Our Weekend in Pictures, Part 1

Well it's been kind of a habit to have mimosas while we're there...what can I say?  :-P

When was the last time you had a big bowl of Honeycomb cereal?

This time we decided to have cereal for breakfasts.  The husband chose Honeycomb and the daughter got the package with all the little boxes of cereal in it.  I don't usually eat breakfast. (Sorry Dad! (He hates it that I don't eat breakfast.  Don't tell him but sometimes I go outside with my jacket unzipped too!))

I think I've mentioned before that we have this horrible card table with legs that bow out that we trip over all. the. time.  Here you can see how my coffee spilled on my newspaper from one of us tripping on it.  We've resorted to keeping a roll of paper towels on the table.

It rained quite a bit.  We didn't really care though.  My major agenda item was relax, so that was easy to do rain or shine.  Our daughter brought plenty of stuff to do, although she was dying to go swimming in the lake (and I usually bring my ipod touch 8 gb as a last resort if boredom sets in - there's always Angry Birds!  LOL...).

She built this big domino creation.  She let me watch her knock it down after I took this picture. 

Here's a shot of our living room now that we have a couch and a coffee table.  It's a big improvement over sitting on our camp chairs!!

The husband and daughter did a 1,000 piece puzzle while we were there just for the weekend!  It was a puzzle of shipwrecks.  I hope that's not a bad omen for our Fitty Dollah Boat! :-P

Mr. Texdog found himself a good spot on the porch.  (All of our pets seem to like to sit on mats.  Anytime you put a mat down anywhere, the minute you turn your back, there's a cat or dog on it.)

More pics from the rest of our visit very soon!  :-)

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How We Spent Our Weekend...

...well, when it wasn't raining, LOL!  When will the northeast ever dry out? :-P

Lots and lots more pics soon!

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The Fitty Dollah Boat

Sorry for the horrible quality of this pic - don't know what happened, and this was the only shot we took.  That weird shaped thing on the boat is a seat - the back is folded down.

Since putting nearly all our pennies toward building the cabin, our budget for furnishing it has been basically "free" or "dirt cheap".  Thankfully between stuff we had in the basement, Freecycle and cast offs from friends and family, we have managed to pretty much furnish the place (thank you again to everyone who offered us their stuff!!).  However, one thing we did really want but didn't have any hope in the immediate future of getting was a boat.  We have lake rights to a really nice lake and although sitting on the beach and swimming will be great, we do long to be able to boat around it.  But, we kept our eyes and ears out in the hope that maybe somehow we might stumble across one that fit out "budget". 

Well it just so happened that my mother-in-law's neighbors have a lake house that they are selling, and they were looking to get rid of some of their stuff.   One of the items being a boat!  For only $50!  It is an old boat (1986), it definitely needs to be hosed off and cleaned up a bit and it looks like it was well enjoyed BUT as long as it floats and is watertight (which we were told it is), we are very happy with our "fitty dollah boat".  They also threw in three motors that they don't know if they work, and a bunch of life jackets.  I believe two of the motors are battery operated and one looks like a small gas motor.  We have no idea how to use these, but how hard can it be (ha ha...)?  With any luck, at least one motor will work, and that will be pretty awesome.   For 50 bucks! 

We still have to register it, which the husband is looking in to.  All this boat stuff is uncharted territory for us.  Apparently you register a boat at the DMV, which seems kind of weird, but then again, where else could you register a boat?  We also have to double check that the way the boat is marked with the numbers is correct (which I think it is).  I don't know what other rules or regulations there are - for all I know we have to sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" each time we launch, or we all have to wear lapel pins with our names in case we sink for identifying the bodies, or with all the ridiculous New York State taxes, maybe we have to mail Anthony Cuomo a dollar each time we use the boat.  We'll have to find out.

