Found on My Doorstep Today, and Found 1,000 Geocaches!

This was on my doorstep today!

If you look closely you'll see the package is addressed to "CarolesThoughtfulSpot.com" (I blocked out my address).  I had to laugh - I've never received anything addressed to my blog before, LOL!

Anyway, I was sent a copy of the movie "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs", which is being released on DVD January 5th, to watch with my family and review.  We didn't see it when it was in the theaters, but I can't wait to watch it - we have the book and it is one of my most FAVORITE books from my daughter's  childhood.

Looks like fun, huh?  Be on the lookout for our review soon!  In the meantime there's a sweepstakes with some pretty cool prizes you can enter here, AND they gave me a deleted scene to share with you - if you want to check it out, here it is: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Deleted Scene.

So, I'm glad the DVD didn't come until today, because despite being very un-busy on Christmas Day, we've been going nearly non-stop since then - we had friends visit from out of town, we had my husband's family's Christmas celebration, AND we drove down to Long Island to find a geocache that had a name that had significance to us to be our ONE THOUSANDTH GEOCACHE FIND!  I was the one who actually did the driving down to Long Island, which I think I've only done one other time (99% of the time my husband or Dad does the driving if we're heading that-a-way).  You definitely have to drive a lot more, shall we say, "assertively" down there, but I think I did ok.  I don't think anyone even beeped at me. :-D

In the next couple of days we have my daughter's birthday to celebrate and preparation for our annual New Year's seafood feast (last year's "photo essay" of our dinner is here).

In case I don't make it back to post again before the new year, HAPPY NEW YEAR, peeps!  And hey - what are YOUR New Year's Eve plans?

Love, Me

The end.

Christmas 2009

For many, many years our general "system" for dividing time between our families for the holidays has been that whichever family we spend Easter with, we spend Christmas with the other.  (We usually host Thanksgiving ourselves to which both families are invited.  Not everyone from either side always comes, which is totally understandable, so Thanksgiving is always a toss up of who we get to see.) 

This year we spent Easter with my husband's family, so we anticipated celebrating Christmas with my side of the family.  My brother and sister-in-law have nearly always had Christmas at their house, whether they have a big crowd or small crowd.  This year they invited my Dad, but we were not invited.  My husband's family hadn't thought to invite us for Christmas Day, because they also assumed as we did, that we'd be spending it with my side of the family, since we spent Easter with them.

So we spent Christmas at home, just the three of us, for the first time ever.  We played the Wii my Dad gave us all day.

The end.

Anticipation!

Christmas cards have all been sent...and received!

Advent calendar...complete!

Stockings hung by the fireplace...

And the Christmas tree...

As I'm typing this Santa is currently is delivering presents in Surat Thani, Thailand.  I know this because I am watching his progress using the Official NORAD Santa Tracker - you can check it out by clicking here, it's fun!  You can even follow his progress today on Twitter by clicking here!

I truly hope all of you, my wonderful bloggy friends, have a GREAT Christmas!

Love, Carole

The end.

Not So Wordless Wednesday: Time For New Sheets, Ya Think?

It started as a small rip which I noticed the other night as I got into bed and I meant to change the sheets the next day, but I forgot.  Now it's like 4 days later, I keep forgetting to change them, so each night I pull back the covers to get in and I'm greeted by a bigger and bigger hole.  Before you chastise me, I just ordered two sets of flannel sheets from Sears.com before I wrote this post (they had a good sale going btw - finding nice flannel sheets on sale was easier than a job search!).  (We are down to only this set of flannel sheets because the other set we had developed a hole LAST winter, except it was on my husband's side...which I teased him about mercilessly, so it serves me right *I* wore a hole through this time I guess!)  I have a lot of things to do today, but I'm hoping to remember to change the sheets.

The end.

