Exceedingly Mundane

We’re huge TV junkies. I always have been and Tim has become one (not much choice when you live with me!). Of course, football is on now, and that is our most favorite thing in the whole wide world. 😀 We’ve just finished up with several “summer” shows that we like, including Leverage, White Collar, Covert Affairs, Psych, Royal Pains, etc. I believe most of those will come back in January (when we’ll be missing 24, I imagine).

We have a ton of shows that start back in the fall, that we like to watch. Many nights, our DVR is nearly smoking from the exertion 🙂 There are even a couple of new shows that I would like to check out, but we already have 2 things in that time period, and that’s all the silly DVR can handle. Wouldn’t it be nice to have it record more than two at one time, LOL!

Some of the returning shows that we like and look forward to are:

Survivor
NCIS
NCIS: Los Angeles
The Mentalist
V
Chuck
Fringe
Human Target

Some of the new shows that we are wanting to check out are:

Hawaii 5-0
The Event
Undercovers

I miss watching Dancing with the Stars and Amazing Race, but those never work out for me. I love DWTS and would love to see Kurt Warner this season. But alas, those shows are on Sundays and Mondays, and we have football on those nights. And we have a lot of shows on Tuesdays, when I think the DWTS results are on. Sometimes I might record them and watch later, but it doesn’t happen often. I just keep up with them online and watch some clips.

How about you? Is there a returning or new show that you are looking forward to seeing this fall?

I’m a complete oddball, because my favorite thing to shop for is… food! I actually love to grocery shop, love to go to Sam’s and stock up on food and household supplies, and when we travel, I love to go to new grocery stores. Yes, I’m weird, and I know it 😀

When we went to the beach before Labor Day, I got to get in two food stops. We went to a Publix to shop for food for the beach house for everyone while we were there. This particular Publix had a nice organic section in the produce and several healthy options on the shelves. I didn’t buy anything here, but I easily could have 🙂 In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Publix chain store, or if I have, it’s been a couple of decades.

My other stop is one of my all-time favorites – Harry & David. Whenever we travel and go near an outlet mall that has a Harry & David, I always want to stop. Years ago, I would browse a lot and not buy much. These days, I have finally realized that I don’t get to go very often, so I better buy while I’m there and it’s available 😀 We normally only go near a Harry & David every 2 or 3 or sometimes 4 years, so it’s a nice treat for me to go in and find something new to buy, or pick up an old favorite. One of our all time favorites there is their tomato and pepper relish, which I use to make a dip for football season. This year, I made a pointed effort to get mostly new things, and so I am trying all new stuff this time!

Here’s the link to the last post I made about this, two years ago: click here

And here’s a photo of the stuff I bought this trip, I actually did pretty good and didn’t go overboard! 🙂

P.S. In case you’re interested and can’t see from the photo, I bought: Multigrain Tortilla chips, Sesame Garlic tortilla chips, Moose Munch decaf coffee, Raspberry scone mix, 2 kinds of salsa (habanero and black bean & corn), one jar of queso, one jar of cherry preserves and one jar of cherry butter. I like apple butter, so I hope I like the cherry kind 🙂

It’s been a long time since the Super Bowl in February, when our beloved Saints won their first ever Super Bowl. But, the time has finally arrived – the NFL season opens tonight with our Saints taking on the Minnesota Vikings!

We’re still basking in our first ever trip to the Super Bowl, as well as that magical first win. The Saints had only been to a playoff game 6 times in the history of the franchise before last season. To say it was a long time coming is an understatement 🙂

In the off season, we’ve been keeping that Saints spirit alive. When all of the memorabilia starting coming out in the stores in late February, we racked up! We bought the new flag that this morning is hanging out front, shirts (Tim got like 4 or 5 t-shirts!), sweatshirts, travel mugs, magnets, a blu-Ray of the season and Super Bowl… and most everything else we could find 🙂

When the Saints made their championship tour around the Gulf South region, we went to the stop here in our town. We got to see the rally bats, NFC championship items, and most importantly, that Lombardi trophy. We miss having the team here for training camp, but it’s right that they stay in New Orleans.

So, tonight the season begins, and we’re very hopeful. We have our rituals and traditions for every game. Chris and Liz come over and we eat lots of fattening “game day” food. We all have our shirts and jersey’s that we wear. We’ve got the Who Dat chant down, and we’re ready to go!

Who Dat! Who Dat! Who Dat say gonna beat dem Saints! Who Dat!

We left the beach a day early, so we could head home, pick up Beau from his kennel (poor baby, he didn’t eat hardly at all while we were gone), and go shopping for food for our annual Labor Day Party.

