Category: My Life

Just when I thought it was time to break out the sweaters and get the hearth prepared for its first blaze of the season, our temperatures soared to 80 degrees. (f) It’s not too uncommon for this to happen here. They call it “Indian Summer”.  All Hubby and I know is, we were getting close to taking the air conditioners out and putting them to bed for the winter, but we think we will wait just a little longer before we take them out.

I would like it to cool off just a little though, as I love sweaters and I can hardly wait for sweater weather! I’m just about past “hot-flashes” so I can once again wear sweaters without sweltering in sub-zero temperatures.

What a rip off it is for women in the prime of their lives to get stuck having them. At least mine did not last too long. For that I am grateful. Of course for those two and a half years, I went to the tropics without a moments notice and often felt cold and clammy after.

I digress.

I really am looking forward to the fall and cooler temperatures. The leaves are turning colors, and yet, with this heat my eggplants are still growing as are my basil and parsley. In fact, I went out and watered everything today and I will be getting another eggplant meal in a couple of days.

No, I really don’t mind, because I know, all too soon we will be having below zero temperatures, and snow on the ground. Autumn will fade into the whiteness of winter.

And I’ll be able to wear all the sweaters I want!

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend! After all, you never know when you will need an alibi!

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Although this was a productive weekend, I have to say, it was also a weekend filled with thoughts.

On Friday, I reprogrammed Hubby’s computer, installing all of his bookmarks and mail programs, and making sure that they worked, before going off to bed. Somehow, my mind would not shut off until well into the middle of the night, and then I fell asleep.

The dogs are starting to mature, so on Saturday they let us sleep until 8:45 AM! Amazing! I got up and after a cup of coffee, made our breakfast and then set about doing what we needed to do.

Hubby is picking apples, and I was trying to get a little laundry done, but I got side tracked with a report, and before I knew it, it was time to start chopping vegetables for my chicken soup.

On Friday I had made a wonderful rotisserie chicken. Then I boned it and put all the bones into a big pot with onions and celery and a carrot and set it low to simmer. I forgot it was on, and went to bed. At 4 AM on Saturday morning I remembered it, and jumped out of bed and turned it off.

Well, when I strained it in the morning and put it in the fridge I had the most wonderful soup base ever.

So, I chopped up, onions, green pepper, carrots, celery, and garlic and sauteed that until soft and added my soup base and let that simmer for a while. Meanwhile, I got some flat leaf parsley, and basil from my garden and chopped that up, added about a half a tablespoon of sea salt and sage, and let that simmer some more. I cut up the chicken I wanted to use, and I used up two boiled potatoes.

When Hubby and I sat down for dinner last night he was amazed and I was thrilled with the outcome. My first soup of the season! Oh, I sure love soup and stew season!

Sunday started brightly and I went out to the garden and picked 6 Ichiban Eggplants! I guess we will be having those at lunch, as dinner has already been planned as corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and meatloaf (Hubby’s favorite).

We watched a great movie in the morning called “The Rainmaker” with Matt Damon. What a powerful movie!

We also plan to watch the new television show “Pan Am” tonight on ABC. Hubby is anxious to see how many mistakes they make! lol I will let you know what he thinks. After all, most of his flying career was done at Pan Am. He flew with them, all over the world, from 1966-1991.

Happy Monday!

The summer is now officially over and so are a lot of my excuses to cheat on my diet. I know people will say that Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, all give one pause in the quest for dietary excellence. To a certain degree this is true, but…

Halloween has never been a big deal for me, since I basically quit chocolate. I still have a piece of Weight Watchers chocolate from time to time, but I find that it is terrible for my hypoglycemia. So I stay away from sugar overloads.

My birthday and Thanksgiving, both cause me a little problem. I do so love a slice of birthday cake, but I will be honest, I cannot deal well with that much sugar and not want to go back and eat more. So, I stopped having a birthday cake.

Thanksgiving is a good holiday for me. I can eat all the vegetables, weigh my turkey and have a small serving of chestnut dressing. I can manage Thanksgiving. Yes, I do miss my super turkey sandwich after, but we all have our crosses to bear, right? And a slice of splenda pumpkin pie.

Christmas, I have always eaten a German bread called, Stollen. I do not see the need to do away completely with that, and one Nurnburger Lebkucken cookie will also not kill me. Moderation.

I cook a prime rib and baked potatoes and green beans. Apple pie for dessert, made with splenda. I will also have one glass of red wine.

