Keith got home on Friday, drank some beers, slept some, laid around, and then repeated it all on Saturday, with less beer because he drank most of it on Friday. He was so tired from the week on the road that Saturday was mostly spent napping. Too much excitement!
We could have gone down to Ventura and visited with everyone on Saturday since Joe asked if we wanted to come, but Keith was just feeling too tired to make the drive and wanted to study, which he didn't get done on Saturday, but did do some of yesterday. So, it is his fault that we didn't join the party and I hope everyone else had fun!
This week he is back in the classroom and will take his mid-term test which he will hopefully pass and then on to more training. Maybe he will feel a little better after he gets a chance to catch up with the other guys in his class and see that they are feeling just as overwhelmed and wondering what they got themselves into as he is. We will see.
I got rid of the huge mushrooms on Saturday when I cleaned up and mowed the yard. This really should be Keith's job but I've been doing it most weeks for a long time now. Every once in a while I tell him it's his turn because actually he does a little better job than me with the weed whacking part of it and that's the part that I really don't like, that weed whacker is a pain and it's difficult for me to get the edging done properly with it. Pulling those mushrooms out of the ground was almost vomit inducing, they are just so creepy and disgusting, and again, who first thought of eating those things, anyway?
This morning I actually had enough energy to get the house (or at least most of it) nice and clean and vacuumed and mopped and dusted except for the knick knacks which I will do tomorrow. Laundry has been started and dishes washed and now it is time for a shower because I am all hot and sweaty.
We've actually lucked out with the weather so far this month, no 100's yet and I haven't had to turn on the a/c until late morning or early afternoon. Very unusual!
Showing posts with label boring weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boring weekend. Show all posts
Monday, August 12, 2013
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
The Really Fat Bird
Our Memorial Day weekend was totally uneventful, boring actually. We didn't join the millions of people who crowded into campgrounds or on beaches or went sailing or played golf or whatever other fun things people found to do last weekend. No, ours was spent at home with me being kind of bored and Keith working on some things, but not the things that I really wanted him to work on such as the laundry closet doors.
He did fix a door, our back sliding door has been a struggle to open and close for years and years now, the wheels on the bottom were worn out and finally completely broke. For a few days we went out the front door and through the side gate to get to the back yard to feed Genie which was kind of a huge pain in the you know what. The door was also a huge pain in the you know what when it came time to take it down and fix the wheels. Keith had to grind down the metal tracks to even get the thing out and then I had to help him take the thing outside so he could get the wheels out and clean it all up and put new ones in. I don't know what double paned sliding glass doors weigh, but it must be a lot because that thing is HEAVY. The fixing of the door pretty much took up an entire day, but it is so nice to be able to just barely pull on the handle and have it slide right open.
Yesterday I was in the living room and right outside the newly easy to open sliding door was a butterball of a bird hopping around. It looked like a feathery softball with a beak and legs and I've never seen such a chubby bird before. I realized it must be a baby scrub jay, its back was starting to turn scrub jay blue and it was the size of an adult scrub jay but about ten times fatter. And so cute!
I tried to get a good picture of it as it was exploring our yard and finding the bird feeder, but couldn't get one that really showed how fat this little guy was.
I did find a professional type picture of one of these birds on the internet, great place for finding pictures when your own don't come out so well!
He did fix a door, our back sliding door has been a struggle to open and close for years and years now, the wheels on the bottom were worn out and finally completely broke. For a few days we went out the front door and through the side gate to get to the back yard to feed Genie which was kind of a huge pain in the you know what. The door was also a huge pain in the you know what when it came time to take it down and fix the wheels. Keith had to grind down the metal tracks to even get the thing out and then I had to help him take the thing outside so he could get the wheels out and clean it all up and put new ones in. I don't know what double paned sliding glass doors weigh, but it must be a lot because that thing is HEAVY. The fixing of the door pretty much took up an entire day, but it is so nice to be able to just barely pull on the handle and have it slide right open.
