Exceedingly Mundane

I tried a new recipe tonight for some healthy muffins… they just came out of the oven, wanna see? 🙂

I hope they taste ok… Tim is not fond of the healthier ones. And these are pretty healthy, or at least the recipe looked healthy. They have half white/half wheat flour, oatmeal, wheat germ, etc in them. If they come out ok and I want to make them again, next time I will try substituting Splenda for baking for the 1/2 cup of sugar. Off to smear some fattening (low-fat!) butter on one and try it.

*UPDATE* Had one hot out of the oven with a pat of brummel & brown butter in the middle and it was sooo good! Forgot to say that these are banana-blueberry muffins. I don’t know how they will taste in the morning, but hot out of the oven, they were delicious! I guess I can always pop them in the microwave and then fill the middle with butter! 😆

I got another scrapbook layout done, yeah for me! This finishes up my two layouts of our weekend getaway a couple of years ago to Dallas TX.

I won tickets off a local radio station to go to the Dixie Chicks concert over there (before they went to England and said nasty things about President Bush and the US). We flew over on my birthday (Oct 2002) and had a great weekend. The actual highlight of the trip for us was not the concert, but that afternoon: we spent several hours at the Sixth Floor Museum and Dealey Plaza, in downtown Dallas, just a few blocks from our hotel (Hyatt Regency at Reunion Towers). This is where President Kennedy was assassinated and there’s a great museum inside what was the Texas Book Depository. It covers the Kennedy’s lives (both JFK and Jackie) before his presidency, then all aspects of his presidency, then of course in depth of the assassination, including conspiracy theories, the Warren Commission and other areas. We learned a lot about that day, and about other things like the Cuban Missile Crisis and events that occurred during Kennedy’s stint in office. I think we both thoroughly enjoyed it, but of course – we are big history buffs!

Here’s the layout I just finished covering the museum (no pics allowed inside) and Dealey Plaza:

Oh, and the bottom right picture on the right hand page is of the street – there’s a big X on the road where he was shot.

Sometimes, you just have to admit that some people are smarter than you are. No matter how much it hurts or how much pride you have to swallow.

I had posted in the Forums at Hambones a silly mundane item about some glass cleaner I had bought – Windex Drip Free. Well, it might be drip-free, but it sure ain’t streak free. I have been using it for about 2 weeks and now my bathroom mirrors are all streaked up, big white streaky marks all over them. I’ve tried a dozen times or more to clean them, lots of cleaner, a little cleaner, newspaper, soft paper towels, cheap paper towels, big strokes, little strokes, baby circles. You name it, I’ve tried it. Decided it must be the new glass cleaner. Put “glass cleaner” on my Walmart list to pick up a new bottle next trip and throw this crap away.

This morning, Tim is getting ready for work, and finally (he’s a good guy, never fusses about a thing) he remarks “what is up with this mirror, why does it look like this?” I started to tell him the story and before I got one sentence out of my mouth he goes “why don’t you just mix up some ammonia and water and clean it?”. Silence. HUH? He looks at me like I’m a total clueless alien from another planet. “Ammonia will clean it” he says. OK, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I thought I was halfway smart. I had no idea you could do that.

And, he’s right. I mixed up about 5 tablespoons of ammonia (I have a jug under the kitchen sink that’s been there for years) with some water in a squirt bottle. Cleaned the mirror and in a few seconds, the streaks were gone. Not to mention now I have my own bottle of glass cleaner mixed up for just a few cents. Don’t cha hate it when other people are smarter than you? 😀

The moral of the story – Tim is smart. And I may never buy Windex again.

OK, mine was easy today. I just went out to get the mail and my two $10 gift cards to Target came in the mail today. Cashed in some of my points a few days ago for free gift cards. Now I can’t wait to go spend them!

