Culinary Delights

I was going to start this post by listing some of my favorite foods.

Until I realized I just love food.

So, really, a list won’t do.

The list would go on for pages, and it might be enough to make you dedicated blog-readers look elsewhere for more entertaining ramblings.

I’m interested - If someone were to to ask you what your favorite food is, would you know what to say? What would your answer be?

I will (AGAIN) be out of town for the weekend, so I thought I’d leave you with ONE my favorite easy recipes. (Thank you to my dear sister for introducing me to this dish.)

This is from Grandma’s church cookbook, so you know it’s gotta be good. I think probably the Swiss cheese and white wine put this recipe over the edge on the tastiness scale.

ALPINE CHICKEN
6 chicken breasts
6 slices Swiss cheese in 4” squares (or, you know, double that amount for more cheesy goodness)
1 (10 ½ oz.) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
½ c. dry sherry or dry white wine
1 (8 oz.) pkg. Pepperidge Farm herb-seasoned stuffing mix (From personal experience, nothing is lost should you decide to save a dollar and use the store brand.)
¾ c. margarine, melted (That’s A LOT of margarine. I only use about half. You know, to make up for all the cheese.)

Arrange chicken in buttered 9x13-inch Pyrex baking dish. Place a slice (or 2) Swiss cheese on each chicken breast. Combine soup and wine; mix well. Pour over chicken evenly. Toss stuffing mix with margarine; carefully spoon over all. Bake, uncovered, at 375˚ for 1 hour. Cover; continue baking 30 minutes longer. (I find I don’t have to bake the chicken quite this long for it to cook; and hour or an hour and 15 min. total should suffice.)

I’m certain there will be adventures to relay after a weekend with family in Louisiana. We’re going to a wedding.

An outdoor wedding. At the end of May. In Louisiana.


I daresay it will be memorable, so stay tuned!

Summer Seasons

I feel this entry is going to be mundane…even boring. The writing muse eludes me today. I’m posting something only for those of you who come to this blog and would be disappointed if nothing new was up.

So, for the two of you:

First of all, I have to admit that it’s been hot here for two days and I’m already tired of it.

It’s going to be a LONG summer.

Speaking of summer, John and I were discussing summer television the other day. The conversation was probably not very intelligent or coherent seeing as we rarely watch television and do not have cable. The only shows we watch on a consistent basis are The Office and Dancing with the Stars. Occasionally we watch the news and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Anyhoo – the first week The Office was not on because it was the end of the “season”, John asked me why there is a “season” at all.

What is on during the summer? Who invented the television “season”? Why does a TV show get a four-month hiatus? If they show reruns in the summer wouldn’t they have to just pick and choose which reruns to show since you can’t fit a regular season into four months? And didn’t they show all the “filler” shows during the writer’s strike? What’s left to air?

It’s all very confusing to us since we’ve never paid much attention to the year-long television schedule. It seems the summer “season” with no new television shows would correspond with school being out for the summer, but it doesn’t really. I suggest they move the television rerun season up a few months. I mean, aren’t we all crazy busy the last few months of the school year anyway? What with the dance recitals, choir programs, awards banquets, fund-raisers, end-of-the-year shin-digs, and/or exams, no one has time to keep up with television. Might as well show the reruns and awful “filler” shows then, right?

All I really know is, without our three regularly-scheduled shows on the tube there is no way we will be diligent enough to figure out what’s showing on TV from week to week or muster the interest necessary to consistently watch anything this summer. And I can guarantee that when we DO turn on the TV for some rerun of a show we don’t even normally watch, it will be the one episode we happened to have seen already!

With lack of television viewing on the horizon, perhaps these blogs will become more interesting.

Memory Lane

We spent the weekend in Houston with my folks (who will no longer be in Houston after my dad retires next month, so this was our last visit to Houston with an apartment to stay in).

For those unfamiliar with Houston, it’s hot. And humid. And the traffic is horrible.

But it’s also where I grew up as a little girl. Well, actually I grew up in Wharton, which is south of Houston, but field trips, fun weekends, major sporting events, and Christmas shopping all took place in the big city.