Jose Cuervo Christmas Cookies Recipe

(I apologize if you've seen this before, but I just saw it for the first time and thought it would be fun to share and good for a chuckle. :-)

Jose Cuervo Christmas Cookies

Ingredients

* 1 cup water
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 4 large eggs
* 1 cup nuts
* 2 cups dried fruit
* 1 (750 ml) bottle tequila, Jose Cuervo

Directions

1. Sample the Cuervo to check quality.
2. Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again, to be sure it is of the highest quality.
3. Pour one level cup and drink.
4. Turn on the electric mixer.
5. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
6. Add one peastoon of sugar.
7. Beat again.
8. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still ok, try another cup just in case.
9. Turn off the mixerer thingy.
10. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.
11. Pick the blasted fruit off the floor.
12. Mix on the turner.
13. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaters just pry it loose with a drewscriver.
14. Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.
15. Next, sift two cups of salt, or something.
16. Where was I?
17. Check the Jose Cuervo.
18. Add one table.
19. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink.
20. Whatever you can find.
21. Greash the oven.
22. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.
23. Don't forget to beat off the turner.
24. Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the wishdasher.
25. Cherry Mistmas!

The end.

Yup, eHow Has a "How To" For That!

Frequently when I've searched on the internet, I've had an eHow "How To" come up in the search results, and occasionally I've found them helpful.  I happened to come across this one the other day, and though I was surprised they had a "How To" for this, I thought it wasn't half bad.  I chuckled when I saw that the difficulty of this "How To" is "challenging", LOL.


"Everyone gets hurt or disappointed at some point. Some people are able to shake things off and move on. Others hold on to resentment for years. If you are holding a grudge, follow these steps to forgive and let go."

How To Stop Holding a Grudge

The end.

More Thoughts Too Short for a Whole Blog Post

I call it, "Roll With Dog"

(I meant to take a picture before I took a bite, but I was SO hungry, I forgot.  Now that I look at it, that's kind of a big, unladylike bite.  Had I thought about it, I would have taken a dainty nibble instead.  Oh well, now you know the truth.)

For some reason, even though we don't live that far from NYC, for some reason "good" hard rolls are difficult to come by.  My husband has resorted to getting them on his lunch break from a bakery near where he works in Westchester County (which is closer to NYC).  He brings them home as a treat now and then to eat for breakfast.  Normally one would eat them with butter, but because we have to be "heart healthy" we use Brummel & Brown.  It's not bad.

Finished my Christmas shopping yesterday and everything I physically have is wrapped.  I am waiting for two things that are being shipped, but I feel confident they will arrive in time.

Still unsure of what we are actually doing for Christmas Day.

Went to our daughter's school early this morning to see the presentations she and other classmates did in their before school "enrichment" program (apparently the word "gifted" seems to be un-"PC" these days).  They did powerpoint presentations using a smart board for all the parents.  Pretty amazing they are learning and using this technology in FIFTH GRADE!  I remember writing my first "computer program" in Basic in I think, 7th grade.  Technology sure has changed.  In fact our daughter learned how to type from a SpongeBob computer typing program.  I learned on a typewriter listening to records of a woman's voice saying, "A...A...A......." in high school.

Q-ee actually seems extremely happy now that Basil kitty is gone.  This surprises me a bit, because he's so sociable, however, who wouldn't enjoy being "top cat"?  All the good "spots" around the house are his, he doesn't have to share his "people" anymore...I guess I can understand.  Although really, it would have been polite to at least pretend to be a little sad for our sake, but, I realize cats are not big in the "polite" department.

DH has started a grocery list of "crap" he wants to eat over Christmas vacation (he has the whole week off).  I don't really have a lot of things I want to "splurge" on eating except for some reason I am dying to have mozzarella sticks (which we have an extra box of that we didn't use at Thanksgiving).  Do you have anything in particular you're looking forward to eating over the holidays?

The end.

Wordless Wednesday: Did You Need This? Too Bad For You!

Studious Moocow

A couple of months ago, DD (dear daughter) got glasses.  She has a very mild prescription and according to the eye doctor, she only has to wear them when she feels she needs to/wants to (she doesn't even have to wear them to school (yet) if she doesn't want to, which she doesn't).  When she first got them, we chose a few spots in the house where it would be acceptable to leave her glasses, to hopefully prevent them from getting lost, or worse - stepped on or sat on. 

This morning before leaving for school, DD told me she had a new "safe spot" to leave her glasses and this is where I found them:

The end.

