Exceedingly Mundane

Another weekend has come and gone, and another Monday is here. This is going to be a fairly busy week and weekend coming up.

It’s hot – currently 97 with a heat index of 107 as I write this blog post. The flowers, plants, grass and shrubs all need water, but I’m to the point now where they can just wither and die, LOL!

We had another great weekend. Tim didn’t play golf on Friday, but we had an in-home date night. I made fish and chips (baked beer battered cod and oven fries) to celebrate the start of the Olympics. We watched a couple of shows on the DVR while the opening ceremonies queued up and then watched most of them (fast forwarding through the parade of nations, that sure takes a while). Saturday, Tim had originally planned to play in a golf tournament with Zack, but it ended up not working out, so he stayed home. I had thought he would go play golf at his club (Lake Caroline), but he kept procrastinating and just finally said, it’s so hot out there, I think I’ll just stay here! Very un-Tim like 🙂 We watched more tv, more Olympics, he watched some stuff On-Demand while I did chores (laundry, washing fruit and lettuce, making brownies, cooking, etc) and while I read on my last Harry Potter e-book.

We went to a Hammons family get-together after church on Sunday, at Tim’s Aunt Annie Merle’s house and got to see that side of the family. It’s always fun, fewer people than his mom’s side, and we don’t see them as often. I took brownies and we only came home with a couple, always good for me 🙂 We stopped at Marshall’s on the way home, and picked up a couple of shirts for Tim. We were pretty late getting back, so he again decided not to go play golf. We watched more Olympics and decided to go pick up Mexican food at Tacqueria la Guadalupe again. Tim tried the grande burrito this time and I still got tacos. He also tried the spicy queso, which wasn’t too much spicier than the mild, so maybe they misunderstood and gave us mild! We got another order of churros, my new favorite thing 🙂

Another fun weekend in the bag!

I’m getting excited for the Olympics! Opening ceremony is tonight, then the competitions begin. It helps that I watch The Today Show most every morning, and their crew has been there this week, getting ready and reporting on the venues, the athletes, etc. I know a lot more names to root for now in several sports 🙂

I looked back through my blog and realize that this is my fourth Olympics to blog about: 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, and 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Wow, I’ve been blogging a long time 😀

I think I like the Olympics a lot more than Tim (Saints training camp started this week, and I think he’s a lot more excited about that, LOL!) He doesn’t really get into them, although he is VERY patriotic and does root for Team USA if I have it on. I always hope that I can get him interested, and I think my enthusiasm for the games slowly fizzles, as I realize he just doesn’t want to watch as much of it as I do. Thank goodness we have 2 DVR’s this time around, I think I’ll get to watch a lot more than I have in the past!

So, are you watching the Olympics? Do you have a favorite sport you watch, or favorite athlete you are rooting for?

I’ve tried off and on for the last couple of years to grow some herbs. While I like and enjoy flowers, both Tim and I have realized that it’s really nice, even in our tiny yard, to try to grow something useful, that we can eat or use. He’s grown tomatoes and jalapenos for the last couple of years, and I’ve been trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to grow herbs.

I have never been able to get them to grow from seed. I’ve tried a couple of times (granted, I don’t use the little seedling starter kits, just a packet of seeds from Lowe’s that I’ve sown in a big planter, and nothing has ever popped up). I tend to generally buy plants from Lowe’s or Home Depot that are already growing and green, and I have been mostly killing them in a very short amount of time. (Note to self, I saw some gorgeous herbs in Fresh Market, get some there next year to grow). This year has been a bit better. I’ve had a lot of trouble with parsley, and on and off troubles with my basil. I’ve also got chives, dill, rosemary and oregano. The oregano, rosemary and chives have done the best. I’ve used them each several times… it’s so nice to have fresh herbs! I’ve also used some of the basil. When it blooms, the leaves are so much nicer. When I pinch the blooms off, it tends to shrivel up and get brown. Any ideas why? I wonder if I should be trying to grow the basil (or any of the other herbs) inside, and not outside?

The parsley has been the biggest mystery to me. I’m on my second plant. The first one, I put out in a planter in the yard, and I thought it was getting too much sun. So the next one I bought, I put in the planter with the chives, where it mostly stays in the shade. It gets yellowy and is just not growing well:

I don’t know if it’s the kind of parsley I’m trying to grow (curly) or the sun or the water conditions. It’s always half dead looking and shriveled up, I can barely use it.

