Kim's Thoughts
Just a few thoughts I feel worthy of jotting down!
Dinner and Dancing and Stars
Tonight was a night of Dinner and Dancing and Stars…but it wasn’t as romantic as it sounds – and the “stars” aren’t what you might think!
DINNER:
When I was in school, my two favorite cafeteria lunches were sloppy joe and hamburg gravy over mashed potatoes. To this day, I still really like them both. I rarely think about sloppy joe – hhmm – now that I have thought about it, maybe I need to go get some ingredients and make myself some! But every now and then, I get a real craving for good ole hamburg gravy over mashed potatoes! I thought about it all day today and just HAD to have some! So – on the way home tonight, I stopped by Food Lion and picked up some hamburger and potatoes. Then, I came home and made an absolutely delicious pan of hamburg gravy and some wonderful mashed potatoes!!! I jazz up my version — the recipe they used in school was just hamburger browned in a pan and added to a rich brown gravy and poured them over regular mashed potatoes. That was delicous – after all, it did make my top two favorite school cafeteria menu items! But – I take it to a new level — I season up the hamburger with garlic powder, pepper, chopped onions, and a little worstershire sauce. Then I make a thick brown gravy and add frozen peas, corn, and carrots to the pot. I let that all simmer to get the flavors really blended nicely. The mashed potatoes I use have garlic and a swirl of yellow mustard to give them a little oomph! It really turned out good – lots of flavor – and there’s enough left for tomorrow night, too!
DANCING:
Of course, I’m talking about Dancing With The Stars! I do believe this will be Cloris’ last week on the show — I know, I’ve said that almost every week since week 3, but I really think she’s run her course. She is taking the competition more seriously and doing much better, but she still just isn’t up to the level of ability that any contestant should be now that they are 1/2 way through the season. It isn’t her fault — she’s really trying — but, she’s 82 years old and just isn’t as flexible and nimble as the younger contestants are. He put her into a spin where he held one arm and one leg and swirled her around and let her down to the floor and I held my breath hoping she didn’t break a hip!!! What a risk at her age!
Lance Bass took over the lead from Brooke – she had an injured ankle and was a little too cautious when she danced to the point where she looked stiff and in pain. So, she didn’t do as well tonight as she has been. But, I’m sure she’ll be right back at the top as soon as she is better!
Susan Lucci is still holding her own, but she probably won’t make it past another week or two – she’s good, but not the caliber as some of the others. She’d have a lot more potential if she would just let loose and have fun with it – she’s too guarded and it shows.
And what’s with all the injuries and issues this season??? Every season has it’s share of drama, but man — Jeff Ross got a finger poked in his eye the first week, Susan Lucci and Brooke Burke both injured their ankles, Misty May-Treanor had to leave the competition early because she blew her achilles tendon out, and now Juliane Hough needs to go into surgery tomorrow to have her appendix removed! It seems to me like there was another injury, too, but can’t remember!
STARS:
I saw stars in my living room tonight — not just the ones on Dancing With The Stars — I also saw the kind you see when you hit a brick wall… Amy was sitting beside me and my arm was around her and we were watching TV. Well, I guess that wasn’t good enough for her, she tried her best to get closer and in doing so, she whacked her head on the bridge of my nose — HARD!!!! It brought tears to my eyes, I saw stars, and my nose started bleeding!!! She did a good job!!! I barely stopped feeling strange from when Megan and I collided on the 30th of Sept and now this!!! If they keep it up, I’ll end up with a nose like a prize fighter!
TiVo or DVR from Cable Co???
I put off going to digital cable for a very long time (just broke down and switched last year) — I wanted to stick with regular cable as long as they would support it because of the easy ability to tape things! Before I got the cable box, I could tape one show and watch another or set it up to tape a wide range of channels while I was away or several other options! Now that I have a cable box, I have to have the TV powered on and tuned to the channel I want to record! That is why I pretty much stopped tapping All My Children while I’m at work cause I got sick of needing to run the TV all day to get one hour’s worth of programming! So, I watch it on SoapNet in the evening – IF nothing else is on that I want to watch at that time – cause I can’t watch one thing and tape another!!!! Uugghh!!! I thought we were more advanced in technology than that!!!