Lovely Winter Weather

After a treacherous day of ice and freezing rain yesterday, today is shaping up to be a beautiful day.  The snow is actually leftover from last Wednesday (DD had her first snow day of the school year).  My truck, the sidewalk and driveway were covered with a very slippery, thin sheet of ice this morning, but with the sunshine we're having, it's melting quickly.  Here's a shot of the walkway with a bit of ice left on it:

I can't help it, I love winter.  I'd rather freeze than sweat, what can I say?  :-)

The end.

P.S. I am aware that technically it is not winter yet, but for Pete's sake, when there is snow and ice on the ground, I call that "winter"!

The Hoover Tempo Widepath Really Sucks

(This is NOT a paid post)

Because of this guy:

...and the doghair tumbleweeds he leaves around the house...

....had to get a new one of these:

Which replaces our 15 1/2 year old Hoover upright that we've had since we were married.  Which actually still works, but for reasons too long and boring to explain, we decided it was time to replace.

I've heard people rave about Dysons and Electrolux, but both of those come with pretty hefty price tags.  I got this Hoover Tempo for $75 on Amazon with FREE shipping (click the link if you want to check it out yourself - Hoover U5140-900 Tempo Widepath Bagged Upright Vacuum)!  It got excellent reviews, and boy, does this thing suck!  In fact, the suction is so good, it feels self-propelled.  I expend more energy pulling it back toward me than pushing.  It's got simple to use, practical tools that store on the back just like the old vacuum, and I love the rubber "bumper" around it that saves your furniture from dings.  I took a shot of the back of it, although it's kind of hard to see:

For me, the only drawback is that it is NOT bagless (however the bags are inexpensive and seem to be available at the grocery store), but for the price, it's AWESOME!  The tumbleweeds shake in fear when I start this baby up (actually so does my dog - he HATES the vacuum). 

Again, this is not a paid review and that Amazon link doesn't earn me anything, just thought I'd share what so far seems to be a great vacuum for a great price.  (Despite how great this vacuum is, please don't put it on your list of "gifts for her" for Christmas - have you ever heard that Christmas song "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas"?  Carpet sweeper = not what your lady love wants under the tree!  LOL)

The end.

Then Why Don't Atheists Celebrate Hanukkah?

On a message board I frequent, the question was asked, "If you don't believe in God, then why do you celebrate Christmas?"  And, "If you're not celebrating the birth of Jesus, then what exactly are you celebrating?"

The overwhelming answer was something to the effect of, "Christmas for us is about Santa, and presents, getting together with family - we celebrate Christmas in a secular way."  Ok, I can comprehend this mindset.  Although it was a little harder to comprehend when these same people also mentioned how they also celebrate Easter - in a secular way - "It's a nice time to get together for a family dinner."

If you are not participating in these holidays because of your religious beliefs, why don't these same people celebrate Hanukkah too?  I mean, Hanukkah always seemed like a cool holiday to me - candles, presents, special dinners, fun songs, dreidel games, etc., right?  Why isn't Yom Kippur "a nice time to get together for a family dinner" like Easter?

Why not pick and choose out of all the holidays of all the religions and celebrate the ones you like? 

How can you celebrate a religion's most holy day (for example, as in the cases of Easter and Yom Kippur) "in a secular way"?

It's weird to me, when I stop and think about it.

The end.

Edited to add:  I think I already know the answers to my own questions, but I'm curious what others think.

Blackout

The power went out for about three hours yesterday evening.  Luckily I had just made dinner and we had eaten most of it before the lights went out.  We had the glow of the computer to see by to find some candles and flashlights.  Once we got some candles lit, I called our power company.  They have an automated system that will tell you when to expect your power to be restored and surprisingly, it's usually very accurate, which rocks.

DD and I spent some time reading.  I sewed a pom pom on one of my daughter's socks that had come off.  DH played DD's "Word Fish" on DD's Nintendo DS game.  Now he's REALLY beating us with his "word power" (we've all been playing and bragging about our "word power" as we achieve more and more - it's actually quite an educational game).

We could see police lights flashing out at the road intersection, they must have been directing traffic - we could tell the power was out all over our little "town", even the gas station with the seemingly 500 security cameras.

