Exceedingly Mundane

I’ll be spending a bit more time today getting things ready – ready for Suzie who flies in tonight, ready for Dad who will drive up tomorrow – and whose birthday is actually today – Happy Birthday Daddy! 🙂 I will be trying to finish getting the house marginally clean for everyone to be here, and for the cookout on Saturday. I struggle every single time that we have anyone over – the dichotomy of wanting my house to be sparkling clean, but the realization that it will probably be dirtier and more “tracked up” (as my mom would have said) after everyone leaves, and then it will require even more cleaning than it did beforehand. It’s just so hard for someone like me (Mrs Monk as Tim likes to call me) to not have everything “just so” before people come over. Even family and close friends. I’m just that way. Anal. OCD. Whatever you want to call it. 🙂 I’ve been working on it through the years, since we got married and started having more “family get-togethers” and although I think I’ve made some decent strides, I imagine most people would not agree with me. 🙂

I will also be finishing my list of things to pick up tomorrow. After quite a bit of debate and thought, we’ve decided to just go with the “pick it up and grill it” route of party planning. I’m going to go tomorrow and just buy a bunch of food, most of it already made and ready, and a whole ribeye and a cake (I know, GASP, it should be homemade, but we ain’t going there this time) for the party on Saturday. Tim will grill the steaks, and I can easily fix baked potatoes, salad, rolls and maybe a veggie or veggie tray for everyone. We’re shooting for tastes good, but really casual. I hope we hit our mark 🙂

I’m starting to see some really good previews for summer movies. I’ve been anxiously awaiting (as evidenced by the counter on the side of my blog) the last Star Wars movie, of course, but it looks like some other good ones are going to be coming out.

We saw a preview the other night for Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and that one, for whatever reason, didn’t appeal to me. Mr and Mrs Smith looks pretty good to me, but a big part of that could be because both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are such eye candy! You can check out a trailer for that one here. We saw a blurb about War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise, and that one looked pretty good to me. I just went and looked, and found several trailers here. Looks pretty good! We love movies like this, end of the world, fighting aliens a la Independence Day 🙂

I was just blog-surfing, and found a preview for the new Batman movie, “Batman Begins”, and after seeing this trailer, I have to say that one looks pretty good too!

So, all in all, it might be a good summer for movies. Tim loves to go to the movies. Year round, but especially in the summer when it’s hot and he can sit inside full blast AC and watch a good movie! 🙂 And I, of course, love to go with him – because he’s a great date, he will hold my hand, buy me a coke and a huge tub of popcorn. What more could a girl ask for?! 😀

A Little Background:

We live in what we consider a really nice little subdivision of smaller homes. The “front” part of the subdivision has homes in the 1800-2100 square foot range. The “back” part of the subdivision (where we live) has smaller, starter-type homes, in the 1500-1800 square foot range. When I looked here at houses 12 years ago, they were billed by my real estate agent as “patio homes”. One of the things I liked best about this subdivision was 1) easy access to the highway and all the amenties close by and 2) that there were woods and a creek behind my house and that the middle of the subdivision was divided by a lake.

The lake. It’s just a couple of big ponds really, but we call it a lake. At our little lake live any number of ducks and geese, pretty much year round. The numbers and varieties change, but on any given day, you can see a lot of Canadian geese, mallard ducks, white ducks and what I call “ugly ducks”. The mallards and geese are my favorites. We have fed them many times across the years, on our own and with our nieces and nephews, as well as neighborhood children we have “borrowed”. 🙂 The ducks and geese are very used to humans and have no qualms about coming right up to you if they think you might have bread.

We have had ducks in our front yard twice this spring, so far. Tim and I go out and feed them bread and take pictures. We have had a goose one time in 12 years venture to our front yard. We named him Chester.

About 2 or 3 years ago, something happened to one of the Canadian geese. We’re not sure what, but he has a broken wing now and can’t fly. Therefore, he’s here all the time. Sometimes he has a lot of company and sometimes he is out there all by himself. When I first began to notice him all alone, it just broke my heart. We soon realized that his wing was broken and he was stuck here. He seems to be a bit ostracized by the other geese, I guess because he can’t fly. He pretty much lives in the back yard (right on the lake) of one of our neighbors, right around the corner from us. He has a lot more ducks to keep him company than he does geese. He will venture across the road to the other side of the lake, and sometimes down around half of the lake, but he never goes very far from the yard that he “lives” at. I call him my “broken winged baby”. We see him almost every day, and on the days that I don’t see him, I worry about him. When we first noticed his wing, Tim didn’t think he would make it very long. But, here he is, at least 2 or 3 years later, maybe more, and he’s still going strong.

