married. But the last time we went out, we went to Amerigo on Old Canton and had to wait two hours. Not worth it, so not worth it. We’ll probably have either a ribeye or maybe a flank steak at home and watch tv. Boring stuff old married couples do!

2. Flowers or chocolate? Ummm……BOTH!

3. If you don’t have a significant other on Valentine’s Day, what do you end up doing and why? Not applicable, I have a very significant other (very wonderful, too, I might add)

4. What is the most romantic Valentine’s Day memory you have and what made it so memorable? Any day with Tim is memorable, holiday or not. He makes every day special 😀

5. Do you prefer traditional gift (flowers, candy, card) or do you prefer something unique and/or spontaneous?Ummm……. either one!

Well, Tim and I just finished watching the Amazing Race on CBS. Gail suggested a year or two ago that we should give this reality show a try, and she was right! There are so many reality shows out there that we don’t like, but this one and Survivor are two that we really do like.

Normally, I hate to see it end (and did again this time, because the team I wanted to win did not win!), but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. A new Amazing Race starts in 3 weeks! 🙂 Even better, a new Survivor starts next week.

I know that I am not a person that could ever do an Atkins or South Beach type eating plan (read, that nasty four letter word, diet). I could never give up my carbs! I am a carb-loading fool. I love bread. Just watch me in action at O’Charleys or Fratesi’s when they bring out hot bread or rolls. Good grief, you’d think I hadn’t eaten in a year.

Anyway, I am rather particular about my breads. I am not fond of what Tim calls “loaf bread”, which is what I call regular sandwich bread. The psychologist inside of me says it comes from carrying a sandwich for lunch five days a week, 9 months a year, for 12 years of private school. Probably. I do, however, love homemade bread and rolls. Tim bought me a breadmachine back in 1999 and it’s still going strong. I recently moved it off of my counter (which was hard to do, I fought it for over a year) to make room for other things, and my poor bread machine was relegated to a cabinet in the garage. I have always made bread a lot more in the winter than the summer. A comfort thing. I just love making homemade bread with soups and chilis and stews in the winter. So, last week I pulled out my bread machine and made a new recipe for herb bread. It was deee-licious. Today, I just started some dough in the machine for yet another new recipe, a buttermilk honey wheat bread.

Now, herein lies the dilemma. I have new yeast, fairly new bread machine flour, but I didn’t buy wheat flour at the grocery yesterday. I have wheat flour at home, the little scrooge inside my head said. But, when I opened up the canister a minute ago to get out my wheat flour, it didn’t smell quite right. I went ahead and got the dough going anyway, and have a glimmer of hope that it will come out okay. The dough goes for 1 hour and 40 minutes in the machine, then I take it out, knead it a sec, and then let it rise. I’ve found a new trick recently for getting my bread to rise if the temperature and humidity in my house aren’t conducive for rising. I turn the oven to 250º, turn it off, then put my bread in my stoneware loaf pan in the oven for about 5 minutes. It really helps it rise. Anyhooo, I digress. I hope this bread comes out. I actually came back to the computer to look up on the Internet the burning question I have – can flour go bad? What does it smell like if it does? Does wheat go bad faster? Weighty questions, yes? 🙂

The good news is that Tim is not fussy at all, and bless his heart, I think if the bread doesn’t come out, he will probably be ok with eating loaf bread or crackers with his soup. He’s such a sweetie pie. 😆

Wow, I think we’ve set a new record on the bird feeder around here. I filled up my bird feeder with some premium (I think) bird seed on Sunday afternoon, before the Super Bowl started. I just looked, and they have already pretty much emptied it (not even two days, I do believe that’s a new record here folks!). Yesterday, one time, I noticed that the feeder had 3 birds on it, one was sitting on the top of the shepherd’s hook, waiting in line, I guess, and there was a cardinal on the deck railing near by. I guess they have found the bird feeder, needless to say. Gotta go fill it back up, and remember to buy bird seed next week at Walmart!