Geesh. I bet we get between 3 and 5 pieces of junk mail a week, for each of us, from places like Capitol One, other credit cards, insurance places, etc. I stand at the shredder after I come in with the mail, and end up shredding half or more of what we get. Today, we got two from Capitol One, about their “No Hassles” reward program. You know, the one with the goofy magnets they want you to place on your refrigerator. 🙄

For a change, I decided to read the fine print and found a 1-888 number to call to try to “opt-out” of some of these offers. They list a toll-free number to call to opt-out of prescreened offers of credit from 4 consumer reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Innovis. You can call this number (1-888-567-8688), like I did, or you can visit the website, that I heard them mention at the beginning of the recording. So, me being the computer geek I am, I decided to do that. Go to www.optoutprescreen.com

I had to fill out information on both of us, including SSN and telephone number (it showed being a secure site), but I will gladly do that if it will cut down on some of this credit junk we get so frequently. I chose to permanently opt-out, but you can also choose 5 years. They did clarify at the end that our names are already given out to several companies, so it may take a few months to stem the flow of mail. Any relief will be welcome, however.

Hope that helps someone else!

::Sturgis Motorcycle Rally::

Onesome: Sturgis- Have you ever been there, or anywhere else in South Dakota? Want to see where Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up in her Little Town on the Prairie? Or have you taken in Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills? Nope, I’ve never been anywhere near that part of the country. Would love to go though. We want to go to all 50 states, and both Mt Rushmore and the Black Hills are on the list. I doubt I can get Tim to stop at Laura Ingalls Wilder’s house, but it will be worth a try. After all, if we make it that far….

Twosome: Motorcycle- Ever owned or ridden on a motorcycle? Do you aspire to ownership now? Ever wanted to hit the open rode and just go? NO. Most Definite NO! I feel very strongly about the dangers of motorcycles. Tim, however, wants one and it’s a fight we have fairly often. I have this terrible fear that his mid-life crises is not going to be a sports car, but a motorcycle. I think the things are the kiss of death, I don’t want him anywhere near one.

Threesome: Rally- v. to muster for a common purpose- Ever been to a large rally of any sort? A church rally, motorcycle rally or even a big family reunion? Or how about a road rally? Where did you go? Was a good time had by all? Hmm, I’ve been to big family reunions (Tim’s side, obviously). I’ve been to midnight sing’s by Christian singers on Thanksgiving weekend. But a rally, not sure you’d call any of those a rally.

What a hoot – I love this post from Amanda’s blog, about our nephew Ethan. He’s such a cutie pie, and quite the artist!

I haven’t really scrapped at all in 2005. I’ve been busy with the Hambones website, and then in late January, I got interested in blogging. Did quite a bit of research on that and then got this blog going in early February. Between my newfound blogging addiction, reading, watching tv and movies, hanging out with Tim, etc etc etc, I haven’t really made any time to scrapbook.

I decided when we got back from our vacation to Washington DC that I would try to reform and get back on the scrapping bandwagon. I’ve had these lousy pictures laying on my scrap table since before the holidays last year (yes, they had a nice thick layer of dust on them!). Probably one reason I put off scrapping is because I didn’t have good pictures from this to work with. I do for the rest of this weekend getaway, but nothing much to work with all of my memorabilia. I’m glad to report that even though it’s not a great layout, it’s done! And I also have realized in the last 20 minutes that I have forgotten how to scan 12×12 layouts on my 8 1/2 x 11″ scanner! Sorry for the poor scan, I’ll have to work on that 🙂

Here it is, lame though it may be… going to work on the next Dallas layout, then switch to this year’s vacation to DC. … Hopefully!!

P.S. If you want to read the journaling, just let me know and I can post a close-up of that 🙂 (I won the trip off a radio station, to go to a Dixie Chicks concert, and the journaling is about our trip out and back, and the concert. )

Yes, an odd name for a blog post.

