Prep Time

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have started to get some things prepped already.  Last night my youngest and I made crock pot peanut clusters. Super easy and super delish!  I am freezing some to pull out at Christmas time.  Here's a picture of them.  Looks like I must have a candy shop doesn't it? :-)

Late this afternoon and evening will be pie baking. We're making Apple Crumb and Pumpkin pie. Then I want to also get the potatoes done and ready to go into the crock pot tomorrow (refrigerating overnight will probably let the sour cream and cream cheese, etc flavors really blend in too).


Hubby came back Monday from being back east since the 19th. He has a good friend in PA that he has missed and who has missed him so we booked him a flight and a bargain one I'd say since it was only about 2 weeks out that I booked it. It was only I think $359 round trip including tax. We did the non-refundable ticket as there was no need to make sure it was refundable. He was going and I never go anywhere. However by that Friday I learned that I was to go to corporate (for work) the same week. After finding out the non-refundable ticket meant we'd lose $200, I begged off from the work trip and it was granted, luckily.  I have only had to go to corporate one other time this year for training and had no idea anything like this was planned.

Anyway I have to say although I missed him it was nice eating all my veggie meals, watching whatever I wanted on TV and having the toilet seat down all the time, well he's usually good about that. The only part I hated was at night. Yes I still tend to get scared like when I was a kid. So I'd leave the TV on with the volume way down.  The first night I left it on until the following morning close to 6:00AM. Then next night it was before 5:00AM. Then by Saturday the youngest came home for Thanksgiving break so I didn't leave the TV on any more after that. :)

Thanksgiving week

Here we are at the start of Thanksgiving week, and what better way to start it off than by eating out with my youngest at The Wildfire.  Yum!  I haven't eaten there since New Year's Eve (it isn't very cheap).  We each had a shrimp dish and each brought about half of it home.  That's fine with me.  I don't have to wonder what I am going to have tomorrow for lunch.

It has be cold and rainy all weekend.  The temperature has stayed just warm enough though that we have not had any ice/sleet. 

Even though I have to work this week it will be special since the youngest is here to visit!  We went shopping today for the turkey and all the fixings.  I'm glad that I found every thing I was looking for! We are going to make both apple and pumpkin pies this year.  Thankfully I already have two pie crusts in the freezer.  I also have a peanut chocolate bark to make so we will probably start making some things Tuesday evening, so that everything isn't left for Thursday.  I want to use the bread maker on Thanksgiving too. I have only used it once and it would be nice to have some nice fresh bread on the table. My mouth is watering just thinking about all this FOOD!

Hump Day

It was a nice warm day today but it is suppose to get colder and rainy over the weekend. Ick!  Oh well can't have perfect weather forever right?  Then I wouldn't have anything to complain about.

Heard on the news that they are making all new commercial buses have seat belts installed for additional road safety.  However this does not apply to school buses. Seriously?  And what is going to keep the kids safe when the school bus crashes? The back of the seat in front of them?  NOT!  I remember how hard those backs of the seats are. I've banged my knees a few times on them in my childhood.

I signed up for the Angel Christmas card program again this year.  I feel like it is my way to help spread a little cheer during the holiday season.   If anyone is interested here is the link (this is in the US only, but if you are in a different country you could always consider starting one of your own).
http://theangelcardproject.com/

I need to get our annual fur kid Christmas picture taken (we do it ourselves), so that they are ready. I got a bunch of tiny scarfs for pets at the animal shelter's garage sale and I want to put one on each dog's neck for dressing them up a little.  Maybe I will get that done this weekend.  I'm getting two of the dogs groomed on Saturday so maybe Sunday would be a good day.

Nice Weekend

I just got back a few hours ago from going to my youngest's for the weeekend.  It was the first time I drove to her apartment but it was an easy enough, pleasant 3+ hour drive.  She has a nice 2 bedroom apartment in a nice gated complex.  We got pizza Friday night to keep up with the tradition (Friday nights are Pizza night (and beer for me).  So that was nice. Thanks Todd for letting me have one of your beers.

While visiting her, we took her dog Bailey to a dog park and it was nice to see her playing and getting along off leash with several dogs.  I doubt mine would get along so well with other dogs. They are so territorial and are bad barkers. Doubtful I would ever try something like that with them.  Too risky.

