No Plan for a Rainy Day

Well, it is wet again this morning. We were expecting a dry morning and somewhat dry weekend. Don had planned to do the lawn and get a bike ride in. That would give me time to do some yoga (without an audience) and work on a stitching project. Now we are not sure what the plan will be, no yard work or bike ride for sure. We do have to make a trip to the grocery and then are going to J's house for supper. Until then, who knows.

Summers End

I have gotten out of the habit of posting and am making an effort to choose to find the time to update more regularly.

We certainly had a nice summer this year. The definite highlight was a trip to Colorado to see my sister and brother-in-law, nieces and nephew and quite a lot of my extended family. It was also the first time Don and I traveled together on a plane and taken a vacation to see family. It was a great trip, we had many great adventures and loved seeing everyone. It was a good chance to catch up and have crazy fun family time. We especially enjoyed visiting the cabin, summiting pikes peak and just spending time with everyone. Our flat-land lungs did appreciate coming home though!

Once home, it was back to the work grind and despite the calendar telling us, it sure didn't seem like September out. We had many sunny warm days and were certainly enjoying the extra summer. This past week the rain has come back. Living here it is a given that winter will come and the rain will start. It is the trade off we have for getting to enjoy the beautiful green. It can be a bit daunting though to wake up to rain, have rain all day, and fall asleep to rain for days (ok, months) on end.

We did take advantage of the extra summer and participated in a new event in our town this year called The Draggin' the Gut Festival. In our little town the common vernacular for "cruising the main drag" was "draggin' the gut." 20 or 30 years ago the town decided this was a bad thing and passed an anti-cruising law, complete with road signs: " Driving up and down this road more than 3 times in a one hour period between the hours of...." You get the idea. So the festival was sort of a return to the golden years of draggin' the gut as well as a benefit for the local food bank. There were bands playing 60's era music on several side streets (closed off to traffic), a sock hop and live band at the McMennamins, free movies and of course a group cruise for several hours at the end of the night. We got our Ghia all shined up and headed out. It was a BLAST!!!!! We danced to some music, looked at all types of cars and dragged the gut ourselves! It was a huge turn out and seemed a success. We are looking forward to next year already!

Now we find ourselves nearly falling into November and are beginning to plan for Thanksgiving, on the hunt for good recipes with new and interesting flavors to try...we will see what we can come up with.

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Last night as Don and I were laying in bed, settling for the night when we heard a thump noise. At our house certain types of thump noises are not unusual (Rye jumping off the counter, Barley jumping on the cat tree, Barley throwing her baby off the cat tree, you get the idea), but this was unusual. It sort of sounded like a meaty thump, like a cat body hitting something.Hmm, better check it out we decide, right as we hear it again. I rush out of bed to the living room to see what is going on, hoping it is nothing terrible. There at the sliding glass door in the living room stand Rye. And he is HUGE. I mean totally puffed up, his tail. his body, his back. And he is very.very.very. mad. huffing and puffing and pretty quick he goes THUMP. Right into the sliding glass door, hissing and spitting. Barley was half puffed, hunkered down on her pillow, wide eyed and watching. I could not see what had gotten them so worked up, until it came a little closer. An extremely large raccoon was literally face to face with Rye with only the glass door in between. And even puffed up Rye looked small compared to this 'coon. Rye was determined to attack, kill, or chase off this potential attacker and kept up thumping into the slider.I was a little scared to try to pick him up since he was so angry, so Don went over and turned on the outside light and whacked on the glass to encourage the raccoon to go away. He finally did but it took about another hour for Rye to settle down. It was pretty amazing to see the huge raccoon so close to the house, but a little scary too.

Open Letter to People Trying to Sell Stuff at my Door

Dear People (or Person) trying to sell stuff at my door,
When we have just gotten home after a long, long day at work, and a quick stop at the grocery to get supper ingredients; we are not going to answer the door. Especially since we saw you walking the neighborhood when we were coming home. Also, we are currently making above mentioned supper and are truly not interested in whatever you are selling. In addition, it does not matter how many times you ring the bell, ring the bell and knock, ring the bell and knock and "hullooo" over the course of a few minutes....we are still not going to answer. Our home is our sanctuary, our castle and our own private place, and currently we.do.not.wish.to.be.disturbed. This is not to say that I do not appreciate your trying to work and earn your pay and make your own way in the world. It it simply that some people (me) do not feel the need to respond to each and every doorbell ring and your rude attempts to get us to answer were not appreciated. In the future, unless our home is on fire nothing more than is simple doorbell ring is required...we will answer if we are so inclined.
Sincerely,
The K-B family

