Exceedingly Mundane

I haven’t had much time to blog lately, and I don’t see that changing until after the holidays. How about you, are you crazy busy too? I’ve got a couple of Question of the Day’s coming up, and maybe a poll, but that’s the extent of it 🙂

We’re staying busy with the holiday season and birthdays. We went Saturday to my in-laws for our niece’s fifteenth birthday. When on earth did that child get to be 15? Seems like yesterday she was just 3 or 4, and climbing on my back all the time 🙂 Brittany got a digital camera and was so excited about it – me, too! I love having another budding photographer in the family!

I’ve thought for years that Brittany needs to go to vet school when she is older. The girl loves animals and they love her. Every animal I’ve ever seen around her just flocks to her 🙂

Brittany with Beau and Roscoe

Tim got a chance to test out the gun he got for his birthday, and then take Beau squirrel hunting. The dog was in sheer heaven. No squirrels, but they had a blast together in the woods!

Tim sighting his new gun

I took a couple of scenic shots that I really liked:

I love being out in the country at sunset and after dark. We just don’t see sunsets in the suburbs like this, nor do we see as many stars in a pitch black sky 🙂

Hope you all had a great weekend, and will have a wonderful week coming up. Enjoy the Christmas season!

Another long, rambling, assorted post 🙂

Our new great-nephew that was born yesterday now has a name – Max Colton. We got an email with a photo of the new family and they looked tired, but very happy. This makes our sixth great niece or nephew. We have another one on the “other side” of my family who we haven’t met – Henry was born in April but we have yet to see him. He and his big brother and sister are coming on Thanksgiving though, so we’ll get to meet him next week!

I did my weekly grocery shopping yesterday. I’m so happy to be finding two of my favorite seasonal things at the store right now – the Coffeemate flavored creamers (got Gingerbread this week) and the Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash. I can drink my body weight in that stuff, I love it. And I have to stock up, by the week of Christmas or the week after, it will be gone in our stores here.

I also went clothes shopping yesterday. I wish I were one of those kind of women who actually loved shopping for clothes, but I’m not. It’s a tedious chore for me. I do a lot better when I have someone go with me, but alas, no takers. I concentrated on sweaters and tops yesterday. I didn’t even try any pants, jeans or skirts on. This time of year, I mostly wear pants to church (rebel that I am), since I’m so cold. I think it probably looks odd to wear my three pair of black pants over and over, but hey, that’s what I am doing. I did buy some new sweaters and tops though. I tried on a dozen or more pairs of flats and boots and came away empty handed. I’ll have to go again and look for those.

I am starting to get a little panicked about Christmas. Thanksgiving is so late this year, and then Tim’s birthday is two days after Thanksgiving, so I won’t have a chance to start until after then. But, we are having our Christmas with my in-laws the weekend before Christmas, so that only leaves me a couple of weeks to get things and get them wrapped. I’m getting zero ideas from people (HINT HINT), and I really need some help and suggestions. HINT HINT.

I’m enjoying the heck out of my new iPhone. It’s so nice to be able to take it with me places and still be in touch. Tim and I both have downloaded a ton of free apps for the thing and it’s so easy and so fun. I have only downloaded one pay app – the shopping app that I have used for years on my Palm Pilot (SplashShopper). It’s not as user friendly as it was on the Palm, but at least I have all of my info. If you have an iPhone (or I guess a Blackberry, not sure they work the same where applications are concerned), which applications do you have and which ones do you really like?

Finally, Beau is the constant joy in my life. Tim and I talk about it all the time. The dog has such personality and so much energy. And he’s very vocal. He’s gotten to where he growls and barks a lot to communicate with us, in different ways. It’s very cute! And I’m also happy to say that this dip in cool weather has perked up his appetite! When we got him, he was skin and bones and it’s been my mission ever since to put some weight on him. Some days, he won’t eat much at all. Lately, he’s eating really well and that makes me happy. I took some photos of him in the past few days that I wanted to share:

1. Can you see him?

2. Maybe a close up will help – I had to part the shrub and zoom in, he was wedged inside this big shrub we have, hunting for lizards:

3. Beau takes every step that Tim takes, he loves and adores him. I’m constantly singing the Aerosmith song “I don’t want to miss a thing”, because he doesn’t want to miss anything Tim does, says or anywhere he goes. He rarely feels that way about me, but this morning, he was quite interested in the laundry. I did two loads and I bet I have 8 pictures of him doing this:

That’s my Beau baby!

