Exceedingly Mundane

I used to do this meme a while back, but I had not seen it updated in a while. Then, I checked again today, and there’s a lot of questions for the last several weeks. Which is weird, because I didn’t think the site had been updated. Irregardless, I always liked doing this one, so hopefully I will be able to play along again. These questions had last Tuesday’s date on them, and there were no new questions up for today (maybe later, I’ll check again), so I’m going to do these.

Here we go 🙂

Grillin & Chillin

Warm weather and weekend cheer… Who does not love a great time with friends?

Do you have a BBQ? (85% of all households in America do)? Yes we do
Gas/Or Charcol? it’s gas
What do you LOVE to grill? anything and everything. We grill fish, chicken, ribs, pork chops, steaks, veggies, fruit, tons of stuff. Tim LOVES to grill
Grill disasters? None really, Tim truly is a grillmaster. Probably the only thing that has ever happened is that he has run out of gas in the middle of cooking and had to stop and change out the tanks (we have 2, one for the grill and a spare)
Fav recipies? My favorite things to do are very simple – just marinated meat or fish. And I love to do portobella mushrooms on there. Oh, and here’s a couple of good recipes that go together – one for grilled pineapple chicken and grilled pineapple. Yum!

From LizzieDaisy‘s site:

(¯`’•.¸(¯`’•.¸A Lizzie Quizzie!¸.•’´¯)¸.•
Early… am going out of town to see my family sans my own. Wheeee….

1. Are you doing anything special for Father’s Day? We went to Tim’s family and got to see everyone, eat lots of good food, play games, hit golf balls, eat homemade ice cream and just generally have a good time!
2. Have you ever rented a limo? Nope
3. Fingernails… like long or short? Short (except mine are all chewed up, a nasty bad habit 🙂 )
4. When was the last time you traveled out of town? Well, yesterday to my in-law’s house, about 1 1/2 hours from here
5. What was your favorite thing to do in the car on trips when you were younger? We didn’t go on many trips when I was growing up. But I did like doing the car tag game (spotting tags from out of state) and the ABC game, finding letters in order on billboards, road signs, etc.
6. Favorite current tv show? There’s not much on right now I’m watching. In the fall, the list is long 😀 You can check out the list on my sidebar if you’re just dying to know 🙄
7. On a scale from 1-10, how good a cook are you? I think I’m pretty good. Not gourmet or overly adventurous, but good. About a 7, I guess
8. When was the last time you told someone you loved them? This morning, to my husband
9. How good are you with directions? Pretty good, as long as I have precise directions and/or a map. I think I’m a decent navigator
10. What is the most amount of money you have ever lost gambling? Won? (cards, Vegas, bets, pools…) None, don’t gamble. I only bet on sure things 🙂

Monday, June 19, 2006

This week’s questions come from one of our fellow players, tricia! Thank you Tricia, for your fabulous questions. Look for more from Tricia in the upcoming weeks. Thanks to everyone for playing, and have a great week! =)

1. How many cop shows can you name? Hmm, the 3 CSI shows, NCIS, all the Law and Order shows, Without a Trace, things like that? If you mean those reality shows where they show footage from police cruiser videos, I don’t have a clue what they are called 🙂
2. Do you send text messages? No, so far I’ve been able to stay away from that vice
3. If you could be on a gameshow (current or old), which one would you be on and why? Probably Wheel of Fortune. I think I’d have a better chance of getting the answers than on a show like Jeopardy or Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I don’t like the new show Deal or No Deal, and I am drawing a blank on any other show at the moment!
4. What are some of your favorite websites? The list is long! I have several blogs I read (they are listed on my sidebar), SBA message board, CL message board, and I have several that I use for news, reference, etc. I also like Flickr, I think it’s a cool concept. I also use and recommend MyPoints and RewardTV, I’ve gotten several “free” items from there. There’s so many good ones out there!
5. What are your favorite things about the internet? That I can go look up anything I want, anytime I want, that I can shop at home in my pajamas, that I can read so many interesting blogs, that I can go find a recipe for anything, using any ingredient. And the list goes on and on!
6. What about least favorite?The nasty content that is out there, getting spam.
7. What are some good ways to deal with a pet loss? Well, I would have a hard time giving advice on this one. I still grieve the loss of my dog Sally. I think time helps, and I think, for me, getting another pet would be a good way to deal. I wouldn’t know though, we are still pet-less. 🙁

Happy Father’s Day to both of our dads, as well as all the fathers out there!

My dad is at the beach with my sister Suzanne, so we won’t get to see him today. Tim and I are headed out soon to go see his dad today. All of his brothers will be there with their families, so it will be really great to see everyone.