I will keep you posted how the "fitty dollah boat project" turns out...  :-)

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Wordless Wednesday: Garden Goodness

I Had a Great Time, But I Don't Feel Like Cleaning Up the Mess

I really shouldn't complain - it's a blessing to have company and have a good time.  And there's not even that big of a mess.  (And hey, it's better than being sent to sex rehab like Anthony Weiner!  Has everyone heard enough about Anthony Weiner yet????)  But I'll procrastinate a little longer and tell you about how we made the mess.

Well, we decided to have a BBQ for Father's Day.  I hadn't realized it, but it's been a while since we've had a BBQ - thinking about it, it seems most of our entertaining is in the cooler months.  So, it was a fun opportunity to throw a party with summer foods and activities.

We made some of the appetizers on the grill - chicken wings with three dipping sauces and peppers stuffed with goat cheese (recipe on my other blog here), plus some really yummy mini pizzas brought by one of our guests. 

Then there were some games of horseshoes.  (Playing horseshoes when some of the players have never played definitely adds some elements of surprise, danger and excitement!  :-)

 

What is with this beam of light I caught on camera, shining down on my Dad?  Was he calling on a higher power to give him the edge at horseshoes, or what??

Tossing heavy pieces of iron around the yard helped work up appetites for dinner:

 

If you look carefully you can see Texdog's paw paws there under the table.  He was in that strategic location lest anything accidentally fall from the table, you see...

 

Then croquet:

And some cheating at croquet:

Then there was a somewhat impromptu piano recital starring our daughter.  (We used to participate in the recitals given through the place where our daughter takes lessons.  That entailed sitting in a hot church in June for two hours for the chance to hear our daughter play for two minutes, while enduring the performances of 40 other kids whose parents also think their kids are the most talented and beautiful children on earth.  After the year when they decided to charge $10/person for this enjoyment, we just started doing "home recitals".)

I'm not sure, but it may be the only time someone performed in a piano recital wearing a swimsuit, LOL...

I also believe that "silly bandz" and neon orange nailpolish are not standard accessories for recitals, but it gives a home recital a nice flair.

By the time all was said and done, the party wrapped up between about 9-10.  We were tired so I voted to leave the remaining mess for today.  Then this morning I voted to blog and do some laundry instead of clean up.  Now I see it's nearly lunchtime and I vote to have a leftover cheeseburger and some coleslaw to fortify myself before tackling the dishes.  I believe I will also cast a vote to have some of my sister-in-law's strawberry dessert (that she graciously let me keep some of).  I don't really want to chance tackling a big clean-up without having dessert first, ya know?  I mean, really.  The husband gets home around 4-4:30 - I figure as long as I get it cleaned up by then, he'll think I did something productive today, right?

What did *you* do for Father's Day?

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How My Computer Geek Husband BBQs

 

Yes, he uses his Blackberry to keep track of the grilling time.

Eh, I've probably complained before that once the warm weather hits, all the husband wants to do is BBQ, BBQ, BBQ.  I like BBQ and all that, but I get tired of it after a while.  In fact, the husband was away for the day last week and my daughter and I gleefully ate PASTA, which we had both been craving.  

Neither rain, nor hail, nor dark of storm stops the husband from BBQing. (He had to keep his Blackberry out of the rain but I could still hear the alarm going off from his pocket.)

The funny thing is that even though the husband can write a piece of software to do anything, makes spreadsheets for everything, and uses his Blackberry to cook with, he is strangely ignorant of some other gadgets/technology.  For example, he can never remember what my iPod Touch is called or what it does (gee, it's only an mp3 player, gaming device, web browser and one of the most versatile ebook readers all in one...LOL!).

He's also incredibly smart, but it's usually luck if he gets any kind of pop culture trivia about celebrities right.  He only found out exactly who Angelina Jolie was within the last year.  What prompted him to ask was that in his email spam folder there were always all these emails about "photos of Angelina Jolie" and he was wondering who the heck that was.  He says it's my job to know about celebrities, ha ha... (I study up on that kind of stuff while I'm eating bon bons and watching soaps during the day...LOL...)