Yesterday I was in the living room and right outside the newly easy to open sliding door was a butterball of a bird hopping around. It looked like a feathery softball with a beak and legs and I've never seen such a chubby bird before. I realized it must be a baby scrub jay, its back was starting to turn scrub jay blue and it was the size of an adult scrub jay but about ten times fatter. And so cute!
I tried to get a good picture of it as it was exploring our yard and finding the bird feeder, but couldn't get one that really showed how fat this little guy was.
I did find a professional type picture of one of these birds on the internet, great place for finding pictures when your own don't come out so well!
Monday, November 19, 2012
Another Boring Weekend Brought To You By The Borings
We actually got a little bit of rain over the weekend and along with the rain came a little bit warmer temps, warm enough to open a few windows and get some fresh air in here. Our winter came overnight this year, like it does most years, you'll be in your shirtsleeves one day and the next you'll be pulling out all the musty smelling sweaters that have been stored in drawers since last winter.
After Keith's first weeks of unemployment where he was working on his backyard projects and keeping busy, it kind of sunk in that he is out of work and he was very lazy over the weekend and was complaining about being bored. He says if this is what retirement is like, no money to go and do anything or take a road trip, he's not sure if he ever wants to retire. That is if he is able to find a new job to retire from some day.
I picked up a couple of movies from the Red Box on Saturday, thinking that since he was already lazy we could watch one in the afternoon and then one in the evening. We watched Bernie with Jack Black in the afternoon, and what a good movie that was! Jack Black was excellent playing the part of the funeral director who then gets involved with an rich elderly widow who takes him on trips around the world even though we all suspect that he is a little light in the loafers, and then he shoots her and puts her body in the deep freezer and goes on as usual, spending her money for months and months. But, not spending it on himself, rather giving it to people in need and helping the church build a new wing. He finally gets caught when suspicions start to rise about where the old lady is, and they find her body in the deep freeze, where he has put her until he can give her a proper funeral. Sounds morbid, but the movie was very well done, kind of funny, and a great performance from the usual slapstick Jack Black.
Then we watched The Grey with Liam Neeson and all I can say is BORING! I was rooting for the wolves to just go ahead and eat everybody. Nuff said about that movie.
Last night we watched Ken Burns' The Dust Bowl on PBS, and if you have never seen one of Ken Burns' movies, get one and watch it! Every one I've ever seen has been absolutely excellent. The Dust Bowl movie is particularly compelling, what with the weird dust bowl type weather we've been having, with droughts and sand storms going through Phoenix this past summer, and the economy still being rather depressed. There are lots of interviews with people who were children during that time, and the one man who was talking about his older sister, his best friend, who died from dust pneumonia was heartbreaking. The movie gives the history of the area and the reasons that the whole ecological disaster happened. Tonight is the second part and it looks like it will go into the great migration from the area. Definitely watch this or get it on DVD from the PBS store online.
Other than that, nothing much else is going on except that we caught the last of the 3 kittens from next door and now only have one cat that is still hanging around looking for food. It's a big siamese type cat, he has been around for a few years now and used to have a cohort he hung around with but I haven't seen that one for a while now. The mama cat hasn't been seen lately so I'm hoping she has moved on to greener pastures before she has another litter of kittens. We put the trap out for the big siamese this morning, he always waits for me to go back inside after feeding Lucy and then comes up by the door looking for her leftovers. He sniffed around the trap but is a little too leery of getting inside so we may never be able to catch him.
After Keith's first weeks of unemployment where he was working on his backyard projects and keeping busy, it kind of sunk in that he is out of work and he was very lazy over the weekend and was complaining about being bored. He says if this is what retirement is like, no money to go and do anything or take a road trip, he's not sure if he ever wants to retire. That is if he is able to find a new job to retire from some day.