Attack of the Hormones

We have had a pretty ok weekend through this afternoon. Don did some riding and I did a little shopping for myself and found a new dress and shoes for our first anniversary celebration. We visited our friend J and had a nice time talking and drinking wine and snacking. This morning I woke up not feeling as perky as yesterday. Don had made some blueberry pancakes for breakie and then he headed out for a ride. I hung out and did some laundry, then when he got home he was getting ready so we could go to the store and the sink plug in the bathroom fell off again and got stuck in the drain. This has been happening in some form or another for a few weeks and usually I can get it out and back on its stick and fixed pretty quickly. Not so much today. My attempts ended with me throwing the plug at the sink followed by a few choice words. Then we headed to the store and I cried in the car. At that point we decided it would be a good thing for me to have moon lodge time this afternoon. We had subway for lunch and then Don headed out for yard work and I laid down on the couch. I napped most of the afternoon. Now it is time for supper prep and then bed again. Oh, the joys of hormones.

The Fine Art of Saving Money

Recently I had a new "Grown-up Moment". I am now the proud OWNER of my very own car, having paid off my car loan this month. It was very exciting to get the title in the mail and at the same time a little strange to realize that I am really a grown person. I suppose that most people would be saying "Sure lady. At 30 you should be well aware that you are a grown person!" but some how I still find myself amazed that I am. At any rate, not having to make a car payment has certainly allowed a little extra freedom in the budget this month, but never the less we are still being conscious of our spending and tucked away some savings too. In our on-going effort to save versus spend, we have been exploring new options for grocery shopping. As much as I hate shopping, we do occasionally get really good deals using sales and coupons...even if it means going to nearly all of the grocery stores in town. The new first choice for grocery shopping on canned and frozen goods is a place called Grocery Outlet. It is a very strange place to shop. The stock changes every few days, and just because you got something there before doesn't mean you will ever see it there again, but the deals are unbeatable. For example frozen edamame (whole soybeans) can be close to $5 at some stores, at the Grocery Outlet they were $1.27 a bag. The deals there allow us to get items that we maybe would not normally get, simply because the cost versus need ratio was so off at other stores....like frozen curly fries. A purely luxury item in our house, not something that we NEED at other stores, but when the large bag at Grocery Outlet is only $2.25 it is hard to pass up for a treat. Last night we had chicken on the grill and freezer veggies and I decided to break out the curly fries. Why not? I thought. We deserve a little treat, right. I pre-heated the oven, prepared the baking pan and got the fries out of the freezer. I opened the bag and began to pour out some fries...and I quickly learned why they were so inexpensive. The "curly fries" were really curly fry fragments, the little pieces that fall to the bottom of the expensive bags were what filled my bag. I had a good laugh, filled the tray and cooked them up. And while they were certainly not glamorous, they tasted just fine...and it was kind of fun to eat them with a fork!

Ages and Ages Ago...

Alright, I know it has been far far too long since my last post. I had gotten out of the habit of writing....So now there is updating to do, or rather " there is too much, let me sum up."

Our little Ghia is still home. Shortly after her arrival to her new home and a trip to a local mechanic to assure us she was healthy and drivable (which she was not...more work, money and time passed...with lots of frustration on my part), we went out for a little drive on a sunny day. After parking the garage and feeling pretty please with ourselves, we settled in for some couch time and a little nap. As I was dosing I thought I smelled something faintly smokey....a few minutes later Don went out to the freezer for a skinnycow and the smell of burning filled the house. After getting the garage door open so we could actually breathe, Don discovered that the alternator had caught fire and while very self limiting (nothing else was damaged), the alternator was now partially melted. This means that the car can not drive and is confined to our garage. Don did some online searching and purchased new parts, but neither he nor I feel comfortable/confident enough to do the work ourselves. But since the car can not drive....argh. Don spoke with the mechanic we used with her before and as it turns out they are able to tow the car back to their shop to repair and replace. Now it is just a matter of scheduleing a time that will work for all parties...execpt the car...she doesn't get a choice! And somewhere in the far reaches of my mind I keep remembering the echo of an earlier post..."life rarely goes as planned".