I’m getting a lot of use out of the chives though! I think it’s my favorite one. I’ve made chive butter for homemade bread, and used it a lot in sauces and also as a topping for baked potatoes. It does well as long as it’s in the shade!

If you have any hints on growing herbs (especially in the hot, humid south) or any ideas on what I’m doing wrong, please leave me a comment and let me know! Thanks! 😀

Apparently, I don’t have a lot to talk about during the week, just on Mondays after another busy weekend 🙂

This one was no exception, lots of fun stuff going on! Our niece Elizabeth came and hung out with us all weekend. She is staying with her sister and brother-in-law (and their kids) down in Raymond, and the maintenance people came to put new flooring in the house. I told her to come visit us, no need to hang out there with strange worker guys all day! So she did, and ended up staying all weekend. Tim played golf Friday night, since he had not been able to play most all week, between work and the rain. Elizabeth and I went to Taqueria La Guadalupe, a place Tim and I have tried and really liked. It’s a small Hispanic place, and they have what we think is fairly authentic food. When Tim and I went before, it was not busy, but when Liz and I went Friday night, it was packed! They only have 4 booths, and one table, and a bar along the side with bar stools. Every seat was full, and it was standing room only to order, and wait for your food. We all got soft tacos (I got fish and chicken and they got a mixture of beef and chicken), we also got cheese dip for Liz, and I wanted to try their churros. It was all delicious, and I think I’m now craving those churros on a daily basis! Good stuff. We started the next Harry Potter movie (#6 Half Blood Prince) and watched about 3/4 of it before I got sleepy. Tim got in after dark and had a good time playing golf.

Saturday morning, I got up early because it was storming, and Beau was very upset with the thunder and lightening. We all had a big breakfast (eggs on english muffins, grits, sausage, fruit) and then Tim worked on Elizabeth’s car, changing out the oil and oil filter. He’s such a good uncle 🙂 We all went mid afternoon to pick up Gail from the airport (she’d been out in Houston visiting Trent, Shanna and the kids since Thursday). After she headed home, Tim, Elizabeth and I went to see The Dark Knight Rises at Malco. (It was weird, after the shooting in Aurora Colorado at the midnight showing Thursday night). Good movie, I actually liked it more than I had thought I would.

We came home Saturday night and had some sandwiches and finished the Harry Potter movie. I hate seeing Dumbledore die, it’s very sad 🙁 Sunday means church, and Liz went with us to our church, then we all went out for a late breakfast at Corner Bakery. Tim watched a bunch of the British Open on TV and Liz fell asleep 🙂 He left to play golf, and she left to run errands. We hope she gets to come back soon and hang out 🙂

Monday is always my big cleaning day, no exception today. The only thing disappointing is that the sun and heat and humidity is back out in force. I’ve really been enjoying the clouds and chance of rain we’ve had off and on for the last two weeks. That’s gone now, and the 10 day forecast has almost zero chance of rain. Boo. Hiss. I want more rain!

We’re headed out in a couple of hours for our niece’s GED graduation. We love Brittany and are so very proud of her 🙂 It’s a long ride though, and we’ll be late getting in. Tomorrow will probably be one of those days when I really want to take a nap! 🙂

We’ve been trying to grow tomatoes in the summer for Tim, for about 3 years now (I don’t eat them!) The first year, I think, we put the plant in a planter on the deck, then last year, we plopped it in the corner of the big flower bed in the back yard. I so wish we had room for a nice big veggie garden, but our yard is tiny. We’re thinking about putting in a rectangular bed next year, behind the fence (which is technically not our property). However, we have some tomato plants back there this summer, and they are doing a LOT better than the one we planted inside the yard, in the flower bed. Go figure!

Anyway, I heard on the news that this year is a great year for homegrown tomatoes. I guess because of the mild winter/warm spring or maybe with all the rain we’ve had the last couple of weeks. Either way, that’s definitely been true. Tim’s plants are doing great. One day last week, he had six tomatoes, ready to eat!