Click on the -More- link for a couple more pictures of him and his buddies 😀

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From this site:

Would You Rather…

1. Have J-Lo’s Bod or Nicole Kidmans?: Nichole Kidman
2. Brad Pitt or Colin Farrel?: no contest – Brad Pitt
3. Amazingly Beautiful Children or Super Smart Children?: super smart 🙂
4. A New Car or A New House?: New House
5. A Million Dollars or Your Dream Job?: Million Dollars 😀

Ooops, a couple of days late on this puppy… oh well, here we go:

I say … and you think … ?

Detachment:: detached retina
Regard:: give my regards to Broadway
Community:: neighborhood
Strike three:: you’re out
Congregation:: church
Generous:: giving
Pretention:: stuck up
Pregnant:: lucky duck
Drinking:: intoxicated
Brilliance:: shining

Take the quiz and post your results in a comment! 🙂 Shanna, maybe we should move to Texas?! 😀

I just posted the cookie recipe that I tried for the first time yesterday on Hambones. You can check it out
here

Just in case you didn’t know, you do not have to be a member or logged into Hambones to access the recipes. So if you know of someone who would like to peruse our recipe section, feel free to let them know. You don’t have to be a registered member to read recipes (but you do to submit them), to read book and movie reviews and read news. You have to be a registered user to vote in polls, submit news, see photos, post in the forums, etc. 🙂

I tried a new recipe for some cookies tonight. Tim ate one hot out of the oven and when I prompted him to rate them on a scale of 1-10, he gave them an 8.5. I give them about a 7. I’ll post them on the Hambones site tomorrow. I was able to share them with a couple of neighbors, which was nice. I’ll send the rest to work with Tim tomorrow, so that I won’t have any (well, many, I might have to keep a couple for me!) around the house for me to pig out on. If there’s anything chocolate here, I WILL eat it! 😀

We’ve had a good day. Tim is still out doing woodworking. He’s gotten a lot done today, and thankfully, even though he’s still on call, hasn’t really had to do a lot of work. He’s checked his email a couple of times and did a little IM’ing, but that’s about it. It’s been pretty today, although the wind is still a bit chilly. Odd for so late in the spring, but we’re really enjoying it.

I put out the old bird feeder, around the corner of the house in a side flower bed. I’m hoping the cardinals and red birds find it and have something to eat. The new feeder is nice, but those kinds of birds are too big to fit on it. I have had lots of finches, chickadees, sparrows and other small birds though! 🙂 Thanks to Gail, I have a nice little chart of common birds on bird feeders, and I am starting to learn which ones are which. I saw a mockingbird on the old, small feeder late today, so maybe they’ll spread the word around and the “bigger birds” can come feed on it some soon.

Better run, it will be time to watch 24 soon! 🙂

Normally, my Mondays are very busy. We tend to “slack” all weekend, and I usually try to get things back in order and humming on Mondays. I do lots of laundry, lots of “chores” and a fair amount of cleaning. I also settle back into the rhythm of my weekdays, which I enjoy, although not nearly as much as the weekends, when Tim and I get to spend all of our time together.

This weekend was no exception. We stayed really busy both days, although Saturday was more of a work day and Sunday was more of a play day. We watched two new movies, and caught up on some TV stuff we had taped earlier in the week. Tim went with me to Walmart again, to do the weekly shopping run (although I had gone to Kroger on Friday afternoon and gotten most of it already). All in all, a really good weekend. I like it best when we stay home, and do things around here, and have fun and play and get to spend all of our time together. I’m selfish that way 😀

Tim is getting a lot done today… so far, he’s finished the gate, worked on the lattice underneath the deck and is doing some of his woodworking. Today looks pretty promising overall! Some of my new flowers are blooming, and right now the sun is shining, although it may rain later (if you can ever count on Weather.com to be right). More later 🙂

UPDATE – Tim cooked out some burgers for lunch and we ate out on the deck. It’s a gorgeous day, still sunny, slight wind, warm, just right, really. We had a great time! 😀

Yesterday turned out to be a booger of a work day, thanks to the Type-A workaholic himself (Tim) 🙂 I had “planned” to get some flowers and plant in the yard, and then maybe do a little reading and housework, while Tim worked on his woodworking. As per usual, things do NOT go as I planned!

We went to Gardenworks (and it was mighty chilly in my shorts, I might add) first thing yesterday morning to pick out some flowers (see what we bought in a picture on the extended page, by clicking the -More- link). Tim helped me with a few odds and ends around the house and yard, and also helped out a bunch by helping me get one of the beds ready for planting. We had lunch, then he set out to start doing his woodworking. He had been in search of a special bit for his router and had finally found what he wanted (one single bit – 35.96 at Lowe’s :cry:). He got everything all prepped while I started on the first few sets of flowers. Then, I heard him say “OH Crap”, which is a terrible utterance to come out of Tim’s mouth. I’m like, what’s wrong? He said, “I took the bit out of the package and it’s broken”. 🙁 So, we change clothes and head off to Lowe’s across town, and end up spending more time and money there on things. He gets a new bit, then he decides we should get lumber to rebuild one of the gates on the fence, and I find a Lady Banks climbing rose and we decide to branch out and try one of those for the first time. Anyway, that killed a couple of hours of otherwise productive work time.

