Kim's Thoughts
Just a few thoughts I feel worthy of jotting down!
The weekend is over…
What seemed like a nice long holiday weekend flew by with barely a blink! The goal for this weekend was to get the holiday decorations up – at least the outside and hopefully the inside, too! I fell short….. Here’s what happened:
Friday was the perfect day to do it — warm, sunny, pretty day! I thought about getting started several times, but gave in to the temptation to just have a day of relaxation, instead! I puttered around the house, played with the girls, and met some friends for dinner……no decorating!
Saturday, it rained – I went out in the garage to check the lights to see what worked and what needed to be replaced. I made a list and headed out to shop! I had lunch at Cafe 121, got a mani/pedi, popped in Bath and Body Works and picked up a few Christmas gifts, and went to Wal-Mart to get the replacement decorations I needed. By the time I got home, it was just about dark and I was pooped out! So no decorating on Saturday, either!
Today, Sunday, was nasty — rained steady and pretty hard all day — it rained so much I had rivers running through my yard!! The girls were frustrated that I wouldn’t let them stay out to play and when they did get to go out to do their business, they came in all wet and that made ME frustrated! I tried to go to the Dairy Bar for breakfast about 10:00 or so, but they were packed, so I went to Food Lion and got some eggs, bacon, and bread and fixed myself a nice breakfast! About 2:00 or so, the rain let up and I took advantage of the opportunity to put up the outside decorations — I got about 1/2 done and it started to rain, again! So – the decorations are up on and around the porch, but not across the rest of the front of the house – but that’s OK – it looks fine that way and I can always add to it later, if I want and if not, it is fine the way it is!
After dark, I went out to check the lights and see if everything was nice and even (hard to tell until you see them all lit up) and 1/2 of the netting lights on the big bush by the porch don’t work — it is a brand new set! I can’t win — I’ll fix them one evening this week! The rest look good!
DINNER:
This morning, I put a chuck roast in the crock pot with some potatoes, carrots, and onions. It cooked all day. Then just before dinner, I decided to make a soup/stew out of it. So, I pulled the roast all apart (it was so easy – it fell all to pieces when I touched it) and added some seasonings, a little flour to pull the juices together, and some gravy master to color it. Then, I let it cook just a little longer to thicken up a little – not real thick like stew, but thicker than soup. While it was thickening up, I baked some yeast rolls to go with it. When it was all done, I had a big bowl and a couple yeast rolls — OMG — it was soooooooooooo good!!! And it really hit the spot, too — I was chilled from being out in the damp air and drizzled on while putting up decorations and it warmed me up nicely!
So — I did get a few decorations up, but not all and none inside!! And now the weekend is over and I have to return to work tomorrow…..
The Never Ending Game
I’ve said before that Megan is the “toy” girl…Katie and Amy – not so much! Oh, they occasionally show an interest in toys when Megan and I are playing with one, but it is more the attention that they want to get in on than the actual toys.
Megan has had (does have) a ton of different kinds of toys and shows ALL of them at least a little interest each week. She’ll latch onto one or two as her temporary favorites to carry around, show off, and squeak for several days or a week. But, her all time favorite, by far, is one particular type of ball that I get from Petsmart.
She has several different colors and loves them all, but the most recently added one is always her favorite until a new one is added! She will still play with all the others, but the “newest” is always the one she makes a point to play with everyday, takes to bed with her, looks for as soon as she comes in from being outside, and uses for the “Never Ending Game”! Right now that favorite one is a medium sized yellow one. Note that the card on the photo says “Durables” – you wouldn’t think they would be because they are kinda soft and Megan will eat and tear apart everything she sees, but they are!!! She has some she has had for a year or more and they are still intact and still squeak!
So what is the “Never Ending Game”? It is more commonly known as “Throw The Ball, Mommie”! No matter what I am doing, if she wants to play, there is no getting out of it! I have been in the shower and she’s had her nose pressed up against the shower door squeaking that dang ball!!! The way it is played is this — she starts with the teaser fade out – she goes and gets the ball and tosses it around once or twice by herself and then starts to squeak it – all the time looking over at me like she’s trying not to let me know she’s looking at me……then, she brings the ball over and squeaks it at my feet, but when I reach for it to throw it for her, she’ll nonchalantly arch her head and step back a step or two so I can’t get it….then, after three or four fade outs, she let’s me grab it, but won’t let go! She goes into tug of war mode! I say “you give me that ball, you little teaser, you” and she wiggles and dances around and finally “let’s” me have it! I’ll pretend for a few seconds like I’m going to just keep it and that it is “my ball now” while she nervously paces and lunges at me to try to get it back from me! Then, I toss it across the room — she chases after it and brings it right back to squeak it at me and lay it in my lap to wait for me to toss it again! This goes on and on and on and on and on….until SHE gets tired of it (and believe me, for this game, she has a LONG attention span and doesn’t tire of it easily)!!! If she catches up to it about the middle of the living room, she’ll grab it and chase it around a little, but if it looks to her like she won’t get it before it gets to the other end of the room, she’ll stop and watch where it goes and is very careful to not run into the entertainment center or other pieces of furniture!
