More Interior Photos of Our Adirondack Place

 

Well peeps, as promised, here are the rest of the interior photos I have to share with you.  That's the hallway going to the bedrooms.  I "custom made" a dog pillow for the far end of the hallway - there's a "cubby" there for him to park himself.  Maybe a bookshelf will go above...maybe fill it with dog training books?  LOL...

This is our bedroom.  So hard to show in a photo, but there it is.

Again, hard to take a shot of the whole bathroom, but this gives you an idea of the "look" of it.  That's vinyl floor.  I was happy with how it came out - didn't look cheap-o.

This is a view from the loft above the kitchen.  You can't really see, but to the right is another bathroom, then a large third bedroom there on the top floor.

 

Here is a shot of the "loft" with the sliders that go out to the deck.

 

You can actually see the lake halfway decently in the winter from up here.  It's all frozen over and snow covered though.

Lastly, a shot of the side/back.  You can sort of see in this pic we have a walk out basement.  There is a full basement which is sheetrocked.  It's actually pretty "nice" for a basement, LOL.

Still a few minor (hopefully) things to iron out before I can officially call an end to this saga.  I'll keep you posted and let you know when we finally drink that champagne in the bottom drawer of the fridge... :-)

Thanks for all your nice comments so far!  :-)

The end.

Where Are We Going To Put More Snow?

Here's our driveway after last night's storm.  My husband plowed it at like 5:30am this morning and then went to work.  The snowbanks surrounding our driveway are getting so tall, it's hard to even push them back any further.

Our driveway is slowly getting narrower and narrower!  A couple more storms and these driveways get any narrower, God help anyone who needs medical attention - all that will be able to get up these driveways is the little nurse's poc cart and a stretcher! 

Actually, what is also difficult about this is that when one is shoveling areas that the plow can't easily reach, and the walkway, it is now such an effort to hoist the snow up and over the tall pile of snow.  If you look closely at the top picture, in front of the plowed pile are a bunch of "snow crumbs" that need to be shoveled.  Up and over that big pile.  Or somewhere!  The nice thing is that it's about 35 degrees and by this time of winter, 35 degrees feels kinda warm.  A good temp for snow shoveling - you don't have to bundle up too much.  You can kind of actually enjoy being outside.  The sun is coming out as we speak.  Life could be worse, for sure.  :-)

I have to go out shortly and shovel the walkway and "tidy up" the driveway.  I also noticed our mailbox area needs to be shoveled out better as well.  On the bright side, it's good for weight loss!  Speaking of that, I've lost about 8 lbs so far (since starting Weight Watchers, which I posted about previously).  Not sure why that came off so quick - usually it comes off 2-3lbs at a time, but I'm not complaining.   As much as I don't really like doing Weight Watchers that much, on the other hand, it always works, and I do have the enjoyment of looking forward to summer and knowing that I'll look decent in my summer clothes.  I hate the heat, but at least I'll look slimmer while I'm sweating, ha ha!

The end.

P.S.  Oh, and more interior Adirondack cabin photos will be posted later.  I have to go shovel now!

Some Interior Pictures of Our Adirondack Place

Here is the kitchen.  There should be a black fridge there on the left.  Hopefully that is arriving soon.  That's the custom light we had done there on the right.  We'll put a table and chairs there and that will be the eating area.

If you turn 180 degrees from looking at the kitchen, then you see the livingroom/entry area.  That's a gas stove.  We thought about getting a woodstove, but not only do we not have any good supply of wood on our postage stamp size piece of property, but there is actually a law that you cannot transport firewood more than 50 miles, so it isn't like we could bring wood from down here to up there.  So we went with gas.

 

If you were to turn to the right, then this is what you'd see - the stairs leading upstairs and the entry closet.  We have an interesting space up there on top of the closet.  Not sure what we're going to put there yet.

More pictures soon.  Our totally crappy Frontier DSL internet is acting up and it's taken me forever just to post these few pics.  I'm telling you, the day a better alternative comes to our area for internet comes, we are SO there.  Right now the only other choices are cable, which is way more than what we're paying now, and satellite internet, which I have heard NOTHING but bad things about.  I am hoping Verizon Fios would come to our area.  Anyway, our stupid Frontier DSL is very finicky - sometimes it's super slow (I don't even have to consider ads that say click here for sleeping pills - I could fall asleep just waiting for my page to load, or photo to upload!!), but other times it has pretty good speed.  I've tried calling them, but no one there ever acknowledges these inconsistencies and no one ever seems to have any helpful information whatsoever.

