Exceedingly Mundane

I finished the second in a series of 5 books by Karen Kingsbury and Gary Smalley (the “Redemption” series) last night. The books follow the Baxter family from Bloomington, Indiana and their five grown children (each book covers a different sibling, but their storylines all criss-cross between books). This book touches on the events of 9/11, so it was an especially good one to read.

I won’t enter a separate review of this book on Hambones, since I reviewed the initial one and intended for that to cover all 5 books in the series. This book makes 11 for the year, with a total of 3,911 pages read.

These are great books, by the way. Gail is also reading them, and is one book ahead of me in the series. They are available at my local public library, so they should be readily available. Good reading that I highly recommend

Let’s talk about our hobbies… and so I don’t forget, thank you for playing and have a wonderful week! =)

1. How many hobbies do you have? 3 or 4, I guess
2. Name at least one of your hobbies. Reading
3. What do you like about your hobby? I love to read, would spend every minute reading if I could. Love to read about other people, other places, characters that are interesting, funny, sad or meaningful. I love the escapism that reading provides me
4. What keeps you from spending more time on any one of your hobbies? Getting busy with other things, or getting distracted on the computer 🙂
5. Do you have any hobbies that you haven’t taken up yet, but would like to? Not really
6. Have you ever decided to give up a hobby? If so, why? I’m trying to decide whether to continue with scrapbooking. I don’t enjoy doing it as much as I used to (it’s more of a chore, a stress now), but the $$ I’ve invested in it makes me feel guilty about trying to give it up

~Potluck~

By the way…

When you attend a potluck dinner, what item/items do you usually bring? Well, most of the potlucks we go to are at Tim’s extended family, either his mom or dad’s side of the family will have a get-together. Or a “gathering” as they like to call them. 🙂 Since we live farther away and have to travel, I try to take things that travel well, which usually means a dessert for me. I often make brownies or chess squares or gooey bars. I have made other desserts, and sometimes take the stuff to make Gail’s crunchy Asian slaw. All of them usually go over pretty well.

Do you pick up something pre-made at the market, or do you take the time to prepare something at home. The majority of the time, I make something. Sometimes we take drinks or pick up food, depends on who is there, the occasion, our travel arrangements and timing.

Are you the one whose dish always gets the rave reviews at the event? Not really. Tim’s mom and her sisters are great cooks and they can out-cook and out-bake me any day. My sister is a really great cook too, so if I take something to Gail’s (usually just at the holidays), it’s a certain broccoli casserole everyone loves. Especially me!

Share your favorite potluck dish if you like. All of my recipes are here on our family website, Hambones.org. The Fudgy One-Bowl brownies, Gail’s Crunchy Slaw and Broccoli casserole are perennial potluck favorites.

Saturday was originally supposed to be a day to work on the tile project in our master bath, but neither one of us really felt like diving in. Ok, really, to be fair, Tim probably did, but I didn’t! So, I coerced Don and Gail into coming down and hanging out with us.

Tim and Don got an 11 o’clock tee time at the Refuge and went to play golf. They had a great time and played all afternoon, till about 4:00 I think. Tim looks like a very cooked lobster now. He didn’t wear sunscreen or a hat and we will have to remedy that next time. I’m currently on the hunt for a hat or visor that he will like and wear. Otherwise, he’s going to really hurry the onset of skin cancer. 🙄

Gail and I got to hang out, play with our iPods, then go shopping. We hit Kohl’s first, where every piece of clothing I thought was cute and might fit, I tried on – only to find that they didn’t fit or looked like crap on me. I completely struck out in the clothing department all day – it wasn’t my day to buy clothes! Instead, I bought a mini stir-fry pan in my Calphalon and also a pair of winter slippers on 70% clearance. We also walked down to several other stores nearby. Gail bought a thing or two, but I did not. I just don’t like shopping that much any more! Unless Gail comes down to go shopping with me, I never go! No fun by yourself, and both Tim and I hate going shopping, so we just never go. Anyway, we also hit Target and got a snack to tide us over, then did some browsing and shopping in there. I did get several things in here, that I knew they had and I wanted. Some workout clothes that I have tried on before and bought and know fit me. We looked at iPod accessories in Target for Gail’s new iPod she got, but ended up walking next door to price compare at Best Buy, and bought her a combo jacket/armband/clip in there. Cool accessory! 🙂 We also hit Belk for a quick trip to return something for Gail. Lots of shopping and I think we were both tired toward the end.