So, I’ve been looking into TiVo and DVR from the cable company!! BUT – it really, really, really irks me that now, in order to get the ability to tape while the TV is off and tape one show while watching another, I have to PAY for either a TiVo unit PLUS a subscription OR pay monthly rental on a DVR machine from my cable company (instead of just using the cheapo VCR and same tape I have used for years)!!! I already pay a monthly rental on the cable box and the digital cable costs a LOT more than the regular cable used to cost me! I’ll likely just leave things as they are — TV isn’t that important to me over all, but every once in a while, I get really irritated about not being able to easily tape something I want to see and can’t, for whatever reason……
Just in case I get more serious about it — any words of wisdom out there on either option????
Revolution
My car radio is almost always set to local Sanford station WFJA – 105.5 – because I love listening to classic rock and oldies and I find it is best when it is played LOUDLY and when I sing along with passion and conviction!!!! There, I’ve said it…..if you’ve seen me driving around town with the radio blarring, bee-bopping, and looking like I’m talking to an imaginary friend – it is really just that I am totally zoned into a song that reaches out of the speakers and grabs onto me and I don’t care if someone thinks I’m nuts!!!
Over the past few weeks with all the economic turmoil, heated political debates (locally and nationally), and talk of the need for radical changes in almost every aspect of our lives, I have found the Beatles song “Revolution” popping into my head a lot! Well, I was really excited the other day when I was headed up Hawkins Avenue and that wonderfully distinct intro started to play!!!! I cranked the radio up and went to town with it!!! I thought maybe it would be a good song to share on here, so I found a You Tube video of the Beatles doing one of their biggest hits — here you go:
Smarty Pants and Cutie Pie
No – not me….. 😉 Megan and Amy!!!! They really put on the charm and made themselves irresistible this morning – yeah, I know, they ALWAYS put on the charm and make themselves irresistible, but this morning was over the top!!!
The story of Miss Smarty Pants (Megan): While the girls were outside doing their business this morning, I went into the bedroom to get ready for work and noticed Megan’s favorite yellow ball in the blankets. I thought I should probably put it in the living room so that she doesn’t leave it in there and not have it to play with during the day (I shut the bedroom door if I’m not home so they can’t go in there and tear up the pillows and whatever else they decide to tear up)! So – I put the ball on the throw rug in the living room where I was sure she would see it right away! Just after that, I let them all back in. Megan made a bee line for the bedroom and I followed her in there to finish getting ready for work. When she got to the bedroom, she immediately started searching all over the bed, nosing the blankets and pillows all over and off the bed, and then searched all over on the floor around and under the bed — duh — dummy me — she knew exactly where she left that ball and was very upset that it wasn’t still there!!! I had a tough time getting her to give up and follow me to the living room so I could show her where I put it!!! Once she found it, she took it back to the bed and put it back on the blankets just where I had found it before I moved it!!!! Smarty Pants!!!!
Then, Miss Cutie Pie (Amy) decided she was cold or something — don’t know for sure…. I had left the bedroom for a bit and when I came back, she had rolled herself up in the blankets like a cocoon!! She often scooches herself up under the blankets so that she’s all covered up, but this was different — and oh, so cute!!! She literally rolled herself up in the blankets so that she was tightly wrapped in it like an egg roll or a cocoon or something — a nice tight roll with just her head and one arm sticking out!!!! She was just laying there looking around and when I came in she started to wiggle and groan with excitement and pride for what she had accomplished!! I couldn’t resist — I had to go snuggle up with her and hug her — she thought she was so cute — and she was — little Miss Cutie Pie!!!
Dancin’ Update
Well, surprise, surprise — for the second week in a row, Cloris Leachman took the competition seriously and actually did a really good job with her dance – and she behaved herself!!! There’s hope for her, yet!
She’s still at the bottom of the leader board based on judges scores, though. She’s tied with Lance Bass, who, in my opinion, had the worst performance. I agree with the judges that it was all his partner and no focus on him – I think it was Bruno who said “this is Dancing WITH the Stars, not Dancing AROUND the Stars”! He was just “there” and didn’t seem to participate in his dance hardly at all…..
So – it’ll be a toss up who gets the viewer votes tonight and who goes home tomorrow. I’m thinking Lance…. But, my predictions have been off every week except for week one……..so don’t put your money on my advice!!
On the high side — the two Jitterbugs were GREAT!!! Definitely worthy of the high scores given by the judges!
Surprise!