Anyway, more pics when Frontier's next whim is to speed things up again.

The end.

Well, It's Nearly Done!!

 

Well, I can hardly believe it.  We went up to check out the progress on our Adirondack place last weekend, and folks, it is nearly done.  As much as this has been a tiring marathon, going all the way back to when we started searching for property, to see it now, almost done, all our decisions and choices having come together - well the excitement was better than metabolism booster pills!  We had so many decisions to make, and I just can't believe we got them all right.  Everything looks great.  We are so happy with how it turned out - everything from the layout (which we designed ourselves) to the lights, paint color, floor cabinets - by some miracle of God, it all looks great together.  Even a lot of the decisions we had to make to save money, all still turned out well and don't *look* like we "cheaped" out, LOL.

We had what I feel was a relatively short punch list of items that I don't believe are a big deal to remedy, and, our refrigerator for some reason did not arrive.  Those are the outstanding items.  Hopefully we will be receiving word that those items are taken care of, as well as a copy of the C.O. (certificate of occupancy).  Then we have one more "small" check to send, and we are done, baby!!  I am praying that these last few things go smoothly and my husband and I can let out a collective, GIGANTIC sigh of relief.  I spied a bottle of champagne in the bottom drawer of our fridge - I look forward to toasting to the end of this project!!!!

I will post interior pics soon so you can see how it turned out!

The end.

This Makes Me Happy Inside

It's no secret that I love winter.  We are having a particularly cold and snowy winter this year, and honestly, I am loving it.  I just love going outside on a cold, clear sunny day - the deep blue sky, the green snow covered trees, the white glimmering snow...it's stunning, exhilarating, amazing!  I love breathing in the cold, clean, fresh air.  I just love it, I drink it in, I savor it.  It makes me happy inside.

I don't need an Orlando vacation, a Caribbean trip or Outer Banks rentals - give me Alaska, baby!  :-P

We were up north over the weekend, and check out this shot of Lake George - how often do you think of Lake George like this??

 

Speaking of going up north...I have cabin news!  Stay tuned... :-D

The end.

Would You Know What I Was Doing If I Yelled RACK-O?

 

The game of choice on "Family Game Night" the other night was "RACK-O".  We all enjoy this game - have you ever played it?  It's very simple - the object of the game is to get the cards in your "rack" to go from lowest to highest, not needing to be in consecutive order (though you get more points if you get a "run" of three or more cards in consecutive order).

My husband was cheating...

 

Angel was trying to hide there on his lap while we played, but I could hear her meowing advice.  (Siamese cats are very smart, as I'm sure you've heard.)  Doesn't matter - the only prize for winning is bragging rights - no Branson vacation packages or trophies.  Although sometimes the winner doesn't have to help clean up.  Not a bad prize. :-)

Actually, despite hubby's help from the cat, when the game broke up, I was winning.  We had to stop playing because it was 7pm and we had to watch this new show on Nickelodeon that we are all hooked on - House of Anubis.

What games do you like to play with your family?  Any "old" games you still like?

The end.

Anti Evil-Deer Fencing Pics for Mrs. Mecomber

Poor Mrs. Mecomber has "Evil Deer". We have evil deer too, and she was curious what our nylon fencing set-up was like, that seems to work to protect our shrubbery. So I quick snapped a few pics.  (I always have to hunt down our point and shoot camera to take pics - my cell phone takes really crummy pics.  I just have a cheapo phone - I wish I had one of those Blackberry or htc desire phones to take pictures on the go!)

I present to you, our Evil Anti-Deer Fencing:

 

The fencing doesn't look that tall, but you have to remember we have like a foot of snow on the ground.

I know this just doesn't look tall enough, but we've only very rarely ever caught any inside.  My husband likes to put the fencing way out from the shrubs so the deer can't lean in over it to snack.

Here's a close up of the type of posts we use.  The nylon fencing hooks on well to these.

A picture of our shrubbery - you can see it isn't eaten...

If anyone else has any ideas of how to keep deer from eating your landscaping, click the link at the top of this post and tell Mrs. Mecomber, though, she's tried pretty much everything!