It was getting very cold with no heat, so since I was lucky enough to have leftover coffee in a thermos (Ha ha! See how that came in handy!!), I poured it into a metal measuring cup and heated it up over the flame of the left candle in the above "NOEL" candle holder.  So I had an actual cup of coffee, ha!  In our old house the power seemed to go off all the time, so that metal measuring cup has been used to cook over candles before - one time I even heated up DD's babyfood in it.

What do you do when the power goes out?

The end.

Wordless Wednesday: I'm Going to Bet This Isn't What's on Your Spouse's Bathroom Vanity

At least they're fake.

The end.

Worked on My Blog a Little & Misc

Took some time this weekend to do a little blog maintenance.  One of the things I added was the "related posts" thingy at the bottom.  I have since realized I must be the very last blogger to add this to their blog.  I must have missed the memo on that when it first came out.  I also added a link to subscribe to my blog by email on the right hand side, in case you want to make sure you never miss one of my scintillating posts, ha ha.

Also this weekend I took my daughter to get the H1N1 vaccine at a clinic run by our county dept. of health.  It is the very first clinic they've had.  I don't understand how NY has been so far behind getting the vaccine.  I am concerned about the risks of the vaccine, but I had to weigh it against how I would feel if she got the H1N1 flu and ended up hospitalized, or worse.  Anyway, it went very smoothly with only a little crying.  By me.  (Just kidding.)

Our church was invited to sing at a town Christmas tree lighting (can you believe it, in this day and age, they invited a church group?!? Awesome!).  Unfortunately we were having a bit of a snowstorm, so we risked life and limb and went anyway, sang for the 3 people that came, had a cup of hot cocoa, then prayed our way home.  After that valiant display of Christian service, we proceeded to oversleep and miss church the next morning.  Nice, huh?  I ended up staying in my PJs in bed until about 11:30 surfing the web, then rushed to get ready to attend a performance of the Nutcracker in the afternoon.  In my hurry I forgot to eat lunch, so I stopped and got a tuna fish sandwich from a gas station.  I know that was of questionable judgment, but the sandwich was actually good.  (After admitting that I think ever using the words "gourmet" and "Carole" in the same sentence is now prohibited by law .)

Enjoyed a lovely dinner afterward at Outback with my Dad, MIL, DD and DH.  (After that giant piece of cake on the train the other day, and all the bad stuff I ate tonight, I think I'd better hope I find some fat burner in my Christmas stocking.)  Came home and DH is now fervently rooting on the Minnesota Vikings.  He likes that team because they wear purple and that's his favorite color.  I like them because sometimes they do crazy, unexpected things.

The end.

Christmas in New York City

We went on our annual trip to NYC to see the Christmas sights.  We pretty much do the same thing each year: take the train down to Grand Central Terminal, go see the Rockefeller tree, go to St. Patrick's cathedral, have lunch somewhere fun, visit Balto in Central Park, go to FAO Schwartz, look at the windows in Saks and watch the snowflake show on the front of the building, have dinner at TGI Fridays, then lastly get magazines at Hudsons News and a snack for the train home.  As far as new york vacations go, at holiday time NYC can't be beat!  If you'd like to see pics of Central Park and Balto, and a video of the Saks snowflake show, you can see it my blog post from last year's trip here.  Here are a few shots from this year...

Nativity inside St. Pat's

Rice heart from our lunch at Benihana.  Excellent place to take the family for lunch and VERY reasonable for Manhattan.

Beautiful bow on Cartier's

The giant piece of red velvet cake from Junior's that I ate on the train on the way home.  Yes, I am bad, bad, bad!

The end.

Just Want to Thank My Wonderful Readers

....for your condolences and kind words on the passing of my Basil kittycat.

I just really appreciate your empathy and sympathy and understanding.  I really do - thank you.

Now Mr. Q-ee cat is "top cat", but along with that promotion he now must shoulder the burden of suffering all my "cat love".  So far he is doing tremendously - exceeding my expectations in tolerating my affection.  He is "kneading" on me as I type - I can hardly see my laptop 'cause there is cat butt in the way.

Did you know that Q-ee is almost a foot wide?

