Exceedingly Mundane

Tim checking out the hammock at Lowe’s:

We ended up eating out last night (I know, getting off track on my menu plan here, bad girl) at my favorite Chinese place, then running some errands. Tim offered to take me to eat Chinese, even though I had food defrosted for supper. I do not EVER turn down Chinese. He’s starting to get on a “I’ll go if we order from the menu and not eat a buffet” kick for Chinese, and I’m more than a little grateful. He’s been so burned out on Chinese food and me, well, I could eat it 3 times a week. He’s happy with once every 3 months. So, this compromise is working out well. We each had a huge bowl of egg drop soup, then split some chicken tempura, and ordered some shrimp fried rice. It was all yummy.

We needed to run errands last night because the seal on our shower door broke yesterday, and we wanted to replace it before we took a shower and leaked water on the floor. So, after dinner, we headed to Lowe’s. We couldn’t find the seal there, but we found some other things we were looking for. Namely, critter catchers. Yes, we have critters, and a lot of them, in our back yard. I’ve been losing food left and right to some unseen critter that Tim thinks is a coon (raccoon for any of you not from the Deep South!). The coon keeps knocking over my bird feeders and eating the food and suet. He takes the corn cobs from the squirrel feeder if I leave it out there overnight. I’ve started bringing stuff in at night, which is a pain. He’s climbing my tree branches, and breaking them, to knock down the bird feeders to the ground so he can eat all the food. It’s either one really hungry coon or an entire family. Anyway, Tim has decided to play Daniel Boone and catch the coon and then take him somewhere and release him. We found this critter cage for 36 bucks at Lowe’s and he had to have it. We also were looking for rat traps. Not mice traps, we tried those and the suckers are too big. It’s only catching a bit of them (a piece of tail here, a foot there, EWWW!). There seems to be a family of very large rats living under our deck in the backyard. Between the rats and the coon, I’m not a happy camper. So, Tim decided to finally do something about it so I would stop complaining.

Anyway, we got the seal at Home Depot, and a lot of critter traps at Lowe’s. We also picked up a few groceries while we were out. We were tired by the time we got in, and then Tim had to work late again last night. Poor Tim, he’s been working on this project non-stop since last Friday and he’s getting fairly tired and grumpy. And he has to listen to his wife complain about the critters living outside in the back yard.

I’m going to take a bit of a stroll down memory lane here…

I know it’s not right, but I had a favorite grandmother growing up. This was my mom’s mom, and everyone in the family called her “Presh”. I believe it was short for “precious”. My grandfather passed away before I was born, but I remember my grandmother very well. She was so sweet and very sentimental (like me!). She always called me by a little nickname too – “my little ange” (which was short for angel). When I would go visit, she would show me things in her old house, which was a church in the Civil War (I always thought that was so cool!) Anyway, she would tell me that she was going to leave me things in her will, and asking me what I liked and wanted of her belongings, trinkets, things in her house. It was a sweet little thing she always did, and I’ve only recently come to realize that she did the same thing with my older sisters! And here I was, thinking I was special!

Anyway, my grandmother fell and broke her hip in her 80’s and soon thereafter went to spend the rest of her days in a nursing home. My parents had to sell her house and her belongings to help pay for the nursing home bill. I was in school at the time, and not really aware of what was going on. Most of the things that I had thought I would inherit from my grandmother were sold to an antiques dealer. A few things she had already given me, and I treasure them now. One of them, an insignificant thing, is a set of pink and white Pyrex casserole dishes.

Now, my grandmother loved pink. To say it was her favorite color is an understatement. She had pink everything, and she left in her will which pink suit she wanted to be buried in, I’m almost positive. My mother, in obvious rebellion, despised pink. I learned early in life to never, ever give my mother any gift or clothing that was pink. She refused to wear it or use it. Anyway, I love pink, and I’m so glad to have these dishes. I don’t use them, but I keep them in my cabinet to remind me of my grandmother.