So, being in Houston always reminds me of my childhood. At the risk of sounding a bit unintelligent, I will now speak on the topic of baseball. (Warning: I am not an avid sports fan and have never been that great at sports. I will attempt to limit my writing to what I know…which is not much.)

Part of this trip was a little sad because we went to see an Astros game. I remember going to plenty of Astros games when I was younger, but back then they played in the Astrodome. That’s not really what I’m sad about. Compared to Minute Maid Field, where they now play, the Astrodome could be considered a dank and dirty warehouse. Minute Maid Field is built around an old train depot, so the theming of a train station is evident and tastefully done. Everything is new, clean, and pretty.

No, I’m sad because not a single player I remember from the Astros of my childhood is left on the team. Perhaps most major league baseball teams don’t have players that stay for years on end, but there were several Astros that played much if not their entire career in Houston: Ken Caminiti, Nolan Ryan, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio.

I know, some of those players have been long gone, but a couple years ago I was still watching Bagwell and Biggio play. Now they’re both retired, so I’m a little sad.

It helped that I saw quite a few fans sporting the old ‘80s jerseys. That brought back the memories. And my super husband bought me food to eat for dinner at the game; I don’t recall ever getting food (besides peanuts) at the baseball games when I was young, but I’m sure my parents weren’t starving me, so maybe the hot dogs at the Astrodome just weren’t all that memorable.

Even without Nolan Ryan or Bagwell or Biggio, the game was still exciting, and I did really have a pleasant weekend full of happy memories.

There. That’s about all I’m going to say about sports. It will probably be a good long while before I attempt to make any observations on the subject again. Because, well, I just don’t know that much!

The weekend in Houston also made me thankful for my parents, long weekends, watermelon, and air-conditioning. I hope your weekend was just as fun!

Literary Entertainment

I love a good book.

John loves to listen to good books. (Because I'm not sure he's actually read a book in its entirety in his whole life...somehow he graduated from school with a master's degree having read very little yet he is still a fount of information on all kinds of subjects. Go figure.)

We are getting ready to drive to Houston today to spend the weekend with my parents. On longer drives, we like to download a book to listen to in the car.

(By the way - another commercial! - the Creative Zen is excellent for listening to books, even multiple books, and having an easy bookmark system.)

For my own sanity and in order to maintain my attention in the car, the book needs to be fiction. Other than that, I read all types of books (excepting the cheap paperback romance novels): adventure, mystery, thriller, drama, classic, science fiction, comedy... I found a couple suitable options this morning, but was wondering if any of you blog lurkers out there can recommend a good book. Do you have a favorite? Something entertaining enough to keep me awake and interested on a long drive?

Feel free to comment and let me know. We have several long road trips this summer, so I desperately need suggestions.

Gracias!

And Happy Memorial Day!

Dear Discover Card,

I have heard before that you are a sneaky credit card company, and in all fairness, we are pretty sneaky credit card customers ourselves. However, you are crossing the line.

I admit, we take out large 0% loans from you for a year, invest the money, make a lot of interest on our investment, then pay everything we owe you without penalty, but we're just playing by YOUR rules. (And making money for free.)

But, really, it's a good thing I look carefully at our credit card statements each month. I could easily throw it in a filing cabinet seeing as we have an automatic payment set up with our bank.

Why would you add a line, in 3-point font, to our statement that declares, "Please note that your payment due date has changed. Please pay the minimum payment due by this date to avoid a late fee."?

And the new due date is 5 DAYS EARLIER than it has always been!

It is quite obvious you are trying to accrue late fees from unsuspecting customers. What other reason could there possibly be for randomly changing the due date for payments?

It is despicable and low, but we will triumph. I noticed the tiny print and am now changing the date of our payment from the bank account.

Ha! So there!

Sincerely,
One Extremely Observant Customer

Musings on a Hot Evening in May

A few days ago we decided to walk to the new Wal-Mart just down the street. We passed a Cici's Pizza on the way, and I had a brainwave.

(I was also having the beginnings of a sunburn on my shoulders since I did not realize when we left the house that it was going to be hotter than all get out or that I could get burned on a short walk to the Wal-Mart. Who puts sunscreen on just to go to Wal-Mart? Well, me from now on, but this a different story entirely.)

