Exceedingly Mundane

Saw this at a couple of blogs I peruse, and thought it might be fun to play along. If you do so at your blog, be sure to let me know so I can come by and see your responses!

Name a film that you have seen more than 10 times.
The Sound of Music, You’ve Got Mail, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, all of the Star Wars movies

Name a film that you’ve seen multiple times in the cinema.
Ooh, tough one. I don’t usually see a movie more than once in the theater. The only one that comes to mind is the original Star Wars. Saw it in 1977 and the 20 year re-issue in 1997.

Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a film.
I see movies based more on plot and reviews than on a single actor or actress starring in them. That said, I do like Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, etc. For women, I like Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, etc.

Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a film.
Will Ferrell. Don’t like him and don’t watch his movies.

Name a film that you can and do quote from.
Ooh, lots of these! You’ve Got Mail, O Brother Where Art Thou, all of the Lord of the Rings, all of the Star Wars movies, etc

Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
The Sound of Music. I know every song, every syllable, every note.

Name a film that you would recommend everyone to see.
Hmm, last year we recommended both Star Trek and Avatar, good movies to see, especially on the big screen. I personally liked The Blind Side a lot, we really love a good football movie. And I always recommend good clean Christian films like Amazing Grace, One Night with the King, The Nativity Story, etc.

Ever walked out of a film?
Dune, back in the 80’s, I think is the only one coming to mind. I fell asleep during one when Tim and I were dating, I think it was called Forget Paris (not sure though, we went to the late movie and I slept through most of it, LOL!)

Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.
Titanic, Marley and Me, many others…

There’s more questions on the following page, click here:
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I always have such good intentions about blogging. Take this blog post, for instance. I took this picture over a month ago, and stored it away to write a post about:

Now, here it is several weeks later, and I no longer have any of the dish soap or hand soap. I was going to blog about how I had bought my first Mrs. Meyer’s products last fall and winter. I love this pine scent that came out around the holidays. I was going to blab about how my local Target had this one seasonal scent, but I can no longer find these products at my store. And of course, they’re not at Walmart (where I normally shop, I know, I know!). I don’t shop at drugstore type stores (CVS, Walgreens, etc), so I don’t know if they carry them. I was pleasantly surprised to find some unscented Mrs. Meyer’s products at my local Marshalls / TJ Maxx stores. That’s where I got the countertop spray in the middle, which I do still have 🙂

I had the best intentions about doing a nice, little post about cleaning products, and what people use to clean their kitchen with. Are you a germophobe and very concerned about germs, and only use anti-bacterial products? Do you hand wash dishes, and if so, what brand or type of dish soap do you use? Are you adamant about your floors and countertops, and what do you use on them? Are you a sucker for a certain kind of dishwasher product – tabs, gel, powder, etc?

I must admit, I’m brand dependent, but only to the extent of what I can find in bulk at our local Sam’s Club, combined with what I like. I normally use Palmolive anti-bacterial dish soap. It’s an orange colored liquid that I buy in a huge container at Sams, then I fill up a glass olive oil with spout type container at home (did that make ANY sense?!) to use for washing pots and pans in the sink. I use Cascade tabs in my dishwasher. I’ve tried powder, gel and tabs, and I do like the ease and convenience of the tabs. Sam’s sells both Electrosol brand and Cascade brand, but I couldn’t tell a huge difference between them. The Cascade are a bit cheaper, so that’s what we use. I keep hand soap on my sink, but once I had used up all of my Mrs Meyers, I admit I went back to using the Equate brand from Walmart, an antibacterial one. I mop my floors with Armstrong floor cleaner. With a dog that is only allowed on the tile in the kitchen, my floors have to be cleaned pretty often 🙂

So, there, it’s not timely or well-stated, but I wanted to ramble on about cleaning products in the kitchen. I’m always interested in what other people use, and what they like and dislike. It’s usually a good way to find something new to try, that I might like better 🙂 I am a homebody and I work hard to keep our home a happy, healthy, clean, comfortable place. These topics are so mundane to most, but always so intriguing to me!

Leave me a comment and let me know what you use at your house, or if you really could care less about this type of stuff 🙂 Maybe you’re not the only cleaning up the kitchen, or maybe it just doesn’t matter. But if it does, and you’ve found products that you either like or dislike for whatever reason, let me know!