I saw on this blog the other day, a link to a site that lists all the old Pyrex cooking and serving ware. I was so glad to find this, for I didn’t know what pattern my grandmother’s Pyrex was, or how old it was. Now, thanks to this info, I know that it’s called Gooseberry and is from the late 1950’s.

Here is mine:

And here’s where I keep them, waaaay up on the top shelf, for safekeeping, out of harm’s way!

P.S. I think I may start doing more of this. I’m going to take some pictures of things that I have from my parents or grandparents, or from Tim’s family, things that are sentimental and mean something to me or to Tim. I will blog occasionally about them. In fact, I’ve even setup a special category called “Treasures”.

I finished another library book this afternoon, the final book in the Nora Roberts trilogy, the Irish Jewels series. I read all 3 of these books back to back, which is very rare for me.

I had not read any of Nora Roberts books before and I must say, I very much enjoyed this trilogy. The books were light and predictable, but also, since the subject was an Irish family and the breaking of a magical spell, they were fanciful and enchanting. They covered myths and legends in Ireland and painted a terribly beautiful picture of the place. Makes me want to go there and see it for myself one day! There was a bit more romance, almost bordering on the Harlequin-esque, in these books (compared to the fiction I normally read), but having not read any Nora Roberts before, I assumed that was par for the course. I really liked them though I’ll try to write a review soon, that covers all 3 books, on Hambones.org.

For the record, that makes #49 so far this year, with a total of 17,408 pages read. Up next is another new author to me, local favorite Nevada Barr. I’m going to start with “Track of the Cat” and learn about her heroine, Anna Pidgeon. I hope it’s good!

I saw this new idea posted over at Laura’s blog, The Noodle Incident. She and Jess are co-hosting this fun new photo meme, called “Show Me Yours, and I’ll Show You Mine”. They’ll have a new theme each week. This week’s theme, according to Jess’s website is:

This week is all about the Dining Room Table. Or your Kitchen table. Or your Breakfast Nook Table. Whatever you call it, whether you eat there every day, or its mostly just a household decoration…. Show Me! We wanna see it! What surface in your pad is meant for eating?? Or what do you do with your table?

So, without further ado, here’s my kitchen table. Yes, I cleaned it off before I took the picture. It had one pile of mail and papers and another of coupons and stuff needing to be filed. No – we do NOT eat at this table. We are total couch potatoes during meals – we eat on the couch, with the TV on, with our feet propped on the coffee table. This table is for show and when people come over to eat who do not deign to eat on the couch with us

(FYI – for those who don’t know, we don’t have kids, it’s just adults here. If we had kids, we’d have the “eat at the table” rule and also probably the “clean your plate before you get up” rule. Unfortunately, we were unable to have children).

I showed you mine, now go on over to Jess’s website and check out the others who are showing your theirs!

We got two movies in the mail today, both totally free!

One was way overdue, from way back in May (I blogged about it here), from the Reward TV website. It’s a free copy of “The Wedding Date” with Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney. I cashed in all of my “points” on their auction site, and even though it took 3 months, I’m glad to get the movie for free. We actually rented it after it came out on DVD, and even though it wasn’t the best movie ever, it was cute. And, like I said, it was basically free to me.

The other is a free movie from the Kellogg’s cereal offers, an old movie called “Catch That Kid”. Neither of us have seen it, but it was free, and it looked fairly clean and cute from the blurb I read at IMDB. Has anyone seen it? Again, it’s probably not a great movie, but it was free. Are you getting the point that I love free stuff?!!

OK, back to your regularly scheduled programming. I was just really excited – it’s so nice to go get the mail and have two free movies sitting in my mailbox!

