Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Day After Monday

Aside from knee pain and cookies, there has been a lot of random flying through the air this past week. I could complain about the humidity and eighty degree temperatures intruding on my fall fancy, but I won't...or I just did. As part of an effort to convince myself that fall truly is upon us, I signed up for a super fun looking swap being hosted by Beth at Living a Goddess Life and Miss Angie at My So-Called Chaos...

And now, back to our regularly scheduled random...

It was difficult to assess my knee pain when I got out of bed this morning because I was distracted by various other muscle groups shouting at me. A couple of friends suggested that the knee pain probably has something to do with my getting older. Suffice to say, I promptly removed them from this year's holiday card list.

For fear that it might take me another ten months to get my quasi-exercising act back together, I hopped on the elliptical this morning. (Well, I didn't so much as "hop", as gingerly climb.) When I checked the timer and saw that only six minutes had gone by, I recognized that I hated that beast even more than jogging. I wonder if it has anything to do with the view...
That is our guest room, so think twice before you plan to visit (and give me PLENTY of notice).

I aggravated someone working at the Customer Service
desk at the grocery store yesterday. I did so by being a customer, and asking her for some service. Since the last place I had my sunglasses was when I walked into the store last week, I thought it was a reasonable lost and found to check. The employee I asked did not have to go aisle by aisle on a search for my shades, as the look on her face suggested. In fact, she didn't even have to rummage through some neglected bin, as all lost eye wear was in a special separate tray.. All eye wear except mine, that is. Those are prescription sunglasses, and I just hope that whoever found them, and thought them snazzy enough to keep, is suffering inexplicable headaches from not realizing that they are not plain old lenses.

So I was all talk about getting new tinted windows for my eyes, when this happened to my everyday glasses (the ones I was just recently reunited with)...
Even more hip than a monacle I think. I thought of trying to attach a handle and maybe some feathers, so I could just hold them up like those fancy masks. I abandoned tacky for just tacky glue this morning, and am hoping it sticks.

Remember when Softsoap arrived on the hand washing scene? I thought that was so cool. There have been many varieties of liquid soap since. However, apparently now Softsoap is having an identity crisis...

I was walking in the village the other day, thinking about snacks, as usual. I saw this vending machine in the distance, but then lost my appetite...

Not sure if you know anyone looking for a new place, but am guessing this little gem will still be available this weekend...
I wonder if the neighbors place bets on what odd assortment of stuff may appear in our driveway on any given day.

Well, I cannot blame my stuffy, sneezy and itchy nose completely on the weather today. I am allergic to cats, but let me tell you that meeting...and petting and holding and playing with Penny today was worth every tissue.


Stacy certainly seems to have her hands full these days, but has been kind enough to continue hosting the Tuesday Random Rebellion. Thank you, Stacy! Go visit her to see what is fun and exhausting in her world, and for links to what is making other folks tick.

Stacy

Monday, September 26, 2011

That's the way the cookie crumbles!

One day after my run-in with Mothra, the will to eat was alive and well! I took my grumbling tummy on the road to visit my friend and her baby. Not only was I treated to tiny baby hands and snuggles and swell adult conversation, but she had an assortment of cookies in the freezer that I had missed on their first go around. This is what I did to show some sort of restraint...
Now the first issue is that eating half of one cookie shows some restraint, not half of three. Also, the more I look at this photo, the more I realize that none of those have half left.

While the baby slept, we amused ourselves with some baking...of course we did! I guess the only thing I can say for myself on that note is that I didn't eat any raw batter. I will not deny thinking about it, but the above photo shows what I ate instead to keep from going hungry! We frosted many, many mustache cookies. We stuck to brunettes that day, but considered future plans to add blonde and red-heads to the mix. For a much classier picture of our efforts, click here!






I brought home some cookies, and some even made it out of the car to the kitchen counter. The kids ate some of them, and well, the rest are long gone too.

Flash forward to this morning...I was out walking the dog (in my pajamas, as usual) thinking about how decent the temperature was. I tried to think of some reasons why this was not the day to try jogging again. Aside from hating it, I couldn't really think of anything. I also realized that flopping over the top of my waistbands was something I might despise even more than a little cardio. I wasted no time back at the house worrying about what clothes I threw on, aside from a sports bra. I had sixteen minutes before I had to wake up the girl child for school.

