Exceedingly Mundane

Since my last blog post about what we have been doing was way back on July 16, I felt like I had a bit of catching up to do! I’ll try to break it up into a couple of posts. Not that anyone but me reads these, but I like having them down to remember. You know, for in a few years when I develop dementia or Alzheimers or whatever, all I know is my memory is bad and getting worse by the day! Haha! 🙂

July was a long, hot month of no rain. It looks like August is going to be the same way. We’re having problems with the new sod (as in, Tim sprayed some weed killer on a large portion of the front yard and some in the back, and it not only killed weeds, but has killed the grass too). We’ve lost 2 more azaleas, they will have to be replaced. We are running the sprinklers 3-4 times a week, and still things look terrible and are dying.

In mid-July, we took care of our neighbors dogs for a week while they were at the beach. I learned how to scoop kitty litter (they have a cat too!) and fed the dogs twice a day, checked on them a lot because it was so hot, and went over to read on their back porch and hang out with the dogs. It was blissful, it was like having two puppies all of my own for a week! Some days, I really miss having a dog.

We tried another couple of new restaurants in late July. One is a local place in Gluckstadt, Angelo’s. We went on a Friday night for date night. They have a strange menu – Italian, pizzas and barbecue! What an odd combination! We didn’t know what to try first, but Tim picked pizza. He picked an all meats one and it was pretty big, so we had leftovers to take home. Good thing, since Tim only ate one piece at the restaurant and I looked like a total pig, eating a whopping 2 slices! It was good, but pricey. I much prefer making my own pizza or order pizza hut than going to pay 23 bucks for a pizza! Next time, we’ll have to try the italian or barbecue.

Saturday July 18th was a fun day! Tim didn’t go play golf, so we hung out at home for a while, then headed out to Dogwood to shop all afternoon. We stopped at Panda Express for a late lunch, since I have been terribly hungry for Chinese food. It was ok, not great, but the first time I had been to one. I didn’t realize they had opened one out that way, we don’t have one near us. We shopped for rugs and art for the walls and came home with several pieces. No rug yet, we can’t agree on what we want to put on the floor in the keeping room.

Here’s some of my new wall art, I’m very happy with what we got, most of it came from Hobby Lobby:

Sunday July 19th was a tough day for Tim. We didn’t make it to church, since we knew he had to work all night. He did go play golf all afternoon, then started work around 8:30 PM. He came to bed around 5:30 AM, and I woke up and asked him, “did it all go okay?” To which he answered, “No, we had to roll it all back out”. He slept about 3 hours and got up and worked all day, trying to find the problems that had caused them to back out the code and put things back the way they were. He played golf that evening, Monday, and then was pretty exhausted the rest of the week! He has been searching for the problems and solutions ever since, and we know he has another long work weekend coming up, but we just don’t know when it will be.

Boom Shaka-laka, now June is almost over! Good grief. My mom always told me that the older you get, the more time seems to fly by, and as I’m learning, she was right about that too. She was right about a lot of things. I wish she was here for me to admit that, sheepishly, to her. I observed the thirteenth anniversary of her death this past week. 13 years that I’ve missed my mom every day. And over a year since we lost my dad, good grief, I’m getting old.

OK, back to the topic. June mostly flew by. I had my follow-up appointment after my second surgery and got a good report, it all seems to be healing. I have one final appointment, a 3 month follow-up, in late September. Maybe most of the bruising, numbness and tingling will be gone by then. Either way, I’m no longer wearing the hose, I am no longer in real pain (just the aforementioned numbness, tingling and occasional shooting pins and needles stuff), and I am so tearfully happy to have it all behind me!

My sister Suzanne also had surgery in mid June. She had a torn meniscus (I don’t think I know how to spell that word!) in her left knee and had it repaired. Crutches and PT are in her immediate future. Tim and I got her a few days after her surgery and took her out to lunch, brought her here for a change of scenery and a shower, and to visit. Gail and I saw her this past week for lunch at Jason’s Deli and she seems to be doing better.