For those of you living in one of the 21 states with no Cici's Pizza locations, let me tell you: you can eat at the Cici's buffet for only $5!

At the risk of sounding like a commercial, I will continue.

Now, when you order pizza from another pizza chain, you pay, what? Around $15 for a large pizza? I'm not sure why this has never occurred to me before, but you can eat salad, pasta, pizza, yummy cheesy breadsticks, and dessert at Cici's for ... $5!

I know, what a life-changing insight! Especially if you love pizza!

On top of this, as we were walking to the Wal-Mart I decided I could just walk to Cici's, eat as much as I can handle, then walk back home, thus burning off some of those excess calories that inevitably come home with me after grazing at a buffet.

It's the perfect scenario!

Oh, and eating at a Cici's allows me to take a little trip down memory lane every time I visit because Cici's was one of the few sit-down restaurants I frequented in college. (Is it still safe to call it a "sit-down restaurant" when it's a buffet?) Back then I'm fairly certain the buffet was only $3, so WHAT A DEAL! With inflation and the price of cheese, I'm sure $5 is still a very fair deal.

Next time I'm really hungry, craving pizza (which really is practically every day of the week), and just do not feel like cooking, you can find me at Cici's.

Tip: You must drink water with your pizza buffet in order to keep the cost to $5. Pizza causes extreme thirst anyway, and water's the best remedy for that. Make sure you do not drink any other beverage out of the clear plastic water cup because, as my dear mother-in-law will attest, the staff will threaten to call the police, ban you from the restaurant for life, and throw you in jail for doing so. (In her defense, there were about 80 of us eating at the time, with various drink cups being passed around willy-nilly and no direction given us as to what color cup is to be used with which type of beverage. After explaining the situation, we were all allowed to stay in the restaurant, eat our meal, and I believe we are all still permitted to enter that particular Cici's. Just to be on the safe side, you may want to clarify which color cups go with which beverages before hitting the buffet line.)

Do It Yourself

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on the blog yet, but we’re taking a trip to Africa later in the year.

And it’s a good thing it’s later in the year, because, man, there are a lot of things to accomplish before taking a trip to Africa!

Multiple vaccinations. Check (well, mostly anyway). We’re going to be the paranoid Americans who get vaccines for rabies and meningitis as well as the “necessary” shots even though, well, we could get rabies or meningitis right here in the good old USA.

(Getting a rabies vaccination reminds me of an episode of The Office. Yes, rabies is indeed a preventable disease, Michael. I digress.)

Passports. Check. (Already have them. Whew.)

Flight arrangements. Check. (Thanks to some time-consuming research I win the prize for finding a flight between African countries – because we’re going to Ghana and Uganda – for $1000 less than we were about to shell out.)

Notifying the friends we’re visiting in Ghana. Check. (They are so excited we’re coming to visit.)

Signing up for a Compassion Sponsor Tour and paying our deposit. Check. (Because that’s why we’re going to Uganda – to visit Ronald, our sponsored child! A sponsor tour happened to come available after we had already decided to go to Ghana this year anyway.)

(By the way, if you’d like to contribute to our trip we are gladly accepting donations. Because what with the vaccines, the cost of the trip, the airfare, and the visas we feel as if things are getting a little out of control!) :-)

And that brings me to: Visas. Not done yet.

Both Ghana and Uganda require visas for tourists. Uganda needs the application in duplicate. Ghana requires the application form in QUADRUPLICATE. Each application, besides the visa fee and a postage-paid return overnight mailer, requires a passport photo.

Last weekend we discovered that passport photos are not cheap. And we need a total of 12 passport photos between the two of us. Yikes!

So, we left the store without the goods in hopes that we could find a cheaper way to get passport photos.

One word: ePassportPhoto.com.

OK. That’s more like two and a half words smooshed together in a web address, but whatever.
If ever you need multiple passport photos, this is the place to go. You can take your own digital photo, use their cropping mechanism to obtain the right size and proportions for the photo, and then download the file onto your computer…FOR FREE. We did end up sending it to Clark Color Photo for printing, but that was only $1.50 for all the pictures.