Oh, and yesterday I saw something else sorta cute, animal-wise. On my way home from Walmart, in a steady rain, I was coming up Pebble Creek before the stop sign. And I had to stop in the middle of the street, because 4 mallard ducks were crossing the road, two pair. They took their time, I probably sat and waited 3 or 4 minutes on them to get across. Not crossing by the lake, but from one set of houses across the street to another set! We don’t ever see them over there, so I had to wonder what they were doing there! Playing in the rain, I guess. 🙂

Wow, I just read about this at a message board I frequent. I had not heard about this yet, and I hate to see things like this making the news.

Yahoo News Story

What’s the world coming to when you can’t bake cookies and take to a neighbor’s house? Granted, after 10 at night is a little late, but still!!! The girls were actually trying to do something nice. This reminds me of the hot coffee suit a while back. 👿

Last week, before we got this blog online, I wrote an entry in the Journal section of Hambones about some of the things that I am grateful for. I was reminded of this again today, because I got out in the rain again and struggled with a buggy load of groceries and sundries from Walmart.

You can probably click HERE to go check it out. Not sure that will work, so if not, just look in the Journal section and look for my entry entitled “Rainy Day Gratitudes”.

I’m still grateful for all of those, and more. For all of the blessings and things that we are so fortunate to have. To be able to drive to the store and not have to walk. To have the money to buy food and not worry about how to pay for it. To come home to a warm, dry, safe and cozy little home. To have the luxury of going during the day and not fighting the crowds at night or on a weekend, after coming home exhausted from working a full time job. I remember those days well, and am grateful on a daily basis for Tim working so hard to afford me the chance to stay home and take care of my health, myself and him. As much as he lets me. He actually doesn’t like to be fussed over that much! He likes to stay busy, which is a good thing too.

Ah, anyway, I ramble. Which is what I do. Very long-winded, very verbose. That’s me! But hey, that’s what my new blog is for. For sharing my ideas, opinions, going-on’s in my life, etc. Blog on, dude! 😆

Here’s today’s meme… I liked these questions for the most part, although they can get a little detailed. Still, better than another site that I saw! These came from This Site

1. How many clocks (not watches) are in your home? How many of them are digital? How many do you really look at during the day? Good grief, this one will take some counting! Let’s see, in the kitchen alone, several appliances have digital ones (microwave, coffeemaker, toaster oven). Also an analog one on the wall. Den has 2 analog clocks, our room has 3 (yes, we have trouble getting up in the mornings!). I have a digital in the guest bedroom and two analog ones in the office. None in the bathrooms! I look at them a lot, depending on which room I am in at the time.

2. How many lamps (non-overhead lights) do you have in your home? What’s your average wattage? Are any of them energy saver bulbs? Den has 3 lamps, not sure on wattage. Bedroom has two, one on each nightstand. Office has 2 for my scrapping, and I put those true bulbs in there which is supposed to put out better light. I don’t think any of them in the house are energy saver. Probably should be!

3. How many house plants do you have in your home? How many need more attention than you give them? Too many house plants. I have a tendency to overwater them and have water spots on the floors to prove it. 3 in the foyer, have had these for years, need to get rid of them. We’ll redo the foyer when we get new flooring in the den/dining room and foyer. One in my office, a peace lily from Dodie’s funeral

4. How many photos/pictures/drawings/child’s art are on your walls? How many from each of the four categories? Tough question for me – you KNOW how much I love pictures! I have pictures everywhere, in frames on tables, in the bookcases, on the walls. Too many to count! No drawings or child’s art – well, yes I do. I have a picture that Brittany colored when she was little on the refrigerator!

5. About how many electric gadgets are in your kitchen? How many are used on a daily basis? How many are used occasionally? How many have been used once and stashed? How many have never been used? Oh my, another one that is hard for me! I love gadgets, especially kitchen ones, and electronic ones. I have tons of appliances out on the counters. The ones I keep out, I use regularly. Microwave, digital toaster oven, coffee pot, my new can opener I love (will blog on this one soon, being the nerd that I am), stand mixer. Several are stashed in the cabinets and get used less frequently (food processor, blender, immersion blender, hand mixer, etc). I love gadgets!