New Years I try to only eat appetizers made from vegetables. Hubby and I will sip champagne and toast in the New Year.

And hopefully, I will not feel too guilty from all I have eaten.

After all, four years ago I made a resolution to go to Weight Watchers and to lose the weight for good.

Before 2007

All I can say is, so far, so good!

Do any of you have trouble (or phobias) with parking your car? I do! I can’t seem to get the entire parallel parking thing down. I’ve been known to drive 5 miles, turn around in order to try again. I’ve also gone around and around and around waiting for a space to open up.

Fortunately, the parking in shopping malls or grocery store parking lots are simple. You pull in and get out. Those types of spaces, I love!

Since my eye surgeries, I am even more paranoid about parking. Our Jeep isn’t bad. It’s small and I can usually just pull straight in to a place that requires a parallel parking job, thus avoiding the entire thing. My car is a sedan and slightly larger, but it does handle fairly well, and Hubby’s car, well, it’s a station wagon, and I’ll tell you, it doesn’t handle too well for those tight parking places.

Today I was in my car. The sedan. There was one place to park and it was not a place I could easily slip into to. It was also close to the time when they close up the post office, so I knew I had to park it, and get in there.

I tried to remember all that stuff in the drivers manual.

1. Put your blinker on to alert the drive in back of you that you are planning to park.
2. Pull parallel with the car in front of where you plan to park.
3. Put the car in reverse and turn the wheel sharply so that you are heading toward the curb.
4. Slowly back up and half way through the turn, begin to smooth out your turn.
5. If necessary straighten the car by pulling forward and back. (I did not need to do this. I was perfect first time in!)
6. Let go of your held breath and put car in park.

I was so proud of myself that I felt like skipping in to get the mail. Instead I walked quickly and got the mail, and then came home happily, so I could tell Hubby!

He was so proud!

So am I the only one who has trouble with parallel parking? Anyone else out there who has parking phobias?

Have a great Saturday!

1. When I walk around my neighborhood I see a lot of wet. Some trees are starting to turn, and the apples are ripe on the trees. But since it is raining and will be for the next week, I plan indoor activities.
2. A Thanksgiving turkey meal with all the trimmings is my favorite thing to cook.
3. Life is full of ups and downs, and if we are lucky, we find a kindred spirit to share it with.
4. My dachshunds make me feel all warm and fuzzy.
5. Butternut Squash is my favorite Autumn vegetable.
6. Life is better when it is shared with those you love.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to watching some new TV episodes, tomorrow my plans include making Julia’s Roasted Chicken and Sunday, I would like to watch some football, cook up a chicken soup and read the Sunday paper.

The picture above was taken in Bavaria many years ago. That is Shubi by my feet, as I walked with a dear friend of ours, Otto, who is not longer in this world. Otto and his wife were the owners, not only of the original Shubi, but of my Shubi’s brother, Toni. Follow that? Okay, here are 13 things on my mind today. Most of it are total random thoughts.

1. Hubby’s laptop got fried and he is in the process of having a new one installed. He also has viruses, and they will have to be removed before they can reinstall his programs.
2. Which makes me wonder if I also have viruses on my laptop. I have antivirus programming on my machine, but…
3. We are having lobster tonight, as my grocery store is having a big sale. Just $3.99 a pound! Woo-hoo!!
4. I’ve heard that there are big changes happening on Facebook, but it has not happened to me…yet. I imagine by tomorrow it will.
5. It’s apple season for us. Hubby brings in an apple or two a day and we share it with each other and the dackels! They love apples!
6. Hubby has started chopping wood for the winter. This means that I should clean out the green house so we can get it ready to store the wood.
7. Believe it or not I have several eggplants still growing in the garden!
8. Soon I will need to go and simply pull all of the plants that have died off in the garden and then turn the soil.
9. We’ve grown more Butternut Squash this year, than any other year. Last I counted it was 30!
10. Unfortunately, corn season is over up here. I got a couple of ears at a local farm stand and they were just terrible. Ah well, it was great while it lasted! Until next year!!
11. Did anyone watch the new Two and a Half Men the other night? Is it just me, or were you disappointed?
12. Hubby has been peeling the last few peaches each night and then sets them in the fridge for our breakfast the next morning.
13. I’m having lunch with a friend of mine today. I don’t get out too often with my friends, so I’m really looking forward to this.

Have a great Thursday everyone!