He’s been making us some salsa, and he’s been eating a lot of tomato sandwiches. He’s really enjoying his bounty! I’ve been growing herbs, and I’m hoping to blog about them soon, maybe later today 🙂

Last week was a pretty awesome one for me – it was cloudy or rained most every day! Just my kind of weather. Not as hot, cloudy and rainy, I don’t have to spend a lot of time outside, watering the grass, flowers, plants, herbs, etc. I am able to spend more time inside, reading 🙂

A quick recap of the weekend, since that’s when we get out and run around the most. Tim again didn’t play golf on Friday night, so we could have “date” night. Except that it was raining, so neither one of us really wanted to get out. Tim offered to cook rumien for me, so I always take him up on that offer! We watched the next Harry Potter movie (Goblet of Fire) and really enjoyed it. I understand them so much more now, having just read each book.

Saturday, Tim finally got to play golf. He had an early tee time with his buddies. Beau *really* wanted to go for a walk, but I decided to be lazy and stay home. Poor Beau. With all the rain, he hasn’t been in several days. I caught up on some shows on the DVR and read some on the new book I started on my Kindle, “Lion of Babylon” by Davis Bunn. Tim got in around lunch time and wanted to go out and eat, so we headed out and went to the new Newk’s near our house. We got shrimp po-boys and caesar salads, it was really good. I was surprised that their po-boys had steamed or boiled shrimp, instead of the normal around here, which is fried shrimp. After Newk’s, we headed to Sam’s to pick up a lot of items. When we got back, I had an email from the library saying that the next Harry Potter book (#6 Half Blood Prince) was FINALLY available. I have been waiting a while for it, so I went ahead and downloaded it and started reading. Around suppertime, Tim didn’t seem to want anything that we had in the house. So “we” decided to get pizza. 😀 Instead of our norm (either me making homemade pizza or us ordering from Papa Johns), he wanted to try Dominos. We placed our order on the web, then drove to the pick up spot a few miles from our house. We were both surprised that it was pretty good! The last time (years ago) we tried Dominos, it wasn’t good, but this was pretty good.

Saturday night, Tim wanted to rent a movie, and he really wanted to see The Grey with Liam Neeson, so he watched that while I went in the bedroom to read. Afterwards, I asked him if he liked it and he said NO. Which is not like Tim, he usually likes movies. He said it had a bad ending, so he was not very happy about it. I hated wasting the money to rent it (through Apple TV/iTunes), but at least he got to see something he wanted 🙂

Sunday was busy with church, then stopping by Fresh Market to pick up some figs, blueberries and a few things. Tim headed out again to play golf, and shot his best score to date, a 74. He was really happy when he got in!

Today will be “back in the saddle” day! We got up early to go walking, so that helped get us back in our routine. I’ve got a dirty house to clean and have to figure out something to cook for supper, so I guess it’s back to normal around here 🙂

Hard to believe it’s Friday… another week has flown by. I had to hear on the news that it is indeed Friday the 13th, and the third one we have had this year (apparently a bit rare). There was one in January and another in April. We appear to be clear now for superstitious days through the end of the year! 🙂

In the news… Tom Cruise is divorcing Katie Holmes. Yeah, I’m thinking Scientology and their control of that child might have had a bit to do with it. Presidential politics is on daily – Barak Obama will run against Mitt Romney in November. Steven Tyler and J Lo are leaving Idol.

Local news … our local paper is raising rates and also going to stop allowing “free” access to their website. Boo. Hiss. I guess I’ll follow the local news stations on Twitter and check out their Facebook pages more.

Local weather … we’ve had a nice, cooler, wetter week. It’s rained almost every day. Tim has not played golf at all this week. It’s been nice for me, but sheer torture for him.

Tomorrow is Tim’s brother Mark’s birthday… Happy Birthday Mark! We need to get him on Facebook or Twitter so we can talk to him. 🙂 We need to get Tim’s other brother Terry onto the Internet, email and Facebook. He doesn’t have a computer or email, so he’s REALLY hard to get in touch with, LOL! I think they actually expect us to pick up a real phone and dial them or something, hahaha!

