Days off are good.

Because it's a holiday weekend, let's have a fondue party!

I had the day off yesterday & it was nice & relaxing. Went to visit my dad, ate my favorite doughnut in the world, went out for lunch with a friend, got the oil changed in the car & took a very very short nap before my pt job.

I had chinese for lunch. That pleases me. I had a spring roll and steamed veggies & chicken with a side of spicy garlic sauce. I find I really enjoy chinese the most when it's not drowning in oil.

The doughnut? It's from the place my aunt & uncle used to own. It's this cinnamon swirl thing (like persians, only better) with extra cinnamon on top & dunked in glaze. The best.

Today I need to get some work done since I'll only be in one day next week.

Have a great weekend!

Sucks to be my dad.

Brie & sun dried tomato baguettes today.

Poor dad. He's worked at this small lumber yard since he moved to the area in 1974 (give or take a year). It's about 3 minutes from his house & he worked his way up to manager. The owner sold it a few years ago, as he was getting quite old & his health was failing. The business was quite the money maker, but the man never invested it back into the business, just into his own pockets. The lumber yard was appreciated by local general contractors & would go the extra mile for it's customers.

The new owner bought this lumber yard & a few others in the area. He already owned an office supply business that was doing fairly well. Nobody really knew what to expect.

Within three years, the new owner had sucked all the money out of two lumber yards to finance his office supply business, which had taken a nose dive. Pretty soon he started pulling money from my dad's lumber yard. All the sudden they didn't have money in the account to pay invoices. Suppliers were pissed, their credit was ruined with many of them & there was barely money for payroll. Hard to keep customers happy when their suppliers were delaying shipments due to non-payment. So my dad has been miserable. A few weeks ago, the employees were given notice that the place was closing in 60 days. Sad, but at least that gave them time to find a new job.

Then, wham! On Friday they were called by the bank & told to lock the doors & close until at least Monday. They were advised to remove all of their personal belongings. Today is Wednesday & still no news. My dad is getting called at home by contractors & customers saying "WTF?" None of the employees have any clue what's going on. The owner has "cut & run, " and the business is now held in the custody of an attorney. So now he sits, entertains low ball job offers (at least he's getting some offers), and is miserable. 4 years away from possible retirement.

I'm going to visit him tomorrow.

7 Things Meme

Seven Things Meme
7! That's a lot!
I was tagged by Nutzy who was tagged by HD.

Seven things to do before I die:
1. Visit every state in the U.S.
2. Visit every continent
3. Spend significant time volunteering for the elderly
4. Purchase a fancy stand mixer & make pasta (dare to dream, I know)
5. Write to a magazine & get published...I don't care if it's even just a letter to the editor
6. Renew my marriage vows on our 50th anniversary :-)
7. Get Chris his ultralight or other aircraft

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Consistently make good bread
2. Dance...and have it look right.
3. Be 125 lbs.
4. Turn down a cosmopolitan
5. Any math in my head beyond super simple stuff
6. Stay off the internet at work
7. Eat caviar

Seven things that attract me to my mate:
1. Goofy sense of humor
2. Dimples
3. Sometimes buys me treats that he knows I especially like
4. In the same vein, always encourages me buy truffles when we find a truffle store.
5. Smaaaaht.
6. He's a kickass Trivial Pursuit partner
7. His love of cats

Seven things I say:
1. "WTF?" (*waves to Nutz*)
2. "I see you packed your angry eyes" (adapted from Toy Story 2)
3. *with lisp* "Surprise!" (this is a new one, from Last Comic Standing's Nikki Payne)
4. *with lisp* "Turn out the lights Charles...what for?....Romance" A favorite line from Life Goes On
5. "Look! Turklets!"
6. "I chalk it up to a learning experience"
7. "Meh."

Seven books I love:
1. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult
2. The Liar's Club by Mary Karr
3. Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
4. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein
5. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
6. Christy by Catherine Marshall
7. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

Seven movies that I've loved:
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Dead Poet's Society
3. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
4. The Muppet's Take Manhattan
5. Toy Story 2
6. Beautiful Girls
7. The Usual Suspects

Seven People I Tag:
Anyone that hasn't done it!