I just finished reading a really good little book – One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. I’ve had the paperback laying around here for a couple of months, and just now got around to reading it. You might have noticed, I had the graphic for it on the sidebar of this new blog. That took me a while to figure out how to write the code for that, by the way! 🙂

I just posted a review for it in the Reviews section of Hambones. You can click HERE to go read it for yourself. It’s a bit off-color, but lots of fun, very witty, and an incredibly easy to read kind of book. I finished it in 3 evenings. And, am looking forward to the next one, which I believe is titled “Two for the Dough”. 🙂

Of course, I am going to read one or two books I have already bought and have here on hand, before I go to the Madison library and check out Two for the Dough.

In years gone by, we always used to have Super Bowl parties. We loved having them and having everyone here, but through the years, it has dwindled down to no one being able to come. We understand, it’s a long way here from Pineville and Hattiesburg, and the game starts late, so that puts everyone late getting back. And on a Sunday night too, with school and work the next morning. We just miss having everyone here 😐

So, now Tim and I have solo Super Bowl parties. Not as much food, not as much fun, but fun for us nonetheless. The upside is that I don’t have to do as much cooking and cleaning beforehand, and also we actually get to sit and watch the game. I never got to do that before, I was always running around doing other stuff. So that part is nice.

I just made our dip for the game. Using This relish from Harry and David. Note to self – the next time we go anywhere near a Harry and David outlet store, be sure to stock up on Moose Munch, this relish, and cherry and blueberry chocolates. Yummy.

Well, the original plan for the rest of the food was to go pick up some wings from Wingstop, then sit back and enjoy the game. (Here’s their Menu.) Both Tim and I thought that they and all the local pizza places would be swamped this afternoon, so we planned to call an hour and a half before we wanted them. And I did. And the guy at Wingstop promptly told me “we’re not accepting phone orders today”. HUH? He said, you can come here and place your order. I asked how long it would be, and he said at least 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Well, that’s fine, except that Tim and I were a little put out that they wouldn’t at least accept our order over the phone, that we had to drive there first, either sit and wait, or else turn around, go home, then turn around and drive back. So, we switched to the newly devised plan ‘B’. We decided to go buy a bag of hot wings. We just got back and did just that. We will soon have some hot wings in the oven. I just finished making bleu cheese dip for the wings, and we picked up some baked beans and potato salad while we were out. Good thing we live close to a lot of places and have a lot of backup options! 🙂

As for the game itself…. We’ve had several discussions over the past few days about who to pull for. These teams don’t mean as much to me. I had originally thought about pulling for the Eagles because of Todd Pinkston and his Forest/ USM connection, but Tim has reasoned with me, and reason has won out. We don’t like Terrell Owens and several other components of the Eagle team. We do however, really like Tom Brady and the strength of the Patriot offense and defense. Not a lot of break-out glittery stars with big mouths, just a cadre of men who seem to like the game, have respect for it, and play with a lot of class. So, it’s official now, we’re rooting for the Patriots. I may be eating crow tomorrow, but that’s ok. We’re not emotionally invested in this game. Not like if our Saints were playing, or my beloved Brett, or my man Peyton and his Colts.

If you’re watching the game, hope you have a great Super Bowl party of your own!

Another meme, I really like the idea of these! This one came from HERE

1) Do you take baths or showers?
2) Do you like the water super hot or just tepid?
3) Do you use bath gel, bath crystals, bubble bath, or other scented stuff?
4) What do you like to do when you take a bath?
5) What is your one item essential to a great bath?