Oh, and a bit of aggravating news for me. The 10 pounds I had lost late last year before my colonoscopy have now all returned. Boo. Bad Stacy. Nothing like eating more carbs, bread, sweets, ice cream, etc to really pack the pounds back on. I need to get back to more veggies and less fattening stuff.

UPDATE: And right after I posted this, it came across the news that our favorite quarterback, Drew Brees, FINALLY signed his contract with the Saints today. Whew. Now we can rest easy and know that he’ll be in camp and heading up our offense this fall. Good thing, since we’ve lost so many players and our coach this year, to the much publicized “BountyGate”. 🙂

Right Now…

I’m reading… “Surrender the Wind” by Rita Gerlach

I’m waiting… on the next Harry Potter to be available for Kindle lending from the library (Half Blood Prince)

I’m watching… looking forward to new episodes of White Collar and Covert Affairs starting tonight! Also still enjoying “The Chew” on during the day, where my soap All My Children used to air 🙂

Wanting to eat… mangos and avocados this summer!

Craving… dark chocolate covered pomegranates

Playing… games on my iPad like Words with Friends, Scramble with Friends, Draw Something, and my new favorite, Hooked on Words. I like the change of Hooked on Words because I just play against myself and my score, not against others (like the other three do).

I’m needing… a haircut, this week, I’m getting a cut and color and I need both!

The weather… is finally getting a bit more bearable. After quite a few days in the triple digits, and no rain since about the 10th of June, we’re getting a break from the heat, and also a chance of showers in the afternoon. We got a brief shower this morning, and it made me all kinds of happy 😀

I’m cooking… right now, making potato salad and cole slow to go with burgers (beef for Tim, chicken for me, and some turkey ones hopefully, have a lot in the freezer that needs to be cooked) tonight for supper.

BONUS: Something new I’ve tried and liked… Silk Fruit and Protein, sort of like a watered down smoothie. I’ve bought a couple of cartons and really enjoyed them (big plus, Tim won’t touch it!), and I need to get another one, and try a new flavor.

Another busy weekend, at least by my standards! Tim again took off from playing golf on Friday, so we could have “date night”. We decided to go back to the new Greek place we tried and just loved, Krilakis in Ridgeland. This time, Tim tried a “mixed grill” gyro (lamb and grilled chicken), and I took the advice of the guy behind the counter who said his favorite was the smoked turkey gyro. It was good, but I think I like the lamb better (and next time I want to try grilled chicken). We also tried their hummus and it was good. Good food, as we’ve already come to expect from there 🙂 We came home and watched “The Help” on the DVR. I had seen it, but Tim had not.

Saturday, Tim had an early tee time and played golf till around lunch or a bit after. I watched some shows on the DVR and also worked on some scrapbook pages while he was gone. After he got home, we went for a late lunch at our favorite Chinese place, Mr. Chen’s. More good food! No wonder I’m gaining weight, from all of this eating out at good places, LOL! Tim had originally planned to mow the grass afterwards, but he was exhausted, so we came home and he took a long nap. Very un-Tim like! We watched the next Harry Potter movie, Goblet of Fire (#4) afterwards. It’s so nice to have them on loan from my niece Elizabeth!

Tim hurt his hand playing golf, and said he was tired, so he took off Sunday. We went to see “The Amazing Spiderman” with Elizabeth in the afternoon, then tried out a new take-out place, Taco Del Mar. Tim and Elizabeth got tacos (Liz got hard shell and Tim got soft ones). I wasn’t hungry (had too much popcorn during the movie!), so I didn’t get anything. We’ll have to go back and try it again when I want something to eat, hahaha!

Tim had to work late Sunday night, so we didn’t get up and go walking this morning. He went out to cut the grass, and ended up having to work on the mower. He said it was the “magneto”, and of course, all I can think of is the character from X-Men! He didn’t go play golf again, is resting his hand and the rest of his body that hurts 🙂 I tried to pretend it was winter, and made a roast with potatoes and carrots, homemade bread and salad for supper. Now, we’re watching shows from the DVR. Just my kind of night!

After resisting for years and years, I finally broke down and started reading the Harry Potter books. So, the year 2012 will go down as the year I read them all. In digital form, no less 🙂

I’ve had my Kindle for nearly 2 years now, and I love, love, love it! I do NOT like to read “real” books any more. I prefer holding my Kindle or my iPad and reading on an e-reader. I love being able to go back and forth on those two devices, depending on where I am (if Wi-Fi is available, light conditions, etc) and have it sync my book between devices. The Kindle reading app is a glorious thing!