Going once, going twice....SOLD!

Have some cheddar & bacon cheese spread with crackers & let's talk about auctions!

I went to my first auction this weekend. I was always intimidated by the concept, so had never shown any interest in going to one. However, it was the neighbor's auction and we had our eye on some items so we went. Apparently you have to register for a number...we didn't realize that til they announced it a few minutes before the auction started. Newbies.

So there's a ton of craptacular stuff. We had our eye on the following:
1. Sauce maker (for canning)...won for $1
2. Redwing Crocks (for my BIL)...won one for $20
3. Kraut cutter (for my BIL)....gave up, as we know nothing about kraut cutters & weren't paying attention.
4. Treadmill...won for $1....plus it included a rowing glider macine, inversion table, and exercise bike. They all work fine. The treadmill just needs some lube.
5. block & tackle....lost.
6. chains....lost
7. gas mosquito magnet type thing...won for $85 (new cost is around $250)
8. mosquito gas handheld fogger...won for $5 (new price is around $45 & it also came with the chemicals)
9. brand new electric mosquito magnet thingy...won for $1 (store price is $225)
10. Table saw table for $2.50 (for my BIL)
11. Drill press for $80 (for my BIL)

So my personal triumph was that the exercise equipment actually works. Chris was shaking his head at me when I bid for that & it included all four pieces. He figured we'd be paying to haul it to the dump. Whew! It DID work! The treadmill was about a $300-$400 one new, so not exactly top of the line, but it has electronics that work. I don't think the incline does...but hey, it was $1.

And they have 8 soaker hoses that I wanted, but had to get to work. Turns out they didn't sell, so I'm going to offer her $10 (only would've cost $1 at the auction!) for them. I'd feel guilty only offering her $1, though, especially since I don't think they made a dime to spare at the auction. They needed the proceeds to pay off his tractor loans.

Aside from that being kind of sad, yay for acutions!

Turklet

Have some cherry-cream cheese kringle. I have a sweet tooth.

Today as we were driving into work, two adult turkeys were walking their babies on the side of the road (a busy highway). Hope they didn't try to cross. Anyway, Chris exclaimed,

"Awww, turkeys and their turklets."

Chris=Wordmakerupper

Which brings me to my question of the day (since I didn't look it up on the internet): What IS a baby turkey called?

I got it back.

Cojack & summer sausage today. That's what I had last night at a housewarming party.

Last night was a busy evening. I again have a cell phone...yay! Chris got a camera phone, I just got a plain ol baseline Nokia. Chris is bothering me with this new camera phone. He likes to take random pictures of me in the car. Were you all like this when YOU got camera phones?

I had to squeeze in a last minute housewarming party in a town 30 minutes away from our house and fulfilling Tastefully Simple orders for a fundraiser, which I have to deliver tomorrow. I also have an odd schedule at APT this week, so I'm feeling a bit slammed.

The neighboor (JD house widow) is having an auction tomorrow morning. I think some friends are coming, which means I'll also have to straighten up the house. They are those neat-freak friends that would comment to eachother in the car about how our floor wasn't swept, so YES, I have to clean.

Shoes

Monterrey Jack with Toasteds crackers today. I love those crackers.

Anywhoo....let's talk shoes.

I need a new pair of black semi-dressy sandals. Mine are falling apart. I browsed Payless last night with no luck. I can't stand things between my toes and some of the wide bands across the foot were stiff & rubbed into my foot when I walked. I have size 10 feet, so my selection is also usually limited.

Chris also needs new shoes. He likes to wear hiking boots because he needs arch support & ankle support. Let's face it: hiking boots are not exactly dapper. He goes through a pair/year because it's really all he wears. He has these regular brown lace up shoes that I really like on him, however he complains the arch support sucks. They also don't offer ankle support, but he can live with that.

So we are having a household shoe issue. I think we both need a new pair before Niagara. I'm hoping a set of nice insoles will prompt my DH into wearing the cuter shoes.