When Tim and I got married, our families did not know each other. So, we started having Labor Day parties and also Super Bowl parties, to invite both sides of the family so that they could meet each other and get to know each other. Everyone is very comfortable now (14 years later), so we really look forward to our Labor Day party every year. We had just seen most of my family at the beach, but my Dad came back early also, so he drove up for our party. Most of Tim’s family came, except his younger brother and his family, whom we really missed. We don’t see them as much as we used to and we really miss them! But his other brother came, his family and Tim’s parents, so we had a really good time. I didn’t take a lot of photos, but wanted to remember that we had our party 🙂

It was another meat fest here! Tim grilled burgers, hot dogs, sausage and ribs. I fixed corn dip for an appetizer, crunchy slaw, my mother-in-law brought her awesome potato salad and Terry and Emi brought their delicious baked beans (both pretty famous in our family!). We bought a chocolate cake for Zack’s 15th birthday (we were a couple of days late, his actual birthday was Saturday), so we got to celebrate that too. We hung out, played the Wii and had a really great time!

Tim and I have been married for over 14 years, but we’ve never been on a vacation to the beach before. We’re not really “beach people”. We’ve been to the coast a couple of times, and walked briefly on the beach, and a few years ago we went to Tybee Island Georgia, so I got to stick my toes in the Atlantic. But those were brief visits, just as a side to whatever else we were doing. This time, it was all about the beach. Well – it was all about golf for Tim!

My sister Gail and her husband Don invited us to go to the beach with them and some of their family, and their friends Jerry and Susan, over the long Labor Day holiday. Jerry and Don both play golf, so Tim went every day to play golf with them. Gail, Susan and I shopped, walked on the beach, and hung out at the beach house. We went down on Thursday and most everyone else came on Friday. When Gail’s oldest daughter Kathryn arrived (my oldest niece) with her husband Jeremy and their kids Katelyn and Sam, it was really fun to go to the beach and the pool 🙂 Kids at that age (4 1/2 and nearly 3) are so much fun to play with in the sand, the waves and the water! Liz and Chris came too, and my dad also, so we had a lot of family and friends to hang out with.

I need to finish going through my photos, then I’ll post some at either Flickr or Facebook.

I have a love/hate relationships with magazines. I love to subscribe to them, love to get them in my mailbox, love to flip through them when I first get them. But then…. I don’t read through them completely, and so I end up putting them in a magazine rack in my den. You know, to read more thoroughly later on. First I had one magazine holder, then I had to get a second one. So, you can imagine how many magazines I have sitting around here. Some of them go back two years, gasp! 🙂

I’ve found through the years that as I’ve aged, I’ve changed the kind of magazines I read. I guess we get to be more like our mothers the older we get!

I don’t tend to pay for most of the magazine subscriptions that I have, so I guess that is good. I do pay for one or two, but the majority of them I get through point programs that I do online. I get several from MyCokeRewards (since Tim drinks so much Coke Zero, we have a lot of codes from Coke Zero 2 liter bottles and cases)! I also get one of Tim’s golf magazines through e-rewards.

Here’s some of the ones that I have gotten in the last year, or are currently getting. Several of them are running out and I’m debating about renewing the subscription. I think I’m going to let Taste of Home go, although I do like it, but I’m trying to cook with less processed food products and also low-sodium, and that magazine is not strong in those areas.

Some of the magazines I get are:

Southern Living (Amazon deal)
Everyday Food (points)
Taste of Home (letting expire)
Good Housekeeping (points)
Redbook (points)
Better Homes & Garden (points)
Ladies Home Journal (points)
Everyday with Rachael Ray ($10 sub, but letting expire)

So, how about you… do you read magazines? Do you buy them at the store or subscribe? Do you read them and toss or recycle them quickly, or let them pile up? What’s your favorite magazine? Leave me a comment and let me know!

But not recipes for Spam!

A couple of random thoughts this morning:

1. I don’t understand people who leave spam on my little blog. I mean, it’s not a high traffic blog, nor does it have anything controversial or even overtly interesting on it. I’m SO grateful for Akismet though – the spam filter I installed a while back to catch all of this nasty spam. I’m constantly amazed and disgusted at the kinds of spam that Akismet catches. Ugh. At least it doesn’t get out there, but I hate seeing it all on my moderation page.

