Exceedingly Mundane

Well, I got lucky again this afternoon. Like I did the day I took this picture. 🙂

I was sitting down in the den to read the newspaper and check out Oprah (yeah, I know, it’s a tough life, bon bons and all!) and I saw a squirrel on the deck railing. He looked like the same squirrel who had come here before that I took pictures of. He has a sort of notch in his right ear, like he got hurt or bitten or something. I saw him eyeballing the bird feeder from the deck, but he kept jumping below the feeder (as he did before), and eating seeds and hulls from the ground. Just to be sure, I went and grabbed my camera and snuck back over by the window, in case he did something photo-worthy.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, NO, we do NOT have a pet squirrel. No, we don’t feed this squirrel. I promise I’ve just been really lucky and have been in the right place at the right time with my camera. The other day, when he jumped on the windowsill, I was astounded, because I have lived here 12 years and never, ever seen a squirrel on any of the window sills.

That said – he tried this afternoon to get on the squirrel-proof bird feeder. Apparently, it’s not squirrel proof if you’re a really, really smart squirrel. Check it out:

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Well, today marked two firsts for me this spring:

1) Today was the first day I had to turn the A/C on for me. We’ve had it on a few times for Tim, but I can usually stand it a lot warmer in the house than anyone else can. However, this afternoon I got hot and had to break down and turn it on. I try to wait till May every year, but once again, this year I did not make it. 🙄

2) Today was the first time I’ve had a Skinny Cow since last summer. I discovered them last year, and fell head over heels in love with Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches. You can check them out here . I will go through many, many packages of these over the next few months. Till at least September.

Well, I’ve had it on a to-do list for a while to enter all of the fortune cookies we have collected over the last few months at various Chinese restaurants into the Fortune Cookie section of Hambones. I finally did that this afternoon. Whew, now I can get those 14 or 15 little slips of paper off my desk! With the ceiling fan on, they are always blowing around on my desk! 😀

Go check them out, if you want to find out your fortune for the day. Just click on Fortune Cookie on the Main Menu of Hambones. And have a great day!

Here’s the new red maple that Tim planted for us on Monday… in the same spot that the other maple was. I miss how much shade it put out in the summer on the back of the house. This one is going to take quite a while to put out any shade! But, it’s nice to have something new to nurture, water, and watch grow. 🙂

I haven’t done an online quiz in a while, as I’ve been doing memes lately. And I don’t feel like writing anything remotely personal, mundane or thoughtful (not that I do much of those any of the time, it just ain’t me!) 🙂

So, from this site: What kind of chocolate are you?

You are Milk Chocolate A total dreamer, you spend most of your time with your head in the clouds. You often think of the future, and you are always working toward your ideal life. Also nostelgic, you rarely forget a meaningful moment… even those from long ago. What Kind of Chocolate Are You? Take This Quiz 🙂

I’m happy to report that I finished another book last night. This makes number eleven for the year, since I started back on my reading phase in late January. Last night I finished up the next one in the numbered Stephanie Plum series, “Four to Score”. I am really enjoying these books. I like the characters, I like the plots, and I enjoy how easy to read they are. I do not like the language, but I consider it part of the overall package – after all, our girl Stephanie is a bounty hunter who deals with low-life scumbags, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, etc. If it didn’t have some bad language, it wouldn’t be true to its genre.

I think I will probably read the new Nicholas Sparks book I picked up last week, called “True Believer”. Then again, I may go back to the library and get more from my ever-expanding list. And more temptingly, I might, just might, break down and do some online ordering. I “window shop” all the time at various online sites, and most of the time, I’m happy to just put things in my wish list or cart, without actually buying them! But, every few months, I get the itch to order stuff, and buy new books and cookbooks, and I do feel that that urge is rearing its ugly head again. I’m trying to fight it, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to resist. I feel that an order to Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com or even Overstock.com may be coming up soon. Real soon. 😀

I’ve mentioned it in passing a couple of times in different blog entries that my memory is atrocious. I really don’t remember much of anything from my childhood, school years, high school and college years. Heck, I just don’t remember that much about anything. Tim thinks it’s the Diet Coke I drink that is zapping my brain cells! I don’t know what to think – I used to have a pretty good memory and I still do about certain things (trivia, history, all-things-Tim) 🙂 But a lot of things just don’t stick in my brain. One of the worst for me is people – people’s faces, where I know them from, and mostly, their names.

One thing I am fairly decent about remembering, though, is food. I remember different foods I have eaten at certain places. I remember a few things from my childhood that relate to food, although probably not nearly enough.

I have thought of this often and have meant to blog about it. I read two articles last week in the local papers, plus this blog entry that Amanda wrote. The first article was in the Clarion Ledger, by one of the food writers (Robert St. John), and he wrote about “Pixie Sticks and Marathon Bars: A Sweet Childhood” (the article is here on the Clarion Ledger website, but I have serious doubts that it will be there long. They don’t seem to keep content for more than a week or two.) The other article was in the Madison County Herald, by a guy named Rusty Reeves. It was entitled “Old Food Joints fed more than just your stomach”. Again, I found the article online here but I doubt it will be there for long. Both of these jogged up memories for me (BEWARE – extremely long and rambling post ahead):

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Another cute little meme I like to do… from this site:

Vacation…

1. Where Do You Visit The Most On Vacation?: Well, since we’ve been married, we’ve been to Gatlinburg more times than anywhere else

2. What’s Your Idea Of A Dream Vacation?: my lifelong dream – to go to England, Scotland and Wales (in that order). A close second is France.

