Exceedingly Mundane

Don and Gail went with a group from their church down to the MS Gulf Coast on Thursday to help with disaster recovery efforts. They originally intended to stay through Saturday, but with Hurricane Rita bringing lots of rain to the coast, they suspended a lot of the work they were doing. So, they headed north on Friday afternoon late, and called to ask to stay here. Which of course, was great! They got here a little after dark, and we got some Papa Johns pizza for supper. We talked about what they had seen down there, and how they were helping out, and also got to see some pictures of what they had seen. We hooked up our Dazzle to our old DVD recorder and were able to view the pictures from Gail’s camera card on our big TV in the den. 🙂 We also watched some of the news on Hurricane Rita, before everyone got tired last night and went to bed. Elizabeth came over this morning, and they all left a little while ago to go shopping. Elizabeth just moved into her new apartment, and needs a few things, so her parents were going to take her shopping to see what they could find to help her out. Aren’t they sweet?! 🙂

We haven’t gotten a single drop of rain from Hurricane Rita yet, and I’m doubtful that we will. We’re too far east. It is very windy and cloudy here though, so we’re not sure what we’ll do today. So far, I think we’re both content to hang around the house a bit. We’ll see how long that holds – Tim gets cabin fever quickly and we may have to venture out later today. 🙂

I finished another book night before last, “Thursdays at Eight” by Debbie Macomber. I probably won’t write a review of it and put on Hambones.org. It’s similar in tone and plot to the other Debbie Macomber book I have read – The Shop on Blossom Street. Both are about a group of 4 women who meet (this time on a Thursday morning breakfast club) and it follows their lives, and how their characters interact and their lives overlap from their new-found friendship. I really enjoy these books, good “women’s fiction”.

This book made #29 on my reading list for the year. I went to the library yesterday and got three more books to read. I’ve just added them to my sidebar. I got:

a. Miss Julia Takes Over by Ann B. Ross
b. Big Cherry Holler by Adriana Trigiani
c. Vienna Prelude by Bodie Thoene

The first book, Miss Julia Takes Over, is the second in the series of Miss Julia books. I really enjoyed the first one, and plan to read as many as they have available at my library. The second one, Big Cherry Holler, is the sequel to Big Stone Gap, which I read earlier in the year. The third one is the first in the Zion Covenant series by Bodie Thoene. Gail recommended these books to me, so I’m going to give this one a try and see if I like it.

I’ve had a busy day today. Spent most of the morning either on the telephone or watching the coverage of Hurricane Rita. I decided I was getting a little obsessive about it, as I always do. So, I headed out this afternoon and ran errands all afternoon. I went to the library and got more books (more on that tomorrow), then to Michaels, where I used this week’s coupon on a fall welcome sign to hang by our front door. Then, I headed to Bed, Bath and Beyond and picked up a Yankee Candle on clearance. After that was the biggie – a huge run to Sam’s. I filled up most of the back of my new Explorer with stuff I bought 🙂

We had supper (soup and sandwiches) and then watched Survivor, the season premiere of CSI and the series premiere of Criminal Minds. Good shows. I’m having a good TV week – Lost last night, Survivor tonight and the season finale of Battlestar tomorrow night. Yippee!

I talked to Gail earlier – she and Don are on the coast with a group from their church, helping out with recovery efforts. They’re trying to decide whether to stay and help, or get out of the way of Hurricane Rita. She heard from Trent and Shanna that they got to her parents ok, so that was a big relief. 🙂

Well, I had hoped we wouldn’t have another major hurricane to deal with this year, especially after what we’ve been through here and in Louisiana in the last 3 weeks since Katrina hit. Now, there’s another monster storm in the gulf, hurricane Rita. She grew to a category 5 late yesterday and although they think she will weaken slightly, a cat 3 or cat 4 hurricane hitting TX or southwest Louisiana is more than enough to worry about.