Hope everyone has a nice, relaxing Father’s Day 🙂

Happy Birthday to Shanna! Today is her birthday, and I hope it’s a very special day, and a wonderful weekend. She’ll get to celebrate with Trent and their kids, Grayson and Ava Clair. We really miss seeing them, and hope we get to see everyone soon. We miss you guys!

Have a great day Shanna!

I’ve eaten out quite a bit the last couple of days. Well, I’ve just plain eaten a lot the last few days. Ouch! And yes, the scales show that 😳

Thursday night, Tim offered to take me out to dinner, even though I had food out to cook. We had our date night a day early this week, I guess. 🙂 We went to the new Italian place near our house that recently opened (we’ve been once), called Alexander’s. It’s owned by the same people that own Panino’s, which is one of my favorite restaurants. Anyway, it was delicious. We had the homemade bread with dipping oil, and Tim had his regular (fettucine alfredo, but he added shrimp) and I have the raviolini of the day, which was seafood raviolini. I should have taken a picture of mine, it was beautiful – the pasta was a pretty green spinach pasta, and the filling was divine, with crab and shrimp and other good stuff. It was really delicious.

Friday for lunch, I went out to eat with my friend Wendy, and we also went shopping. We tried a new place out Lakeland that Wendy had been to before, but graciously agreed to go back again with me. It’s called Oby’s and it reminds me of a McAlisters, a deli type place. I had a shrimp po-boy and Wendy had a chicken salad wrap that looked really good. Again, I should have taken pictures, but didn’t. I did, however, grab a menu to scan, and so I scanned it in for you guys. You can check it out here if you’d like.

After a busy afternoon of shopping, I headed home. On the way, I decided to stop at Sonic and surprise Tim with another Hot Fudge Brownie Blast (one each, of course!):

And, even though I was tired from shopping, I made us some homemade soup for supper Friday night. One of my favorites, potato soup:

Yup, I’ve gained a couple of pounds in the last couple of days 😆

Friday June 16, 2006
Feast Ninety-Eight
Time to feast again!

Appetizer
What is a word that you use that would not be considered common? Well, believe it or not, as I was trying to go to sleep last night, I was thinking about a blog entry for today. I was going to write about how I’m so very Southern, that I use the word “fixin” all the time. I don’t realize it most of the time, but sometimes I catch myself saying it in conjunction with everything. It’s not really uncommon where I live, but it’s something that is probably not prevalent in other parts of the country. You know, “I’m fixin to jump in the shower”, “I’m fixin to head out right now”. 🙄

Soup
What theme of calendar do you have on your wall this year? It’s called Solitudes – very peaceful, beautiful natures scenes. Lakes, waterfalls, mountains, fields of flowers.

Salad
Name 3 people you speak with by telephone a regular basis. My sister, my husband, my dad

Main Course
If you could buy a new outfit for someone you know – who would it be and what would you purchase for them? Probably my sister Gail. We have very similar taste and I think I might could come closer to finding her something that she likes and would fit. We’ve been shopping a lot lately while our husbands are out playing golf. Second choice would be my nieces and nephews. They’d be easy – shirts, shorts, little skirts. You know, cute kid stuff 🙂

Dessert
What is the last beverage you drank? Orange juice and then coffee with breakfast

My first time to play this meme… hope I ‘m doing it correctly!

Thirteen Things I Need to be Doing Today Instead of Blogging 1. Thursdays are bread making days, have to make the bread and let it rise 2. The kitchen stove needs cleaning… it’s very icky 3. The flowers and plants all need watering. It’s in the 90’s regularly here now, and my pots dry out quickly! 4. Actually, the grass needs watering too. I really hate setting out and moving the sprinklers around 🙂 5. I need to fill up the bird feeders while I’m outside. We have hungry birds here 6. There’s always laundry to be done (but I’d rather blog or blog surf) 7. Father’s Day gifts need to be wrapped… running out of time! 8. Must mail other Father’s Day card to the dad we won’t get to see this Sunday 9. I need to go through my coupons and pull out the ones I will need when I hit the grocery store this afternoon 10. Ah, yes, grocery shopping today 11. Then there’s the items that need to be returned to Target 12. Really should work on decluttering some closets 13. And the biggie, that I keep putting off, starting to declutter the office. It’s a huge, giant, messy nightmare. I definitely think I’ll keep putting that one off!

OK, no cute kids or pets, so here’s some more flower pictures 🙄

My moss rose are blooming up a storm!!