2. I’ve been trying to get back into a cooking groove. For a while now, I’ve just been making things that are easy, or things that I’ve made many times before. I’m making a concerted effort to try new things. Most of them have been winners, although some have been better than others. All of these are new to me, and all are from places online. I have tried to give credit from the website where I found the recipe, but sometimes I don’t always write it down or print it out. I have just entered several recipes on our family website, in the Recipes section. Here’s a sampling of them:

Sausage Calzones, with homemade dough – here

Pizza Pot Pie – here

Butter Honey Wheat Bread – here

Homemade Taco Sauce (here), which I used in this Skillet Taco recipe

I am going to try a new recipe today for a homemade spaghetti sauce. I’m on a kick lately to reduce sodium and cut down on the processed food I buy and use. So many additives in the canned stuff, packet mixes, etc, as well as that nasty high fructose corn syrup. I hope it turns out ok, because I sure do like using jarred spaghetti sauce, it’s so easy!

This has been a busy weekend! Lots of good stuff though 🙂

– Date night Friday night was an in-house date. We went and picked up some fast food and then watched a Harry Potter movie (#3, Prisoner of Azkaban)

– Saturday morning – Tim played in the church golf tournament. I went walking with Beau and my neighbor and we walked a longer route than normal (3.25 miles).

– Late Saturday morning – I went and picked up my mother-in-law Linda and our niece Brittany, and we had a girls day out. We went shopping at Hobby Lobby and Kohl’s. We picked out a ton of cute new clothes for Brittany for school and I even splurged and got 2 new sets of scrapbook stickers at Hobby Lobby. GOLF ones for Tim and birthday ones. I showed considerable restraint by not buying more, they were 50% off! We all went out to eat at one of my favorite places for lunch – Corner Bakery. I had the Chicken Pomodori panini and fruit, delicious 🙂

Read the rest of this entry »

My days are fairly uneventful. I really want to get back into my photography, but can’t seem to bring myself to go out on little jaunts to interesting places to take cool pictures. At least not while it’s in the 93-103 degree range! So, instead, I’ve returned to my favorite photography subject – Beau!

Poor Beau. He doesn’t always like to have his photo taken. Some times he complies, and then other times, as soon as he sees me with that camera in my hand, he stops whatever he’s doing and moves or runs off or something. Just like a kid, I suppose 🙂

I am loving iPhoto, but I couldn’t find a way to make a photo collage. So my buddy Dawn had twittered and maybe blogged about Picasa, so I decided to check it out. I downloaded the Mac version, and after it “acquired” all of the photos on my drive, I was able to make this in about 5 minutes total. I’m pretty happy with it!

A Day in the Life of Beau:

I’ve decided one thing for sure lately – all adhesives are not created equally.

I started scrapbooking several years ago, heck, maybe even 9 or 10 years ago. I have so many supplies accumulated that I could probably open a small store with my “stash”. After taking an extremely long break from scrapping, probably 3 or 4 years, I decided to give it another go this summer. Most of my paper is in good shape, although some of it is bent or torn on the edges from the way it was stored. And a few pieces that were left out are sort of faded from the sunlight or exposure or something. The most glaring, and the scariest thing, is that a lot of my adhesives are no longer sticky! That’s bad news. Not good for the pages I had already created — you know, the ones that I used those adhesives on! I guess things will start falling off my pages because the adhesive is no longer adhering.

Anyway, several things have changed since I stopped scrapping. For one, all of the local scrapbook stores have closed. But to counteract that, the two chains stores that I have locally, Michaels and Hobby Lobby, both have increased their scrapbook supply sections. I’m trying really hard NOT to buy anything else. After all, part of my goal is to use some of what I have bought in the past. I guess I have some kind of hard-wire error – because half the fun to me is browsing, buying and having so many of the cute papers and embellishments. It’s a sickness of some sort, I guess!

I really wish I had stockpiled one thing from several years ago – a nice Christmas album! I have just finished (finally), my Disney album and need to order a cute Disney themed album to put my pages in. I’m working on my first Christmas album, and I know years ago, I had seen several cute albums on the market. Now, I can no longer find them, either at the chain stores or online. Bummer. I’m really hoping that the closer we get to the Christmas season that I can find a cute one. I’m afraid the scrapbooking product market has suffered in this economy as well, and I might not can find what I want, or what I had seen in years past.

OK, just some scrapbook-related ramblings. Of absolutely no interest to those of you who do not scrapbook, sorry about that. I’ll try to blog about something more relevant in the future 🙂

When I first started blogging over 5 years ago, I did a lot of memes. I think most of them have disappeared from the blogosphere. The Monday Menu meme at OrgJunkie’s site is still alive, and very active, from what I can tell. I don’t know if I’ll get back to posting my menus online. It’s enough for me to just try to do them at this point. 😀

Last week, I ran across a revival of a meme that I used to do called the “Monday Morning Meme” over at one of my favorite bloggers site – Write from Karen. Karen posts 4 or 5 questions for bloggers to blog about on Mondays. This week, I’m going to be uber-selective and just pick one.