I’ve been really worried about Trent, Shanna and the kids. I finally talked to Shanna this morning and they’re going to try to go to her parents, who live out from Tomball. I’m afraid they may still lose power there, but Shanna’s dad has a generator, so that will help. I hope this one fizzles out and is not as bad as they are predicting, but we’ve learned a valuable lesson with Katrina. It’s best to be prepared and get everyone out and hope for the best. It could be bad, but we just have to hope. I will feel better when I know that Trent and Shanna have gotten to her parents and are safe, with the kids.

OK, in case anyone is not living on planet Earth, the season premiere of Lost is tonight. I’m ready and waiting – how many more hours do I have to wait?! 😀 I’ve had a counter on my blog for weeks, counting down to this day. I’ve read spoiler sites and stuff, and Gail and I have talked about it. I’m ready. More than ready. I better not be disappointed people, I know we will get more questions than answers, but I want an answer or two also!

Found these at The Woman Wonders blog a few days ago. Great questions for a child of the 80’s like myself!!

1. Little House on the Prairie or Facts of Life? I loved Little House, read all the books and watched most of the shows, especially the early and middle years of its run on TV.

2. Kirk Cameron or Ricky Schroeder? I liked Kirk Cameron myself 🙂

3. Bon Jovi or Def Leppard? Oh my, loved them both, but I have to go with Def Lep on this one

4. Leg warmers or vests? I don’t remember either one, but I think I probably wore vests before leg warmers!

5. Debbie Gibson or Tiffany? I didn’t particularly like either one, but if pressed, I’d pick Debbie Gibson

6. The Cosby Show or Family Ties? Loved the Cosby Show! I can remember in college, we had a whole group that got together in our lobby of the girls dorm I was in, and watched it every Thursday night. Same thing with Miami Vice on Fridays (wasn’t it Fridays?). Loved those shows!

7. Madonna or Cyndi Lauper? Hmm, liked both, loved neither

8. E. T. or Annie? E. T. all the way. I’ve never seen Annie!

9. Duran Duran or Micheal Jackson? Loved Duran Duran, had several of their cassettes. Never liked MJ that much, and I despise him these days

10. Magic Johnson or Larry Bird? Larry Bird, I was a Celtics fan for a long time!

OK, my calendar says that tomorrow is the beginning of fall. Now, granted, I realize we don’t get a lot of fall here, and certainly not all that early. But — STILL — people, the high today is supposed to be 97º, yes, that’s NINETY SEVEN DEGREES. Geesh, I’d take 88 or 90 in a heartbeat. 75 would be nice, but I know I’m dreaming.

On a related note, we’ve lost most, if not all, of the flowers I planted in the spring. I don’t even feel like getting outside in the heat and the continuing swarms of love bugs, to go dig them up, or water the stragglers that are still hanging on. Same goes for the tree we planted in April. I know the poor thing needs water, but I don’t want to fight the bugs and the heat to water it. Sigh. When is fall REALLY going to get here? 🙂

Saw this posted on another blog, and swiped it to post here. I’m constantly amazed at the English language and how hard it must be for others to learn to speak, read and write it. Goodness knows I have trouble with it myself sometimes, and it’s all I’ve ever known! 🙂 There’s lots of these, but here’s some good examples. 🙂

Read each of these phrases aloud, and then note the spellings:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

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We watched the Saints (of old) play terribly and lose to the NY Giants last night. I taped the season premiere of 7th Heaven, and we’ll watch it this week. Tonight is the season premiere of NCIS, which ended with the surprise killing off of one of the main characters last year in the last 5 seconds. There’s a new character added, played by Lauren Holly, and I’m looking forward to it. Then, House comes on Fox at 8. So, I’m all set and excited about something new to watch on TV. Of course, that goes without saying that I’m totally pumped about tomorrow’s season premiere of Lost. I can’t wait!