My mother-in-law and Tim’s Aunt Jackie both had colonoscopies on the same morning at a place near our house. I went to check on them and keep Aunt Sandra company. They both had a bad time, getting sick and vomiting, which I did not experience with the prep you have to do, drinking the stuff, and I felt so sorry for them. Thankfully, this type of procedure is over fairly quickly and I think they are both fine now. Good reports, no polyps and no cancer, thank goodness!

We went to Tim’s parents house on Father’s Day weekend. Tim helped Terry all day in the new store and I got to visit with Linda and Emi and also to help snap a few bushels (it seemed like!) of green beans. Tim was wiped out by the time we got home, about 15 hours later 🙂

Gail came last week and stayed with us. It was my “make-up” shopping day, as we called it. I spent 4 1/2 weeks mostly home, recuperating from the two leg surgeries and wearing those hot, ugly hose, limping around, so I didn’t want or feel like going shopping. So we made up for it this past week! We hit most of our favorite places like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods, Target and Steinmart. Maybe next time we can hit Belk, Penneys or Kohl’s, because I wanted to find some shorts and couldn’t find a single pair that fit. I did, however, buy 4 new tops (3 casual and one for church) and some jewelry. I got a few kitchen things like a set of 3 red bowls, new measuring spoons, a grill basket, some food specialty items, etc. Needless to say, we had a blast and I look forward to her next trip down to visit and shop! 🙂

It’s gotten really hot. We had to turn the sprinklers back on and run them this past week. Then, we got a good rain one night and I was hoping for more, but alas, just hot and dry. We finally hit 96 or maybe 97 one day, which is our hot summer weather, considering how humid it is. Tim is doing his norm, continuing to play a lot of golf, no matter how hot or whatever the weather is. The only thing that keeps him from playing is when he is at the course, a thunderstorm with lightning blows in, and they blow the horn to get everyone off the golf course. That’s the only reason he is at home and not playing golf these days 🙂

I don’t tend to blog about current events or hot button topics, so I’ll only remark quickly that I was saddened and grieved for our nation, with the Supreme Court decision that was handed down two days ago. Legalizing gay marriage is something I expected, but was holding out hope that it would not be the law of the land. It doesn’t change my feelings, I believe in God and in his Son Jesus Christ. I believe the Bible is His holy word and what we all need to live by, I know it is what I try to live by always. It is clearly stated in God’s word that homosexuality is a sin before God, so our nation legalizing it doesn’t change anything for me. I deal with this personally every day, but that doesn’t mean I love my sister or others any less.

Lastly, we knocked another place off of our to-try list. We went to The Gathering at Livingston today for lunch after church. Their Sunday blue plates are fried chicken and pot roast. We both had the roast and it was deeee-licious! Good sides, good cornbread and a nice new fun place to eat. I hope we go back again soon 🙂 Of course, we have more new places to try, plus all of our regulars we love. Not enough time!

Not much to report on the tv,movie and book front. Tim thoroughly enjoyed watching the US Open and watching Jordan Speith win his second consecutive major. He’s anxiously awaiting the British Open in a few weeks, to see if he can keep his Grand Slam hopes alive 🙂 We watched a couple of movies we’ve seen before and tried to watch Noah, with Russell Crowe, before deleting it about 6 minutes in. Too far off track for me. We’re back into Major Crimes and Murder in the First. Rizzoli and Isles is on the DVR, but we haven’t gotten to those yet, and I think Falling Skies returns tonight for the final season. On the book front, my reading is subsiding now that my legs are healing 🙂 Let’s see, since my last blog post, I’ve completed “The Dance” by Dan Walsh and Gary Smalley; “Mucky Streak” (Squeaky Clean #7) by Christy Barritt; “A Simple Faith” by Rosalind Lauer (an Amish book I downloaded from the library for something different); “52 Steps to Murder” by Steve Demarree and “Attracted to Fire” by DiAnn Mills. Well, that looks like more than I thought! LOL! Still, that was most of June, so not as many as I would have liked. Not sure what’s up next, maybe I’ll get off the computer and go find a good book to read!

Coming up this week, a haircut, then the big family reunion we go to every year on the Fourth of July. Fun stuff! 😀

This blogging stuff appears to be harder than it looks!