I picked up a couple of movies from the Red Box on Saturday, thinking that since he was already lazy we could watch one in the afternoon and then one in the evening. We watched Bernie with Jack Black in the afternoon, and what a good movie that was! Jack Black was excellent playing the part of the funeral director who then gets involved with an rich elderly widow who takes him on trips around the world even though we all suspect that he is a little light in the loafers, and then he shoots her and puts her body in the deep freezer and goes on as usual, spending her money for months and months. But, not spending it on himself, rather giving it to people in need and helping the church build a new wing. He finally gets caught when suspicions start to rise about where the old lady is, and they find her body in the deep freeze, where he has put her until he can give her a proper funeral. Sounds morbid, but the movie was very well done, kind of funny, and a great performance from the usual slapstick Jack Black.
Then we watched The Grey with Liam Neeson and all I can say is BORING! I was rooting for the wolves to just go ahead and eat everybody. Nuff said about that movie.
Last night we watched Ken Burns' The Dust Bowl on PBS, and if you have never seen one of Ken Burns' movies, get one and watch it! Every one I've ever seen has been absolutely excellent. The Dust Bowl movie is particularly compelling, what with the weird dust bowl type weather we've been having, with droughts and sand storms going through Phoenix this past summer, and the economy still being rather depressed. There are lots of interviews with people who were children during that time, and the one man who was talking about his older sister, his best friend, who died from dust pneumonia was heartbreaking. The movie gives the history of the area and the reasons that the whole ecological disaster happened. Tonight is the second part and it looks like it will go into the great migration from the area. Definitely watch this or get it on DVD from the PBS store online.
Other than that, nothing much else is going on except that we caught the last of the 3 kittens from next door and now only have one cat that is still hanging around looking for food. It's a big siamese type cat, he has been around for a few years now and used to have a cohort he hung around with but I haven't seen that one for a while now. The mama cat hasn't been seen lately so I'm hoping she has moved on to greener pastures before she has another litter of kittens. We put the trap out for the big siamese this morning, he always waits for me to go back inside after feeding Lucy and then comes up by the door looking for her leftovers. He sniffed around the trap but is a little too leery of getting inside so we may never be able to catch him.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Still Boring But There Were Cookies!
What's new around here? NOTHING!
It was too hot to do much of anything last weekend other than the usual errands and stuff. We did need to do a big grocery shop since we were out of almost everything. I'm trying to make some healthy meals and went through cookbooks and recipes that I've clipped looking for something new and exciting to eat. Keith had mentioned that he wished someone would make oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies so I searched the internet for a lower carb oatmeal cookie recipe and found one that actually came out pretty good.
Of course I needed to buy some new cookie sheets to make the cookies on because the one cookie sheet I had was cheap to begin with and very old and kind of nasty looking with stains and things stick to it and so I thought I'd start fresh with new cookie sheets. I also needed a sifter because the recipe said to sift.
I also had to buy whole wheat flour, which only comes in a big bag at Winco, so now I have a big bag of whole wheat flour, enough to make about fifty batches of these cookies. I'd make something else with it but since I'm not supposed to eat things made with flour, I guess Keith will be eating lots of oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies.
So, here is the recipe. It was kind of a pain to get the dough to all stick together, it's a little dry and took a lot of stirring to get it all mixed properly. But, they taste okay and Keith likes them and they supposedly only have less than 8 grams of net carbs in each (small) cookie.
1/2 cup sugar substitute (splenda)
1/4 cup light brown sugar or splenda brown sugar blend
1/4 cup butter at room temp.
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats (I used quick cook oatmeal since that was all Winco had in the smaller oatmeal boxes and I really didn't want a huge box of oatmeal to go with the huge bag of whole wheat flour)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips. (this recipe says to use sugar free chocolate chips but I just used regular ones since sugar free chocolate will give you stomach cramps)
Heat oven to 350.
Grease a large cookie sheet. I bought new non stick cookie sheets so no greasing necessary for me.
In medium bowl, stir together splenda and brown sugar. Add butter and mash with a fork until creamed and incorporated. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the butter-sugar mixture. Add egg, vanilla extract, rolled oats, raisins, and chips or nuts, stir until combined. This takes a long time and I was about ready to just stick my hands in there and mash everything together.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.