The end.

Find the Kitty Monday

This is a shout out to my good friend Rebecca who does a Find the Kitty Friday each week on her NY Renovator blog - check it out!

It is extremely cold here in upstate NY right now, and this is what I found when I went to make the bed today.  That's Angel kitty, and she ain't no dummy!  Snuggled in the flannel sheets - that's where *I* should be, LOL!  She is the funniest cat - she LOVES to go under the covers.  At night sometimes we'll let her go under into the "Cat Cave".  She's a cave-dwelling sort of Siamese cat.  :-)

Here's Fatty McFat Cat Q-ee.  He's got more fur and blubber to keep him warm, but even he chose a good, warm spot today...

 

I tried to take a picture of Texdog, who had found a nice spot to curl up in, but as soon as he saw me and I talked to him, he got all excited and got up and was wagging his tail, and I couldn't get a good picture, unless I wanted a close up picture of a big black doggie nose. :-)

So far so good on the Weight Watchers, by the way.  Well, except for Saturday - but I'll tell more about that soon.  In the meantime I've been looking into what weight loss apps are available for the iPod Touch.  There's a cool one called Lose it.  I also was alerted to a great grocery app by a previous commenter (thanks April!) - Grocery IQ.  But unfortunately, I don't have the ability to use my iPod Touch as a barcode scanner (because mine doesn't have a camera), but if you have an iPhone there are some way cool apps that use your phone camera as a bar code scanner and you can do some cool shopping comparison!

If you have any other apps you love that I should check out, let me know!

The end.

Thoughts on a Snowy Day

 A shot of our backyard today, after last night's snow.

Lately on snow days, the neighbor kids all get together and play outside.  It's nice because it gives our daughter something to do, and our neighbors are great...and it gives me and my husband a little quiet time on a peaceful, snowy day.

I've been thinking a lot about how I can earn some extra money, ideally working from home.  I don't want to sacrifice being around for my daughter, nor do I want to sacrifice all the work I do to keep our home and lives running smoothly, nor do I want to sacrifice the volunteer work I do.  If I could find something part time to do at home, I could fit that in and still keep all the other balls in the air.  I've started some new blogs with the intent on monetizing them.  But I've also been cruising Craigslist for local jobs - they seem to have some interesting jobs on there, though you have to be really careful, I know.  And I've been praying about it.  Sometimes I feel like it's one of those things where you just have to get lucky and know someone who needs someone....type of thing...  I do feel confident something will turn up eventually...  I wonder what it will be??

Do you earn extra money working from home?  What do *you* do?

The end.

Yes, I Did Actually Do It

Despite the fact that my peeps were home another day (today was a snow day - we got a storm of snow, slush, ice, rain, glop...) I *did* sign up for the free trial of Weight Watchers and took the time this morning to read up on the new plan.

I know all you ever hear in the media is, "This is the best weight loss plan!"  "This is the best money making plan!"  "These are the the best acne treatments!" yada, yada....but I do think Weight Watchers really is a pretty good plan.  It doesn't work for everyone, I know, but one aspect of it that is really good is that it does encourage you to eat a healthy variety of foods, and it's not restrictive in terms of what kinds of foods you can eat.  Any diet that lets me eat pizza and ice cream is pretty good in my book.

I did actually already have ice cream today.  But I "counted" it!  :-)

If any of you are doing the "new plan" and have any thoughts to share, I'd love to hear them.  Or maybe you are doing a different diet altogether - I'm always open to new ideas...

The end.

I Went to the Can Can Sale and Then Had to Reoganize My Pantry!

Do you have the grocery store called Shop Rite by you?  Every year, for a million years, they have a "Can Can Sale".  There's a little ditty that they sing and it's to the tune of the actual "Can Can" song.  It's quite silly, actually.  Anyway, they have a huge sale on canned goods, plus there are usually other things on sale too.  I went and "did" the Can Can sale the other day.  I spent about $98.00 on a cart full of groceries, and between the sales and coupons I had, I SAVED $94.00!  Anyway, when I got home, I had to rearrange my whole pantry to fit everything.  Which was a pain in the butt, but it looks pretty nice now, eh?