3. Thunderstorm arrives, power outage! How do you occupy your time?

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that I would read. As I have blogged about recently, reading is harder for me than it used to be. I would probably try reading with my iPod on, or maybe working on a scrapbook page. Depending on the weather, I would probably try to sit outside and read a book or magazine. I know one thing for certain – I would call the power company ASAP to find out how long my power is going to be out! This has been such a hot summer that I wouldn’t want to be out long. Another thing I might do is play on my phone. I’ve been playing Words with Friends a lot lately, and having fun with that. I have several other games on my phone that I like to play. The only downside to that – I’d probably run my phone battery down and not be able to plug it back in and charge it back up!

How about you? Play along at your blog or leave me a message and let us know what you do when the power is out!

OK, so this morning in church, I noticed yet again that a lot of kids of all ages seem to be bringing their electronic devices into church. Apparently to keep them entertained, from what I can see. Cell phones, which I can *sort of* see, although I think they should be silenced and really shouldn’t be used. But I have also been seeing a lot of Nintendo DS’s and Playstation Portables (PSP’s). I guess the parents think it’s better to keep them quiet and entertained, or something. But, when I was their age, I was supposed to sit there and listen, or at least pretend to listen. Back in the dark ages, I was allowed, at most, to doodle on the program and fill in the letter O’s 😀

So, do you think it’s ok for them to be using all of these devices in church? Or am I just horribly old-fashioned?

Hope everyone is having a blessed day!

I don’t know what it is about this time of year. Something about the proverbial “dog days of summer” I guess. Or the simple fact that when it’s 100 degrees outside, I would just really rather stay inside. You know — in the air conditioning! This time of year, I tend to want to do a lot of “projects”.

Now, mind you, I have a wonderful track record for starting projects. Completing them… not so much!

Here’s some of the “projects” I am currently working on:

– Cleaning out old magazines. This is a blog-post in the making. I have a thing about magazines. More on that coming soon.

– Ripping old home movies from tape to DVD

– Getting all of our Flip videos (digital) copied onto my new Mac. They are languishing away on my old, broken down HP and backed up in various places. Need to get them all uploaded to my new baby, Mr MacBook Pro 😀

– Finding some new software to organize our DVD’s on my new Mac. I’ve done this twice before, but keep repeating this project. The first time was on our website, Hambones. Then again a couple of years ago on my new HP. Now, I have a Mac and I need to start ALL OVER and catalog the 100+ DVD’s that we own (and rarely watch, I might add).

– Once I find said software, then there’s the actual entering of all of the DVD movies we own. I’ll be lucky to get past the letter F 😀

– Scrapbooking. Printing digital photos.

Not really a project, but reading. I’m still struggling with the reading. Some days are better than others and my tinnitus is not as loud. Those are good days to read (usually with soft music playing in the background, classical or contemporary Christian usually work best for me. Although I have a nature thing I play a lot too, surf and ocean waves and rain).

Do you have a certain time of year that you are drawn to projects? I know in the spring and fall, I usually go on a cleaning out / decluttering kick. We live in a small house, so it’s a constant thing with me to clean out closets, drawers, etc. Do you do more projects in the winter when it’s cold out, or in the summer, or does the weather have nothing to do with it?

Let me know if you have any projects you are working on, or hope to get to! 🙂

During my long blog break, Tim and I both got new MacBook Pro’s! He got his first, and then when my three-year-old problematic HP laptop started giving me more problems, he decided that I needed a Mac and he ordered me one too! I don’t have any pictures of me with my Mac, but I do have a cute picture of Tim unboxing his 🙂 Mine is just the same, except that it has more software on it:

I thought after working in the IT field for years and only working on Windows machines that I would not like moving into the Mac world. Boy, was I ever wrong! I love it. LOVE. IT! Mine is so easy to use, has so many great features, and I really and truly do not ever want to use a Windows PC again. I can’t recommend them enough. I told Tim the other day, we’ve really turned into Apple-heads 🙂 I love my very old iPod (not even a video one, that tells you how old it is!), our iPhones and now our Mac’s. I hope we never have to go back to a PC environment. The Mac’s are more expensive, granted, but we both do a lot on computers, and it is so nice to have a great one to use.