We ate dinner last night at Carrabas.  It was so good!  It has been well over year since I've eaten at one. There are not any close by so we just don't get there. We didn't have to wait too long either to get seated, only about 25 minutes.  It was delicious and we had the leftovers today for lunch.  Yum!

I noticed while driving back home that there are some oddly names streets or creeks. There was one sign for a road named Westward Ho. Too funny!  I do believe it was headed the right way too!

It is always amazing to me that no matter what the speed limit is, there are always drivers who will go faster. I followed the speed limit the entire trip and no matter what the limit was there were those who passed me. Who cares? Well I do.  Think about it. If everyone was going no higher than the posted speed limit, NOBODY would be passing!  One of the toll roads actually has a speed limit of 80 mph and I got up to that speed limit though I don't usually like to go that high, as an experiment to see if anyone would pass me. Yup!  Several cars did.  Some had to have been going at least 90 mph.  Unreal!  I wish there were a lot more police staked out on those roads, but I am glad to say at least I arrived home, safe and sound.

Cold morning..

I know it is November but this is Texas and it doesn't need to get down to 30 degrees at night just yet!  Luckily it is only to be this cold another night and then it won't be as cold at night.

My laptop is fried.  I can't get anything other than a gray screen (from spilling coffee on it two days ago). Oh well, at least I don't think I had anything major on it...until I have a Duoooh! (think Homer Simpson) moment.

Looking forward to the day off Friday and visiting with my youngest. Not a whole lot to write about this evening, so keeping it short.

Gross!

Those of you who know me, know that I try to eat healthy every day.  I do have my treats now and then like a Sonic Blast, but I even got hubby to buy Plain Greek yogurt today so that I can make smoothies with unsweetened yogurt, fruit, local honey and flax seed. This is what I had today for lunch.

Hubby bought something akin (but way far akin) to burgers that he thought looked good and wanted to try with tots for dinner.  They are called Johnsonville Grillers and they looked really, really gross raw so I dug the box out of the recycle bin to look at it. "These are cheddar cheese and bacon flavor pork patties", I started to read to hubby. "What?  I thought they were hamburger, not pork".  Nope they are pork. I proceeded to read the box. 1 patty is 460 Calories.  Calories from Fat are 350! 39g of fat, 14 g of those saturated fat. Cholesterol 100mg, Sodium 1040 mg!  I could feel my stomach starting to churn (not in a good way) at my reading of all of these things. One of the ingredients was powdered cellulose!  Cellulose! Might as well just slap that right on my thighs!

Needless to say I pretty much lost my appetite for it by the time it was on my plate. Ugh.  I managed to get down almost half of it. Although it was pork, it was rubber-like consistency. For once hubby who usually loves junk food, agreed with me and didn't even eat most of his second burger. 

Makes me wonder if I really should start doing the grocery shopping again. ;-)

Oh this morning I spilled coffee on my laptop and thought it was okay as I dried it out well, got it to start okay, but then screen turned 50 shades of pink/gray so...may not be okay.  I turned it off and will try again tomorrow.  Thank God I still have my trusty ol' Toshiba laptop!

Veterans Day

I want to thank my father who served in WW II, my uncle who also served then and whom I never met as he died abroad, and all others who have served or are serving in the military currently for their service as that is after all what today is all about. No it is not about having the day off, which I happen to have, nor about all the Veteran's Day Sales out there, and no I didn't go shopping.  I did spend some time cleaning up my desk that I spend all my work day at and it looks de-cluttered, clean and ready for work again.

I also walked all 5 dogs again.  I was going to take my pedometer to see just how long it really is to walk 4 way down and back and the one around the block, but I think it needs a new battery.  I'm sure it is at least 3 miles.  It is a beautiful afternoon out there and there are a lot of flowers in full bloom this mid November. So since I haven't posted any pictures in a while I took the camera with me when I walked Kaci around and here they are.  If you click on each one, you can see the larger photo of each.

Glad

I asked hubby this morning if the dogs woke him up last night when they were carrying on barking while I was trying to nail that big waterbug. He was so tired from working on the animal shelter garage sale that he didn't hear a thing.  But he did make me very glad because he told me he killed it this morning.