When I pulled up my street and into my driveway, I was welcomed by a lovely surprise! Chris Harrington and his crew from Harrington’s Lawn Care and Landscaping were here today while I was at work! There has been some things we talked about doing after I moved the fence line, but he was waiting to do it all at the same time he does the usual fall treatments. So – today they aerated, fertilized, and over-seeded the lawn with winter rye grass, planted pansies at the mailbox, around the trees in the front yard, and to accent the walkway to the front porch, trimmed all the shrubs, put in a new flower bed along the side of the garage where I moved my fence line back and left a spot that just “needed something”, extended scalloped brick edging where needed after the fence line moved, planted some new bushes around to fill in where needed, and freshened up the red mulch where needed! Everything looks so neat and pretty!!! What a lovely surprise!!!
Two Movie Reviews and Weekend Update
I had a very busy weekend…yesterday was the fullest day! I did some things around the house in the morning, went to Myra’s for breakfast, went to Southern Jewelers to redeem the gift certificates I got in the Jewelry Raffle at the Gala (I picked out a really pretty tri-gold bracelet for myself), tried to go to the ARTober Fest at Depot Park, but couldn’t find a place to park so decided to try later, went to the movies to see “The Secret Life of Bees” (more on that in the Movie Review section), went back to Depot Park and wandered around the ARTober Fest for a little bit (more on that later), went to Walgreens to pick up a few things, picked up an Ultimate BLT sandwich from Arby’s, and came home to crash! WHEW! Today wasn’t as full, but I still did a lot – I met some friends at the Dairy Bar for breakfast, came home and lounged around watching TV, went to the matinee showing of “W” (more on that in the Movie Review section), tried to get a manicure/pedicure at “Queen Nails” in WalMart Plaza, but they were closed (it was 4:30 and the sign said they are open until 6:00 on Sundays…hhmm), had dinner at the Dairy Bar, and came back home!
ARTober Fest — I really enjoyed wandering down Carthage Street seeing all the stands! We have some really talented artists in Sanford (no surprise, I several pieces of local art in my home). I stopped at Amy Burns’ booth and talked to her for a little bit – and bought some toffee – YUM! There were several other items I gave serious thought to getting, but the one that reached out and grabbed me was a set of Sanford Christmas Ornaments — 3 pieces — 1 of the Railroad House Museum, 1 of the Chamber bldg, and 1 of the old train at Depot Park — all made by Sanford artist Karen Walker (visit Karen’s web site). Here is a picture I took of the ornaments (you can also see a much better shot of them on her web site):
As I mentioned, I saw two movies at Spring Lane Cinemas this weekend. Here are my reviews:
“The Secret Life of Bees” stars Queen Latifa, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, and Dakota Fanning. It is set in 1960s South Carolina – right at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Dakota Fanning plays Lily, a 14 year old girl who runs away from an abusive father in search of information about the mother she accidentally shot and killed when she was 4 years old. Her nanny, Jennifer Hudson, runs with her after she is severely beaten for attempting to register to vote under the newly enacted Civil Rights Amendment allowing coloreds to vote. Their search takes them to a small town and a family of sisters (Queen Latifa, Alicia Keys, and Sophie Okonedo) who make a living by working with bees to make the best honey in the south. The sisters take them in and allow them to stay in their “honey house” while they work off their keep. The presence of a young white girl in a family of black women and the young man who works with them brings controversy and trouble. Through it all, love and friendships blossom and Lily learns about her mother and the strength that the sisters pass on to her. It is a warm and sometimes heart wrenching story that touched me deeply. I am very glad I went to see this movie and give it a solid A+++!!! I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys having their heart strings tugged! The characters are strong and realistic – the actors are genuine and perfectly cast – the story is enjoyable, well told, and exquisitely filmed. This is one to be bought for my library and watched again and again!