Another month has gone by with no post from me, and even though we’ve been busy and had lots of fun things for me to blog about, I don’t seem to be able to get it down. I do keep trying though 🙂

Brittany and David’s wedding was this past Saturday. Hard to believe that she was in diapers when Tim and I got married and now she’s off and married herself. She was just a beautiful, stunning bride and they seemed so happy, so we had a great time at the wedding. Outdoors, and we were both pretty sweaty and melted down by the end, but it was worth it.

Sunday was busy, church and Sunday School, then we went to Corner Bakery for lunch. Tim offered, so I accepted. Then, he said as we were sitting down waiting on our food… “I really don’t like the food here”. So. I guess we’ll go to Dickie’s next time, his favorite place! I do love their food, and places like Corner Bakery. I love Newks and was glad to see posted on Facebook their new soups for the spring and summer. And just yesterday, they announced that we are finally going to get a Panera, down in Ridgeland. I can’t wait for it to open! Tim tolerates these kinds of places, but really doesn’t like them. Me, well, I LOVE them!!! 😀

Sunday afternoon, he went to play golf and I caught up on some stuff on the DVR. My shows are piling up, with everything else going on. Sort of looking forward to several of ours shows ending (Survivor, etc) and the rest going on break with their season finales. But then again, I will miss them and be looking for more fun things to watch!

Monday, I did some laundry and housework and got outside for a while to help Tim wash my car. I can’t remember the last time we washed a car together, it has to be over 10 years or more. Tim had gotten in the habit of taking them through the drive-through car wash. But this house is bigger, the driveway is a lot bigger and we are further away from a car wash place, so apparently I talked him into it! It was a lot of work, but fun, and I enjoy doing things with him. We cleaned that puppy inside and out – tires, rims, bumpers were blacked, leather was Armor-all’d and protected, everything vacuumed, all glass cleaned. So it’s clean and sparkly now. Today, Wednesday, we did his truck and it’s equally as squeaky clean. I felt I needed to blog about this because a) it’s been so long and b) it’s a remarkable event and c) I’m hoping it happens again soon!

Tuesday, I cleaned bathrooms and ran errands. Normally, I go to Kroger on Tuesday, but this week I had something to return to Walmart, so I grocery shopped there. And proceeded to spend 3x what I normally spend at Kroger! So, I think I’ll be going back to Kroger soon 🙂 To be fair, I got other stuff, like makeup and toiletry stuff, and I did get a lot of meat, so that’s why the bill was higher. I also dropped Tim’s suit off at the cleaners (read Saturday’s blurb, it was dirty and sweaty from the wedding) and picked up some photos I had printed at CVS. A Mother’s Day happy for Tim’s mom 🙂

Today was more housework, three loads of laundry and washing his truck. Tim is playing golf this afternoon, then having to work tonight starting at 11 PM. I imagine we’ll sleep in a bit tomorrow morning 🙂 We had been walking this week. We walked 4 miles Monday, 3.3 miles Tuesday, but when the alarm went off this morning, he said he didn’t want to go! Oh well. I have 2 surgeries coming up soon on my legs, so my walking days are dwindling for a while anyway, until everything heals.

I need to go back and blog about April and other stuff going on… let’s see – how about some highlights?!

– planted flowers and herbs (just basil, brought everything else in pots from the old house) in April in pots in the back yard. Still not planting in beds, they are just clay with construction trash and need lots of work

– saw 2 movies – The 50th anniversary showing of the Sound of Music (with Gail and Elizabeth, SO much fun!) and the new Avengers movies, Age of Ultron with all the Bargers. Fun times and movie popcorn at both!

– we got our belated anniversary presents – Tim got a new driver (golf club), a new hybrid (golf club), new golf shoes and hats (noticing a trend?!), and I got new porch furniture for our screened-in back porch.

– we had a Sunday School party in April at a new members house and had a good time and Tim went the next morning to see Zack play in the regional golf tournament, but he didn’t make it to nationals. He’s doing good though and about to finish his freshman year of college

– we had a minor earthquake about 4 miles from our house, a 3.2 (which we didn’t feel, in the car) and a second one we did feel, a 3.0, last weekend. Weird! My first earthquake!!