I think I need to hit DSW & maybe Wal-Mart. For some reason, I have always been able to find inexpensive, comfortable, fairly stylish shoes at Wal-Mart. I usually have better luck there than Payless. And Target and Kohl's are hit or miss for shoes usually. Sometimes I find a cute comfy pair at Target & sometimes I find an under $30 pair at Kohls that I like. At DSW I'll have to pay a little more, but it might be worth it. I have a really difficult time paying over $35/pair. $20 or less/pair is more in my price range. I'm just not enough of a shoe-ho I guess.

Pig: In Need of Home

Let's have some cajun flavored cheese curds while we think about this little mystery.

5:30 pm, Friday: I come home for a few minutes before I have to work at APT. All is fine.

8:30 pm, Friday: I leave work to meet my family at a restaurant. They are already done eating, so we just go have a beer.

10:15 pm, Friday: We return home. I'm in the kitchen & glance out the front window. It's dark, but there's something that catches my eye. It looks like a pig is sitting on my front porch. I look again. It's still there. I go onto the porch to investigate. Sure enough, this is sitting there:

??? WTF ???

Option 1: My father knows of my dislike of ugly lawn ornaments. He had to drive by my house on the way to the restaurant, while I was at work.

Option 2: Friends that don't necessarily know of my lawn ornament issue just thought it would be funny.

Option 3: The pig needed a home & it thought ours looked nice.

So what do I do with this pig?

Oh Dear Cod.

Do you ever leave a message on an answering machine or voicemail & get totally distracted, thus leaving an idiotic rambling message? And do you ever do this at work?

I just left the worst rambling, unprofessional voicemail ever. I was trying to recruit a Director of Nursing for a study we are doing which consists of a 20 minute phone interview now & one in about 2 weeks. I have left 6 other messages that went just fine this afternoon. This particular one? Total brain fart.

My message went something like this:
Hi this is Kim N with the University of Wisconsin. I'm calling because (and here is where the brain fart starts kicking in) my boss (totally unprofessional language) and I are doing a small study on care planning and the RAPs (there was a more eloquent way to say this). We are trying to recruit homes from across the U.S. (wtf? Why did I say this? I never did in the other messages!) and you were recommended to us by the AHHSA association (ok, it's just AAHSA, not "the AAHSA assoc.") as a facility that does excellent care planning (again, could've been more eloquent).

The rest went fairly smooth. I just completely spaced for a minute. No way this person is calling me back. And I might be too embarassed to call her back.

*bangs head on desk*

How much do you need?

Strawberry cream cheese coffee cake this morning. I'll even serve coffee & tea. Although it's hot & muggy here, so let's also have mimosas!

This might be too personal for some. So how much money would you need to make (yearly salary) to be able to live "comfortably?" I'm sure our definitions of comfortable will vary. And I'm sure where we live will influence our answers.

Based on need to pay off lots of debt, I would say a $120,000 household income would allow us to quickly pay off bills and not have to worry about paying the bills. That is, if we continued to live our current lifestyle (same house, same types of vehicles). Then we could even afford to buy some toys in 5-10 years without going into anymore debt.

The chances of us having that income within the next 5 years is slim to none. We are both state employees. And not like fancy department heads or chancellors.

I forgot to put in a title. Edited to add this.

It's white cheese day. Let's have provolone, baby swiss and chevre.

What an eavesdropper would've heard in our car this morning:

Chris (semi-sarcastically): I wish I had one of those old Volkswagon convertibles.
Kim: Hm, I've never seen one of those.
Chris: Really? There was one in Hanson's Mmmm Bop video.

*cricket cricket*

Thoughts & questions

Have some warm garlic cheese bread.

Feel sorry for me that I don't have an MP3 player. It's is now going on my Christmas list.

I have a piece of chocolate cake again today. Should I wait until after lunch or eat it now? Let's face it. There's no splitting it into half now & half later. Once I dig in, it will all be gone.

I got a great deal on a facial peel stuff at Sally Beauty Supply (I had to buy a curling iron...it's my favorite place to buy that stuff). It was regularly $20, but was on their clearance table for $6.99...plus those items were all buy one get one. Woohooo! I've been using it on my surgery scars, as well as my face & it actually seems to be fading them. Yay!

Do you use any OTC teeth whitening products? I'm curious about this new Listerine.

Long Weekend Recrap

Some lovely colby for you, purchased from our local cheese factory.