Stacy’s Answers:

1) I take both, but prefer showers
2) I like it as hot as I can take it, especially in the winter
3) If I take baths, I sometimes use bubble bath. Either way (bath or shower), I use a scented body wash. In the summer, it’s usually a lighter, maybe flowery one like raspberry or cucumber melon. In the winter, it’s almost always warm vanilla sugar (from Bath & Body Works) or Vanilla (Avon – thanks Amanda!).
4) If I take a bath, I like to soak in very hot water. I gave up long ago trying to read a book or magazine in the bathtub. I dropped a brand new magazine in the tub one time, and that cured me of that need! 😥
5) Hmmm, no essential item to me except hot water. I won’t take cold showers or baths!

Tim and I went down to Hattiesburg on Saturday, to visit Daddy, Mark, Amanda, Ethan and Abby. We stopped at Daddy’s first, delivered a toaster oven, and Tim helped him on his Equities spreadsheet on his PC. Then, we called in some food at The Breeze, and stopped by to pick it up on the way to Mark’s house. The Breeze makes great sandwiches and po-boy’s. Amanda got a cheeseburger, I got a shrimp po-boy and Daddy, Mark and Tim got crawfish po-boys. We were all pretty stuffed at the end 🙂

We all visited a while, and after Amanda fed Abby, she and I left to go scrapbook shopping. We went to the sb store in Oak Grove and picked up a few things, then to Hobby Lobby. Fun trip! Tim and Mark kept the kids and watched Napoleon Dynamite (loser movie, look for a review soon on Hambones), and played the NFL trivia DVD game I gave Tim for Christmas. We came back and Amanda fed Abby again, then we decided to go ahead and go to Michaels too, while we were at it! We only got a couple of small things there, and then stopped at Popeye’s for chicken on the way back. We ate and visited a while longer, then had to hit the road to get home. Tim and I were both tired, for some odd reason.

A good day trip, we had a lot of fun! I only ended up taking a few pictures, mostly of Ethan having fun crawling on Tim (you can find these in the Photo gallery on Hambones, under February 2005). I took one or two of Abby. She was sleeping most of the time we were there. I hated to keep flashing the flash in her face and didn’t want to irritate her, or else I would have taken more pictures! She’s the prettiest little thing! 🙂

I made us some of Dodie’s No-Bake Cookies. Very fond memories for me, and they taste pretty good too! I still have the same recipe card that I copied in my very juvenile handwriting from Dodie’s recipe card, and I remember her showing me how to make them. I must be in a nostalgic mood.

We had one of my favorites tonight for supper. Background – Tim ate out lunch today (they went to Roadhouse Grill) and was not very hungry. I had high hopes for going out to eat Chinese (my all-time favorite), but Tim didn’t really want to go. So, I made us some rumien. What’s rumien, you ask? 🙂

Rumien is a Tim invention. Born out of necessity when he was in the military and had basically no money for luxuries like food. 😀 It’s a very cheap meal, and very filling. I love it becauses it’s warm and comforting and is a Tim creation – therefore, it reminds me of him and that is the main reason I love it!

Here’s how we make it – boil some water and cook rice until nearly done. Add 1 or 2 packages of ramen noodles (we’re partial to the Chicken Mushroom flavor), depending on how voraciously hungry you are. When the noodles are nearly done, we add eggs (1-2), then the seasoning packs from the ramen noodles, and finally cheese. Lately, we’ve been using a combination of pepperjack and american (we usually just tear up slices and use, but you can use shredded too). We add more seasoning (usually Tony’s and black pepper, the seasoning packs have about 2 times the RDA of sodium in each one 🙂 ). That’s it!

No, it ain’t gourmet by any stretch of the imagination, but we like it!

And please, no snobbish comments. Be nice if you add a comment

Did you wear red today? I did. Nothing fancy, just a red fleece pullover 😛 But I did wear red, for a very good reason.

I hope everyone knows why – today was National Wear Red Day. A day to raise awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States today. Heart disease is always thought of as a man’s disease – you hear about men having heart attacks all the time, but never women.

You can Click Here to find out more.