You know what would be cool?  If I put a little rackmount computer in there with a bar code scanner.  I could take inventory of the whole pantry and then as I used each item, I could "scan it out" and keep track of everything.  I bet one day there will be something like that.  I've already seen refrigerators that have a computer on the front that have inventory software to help you know when to buy what.  At least I have a nice size pantry to store stuff.  Newer houses usually seem to have them.  And much older houses too, I guess.  Somehow in the 50s through the 80s pantries weren't "the thing".  Our old house didn't have one.  My mother-in-law doesn't have one either and used to store extra food in her living room end tables, LOL.

Are there any grocery stores by you that have some huge sale that you are compelled to take advantage of?

The end.

My Farewell Cheesecake

My Farewell Cheesecake

Well in my previous post I stated I was going to sign up for the free trial of Weight Watchers but...because of the holiday, my husband was home and my daughter had a friend over, and I was trying to sign up but I forgot my old password and...well...by the time I got around to actually being able to sign up, it was already the afternoon and I figured at this point, I may as well wait until tomorrow and get a full day out of it.  Plus, I need the time and concentration to read how the new plan works.  So my plan is to sign up and start tomorrow, however, we're supposed to have an ice storm here tonight, so if my peeps are home again tomorrow, I may wait yet one more day...but I *will* start...yeah, and I might do a 30 minute lower ab workout...yeah, and...monkeys might fly out of my butt!!  (Sorry, Wayne's World reference movie quote!)  Ok, ok, sorry - no really, I am planning on starting tomorrow.  Probably.

Meanwhile, as I'm typing this, my husband says, "You know, we should have a test corned beef and cabbage meal before St. Patrick's Day to, you know, practice..."  Oh yeah, that will be a great way to start off Weight Watchers...between the fat and calories, you get the salt and the bloating...this is gonna be a great start to losing weight, ha ha!

Does anyone else "do" Weight Watchers?  What do you think of the new plan?  Do you do a different "diet"/"lifestyle"?

The end.

The Time Has Come...

...the time is now.

Cue the sad music...

(That's not my actual weight on there, by the way.  I WISH IT WAS THOUGH!!  LOL!)

I've done Weight Watchers before.  A few times.  I've been very successful with it.  Except for the keeping it off part.  Actually, the last time I did Weight Watchers was just about two years ago (you can read about it here if ya really want to: I joined Weight Watchers).  Took me two years to gain back the 30 or so that I lost...

I just feel super annoyed and unmotivated this time.  I'm sick of taking the weight off.  It's a giant pain in the neck.  I wish we were in the "Jetsons" era so our meals would just be in pill form and there would be no temptation to overeat.  Or I wish I was a workout fiend...that's got to be one of the best fat burners.  Sometimes I just feel like it would be easier not to eat at all.  So annoyed.

I'm actually kind of glad Weight Watchers has totally changed their "system".  At least that will make it a little more interesting.  To do again.  They have a week free trial.  I'll do that first.

I'm eating a "farewell" piece of cheesecake as I type this.

The end.

Finally, Our Swiss "Raclette" Grill Meal!

 This is the Swissmar 8 Person Red Classic Raclette Party Grill with Granite Stone I bought with birthday money

Last April, with my birthday money, I purchased a Swissmar 8 Person Raclette Party Grill and only just now finally tried it out!  (Funny how as we grow older, fun appliances are like toys, huh?)  The reason I wanted this grill is because shortly before my birthday, we had some dear friends visit who brought their fondue pot, and we had the most wonderful fondue meal.  Unfortunately, there is no healthy way to do a fondue meal, except if you use broth for cooking, and we don't really care for it.  (Oil and cheese taste WAY BETTER!  Lol...)  However, I stumbled upon the idea of a Raclette Grill, and figured we could have the fun of tabletop, group cooking but in a bit of a healthier way.

The food cooked quickly and easily.  Our 12 year old daughter absolutely loved the whole idea of this.  She especially liked melting cheese in the trays that go underneath.

Here is a little background information about this type of grill:
"Raclette is a delectable Swiss cheese dish that has been popular for centuries. Its origin dates back hundreds of years when shepherds tended their herds in the mountains of Switzerland. Supplies were limited and meals consisted of cheese melted by the fire then drizzled onto potatoes and pickles."

