Exceedingly Mundane

Well, here it is two weeks since I’ve posted, and I’ve once again neglected my blog. I’m so grateful my little blog is so faithful, always sitting here patiently waiting on me to return 🙂

Let’s see, nothing exciting or earth-shattering to blog about. Just skipping on along, trying to get through August. The end is in sight though, LOL! Yippee! 😀

* The last couple of weekends have been busy, which is the way that Tim likes it 🙂 Two weekends ago, we went over on Saturday to his mom’s house, to help with more of the kitchen renovation. Her cabinets were in (most of them) and a couple of the appliances. They moved the dishwasher back in, put down moulding on the floor, laid new flooring and got it looking a lot better. She’s waiting on granite countertops and an issue with the cabinets and wall oven. It’s going to look awesome in there, it already does!

* This past weekend, we went to Indianola for the day on Saturday. Tim played in a charity golf tournament with Don at his club. Gail took me out to eat lunch at The Crown, since I had never been. I had the Catfish Allison and Gail had a chicken salad plate. We both had some dessert, big splurge, and it was all really good! Left at nearly dark, which means we always have to stop half way, coming out of the Delta, and go through a car wash. Those bugs up there are killer! We can’t see out of the windshield and so we have to stop and clean it all off.

* Did I blog before that Tim shot par? He’s shot 72 one time so far at his home course, which is a par 72. He’s up and down, but has shot it once and is very fired up! He’s been playing 5 days a week all summer, so his game has really improved. Now, he wants to break par! He’s ordered a new putter, a new shaft for his driver, and something else.

* He also ordered me two happies, I think he felt bad about getting so much golf stuff for him 🙂 I got a new Timex indiglo watch with a maroon cloth band, I really like it. And today, a package was delivered for me, a bluetooth outdoor speaker. Now, once the weather cools and it is fall, I can sit outside on the deck or out back by Beau’s grave and listen to my music streaming from either my iphone or my ipad.

* Speaking of my iPad, I am running down the battery every day on the thing. I have a new addiction, thanks to Linda and her sisters, they’ve gotten me playing HayDay. Very similar to Farmville that I used to play all the time on Facebook, except this one is done on a phone or tablet. And the crops never ruin, it just sits and waits on you to come back and play, which is really nice. And, I am still playing Cafe World in Facebook. Over 2 or 3 years, I have a consecutive day streak going, somewhere in the 1075 day range. Yikes. Bad addictions 🙂

* Ready for football! USM opens this Saturday with a home game at The Rock. The Saints play their last preseason game this week, then a Sunday off before the regular season starts. Can’t wait!

* Been busy with my Dad the last few days. We took him with us on Sunday to Magee, to celebrate Linda’s birthday with a big family lunch at a local restaurant, Berry’s Seafood. I think there must have been 35-40 of us! Imagine the hostess when the first one comes in and says “Table for 40”!!! We had a good time and got to visit with everyone, and my dad had a blast. Yesterday (Monday), I took him to the dentist. Tomorrow is a trip to a new lawyer, to update his will. And then Thursday morning I have to go to the dentist.

* Have tried a couple of new recipes lately, and also gotten a couple of “real” books from the library, I’ll have to post about those later 🙂

Catching up on a few things we’ve been doing lately. It’s gotten HOT, after a fairly mild summer. It’s now hitting the mid 90’s every day with heat indexes in the 100-105 range every day. That does not deter Tim from playing golf, however!

Let’s see, last week turned out to be fairly busy. Gail came Tuesday evening, so she could spend the whole day with Katelyn and Sam on Wednesday. Tim and I went over to Elizabeth’s on Wednesday during lunch. We brought her lunch and Tim took the battery charger, since she had called to say her car wouldn’t crank. We thought we had her fixed, and headed back. Gail spent all day with the kids, and decided to stay Wednesday night too. Thursday, we ran some errands, had lunch, and went to visit Fred. We went to Corner Bakery, one of our favorites, to have lunch. I like their trio (you can pick from 3 of their side salad options or soup), and I had spring asparagus soup, caesar salad and mixed fruit. Yummy! We stopped at Freshway Produce on the way back from visiting Fred, and picked up some produce. I also found some metal door hangers like I have been wanting. Instead of opting for the letter ‘H’, I ended up buying a beautiful multi-colored cross.