So, I’m sure you’re wondering what Katie and Amy are doing all this time – surely, they don’t let her monopolize my time without getting equal attention – even though they aren’t into the whole toy, ball throwing thing! You’re right – they don’t! Although, sometimes they do just curl up and take a nap while Megan goes nuts with the ball and that is that! But usually, they get their attention between throws! They tend to sit on each side of me and as soon as I throw the ball and Megan goes after it, we cuddle and play “I’m gonna get your nose” or one of their other favorite games, then they let me toss the ball for Megan again and we resume our games while Megan is off getting the ball – each taking their “turn”…….it is a daily ritual that can’t be skipped and some days it is played MULTIPLE times!!! (please someone rescue me….ha-ha-ha – just kidding! I love it!)
Black Friday
Today is Black Friday! I often wondered why they call it that…afterall, doesn’t black usually denote something bad? Isn’t a day that tends to be the busiest shopping day of the year a GOOD thing? It means people are out in force spending money and stimulating the economy (something we need and highly encourage)! The other “black” day is the extreme opposite – Black Monday, which marks the day in 1987 when stock markets around the world crashed! I would think that the day after Thanksgiving – a day marking the unofficial start of the holiday season – a day when people crowd the stores looking for Christmas gifts at bargain prices – would be called something so different that it wouldn’t create any confusion what-so-ever! Maybe the use of a cheerier color, like “Yellow Friday”. Maybe forget the colors and find a more upbeat word, like “Prosperous Friday”. Or just be silly with it and call it “Let’s all go shopping Friday”!
So, my curiosity about the name Black Friday finally got the best of me and I googled it to see if I could find out a reason behind the use of the name. I found there is a Wikipedia page for it (don’t you just love Wikipedia?) and discovered that there IS a very logical reason for the name.
According to Wikipedia, “the term “Black Friday” originated in Philadelphia in reference to the heavy traffic on that day. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit).”
So – there you go – in case you, too, were wondering!
For more interesting information on Black Friday and Black Monday, go to their Wikipedia pages:
So – will I be out there Christmas shopping today? Hhhmmm – not sure! I’m not a big fan of crowed stores and fighting some little old lady over the last widget I have my eyes on for a special family member or friend! There isn’t much that motivates me to get up at 3:00 or 4:00 am – definitely not to go shopping! But, I do have some errands to run and am trying to decide if I want to venture out to do them today or wait until tomorrow. It is such a gorgeous day today and looks like it will be the warmest of the weekend, so I want to spend time this afternoon doing my outdoor Christmas decorations and I have a lot to do around the house. So, we’ll see…
Thanksgiving Dinner and Four Christmases
I didn’t cook today — nothing — not even a morsel……which means I also didn’t have all the mess to clean up! So, why didn’t I cook? I ALWAYS cook a huge meal to feed a crowd — even last year when I scaled it way down from normal, I still cooked!!! This year, I had a few good options to choose from that would keep me out of the kitchen and finally decided to meet a new friend at Cafe 121 for dinner and then go see a movie. I had a GREAT time! The food was, of course, fabulous and I enjoyed the company and conversation over dinner!
Cafe 121, obviously, was open for dinner today and Chef Hamm out-did himself! He put on a Traditional Hamm Family Dinner and it was incredible! He had turkey, ham, and fried chicken breast with a long list of “trimmings”. We couldn’t decide between turkey or ham and what sides to select, so we just asked for a little of everything! ha-ha Chef Hamm fixed us up a plate with a sampling of the works and everything was GREAT! We topped it off with a big cup of hot cinnamon apple cider with caramel and a piece of pie. When we finished, we waddled to our cars and went on our separate ways to finish off the day.
After dinner, I decided to go see Four Christmases at Spring Lane Cinemas. The previews looked very funny and it had a power cast – Reece Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Jon Voigt, Tim McGraw, and Dwight Yoakum. The critics have been slamming it, but you know my opinion of critics – they never like what I like and vice versa! This is a story of an unmarried couple (Reece and Vince) who go out of their way to avoid their disfunctional families during the holidays. When they are interviewed in the airport because all the outbound flights were canceled due to fog, their families start to call expecting them to come for Christmas, since they’ll be in town afterall! Both sets of parents are divorced and don’t speak to each other, hence the need to attend “Four” Christmases! We follow them through the rest of the day full of funny situations and awkward family confrontations! It is a fun story and a good time! Some of the comedy fell a little flat with me – it was funny, but didn’t really make me laugh out loud. But overall it was a cute movie and I found it to be entertaining. Favorite line: When asked by a friend if he lied to his parents about Christmas, Vince Vaughn’s character responded with, “Of course I do! You can’t spell ‘families’ without ‘lies’, think about it!” I give this one a B+…..generally good and entertaining, but with some lame comedy filtered through.