As you can see, we did not have potatoes and pickles.  I chose a bunch of things I thought would taste good, grilled.  I did also have some soft tortillas (in case anyone wanted to make a fajita) and I did have some cheese to try out the trays underneath.  Which is of course what my cholesterol and heart disease prone husband's radar locked onto immediately.  I tried people, I tried, but let my husband show you step by step what he discovered he could make using this grill.  (So much for my attempt at healthy.)

Step 1:  Start with empty raclette tray.

Step 2:  Add onions

Step 3.  Add jalapenos

Step 4:  Add cheese.  Lots of cheese.  Then put tray under grill to melt the cheese.

Step 5:  YUM!

Anyway, we all really enjoyed using the raclette grill.  It took quite a while to eat - over an hour for the three of us.  We wondered how 8 people could possibly all cook enough to feed themselves using this, but I think that's part of the point of this style of cooking - it takes a long time and is good for socializing.  I suppose you'd have to have maybe salad and bread at least to supplement the few morsels each person would be able to cook at a time.  There is also the option of a non-stick grill as opposed to the granite top, which I was thinking is what I should have chosen when I saw what the grill looked like when we were done cooking:

Fortunately, I did actually read the directions before I used the grill and it recommends oiling the stone lightly, which I did with some olive oil.  I think that was my saving grace.  All I did was run the stone (which lifts right off) under very hot water and I used my nylon Pampered Chef scraper and all the cooked on goo came right off!  The a little soap and water and I swear, in under 10 minutes the stone was perfectly clean.  I am glad I did choose the granite because it was nice being able to use metal utensils for cooking and not have to worry about scratching the non-stick coating.  This appliance also comes with nylon "scrapers" for scraping your cheese out of the little trays, which incidentally are non-stick and come clean with just a sponge.

All in all I am extremely pleased with this grill.  It seems to be of nice quality, it was very easy to use, and was a very fun family thing to do.  I am looking forward to trying more foods with it - especially shrimp.  I got mine from Amazon.com with free Super Saver shipping (Swissmar 8 Person Raclette Party Grill with Granite Stone).  I think I paid about $120.  It's not cheap, but it's a great gift!  Or if you're looking for something to jazz up your family dinner time.  You'd have to be careful with very small children, but this is something kids can enjoy as well.  Our 12 year old daughter has already decided she wants to do a "Raclette Dinner" for her birthday (which is nearly a year away!) she had so much fun.  She was even just melting blobs of cheese in the bottom trays at one point.

Anyway, I am looking forward to using it again and trying shrimp, but do any of you have any other ideas to try on this thing?  Have any of you done "real" raclette with the little potatoes and "cornichons" (little gherkin pickles)??

The end.

More Thoughts Too Short For a Whole Blog Post

I don't see how the Mets are going to be any good this year.  Between the new management, the fact that the Phillies got Cliff Lee, and the inevitability that any players we have that are actually decent will succumb to some wacky Offshore Injury, concussion or charged with a crime...I'm not feeling really hopeful.  However, on the bright side, Mookie Wilson is going to be the first base coach.  I think I'll spend the season rooting for Mookie, LOL.

When I first heard Glenn Beck was going to be dropped from the NY radio station I listen to him on (WOR710), I was upset.  But after having some time to digest it, I think I'm ready to let him go.  Only thing is, they are replacing him with Mike Gallagher, who I haven't listened to in years, however, when I did last listen to him, I didn't like him.  Hmmm.

We had sicilian pizza the other night.  I'm not one of those people that has to have either the corners or middle pieces.  I like them all!

We generally use toilet paper for blowing our noses.  I got into that habit from my husband.  It *is* a lot cheaper than buying boxes of Kleenex.  We do have a "box" of tissues in the bathroom for guests, but we use toilet paper.  Anyway, I've had this super annoying lingering cold and the other night I asked my husband if he had any toilet paper (on his nightstand).  He said, "Sure do.  If you need toilet paper, I'm your man!"  He comes out with little gems like that all the time.

I love Blogger, I really do, but sometimes it does weird stuff for no apparent reason.

I think those "I Can Has Cheezburger LOL Cats" photos are THE FUNNIEST THING!!!!!!  I am usually convulsed in laughter over them.  (It's too bad their website is the most disorganized, hard-to-navigate, filled with ads mess I've ever seen.)  Lucky for me, my husband got me THREE of the LOL Cats books for Christmas!

From I Can Has Cheezburger? 