I really enjoyed this last week, so I’m going to try it again this week… and also do a little updating from last week’s menu plan, which I posted here. We ended up eating out less over the weekend than usual, and I cooked a bit more

Here’s the plan for this week, and an update to last week is on the extended page (just click the Read more button):

Monday – Turkey Burgers, homemade coleslaw, oven fries

Tuesday – Grilled Chicken (Tim)/Grilled Salmon (me), baked sweet potatoes, veggie (maybe sugar snap peas)

Wednesday – tomato soup and cheese toast

Thursday – Spaghetti, Broccoli, homemade bread

Friday – Date Night

Saturday – Out of town; eat out

Sunday – TBD

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1. How many “people” pictures do you have displayed in your house? A bunch. That’s mostly what I have sitting on tables and hanging on the wall. And mirrors, we have a lot of mirrors (easier to pick out than art or pictures). I would say there are at least a dozen, either hanging on the wall, sitting on my console table, in my book shelves, or on dressers/tables.

2. How many times a month/year do you rearrange your furniture? If our furniture would fit more than one or two ways, we would probably do it more often. Tim grew up with his mom moving furniture often; me, my mom probably never moved anything in 30 years. Our den furniture and one bedroom are the only rooms where the furniture will actually fit more than one way in the room. Still, we probably move something every year or so.

3. Do you check your email every day? If so, how many times a day?Good grief, do I. Every day, many many many times a day. I keep it up, so I just have to glance to see if I have anything new.

4. How often do you generally look at a clock/watch on any given day? Hmm, not sure. Maybe half a dozen times a day? Maybe more, I really have no clue.

5. How do you handle telemarketer phone calls? With caller id, we don’t pick up the phone unless we recognize the name or number. So I don’t have to hassle with them nearly as much any more. Thank goodness!

Tim is still working from home all weekend – basically working around the clock on his project. Which, as I blogged about yesterday, makes for an odd weekend for us – one spent around the house. I took the time and opportunity to do something I don’t get to do nearly as much of as I would like. Bake.

I love to bake. I think it’s the mathematical/computer side (is that Left Brain or Right Brain?) that I tend to like recipes that are exact, with exact measurements. Plus, I just always like the outcome more – sweet and sugary and fattening.

This afternoon, I made an old favorite, Black Bottom Banana Bars. To use up some old ripe bananas and to make something with a tiny bit of chocolate taste to satisfy my craving. The recipe is both on the extended page (click the Read more button) and also here on our main site, Hambones.org. As are all of the recipes that are in my “tried and true” files. Feel free to check them out if you’d like.

The result:

More pictures and full recipe on the extended page…

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This is an odd weekend for us – we’re actually staying around the house. Which is something we rarely do. Tim gets cabin fever after hanging around the house for a couple of hours on the weekends, so we inevitably end up going, going, going all weekend, every weekend. This weekend, though, he is working on a project at work and working at night, and on call for the rest of the time, so he’s rather forced into staying here. Me, I love it! It’s something we never do and something I wish we could do more.

Anyway, it makes for even more boring blogging than usual. We’re just hanging out, watching TV and movies, reading (me), hitting golf balls (Tim) and …. he cut the grass Friday PM. Nothing unusual about that, he cuts the grass once a week in the summer. However, this time was a bit different. One of our neighbors has a riding lawn mower and wanted Tim to borrow it and test it out. Now, if you’re familiar with our house, it’s small and our yard is even smaller. I bought this house expressly for those reasons – less to clean and heat/cool on the inside and less yard work to do on the outside. I used to cut the grass and weed-eat before I met Tim and the yard was a manageable size for me. Which means it’s a snap for Tim to keep up. Which also means, a riding mower is overkill.

If you want to see pictures of Tim on the riding mower, and also the hummingbirds that are swarming our feeder this afternoon, click on the extended entry. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

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I finished 3 books (“The Falls”, “I Do, but I Don’t” and “Jewels of the Sun”) that I had checked out from the library, and took them back a couple of days ago. I got four more, which are now on my sidebar. In case you’re interested, they are:

1. Tears of the Moon (2nd in the Irish Jewels trilogy) by Nora Roberts
2. Heart of the Sea (last in the Irish Jewels trilogy) by Nora Roberts
3. Track of the Cat (the first Anna Pidgeon book) by Nevada Barr
4. Match Me If You Can (a book my sister Gail read and liked) by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I will wait and write a review on the Nora Roberts trilogy after I read all three.