I haven’t learned everything about it yet, but I’m working on it. Time Machine still baffles me a little. Sometimes getting apps to download (free ones, hence probably most of the problem) doesn’t seem as seamless as other times. But the pro’s definitely outweigh the cons – I rarely have to reboot my Mac, I have had lots of things open and never had a crash, I never have any kinds of problems with it, it has a great display and an awesome battery. I love iPhoto and how easy it is to put photos on Facebook, Shutterfly, etc. I like Safari, but my favorite browser Chrome works like a champ on the Mac. So many things to love 🙂

If you have time to leave a comment, let me know…. do you use a PC or a Mac? If you use a PC, would you like to try a Mac if you had the money/time/etc to check it out?

Have a great day!

I don’t know if I just took a long break, or more likely, I had nearly given up on blogging. Either way, it’s been a while since I updated my blog.

The last time I posted was late March, which was when I developed tinnitus. I went to sleep one Friday night and I was fine. When I woke up Saturday morning, I had this loud screeching noise in my head. Well, actually, at first it was a loud pulsating noise, like I could hear my pulse pounding inside my head, very loudly. After several doctors visits, and being treated for what they said was a middle ear infection, it changed over to “traditional” tinnitus, a loud buzzing or screeching sound in my head. I took decongestants, mucus thinners, a Z-pack, a steroid pack, and finally they said the fluid was gone, but the noises remain. And apparently will for the rest of my life. I saw an ENT (who I disliked immensely, she was cold and uncaring and had the worst “bedside” manner I have ever encountered) who told me that I probably had Meniere’s Disease and that is why I have tinnitus. Except that my father-in-law has Meniere’s so I know all about it. I do not have vertigo, which is one of the hallmarks of Meneire’s. I just have tinnitus. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day. I’m getting better. And I’m trying lots of things on my own. The doctor said “learn to live with it”. When I told her I was having trouble sleeping, she said “turn some music on”. That was the extent of her helpful medical knowledge. HA! So, I’m doctoring myself and taking vitamin and herb supplements. It is better, but it has not gone away, and probably never will. I will have to learn to live with it, and I have somewhat, but I still have quite a long ways to go. Luckily, I have an awesome God on my side, who loves me, and the most loving spouse on the planet. So I know I’ll be fine, one way or another 🙂

Hearing the loud noises in my head and trying to cope with it consumes most of my days! I no longer read much, because it’s hard for me to read with the noise. I am getting better, but my reading pace and the number of books I have read is way down. I won’t come anywhere near the number of books I used to read in a year, this year. But I am enjoying most of the ones I do read, so I guess that’s good!

I’m walking 6 days a week. Most mornings, Tim gets up and goes with me, and we take Beau. We walk anywhere from 1 mile to nearly 3 miles. We don’t walk on Sundays, because we go to early church. In April, I got pretty sick and was having so much trouble sleeping and eating, that I lost 6 or 8 pounds in a couple of weeks. While I was ecstatic over the weight loss, I didn’t feel well. So once I got to feeling better, I got back to eating, and I’m happy/sad to report that I’ve gained all of that weight back!

I’ve gone back to scrapbooking, at least on a smaller level. I can turn music on when I scrapbook, which helps to mask some of the tinnitus. I’ve finished my Disney album (I won’t even tell you how many years ago we went to Disney World) which is way overdue. I’m working on pages for my Christmas album and also some in my regular chronological albums. I’m way behind, so I won’t ever come close to catching up. In addition to working on pages, I’ve also gone back and gotten a few pictures printed out. I’m about, oh, 6 or 7 years behind on printing pictures. To say I’m totally digital now is an understatement. I didn’t even know where to start at looking for places to print out photos!

I’m trying to stay busy, because when I’m busy or out in noisy places like restaurants, stores, etc, I don’t hear the tinnitus as much. Tim is great about getting me out and keeping me busy. I was always such a homebody, and it’s been so hard, such an adjustment for me, not to be able to enjoy being at home, enjoying the silence, being quiet and content. We’ve been going to a lot of movies this summer (although this is hard on me, the noise bothers my ears badly now, so I try to take ear plugs, which helps, but my tinnitus always spikes after we go to the theater). We go out to eat some, and get out and about whenever we have time.

Tim is still playing a lot of golf. He changed golf clubs a few months back and now has two courses that he can play at. The bad news is that he can no longer take Beau to the new place he joined (it’s a country club, not a golf club any more). When the weather was cooler, I was going with Tim and walking some at the golf course. It’s been really hot lately, though, so I have not been going. Tim still goes when it’s outrageous hot, but not me, I like my air conditioning! We had triple digit weather a week ago, and he was still out, on the days it was 103, with a heat index of 112. Yikes!

Anyway, this is not a very interesting blog post, nor am I promising any interesting ones in the future. Just thought I’d do a long, boring update! 🙂