My husband discovered a GREAT show on HGTV - it's called "Holmes on Homes".  It's about this renovation expert Mike Holmes, and he goes to houses where a shoddy job was done on a homeowner's project.  He generally rips the whole thing apart and shows all the crazy/dangerous/irresponsible things that were done by either the contractor, builder, previous owner, etc.  We saw an episode the other night where he ripped a staircase banister off with just one hand!  Very entertaining.  Hopefully no episodes of that will ever be shot here or at our cabin!!!!  LOL....

The other day I posted on Twitter that I couldn't believe all the hub bub over Obama wearing flip flops.  With all the news going on in the world, this is news??  Did you care??  What was he supposed to be wearing?  Dress shoes and black socks with shorts??  You know, if I were him, the next day I would have shown up in bunny slippers just to *really* give them something to talk about.

The end.

Angel Kitty Likes the "Fire" Show

 

I don't know if Angel ever saw fire at her old home, but she is fascinated when we make a fire.  She loves to sit frighteningly close and bask in the warmth and stare into it.  (Our old cat Basil used to sit UNDER our woodstove at our old house - I guess cats can sit pretty close to heat!)  That's the life, huh?  While I am emptying the dishwasher, clipping coupons, returning phone calls, sorting Christmas cards and baby shower invitations, cooking dinner, etc. I've got Angel lounging in front of the fire, while Q-ee lays in front of the window by the bird feeder.  Ah, to be a cat!

Lucky for Angel another fire in the fireplace may be forthcoming - we are supposed to be hit with yet another snowstorm tomorrow night.  I think we still have plenty of wood that my husband brought up to the porch.  I was glad to see when my husband plowed our driveway on Saturday that he did a good job of pushing the snow pretty far off the driveway - this way there's room for MORE snow.  Sometimes if you get hit a few times in a row with storms and not enough "melt time" in between you have the problem of nowhere to put the snow!

I don't really mind the snowstorms too much though.  My husband is able to work from home if the weather is bad and of course the schools close if the weather is bad, so as long as everybody is safe at home, I can enjoy it.  How about you?  Do you like snowstorms, or hate them?  How has your winter been so far?

The end.

Silly Bands and Baby Clothes

If you know what these are, and realize what an insane collection my daughter has amassed, you must be a parent or a teacher.  If you don't already know what these are, they are Silly Bands.  They seem to be waning in popularity, although not so much with our daughter.  She started collecting them I think last spring.  One package here, one package there, trading with friends, and then blame Mom and Dad for stuffing a bunch in her Christmas stocking and you end up with one humungo pile o' Silly Bands.  Our daughter likes to wear them, but what she likes to do most with them is sort them.  Here she has laid them all out on our dining room table and sorted them by type.  Other times she has sorted by color.  She is 12, but this kid loves to sort things.  What kind of career I wonder is good for someone who loves to sort?  A job at the Post Office?  Some sort of data management person?  She is about to learn spreadsheets at school - I can hardly wait to see if she takes after my husband and starts to make spreadsheets for everything....  Although that could be a really good thing!  Think of the spreadsheets I could get her to make for me!  She could do one for inventory of the pantry, one for how much I save with coupons, one for baby clothes I'm donating, one for meal ideas...  The possibilities are endless!

Speaking of baby clothes...our daughter just turned 12 and I actually have just a few of my favorite baby outfits of hers hanging in my closet...just to look at now and then.  (Have you saved an outfit or two also, or am I overly sentimental??)   I even stopped in a store the other day as I was passing the baby dept., just for a minute to look at the cute baby girl clothes.  That was definitely one thing that was so fun about having a baby girl - oh, all the adorable, adorable clothes!  And the tiny suits for boys - of course I never got to buy one of those, but so ridiculously cute!  (And no, I am not getting "baby fever" - just reminiscing about the clothes!!)

So, do you have any good spreadsheets for organizing things?  Give me some ideas!  :-)

The end.

Husband + Plain Elio's Pizza = Yum!