Makes about 2 dozen if you make them very small.
It was too hot to do much of anything last weekend other than the usual errands and stuff. We did need to do a big grocery shop since we were out of almost everything. I'm trying to make some healthy meals and went through cookbooks and recipes that I've clipped looking for something new and exciting to eat. Keith had mentioned that he wished someone would make oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies so I searched the internet for a lower carb oatmeal cookie recipe and found one that actually came out pretty good.
Of course I needed to buy some new cookie sheets to make the cookies on because the one cookie sheet I had was cheap to begin with and very old and kind of nasty looking with stains and things stick to it and so I thought I'd start fresh with new cookie sheets. I also needed a sifter because the recipe said to sift.
I also had to buy whole wheat flour, which only comes in a big bag at Winco, so now I have a big bag of whole wheat flour, enough to make about fifty batches of these cookies. I'd make something else with it but since I'm not supposed to eat things made with flour, I guess Keith will be eating lots of oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies.
So, here is the recipe. It was kind of a pain to get the dough to all stick together, it's a little dry and took a lot of stirring to get it all mixed properly. But, they taste okay and Keith likes them and they supposedly only have less than 8 grams of net carbs in each (small) cookie.
1/2 cup sugar substitute (splenda)
1/4 cup light brown sugar or splenda brown sugar blend
1/4 cup butter at room temp.
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats (I used quick cook oatmeal since that was all Winco had in the smaller oatmeal boxes and I really didn't want a huge box of oatmeal to go with the huge bag of whole wheat flour)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips. (this recipe says to use sugar free chocolate chips but I just used regular ones since sugar free chocolate will give you stomach cramps)
Heat oven to 350.
Grease a large cookie sheet. I bought new non stick cookie sheets so no greasing necessary for me.
In medium bowl, stir together splenda and brown sugar. Add butter and mash with a fork until creamed and incorporated. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the butter-sugar mixture. Add egg, vanilla extract, rolled oats, raisins, and chips or nuts, stir until combined. This takes a long time and I was about ready to just stick my hands in there and mash everything together.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.
Makes about 2 dozen if you make them very small.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
SO Bored and SO Hot
It's already 80 outside and it's not even 8 am yet. Yesterday was so very boring and so very hot. I did some housework and shopped for a few groceries yesterday morning and had nothing to do the rest of the day. I am waiting for an order of glass tiles to come in to do some soldered pendants again and of course they didn't come in the mail yesterday. Nothing came in the mail, not even junk mail. It got up to 105 in the afternoon, too hot to go anywhere and nowhere to go anyway. Not even any money to go see a movie in air conditioned comfort.
I sat on the couch and read a book most of the afternoon which made me really sleepy. Watched some boring TV, too.
Today will probably be much of the same.
It is supposed to cool off some by the middle of the week, only in the 90s instead of the 100s. We'll need to get the blankets and parkas out, ha ha.
Sigh...I hate summer.
I sat on the couch and read a book most of the afternoon which made me really sleepy. Watched some boring TV, too.
Today will probably be much of the same.
It is supposed to cool off some by the middle of the week, only in the 90s instead of the 100s. We'll need to get the blankets and parkas out, ha ha.
Sigh...I hate summer.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Nothing in Particular
Not a whole heck of a lot has been going on around here this past week. We do have summer weather already and christened the air conditioner this weekend when it got to be 85 INSIDE the house because it was 95 outside. We'd had all the windows and doors open all day because Keith is still working on the never ending floor project and that glue stinks not to mention gives you a headache if there isn't enough ventilation, and by the end of the day all the hot air from outside had taken up residence inside and dang, it was HOT in here.
Yes, the floor has turned out to be a much bigger project than either of us expected it to be. The boxes of flooring are very misleading about how 'easy' it is to lay it. Maybe if you have more than one person doing the job it might be easy, but for one person it's just too much. Keith has vowed to never ever ever lay wood flooring ever ever again.