When we got back, I got all of the flowers planted and he decided to work on rebuilding the front gate. It’s going to swing the other way now and hang off a different post (because of the weight or something or other), so it’s going to take a while to get used to. Suffice it to say that rebuilding a gate is not a quick project and we finally stopped right after dark, and didn’t get back inside till around 8 PM or so. We then got things ready to cook, and Tim cooked out for us (Asian BBQ flank steak, grilled asparagus and I fixed some sweet potatoes inside), and supper was delicious, albeit a lot later than when we prefer to eat. By the time I got cleaned up, it was nearly 10 PM and I was too tired to blog about things, watch TV, start the movie we had rented, or much of anything else. Sleep was really the only thing that was important to me! 🙂

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Well, we were way too busy today for me to stop and take time to blog… and tonight I’m too tired! So, I’ll be back tomorrow and blog about today! Which, by then, will be yesterday. hehehe!

We’re moving on up…

1. How many locations (dwellings) have you lived in? Hmm… one house growing up, 3 dorms at college, 5 or 6 apartments, and now this house

2. If you could place your dream home in any location, where would it be? In the mountains, overlooking a small lake, a huge cabin with a big deck

3. In terms of the act of moving: are you a packer or a box mover?
I’m a packer extraordinaire 😀

4. What one item do you own that you absolutely hate to move?the big entertainment center in the den is a booger

5. What’s worse: the act of moving or a routine cleaning at the dentist? Easy – moving! (I go twice a year to the dentist, but haven’t moved in almost 12 years!) 😀

Appetizer
Name something that helps you fall asleep. A warm bath. Sometimes reading. If all else fails, Tylenol PM 😀

Soup
Who brings out the best in you? Tim, of course

Salad
What do you like to do on a rainy day? Stay inside and read, curled up in my big chair by the fireplace. 🙂

Main Course
Complete this sentence: In our home, we never have enough…
chocolate!

Dessert
Which shoe do you put on first? Left, I think. I’ll have to pay attention next time!

Just got back from running a bunch of errands. I went to the bank, two video stores, the library and grocery store. I got one free movie at Blockbuster (Spanglish) and another one with a one-free-rental coupon (we used part of our Discover cashback to get $40 worth of rental coupons for $20 cashback bonus) at Hollywood Video (Ocean’s Twelve).

I also went to the library. I had finished the 2 Stephanie Plum books I checked out a couple of weeks ago. It’s nice that they give me 3 weeks to keep books, just the right amount of time for two for me. I took my list I’ve been accumulating and found a couple more new ones to read. I had started my Nicholas Sparks book last night (True Believer), but had only read a few pages before I got sleepy. Since I own that one, it can wait a bit 🙂 I got “Blue Shoe” by Anne Lamott and “Shopaholic & Sister” by Sophie Kinsella. I have already read one of the Shopaholic books, and really enjoyed it. Very light and entertaining, and very funny! I think I’ll try the new one first. I have never read any Anne Lamott books.

I love the library. It’s like a bookstore – but FREE! I love that I can browse around and look at all of those wonderful books and magazines, and movies. Our little bitty library in Madison has a bunch of VCR tapes and even some DVD’s that you can rent for a week, completely free. I need to take advantage of that more. I do love to get books and browse around, and flip them open and read a bit before I decide whether or not to check them out. And the frugal side of me loves the fact that if I get a book, and I don’t like it, then I’m not out any money. Just return it and get another one! Going to a library or bookstore is usually an instant mood-lifter for me. Today was no exception.

I’m procrastinating severely on going to get flowers to plant in the yard. More on that later, maybe tomorrow. I was about to go this afternoon, but Tim and I have been IM’ing and he’s agreed to go to Gardenworks with me in the morning. It’s wonderful to have a really nice nursery less than a half mile from our house. Now, if they would just jump out of the containers and plant themselves, all would be dandy. 😀

Tim and I went walking this morning and it was mostly very quiet out. There were a few people leaving for work, and a few pockets here and there of school age children waiting on the bus.

We spoke to a couple of the kids in passing, just a simple ‘Hello’ or ‘Good Morning’ and both noticed (as we have many times in the past), that the kids don’t acknowledge us or speak to us or smile or anything. We started discussing how sad it is that kids have to be so cautious in today’s world, so wary of strangers. I’m sure it’s been told over and over to these kids in our neighborhood, “don’t talk to strangers”. Which is a good thing, I think, overall. But, I thought it was sad that they can’t respond when someone is being friendly to them, or show respect for their elders, or just sheer politeness in returning a greeting. Sad that they have to be so wary of people and their surroundings at such a young age.

Tim brought up an angle that I had not thought of. He said…

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