This is a brilliant tip, so I hope somebody who needs passport photos will google “cheap passport photos” and find out about this awesome service.

Now I just need to fill out all the forms and get some certified checks together to apply for the visas (which we are boldly also doing ourselves rather than pay an extra $150 or $200 for a passport service to do it for us; we figure there’s plenty of time for problems at this point).

You know us…it’s all about doing it yourself to save some money.

Neighborly

What a lovely morning! Honestly, it's almost 9 a.m. and it's still only 60 degrees outside with just a slight breeze. After the 90-degree temperatures and extremely high humidity last week this is SUCH a relief.

One thing I love, love, love about our neighborhood is that I can walk to the post office.

Not that I visit the post office too often what with the e-bills, automatic drafts, ability to just send checks online from our bank account, and my forgetfulness-turned-just-plain-apathy when it comes to mailing celebratory greeting cards of any form.

HOWEVER, I occasionally remember some birthdays in time to send an actual card in the mail. Like this morning. So, I walk to the post office. Mostly because some days our postal carrier seems to neglect our street, and I need to make sure these cards are sent out TODAY because even though I remembered these birthdays I did not act on the whole card-sending thing until the last minute so there's no time to spare if I'm to get credit for mailing out the cards before the dates in question.

I noticed on my walk through the neighborhood that everything seems friendly and prettier when it is not 90 degrees and humid outside. I actually retrieved one neighbor's pile of newspapers from the sidewalk and moved them to front porch since these people are obviously out of town and I don't really want to make that fact obvious to strangers will ill intent.

I'm a member of our neighborhood association (a recent development), and more specifically I'm on the membership and welcoming committee. This means at some point I will need to leave my house and go converse with some neighbors to try and get them involved in the neighborhood association.

This morning, on my walk, in the beautiful weather, I felt quite neighborly so it would have been the perfect time for some of the neighbors to make themselves available on their front porches or in their yards for me to chat with them and invite them to the next neighborhood meeting.

I guess no one on the street got the memo.

Yes, I know some people probably left super early for work, but I know for a fact that the majority of our neighbors are retired.

Soooo, I'm praying that tomorrow, being Saturday, will be another beautiful day to give me that push I need to be social.

In other news, I spent the majority of the day Monday working in our yard. I should have taken "before" and "after" pictures because, honestly, pulling weeds and trimming bushes does not exactly make for an awing finished product unless you have "before" pictures to compare it to. After two days of rain, I can now examine the lawn and find that the dallisgrass all over our yard that I spent so much time spraying with poison on Monday is, in fact, dying! (Along with some of the grass, but that's the price we're willing to pay.)

Incidentally, dallisgrass is described in the dictionary as: "tall tufted perennial tropical American grass naturalized as pasture and forage grass in southern United States". We have no cows to put out to pasture, nor do we wish to invite foraging wild animals into our yard, thus, no need for the dallisgrass.

(And just so you know, we have attempted over the past five long years to nurture the lawn to health in non-toxic ways: watering and fertilizing to promote the actual grass to spread over the weeds. It has not worked, so we are taking drastic measures with the poison.)

To make up for the poison, we're thinking of starting a compost pile and planting a vegetable garden.

It's a long-term plan.

Here's to a magnificent spring day.

Polar Opposites

Our small group decided a few weeks ago that it would be a good idea to get to know each other better.

Thus commences the "life stories" that will take up the next month or so in lieu of an actual Bible study.

(To be fair, God, faith, and Bible verses do come up in the life stories, so we're still being spiritual and all.)

John and I agreed to share our stories first since we'd done this in previous small groups and have never been shy of going first anyway.

Some of the comments from our friends after we shared were quite telling. Although, I am now wondering how accurate some of their impressions may be since John talked about himself for half an hour leaving me to sum up my life, being, and ambitions in about seven minutes (which is, in itself, rather telling I suppose).