But, it should be finished maybe by the end of next weekend, the end is in sight and there is only a few feet left to do. Believe it or not, it takes hours to just get a few feet done what with all the measuring and sawing and gluing and cussing. Sigh...
I did do some cleaning and grocery shopping this weekend but other than that just sweated because the house was so hot.
Mimi spent her afternoon yesterday on the vacuum cleaner cord. Again. I had intended to vacuum the bedroom but didn't want to disturb her nap.
She is a strange kitty. She also plays fetch with Keith. He crumples up a piece of paper and throws it and she scampers after it, picks it up, and will (most of the time) bring it back to him so he can throw it again. Very funny to watch.
Yes, the floor has turned out to be a much bigger project than either of us expected it to be. The boxes of flooring are very misleading about how 'easy' it is to lay it. Maybe if you have more than one person doing the job it might be easy, but for one person it's just too much. Keith has vowed to never ever ever lay wood flooring ever ever again.
But, it should be finished maybe by the end of next weekend, the end is in sight and there is only a few feet left to do. Believe it or not, it takes hours to just get a few feet done what with all the measuring and sawing and gluing and cussing. Sigh...
I did do some cleaning and grocery shopping this weekend but other than that just sweated because the house was so hot.
Mimi spent her afternoon yesterday on the vacuum cleaner cord. Again. I had intended to vacuum the bedroom but didn't want to disturb her nap.
She is a strange kitty. She also plays fetch with Keith. He crumples up a piece of paper and throws it and she scampers after it, picks it up, and will (most of the time) bring it back to him so he can throw it again. Very funny to watch.
Monday, September 7, 2009
We Are Boring
I'm beginning to think we are the most boring people ever. Here we are on a holiday Monday and I've cleaned the house, done some laundry, and am now (obviously) on the computer. Keith has eaten breakfast and sat on the couch and was on the computer looking at Bob and Tom stuff for a while. He'll probably be ready for a nap soon.
This whole city is boring, it's been too hot to go outside the house for the last month, and the air quality has been bad so you're not supposed to go outside anyway, and if you do risk going out, there is really nothing to do once you're out there. I really miss Ventura where if you were bored, you could always go wander around downtown or go for a bike ride by the beach or drive up to Ojai or Santa Barbara. There is nothing like that to do here. Unless you count the bike path by the river, which is nice, but there is no water in the river. What WERE we thinking when we moved here?
It is a little cooler this weekend at least, there is a nice breeze and we were able to open up the windows and doors and turn off the air conditioner. The cats get all excited when the windows are open and line up to smell all the new smells that are coming in with the breeze. I have to watch them so they don't crash through the screen like they did last year, all ending up in the front yard.
So, another weekend where I'm going to end up nagging Keith to GET SOMETHING DONE! I want to move the computer into the work room so we can have our bedroom back to being just a bedroom. He needs to go up in the attic and do something so that there is a phone line in the workroom, why there isn't one already I don't know. So, we'll see if he does that or not. And that's about it for today.
This whole city is boring, it's been too hot to go outside the house for the last month, and the air quality has been bad so you're not supposed to go outside anyway, and if you do risk going out, there is really nothing to do once you're out there. I really miss Ventura where if you were bored, you could always go wander around downtown or go for a bike ride by the beach or drive up to Ojai or Santa Barbara. There is nothing like that to do here. Unless you count the bike path by the river, which is nice, but there is no water in the river. What WERE we thinking when we moved here?
It is a little cooler this weekend at least, there is a nice breeze and we were able to open up the windows and doors and turn off the air conditioner. The cats get all excited when the windows are open and line up to smell all the new smells that are coming in with the breeze. I have to watch them so they don't crash through the screen like they did last year, all ending up in the front yard.
So, another weekend where I'm going to end up nagging Keith to GET SOMETHING DONE! I want to move the computer into the work room so we can have our bedroom back to being just a bedroom. He needs to go up in the attic and do something so that there is a phone line in the workroom, why there isn't one already I don't know. So, we'll see if he does that or not. And that's about it for today.
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