3. Ever Been To Disney World or Disneyland?: Not as a child, but Tim and I went to Disneyworld a few years ago and had a blast. It was GREAT!

4. What Has Been Your Favorite Vacation So Far?: Either Disneyworld or Big Cedar, probably. Although we have fun on every vacation we go on. We went twice last year, to Texas and back to Gatlinburg for my birthday and I thoroughly enjoyed both of those! 😀

5. Have You Taken A Cruise?: I went on my high school senior trip, but I don’t think Tim has ever been on one. We haven’t been together yet. I would love to go on an Alaskan cruise, that’s high on my list. 🙂

I was just blog surfing and read this on a guy’s blog… Monday Night Football is leaving ABC after this season, and will be on ESPN starting with the 2006 season. You can read all about it here .

Oh, and for those of you in the dark, the NFL draft is this weekend. I know what we’ll be doing this weekend, especially for the first few hours (until the Saints first pick, which I just looked up, is overall pick #16). Tim LOVES the draft. Tim LOVES football. Tim LOVES preseason. Tim LOVES football. 😀

Well, the house is quiet. Tim left really early this morning on his flight, and Gail just left a bit ago, going to Elizabeth’s honors program at MC. I have the house to myself, and it’s very quiet.

I learned several years ago to try to make the best of these times when Tim travels. They are very few and far between, and although my first instinct is to just miss him terribly, I have tried to be optimistic and make the best of it. I try to read more when he’s gone. I stay on the computer more when he’s gone. Normally I try to watch “girl movies”, but I doubt I will do that much this time as there is a lot of mindless TV on tonight (Tuesday) that I really enjoy. 😛

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Well, I have the TV on and they have had another papal vote. The smoke appeared dark at first, then white, and as yesterday, the commentators were nearly beside themselves trying to guess. I don’t know why they can’t be patient! It’s such an instant gratification kind of world. More on that in another blog entry!

Now the bells at St Peter’s Square are ringing and the smoke looks white, and there are thousands of people there, actually cheering in the plaza. So, apparently they have elected a new pope. Haven’t heard yet who it is or what name he will take.

I actually get quite a charge out of watching this stuff. I enjoy the history and ritual of it, but I must admit, I get quite a kick out of listening to these silly news commentators. 🙂

OK – Update, they just opened the doors (I guess to the papal apartment) and a cardinal has come out to announce the pope. It’s ….. the german cardinal they had considered the “frontrunner” – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany. He will take the name of Pope Benedict XVI (the 16th)

Well, Gail made it back here safe and sound. I picked her up at the airport, then we went and ran some errands and went shopping. Tim beat us home, and had the tree already planted by the time I got here! Boo-hoo, I had wanted to help! Oh well, it’s nice to see a tree out there, even though it’s just a little stick of a thing! I’ll take a picture of it tomorrow, in the sunshine. I love to take pictures of things when they are first planted, and then look back on them years later after they have grown and spread, and see how little it used to be! 🙂

Anyway, I cooked supper, and we all gave a thumbs up to the new recipe I tried. I’ll enter it tomorrow in my Mastercook software, then post it in the Recipes section of Hambones. I get to take it easy with cooking for the next couple of days while Tim is out of town. I’ll fix me some quick Chinese food! 🙂

We just finished watching 24 and are enjoying our visit with Gail. She’s spending the night so she can go tomorrow morning to Elizabeth’s Honors program at MC. Elizabeth is receiving an award for most outstanding senior in history. 😀 Way to go Liz!!!!

I think we’ll turn in soon. I, for one, am coughing and pretty tired. Gail is tired too, after the traveling and the shopping spree I drug her around on! And Tim, poor Tim, has to get up when the alarm goes off at 4:00 AM or thereabouts, so he can leave for the airport by about 4:30 AM. Me, I plan to go back to sleep after he leaves, and hopefully sleep late!

Well, I’m headed out in a little less than an hour to go pick up Gail at the airport. I have to get a new recipe going in the crockpot before I go, so that we can have something to eat when we get back! I think Gail and I are going to go run some errands and do some shopping, so I don’t know how late we will be. I know Tim is going to work on the tree tonight – he’s going to dig a big hole and hopefully do some tilling or weeding in that bed also, and then we’ll need to get the tree planted and it mulched. I’m pretty excited about finally getting a new tree back there! 🙂

I had the TV on and they broke in to show smoke coming out of the chimney at the Vatican. At first, of course, the media being the media, jumped to the wrong conclusion that it could be white, which would signal the election of a new pope. It seems to be black now and of course, the bells are not ringing, so apparently it’s just the first vote. The commentator just said that the shortest conclave in the modern era had 3 votes, so I doubt it will be today or maybe even tomorrow. But I’ll keep watching, I love the ritual and tradition and history of all of this. Oh, and they said about 40,000 people are in the square outside the Vatican watching. I can’t believe there’s that many people out there waiting!

Let’s Go Digital!

…and an optional random question, because I just cleaned my mouse…
How often do you clean your mouse?

Ok, here we go… on most days, I use these devices:

Alarm Clock
Desktop Computer
Printer
Speakers
my pedometer
Microwave
Digital Toaster Oven
Washer/Dryer (not sure if this counts!)
TV/Stereo
Cordless Phone
Cell Phone
digital coffeemaker (some days)
digital camera (some days)
digital timer in kitchen (most days)

And, I clean my mouse if it seems to be sticking, every couple of months maybe.