“W.” stars Josh Brolin as George W. Bush and chronicles his story from wild college student to the President of the United States, ending at his decision to invade Iraq. About the only good thing I can say about this movie is that the actors all do a fantastic job of imitating the real life characters they portray – all were spot on with characteristics, looks, and mannerisms – Brolin does an excellent job as G.W. Bush, as does Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush, Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush, James Cromwell as the elder G.H.W Bush, Thandie Newton as Condolezza Rice, Scott Glenn as Rumsfeld, Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell, and Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Chaney. But, my praise ends there…. The movie bounced around between time eras – it didn’t make it confusing – it was actually easy to follow, but it just didn’t flow well – they would have been better off doing it in chronological order. Although not technically categorized as a comedy, the story has been billed through the promos and trailers as a comedic look at the situation, but I didn’t find it at all funny or entertaining! In fact, I found it quite boring and came close to leaving a couple of times and not even bothering to finish watching it. If it wasn’t for my commitment to not leave a movie before it ends – just in case it turns around – I would have left! I should have paid attention to the ratings I read this morning — the critics are averaging a “B-” for their reviews, but the Yahoo Users are averaging a “C” and many of them mirror my thoughts! My rating: C- and the only thing that keeps it from a D or less are the amazing impersonations by all the actors! My recommendation to those considering this movie — don’t bother — if you watched any news over the past 8 years, you already know everything the movie will tell you – no new revelations or deeper insight to be found here – and the news reports were actually more interesting!!!
Poor Neglected Blog – boo hoo
OK — I’ve been a bad blogger, lately! You’d think I’d have a lot more time to write now that life is back to normal – and I do – but I don’t really have that much rattling around in my brain screaming to jump out onto these pages!!! No – my brain isn’t EMPTY – I just don’t have a whole lot that is appropriate or worthy of saying on here!
Some things of note:
The girls let me sleep until 8:00 this morning!!! SHOCKER!!! They woke me about 6:30 to go outside, but were content with going back to bed after that and actually going back to sleep for another 1.5 hours! Usually, once they wake up and go out, I can try to go back to bed, but they just won’t have any of that! they usually lay down and humor me for a few minutes, but then go right back into the “wake up Mommy, let’s play” mode!!
I had to turn the heat on this morning – not high, just enough to take the chill off!! It was pretty brisk in the house when I woke up! There was one other morning a couple weeks ago that I had to take the chill off before I could bring myself to get into the shower, but other than that, I haven’t had to use the heat at all so far this season!
I moved into a new office at work yesterday — I’m so happy! My office was at the Training Center and now I am in the Admin Bldg — no more trips back and forth between the TC and the main campus!!!
On Weds evening, I had the absolute pleasure of attending the Annual Board Meeting for the Boys and Girls Club!! I was one of the judges for the Youth of The Year contest they had and the winner was announced Weds night, so the judges were invited to attend! Connecia Brown was the winner (read all about it in Friday’s Sanford Herald). This was an amazing experience for me — a few weeks ago, we read essays and interviewed 5 young ladies and 1 young man competing for this honor. They were ALL incredible individuals and were so worthy of the title – it was such a hard job picking just one! They were all winners in our minds and will all surely succeed in their goals – and they all have some pretty impressive goals for themselves, too. But we could only pick one — and Connecia was it! I’m sure she will be an excellent representative of the youth of Lee County in the state Boys and Girls Club competition — and we’re hoping she wins there and goes on to the regional and then the national competitions! I wish her luck, not only in the competitions, but also in all that she pursues in life! Connecia is truly a “Phenominal Girl”…she’s going places!
I’m trying to decide on whether to go see “W” or “The Secret Life of Bees” today! I need to go by Southern Jewelers and redeem the two gift certificates I got from the Jewelry Raffle at the Gala! I wonder what I’ll buy with them….hhmm! I’m also thinking of popping in at Myra’s for some breakfast — and there’s the Artober Fest in Depot Park, too, and I have to get some groceries!!!! Rut Ro — sounds like a busy Saturday is in store for me — guess I’d better get in the shower and get myself in gear!!!
Getting Over The Hump…
Everything appears to be in slow motion for me this week! It is like someone found my speed knob and turned my RPMs down significantly! It isn’t that I’m dragging or tired – it is more like time has found a way to slow itself down and stop speeding by me like a sonic jet. I know it won’t last, but at least for now, I’m rather enjoying it and finding it frustrating all at the same time. I actually thought Sunday was Monday and almost got ready for work when I got up Sunday morning (what a wonderful surprise to realize I had another day of my weekend left) — and I thought yesterday was Thursday and that I missed getting the trash out to the road for the Thursday pick up!
So — today is Wednesday and I am wondering what will happen when I get to the top of the hump and start my decent into the back end of the week. Will it be a slow, relaxing ride down to the weekend? Or will I be slung down the slide to Monday morning at lightening speed and lose the rest of the week in a blink of an eye?