A friend of mine had joined a running club last year. They started out by jogging fifteen minutes, and it didn't matter how fast or slow, as long as you kept going for fifteen minutes. How bad could that be? Obviously there was a logical progression in the duration over time, but it's the starting that stinks! I only lasted for the month of November, and might've gotten to eighteen minutes...maybe...once. I used to grab my cell phone, set it to stopwatch mode, because heaven forbid I jogged ten seconds past the fifteen minute goal. If those fifteen minutes were up at the end of my street, yes I walked the rest of the way home. It really just became an exercise in fifteen minutes of having a thought bubble over my head that kept repeating "I HATE THIS!"

I pretended to stretch for about five seconds. I knew it wasn't really the correct way to go about it, but if I paused to google that kind of information, all hope would be lost (plus I had survived last November's efforts). I flipped the cell phone open, and started the stop watch...

25 seconds - I couldn't believe the level of torture I told myself this would be. I am nearly floating down the street!

90 seconds - Whoops, swerve to miss dead frog.

3 minutes - Wow! I haven't checked the time in over a minute!

4.5 minutes - I am barely sucking wind...not that I have tried to speak out loud.

6 minutes - ouch! The side of my knee hurts.

6.5 minutes - Scold self.

7.5 minutes - Um, yeah, pain starting to shoot down leg. I consider the embarrassment of having to go to the doctor to explain any sort of sport injury. Also concerned how much the visit might cost, as I have yet to figure out the insurance coverage we have had for the past two years.

8.5 minutes - Passing my house, and fighting every urge to just give up for the day.

11 minutes - OUCH! IT REALLY FRIGGIN HURTS AND PAIN NOW SHOOTING IN A VARIETY OF DIRECTIONS!

11.5 minutes - Stop. Much better when not jogging. Wondering what form of exercise I can do tomorrow, as quitting all together after day one will not bode well for future efforts.

Remaining 4.5 minutes spent doing a jog, hobble, walk type of action back home.

By the time I got out of the shower, some twinges of pain had resurfaced. By the time I was halfway through the grocery store, I was seriously unimpressed. I turned down the cashier's inquiry as to whether I wanted drive up service, as I was fairly certain I would still have to go get my van. No valet service at Wegmans. I was so glad I had so many things for the fridge and freezer that needed my immediate attention once I got everything inside. Grrr!

I texted my physical therapist friend to give her the heads up that I needed either advice or a time machine. I am immensely disappointed in what little help the ice is having. Oh, I am immensely impatient as well, I guess.

**Side note: When my husband had his bout of tendonitis, he was told to ice the spot. Oh, he iced it all right...for over 90 minutes straight. I did not know the treatment for tendonitis was frostbite.**

I decided to plant myself here at the computer, and suppose I will grab a book and retreat to the couch soon. AND, if you give this lady a couch, she's going to want a cookie!




Friday, September 23, 2011

What's bugging me?

I met my tall and beautiful stick person friend for lunch. I tried to wear something less un-flattering than usual. Based on the fact that a quick 100 sit-ups were not going to improve my situation in the four hours I had to prepare for our rendez-vous, I was still trapped in the same body, even with my best attempts at fashion. I also brought along whatever gray hair I have, but did spend an extra five minutes, um, styling it (that is an overstatement). This information is fairly irrelevant to the rest of my tale, but I would like to point out that when she ordered a cookie, I refrained. (Of course they didn't actually give her the cookie they must not have heard her order, but I heard it from the next register.)

It was a little weird how we ordered the exact same thing, but her sandwich came on toast, and mine did not. However, I got a little something extra in my salad that she did not. The lettuce was kind of torn all willy-nilly so that it actually took some planning and effort to get each forkful into my mouth without causing a scene. I had a tidy selection of cheese tomato and a few pieces of lettuce left when the blur that had been in the corner of my bowl came into focus...Why hello very large MOTH! I don't want to exaggerate, so I will say that he was almost 3/4" long. I cannot believe I did not take a picture! Since I had alerted my friend to the situation, the priority at the moment seemed to be to get that bowl away before one of us hurled. I know it was just a moth (a large one), but I also know that it had been there the entire time I was eating--meaning I could've eaten a friend of his and whatever cooties they had traipsed across my produce. Bleah!

I brought my bowl to the food pick up area, where one of the prep guys got a manager...stat! She apologized and asked if I had my receipt as she ditched the bowl and ushered me away from that area. I went to get my receipt and headed to meet her back at the register. On my way there, I passed another customer who asked if I found something in my salad. When I answered "yes", she had a look of concern and said "Oh, I ordered salad too." I wanted to say "Hey Tootsie, this is my moment, my traumatic lunch. At least you know to check your lettuce!" Instead, I said nothing and kept walking.