I had yesterday off because the Dish Network repairman was coming. So again, we finally have all our channels. Yay! I caught up on a little trash tv (The Hills, Sonya!).

I worked at APT this weekend in the gift shop. It was fun. The two hours flew by. Go to http://www.americanplayers.org to check the place out. Chris got a call from our friend, the house manager, yesterday. He needs a part time concessions worker to peddle beer. Chris agreed, if he could get a similar schedule to mine. They accomodated him. Yay!

I had a Tastefully Simple event this weekend. It was a fundraiser for a former hostess's church. Only about 20 people showed, but sales were around $1500. When each item is less than $10, that means it was quite successful. Unfortunately, I think I'm getting out of the TS business soon. I'm just not excited about doing parties any more. I still love the product, but I have no time to do parties.

I washed windows and screens yesterday. No fun, but a lovely day to do it. I also did a little planting of some ornamental grasses I found on sale for $2.99/big pot. Yay! I also grilled some trout Chris had caught over the weekend. Yum! I made a sauce for it out of mangos, herbs, roasted pepper hot sauce and honey.

Now, I shall quit blabbering.

I must get work done

A nice sharp cheddar and grapes today.

I really need to get this little project done at work. I've been avoiding it all week.

I really would rather surf the net for patio ideas and Niagara trip stuff.

What would you rather be doing today?

The backyard

Area in red is where I'm thinking the patio should go.

First picture is the view from our existing deck, the sides are also wooded, so it's nice and private (note, we've left our deck railing-less for now, until we decide what to do with the rest of the area)

Summer project

<------design idea. The white items are patio furniture. The big table & chairs we already have. I want to get a bar set for the upper existing deck (great minds think alike, Breezy!). the orange circle is where the firepit would go. Mind you, my scale isn't exact here.

Fresh mozzarella and tomatoes with lots of italian & garlic flavored olive oil today.

I think we are biting the bullet & charging our summer project: the backyard patio. My pt job checks will all go towards paying it off. It's 0% interest for a year.

Now I must design the darn thing. *stress* I hate big landscaping projects because they are so permanent. I'll have to take a picture of our backyard & get your opinions. Right now we have a small (6x6' maybe?) deck off the back door. Our basement is partially exposed, so the deck is off the top level. I'm thinking of bringing the stairs off to a mid level landing & then stairs down onto a large ground level patio made of belgian pavers. The firepit will then be off of that.

The other option is to have a large ground level deck made of treated lumber (the fancy wood is too expensive). I think I'd like the look, however we can't build the firepit into that (since it's all wood) and would still need a seperate firepit area anyway (more moolah). Plus, I think the upkeep will be slightly easier and less expensive with the pavers...no deck staining.

Anyone with paver experience? Our soil is sandy, so it's the perfect surface for doing it. I just don't want them all to heave in a few years & have it look like crap. I know some heaving is inevitable, but I hope to keep it to a minimum.

Your Celebrity Date

Pesto Havarti today as you think about your favorite celebrity.

This is right up MCatt & Glow's ally.

You've won a date with your celebrity d'jour. You have from 9 am to 5 pm to spend with your celeb and no, having sex with him/her isn't an option.

What would you do for the day?

Travel

Key Lime Cheesecake for everyone this morning, topped with my special raspberry currant sauce.

Good morning Chippiepie, Hushpuppy, Fishcakes, et al,

I spent a few hours yesterday making travel arrangements for my first November conference (San Francisco is first and then Dallas). Chris IS coming with me to San Francisco and I was able to use my frequent flyer miles to buy him a ticket. It only cost $10. Yay! Unfortunately, our flight will leave Madison at 6:15 a.m. (we have a 45 min. drive to the airport). Gah!

Those "award travel" tickets aren't exactly good. Our choices were to leave MSN at 6:15 am & get to SFO at 11 am, leave MSN at 7:00 a.m. and get to SFO at 10:00 pm or leave at noon & get in at 11 pm. I didn't want to get in late because that would waste an entire day on a plane & in airports. What a waste. And I love some of the routes. One took us from Madison to Atlanta to Cincinatti to San Fran. Ah, no thanks.

I'm goint to OT to ask about car rental companies.