My husband was off from work for the whole Christmas break.  So instead of his usual fare for lunch (sandwich, fruit, healthy-ish snacks, etc.) he had the opportunity to peruse the options the fridge and the freezer presented.  One day for lunch he decided to make some Elio's cheese pizza.  He has always been a fan of this type of pizza, and although I'll eat it, I feel I am being kind when I say I consider it "sub par" pizza.  However, let my husband loose on a meal and he has a special way of turning something ordinary into something extraordinary.  (It usually involves jalapenos.  Wait till you see a post coming up where he manages to turn a healthy meal idea into something insanely delicious and bad for you!)  Anyway, he took a rectangle of pizza that looks and tastes like a slab of corrugated cardboard with some cheese very sparingly sprinkled on it and made it look great!  (Moo Cow happened to be sitting right nearby, so she joined in the shot.  Do you like her red bandanna?)  And hey, a cold glass of beer elevates any meal up a few notches, eh?  LOL...  If he ever is looking for a new career, he should consider looking into food science jobs transforming boring meals into "man-friendly" delights.  :-D

The end.

Our "Used" Cat Q-ee

 

Can you get any more relaxed than this?

This is our kitty Q-ee.  I'd like to note that outside the house, within 10 feet of that window he's lounging in front of,  is a very busy bird feeder.  And a hanging block of suet that is also heavily visited. I wonder what he's thinking about?  Another plot against the dog?  The implications of Glenn Beck being dropped from the NY radio market?  The best tanning bed lotion?

Q-ee has made many appearances on my blog, but I don't think I ever told the story of how we got him...  When my husband and I first married 16+ years ago, he got me a kitten (who was our beloved Basil Kittty).  And she was a wonderful cat, but a shy cat.  The kind of cat that liked to be on her own, curled up somewhere for hours a day.  Which was fine and all, but I longed for more "cat companionship" than she could give.  So I asked my husband if we could get another cat and he said "sure".  So I visited a local shelter with my daughter, with the idea in mind that I was looking for a young cat - like about a year old, not a kitten - so that I could get an idea of it's personality.  I wanted to be sure to choose a cat that was more social, but yet I wanted a cat that was still very young.  While my daughter and I were being shown potential matches, this big fat black and white kitty seemed to be trotting along with us.  We were told that his name was "Q-ee" and that the cats at the shelter that were very sociable were allowed out of their crates during the day.  Even as we walked past the dog area (right in front of cages of barking dogs) to another cat area, Q-ee followed right along.  Finally I picked him up and asked the vet tech, "What about this guy?"  She said, "Oh, he's about 5 or 6 years old - not what you are looking for.  He's been here a couple of years now."  So I petted him a bit, put him down and myself and my daughter continued to check out the "prospective cats" that were available.  We took down the names of a few cats we liked and came back a few days later with my husband so he could "meet" them.  They put us in a room and brought us each cat we requested one by one.  But none of them seemed "right".  We got to the last one, and when the vet tech came in I said, "Can we see Q-ee?"  She looked very surprised and said, "Sure, but I thought you wanted a very young cat?"  I explained that was what I THOUGHT I wanted, but none of these cats so far seemed to be a match, and Q-ee had just seemed so friendly and sweet when we had visited the other day, I'd just like to see him again....  I guess you know the ending to this story, LOL.  The people at the shelter were surprised but so pleased we wanted to take Q-ee.  Apparently very few people want to adopt older animals and I guess they thought there wasn't much hope for Q-ee.  I'm so glad I wasn't stuck on my own idea of the kind of cat I *thought* I wanted, because I would never trade Mr. Q-ee for anything.

I'd like to remind you that we also adopted our Angel kitty just this year and she is 7.  I joke that our "used cats" are the BEST.  :-)  And they truly are.  If you are ever looking for a feline addition to your family, please don't rule out an older cat.  Cats can easily live 15-18 years so even an "older" cat has plenty of years of love and companionship left for you!  Sometimes I feel sad that both of our cats had to spend part of their lives not being loved and cherished as they should be.  But I am so thankful we got them!  I love our "used" cats!!!!

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Another Humorous Christmas Item

Do you remember Wacky Packages?

(Okay, this certainly does not even come close to comparing with the real turkey foot back scratcher (previous post), but here was another funny present from this Christmas...)

When I was a kid occasionally my Dad would bring us home packs of Wacky Packages trading cards from this little deli where he'd pick up milk.  Oh how we loved those!  We even had a book that had spots to put the stickers.  I still have it somewhere!

Imagine my surprise when I was Christmas shopping at Target of all places, and I saw Wacky Packages!  I had to pick up a few packs for my loved ones to enjoy.  Above is just one of the little gems in the pack.