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On a side note: I am losing interest in this season’s Dancing With The Stars! I’m not finding the usual excitement and anticipation for wanting to see who has improved over the past week and who gets to stay and who goes home! I think that watching Cloris Leachman make a total “ass” out of herself and still manage to hang on every week has something to do with it, but that’s not all – there doesn’t seem to be any of the usual chemistry and I’m not finding myself routing for anyone in particular. By now, I usually have a favorite underdog to cheer on and one that I am absolutely convinced will take it all the way home! Maybe it is because I am not familiar with most of the stars this season. Of course, I know Susan Lucci – she has made an appearance in my living room every day since the ’70s – we grew up together (so to speak). She’s been doing really good and I’m behind her all the way, but she’s neither an underdog nor a sure thing! I don’t get that feeling of excitement to get me all worked up over her performances. I also know Cloris Leachman and have been a big fan of her’s for many years – I always enjoy her in the roles she portrays on the big and little screens! I was really excited about her being on the show – I knew she couldn’t be a major contender, but I admired her gumption for at least trying it at age 82!!! She was one I thought I would find myself routing for as the underdog for the first few weeks! BUT – she has left a really bad taste in my mouth and I don’t think I’ll ever view her the same again! Her antics were funny the first week, but then they turned into being ridiculous for a woman her age and of her stature! She took the competition more seriously this week and actually did a fairly good performance – but when the judges gave her two 7s and an 8, she still complained and ridiculed them! I don’t get it – I don’t know why she’s still getting the votes! Next week HAS to be her last week! I’m also finding myself disappointed in the judges – I usually find them entertaining and enjoyable, but this year they are kinda blah! So — Tuesday night I tuned in to watch the competition and dozed off through most of it and last night I tuned in to the results show and fell asleep before it started and woke up just as it was ending! I’ve lost the excitement that keeps me alert and interested in watching every single second of it!!! I hope things pick up — I want to love it again!
Mmm-Monday, Massage, Myra’s, and More…
Today was mostly an “M” day – but not everything began with an “M” – some things fall into the category of “More” – for instance: I did have a really good day at Work and had a delicious plate of chicken strips for lunch at Cafe 121 – I LOVE Chef Hamm’s chicken strips and today’s didn’t disappoint me at all — and I got a Strawberry Smoothie to take back to the office and enjoy at my leisure – YUM!!!
But, the rest of the day was filled with “M‘s”:
- It was MONDAY!
- I had an appt for a MASSAGE after work that can be best described with the phrase – “mmmmmmm“
- I had dinner at Myra’s Kitchen
- More…
I’ll start with the massage: Natural Balance Medical Spa makes it so easy to pamper yourself!! They advertise monthly specials on their web site (October’s special is “90 minute massage for the price of a 60 minute massage) and if you’re a client, they send emails with other specials and discounts for birthdays and other reasons……BUT – what I use to make it easy to pamper myself is a Membership! Last month when I was in there taking advantage of the monthly Facial special, I bought a membership — the benefit of the membership is that you get either a 1 hour facial or a 1 hour massage every month plus other discounts and perks……this makes it easy for me to do something special for myself every month whether or not I can afford to do it – cause it is already paid for AND it averages out quite a bit cheaper than if I were to get the services without the membership!!! So — I plan to alternate the facials and massages every month — today was my first one and I chose for it to be a massage and booked it the Monday after the Gala cause I knew I would be in need of some relaxation!!! It was PERFECT!!! By the time my hour was done, I was a total limp dish rag! ha-ha
Then, I went and had some Chicken ‘n Dumplings at Myra’s for dinner – which was very nice in itself, but the best part was that I ran into a friend from work and her mother and they joined me for dinner and we had the BEST time!!! We sat there eating, talking, and laughing for almost 2 hours!!! It was such fun!!!
More to include under “More”: I got home just in time to watch Dancing With The Stars – Cloris and Rocco are tied for the bottom of the leader board – we’ll see who gets voted off tomorrow! One or the other are most likely to go, but I’m totally done counting on common sense to assume Cloris will be it!! Tonight she did take it a lot more seriously and did a fairly decent Tango performance – the judges were even pleased with her and she got two 7’s and an 8!!! But, tonight’s scores will be added to last week’s and then the votes will be added in to determine who goes home tomorrow!!! I’m still predicting Cloris, but I’m not that confident about it…….
So that was Monday — wonder what Tuesday will bring…
Kim's Thoughts 
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