Oh, and have a great day!

It’s a little thing, but I’ve decided to go with more glass and less plastic in my kitchen. For quite a while now, I’ve been thinking about trying to get rid of most of my Rubbermaid / Tupperware / Misc Plastic containers. I have read (or as Tim thinks, bought into the hype) that there’s stuff in the plastic that can leach into your food. Plus, plastic gets stained with tomato products like spaghetti, chili, etc. Now, I like plastic for the no-breakage option, but I’m trying really hard to be careful and not chip or break my glass containers.

I bought a couple of 3 pack Pyrex glass storage containers at Walmart to give them a try. A few days later, Tim and I were at Sam’s, and he found this. He came and got me and said, “Let’s get this for you, I think you’ll love it!”. Such a sweetie 🙂

I told him, I really don’t need that many containers, nor do I have room for them. But, I started going through my cabinets and decided I could purge some other things that I had. I had a set of stainless /coated storage containers, some ramekins, as well as all of my Rubbermaid containers. Once I cleaned all of them out, I had enough room for all of my red Pyrex glass containers.

I’ve had them a few weeks now, and I really like them. I can mix up something like chicken salad in one of the containers, then just store it in the fridge. I can scoop up leftovers from supper, then when we want to warm them up for lunch the next day, I don’t have to worry about taking them out of the plastic and putting them on something else to warm up (that’s mostly what I had read about plastic, don’t microwave in it and heat them and the contents up). I can pop them in the freezer, I can put them in the dishwasher and they come out looking brand new. I really like this set from Sam’s Club, because I have some rectangular / oblong ones in addition to different sizes of round ones. Lots of variety and lots of storage sizes. All good things 🙂

So, here’s a quick question – do you do leftovers at your house? Do you store them in plastic or glass? Do you freeze leftovers?

Have a great, happy, joyous day 🙂

I’m starting to feel like I’m missing out. The girls in our neighborhood that used to come around and sell Girl Scout cookies have all grown up, so we have no more doorbell rings to look forward to. Usually, I find a troop setup at a local grocery store with a table of cookies for sale, but this year I have not happened upon any. I’m starting to feel left out. Not that I need the calories, but sometimes, you just want a Girl Scout cookie, you know what I mean?

How about you? Do you buy Girl Scout cookies? If so, do you eat them right away, put them in the freezer? Or do you have Girl Scouts in your house and you dread the thought of all of those cookies, this time every year?! 🙂

How do you spell that? That’s what my computer did this week, it went ker-pluey, ker-plunk. It died on Wednesday, but I’m happy to say it is patched, bandaged and limping along at the moment. My HP laptop is 3 years old and has had only one problem, but this is the third time that this has happened. The first two times, it was under warranty, and extended warranty, so I was able to mail it back to be “fixed”. Not that they really fixed it, since it keeps happening over and over 😀

My video card (Nvidia GeForce Go 7600) and the processor on my computer, apparently, upon further research, have a major incompatibility. The video keeps going out on my laptop, which is really quite bad. Multi-colored vertical lines instead of Windows loading is really not all that fun. Nor is a black screen.

Tim, being the wonderful, sweet, smart guy that he is, figured out a way to switch my setup over to the basic VGA setting on the motherboard (you know, the one that works with Safe Mode, which does still run on my computer). So, now everything is really big and less crisp, but it’s up and running. It’s bought me some time to make sure all of my files are backed up (hello, don’t want to lose years worth of digital photos!). I don’t know how long this patch will last, but in the mean time, I’m happy to have a computer at all.

I was going to make a separate post, but I guess I’ll go ahead and spill the beans here.

Tim got a MacBook Pro a week or so ago!

It was a very belated birthday/Christmas/Valentines etc gift (and in fact anniversary gift, since yesterday was our 14th wedding anniversary)! He’s been wanting to get a Mac for a while, and we finally got him one. In fact, here’s the kicker:

Tim has never had his own personal computer :gasp:

He’s a full-time computer guy and his work has always provided him with a computer. He’s bought me 2 or 3 brand new computers since we’ve been together, and he has always, always taken the old one as a hand-me-down, to use for himself. He’s so incredibly unselfish and always gets me a new one, and has never ever had a new one for himself. So, this was way overdue!