Bit of a funny story.  On Thanksgiving, as I do each year, I put little post-its on the front door and slider (that goes onto the deck) that say, "please don't let the cats out" (except of course this year it was "cat" instead of "cats").  My kitties have always been indoor kitties because I know I just couldn't handle it if they didn't come home one night.  Anyway, late in the evening my husband's cousin says, "Should I let your cat in?"

"Wha...??!!!?  YES OMG LET HIM IN!!"

There is Mr. Q-ee ON MY DECK, OUTSIDE sitting by the slider, apparently wanting in!!!  He must have snuck out the front door when one of our guests left earlier, then decided that wasn't such a good idea and came up on the deck to hope someone saw him at the window.  Talk about a heart attack!!!  I just lost my Basil kitty the DAY BEFORE and now Mr. Fatty McFatcat decides to go on a little adventure!  I quickly scooped him up and begged him NOT TO SNEAK OUT AGAIN!!!

The end.

Do YOU Need a Diagram to Make Your Spouse's Favorite Breakfast?

Well I do.  You see, my DH loves to have an egg, bacon and cheese breakfast sandwich on a hard roll on Thanksgiving morning, and Christmas morning.  I really don't make it any other time of year because DH is supposed to eat "heart healthy".  So since I only make it twice a year, I always forget the order in which he likes it made.  So one year I drew a diagram so I wouldn't have to keep asking.

I keep it in my cookbook.  My "cookbook" being a three ring binder with plastic sleeves that hold treasured recipes from family and friends.  My mom made it for me.  At my bridal shower she asked everyone to bring one of their favorite recipes, which she put into this book for me, plus she added in her numerous tried and true recipes (she was renown for being a great cook).  It's quite a treasury.

One of my favorite "recipes" is from an aunt that has since passed away - it's a recipe called, "How to Preserve a Husband".  I keep that one right in front of my book.  :-D

The end.

Wordless Wednesday: Found This in My Basement Yesterday - Dig That 1970s Orange!

I know this is a fondue pot, but I don't know how to "do fondue", do you? :-P

The end.

Next Year the Prizes Should be Wine, Chocolate and Flowers Only

My DH (dear Husband) plays darts each week.  He's played darts on a team almost continuously since he was 18 (the gap being the two years we scraped by in Binghamton).  Anyway, there is always a tournament called the "Turkey Shoot" right before Thanksgiving.  He doesn't always go to the tournaments, but he decided to go this time, and it was just as well - I was running around with my head cut off getting ready for Thanksgiving anyway - no reason for him to be here and be subjected to that.

So 11:30pm I get a phone call.  I pick up and it's DH - "Honey! I won TWO prizes in the tournament!"  I'm like, "You're KIDDING!  What did you win??"

"I won TWO FROZEN TURKEYS!"

???  What on earth am I supposed to say to this?  Is he kidding me?

"Are you kidding me??  TWO frozen turkeys??"

"Yeah!  Two turkeys!  Hey, should I trade one for a bottle of wine?  Do we have room in the freezer for two turkeys?"

"YES YES!  Ahem, I  mean, yes, you should trade one for a bottle of wine!  I'll go make room in the freezer - there's probably room where the one I just took out was..."

So that is why I have another 20lb turkey to cook in my future.

I shouldn't really begrudge this - that's actually a nice prize and will make a nice dinner.  But only men would have a tournament where the prizes were frozen turkeys two days before Thanksgiving.  It's not like you could even MAKE one of the turkeys you won for Thanksgiving, because it's frozen solid.  Not only that, if you were planning on making turkey for Thanksgiving, you'd already HAVE your turkey anyway.

I think next year the suggestion should be made that all prizes for the "Turkey Shoot" should be bottles of wine, flowers and boxes of chocolate - after having the luxury of a fun night out, think of how wine, chocolate and flowers would soothe the savage beast (wife) who spent the whole night home cooking and cleaning.  I think with that solution, everyone wins!  In fact, maybe they should just send all the men home with wine, chocolates and flowers!  Then at least you would ensure all the men will be allowed to go to the "Turkey Shoot" next year. :-)

But thank you DH, for making it possible to have another nice turkey dinner in the future - I'm sure I won't be complaining when we sit down to eat it! :-)

The end.