We have them every fall, but I don’t think I ever remember them being this bad! There’s been a lot on the news lately about the love bug “epidemic” as they call it. They keep saying it is NOT because of Hurricane Katrina, which is what we all think. We think the hurricane pushed them further north than normal (which is why we seem to have thousands of them, instead of hundreds). They say this is just an outbreak season. Whatever. I’m so sick of them, and I want them to go away. They are swarming in our back yard. You can’t even step out on the deck without a dozen of them flying onto your skin, clothes or in your hair. They don’t sting, thank goodness, but they are so annoying. I’m ready for them to GO AWAY!

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, or want to see how bad they are, click on the -More- link to see some pictures of them on our deck, and what they did to our cars this past weekend when we went to Hattiesburg.

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Monday, September 19, 2005

1. When you’re stressed out, what do you do to relieve your stress? Find some quiet peaceful time. Remove myself from whatever or whoever is stressing me out. Take a bath or a nap. Read a book. Veg out in front of the TV. Take a walk. Something!

2. Are you normally a patient person, or is patience NOT one of your virtues? Well, I think I’ve gotten more patient the older I’ve gotten. Patience can be learned, I think.

3. How many times a week do you blog? I try to blog every day, at least a little something. If I start lagging behind, I know me, I’ll drop it eventually, so I try to do a little bit every day.

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I finished another book tonight, “Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind” by Ann B. Ross. I just entered a review of it here on Hambones.org. I really enjoyed this book, and plan to read more of the ones from this series (this was book #1). As for my list, this was #28 on my list of books for the year. Yeah, me! 😀

Vegging out today after a long, but productive day yesterday. Went down and helped Dad in his yard. Took some pictures but haven’t transferred and loaded them yet. Gail and Don went down too, and between the five of us, I bet we bagged 25 or 35 bags of leaves. Tim and I are feeling it today, we’re both pretty sore. Went to the USM game with Mark, Amanda, Ethan and Abby. Was pretty humid, but the Eagles won, so it’s all good. Got home late and are vegging today, watching football, munching on game-day food. And doing a little reading in commercial breaks. Tim started a new book, yeah! Having a terrible week with my fantasy football team, oh well. Always next week!

Tim got called by the Operations Center in Dallas about 5:30 this morning. So early, so very very early. Especially considering we sat up late last night 🙁 They had a problem and he had to get up and work for a couple of hours to fix it. I tried to go back to sleep, and did a little, but it was very fitful and not very restful. Poor Tim didn’t get any rest at all after that. He said he couldn’t go back to sleep.

We’re headed down to Hattiesburg for the day. Dad may need some help in his yard, and then we’re going to the game tonight. Mark, Amanda, Ethan and Abby want to go, so we’re all going to go together. We’re anxious to see what the campus and area looks like, even though it’s nearly 3 weeks since the storm. From everything we’ve read, it may still look pretty rough.

This afternoon I put some stuff for dinner in the crockpot, and it cooked all afternoon. When Tim got in from work, he offered to take me to eat Chinese. Which I have been wanting to do for weeks and weeks. I’ve been begging, pleading, bargaining, etc lately to get him to go eat Chinese with me. So, I put up the food (who knows when we’ll eat it), and we went to our nice little Chinese buffet near our house. I gorged to my heart’s content! Tim got extra double bonus points for sucking it up and taking me. I don’t think he wanted Chinese, but he knew how much I did. What a sweetie pie! 😀

Then, I pushed my luck and asked to go out Lakeland to Hobby Lobby. I had hoped that they had finished stocking all of the scrapbooking stuff, since I had not been in weeks. Apparently, Tim was still in his “earn bonus points” mood, so he took me! My hopes were dashed – I didn’t find anything new. And, in fact, I think they had even less since the last time I was there before, probably in early August. Phooey. We also went to Lowe’s to get some O-rings and A/C filters. Then, we stopped at the big Target to get a shower gift for a friend of Tim’s at work. We made it home in time to watch Battlestar, which was really good. I was so sad to see that next week is the season finale, darn it. I hate that we won’t have new episodes for a while. My only consolation is that Survivor, Lost, Race, etc are all starting up (or have started). Thank goodness!