Also imagine my surprise when I found a whole website devoted to Wacky Packages - wow, I had no idea there were so many other fans!  Here's the website:  The Wacky Packages Web Page  (Some cool stuff, but I don't think I'd be taking any payday loans to invest in Wacky Packages vintage collections...but still fun!)

Do you remember Wacky Packages?  Didn't they also having "Garbage Pail Kids" trading cards, too?

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Betcha You Didn't Get THIS For Christmas!!

This is a back scratcher made from an *actual* turkey foot!

Every Christmas season we have a day set aside for all of my husband's family to be together to celebrate (because it's really difficult to all get together on the actual holiday due to all the in-laws and obligations everyone has).  One of our traditions is we play this game we call "The Dollar Gift Game".  I know there's a "real" name for this game, but the gist of it is, everyone brings a gift they got at the dollar store, wraps it, and anonymously puts it out for the game.  The items range from anything you could think of from halfway decent stuff like a mini flashlight or headphones to frog figurines and a sleeve you put on your arm to look like fake tattoos.  Then everyone picks a number out of a hat, and this number tells you the order in which it is your turn.  On your turn you may choose a mystery gift from the table OR steal a gift that someone else has already opened.  Over the years we have had some particularly good games with some very silly hotly contested items, such as this fish head that I was lucky enough to score one year:  Fish Head.  Well, one of our family members is my brother-in-law "K", and I would describe him as a "Woodsman Extraordinaire".  He often makes the "dollar" gifts.  (For example one year he made two marshmallow "blow guns" that were the hit amongst the winners, but the bane of my mother-in-law's existence because she was finding mini-marshmallows in every nook and cranny in her house until April, LOL.)  Well this year he outdid himself.  He made the above "back scratcher" from an actual turkey foot from a turkey he shot.  And would you believe people were fighting over this thing????  LOL... 

We were pretty happy with our scores from the game - a mini LED flashlight and a coffee mug with a fancy letter "F" on it (the mug was actually one of the things we brought).  Have you ever played this game?  What silly (or good) thing did you end up with?

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Happy 2011!

Angel checking out what was to be our dinner on New Year's Eve

I sincerely hope all of you had a great holiday season.  I did.  I have lots of pictures and some funny stories to share, but right now I just feel totally out of sorts.  My husband and daughter have been off for the last week and a half, and there has been absolutely no schedule, no routine...which has been great, but as a person who thrives on routine and schedule, I just feel like I'm in some otherwordly limbo.  Lots of sleeping in, lots of eating unhealthy but very tasty food, lots of staying up late, lots of playing the Wii, lots of visiting, and lots of genealogy researching for fun...it was a great break from "the real world".  I haven't even blogged, I'm so bad.  I did do some laundry though, and the house is pretty clean.

Speaking of that, we took the tree down yesterday and got the whole house cleaned up (we have a potluck and a meeting here Wednesday night, so that was some motivation to start whipping this place back in shape).  We all got lots of great gifts (my husband is sitting in the recliner playing "Civilization V" as we speak :-) - Wii games, books, DVDs, a ukulele (for me), membership to the Adirondack Brewing Company "Pub Club" (for the hubby), puzzles, a big Polly Pocket Cruise Ship (for the daughter), plus lots of other very thoughtful and generous gifts.  (No ecg machines though!  Though that would probably come in handy with all the unhealthy food we've been consuming in large quantities.  I must have gained 10lbs this week.  GAH!)

It was also our daughter's birthday this week, and she chose to go to the "Melting Pot" restaurant for dinner with us and her grandparents.  It's a fondue restaurant.  It was the first time any of us had been there.  It was fun and unique.  Kinda pricey.  A cool place to go for a birthday though.  

For New Year's Eve we had our traditional lobster dinner.  Shop Rite had live lobsters on sale for $4.99/lb, so I got up early and braved the crowds Friday morning to pick up some.  They were of a good size (2 lb average) and hard shell to boot.  We skipped some of the other "traditional" New Year's Eve programs (which we never seem to like) and tried Fox's "All American" New Year's Eve show.  It was ok.  Better than others we watched in the past, anyway.  Actually, until 11pm we watched America's Funniest Home Videos marathon - that was GREAT!

Happy 2011 to all of you, and, what did you do for New Year's Eve?

The end.