P.S. Please note, not only does this photo show his shiny new Macbook, but you can also see one of our other new happies – Saints Super Bowl champions t-shirts! Woo-hoo 🙂

Note to self: Be sure to keep the garage door closed. All of those birds you’ve seen flying in and out of the garage the last couple of days have been up to something:

I felt really really bad to get rid of the nest they had started. I know they need to have one somewhere, this time of year. But, my opened box of kitchen garbage bags that I had stored on top of my shelf in the garage is not the best place to do it. I just know I’m going to need more garbage bags from behind the nest before too long 🙂

Poor birdies, no babies in my garage!

If you’re the only dog in a house where there are no children, no cats and no other pets, it stands to reason that you will be a little spoiled.

If you’re a dog who happens to live in OUR house, you will be very spoiled!

Beau doesn’t think so, but he is. I know he is, because I’m the one who spoils him. 🙂 I particularly love to buy him new beds, new collars and treats (lots of treats!). He is set with toys. He has a toy basket full and he only plays with them sporadically. He has 3 beds and I would have 5 more if I had room for them, LOL!

This winter has been particularly cold, so I thought it was time for Beau to have a newer, bigger, softer, better blanket. I mean, a dog gets cold in a climate controlled house, you know?!

So, here’s Beau with his new blankie:

Sometimes, we wrap him up so tight, you can barely find him in his new blankie:

On chilly days, when Beau wants to go outside and enjoy the sunshine, his mama thinks he gets cold, so she wraps him up (on his glider), in his new blankie:

Do you think Beau is spoiled? Do you think Beau is loved and well-cared for? I think somebody loves Beau the wonder dog 😀

I haven’t been blogging for the last week or so. I’d like to convince you it’s because I’m so busy watching the Olympics (which we are, sort of!), but mostly it’s because I haven’t been able to think of a whole lot to blog about. It definitely comes and goes, ideas for blog posts 🙂

So, have you been watching the Olympics? If so, which sport or athlete has been your favorite?

We’ve really been enjoying the speed skating, a lot of the skiing, and the snowboarding (love the snowboard cross).

Every week, I empty the kitchen and breakfast room of all the chairs around the table, and sweep and mop the floors really well. Beau, for some unknown reason, loves, loves, loves to lay up under the table when all of the chairs are gone. He actually grumps and growls at me when I start to move them back and he has to move out 🙂 I have never actually seen him do this before, though, and he laid like that for a long time, propped up against the leg of the table. I’m really surprised he did, that table leg is pretty hard and probably not very comfy!

P.S. Tim said this looked like a yin and yang photo of him, with the sun and shadow on his face. I love photos of him like that! Aw heck, who am I kidding, I love all photos of my Beau-Beau 😀

My apologies to all who have already seen and heard about this on Facebook, but this is just too good to not post at my blog too! After all, I always look back here to reminisce and look things up, and just generally remember all the little and big things.

So….

Today, it snowed! About 4 or 4 1/2 inches, depending on which area of the yard we measured in! They had been forecasting snow all week, but I was very skeptical. I kept saying, “I’ll believe it when I see it”. They forecast our area to get 1-3″, and I really thought we would just get a dusting of snow, or an inch or less. When I woke up this morning, I was shocked! Happy, but quite surprised 🙂

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Just for the record, the largest container of Shout laundry detergent from Sam’s lasts me approximately 2 1/2 years, LOL!

I posted this entry on my Project 365 blog way back in July 2007.

I got a couple of comments back then about how big the container was. And it was, but I always figure that things like toilet paper, dishwashing detergent, laundry detergent, Shout and things like that don’t go bad or are ever going to stop being used in our house. So those are the kinds of things I buy in large quantities at Sam’s Club. So, for the record, that 128 oz container worked for us for about 2 1/2 years. And today, I threw out that container of Shout and opened a new one (also from Sam’s, but not quite as large).

I thought you might like to know, hardy har har!

P.S. You know, sometimes it is really nice to be able to look back at the REALLY important things in life, like when you bought a giant container of laundry cleaner. You know, the special moments 😀

P.S.S. This blog ain’t named Exceedingly Mundane for nothing!