I was reading our local paper earlier today. On Wednesdays, we get the grocery circulars and a small “Food” section. One of the local columnists today was talking about how Southern cooks make several things from scratch. Like biscuits (check, I do that, haven’t bought a tube of biscuits in almost a decade), cornbread (check, Tim likes one recipe I make), iced tea (duh, can you actually buy this premade?), and pimento cheese. Now, pimento cheese I have probably never made. Or maybe I have tried once or twice, but mine never tastes like my mom’s. I think I have tried it before, probably when I was single or first married, but it just paled in comparison to my mother’s.

Now, any of you who know me, know that any memories I have of growing up are spotty at best. And perhaps this is a memory from later in life, when I was older and my mom was getting on in age and her health starting to decline. But, I do remember the last 10 or 15 years of her life, her making pimento cheese.

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I couldn’t think of a thing this morning to post, and now I have two that spring to mind. My two happies for today are:

1. I read in today’s paper that our new Hobby Lobby is going to open Monday. YEAH! Finally, somewhere to shop for craft stuff besides our horrible ole Michaels. Plus, HL has some great seasonal stuff. Can’t wait to go, they open Monday. 😀

2. It’s raining, and has been for the past 20 or 30 minutes. I love it when it rains. Number one, it’s great for the grass and flowers and the new tree we planted. Number two, it means I won’t have to get out in the next day or two and drag sprinklers around the yard. Number three – I absolutely love going to look at my love note on the back fence from Tim. 😀 And number four – it’s all dark and cloudy and so I’ve lit some of my Yankee Candles. Hard to beat all of that, huh?!

Well, I haven’t been able to think of anything remotely interesting to write about lately (like that’s all that different from any other day, week or month!!). And it’s just a “same ole, same ole” kind of week, so nothing to report in the way of dates, shopping or something fun or exciting (like a new car!!) Not that I have those very often at all. I lead a very mundane existence. Happy, peaceful and quiet, but mundane. And I have no knack for writing catchy or thought-provoking blog entries. I seem to write just the way I talk, matter of fact, practical and very long-winded!

Click the -More- if you want to read a few blah things that are going on with us!

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What makes me happy today…

Oreos!

We bought a bag of Oreos the other day and I’ve been eating them every day. Bad, I know. But, to be fair, we only buy “store” cookies about 2 or 3 times a year. I make cookies and brownies sometimes, but we don’t splurge all the time. Buying and eating Oreos is a very once-in-a-while splurge for us. And they are so good, especially dunked in milk!! 🙂

I just paid a couple of our bills online. I love doing this. Do most of you pay yours electronically now, or are you still writing checks? We do almost everything electronically, either online or via bank draft. Makes things so much easier.

I’m constantly surprised by how things have changed in my lifetime. I can remember when I got my first apartment, I had so many checks to write. Apartment rent, my one credit card, every time I went to the grocery or Wal-mart, every utility bill, dry-cleaning, newspaper, etc. I bet I wrote 30 checks a month or more. These days, I do good to write 3 a month. I think that’s one of the best advances of technology, at least for me. I love doing things online – paying bills, ordering, researching items. Most of my life I didn’t have the Internet but today, I couldn’t live without it. How about you? 🙂

Vacation…

1. Name the two places where you would love to go on vacation: Number one is England, Scotland and Wales. Number two would be a toss-up between France and an Alaskan cruise

2. Name two places where you would never want to go on vacation: places like Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal

3. Which is more interesting to you, driving or flying for your vacation? We have almost always driven. We like spending the time together and seeing the sights from the car and being able to stop (although we rarely do!). We’re starting to exhaust our options of where we can drive to in one day though, so I imagine there’ll either be longer vacations in the future or more flying ones.

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Really late on this one, I think it was posted over the weekend. Word associations…

I say … and you think … ?

Complexion:: clear
Teach:: school
Back to school:: school supplies
Months:: days
Nominate:: candidate
Favorite curse word:: darn
Concerned:: caring
Better:: feeling… ?
Escalate:: push up the chain
Unveil:: unmask