More stuff going on, but that’s the high points. I’m ahead of my schedule for reading, and will soon pass what I read ALL of last year, so I’m happy with that. Currently reading “Always on my My Mind”, #4 in the Christiansen family books by Susan May Warren. A bit bogged down at the moment, but hopefully will get back in the swing of things. Shows we are watching: Dancing (me), Gotham and Following (Tim), all the NCIS shows, Person of Interest, Survivor, Blue Bloods, Blacklist, Grimm (Tim) and a few others. He really enjoyed the Masters on TV in April (always on his Dad’s birthday weekend) and he watched the match play last weekend, along with the NFL Draft. Gotta get ready for football season and get some new Saints players!

Ok, maybe that catches me up a bit. Hopefully can get back in the swing of blogging, and maybe post some pictures too! I tend to do that on Facebook and Instagram and not here any more 🙁

If anyone reads this, whew, you made it! Hope you are having a great day! 🙂

No, I couldn’t think of a good title for a blog post. I’m so not creative and not good with witty titles, witty retorts, or witty anything 🙂

* Had a fun night Friday night. Went out to eat at Krilakis with Tim and Elizabeth. Yes, the same Krilakis we went to the previous Friday night. We appear to be on a roll lately with Greek. In honor of Elizabeth and celebrating her new job, we got double appetizers – pita mozz and hummus. Lamb gyros and fries for Tim, lamb gyro with Greek salad for me. I leave so stuffed, I’m nearly miserable. Came home and watched the Avengers on the new big screen. 🙂

* Busy Saturday. Up early, loaded up food and tools and headed over to my in-laws. Quick stop at Pilot/Flying J for breakfast (souped up decaf coffee for me, Krispy Kreme and scone, Coke and 2 sausage/biscuits for Tim). When I met Tim, I had never been indoctrinated into the world of gas station food. Now, I’m a bit picky about it, but Flying J is one of my favorites. They have good stuff!

* Tim spent all day Saturday working extremely hard at his parents house. They tore out kitchen cabinets, counters, flooring, paneling in the kitchen and dining room. He was tired, but Terry and Mitchell were completely worn out. I visited with Linda, Emi and Brittany. We went to Walmart for totes to finish packing up the dining room, and did a lot of sweeping and toting. We also played on our ipads, so not too tough of a day for the girls 🙂

* We left in time Saturday night to swing by the FedEx place and pick up the delivery we had diverted from our door. Our Onyko receiver has come home! Yippee!

* Sunday, Tim is still worn out. You know he’s tired if the sun is shining and he doesn’t go to play golf! He hooked up the receiver, and… it works! Yippee. So much better with the surround sound and the new TV. He’s happily watching the British Open on his big 5 foot tv 🙂

* Went to the grocery store and got some good deals. Lots of good prices on seasonal fruit and veggies. Had some coupons from Kroger and got good prices on frozen chicken breasts (saved 1.50 on a 3.00 bag), and a prepared baked chicken (saved another 1.50, so instant lunch!). Grapes are 99 cents a pound this week, so I bought a big bag of white grapes. Got them home and washed them. Tasted one, and … ICK! Soft squishy grapes. I do NOT like soft squishy grapes. I like firm grapes. These are almost sour, they are so icky. I’m so disappointed 🙁 On the bright side, I have lots of good sweet strawberries from Sam’s, and we had 2 ears of bicolor corn on the cob with the baked chicken, and that corn was delicious 🙂

Another good weekend in the books!

The long holiday weekend is history, and it’s back to a normal schedule. Although our holiday wasn’t all that spectacular. In fact, it was very normal and uneventful. We went on Thursday (July 4th) to Tim’s Aunt Becky’s house, as we always do. She is setup great for a big get-together (probably 70 people or more), and we always have a great time. We took my dad and he had fun. He enjoys getting out and seeing people. I tried to get us out in a timely manner, but Tim was visiting with cousins and other family members, so we didn’t leave until after 3. That put us back a little late for him going to the golf course. So, he hit balls behind the fence for a while and we watched tv. He made up for missing playing on Thursday by playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