I gave Tim a really good list for Christmas this year (well, 2009, still hard to believe it’s 2010), and he did a wonderful job of getting me both things I wanted from my list and surprising me. One of the practical things I asked for was an electric kettle. I have never owned a traditional kettle that you use on the stovetop to boil water. I have always used my microwave to boil water, I don’t know why. But when people are over and it’s cold and everyone wants hot chocolate, it’s hard to boil a lot of water fast for 4 or 5 cups of cocoa.

Enter my new baby! She’s a keeper. She boils water really fast (although she sounds like a freight train after a minute or two), and the water is really hot. Almost too hot. But I can boil enough for a cup of hot cocoa or cider or tea for me, or for a crowd. I know it’s not something I’ll use year round, but it is wonderful to have for the winter. And after all, we’re having a really cold winter around here, so she’s getting a good workout lately. Yep, she’s a keeper 🙂

I’m just a little goofy, because I got excited when I found out a few days ago that this year, Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day are on the same day 😀

If you’ve visited here before, you might remember me blogging about the fact that Tim doesn’t really buy into the “greeting card holidays” as he calls them. Valentines is his biggest pet peeve. And even though I love to get flowers or chocolates or even a card, I really do see his point.

In the beginning, when we were dating and first married, he pushed through his cynicism and did what I wanted – sent me expensive flowers, took me out to nice restaurants, etc for Valentines Day. One year, we waited at a local Italian place (Amerigo) for over two hours then had less than stellar food and service. We had been married a few years and I was starting to see his point, but that ill-fated date night out on Valentines Day sealed it for me. These days, we do little to observe Valentines. Tim is wonderful about getting me flowers or cards or happies any of the other 360+ days out of the year (anniversary and birthday don’t count!), so Valentines really is not a big deal for us. We normally grill out a steak and watch tv, no biggie.

This year though, I saw that the Chinese New Year is on February 14. So, I’m really excited! You see, Chinese food is one of my most favorite things in the whole world. And Tim loves to get take-out more than eat it in restaurants, so it’s a win-win thing for us. I’m hoping we can get some Chinese food this weekend; in fact, I’m already planning for it and looking forward to it 🙂 We do have some steaks in the freezer, so maybe the other night (Saturday), we can grill out a steak and just celebrate both with our favorite foods 😀

BTW, I’m a Dragon and Tim’s a Rooster on the Chinese zodiac… we always have fun reading about those on the paper place-mats at one of the local Chinese places we visit. Have you ever checked to see what you are? You can read about the Chinese New Year here at Wikipedia, or find out your sign here.

Do you have plans for either holiday this weekend?

Who Dat! Who Dat say de gonna beat MY Saints?! Who Dat? Nobody!

Yep, we’re excited and euphoric and dazed and thrilled beyond words! I know most of you guys out in blog-ville don’t care a hoot about football, but obviously we do. Tim is already talking about what kind of Super Bowl memorabilia he wants to get 🙂

Just for the record, this is a long time coming. For those of you who aren’t Saints fans, let me tell you this – in 43 years, the Saints had never even made it to the Super Bowl. Heck, for the first 21 years of the franchise’s existence, they didn’t even have a winning season. In the 12 years that Archie Manning was the quarterback for the Saints (yes, Peyton and Eli’s dad), he only had 35 wins. In twelve total years. So, this is long overdue and we’re really really really ecstatic!

Who Dat!

Sometimes I love that my puppy dog is so vocal, and sometimes, it drives me nuts! When we rescued Beau, the foster home he was living in told us, “He NEVER barks!”. Well, even though he lived there six months, they were dead wrong. The dog barks all the time. He sings, he cries, he whines, he wails, he howls, he moans in his sleep. I guess all dogs do, to a certain extent. But, we happen to think that Beau is extra vocal and expressive.

This is just a short snippet, but this is very commonplace in our house. Beau thinks it is his job to be on guard duty all day long, so he stands at the back door, looking for predators in the back yard (most notably squirrels, but also lizards, bugs, birds and most any critter that moves). It’s his job to protect us. And apparently to alert us to anything moving outside.

P.S. Donna, you asked for it, so here’s yet another Beau post and video, LOL!