Obviously I couldn’t think of a good title. I’ve used “Odds and Ends”, “Catching Up” and “This and That” so much that I probably have double digit posts under each of blog post names 🙂 But that’s what this is, a various and assorted post.

It’s cold here this morning and was pretty chilly all weekend. I feel the need to go buy warm sweaters and sweatshirts! We’ve done really good though, and have not turned on our heat yet. It’s cold at night, but we sleep under a big quilt, and we’ve just been sucking it up in the AM until the house warms up in the middle part of the day.

We went to see Quantum of Solace over the weekend. I had read a review that probably pre-disposed me to it before we went. The review said this was more “Bourne than Bond”, and I have to agree, although I love all three of the Bourne movies. But this one had a fair amount of hand-held camera work in parts of it and that bothers me sometimes. It was a good movie though, typical Bond, high-action, and we did enjoy it.

We’ve also rented a couple of new movies lately from Netflix. We really liked “Get Smart” quite a bit, didn’t enjoy “What Happens in Vegas” all that much, and Tim watched the newest version of “The Incredible Hulk.”. We also just finished Season 5 of The Gilmore Girls, and will start Season 6 soon.

We got a new window, courtesy of Tim and his brother Terry, a couple of weeks ago:

I spent a gift card I got for my birthday (thanks Mark and Amanda!) at Target, and got a small rice cooker to try out. I fixed some Chinese food over the weekend, and white rice, and it was good. I’m going to look for some new stir fry recipes to try. If you have one, let me know! Also, I think I may try to make some red beans and rice this winter and use it for that also. Here’s my little cooker with rice:

I’ve read several books lately, and have been entering them over at GoodReads. If you’re not hooked up with me there, and want to know more about what I’ve read, just leave me a comment and let me know. I’m currently reading the first book I chose for the Winter Holiday Reading Challenge, “Until Morning is Nigh” by Leisha Kelly. This book is part of a series I’m reading and that I’m really enjoying 🙂

And I hate to end on a sad note, but today is not the most joyous of days for me. Today would have been my mom’s birthday, so I’m a bit sad today. It’s always hard this time of year, through the holidays, and around Mother’s Day. I wonder if there will ever come a time when I don’t miss her…

Well. I hope you’re all having a good day! 🙂

After a really terrific weekend, my Monday is off to a roaring start. Today is the day for my annual checkup, at that lovely doctor’s office all women love to visit. I can’t say that I love to go, in fact, I dread it every year, but I do go to make sure everything is ok. Hopefully, it will all be routine and nothing is wrong. I’ve posted a QOTD in the past about this topic, and surprisingly, quite a few people said they disliked going to the dentist more than the doctor! I can’t seem to think of another QOTD along these same lines, so I’ll just ask a simple one – did you have a good weekend and do you have anything special coming up this week?

We had a really good weekend, Tim and I. We did a lot of fun things together, watched some TV and a movie, got all of my pansies planted, visited a new deli for lunch and a new coffeeshop for a cup of coffee and just generally enjoyed every minute we spent together. I don’t have a lot planned for this week, after today’s trip to the doctor. How about you?

Hope you all have a great day! Mine will be much brighter when I’m all done later today 🙂

Well, it turned out to be a busy week for me, with jury duty and other stuff going on. I haven’t had a chance to blog, or to stop by and visit most of my favorite blogs. And it doesn’t look like I will have time today or this weekend, either, as we have a lot planned.

I ended up going 3 days for jury duty. I was never actually selected and impaneled on a jury, and I was very glad. This was apparently criminal week at our local circuit court, and no civil cases were on the docket. There were at least two murder trials going on. One was a man who, with two other men, allegedly robbed, shot and killed an elderly couple, then set fire to their home. The other two men had already pleaded guilty. We actually went through the entire “voir dire” process and heard opening statements on this case. I had to raise my hand when they asked if gruesome or gory photographs or evidence that would be introduced would bother us. Yes, it would. I was not selected for this jury, and I believe they ended up with a plea bargain before the jury actually had to hand down a verdict. The other murder case reached an agreement before we began the voir dire process. It was another murder, a father who shot his wife repeatedly with a bolt-action rifle, in front of their two small children. I’m so glad I didn’t have to be on either jury. It was an interesting process though. I just didn’t really like the hour to hour, day to day nature of not knowing if I’d be serving, was being released, etc. I like to plan my days and my week, and not knowing always throws a little kink in things 🙂