He had to work on Friday, but they cut them loose a little early (4 PM, which we found hilarious, since Tim works 7-4 this time of year anyway), so he went to play. I cooked fish and roasted veggies, and we tried to eat healthy. Which was a good plan, since we ate out, and badly, the rest of the weekend. Saturday morning, we ran errands, to Lowes and Academy, then stopped and picked up burgers at Dairy Queen on the way home (Tim’s choice, obviously). He played golf till dark and ate chicken santa fe when he got home (one of my oldest and most favorite recipes to throw together). Sunday, we went to church. Our pastor is on a 6 week sabbatical, but they did start a new series in his absence, Recreate. Yesterday’s sermon was about the Sabbath and keeping it holy, a very good message. We went to brunch at Waffle House (again, Tim’s choice, obviously) and then to look at a few houses close to Tim’s golf course. We couldn’t find any in our price range that we liked. No surprise there. After that, Tim left to play golf at The Refuge and I went to Kroger for groceries. I keep meaning to go over to FreshWay produce or maybe the farmer’s market, but keep just hitting the grocery store instead. I did buy two new things, new to me, a fresh pineapple and an eggplant. I’ve never cut a whole pineapple, I always wimp out and buy one already cut up. And I’ve had eggplant out (parmesan, in Italian restaurants), but never bought one and tried to cook it before. I need to get busy Googling ideas for how to cut and cook the darn thing! 🙂

Well, I haven’t posted in two weeks. Our server was down for a few days. I’m not exactly sure what was wrong, but Tim did a lot of work on it, and things are mostly back to normal. I think he swapped out the power supply, and also had to rebuild stuff on one of the hard drives.

I never blogged about my birthday, now nearly 2 weeks ago. It was a quiet day. I understand fully now what my mom always said when I was young and growing up. I always got so excited about my birthday, and others too, and my mom would always chant “it’s just another day”. I thought she was so silly. And now, I totally understand! They don’t hold the same appeal as they did in years past! This year was very low-key. I stayed home and watched some tv, played on the computer and read a little. Tim gave me two things from a list I had given him, some perfume and a Wusthof santoku chef’s knife. I had kidded him for a while that he had run out of electronics to give me. I’ve got the Mac, I got a Kindle and then last year an iPad, so he was out of tech toys to give me, LOL!

Gail came late in the day and brought a birthday cake! No one ever makes me a cake, so that was a nice surprise 🙂 It was delicious too! Chocolate with a chocolate glaze, that’s just perfect in my book. We grilled out, some ribeyes and some salmon strips, and had sweet potatoes, homemade bread and a big salad. I couldn’t have had a better meal out in a nice restaurant, it was delicious.

Friday after my birthday, Tim was off again, but his golf course was closed because they were hosting the PGA Q-school there all week. Gail stayed and left around noon, then Tim and I headed out to run some errands. I had wanted to do our Operation Christmas Child boxes, so we went to the dollar store and had fun shopping for one box for a boy and one for a girl. Maybe next year we’ll do more, they were fun! We stopped at Party City to get some Halloween stuff, then went to Newk’s for a late lunch. Gail was still in town running errands, so she came and met us. I had lobster bisque and a salad (I love going on Friday when they have that soup!). After Newk’s, we went to Walmart to get a bunch of items and headed home. Our neighbor had left us a note that she got a new TV, so we headed over to setup her new tv and DVR. Always good to be able to help people out 🙂

Saturday, we were supposed to hang out all day with Mark and Amanda and the kids, but Mark had a problem at work and they couldn’t make it. So, we slept in and then headed to the Ridgeland Multi-Purpose trail for a walk. The weather was beautiful and we walked a long way – nearly 7 miles by the time we got back to the truck. Beau loved it though, he was so happy! Afterwards, we were headed to get the truck washed, and on the way, we saw signs for a fundraiser from the Lions Club. We stopped and got two bbq chicken dinners (which Tim ate, one on Sat and the other after church on Sunday) and then came home and rested! Sunday was church, then we stopped at Fresh Market afterwards so I could get sushi. I also splurged and got some late season figs, they were so good 🙂

To be continued in the next post!