OK, so John's the talker. Me, not so much. But when I do speak and share I try to be honest and open. Here's what I learned from our group after we were finished spilling our guts:

- John is hi-lar-i-ous! I'm not the only person in the world who can laugh at things he says and does until I cry.
- While not the comedian, I can be open and honest in a way that lets other people know it's OK to not be perfect or happy all the time.
- No one would ever guess the shenanigans John pulled when he was a teenager.
- John and I have been declared "polar opposites." (Though, funnily enough, I also see ways in which we are completely similar, so I guess that really does make our relationship one of polarities.)
- Someone actually said that John is "like a character out of a movie" - which makes me a supporting actress, right? So this is why my life seems like a constant adventure full of stories; I'm living with a movie character...or maybe just a character.

And because I love my husband so much, I just have to share one more thing that happened two evenings ago.

After dinner John asked me, "If you got hungry for dessert, what would you have?" Pause. He added, "What would be your two first choices?"

What?!? Only two choices?!? I love dessert! So, I thought long and hard.

One of the choices has to be chocolate, and it's been way too hot and humid for the month of May...

So I came up with 1.) brownies and 2.)ice cream.

John smiled really big and went to the freezer. What does he pull out but "Brownie Batter" ice cream! (Yes, there is such a thing.) Then he so humbly declared, "Am I good or what?"

Answer: Yes, he's good...maybe a little too good...it's a bit scary how well he knows me!

Heck, I should have just let him tell my life story. He sure wouldn't have minded talking a little longer and maybe with him telling it my life would have been funnier.

Mmmm. I'm in the mood for ice cream now. A couple bites couldn't spoil dinner, right?

Search Kindly

I've written before about how Compassion International is near and dear to our hearts.

If you've not sponsored a child yet (or even if you have!), you can easily help raise some money for Compassion during the month of May at no cost to you!

That's right, folks. It's free. Because...well, you know...we love the free stuff.

And since I was just blogging about the genius of Google searches to answer all of life's mysteries (like "what 'number' on plastic bottles is it safe to drink out of to avoid getting cancer?"), I figure this suggestion is even more appropriate.

Here's how you can help raise money for Compassion:

Go here. Do all your Google searches through this page during the month of May. Make it your homepage if you will. Or bookmark it so you remember to go here instead of straight to google for your searches. ALL of the money Search Kindly raises through advertising goes to charities, and this month that charity is Compassion International.

And pass it on! Let other people know about Search Kindly.

Now, go search for something!

How about: Rain - The Beatles Experience, Samantha Brown, cleaning pergo floors, Idi Amin, Christian microenterprise, or least crowded driver's license office? (Yep. Those are actual recent searches from our computer.)

Today's Science Lesson

Instead of doing things in science class like memorizing the periodic table (that has turned out to be soooo useful) and torturing kids by forcing them to do science projects (that end up being really important topics like "what kind of music do plants like best" - unless you're my husband who is obviously a science fair genius, but that's a topic for another blog), why don't we learn things like how to identify the strange slime molds and fungus that may someday appear out of the blue on our lawns?

Of course, now that I think of it, I learned the answer to this very question in a matter of seconds by using the handy internet, which is (I hesitate to admit) a new invention since my own school days.

So, really, children now have even less reason to pay attention in school; after all, anytime they ever have a question or need to figure out how to do something the answer is only a few mouse clicks away.

Well, I suppose you still need to pay enough attention to pass that test and get promoted to the next grade level. College degrees are still a definite asset to getting a job and making a living, although I might not be the best example of that...again, a good blog topic for another day.

Here are some examples of recent questions I've asked the internet lately even though I'm fairly certain I learned the answers at some point during my school career:

Why is the sky blue?
What is the definition of "work"?
What is the normal temperature range for an adult human being?
What is that quote on the Statue of Liberty and who said it?
What does a vascular surgeon do?

Now that I've demonstrated my lack of good working memory, let me share with you what I learned today about the mold on my lawn.

This is what it looks like:

1. It is, in fact, slime mold and not fungus.
2. When I first noticed this abomination in the front yard, I took a closer look and really thought some animal had gotten sick all over our grass. And, sure enough, the common name for this is "Dog Vomit Slime Mold."
3. There is no need to get rid of "Dog Vomit Slime Mold" since it will not harm plants or animals.
4. You could eat it if you wanted to, but no one suggests you try, and, honestly, WHO WOULD DO THAT?
5. It will probably go away on its own shortly.

