What a Day!!

Well, here we are - today was one of those days!!!

We went to NJ for a visit to the doctor's. That went well... we are both alive. Thank God! At times I worry..... seriously, we are fine and that is nice to know.

Gas in NJ is cheaper than PA and we wonder why as we fill our tank... or should I say as someone fills our tank as in NJ the attendant fills the tank which is why I still, to this day, do not fill my gas tank!!!!

We knew we needed to leave early for NJ... so I had planned a beef soup and had chopped the veggies last night. Now I don't usually do this..big deal! This morning I read over the Paula Dean recipe.... which I on the spur of the moment changed to a crock pot recipe and stuck the stuff in (short ribs, cut up celery, onion, beef cubes, spices and so on). Put the lid on and walked out the door. At around 2:30 we came back. As well ad the Doctor's and the gas, we went to Shop Rite (yea, Walt) and shopped for stuff. Ate a tuna sandwich on the way home. So then to diner.

I sold a book so I had to deal with that (on Amazon for the local Library). And then put things away. And then I checked the soup.... BOY IT WAS GREASY!!! Way too greasy for us to eat.. OK, what to do. Strain it,,,,,,, then I resorted to putting the Veggies in a strainer and rinsing it - that helped. I also took the meat off the bones and that was greasy but tasted good. Skimmed the stock...greasy.....cooled.... ah &**^^$% I then went to the Post Office to mail the book I sold. Picked up the mail and back home decided the stuff needed to chill..... OK, eat it tomorrow.... what to have for dinner. And do you believe, with a freezer full of food I had a problem with what to eat for dinner. B is so good, he will go along with anything. So, we ended up agreeing on spaghetti with meat balls (meat balls from Sam's) and so that is on the stove. And right now, I'll be dammed if I go in and cook the spaghetti..... I'm having a drink (wine) and relaxing... and that's OK.

Then, as I was working in the kitchen to do all this, I knocked my wine glass off the counter and it broke... and I'm still finding pieces on the floor (I'm not in bare feet). Shit.... the good thing is it was just a "regular" wine glass from WalMart. Still..... So I walk in the kitchen with shoes for a bit.

It seems I've been blocked at several turns. But, we are seeing on TV that there is some weird man holding a child hostage on a bridge in Philly... and our problems diminish.

So, retirement is still good. We have been seen by our Doctor and appear to be OK. The living room is clean so if you stop by, I'll have a place to sit you. The rest of the house is really OK.... but I'm trying to "organize" things... yea, and it's on going.

Good news...... I saw a robin when I went to the library. WOW... spring????? And life is good and we are thankful... now, if I could only figure out what to have for dinner on Sunday... and ideas?????????

Snow and Pizza

We got more snow... yea... more! We knew we were due for this snow Thursday night and when we woke Friday we had snow. And, we didn't go out all day Friday... unusual for us. We did go out and snow blow twice. B ran the snow blower and i did the sweeping on the steps and then cleaned off the SUV. Thank God for 4 wheel drive. We had a "preview" breakfast this morning... coffee and Pillsbury orange buns. Then, after reading the paper and doing stuff, we headed out around 10 for a late breakfast. Yum!!!
Dinner was meat loaf, gravy and baked potatoes with coconut pudding for desert.

Yesterday we had pizza for dinner. I had a recipe in my bread machine cookbook I wanted to try and it was really good. The baking stone is a bit too big... I think this is because I have a convection oven and that makes the inside a bit smaller. I figured this out as the light stayed on... well, duh... something was causing that and it was the door not closed. So, out came the stone. I'm going to try Home Depot for unfinished tiles to see if that works. Should. Well, the pizza was good... sauce, then onions, green peppers, a few mushrooms and pepperoni. We ate it all. The other half I froze and we will see how that turns out next week. All I've read says you can do this.

Is spring soon?????