Does your husband/significant other have any funny quirks?   Tell me what nutty things your partner does!  :-)

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More Thoughts Too Short for a Whole Blog Post

Q-ee cat plotting against me, no doubt.

Ever since Prince William and Katherine Middleton's wedding, I guess I have become an Anglophile.  (I didn't even know what "Anglophile" meant until like, last week.)  I've read two Princess Diana biographies and am on my third, I read a biography of Prince Charles (sadly, it was as boring as you'd expect!), and I watched a DVD of the HBO miniseries, "Elizabeth I".  I love the UK's "Daily Mail" website and I am subscribed to the BBC's Anglophilia blog feed.  I am also subscribed to two podcasts about British history.  I am finding British history absolutely fascinating - so much of it has been recorded in detail!  Yesterday I was reading about the burial of William the Conqueror - check this out (warning - it's GROSS!):  "In a most unregal postmortem, it was found that William's corpulent body would not fit in the stone sarcophagus as his body had bloated due to the warm weather and length of time that had passed since his death. A group of bishops applied pressure on the king's abdomen to force the body downward but the abdominal wall burst and drenched the king's coffin, releasing putrefaction gases into the church."

Speaking of England, have you ever heard of Irish Travellers?  They are an ethnic group of people that are considered nomadic/gypsies (Wikipedia article here).  There is a multi-episode documentary about them on Youtube (I think it may also be currently being broadcast on TLC) called, "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding", about Irish Travellers and their over the top weddings and unique lifestyle.  (NOT FOR CHILDREN!!)  It's horrifyingly fascinating - definitely not a lifestyle I would ever want for me or my daughter.

I am sooooooooooooooo tired of hearing about Anthony Weiner and his...well, you know....

I have an upcoming appointment at the vet for Mr. Texdog which I am dreading.  It's just his yearly shots, but the prospect of forcing a 65 lb. dog to cooperate is not a pleasant one.  I have tranquilizers to give him, which definitely helps, but then I literally have to worry about my 65 lb. dog falling out of my truck when I get there, and then helping him get back in once it's over with his "jelly legs".  And despite the drugs he still struggles and cries and makes the entire event an upleasant one for all involved.  Thank God it's only once a year.

Pooh pooh me if you will, but I admit I like to play some Facebook games.  However, it's so annoying how nearly all the games try to make you invite more and more people, sometimes compromising one's ability to play the game with too few neighbors.  With some games you can still muddle along but I think I'm approaching the point where I'll have to actually stop playing Gardens of Time because soon I believe I won't have enough neighbors to help me finish a "wonder" or expand.  I realize these games want more players, but is driving players away because they don't have 50 gamer friends a successful strategy?  Maybe it is - maybe they'd rather just have the gaming fanatics.  I suppose they're probably the ones that spend money for the game "extras".  I think Farmville is still my favorite Facebook game because it's very low pressure and it's not that hard to play with only a few active neighbors.

You ever find a page from a magazine, or an article that you have obviously torn/cut out and saved, and you can't figure out why you saved it?  I just found a page I tore out of People magazine and for the life of me, I can't figure out what was on either side of the page that was of any interest to me whatsoever!

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Find the Kitty Friday

Ok, this is a total rip off from my friend Rebecca's blog where she came up with this fun feature (check out her most recent Find the Kitty Friday).  But, the other day I walked in my sunroom and saw my own perfect "Find the Kitty" shot, so I had to share:

That's Mr. Q-ee cat, probably thinking he has a good hiding spot.  Or he may not care.  He's like that, you know.

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Our First Guests to Our Cabin

Now that we have water and some amenities, the first people we wanted to show that cabin to, was of course, our parents!  My Dad and my Mother-in-Law came up for the weekend with us and we finally got to show them the results of our two year saga!  LOL...  Despite the fact that it was June, the weather was cool and somewhat overcast, but we still had a great time.  We went down the beach for a bit.  The mosquitoes were biting, but we doused ourselves in a cloud of bug spray.  Seems like the major black fly phase has passed, now it's the mosquitoes, but hopefully by July the insects should be down to a tolerable level, LOL...