At the register, I saw the manager was writing out a gift certificate...how swell! She handed me the $20 golden ticket, as I asked if she still needed the receipt. She did not, as she said I was all set (and apologized for about the third time). What? No free cookie? I guess I forgot to write the "can be placated with baked goods" message on my forehead. I get it that I had almost finished the salad, but my untoasted half of a sandwich, that was back at my table, held little appeal at that point (yes, of course I finished it anyway). I would've rather been reimbursed for the money I spent right then and there...and been given a cookie, of course. Maybe I was too scarred to return there to eat, so what good would a gift certificate be then. The ungrateful part of my brain also realized that it wasn't really a $20 gift certificate, since I paid $9 for the insect habitat, but rather $11 worth of hush money. I also wondered how much of the salad needed to be left for them to offer to get me some more food. I should've had my friend bring it up, as she looks like she needs something else to eat far more than I do!

I know that bugs like to chill on lettuce, but I also know that you should look at it when you are washing it. I will now bring my own salad spinner, and eat the yummy cheese first, when I go back to redeem my gift certificate. OR that gem is one less Christmas gift I have to buy, as I give it to someone else. I am pretty sure it didn't say "bug comp" on it.


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Tuesday? Again?

Funny how that happens...a week ends, and just like that, a new one begins! I had visions of blogging myself into oblivion once the kids went back to school, but it didn't really happen. I suppose I should pause here to remind myself that this is only the second full week of school, so there is still time. Wait until you hear what has been keeping me so busy. It's nearly guaranteed to make you more fascinated by me than you already were.

As I have mentioned on at least one other occasion, I tend to throw myself into organization mode when parts of my world seem out of control. On the first day of school, I had removed the folding doors from the back hall closet before my daughter even had her foot on the bus steps. I spent several days purging and painting and prettying that garage entry/laundry room/hallway. It looks super swell now, and the insane collection of board games we own are much more easily visible AND I can walk down the hall without cursing the coats waving at me, running into the closet doors and the despising the general gloom. The only thing I have left to do is hang the wallpaper border that was given to me by my husband over eleven years ago (at least I could still find it). Since the area leading to the garage was so spiffy, the next logical step was to free the garage from whatever was making it also so miserable to walk through.

Eventually I got tired of shuffling my own belongings from column A to column B. My aunt let me help her clean out her garage. It was interesting to see what treasures she was housing; most of which belonged to my cousin. He has WAY more hobbies than I could've imagined, and now I know where to go if I am looking for a two-piece pool cue in a snazzy bag or some skeet and the flinger to fling them. Next, a friend let me come help her clean out part of her basement! You would think that by now I should be the most mentally fit I can be with so much organizing angst out of my system. Wellllll, you see I actually left some scary spaces in my own home. Now the tables have turned a little and I have to actually clean up some items for the sake of general tidiness, and I cannot begin to convince myself that it will be any fun...how disappointing.

Speaking of disappointing, here are some other random things (it is Tuesday) that I have felt some fleeting disappointment about since my last ramblings, and the logic I have employed to feel better about them.

* I might've lost my prescription sunglasses for real this time...as in not just hiding in the house. BUT, now I can justify getting schmancy new ones.

* I absolutely positively realize that I cannot tone my flabby tummy without exercising. BUT, maybe if I did exercise I could continue to eat cookies. (fuzzy logic)

*Wal-Mart kept me on hold for a crazy amount of time when I called searching for the last item on the school supply list. BUT, I used the time to call Target for the same item on a different phone.

*Accepting that I am not ready for the pursuit of my coffee shop dream. BUT, now I don't have to worry about how I was going to be able to do the other things I enjoy while trying to get that off the ground AND I have other dreams too that I haven't talked myself out of yet. (Also, note to self: you do not like coffee.)

*The puss and general surliness that comes from the son when I remind him to practice his viola. BUT, it sounds so awesome once he starts when all I hear from the other room are those incredible strings.

*Finally reaching the end of the book it took me over a month to read, and not liking it. BUT, I have other books!

*Holy cow, I just saw that I have 50 followers (thank you), and then remembered that my aunt and cousin each signed up twice, so I guess it is 48. BUT, I remember wondering if I'd reach 25.