1. Do you like chili? Red or white? Beans or no beans? Spice or no spice? Toppings?

I make an awesome chili. Red beans, hamburger and just the right blend of spices. Do I like chili? Not really, but I love to make it.

2. Red~Orange~Gold…your favorite fall color?

Around here the leaves turn almost a coral color red and that is my favorite fall color.

3. Who did you idolize when you were growing up?

I loved Karen Carpenter. I loved her voice and how easy she made it look to sing such sad love songs.

4. When was the last time you did something ‘arts and craftsy’? Share please.

My sister is the talented one in the family. I don’t really do crafts anymore. The inventiveness I have seems to be with my cooking and writing.

5. What’s a place that makes you really nervous?

Any crowded gathering. I do not do well in crowds. They quite literally terrify me and I get so nervous and remain alert and stiff. Last time I traveled without Hubby I remained on the cell phone with him until they closed the door of the plane and we started to taxi. I’ve only been to one concert, as it was nearly impossible for me to be in that kind of crowd. I chalk it up to the fact that I was crushed in a car once for about 45 minutes, under a truck. I guess that’ll do it to you.

6. Horse back riding…yay or nay (neigh?)

I have ridden, but it has been may years. I love horses though, and think they are extremely smart.

7. What is your favorite cliche?

“Sometimes chickens, sometimes feathers” It sort of means sometimes you get what you want and sometimes you don’t. Like last night I made a shrimp stir fry and everything said that it should have been delicious, but it was terrible. So I told Hubby, “Sometimes chickens, sometimes feathers”.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Do you ever have nights when you have no idea what to make for dinner? That’s me, tonight. It has to be something easy, because I won’t get in until 6 PM and I need to eat quickly, so I won’t weigh in heavy at Weight Watchers. Maybe I’ll cook a steak and potato and some broccoli.

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend! After all, you never know when you will need an alibi!

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The weekend found me busy around the house. Somehow the Autumn temperatures and somewhat darker skies, put me in the mood to clean surfaces. I spent an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen, the bathroom, and yes, I even took everything out of the fridge, washed it all down with disinfectant, and checked all the labels for expiration dates! Hubby was amazed (as I am not a big fan of completely cleaning the fridge like that), but it was long overdue, and now I am ready to go grocery shopping on Wednesday.

I did laundry, changed the sheets on my bed, vacuumed and even washed the floors in the kitchen. Because the kitchen was so clean, I cooked two wonderful dinner meals, Grilled chicken one night and braised pork the next.

I also wrote my five page report and got it sent out via email. I worked most of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning on that.

I did see two movies on HBO, “Hereafter”, which I still recommend, and “The Switch” with Jennifer Aniston and Justin Bateman. It’s a really cute fluffy chick flick. “Hereafter” is more intense, and an intriguing movie.

The weekend ended with me taking a long hot bath after dinner.

The other day Hubby pointed out that there was a piece of foam rubber on the carpet. He picked it up and did an examination. Where had this come from? The great mystery began.

He looked all over the place, convinced that the dackels were shredding something important like their little beds. I, however knew the real problem.

It was my recliner chair.

The poor thing is 11 years old, and literally falling apart. Two springs have fallen out, as well as various amounts of stuffing, but until now, no actual foam rubber.

So yesterday, when Hubby was outside the dackels and I broke out the vacuum and decided to get under the recliner. Now this is tough because the chair is very big and very heavy, but what I did was tip it on it’s back so I could see under it.

Oh my goodness! I didn’t just find dust bunnies, but a dust “Pitbull”,  as well as plenty of foam rubber.

I vacuumed quickly, afraid that the dust pitbulls would jump out and get me! The dackels barked at them and I gasped at their size.

Unfortunately this means that I really do need to get a new chair, and I love my chair! It’s a chair and a half and I can sit here with all three dackels. They do not make my chair any more. *SOB*

The company now makes “pleather” ones. You know “pleather” = fake leather.

Anyway, Hubby and I will need to start shopping now so I can find something I like before I sit down in the chair and hit the floor.

Funny how attached we become to our favorite chairs.

And…here we go!

1. Why do I seem to be falling down so much lately?.

2. There have been times I wanted to go, but I have so much to stay for.

3. By far the most important part of my life, is my loving family.

4. Proud American.

5. But when the going gets tough, the tough, make jelly!.

6. Happiness has been with me for the longest time. How lucky I am!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to having the grape jelling made and in jars, tomorrow my plans include taking my blankets to the laundromat to wash and Sunday, I want to catch up on a few housework things and take a nap too!