After the guys finished their golf, we all met up to eat. We were very very very bad and went to the CiCi’s pizza buffet in front of Kohl’s. Ate all-you-can-eat pizza which is a very bad thing for someone like me – who loves pizza and has no self control over when to stop eating something she loves. It was good though!

Great day, we were so glad Don and Gail were able to make the trip down. Tim is now even more enamored of golf than before, if that’s humanly possible. Playing an actual 18 holes for the first time just fueled the fires to play more. He even said today, “I’d like to play a new course every weekend!” 🙄

Tim and I wanted to have dinner out last night (Friday night), at a new place that has just opened near our house – the Alumni House. We went and found the parking lot packed, and a line just to go put your name on the list. It’s a sports bar kind of place, but it seemed unusually smoky to us, just walking in the front door. We’ve gotten sort of spoiled with all of the smoke-free restaurants (that’s the policy for Madison) and really don’t enjoy dining in places that are smoky.

Anyway, we decided to go up to Madison and either try the new Nagoya Japanese place or the new Mexican place next door, Papito’s. Obviously (based on the name of this entry!), we tried Papitos. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table, but it was well worth the wait. 🙂 We realized after looking at the menu in the waiting area that the menu seemed identical to a great Mexican restaurant we like called Margaritas. Then, a waiter walked by with a Margaritas apron on, so we assume this new place is owned by the same people. The food was delicious and the guacamole was great. The portions were huge, so we ended up both bringing food home in a to-go box.

There have been 4 Mexican restaurants open in Madison in the past couple of years. We can now say that we have tried them all, and that Papitos’ ranks #1 on our list. In case anyone cares!

The lovely Kristine has given us our assignment for the week. Randomness Galore – your favorite jeans, birthmark, mole or freckles and your photo albums & where you store them.

Click on the -more- to see my Stuff Portrait Friday photos. Beware – anything concerning photos, photo albums or scrapbooks entails a long-winded entry from me. 😛

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– a buffet for your brain

Friday, March 03, 2006
Feast Eighty-Three

Appetizer
How many pillows and blankets do you sleep with? Only one pillow. The covers depend on the time of year. In the winter, a sheet, comforter and quilt. In the summer, just the sheet and comforter.

Soup
What are you currently “addicted” to? WELL. I’m an addict on several levels. Always addicted to chocolate and sweets. Always addicted to TV. Currently addicted to reading, playing Sudoku and blogging.

Salad
If you could make a small change to your current routine or schedule that would make you just a little bit happier, what would it be? Well, for the last several weeks, Tim has been having to put in a lot of code at night. That messes up our sleeping schedule. I will be a bit relieved when that is not going on and we get back to a normal time of going to bed and getting up in the AM. I will also be happy when my ankle heals and I can get back into working out and walking. Ouch. My ankle hurts when I put much weight on it.

Main Course
Which adjective do you find yourself using often? Nothing that I can think of!

Dessert
Have you ever picked up a hitchhiker? NO. And I won’t.

I found this posted on one of my favorite message boards – you can click here and go find out what the number one song in the U.S. was the week you were born. I love little fun stuff like this!

Post yours at your own blog, or a comment here. Mine was “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” by Manfred Mann

I finished another book yesterday afternoon late, the second Brad Meltzer book I have read, called “Dead Even”. I had checked this one out of the library after reading a Meltzer that we own, called “The First Counsel”. Both are good legal thrillers, along the lines of a good Grisham book. I think I will eventually check out another Meltzer book from the library, called “The Tenth Justice”. All of his books seem to be pretty good. I will work on a review and put it up on Hambones soon. 🙂

For the record, this is book #10 on the year, with a total of 3,528 pages read. I finished reading Dead Even while we were at the driving range. We ran and picked up some fast food for supper, then Tim graciously agreed to go to the library with me to return the three books I had finished, and get 3 more. He also browsed through the golf section and got himself a book called “The Perfect Swing”. I have added the 3 new books to my sidebar that I picked up. They are “Remember” by Karen Kingsbury (2nd in a series of 5 books called the “Redemption” series), “One Tuesday Morning” by Karen Kingsbury (a book about 9/11) and a book that they had just put out, and I was the first one to check out! This book is on the NY Times Bestseller list and is a historical fiction book about a woman in 1500’s Italy. Not sure I will like the genre, but it’s a best seller and my library just got their copy in this week, so when I saw it on the “New Arrivals” shelf, I grabbed it. The lady checking me out had trouble getting it to scan, and then I told her where it was and she goes “Oh, that one is brand new, I’ll have to set it up in the system for circulation”. So, I think I’m the first one to read it. Cool, for a library nerd like me 😀 Anyway, it’s called “In the Company of the Courtesan” by Sarah Dunant, and I’m going to give it a shot. If I like it, I like it and if I don’t, nothing lost, I’ll just return it to the library.