* After a few months without such updates, perhaps the biggest disappointment came in the mail...
Are you kidding me?!?!?! Declining? "GOOD"? I was "GREAT" dammit. All the way down to #34? From #13? I can personally assure you that I used NO more energy than I was earlier in the summer. Oh, you think it might've had something to do with that whole 95 degree thing and my not wanting to melt? Maybe. BUT, we could go all Abe Lincoln and read by candlelight at night to try to regain our deserved status, or just sing songs together, and really bond as a family. (By the way, I asked some of my neighbors about their ranking...well not in so many words...and they didn't get one. So who exactly are my 99 neighbors?)

I hear someone in the snack shack, and goodness knows I can't miss out on that! I do love it that Stacy hosts our Random party every week, but the refreshments are really lame (oooh, unless I win that gift basket!) Thank you Stacy! Gotta run!

Stacy

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Random Roundup

I would like to say that we are back in the back-to-school swing of things, but any day that starts with my alarm clock at 6:00 a.m. is nothing I will get used to in a week. Even when I do get used to it again, I am fairly certain I still will not like it.

Since fall is my favorite season, I thought it would be nice to get some fresh air. While I will acknowledge the nice breeze, why is it over 80 degrees out? It's shade or bust! Yes, I see the calendar says that autumn officially starts late next week, but I am afraid it might snow by then, so I was hoping to enjoy a low 60's kind of thing. According to the weather website lords, the grand cool down is coming this Thursday. I will check that again in five minutes to see what gives.
Now that the weather has been addressed, we can move on to other equally fascinating random items...

I realized I had lost my primary pair of glasses a few weeks ago, after we returned from visiting family out of town. I checked my purse several times, as well as every other bag I brought, but I could only locate my dress up spectacles. (By "dress up", I mean slightly fancier and far less grungy than my everyday pair.)
Too bad I didn't check the eyeglass case on the counter sooner, but to be fair, just finding the case was part of an hour long counter excavation project. Now I am left wondering if the case was ever even in my purse.

I did a little happy dance after confirming that Charlotte here had built her home on the outside of our bathroom window. I have a relatively inconsistent catch and release program for returning insects to the great outdoors, but she might have been beyond what a Dixie cup and I could've successfully managed. I was much more appreciative of her fabulous web creation from my own side of the glass.

It was a win some you lose some sort of day for spiders here at the homestead, as Charlotte got her very own photo op, while her distant cousin on our deck had his dinner stolen. There is some sort of hierarchy for the bugs I serve and protect that has no set rhyme or reason, so when the grasshopper flung past me and landed near a spider web, I had to take action. I couldn't tell if Hopper had actually landed on the sticky stuff, but then I saw Spidey start to move towards him. I used the extra long match stick I was headed to start the grill with to get Hopper free, and he thanked me by flinging himself right at me...um, no thank you. Seriously, do they have any sense of direction, or ability to go from point A to point B?

I was putting together the wheelbarrow I bought my husband for his birthday (yes, romance is a live and kicking here), when I was met with possibly the worst assembly instructions ever. It started when I didn't see the directions. Luckily, my daughter was the to point them out on the flaps of the box. These are three out of the four different sized screws, so how long do you think each one is?
Apparently not a scale drawing.

I was sorry to learn of the potential damage I have done to my children's brains by letting them watch many years of SpongeBob. Perhaps my lack of ability to string full sentences together some evenings correlates to the afternoons I watch the show with them. One of the articles I read mentioned that a slow moving show, like Caillou, was better for children. Make sure you have a fork nearby to stab yourself to stay awake if you are trying to watch too. I had the opportunity to watch Sesame Street while babysitting last week. What have they done to that beloved show? I know they took flack for having the fast paced clips, but seriously, those story lines do not hold up when blocked all together. I need a little Super Grover to break up the drama of Big Bird turning the grownups into kids. How was I to carry on with my day without the Ladybug Picnic jingle jangling in my head? Oh, I'm not the target audience for that? Moving on...


The house is fairly well picked up, so I could've had you all over here, but I don't have any good snacks ready due, in part, to the lack of success I had with the s'more cobbler. Luckily, Stacy is hosting us all once again this week, and she is even having a Blogiversary giveaway raffle for a whole basket of goodies! Head on over to enter and check out some links to what other randomness bloggers are airing out today.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Such a doll

My daughter is not a big fan of breakfast food as a general rule, unless we are talking about sizzling delightful bacon and sausage. Slinging waffles or pancakes doesn't bring her to the table any more willingly than a bowl of gluey oatmeal, so I have learned to not expend much extra effort in the kitchen. My best bet is to drive to the store for bagels. Eventually, she will return the plain bagel outer covering to anyone who looks vaguely interested in eating the hollowed out serving dish she has created. Her grandfather is her perfect bagel partner, as her remnants are his favorite part. (Plus, he does not take offense to the used food notion.)