What else did I do to make today special? I spent the morning playing with the girls and watching the beginning of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade before I had to leave for our 11:00 dinner reservation. I set the recorder to get the rest of the parade and the National Dog Show that was on immediately after the parade. I left the TV on while I was gone so that the girls could watch the dog show! ha-ha After dinner and the movie, I came home and cuddled up with the girls for a nap – absolutely necessary after all Chef Hamm’s great food I ate! I watched part of the great Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street, I just got done watching Legally Blonde, which made for a Reece Witherspoon double header for the day, and am now going to watch Christmas With The Kranks! What a day – what a lovely Thanksgiving – what a great kick off of the holiday season – and there are still three days left to the long weekend!
Thomas’ English Muffins
What an odd food item this is… They pull apart easily and the inside is full of holes… I’m not clear why they call them “muffins” — a muffin, from all I have ever known, is a cupcake like breakfast item with nuts or fruit mixed in it! Odd food, for sure!
My Mom used to buy these quite often when we were growing up and I really liked them – I’d toast them nice and golden brown so they were real crispy and then top them with lots of butter and peanut butter to melt into all those cool nooks and crannies…yum! Then, at some point – I’m not exactly sure when or why – I suddenly thought of them as cardboard circles and decided I didn’t like them, afterall. So, I haven’t had them or even thought much about them in years!
I recently moved my office from the off site training center into our new admin building, which has a great full service cafeteria! So, I have gotten into the unfortunate habit of grabbing something to munch on every morning when I get in to work. This is odd for me because I am not a breakfast person – at least not that early in the morning! I typically don’t want anything to do with food until at least mid-morning (except, for some odd reason, when I’m traveling)! I have a point and it does relate to Thomas’ English Muffins – I promise…I get to it right now…
Anyway – in the cafeteria, they have a section in the middle that is a salad and soup bar at lunch time and a bread, pastry, and fruit bar at breakfast time! One of the items they have is Thomas’ English Muffins! I noticed them every time I went in, but didn’t give them much thought – at first. Then, I started thinking about how much I used to like them. So, one day, I got one, toasted it the way I like it, and got butter and peanut butter to put on it! And it was good! So, now, every morning I get my bottle of V8, spike it with pepper, and get some little treat to go with it — a couple times a week, that treat is a Thomas’ English Muffin with butter and peanut butter…
Thanksgiving Dinner – ala Charlie Chaplin
Here is a wonderful classic! Thanksgiving dinner alternative as only Charlie Chaplin can offer!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
No Surprises…
Nope – no surprises! Brooke whet home with the DWTS trophy for Season 7! No upsets! The order of how they finished was even predictable!
I need to back slide a tad, though, on my “no surprises” comment — I was surprised that there was NO recap of last night’s show! Uugghh! I snoozed through last night’s show and didn’t get to see the final dances – including my favorite dances of each season – the free style dances! Oh well….
This has been my least favorite season ever — too predictable, not enough anticipation to keep me from snoozing through most of the episodes — I never really got into one or more that I felt like rallying behind and go into “super rooting” mode for! I definitely enjoyed the dances and everyone did well, but there was no real excitement for me! I wonder if it is losing the oomph it used to have for me!
Holiday Recipes
Here are some of my favorite holiday recipes:
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Double Layer Pumpkin Pie
One 3oz package of cream cheese
1 cup plus 1 Tbsp cold milk
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cups cool whip
1 graham cracker pie crust
Two 4 serving size packages vanilla instant pudding
One 16 oz can pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
Mix cream cheese, 1 Tbsp milk and sugar until smooth.
Stir in cool whip
Spread on bottom of crust
Pour 1 cup milk into bowl
Add pudding
Beat until blended
Let stand 3 minutes
Stir in pumpkin and spices – mix well
Spread over cream cheese / cool whip mixture
Refrigerate at least 2 hours
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Zucchini Bread
3 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups peeled and grated zucchini
1 cup oil
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp cinnamon
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup raisins
Mix all together until blended well
Pour into two (2) loaf pans – fill 1/2 full
Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean
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Pumpkin Bread
2/3 cup shortening
2 2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
One 16 oz can pumpkin
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup raisins
Mix all together until blended well
Pour into two (2) loaf pans – fill 1/2 full
Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean
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This one is more for Christmas and I posted it last year, but thought it was worth including:
Egg Nog
6 eggs separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 quart whole milk
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 pint heavy whipping cream – whipped
Beat egg whites until stiff
Gradually add sugar
Beat and set aside
Beat egg yolks until thick
Fold into egg white mixture
Stir in milk and vanilla
Fold in whipped cream
Chill and serve
Optional additions:
Cinnamon and/or nutmeg – either add to mixture or sprinkle on each serving
Dollop of cool whip on each serving
Rum to taste
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!