In case you're wondering how I found information about a growth on my lawn, not knowing what it was called or if it was fungus or mold or what, I googled "weird lawn mold fungus". The answer popped up immediately.

The internet is genius.

Government Subsidized Television

The government has given us clear TV reception.

Remember the last post (and probably several others prior to that one) where I mentioned that we are cheapskates?

Yes? So, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that we do not have cable. We have never had cable. In fact, we went for a few months at the beginning of our marriage without a television at all.

The problem with no cable and an antenna (almost the best antenna available at Best Buy, by the way), is that next year all the television channels are going to be broadcast in HD only. Our antenna will be useless at that point.

Sooooo… in steps the government.

Because, I mean, we didn’t ask for broadcasting technology to improve. We were perfectly happy to watch the major networks with a bit of snow and some rabbit ears. So, it really wouldn’t be fair to ask us to pay for 30 channels of cable television when we only want the 15 we can get with the antenna.

To rectify the unfairness of it all, the government is providing coupons for HD TV converter boxes to all who apply.

I can only suppose that the legislators in Washington saw the injustice of the situation and spent probably a year coming up with this brilliant solution. (That’s as opposed to working on things like immigration, wars, and healthcare. I mean, come on. What’s more important? Children going to see the doctor or frugal Americans being able to watch the tube?)

So, of course we applied for and received a coupon from the government to help us out of our desperate situation.

(Let this be a warning to all of you who a.) do not have cable or satellite and b.) use only an antenna to watch television. Apply for your very own government coupon to buy a box that will allow you to continue watching TV! Do it now!)

(Or, more realistically, just keep sitting there chuckling at the fact that someone out there actually does not have cable and has to buy a special device to continue watching the 15 channels they do get in order to keep up with all the new fangled technology.)

So last weekend we visited Best Buy, armed with our government issued coupon for a magical TV converter box.

I have no idea what HD does or means. I don’t have a clue how this box hooked up to our TV now gives us crystal clear picture on our 15 channels, but it does. No more moving the antenna around to find the least blurry view. We even get an on-screen TV show guide. We are moving up in the world.

Thank you, U.S. government.

Fine Arts

We are artsy-type people, to a degree.

At least, I like to think we are.

We enjoy museums (as long as we don’t have to visit them for days on end, or even for an entire day – unless it’s the Louvre). We like taking pictures (even though we’re by no means great at it). One of us (the one who is not the accountant) has fun creating greeting cards and stationery. We love music (though John definitely understands the music better than I do since he is a proficient piano player and I just sing). We attend symphonies and musicals when we can (mostly when we can get free or reduced price tickets).

Since we have lived and traveled in countries other than America, perhaps I think more about cultural and lingual differences than some. Art, music, and math are universally understood. If ever you feel isolated, ignorant, or unaccepted in a foreign country, go to the symphony (or any music event) or a museum where you can understand and enjoy the environment just as well as anyone else there who speaks the native language.

OK, that was a rabbit trail. What I really wanted to share with you today is Dame Evelyn Glennie. She is the only professional solo percussionist in the world, and we had the privilege of hearing her perform Corigliano’s Conjurer with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Saturday evening.

We weren’t sure how well we would like it when we arrived at the concert hall, having never heard her before. But then, I figured it couldn’t be any worse than the violin concerto we endured at the last Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert we attended.

(Not that the violinist was bad – oh no! Robert McDuffie is quite talented! It’s just that, if you must know, I did not care for Rózsa’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 24. I’m sure some people will want to shoot me right about now, but please remember, I have already admitted that I do not understand music so well as I would like, and this is solely by humble opinion. This violin concerto was balanced out by the fact that we got to hear Copland’s Billy the Kid suite accompanied by James Westwater’s photochoreography. It was beautiful.)

I digress.

Dame Evelyn Glennie was brilliant. (And ridiculously talented what with her being a composer, performer, actress, writer, teacher, inspirational speaker, jewelry designer, and film and television personality.) We might actually buy some of her stuff.

Unless, of course, we can figure out a way to get it for free.

I mean, we are artsy and all, but we’re still cheapskates.