As always, my philosophy remains. Every time I go to the library I think the same thing — “So many books, so little time”!!!

I’ve been in a bit of a rut in the cooking department the last month or so. I’ve still been cooking most every night, but I haven’t been in the mood to try out anything new. Thankfully, I have at least 150 recipes that I have made in the past that are in my “tried and true” files, so don’t think we’re eating the same thing week in and week out. I have made recipes from my “already made it before files” that I might not have made in a year, or might have only made once or twice.

Still, I like to try new recipes. I just haven’t been motivated. Until yesterday. I finally tried a new one, for “Cornmeal-Crusted Tilapia with Salsa” from the recent issue of Everyday Food that I blogged about here. This recipe was incredibly easy. It took all of maybe 5 minutes, 10 tops. So don’t let the long name fool you, it was easy, but still good. I am trying for us to eat more fish, but Tim is not that hyped about it. He grew up eating fried catfish, so the switch to baked and grilled fish (other types, not catfish) has been a bit difficult for him. This tilapia was pan-fried, so he was a little happier.

You can find the recipe here on Hambones.org. All recipes can be viewed by anyone, whether they are registered at the site or not. 🙂 I’ll also post it in the extended section, if anyone wants to check it out there. Just click the -more- button below…

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I went outside a few minutes ago to try to get some pictures of the birds that are at my bird feeder. Lots of them! I can see them from inside the house, and have tried to take pictures before from inside, but we have mesh screens on our windows, so those are messing up the pictures. Anyway, wouldn’t you know it – as soon as I go sit quietly outside, the birds all leave and won’t come back. Not a single one flew anywhere near our backyard while I was outside.

So, I took a couple of different pictures instead. Pretty spring day today, in the low 70’s, a nice breeze blowing, and pretty blue skies:

And, I noticed that even though it’s not yet March 1, my Bradford pear tree is starting to bloom and one flower bud had even popped out. Soon, it will be a riot of white blooms:

Not too much going on around here to blog about. Watching a lot of TV though! I worked on some of my pages yesterday for this blog (check out the sidebar, the “100 things” and “Lately” ones are the ones I spent time on yesterday). Tim is also doing some work on Hambones, in his “spare” time (aka, late at night). He’s really busy at work too. He finds time to go out back and hit golf balls every day after work, though, until dark. 😛

I meant to blog yesterday about the Dancing with the Stars finale. Click the -more- button if you want to get my TV and food wrap-up! 🙂

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This week’s questions are all about blogging… Have fun, and thank you for playing! =)

1. What time of year do you blog the most? I blog year-round, I try to write something every day, whether it’s blog worthy or not!

2. What time of year do you seem to blog the least? See #1

3. What time of DAY do you do your most blogging? Mornings, mostly, although I do blog in the afternoon and evening, just depends on the day and what we have going on and what we’re doing

4. When blog-hopping, do you tend to look at your blogroll list (or fave blogs) to see which ones have been updated, or do you visit your faves on a regular basis regardless? Yes, I check the ones on my blogrolling account daily (and they show me when someone has updated their blog). I also have a long list of bookmarks on my local PC of other blogs that I check periodically. I try to visit them 1-2 times a week, if possible

5. Do you change your blogroll often? No, but I add someone new every now and then!

6. How many times a day, after writing a new post, do you check for new comments?I have my blog setup to email me when someone comments, and I always have my email open, so that would be very frequently, I guess 😀

7. Do you leave comments on others’ blogs, or are you more of a lurker? Depends on the blog and the entry. I try to leave comments, because I know how much I enjoy getting them on mine. I do that more on blogs of people I know, or that I have gotten to know through the Internet or blogging. There are a lot of blogs though, that I only lurk at and don’t comment.

I say … and you think … ?

Baby step:: Abby!
Wasted:: trashed
Reggie:: Wayne (Indianopolis Colts :D)
Pitiful:: poor, poor pitiful
Acting out:: showing out
Tomato:: YUCK
Bad night:: nightmares
Trip:: vacation
Finance charges:: won’t pay ’em
Sport:: Football

~Live Events~

By the way…
Would you rather attend…

a rock concert or a bluegrass festival? rock concert
a car show or a craft show? craft show
the ballet or a Broadway show? ballet
a Garth Brook’s concert or a Celine Dion concert? BOTH!
Stars on Ice or a hockey game? hockey game
the Grammies or the Oscars? the Oscars