Gail and I got home and tried to hang the cross, and realized it wouldn’t work on the metal door hanger I had for our front door. So, I realized I needed to go get a big suction hook. So, when Gail left heading home, I went to Walmart (should have gone to Michaels, thought about it, but decided to pick up a few other things at Walmart). I found a set in the crafts section, but when I tried one at home, it wasn’t strong enough to hold the metal cross. So, Tim and I headed out Friday night, and we stopped at Michaels and got a much bigger and stronger one. We also went to Mr. Chens for supper. We splurged and got an appetizer (crab rangoon), then 3 entrees to split (to be fair, I like to get vegetables, so that always adds an additional dish). We got the mixed veggies, sesame chicken for Tim and rice noodles with shrimp to split. We had a lot of leftovers to bring home, which is always nice! We also went to the grocery in the back, since I wanted to get a new wok:

I haven’t even taken it out of the wrapping yet! I like the look and feel of it, but I’m a little hesitant to use it. I’ve always, only, ever had a nonstick wok. This one is going to take some getting used to, I think, especially on my new smooth top stove. I’m still struggling with a few things on the new burners. Anyway, I can always go back and get a nonstick one if I don’t like this one. I hope to try it in the next week or two, so an update soon 🙂

After supper, we walked down to Northern Tool to look for a new grill brush for Tim, but they were closing. So, we got in the car and were heading to Academy to look for the brush, when we came up towards Bops. Tim offered ice cream for dessert, so I was bad and took him up on his offer! We were good and just got frozen yogurt with one topping each (Tim got Snickers, I got butterfinger). Mine was in a waffle bowl, so mine was more better 😀

At Academy, we got the grill brush and also looked at patio furniture on clearance. I found something I liked but I don’t think Tim liked it as much. I guess we’ll wait till next year to spend money on that. Ours is 12 years old and all but one of the chairs has a torn seat (the fabric has just given out and rotted, out in the sun). I think the grill is enough to tide us over and get us through football season. We don’t tend to spend much time on the deck this time of year, or during football season. We just grill out, then hurry back in the AC to eat 🙂

Saturday, Tim had an early tee time, and got home around lunch. I made hummus (still have to work on the recipe, my seasoning needs to be better) and had that with pita bread and fruit for lunch. Tim picked him up Chick-Fil-A on the way in. After we ate, he had a long nap, and we watched a little TV, we decided to go to Ace Hardware and get Fred another grabber stick. He had mentioned to me and Gail on Thursday that he wanted another one for his front door, to get his paper he had just started getting delivered. We got that, then went to visit Fred, who promptly informed me he didn’t want another grabber stick, he already had two! But, he took it, and we visited awhile. We moved furniture twice for him, he is not happy with the way his unit is laid out. I see furniture shopping in his future, from the way he was talking! After we left there, we went to Lowe’s to pick up a few things, then swung through Tony’s Tamales for the first time, for Tim to try their food. I opted to go home and eat more pita bread, hummus and fruit. He got the tamale dinner with chili and cheese and really enjoyed. I tasted it and would be ok with it. Next time he wants to try plain, traditional tamales.

Sunday was busy with church, swinging through Fresh Market, then Tim going to play golf. Elizabeth had more battery trouble, so Tim went to jump her off, then she came over here later Sunday to hang out, eat dinner and spend the night with us. She is busy at school, getting her room ready and getting ready to begin her new teaching career. She’s very excited, and we’re so happy and excited for her 🙂

OK, that mostly wraps up our mundane weekend. 😀

Some more things going on around here… mostly just for me and my poor memory!

June actually seemed to go by pretty quick. Now July is here, and typically, July and August are my least favorite months of the year. BY FAR! I will be so glad when September gets here! Holidays, football, birthdays, September through New Years is my most favorite time of the year!

* Tim got the stove installed early on (it was ready for me to use on Saturday June 8), and I quickly began work on christening it. The first thing I used the oven for was homemade pizza. I have had to learn to use the smooth top ceramic burners, but I think I have it figured out now. They seem to take longer to heat up, but boy once they do, they stay warm. I made sloppy joes for Tim a couple of weeks later, and my recipe calls for simmering the mixture for 20 minutes. Once I got the mixture to a boil, then lowered to low, it was more than a simmer. I actually had to turn the burner off for a few minutes, just so it wasn’t bubbling furiously 🙂 I really like it though, and have been using it a lot. It’s so much better for baking things. Before, when I’d bake cookies, brownies, bread, etc, I’d get uneven results. Sometimes things would be overdone on the outside and still doughy in the middle. Now, I get a very even bake. I don’t think the oven is technically convection, but it does have a fan in the back, and I hear it running even after I’ve turned the stove off. It’s a Whirlpool Gold with Accubake, and Tim says that means it is convection. Whatever it is, it sure is a heck of a lot better than my 20 year old stove!

* I’ve also pulled out my Cuisinart ice cream maker and made a couple of batches of ice cream. Nothing like homemade fudgy brownies and homemade vanilla ice cream in the evenings!

* In spite of the new stove, we’ve still been eating out occasionally. We sometimes go to Corner Bakery after church on Sunday mornings. A couple of weeks ago, we broke out of our routine and got crazy and went to IHOP! We still enjoy going to the little Mexican place by our house, Cazadores. We went last Saturday night, and Tim got something new, the paradilla (spelled??) platter. Basically a huge platter, like a fajita skillet but not sizzling, filled with all kinds of meat. Chicken, beef, shrimp, chorizo, short ribs, pork, lots of stuff. It was really good. He brought home two take out containers of meat and fixings, and got several more meals out of it! We’ve been doing a Friday night date night at home a couple of weekends in June. One Friday night we went to Pizza Hut and got pizza, and came home to watch tv. Another night we ordered Five Guys over the Internet and ran in to pick it up. Nothing like greasy fast food on a Friday night!