This weekend is going to be busy also. For some reason, I had it in my head until a few days ago that Halloween was on Saturday night, and not Friday night. Duh. So, a week ago, we made plans with Tim’s family for a bunch of them to come up Friday, for us to eat dinner, go to a movie (Fireproof), then they’d all spend the night (well, we’re having to send his parents to a new hotel near our house, since we only have one guest room!) and the guys would work on some stuff around here on Saturday. We have a window that Tim wants to replace, and so he’s been busy with getting together a new window, shims, screws, caulk, and some other stuff, as well as a new blind for that window.

So, anyway, it clicked a few days ago that Halloween is tonight, Friday, and not Saturday. So, we won’t be here to hand out the mound of candy I’ve bought to all of the trick or treaters. I will hate not seeing our neighbor kids dressed up and giving them some candy. But, I guess there’s always next year!

What goes up, must come down. And so it goes after a really nice birthday weekend, after Tim got me lots of great stuff, let me pick where to eat out two nights in a row (calories, oh the calories!), and I generally had a lovely time. Alas, it’s back to normal now 🙂

* The weather here is wonderful. Almost fall-like! Upper 40’s or low 50’s at night, and 70’s during the day is wonderful for us. I’ve turned the A/C off and am opening the windows as much as possible. We haven’t turned the heat on yet, and I hope to prolong that as long as possible. Our electric and gas bill might look a smidge better!

* Monday 10/20 marked the two year anniversary of the day we first saw Beau and brought him home to be ours! Poor thing, he had to celebrate by going to the vet for his yearly check-up. Overall, he’s healthy and he’s such a good boy when we go in, they all comment about it. But he has persistent ear infections that we all thought were caused by food allergies. After taking another culture and examining him head to toe, his vet now thinks it could be something else, either a thyroid problem or just a nasty infection we can’t get rid of. So, we’ve got an oral antibiotic to give him for two weeks, and a newly mixed set of ear drops that have to be put in his poor ears for 7 days. I hope that helps. He has seriously had dirty, bothersome ears since the day we adopted him. But overall, I think he’s healthy and happy. I know he’s happy! We talk about it all the time – how much joy he brings to our lives, what a wonderful dog he is, how much he’s learned, and how well he’s adapted to our routines and what we ask of him. Beau no longer gets car sick, hooray! He’s eating 1-3 bowls of dry food a day, although he hasn’t gained any weight (all that running around and exercise with Tim). His favorite thing to do is hunt squirrels and lizards. His second favorite thing to do is to go to the golf course with Tim. He pulls the hand cart that holds Tim’s golf clubs and bag and walks with Tim for 18 holes. Tim says he LOVES it! I want Tim to take him hunting this winter, and I think that will become his new favorite thing 🙂

* I have a jury summons for next week. 🙁 At least it’s only for a week this time, and not a month like last time when I had a federal summons. So, if I don’t post much next week, you’ll know why…

* Our cable/DVR is through Comcast, and they finally got around to scheduling the On-Demand updates here. They warned us that they would wipe out our DVR and start over. I got up this morning (they were supposed to do it all last night) and nothing has changed. The good news is that they haven’t erased our DVR yet, but we don’t have the new On Demand stuff either. I wish they’d go ahead and do it – setting up all of our shows to record is going to be a pain. I seriously don’t know how we lived without a DVR for so long, we both love that thing to death. Greatest invention in a long time 😀

* I got a new Wii game for my birthday. I wanted to try to get one that I *might* be good at. Every game I get, Tim is wonderful at, right away, and blows me away. I think it’s just a guy thing – guys are just a lot better at video games. So, I asked for (and bought myself!) Dance Dance Revolution 2. I tried it a little and let me tell you – I have got to be the most uncoordinated person on the planet. I don’t know if I’m ever going to figure that game out. Plus, apparently I have zero rhythm. 🙁

Hope you have a great day – thanks for stopping by to visit! 😀