A Visit with Lassie

I always wanted to meet Lassie and now it looks like I have! :)

Thanks to a friend, I have a new profile image with a famous star! BTW, that's Lassie #3. There have been a bunch.

I'm on the left. :)

Woof!

(Thanks Eric!)

My New T-Shirt Should Read, "I Survived Black Friday Shopping!"

My 12-year-old daughter and I went out shopping this morning! We are not completely crazed. We didn't get to Target until a bit after 6 AM. Early enough for me!

We were immediately amused because there was a LIMO pulled up in front of the store. Okaaaaay. Now, how exactly are you saving money on Black Friday deals if you are RENTING A LIMO? Hmmmmm...

So, we made our wild dash to the toy aisles. We knew better than to get a cart because I know from past years that they just bog you down in "traffic." Our mission: FIND LEGO STAR WARS IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER. None were on the shelf and there was a big blank spot where they had been. Too late!!! Well, it was a long shot. Too bad because I had my light saber at the ready to fend off prospective buyers should there have been one lone box available. Ah well.

Next stop, electronics. New printer, CHECK. New camera... oh-oh! LOOK AT THAT LINE! But wait! Yes, they are BRINGING OUT MORE CAMERAS! Score! :) Camera, CHECK. :)

Dash over to movies. Find two at ridiculously low prices. CHECK!

Stand in line at the electronics counter to find out if they have any memory cards left from the sale. Look at the person next to me. NOTE THE LEGO STAR WARS IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER in her arms! "Where did you get that?" I ask. She pointed to an end cap far from the Lego aisle. I take off (as fast as you can take off with 100 people between you and your destination).

I pass by one empty end cap. I look ahead. I see a big box... I near the last end cap and THERE THEY ARE! So, LEGO STAR WARS IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER, CHECK! :)

I send Sarah off to find a cart while I guard our loot (which we can no longer carry). She snags the LAST CART in the store and zooms back to me. That's my girl! :)

So, we head around the perimeter of the store to get to the registers. THE LINE IS BACKED UP TO FROZEN FOODS at the far end of the store! OH NO!

We browse through clothing and end up near the cash registers again and this time NO LINE. Well! That was great!

I am THRILLED to hand over my 10% off EVERYTHING card to the cashier. "PLEASE don't forget to scan this," I say. And, of course, she forgets. Sigh. SOOOO, we are told to go to customer service where there is a HUGE LINE. Doesn't that just figure? But, while standing in line over there, I realized that I'd been overcharged $9 for one of the DVD's I bought, so it worked out.

We went a couple of other places and ended up at Russell Stover's for a chocolate fix. They had NOT ONE good sale. NOT ONE. I could have gotten some of their chocolate cheaper at Target with my 10% off. It was disappointing on one hand, but my waist was grateful. :)

We are back home and happy to have survived. I am PLEASED to report that we came across NO CRAZIES. Everyone was quite pleasant and cheerful even to the point of not arguing over who was in line first! It was nice to be out and about and seeing SMILES instead of grumblings.

WE SURVIVED! :)

Thanks Giving

Happy Thanksgiving!

On Monday of this week I was feeling quite the grinch. One of our cars failed state inspection and since it's a 1991, we had to retire it. So, the days of no car payments are over for some time to come. Sigh. Puts a bit of damper on the fun of Christmas shopping, that is for sure. To say nothing of the absolute joy (ahem) of just having one car for awhile.

So, I was still feeling a bit grumbly yesterday as we went to the grocery store to pick up dog food. The dogs were a trifle upset that I forgot about them when I did grocery shopping on Friday.

We were driving down the street to get to the main road when we come across an elderly lady STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. Odd, to say the least. So, we stopped to see if she needed help. It ended up that she needed a ride to the bank and was doing her version of hitchhiking. Now, I've seen her around the neighborhood quite often. I was never quite sure what to make of her since she walks around in winter coats in the middle of summer.

Bottom line, when I'm 90 years old (or so), I sure hope someone is around to help me get to the bank so that I don't have to stand in the middle of the road (in freezing temperatures) and flag someone down. So, we took her over to the bank and brought her back home.

It made me very sad seeing someone so in need of such simple assistance. And that made me think about how grateful I should be to even have ONE car, let alone two. A car that I CAN DRIVE and that gives me freedom to do things like go to the bank and the grocery.

I'm feeling somewhat embarrassed about my "bah humbug" attitude, let me tell you!

The entire time this sweet old lady was thanking us profusely for helping her out, I just kept thinking, "No, thank YOU."

Thanksgiving Food Coma

I am still in a food coma from yesterday. :) We had our family Thanksgiving. We are going to my parents' house tomorrow for yet more Thanksgiving fare, but we like leftovers, so we had dinner here first. And boy, do we have leftovers! :)

I love to cook, so I overdid it, per usual. :) I tried a new recipe for green bean casserole (recipe here) and it was as good as the website promised! :) That was a relief because I am not necessarily a GOOD cook. :)

The kids did say that my Thanksgiving was better than the school's. Oh WOW! (heavy sarcasm)

Then they thought about it and decided to actually rank the meals. I felt better when the school got a 0 and I got a 10 (later revised to 100). :)

Plates were practically licked clean (can't actually guarantee that some were not since we had homemade applesauce and Matt likes to be a little caveman). We ended with a burping contest.

I'm (unfortunately) very serious. LOTS of giggling. LONG lecture from ME on HOW TO BE CLASSY (ie, NO BURPING at the table, or on a first date, or, well, you get the picture). :)

I think we have lived too long in WV. But, hey, it was a fun meal. :) Happy kids are a good thing.

I'm also thinking it was a good thing to have a trial run Thanksgiving at our house before getting to my parents' house tomorrow. They really ARE classy. We scare them sometimes, I think. :) They don't like loud voices. Or burping. Definitely not burping. :)



Here's what we had:

Turkey (with a defective pop-up timer, thank goodness for meat thermometers!)
Broccoli Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Corn Pudding
Homemade Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls (didn't read quantity and had SEVEN rolls per person - think that was enough? :))
Homemade Applesauce
Stuffing
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes

I managed to add sugar to all the fruit and cheese, and cream cheese, heavy cream, sour cream, or fried onions to all the vegetables (kind of a cream theme). :) I think that's how the kids rated it a 100. :)

I hope everyone has a marvelous Thanksgiving!

I'm a Grinch Today

Bah Humbug!

We had to get my husband's Toyota ForeRunner inspected today and it FAILED. In a big way. Well, it is a 1991. But, it only has around 80,000 miles on it, so we were hoping for a couple more years. I know. That sounds funny to say about a 1991! :)

So, now, in the midst of holiday cheer, we have to figure out what to do about a second vehicle. Who wants to buy a new car in this economy? Do you lease instead and hope for cars with better fuel economy in a few years?

This has me feeling a little LESS than cheerful, shall we say.

So, I'll be back tomorrow with a post I've been working on about our visit with santa. That should restore my holiday spirit!