In March of this year, my library got e-book lending. There’s only a couple of libraries in our state that have this, so I’m very VERY lucky to live in a district that does. I had been searching for them for a while now, and on March 1, I found ebooks online! I immediately started checking books out of the library. Sometime in May, they got the rights to the Potter books, and so I decided to start reading them.

I thought for a long time that I wouldn’t like them, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. They are very entertaining, very engaging (hard to put down) and so incredibly well written. I was really quite surprised and taken aback. I knew they were huge, and we have seen the movies (and are re-watching them now that I am reading the books), but still…. I didn’t think the books would be as good as they are. I’ve read 5 of the 7 so far, and will get the other two soon. Our library only has one copy available for checkout at a time, and someone is apparently reading them ahead of me. They read slower than I do, for I have to wait a few days on each book! 🙂

Who knows, I might break down and reading something like Twilight next! Or maybe not. After all, I have about 500 unread books on my Kindle, LOL!

Happy Reading!

Another year, another 4th of July celebration in the books. This makes the 17th year that we’ve gone to Tim’s family get-together on the Fourth. Well, except for maybe 2 years, we were on vacation and didn’t make it those times. His mom’s siblings and their families and friends all get together, and it’s Tim’s favorite time to go visit his aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. We always have a great time going. It’s held at his Aunt Becky’s house, and she has a pool, so the kids love going. We’ve never stayed until late, but I’ve always wondered if they do fireworks 🙂

We left before lunch to drive down. I made my mom’s lemonade cake this year to take. I always take a dessert, it travels better, I think 🙂 There was tons of food. Tim’s uncles and even Terry get together early on the day to grill up a ton of chicken, and it’s always delicious. This year, there seemed to be even more veggies than usual. Everyone’s gardens must be doing well!

After we got home, I had expected Tim to head to the golf course, but he surprised me and stayed home. We watched a lot of tv and just hung out inside, in the air conditioning! We got a short rain shower in the early evening – the first rain we’ve had in at least 3 weeks. I’m hoping for more soon 🙂 Someone in our neighborhood started shooting off fireworks (don’t they know it’s banned in our city and has been for over 20 years?!), and of course, it upset Beau. He does NOT like fireworks, he starts barking furiously.

It’s always weird when a holiday falls in the middle of the week. It was back to work for Tim, and back to a normal routine for me, on this Thursday. Gosh, I hope Christmas is not in the middle of the week this year, I better go look that up! 🙂

Another Monday, and yesterday was the first day of July. Whew! This year is flying by, hard to believe it’s already half way over. It’s just hot and dry here. I’m spending most of my Monday morning outside, watering the grass, flowers and plants. It apparently rained here while were in Nashville, but we’ve been home three weeks tomorrow, and it has not rained one drop. It hasn’t even clouded up and pretended it might rain.

We had another nice weekend, enjoyed being at home and not being on the road. We had date night Friday night. We went to Newk’s and since Tim was in a healthy mood, we both got salads. I love their Newks Favorite, so that’s what I got, although I was sorely tempted to add some lobster bisque to my order (they only have it on Fridays and its soooo good!). Tim got the Ultimate, and we passed on dessert at the places next door (Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Gigi’s Cupcakes) and instead came home and had some frozen yogurt (Moose Tracks, good stuff!). We watched the next Harry Potter movie (#3 Prison of Azkaban). Actually, re-watched since we’ve seen them all, but I’m enjoying going back and watching them since I’ve been reading the books. I’m slowly plowing through book 5, The Order of the Phoenix. It’s a long sucker (901 pages, this is probably the longest book I’ve ever attempted to read).