The weekend was very relaxing...which was great!  Our activities for the weekend mostly consisted of playing UNO and Skip Bo.  And just sitting and relaxing.  At one point I said to the husband, "See what I'm doing right now?"  (I was just sitting in a camp chair on the screened in porch.)  "This is all I want to do.  Just sit here.  That's it!"  :-)   However, we did go play miniature golf (where I suffered a heartbreaking loss - I was *sure* I had beaten the Husband for once, but alas I was foiled again!!!) and we also hit up one of our favorite restaurants - the Adirondack Pub and Brewery for dinner on their deck.  The husband and my Dad were excited to enjoy a couple of their growlers over the weekend.

It was a great weekend and I can still hardly believe our place is finished, and that we even have it!  We must have thanked God about 10,000 times by now, He must be getting sick of us!  LOL....

It was just a really good feeling to show our parents our place, and see how happy they are for us.  Even though I'm 41, it's still a great feeling to make your parents proud!!!  :-D

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I Hate Spiders

Unbeknownst to me, my daughter took this picture of what was a small spider, using the macro setting - which she only told me after I nearly had a heart attack thinking there was some gigantor spider lurking about!

I know that spiders have many wonderful qualities and spin pretty webs as invitations to other bugs, but I hate them.

I don't know why but I have some pre-programmed revulsion to spiders.  I am one of those people who will bring out the vacuum cleaner and put together the long hose extension just to suck up a big spider that by its mere presence, causes stress and apprehension in my house.  (I would only do this of course, if the husband was not around to eradicate it for me.)

One time in my late teenage years I came home late at night, went into my bedroom and discovered a spider on the ceiling right over my bed.  I pondered the situation for a few minutes, decided there was no way I could possibly sleep under a spider, and then went and woke my Dad up and asked him to kill it for me.  (He did - in case you forgot, I have the actual Best Dad in the World.)

And have you ever had a spider lower itself right down in front of your face while you're driving??  TALK ABOUT HAVING TO USE EVERY IOTA OF YOUR SELF CONTROL!  I wonder how many car crashes a year are caused by spiders.  

Have you ever discovered a spider perilously near you while you were driving?  Or in some other horrible place, like on the ceiling over your bed??

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On The Bright Side I Can Use the Coffee Grinds in the Garden!

I don't like the grinds in my cup, but coffee grinds are good for the garden!

I don't know what the problem is, but occasionally I come down and find a strainer next to the coffee pot, and I know that for some reason, grinds got in the coffee again.  Thoughtful of my husband to leave me the strainer though, huh?  :-)  We have been through quite a few coffee pots in the last few years and they all stink.  So we put up with the occasional pot with grinds.  Because a pot with coffee grinds seems a lot less disastrous than one of our coffee pots that used to routinely overflow out the top.  We pre-set the coffee pot to turn on and brew automatically in the morning, so you can imagine the unpleasant surprise of coming downstairs to find brewed coffee and grinds all over the counter and worse, the floor.  (Half a pot of coffee laying on hardwood or pergo floors = BAD!)  Good times, good times...

Anyway, did you know that coffee grinds are very useful in the garden?  They contain about 1.45% nitrogen, as well as calcium, potassium and other minerals.

Instead of tossing out the coffee grinds, you can:

- Put them in your compost bin to help keep it a hot mess.
- Add coffee grinds to your garden soil.  Some people swear it really helps their tomato plants.
- Coffee grinds are good to add to your "worm bin".  (I don't have one of those, and I really don't even want to look that up to find out what that is.)
- Coffee grinds put around plants are helpful in repelling slugs and snails.

Do you have any favorite uses for used coffee grinds in your garden?

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