He saw it in the kitchen on its back flailing its legs so maybe I did get it a little.  Either way, I don't have to be looking for it. That is until the next one that gets in the house.

Didn't do a whole lot today but that was fine with me. Sunday is the day of rest right?  Saw a few B movies on cable, played with the dogs a little and tried to relax.  Things at work are evolving and not sure in a good way. That can stress anyone out.  I will just hope (and pray) for the best and try to just enjoy life outside of work.   Speaking of which I have off tomorrow too - Veterans Day!  Yippee!

Bug!

OMG!  A big assed friggin roach (they call them water bugs here) is in the house!

 

Merlin just went up to it and sniffed it! I saw it then. Walking along the edge of the dining room and jumped up to get it. There is a thick piece of wood we got today at the animal shelter garage sale (a sign) and I tried to jab it (hard) with it.  I may have grazed it with one whack, but it got away. ARGH!! It went under the water cooler.

 

The dogs of course gave me crap so I'm letting it go for the night. They bark loudly and try to attack the thing I use to try to kill the bugs. Like they are their friends or something!  We already let the geckos go that we see, but these big ugly things are NOT Welcomed.

That was good?

Surprise!  Blogging before work today. I wanted to share that the local city council election was won by the opponent and not the woman I wanted to win.  Lost by 110 votes.  What surprised me was the low number of voters!  The total votes were 1282.  But word has it that was good! That was a better turn out than last time.  Seriously?  This city has over 50,000 residents. Now granted it was not a national election but still, what is more important to vote on than who is going to sit on the council for our very own little town?  The place where we pay taxes, live and attempt to thrive?  That is of the utmost importance to me.  It just floors me that less than 3 percent of the town chose to vote and with early voting available too?!  It wasn't held just one day that might not be possible or a real inconvenience to someone. There were 11 days in which to vote and several locations available as well.  I can only hope the elected council member will do right for this town. At least I know I voted and if anyone complains about the new city council they will likely be guilty of not getting off their butt and voting!  

Well today is my Friday as I have tomorrow off. Yippee!  I hope today is a nice day and goes fast! It is a chilly 39 degrees out right now. Brrrrr....Thanked my hubby for having the heat on in the main living area by the time I came down in my exercise garb this morning.  There is nothing worse than trying to warm up when your muscles are constricted from being COLD.  ;)

Off to work..

Election Day!

So I just checked the current results of our local City Council election that I voted early for last week.  It doesn't look like the candidate I voted for is going to win, but it ain't over yet.  By the time I go to bed this evening the final results should be in.  I guess I'm just a bit excited since I actually and spoke with this candidate a little and she lives in my own neighborhood. 

Early this evening hubby saw a rainbow and pointed it out to me.  It was really pretty and was nearly a full one.  It was nice to see.  I haven't seen a rainbow in quite a while.  My dad was here too for a few minutes so he got to see it too.

Had a nice visit from my youngest over the weekend but sadly by the time she got home on Sunday, she was sick with a fever.  She found out today she has strep throat.  She probably picked it up from school (she's a teacher). Hope she feel better real soon! 

I have a short work week this week as I have Friday off. This weekend is the animal shelter garage sale too that my hubby was coordinator for this time around.  It should be a great sale.  Hope they do well! 

Sunny day!

This morning I did some cleaning.  Mostly concentrated on the first floor, okay only concentrated on the fist floor.  And I didn't clean really thoroughly but it is better than it was.  Dang!  I just remembered that I did a load of laundry today that is still sitting in the washer. I hate when I do that!

I just plain forgot!  I was cleaning the living room and then did the dishes, then made a banana smoothie for breakfast, and after that I just plain forgot.  I just put it on 2nd rinse tomorrow with a cup of vinegar and it will be fine.

I walked all five dogs today, two at a time and Kaci last. My youngest walked Kaci with me as she had just arrived for a short stay (going back tomorrow). 

Since I walked a bunch today I think I burned enough calories to treat myself to a Sonic Blast, so we had dessert (mine was free due to the coupon I printed out), from Sonic.  Yum!

Yay!

I did it! I blogged every day last month!  Hope I wasn't too boring. Some days it is just tough to come up with anything interesting to write about.  Tonight I am taking a break. It is Pizza night and GRIMM.

Bring it on!!!