I lost the breakfast battle with my daughter this morning. Her initial excuse for not pairing anything substantial with her grapes was that she wouldn't be hungry for lunch if she ate too much. Her class eats lunch at 10:20, and there we were at 7:15. She had a slight grin on her face as I started to protest. After pointing out the three hour time-frame she had to develop some hunger pangs, I decided to just enjoy a few minutes at the table with her.

She grabbed something from the kitchen counter on her way to the table and became captivated flipping through the magazine pages. I watched her face progress through several variations of interest, happiness and entertainment. What struck me about each expression was how much older the complete package looked, and how each of these looks had become her own. She wasn't just smiling, her face was lit up in her own radiant grin. She didn't just look inquisitive, I could see her wheels turning. Her whole face looked more mature than it had when I tucked her into bed last night. Her nose though, that sweet little nose...it still takes a lot of restraint for me to not reach out and "beep" it. Her hair was still the way I like it, leftover from sleep and more gently pulled back with a curl hanging, as she had not yet had her way with it . Even something about the way she was sitting, with one leg bent, and her chin resting on her knee looked older.

I was happy for this small moment we were sharing. Two hip chicks (allow me this vision of myself, as i was dressed and showered with a necklace on...that is as good as I get) just relaxing before the day started. Of course I had a moment of panic that her little girlhood was slipping through my fingertips. Then she pointed out something in her magazine...or should I say the latest American Girl doll catalog. Oh yes, she had "considering my Christmas list" written all over her face. Thanks to Kit, Emily, Mia and the rest of the girls in the bin upstairs, for keeping her childhood sweet for even just a little bit longer!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Random poutyness!

I am already trying to restore order to our house in the form of organizing random spaces (not necessarily the most offensive ones, mind you), in an attempt to diminish my out of control feelings that are beginning to spiral! I will freely and openly admit that back-to-school time just doesn't thrill me...at all. For starters, it clearly marks the passage of time, and forces me to acknowledge, at least on some level, that my children are in fact getting older. This morning I realized that next summer is the last one before my son and his friends will be driving. Holy moly-peel me off the ceiling! I will also have that moment around 8:00 tomorrow morning, as I pass by a mirror to see if I have gotten all of the tell tale signs that the bus has left off of my face and then...then I will ask that reflection just what the hell she intends to do to justify her existence for the next six hours. Sure there is plenty of stuff I could do around the house (areas that my frenzy of the past two weeks has not hit upon), but the problem is IT WILL BE TOO DAMN QUIET! So I will flee. I made a list of some odds and ends to pick up while we are out today, but I know that I should reserve some grocery store items so that I have somewhere to go.

I made another batch of hot pepper relish yesterday. I had finally gotten rid of all the jars in the first batch since they didn't set. I knew I had done something wrong when I made that round and it bugged me to see all of the jars, so I made them go away (which bothered me as well, but that feeling was fleeting). Imagine my state when the new (and improved and correctly made) trial proved to be setting no more than the last. Oh no! I didn't know which was worse...having more runny relish, or that I had tossed eleven little jars of basically the same stuff?! I brought the case to the basement, where I am not going to check on it for a very long time.

I was not impressed by the state of my sinuses yesterday, so I pretty much sat on the couch reading most of the day, once I left the kitchen. It was really the perfect day to do so, as it rained the entire day and was even a little chilly. However, I felt badly for not being more enthusiastic on the one day of the holiday weekend that we were all home together, as if I was supposed to be organizing some sort of pep rally. I am not sure if I felt better or worse, at first, to know that the children were more than amply entertained without my cheer squad. Eventually I was very happy to just be nearby listening to their laughter.

Since the only relief I seemed to find yesterday was when I was cramming food in my face, I was disappointed that the shelves were not stocked better. Don't get me wrong, I ate four different kinds of cookies and some crunchy salty delights as well, but this...THIS is what I am going to drown all of my sorrows in later today!
S'more Cobbler?!?! Oh my goodness! My super awesome Culinary Quirks friend sent me the link to this must have recipe from Created by Diane. I will be sure to post a photo of the actual results from my newly dubbed "I'm not sure that is what it's supposed to look like" kitchen!

Well, well, well...Stacy has sure had a busy week on her hands, yet is still managing to host the weekly Random Thoughts Rebellion! Thank you very much! Go check her out, and share a kind thought (and a tissue) or two...

Stacy