Another busy weekend around here. Last week was fairly busy, with David and his friends coming to stay for a night, and cleaning up before and after they were here. Tim had another Friday off (he’s off every Friday in October, using up that vacation he hasn’t taken all year!), and he went to play golf. We all slept in a bit, and Beau and I left for a walk and Tim went to play. He brought us in a late lunch of Chick-Fil-A. Don and Gail came in time for supper, and we all went to eat dinner at Signa’s Grille. Gail and I had the “Godmotha”, a vegetarian sandwich (grilled eggplant, grilled squash and onions on foccacia), Tim had the Swamp Burger (burger bathed in chili and cheese) and Don had the 2 AM Patty Melt. Good food! The portions seemed a little bigger this time 🙂

Don and Gail spent the night, then the guys went to play golf Saturday morning. They finished up around lunch time, then pulled through Chick-Fil-A again to get me another grilled chicken sandwich. Gail had already left going out to Kathryn’s to help set up. We went out at 2 PM for Sam’s birthday party and got to visit with everyone. Daddy came up, just for the party, from Hattiesburg. Tim and I headed home late afternoon, and I made my big shopping run at Kroger around 6 PM, and got back in time for the USM game on TV. They are now 0-5, horrible start to what looks to be a bad season.

Sunday was busy too. The Saints had their bye week, so we thought that was a great time to go visit Tim’s parents. We left after church and visited all afternoon. Beau had a great time playing with the other two dogs, Teddy and Snoopy. Roscoe is gone, and so is sweet Rosie. I miss the other dogs 🙁 Anyway, we left before dark and got home and watched some TV. I was fairly tired!

Monday was busy with cleaning house, and making supper. I tried out my new baking stone that Tim and I got for me on Friday afternoon. It’s a rectangular black Emile Henry stone. I preheated it in the oven, and used it to make a pizza. My regular pizza dough I make in the machine was too much, so I cut some off and made breadsticks with the extra dough. The crust was crispier, which is what I was hoping, but the pizza is a lot smaller than what I make on my normal large round pan. I’m going to try the pan for other things, like freeform bread rounds, chicken strips, oven roasted potatoes, etc. It scares me a little, how hot it gets in the oven! I need new oven mitts. I feel like mine are going to get me burned!

Another busy week ahead. I’m turning another year older and we have another busy weekend on tap. Another post on that next week 🙂

Let’s see… last week Gail came to visit some, and Don came in Thursday night. Gail and Don went to the homecoming game at Hinds, out in Raymond, for Katelyn to be a part of the homecoming court. We didn’t go (we went out to eat at Krilakis and then watched some tv), but we were glad they were able to come for their granddaughter! Friday morning, I got up early and went walking with Beau, nearly 5 miles. Tim and Don left early for the golf course, and Gail left to go pick up Kathryn, Elizabeth and the kids to go to Hattiesburg. Katelyn was also in the homecoming court at Presbyterian Christian, and they went to visit Dad and pick him up for the parade. Don and Tim finished golf around lunchtime, so they swung by to get me and we all went to eat at Chili’s. Don left after lunch, having more work to do, but Tim had taken a day of vacation, so we went to run errands. We had some returns to make at Marshall’s and TJ Maxx, and we also went by Toys R Us to get Sam a birthday present (party next weekend!) and to make another big trip to Sam’s.

Saturday, we watched USM lose another game on TV, this one to Boise State. They are now 0-5 and it’s just heartbreaking. They’ve had winning seasons for the last 17 or 18 years, so it’s hard to watch. After the game, Tim went to play golf, and Beau and I stayed home. I caught up on some shows on the DVR and did some stuff around the house.

Sunday, we had church (current series: Give Yourself Away) and then we went to Corner Bakery afterwards. Tim had breakfast (breakfast panini and oatmeal) and I had lunch (cup of potato soup and a small harvest salad), and it was delicious as always. After that, we ran by Kroger to get gas (3.41 a gallon, but we had a discount from buying groceries), and to pick up food for the week. The Saints played the night game, and I made a big pot of taco soup before the game. Finally, the Saints won a game, beating the Chargers at home, so their record is now 1-4. Let’s hope this breaks their losing streak and they can turn the season around.

It was great weather over the weekend, and today (Monday). Low’s in the upper 40’s and low 50’s and high’s in the upper 60’s and low 70’s. Feels like fall! We got up at 6:15 to go walking, it’s dark and it was chilly, about 50 degrees. I love it!

Got more company coming this week (David and some friends are staying with us a night) and then a busy weekend ahead, with Sam’s birthday party.

Life is good!

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!

Another busy weekend! Saturday morning, Tim played golf. I refused to get up at 6:05 AM like he did, so I tossed and turned till I finally went back to sleep. Victory! He played till nearly lunch, then came home and cleaned up and we went to eat at his choice, Krilakis. He does love that place right now! Good thing I love Greek food 🙂 Their food is always delicious and we always enjoy it. We went to Marshalls, TJ Maxx (still hunting cookware, found 2 more pieces!), and then a trip to Sam’s. Saturday night we watched the Saints third preseason game. At least they won this one 🙂

Sunday, we met most of the family in Magee (Mark and Amanda were sick so none of them got to come), and celebrated a belated birthday for Linda. My dad came too. We visited a while and then headed home. I thought Tim would play golf, but he decided to stay home and rest, as he had to work Sunday night, for several hours. Sunday afternoon he watched golf, and then Sunday night we watched a movie I had recorded off a pay channel, Battle Los Angeles. Nothing like Marines fighting aliens 🙂

Monday brings new issues… tropical storm Isaac is in the gulf and headed our way. I made a trip to get gas (and wait in line, it was 3.53 on the pumps, but I had a 10cent discount from Kroger, so I paid 3.43), and then some groceries at Kroger. The store was as crowded on a Monday mid-morning as it normally is on the weekends, crazy. I don’t think we’ll get more than rain, but you never know. Right now, it’s supposed to hit around New Orleans on Wednesday, which is 7 years to the DAY that Hurricane Katrina struck. My dad is mulling over whether he will drive up and ride out the hurricane here, and I think he will. He’s 89 and just doesn’t want to get stuck down there with no power. I know the trip will be hard on him, just going out to eat in a restaurant wears him out.

More later as the storm takes shape. I hope we just get some rain and light wind and nothing more.

P.S. I don’t know if it’s weather related, but good golly, my tinnitus is horrible today. So loud and so very high pitched, it’s bugging the stew out of me. I’ve noticed before that I think it gets worse when the weather changes, maybe barometric pressure or something. Good grief. It’s going to be a long week if the storm doesn’t pass for days and my ears are like this the whole time 🙁

Mondays are apparently the only time that I think to blog! Well, that’s not true, but since I am back to blogging to mostly remember what is going on with us, and we mostly just stick close to home during the week and do “fun things” on the weekend, Monday is logically the time for me to do a catch-up type blog post. 🙂 There. That’s why!

Last week was another busy one for Tim. I went to get my hair cut on Wednesday, and then to run errands and grocery shop. That was it for me leaving the house during the week! Tim never set foot in the car until Saturday. He worked all day, every day, and several nights. He’s got a big project at work, and they’ve suddenly decided to hit him with a lot of other issues, so he’s stayed really busy. He works from home, but I’ve gone almost all day, every day and not seen him at all. He only ate lunch one day last week. He did eat supper, albeit late a few nights. I even planned burgers for him to grill out one night, but he was busy, so I bit the bullet and cooked them inside in a cast iron skillet. Owie, the mess from the grease! They were good burgers though (turkey ones!).

Anyway, that is good news, him being so busy, since his foot is still bothering him and he’s not playing golf. It’s about to kill him mentally, but he realizes his foot is not 100%, so he’s not going to play. So, I know it bothers him. Not enough to go to the doctor, but enough to keep him off the golf course 🙂

Friday night, we didn’t go out for date night, since the Saints were playing a preseason game and we could get it on TV. Tim finished work a few minutes before it started (poor thing), and we watched the Saints struggle and lose to the Jaguars. Sigh. I hope preseason is not a sign of things to come. 🙁