As are the periwinkles in an old planter on the fence… they also have some moss rose and purslane popping up in the corners as well:

The marigolds out front are starting to show good from the sidewalk/street, but up close, you can see that a few spots still need to be filled in. But they add some really nice bright color up front:

I made another new recipe yesterday, just a simple thing for a homemade salad dressing. We ate light last night, a grilled chicken salad. We’re trying to eat healthier and lighter, and it’s easier in the summer. In the winter, I tend to want to bake a lot, make heavier dishes, casseroles, chili, soup, stews, etc. So, it’s easier in the summer to justify having just a big salad for supper.

I found this recipe at my favorite foodie blog, Sweetnicks. Cate always posts really good recipes. Everything I have tried from there has been delicious. Thanks Cate!

I think this recipe is now my new favorite. I still really like the Honey Mustard salad dressing I’ve been making for years, but this one is really good too. Hard to pick!

Here’s the recipe, and it can also be found here on Hambones.org. Along with all of my other favorite recipes!

Maple-Mustard Salad Dressing

1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Yield: about 3/4 cup

Stacy’s Notes – Made June 2006. Didn’t have shallots, so I substituted 1 T finely diced red onion. Served this on a grilled chicken salad – yum, a definite keeper!

I finished a really good book last night, “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamant. It was quite unlike any book I had ever read, and I really enjoyed it. “The Red Tent” is the story of Dinah, from the Bible, daughter of Jacob and Leah, and is a fictional retelling based on Biblical facts. It is told by women, for women, about women. The tent signifies the place where the women go every month, and when they bear children. The book starts off with the stories of Rachel and Leah, and then progresses to Dinah’s full life story (as envisioned by the author).

The book was engrossing and had me reading the exact passages in Genesis to see how much is from the Bible, and how much is embellished by the author. The telling of the details, the customs and cultures of the time, as well as the sisterhood that this book embodies all made for a very engaging read.

For the record, this makes #34 on the year, with a total of 12,176 pages read. Up next is a book by a new-to-me author, Jennifer Weiner. I’m starting with one of her more recent books, “Goodnight, Nobody”. Check back in a few days or so for a review 🙂

Happy Flag Day!

Flag Day is a day for all Americans to show respect for the flag and what it represents. It represents our freedoms, and the people who have bravely protected it and our nation for hundreds of years.

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We have our flag flying today – do you? 🙂

I had a terrible afternoon on Monday. I decided to clean out some clutter from a bathroom drawer, and I was throwing things out, into the garbage. One of the main things I was culling was old bottles of fingernail polish. For whatever reason, I decided to open one of them and look at it. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea. I thought I had it closed, but no, it was not closed, and being the clumsy oaf that I am, I dropped it. It was a bottle of really bright pink nail polish and it bounced on my white counter tops, spilled out a bunch into my white sink. Then, I tried to catch it and ended up tipping it down my white cabinets and onto my new ceramic tile floors, including in the light colored grout. Then, when I finally got the bottle and threw it away, I got bright pink nail polish all over my wicker wastebasket. 😳

Well, I only had about half a bottle of fingernail polish remover and I went through that in just a few minutes. I tried to clean up polish from the sink, counter top, cabinet and floor with other cleaners that I had, only to learn that nothing gets up fingernail polish other than nail polish remover. I drove to Walmart and bought several huge bottles, then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get it up.

I learned two things:

1. Fingernail polish remover will take the top layer of paint off of latex painted surfaces. My cabinets and drawers now need to be repainted because of all the paint that peeled off where I was cleaning off bright pink nail polish.

2. Not even fingernail polish remover will remove hot pink from light colored grout between ceramic tiles. Nothing gets it out. I used a bottle of remover and then some grout cleaner and they are still stained.

Sigh. I despise being clumsy. I despise ruining things that Tim and I work so hard to improve and maintain. I hate messing up my homey little house. Sigh. Monday was not a good day. I know in the overall scheme of things it doesn’t matter, but yesterday, and today, it matters to me. Especially every time I walk in the bathroom and see pink. 😥

Whew, things have been so busy around here, that I haven’t even taken the time to blog about them. Not that they are especially interesting or even eventful, just our exceedingly mundane lives 🙂

Let’s see… to catch up on the last several days for us, click here (beware, long, but it does have pictures!):

Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s do some more fill-in-the-blanks this week! =) Thanks for playing Monday Madness, all of my faithful participants!

1. I have a picture of an ocean scene on my computer desktop.
2. There are lots of family pictures hanging on my living room walls.
3. My big goal for this week is to get things ready for the weekend.
4. I plan to visit all my regular (about 15) blogs this week.
5. The weather we’re having right now is blazingly hot.
6. I really should work out and drink more water more often.