* I read about 18 books in June! That might be a new record for me! I am still using GoodReads to track what I read. I’m doing really good this year and hope to read close to 100 books. My all time high is 104, which works out to 2 books per week, at 52 weeks a year. It would be nice if I broke that record, but I probably won’t make it. Of the books I read in June, my favorites were probably the 3 books in the French Twist series by Sandra Byrd (Chrisitan chick-lit) and my least favorite, I nearly abandoned, and wished I had. I got a digital download from the library of Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella and I disliked it quite a bit 🙁

* Also in June, Tim played a lot of golf! On the first day of the month, a Saturday, he went with some golfing buddies over to a course in Louisiana called Black Bear. He had a really good time, but I had a long day. I think he was gone about 11 or 12 hours. He also played with his buddies on two Saturday mornings at 7:22. Nothing like getting up early on our one day to sleep in!

* Tim also helped our neighbor Ms Maridine with her computer, and also with the locks on her house. We saw her quite a bit and she took us out to lunch at the Strawberry Cafe to say thank you to Tim for all his hard work. We went over and helped Elizabeth one night at her new house. We took Fred with us on Father’s Day to Linda’s house, so we could visit with Tim’s dad on Father’s Day. We had a nice visit that day, and Fred enjoyed the trip. Also, I took Fred to see the new pulmonologist Dr. Westbrook twice, on two Mondays in June. He has one more appointment (I hope!) on July 15th. We also went on June 30th to a get-together at Tim’s Aunt Annie Myrl’s house. Mitchell’s sister in law Mary and her daughter Cheryl were here from New Mexico. I don’t think I had ever met them, so we went to visit and catch up with Tim’s dad’s side of the family. We had a really nice time 🙂

Let’s see… there’s probably more that happened in June, but that was the highlights. And of course, the anniversary of my mom’s passing, it was eleven years this June. And Fred closed out on his house around the end of the month. House paperwork and errands kept us busy for a while, but thankfully we did everything remote and didn’t have to make a trip to Hattiesburg.

We have the annual Fourth of July get-together at Tim’s Aunt Becky’s house tomorrow. We’ll go down, and take Fred, he enjoys going with us every year on the Fourth. I made brownies to take, as usual. Maybe one day I’ll get brave and take something new!

I’ll try to update more often, wanna keep up with all what we are doing and what’s going on. Even though I do stuff on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, I think the old blog is still the best venue for keeping track of the little and big stuff. Here’s hoping I can do better in the future 🙂 I’m sporadic, at best, these days, LOL!

I want to blog, I actually have time to blog, I just can’t seem to get motivated! Then, I realize that so much is going on, and I’m not getting it recorded in any way. And my memory is so bad, I know I won’t remember stuff and everything that is going on if I don’t write it down or take pictures or even better, blog about it!

This has been an eventful year for us. First my dad fell for the third time in February and that started a long chain of events. Then we lost Beau in March. Sigh. On my dad’s stuff, we’ve already gotten a lot accomplished on that front. We moved him in February close to us, we’ve emptied his house, updated it, listed it and now sold it. The papers were done last week and he received his check on Friday. That was sort of sad. Even though it wasn’t the house I grew up in, my parents lived there for 21 years (well, my mom about 10 of those and my dad all 21). Last week marked eleven years since my mom died.

Tim stays busy this time of year, as always. He works from 7AM to 4PM and then leaves for the golf course almost every day. He gets in around 9 PM right now, while the days are still long. I always struggle through July and August, they are definitely the two hardest months of the year for me. They are hot, they are long, and there is just nothing going on. Tim plays golf and I wait for football season to start! LOL!

Other than the stuff going on with my dad, we haven’t done a lot. No vacations and it doesn’t look like we will go anywhere this year. I want to get another dog, but Tim does not. We’ve looked at moving to a new house, now that my dad is settled, but we haven’t done anything on that front yet either. We did finally get a new stove here at our house, Tim ordered it online from Lowe’s on a Memorial Day sale. It was delivered in early June and Tim spent two days, cutting cabinets and countertops and putting in the new stove and vent hood. The stove and oven, I love! I’m enjoying learning to use the smooth top and the oven portion is a ton better! It still heats up my kitchen, which is awful this time of year, but oh well. I just tend to use my crockpot and griddler more this time of year anyway.

I am still going through spurts of trying new recipes, versus cooking old favorites, versus just not feeling like cooking at all! Tim, thankfully, usually takes us out to eat once or twice a week, usually on the weekends, so that gives me a nice break. Maybe if I find more motivation, I can blog more about the recipes I’ve tried and even the books I’ve read! For another day 🙂