I went ahead and got 4 books, instead of my normal 3, since I knew I would be able to read more this weekend. Tim is working on a big project for work, and he’s working off and on around the clock all weekend. Friday night, he worked from about 9 PM to about 4:30 AM. Needless to say, I was sleeping during the majority of that, but still.. I hope to get more reading time in this weekend

Oh, and on a book-related note: the last couple of times I’ve been shopping to any store that sells books, I’ve perused the books section. I have added several more books to either my “library books” or “bookstore books” lists on my PDA. Sigh. I have really long lists for both. I just love books and love to read

I was running errands the other day, and had my Carrie Underwood CD playing in the car. When it got to this song, I turned it way up and started belting it out. Yes, I sing rather loudly, and badly, when no one is around and I’m either cleaning or driving around by myself. This is just one of those really good sassy, the-girl’s-got-attitude kind of songs.

The name of it is “Before He Cheats” and I’ve liked it (and several others) since I got this CD months ago. I was wondering when she would release it as a single. Then, this morning, I saw her singing on “Good Morning America” and she sang this song and said it was her new one. I’m so glad. I think it’s a great song (well, if you like country!)

I’ve been trying to find a way to insert an mp3 file in my blog entries, and I think, I hope, that I have finally figured it out. Please let me know if it does or does not work for you. Here’s the song, and the lyrics are on the extended page:

[audio:http://www.hambones.org/blogs/stacy/mp3/BeforeHeCheats.Mp3]
Before He Cheats, by Carrie Underwood

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Friday, August 11, 2006
Feast One Hundred & Six

Appetizer
Tell about a toy you remember from your childhood.If you’ve read much of my blog before (or you’re one of my sisters, LOL), you probably know that I have this huge gap in my memory where my childhood should be. I don’t remember much of anything. When I do get a random memory in my head, I get all excited, thinking “I remembered something!”. I have no idea why, but I don’t remember much. However, I do have a little stuffed dog that I had in later childhood or maybe my early teenage years that I loved. I named him “Rayford” and I still have him to this day.

Soup
If you could make one thing in the world absolutely free for everyone, what would it be? Off the top of my head, probably medical care. I think it’s a basic need and would go great lengths towards helping solve some of the world’s problems if everyone was fed and taken care of properly

Salad
Approximately how many times per day do you think about your significant other? A lot! He’s working from home a lot now (2-3 days a week usually) and I think of him because he’s here, and I think of him when he’s not here because I miss him

Main Course
What is something you believe in 100%? That Jesus died on the cross for my sins

Dessert
Name one thing you have done this week that you would consider a “good deed.”How about that guy I let pull out in front of me the other day, even though he didn’t wave or smile his thanks in any way?

UPDATE: OK, I did a really good deed this afternoon – I was in Walmart picking up some household and grocery items. There was a very elderly gentleman walking around, pushing a buggy, looking lost. I asked him if there was anything I could help him with, and he said he needed ice trays. I very slowly followed him to the housewares section (he was in the groceries) and searched several aisles quickly while he waited at the end of an aisle. Then, when I found the right aisle, I went and got him and took him where the trays were. They were on a bottom shelf, so I got out all the ones they had, and showed him and helped him decide which ones to get (we got the Rubbermaid ones, they were thicker!). I felt really good that I stopped to ask him. He looked very frail and was moving so slow. I hope I saved him some steps

There’s a country song whose chorus goes “like two sparrows in a hurricane, trying to find their way” or something like that. I took this picture earlier today and it made me think of that song.

We finally got some much-needed rain around lunchtime today. As I was walking by one of my breakfast room windows while it was raining pretty hard, I saw these 2 sparrows (or are they finches, I can never tell the difference!) huddled up on the back side of my hummingbird feeder. This feeder hangs from the eave, so they were effectively under shelter and out of the rain. They were so puffy and wet and all huddled up. I went and grabbed my camera and got 3 pictures before they saw me and flew away. Needless to say, 2 of them came out blurry (argh, must learn to use my camera soon) and then this one: