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Monday, November 26, 2012

Sigh

Walker, as we came home from the shopping district party:  Can I use the computer for a couple minutes before you get online?
Me:  Yes, but aren't you really tired?
Walker:  Yes, but I'll just be a couple minutes.
Me:  Okay, but please don't fall asleep in my chair.  If you do I'll have to wake you up and kick you out. I hate to have to do that but I really have a lot of work to do.
Walker:  I'm not going to fall asleep.  Geez!  I think I can stay awake for five minutes!  I'm not a kid, for Pete's sake!
Four minutes later......


Sunday, November 25, 2012

Ready, Set, Shop!

The local shopping district has a fun tradition for Black Friday weekend, one I knew very little about before this year.  It seems that a couple years ago, they started a little kick off celebration with food, music, and fireworks before the holiday shopping season commences.  It is colder than normal here, and the celebration is held outdoors, at night, so I probably would have skipped it, but Diva was performing, and Walker and I both had the night off work. Off we went.

The park was decorated with hundreds of colored Christmas lights, strung through the trees.  Diva's choir performed several songs, a lively Santa danced around the park shelter, local businesses passed out cookies, candy canes, hot dogs, and cocoa.  Outside, there were bonfires and s'mores.  The mayor gave a speech. The high school marching band trooped through, playing their hearts out.  Then the fireworks exploded overhead.  It was awesome.

Sometimes it seems more trouble than it's worth to don layer after layer of clothing, drive to the other end of town, and stomp around in the cold for a two hour party.  But you know, when we take the time to actually do it, we are always glad we did.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Aw, Really, Blogger? - Updated

I got an error when I tried to upload some blog photos today.  Apparently, I have used up all my free storage and can no longer upload photos unless I start paying for more space.  I'm not sure I want to do that. It's only a couple bucks a month, but, I don't know....they tell you Blogger is free then ask you to pay for your photos.  I already host ads on my page, which should generate a little revenue for Blogger. Do they really need me to pony up cash?

I have a couple options.  I looked at my online album and it had quite a few duplicate photos, which I deleted.  I also deleted the photos from the book reviews I did a long time ago.  That freed up a little space, but it won't be long before I get the error again.  Unless, of course, I just do posts without photos, but what fun would that be?

Looks like I misunderstood the problem.  Yes, my photo sharing is out of space and I will have to subscribe to a paid upgrade to keep using it.  But that is a Picasa problem, not Blogger.  And I do not have to use Picasa for my photos.  I can use Photobucket or Flickr......there are probably others, too.  Will have to look into these options.  And next time, I'll do my research before I start complaining. =)

Friday, November 23, 2012

Deck the Halls

Nephew Cubby decided to sleep over on Wednesday night, since he was on vacation from school and I had the night off work.  He packed a bag for the occasion:  

I don't even rate clean socks, LOL ~

Since I had the night off, Walker and I hosted a lasagna dinner for the family.  Before we ate, Cubby and Squeak decorated my Christmas tree.  It's a pretty sad looking Walmart clearance reject but after the boys show it some love, it's not too bad:



I'm glad the boys are still willing to do this, because I really don't care to.  We're not home in the evenings to light the tree, and with no little ones here, it's just not a priority to me.  I do like to have a tree up when someone else does the work, though.


After dinner the boys resurrected my Jib Jab account.   They had a good time making holiday greetings and posting them on Facebook.  This one is my favorite, so I'm sharing. Click Here and Enjoy!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Worried ~

Has anyone heard from Taryterre?  It's been so long since she has posted on her blogs or left a comment.  I'm hoping she's okay and just busy living it up somewhere.  TT, if you can hear me, give a shout out, please!  I miss you ~

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Experimenting


A while back, I decided that Walker and I needed to expand our horizons a bit.  Try new things.  I started with the grocery list.  Walker, who agreed with my plan in theory, was less than thrilled when he saw this in the freezer:




Still, we had them, we might as well try them, right?  The first impression was.....not great.  Just how, exactly, did they make those "grill" marks?

 

 
And why are the grill marks only on one side?  Still, we might as well cook them. 
 

 
The taste was......not great.  Not horrible, but not something Walker would embrace.  So I cooked up the other two patties, chopped them up, and made them into this:
 
 
 
Mmmmmmmmmmmm, lasagna!  After work that night, because I had open packages of chocolate in the pantry, I made a special treat for Walker.
 
 


Sweets for my sweetie.  The next morning, I found a pile of stems on the kitchen counter and three strawberries left on the mat in the fridge.  Looks like he liked them! 
 

Monday, November 12, 2012

Puppy Sitting

We're taking care of my puppy nieces, and my sister asked us to drop them at the doggie salon. I think they may have done a switcheroo. Take a look:
Walker took this dog to the groomer.....

An hour later, she gave this dog back to him.
 
Then Walker gave this dog to the groomer.....

And received this dog in return.  Walker says they are the same dogs but I'm not convinced.  They sure are full of energy now without all that fur to carry around ~

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Ahhhhhhhh, the Weekend ~

Y'all, I am so messed up I do not know if I am coming or going.  My hours are all over the place and my sleep schedule is all out of whack.  I ended up with 12 1/2 hours of overtime last week.   We'll be having a good time at Holidazzle for sure.  I made all the hotel reservations - four rooms, all different - then Diva and I went shopping at the party store.  I told the clerk, "We need things that light up or glow in the dark.  What aisle, please?" and she looked at me like I was speaking Greek.  I know they sell stuff like that, so I found someone who looked like he was in charge and asked him.  Yep, they have a full rack of light up stuff.  We had fun looking at everything.  We spent a small pile of cash on glow necklaces, flashing light pins, sparkly head bands, and of course, extra batteries.  We like to out shine all the bright lights at the Holidazzle. 

 
We celebrated Veteran's Day at a fundraiser breakfast hosted by the VFW, one of the few things that gets me out of bed at 6:30 am.  Those breakfasts draw quite the crowd, so we always go early.  When we got home, Diva and I worked some puffy crepe paper thingies she picked out at the party store.  When we get them done, we'll hang them from her ceiling.  Right now, they need a little more work. They have about a thousand layers of crepe paper than need to be separated very, very gently.  It's not as easy as it sounds, but we're making progress.


This kid LOVES funky socks ~

 
Before Diva's daddy came to pick her up, I was helping her get her things together when I noticed this:
 
 
What's the deal with the shoes, right?  Well, the shoes on the left are Diva's.  The shoes on the right are mine.  THEY ARE THE SAME SIZE!  Now, I know the kid is supposed to grow but dang!  She is only ten years old.  Where did my baby go?  

Friday, November 9, 2012

TGIF

Peeps, I'm almost ready to wave my white flag.  I've been working A LOT of overtime, which is a mixed blessing.  I have to go in three hours early again today, and will likely work late as well.  We're planning our annual Holidazzle weekend, and with some extra cash in the pot, we're going to have a really good time.  And it's FRIDAY!!  If I get through tonight without having a meltdown I get two whole days off.  In a ROW!!!

I'm still sick, but doing better.  I got my PC back from HP, finally, but have not had time to set it up.  I get home from work, eat a bowl of Cheerios, check my email, do one household chore, and go to bed.  I'm hoping to get caught up  on the weekend.  How many times have I said that?

I'd like to submit this entry in a "world's most boring post" contest, so give me a holla if you hear of one, LOL!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Still Here!

After a whole lotta run around, HP had me mail my PC in to their repair place.  I'm still waiting to get it back.  At first, they said they would send a tech to my house, but then they said they will only give the tech one replacement part, so if they guess incorrectly what the problem is, the tech won't be able to fix it.  I have never heard of something to dumb.  Where I work, we send our repair techs out with a kit full of parts, supplies, and tools.  You know, so they can do their job.  Anyway:  It's just me and the Dell, which does not have a photo card reader built in, so I can't show you anything fun and exciting from my world today.

Not that there has been too much excitement going on.  I'm still sick, Peeps.  (Insert sad smiley here).  I had the follow up appointment for my mammogram, and the doctor told me the girls are fine, but she was concerned about my lungs.  She gave me some new antibiotics and made me promise to come back as soon as they are gone, if my bronchitis - or whatever it is - isn't completely gone.  I'm tired of being, literally, sick and tired.  I like to stay busy but I burn out pretty easily these days.

With the antibiotics upsetting my stomach, I haven't been eating much.  I keep thinking my jeans should be getting loose by now, but that has not been the case.  There should be a rule:  if you don't feel well for weeks at a time, you should at least be guaranteed a couple pounds dropped.

Miss Diva had a fundraiser for her school.  She had to sell homemade apple pies.  We weren't sure, with the drought, that the pie sale would go on this year, but we were told that Minnesota orchards did not suffer as much as other parts of the country.

The pie sale was a pretty cool set up:  the teachers gave the kids order forms and sent them into the world.  I told Diva to come down to our neighborhood, since her school is on the other end of town.  I figured there would be too much competition in her own neighborhood.  So her daddy brought her over and she went door to door, with Walker and I trailing behind.  She wanted to sell ten pies.  She sold sixty five.  Oh, yeah, baby!  She was number three for the whole group.  The top seller had seventy.

So after the order period was up, the teachers ordered all the food and had it shipped to a culinary school here in town.  The culinary students made up the crust, then the parents and kids each took a three hour shift making pies.  They had to make 1300 total, and everyone had an assignment.  Diva's job was to take the pie pans lined with bottom crust to the corn flake table.  Not sure what they did with the corn flakes....anyway....my mom was assigned rolling the crusts, which is her least favorite part of making pie.  Her partner didn't mind the rolling, but she had a hard time making balls out of the chilled dough.  So they worked out a system where my mom make the dough balls and the other gramma rolled.  Worked pretty slick.  My sister in law also volunteered.  Their shift completed four hundred pies.  When they finished, Walker and I stepped in with boxes and my SUV and we loaded up Diva and her pies.  Armed with a clipboard and my pre-determined delivery route, we made the rounds.  We were kind of under the gun -  all the pies had to be delivered or frozen that day, since they are unbaked.  I am happy to report, we made it happen.  When we were done, we went home and baked a pie of our own.  I'm sure I'm biased but that was one great tasting pie.  My mom came over in her jammies to try a slice.  It was just that good.