Lovely Day For a Parade!
It was a lovely day for a parade! The Sanford Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the Sanford Christmas Parade this afternoon at 2:30. I was concerned that it might be a bit nippy, as it has been most of the week, but it wasn’t – it was actually quite pleasant! My only regret was that I didn’t take into consideration that I might not be sitting in the sun and left my jacket at home. My sweater was enough and I wasn’t “cold”, but it was a little chilly and the jacket or maybe just a scarf and gloves would have made it just a tad more comfortable! I arrived a little before 2:00 and picked a perfect spot right on the corner of Steele and Carthage – across from the TV cameras and judges table, so the entries all paused and performed right where I was sitting!
All the entries looked great — there was everything from marching bands to professional floats to cars to home made floats! I took several pictures and they all came out good! Here are a few that I thought came out especially good – not necessarily my favorite entries cause they were all so good! Click on the image to get a bigger view, if you need to!
The Southern Lee HS ROTC:
The Knights of Columbus Bag Pipe Band and Color Guard:
Smith Realty — how cute — leave it to Elizabeth to come up with something clever!
One of the five HS marching bands – I think this one was from North Durham!
Southern Lee HS Marching Band
One of the many professional floats – this one is Lee County YMCA
And what is a NC parade without a Tar Heels entry – this one full of fans, Santa in a Tar Heel football outfit, and a Carolina Blue Christmas Tree with a Ram topper!
Jammin’ out the Christmas tunes for the parade viewers…
Noah’s Arc…right here in Sanford!
Lee County HS Marching Band and Color Guard
And the grand finale — Santa riding in on Old Betsy!
I took the next two photos on my way home – I drove past Depot Park and noticed the red bows and kids playing on the train and families starting to gather for the evening’s festivities of lighting the Depot Park Christmas Tree. I didn’t make it back to attend the event, but know it must have been a huge success!
Watch out for falling prices
Nope – I am not referring to Wal-Mart and their catch phrase! I am referring to the gas prices! They are dropping like bricks all over town! I was thrilled to see them approaching $2.00 and BAM they were under $2.00! My tank was full of little more than fumes on Thursday, so I popped in at Kelly’s full service station on 15/501 on the way home from work — they had it for $1.98 and it only took $28.00 to fill the tank!!! Today, I noticed most station were at about $1.94!
Other thoughts:
A favorite cold day treat for me is grilled peanut butter sandwiches with chicken noodle soup! I really enjoy grilling a thick layer of peanut butter between two slices of fresh bread – the peanut butter melts out and the combination of the sticky PB and fresh bread makes the broth in the chicken noodle soup so special…I like to dunk the sandwich in the broth. YUM!!! That is what I decided to have for dinner tonight and it really hit the spot!!!
Check out the new pages I added to my blog – click either the tabs across the top or the links to the right.
Where are all my fellow bloggers — I miss having several different interesting or fun things to read every day! Come out, come out, wherever you are…. I’ve been guilty of “blog slow down” myself!
Remember the Sanford Christmas Parade this Sunday – tomorrow! It starts at 2:30 – click here for the route and more info. Then, at 5:00, join the Christmas Tree Lighting event at Depot Park for food, music, and mingling with your neighbors – click here for more info.
A few weeks ago, I had a pedicure and made the very serious mistake of not speaking up and refusing to allow the technician to use one of those razor things to shave the dead skin off my heels. It is actually illegal to use them and I know that! I was concerned when I saw he was going use one, but thought about how rough my heels were and thought that it would probably be OK, so I didn’t say anything. Well — ever since then, my heels have been super sore – they ache and burn – and they are rougher now than they were before he shaved them! I won’t mention the salon cause I don’t like bashing local businesses on here. But, I will say that I won’t ever go there again! The first time I went, I was very impressed – I got a girl that did a GREAT job! The second time I went, I was happy to get the same girl. But, just after she got started, a couple came in that were obvious regulars – everyone perked up, called them by name, and acknowledged them. All the technicians were working on other customers, so the manager reassigned the girl that was doing my pedicure to them and I sat there for quite a while waiting for someone else to get freed up to finish – it was the guy who used the shaver! This was NOT the way to impress new customers!!!
Oh – My Cousin Vinny just came on A&E — gonna go watch it — one of the best comedies, ever!!!
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