Anyway, Tim didn’t play golf Friday so we could have date night, so he played both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, I had good intentions about getting more scrapbook pages done and reading some on the Harry Potter book. But I woke up with a horrible headache, seemed like sinus, so I spent most of the day resting, watching a little tv and fighting that headache. We watched more TV when Tim got home, and watched “How to Train your Dragon” from the DVR. Sunday was church, although later this week. July 4th weekend is one of the “One Service Sundays” they do in the summer. After church, we went to Majestic Burger and had lunch. My favorite, seared tilapia, for me and Tim tried a new one, the buffalo chicken. Their food is always good and we’re always pleased to go there. We ran by Fresh Market on the way home, looking for figs (I cannot remember when they are in season, I hope it’s soon… I love to get some and have for breakfast!). We bought some blueberries and salad dressing instead.

Sunday after Tim got back from playing golf, we ran to Sno Biz and got shaved ice (cherry pie for me and Patriot for Tim). I made homemade pizza and we watched “Larry Crowne” (also on the DVR) and some tv shows we had taped. All in all, my kind of weekend – eating out, watching tv and movies, and a little bit of reading. I didn’t get any scrapbooking done, so that was the only let down.

Going to be a busy week. July 4th means going to the big family get-together, and I’m sure there will be plenty of golf for Tim this week. I’m just glad it’s going to be a tad bit cooler, 96 or so this week, instead of 100 and 101. 🙂

I learned a lot from my mom, including how to be frugal and how to shop for deals. I also try very hard to stick to a list and not get anything that isn’t on my list. I have my Grocery IQ app on my phone, but also on my iPad (and I use it daily), and as my new giant Kroger has free wi-fi, I just carry my Ipad to the store. It’s a tough life 🙂

Anyway, I deviate from my list when I find “deals”. Recently, I found some Laura’s Lean organic ribeyes in the clearance bin, so I snatched them up. Same with a whole organic chicken, which Tim smoked on his new smoker he got for Christmas (ooh, I feel another blog post coming up!). Today, I found a basket full of reduced priced items in the Natural/Organic section. I could have bought a lot more, but I was good and just came home with these:

The agave was my big score. I had *just* bought a bottle of this brand in their organic section two weeks ago. Luckily, I have been using it and knew it had a good taste. Instead of 3.99 a bottle, I got them for 99 cents each. Me and my “oatmeal on steroids” are set for a while now, since I add agave to my oatmeal every morning. I’ve bought Bare Naked granola before and liked it. The organic “pop tarts” are a new try, but maybe they won’t be too bad. 🙂

I love a good deal at the food place!

Last night after nine o’clock, our doorbell rang and someone started pounding on the door. Ever the chicken, I went to get Tim, who had just got in from the golf course, and was about to jump in the shower. It was our neighbor’s son. He was breathless and blurted out to Tim as soon as he opened the door “We’ve got a snake in our house, can you come help us?”

“INSIDE YOUR HOUSE?” I said. Yes, and he looked slightly terrified. “How did it get inside your house”. We don’t know, he said. Tim left with a hoe and came back a few minutes later. I heard the gate open and Beau barked like the wonderful security system that he is. I assumed Tim was going to dump the snake in the ditch out behind our house, but… NO. When he came inside, I asked if he had killed it. “No, it was a king snake, that’s a good snake so I just moved him out behind our fence” he replied.

UGH.

“How did it get inside their house? And why would it come inside”, I repeatedly asked Tim. “I don’t know, I guess it wanted to lay on the cool floors.” Oh. My. Gosh.

I am going to be SOOO careful about not leaving my doors open. I often go out on the deck to water my herbs and leave the door partially open so Beau can go in and out. Not for a while. Although Tim keeps reminding me, you have Beau, he’s the best security system in the world. No snake would try to come in the house with him inside. Once again, I’m so grateful for my wonderful Beau baby! 🙂

I saw on the news this morning that writer Nora Ephron passed away. Sad to hear, as she is behind so many of my favorite movies. I have a lot of favorites, but many of them are associated with her:

Sleepless in Seattle
When Harry Met Sally
You’ve Got Mail
Julie & Julia

Some of my other favorites are older movies, like…

Casablanca
Imitation of Life
Out of Africa
The Sound of Music

I have lots of other favorites, but those are always near the top of my list. Depending on my mood, I love to watch movies like my beloved Lord of The Rings movies, Star Wars movies, and then more action type movies like The Bourne movies, Italian Job, etc. When I’m in a girly mood though, Nora Ephron movies can’t be beat!

What are your favorite movies? Do you have movies you love to watch over and over again? 🙂