Saturday morning, we slept in a bit and then decided last minute to drive down and visit my dad for the day. We got there around lunch and visited a bit, then took him out to eat at the new-ish Cheddars there in Hattiesburg. We had tried to take him on our last visit (Father’s Day weekend), but the wait was over an hour, so we went to Logan’s instead. This time, the wait at Cheddars was about 25 minutes, so we stuck it out. Good food (I had salmon, broccoli and carrots, Dad had salmon, broccoli casserole and loaded potatoes and Tim had a sirlion/rib combo with a loaded potato). Some of us were obviously trying to eat healthier than others! LOL! We had planned to visit more after we took him home (I’d asked if he wanted to go anywhere else, but he didn’t… I think just going to a restaurant wears him out), but on the drive home, it was cloudy, dark and lightning. We had left Beau on a stake outside, so I was worried he was soaking wet. Thankfully, that smart puppy had the presence of mind to stay up under his deck, so he was mostly dry when we pulled up. Dad had asked for Tim to help with something on his truck, so after we did that, we headed out. It was pouring rain, and there was apparently a wreck on Hwy 49, for traffic came to a dead stop. Tim does NOT like to sit still, so we made a U-turn as soon as we could, ventured off and took back roads a while till we could get back on the highway. The back roads were slower, it was pouring rain, and we ran through two big places of standing water on the road, a good ole flash flood! Anyway, it took about 45-50 minutes longer to get home, and we were glad to make it home safely!

We had that big lunch at Cheddars, a bit late, so we weren’t overly hungry. Tim was good with eating leftovers, and I had a big bowl of cereal, and we settled in to watch the last Harry Potter movie. I am still missing the books and am now ready to watch the movies again. Tim, however, says that is not going to happen, that I’ll burn him out, and he doesn’t want any more of Harry, Ron and Hermione for a while. Sniff sniff. 🙁

Sunday was church, and then we came home and changed and headed over to my pick, Mr Chen’s for lunch. We ordered a bunch of good stuff, all dishes we have had before, and enjoyed every last bite. We got steamed buns, I ordered a veggie combo to share, Tim got sesame chicken and I got fish in black bean sauce. Deee-licious! Enough left for lunches for a couple of days too! I asked Tim if he wanted to go anywhere else (I had a couple of returns I could have made), but he didn’t want to walk much more on his foot. So we came home and had a mini movie-marathon. We watched some I’ve recorded on the DVR… The Core, then Hancock (both of which we’d seen), and then finally Real Steel.

All in all, another good weekend!

Another busy weekend, at least by my standards! Tim again took off from playing golf on Friday, so we could have “date night”. We decided to go back to the new Greek place we tried and just loved, Krilakis in Ridgeland. This time, Tim tried a “mixed grill” gyro (lamb and grilled chicken), and I took the advice of the guy behind the counter who said his favorite was the smoked turkey gyro. It was good, but I think I like the lamb better (and next time I want to try grilled chicken). We also tried their hummus and it was good. Good food, as we’ve already come to expect from there 🙂 We came home and watched “The Help” on the DVR. I had seen it, but Tim had not.

Saturday, Tim had an early tee time and played golf till around lunch or a bit after. I watched some shows on the DVR and also worked on some scrapbook pages while he was gone. After he got home, we went for a late lunch at our favorite Chinese place, Mr. Chen’s. More good food! No wonder I’m gaining weight, from all of this eating out at good places, LOL! Tim had originally planned to mow the grass afterwards, but he was exhausted, so we came home and he took a long nap. Very un-Tim like! We watched the next Harry Potter movie, Goblet of Fire (#4) afterwards. It’s so nice to have them on loan from my niece Elizabeth!

Tim hurt his hand playing golf, and said he was tired, so he took off Sunday. We went to see “The Amazing Spiderman” with Elizabeth in the afternoon, then tried out a new take-out place, Taco Del Mar. Tim and Elizabeth got tacos (Liz got hard shell and Tim got soft ones). I wasn’t hungry (had too much popcorn during the movie!), so I didn’t get anything. We’ll have to go back and try it again when I want something to eat, hahaha!

Tim had to work late Sunday night, so we didn’t get up and go walking this morning. He went out to cut the grass, and ended up having to work on the mower. He said it was the “magneto”, and of course, all I can think of is the character from X-Men! He didn’t go play golf again, is resting his hand and the rest of his body that hurts 🙂 I tried to pretend it was winter, and made a roast with potatoes and carrots, homemade bread and salad for supper. Now, we’re watching shows from the DVR. Just my kind of night!