February Snow

We knew we were going to get snow...then ice. We did!.
It started snowing yesterday (Tuesday) late morning. We had done some shopping in anticipation of the snow. And it did snow and snow and by this morning we had several inches and it had turned to sleet. B parked the car off the drive so he could clear it but right now the snow is so heavy it's not the kind you can snow blow.

It is beautiful - the trees are covered with ice. And fortunately we have not had any large branches break from the weight of the snow. It's just a mess!

While it appears the road is clean, it's icy. They plowed and spread something but I haven't seen any cars thus far. We sure aren't going anywhere.

Super Bowl Preview

Saturday evening - 6:11 PM - Finals for the Super Bowl!! YEA!!.... And B just knocked over the clock that records the outside temps that is now working... and it's 10 outside.. and, from the looks of what we see on TV, we are not that much warmer than Green Bay!!!!

We are in the lower level family room... drinks in hand waiting for dinner to cook.... long distance.... an easy oven thing with chicken and stuffing, sour cream, frozen mixed veggies and bake and serve. ANYWAY, the guys that we like to listen to look ready to deal with the cold. I like Howie but he needs to shave!!!

The local paper (Scranton) had an interesting lead in... First page of Sports section Headline "Playoff freeze" with a sub heading of "plummeting temperatures mean frozen balls and sleeveless jerseys". Only in PA... This headline caused me to remember an episode I had back in the days when I was a new Vice-Principal. The kids were playing this game where they threw the ball up against the wall and then someone else hit it...anyway, I went over the intercom to all the classrooms before the lunch time and said something to the effect of "Students should be careful about throwing their balls up against the wall". As I turned the intercom off, I looked at my secretary and said "I can't believe I said that!" I can't tell you how many responses I got about that. My teachers really kidded me ... and so the headlines 20 years later brought back those memories.

Back to the game on TV. Terry Bradshaw looks warm and Jim Johnson with his head band does too. The really cool guy is Howie Long with his goofy hat and Hollywood guy wannabe beard. These guys are cool and we really enjoy listening to them, though I really don't understand what they say as I'm not a football follower. They just showed a glass of water that was frozen.... the wind chill is minus 23... we are warm!!!

So we are relaxing... after a day of working on organizing. I have new bookshelves for my Amazon sales and they really look good. B put them together THANK YOU and now they are all in order. I'm updating my data base and getting stuff in order... gotta keep busy!!! Anyway, I also cleaned some and did some laundry and we did go out for breakfast. A really nice day. And dinner is just about ready so I have to go up to check on it.

And soon... SUPER BOWL!!!!

The Deer are Back

It is getting colder and we have snow on the ground again. We were supposed to be "warm" with temperatures in the mid 30's but I don't think it ever got above freezing. There was some sun early on but by noon the sky had turned grey - a generally gloomy day. We headed toward Scranton for a bit of shopping. Lunch at Burger King - we haven't eaten at a BK since we moved up here. Then home and back to some things I had been doing before we left.
I was in the bedroom putting laundry away and looked out the sliding door toward the septic mound and woods and... deer - several in fact. We have seen them occasionally and the chewed plants and hoof marks acknowledge their visits but I had not really seen them yet this year. They were coming through the side woods from up the road and as they passed through, were nibbling their way. We have lots of acorns on the ground back on the mound and they must of remembered their pig outs from last year (tho we had more acorns fall last year than this year). This little guy (0r gal) was nibbling on the tree branch. The rest of the gang stuck to the easy stuff on the ground.


While some of them are loners, they generally stick together with at least one friend. They are coming out of the woods onto the mound.

And joined by another friend they are foraging for the acorns.... and finding them from the length of time they were heads down.

This is at the edge of the driveway where it curves around. If you have been here, you know where I mean. They headed down the steep hill behind the tree you see to the right and there is a tall pine tree at the bottom of the hill that they shelter under.

It will be interesting to see if this is a single visit or if we are now on their regularly scheduled walk about.