NaBloPoMo Day 25: 5QF

 

 

1. Is there a special dish you prepare that you are famous for?

 

Nope. I'm a pretty good...cook I guess you could say. I can follow a recipe like a champ. But I'm not that creative so I don't really have a signature dish. The family (the Mister and my kids) really like my marinara sauce which is, in fact, my own creation. I don't have a special holiday dish though.

2. Are you (did you) go Black Friday shopping ?

 

We just got home from Black Friday shopping. I'm not one of those crazies (no offense) that goes out at midnight (Midnight?!?! Really?!?! Wtf is up with that?!?!) or gets up at 4 am though. I got up at 8 this morning because I decided I wasn't tired anymore. Showers, clothes, hair and makeup. Then the Mister and I hit a few stores, had lunch, and came home. And you know what? We were still able to take advantage of some really fabulous Black Friday deals and we didn't have to do this or this or get up at an ungodly hour to do so.

3. What are your strangest holiday traditions? 

I don't think we have any strange holiday traditions. We do Chinese food on Christmas Eve a la A Christmas Story though. The Mister makes a pumpkin cheese cake for dessert instead of a traditional pumpkin pie. I can't think of anything else that would qualify as weird.

4. Pecan or pumpkin pie? (She actually asked "Apple or pumpkin?" I just T-giving'ed it!) 

I hate pecan. Ick. I like pumpkin pie but like I said above, we have pumpkin cheese cake every year. It's way superior to pumpkin pie.

5. When will you put up your Christmas tree?

 

We like real trees so we wait until it gets a little closer to Christmas to put up our tree so that it won't be all dried out and needle-less on Christmas morning. So, we'll probably get a tree the second week of December or so. 

Enjoying Our Weekend

When’s the last time I posted? It’s been a few days, huh?

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. Nice and quiet. LOVELY! All the food turned out great. The turkey was juicy, the gravy was flavorful, and the pumpkin cheesecake was light and creamy.

Yesterday we didn’t do any Black Friday shopping. We got the bill from our lawyer in the mail which put a damper on the day. It must be pretty great to be a lawyer and to charge $25.00 to read an e-mail. In all, she spent 2 hours and 40 minutes on our case at $125.00 an hour. You do the math. AND, we’re not even done with her yet. Oh well. She was a necessary evil because without her, our tenants would have gotten away with even more than they already have.

Today, the Mister and I are going to check out a health food store we’ve never been to. No, we’re not health food nuts, but I like those stores nonetheless. They sell offbeat stuff you can’t find other places.

Oh. And I think my monitor is going out on me. I have these very faint bouncy lines that move down the screen and everything has a little shadow-like trail to the right of it. It’s annoying but not enough to where I’m going to spring for a new one yet. I’m going to do my best to deal with it until after Christmas. The weirdness is only a little hard on the eyes. I’ll have to make sure and wear my contacts or glasses whenever I’m working to minimize the eye strain but I think it’ll be okay. If anyone has any suggestions as to what could be causing this or how to fix it, I’d kiss your feet in gratitude. See?

You can click on the picture to make it bigger. The lines are at the top over the tool bar and the shadow trails are pretty obvious.

Anyway, I gotsta get ready to check out that store. Yes. That’s right. It’s 12:28 pm and I’m still in my pajamas. Deal with it.

Black Friday

I don't do Black Friday. I think it's absolutely ridiculous to go shopping at 4 am. Nothing is that important. And how much are you really saving? There are sales before, during, and after Christmas. Are Black Friday sales with having to get up at the butt crack of dawn to fight HUGE crowds in the parking lot, in the stores, and then at the checkouts really worth the savings that are supposedly so much better than any other day of the year? I sincerely doubt it. Call me pessimistic. I am. So what did I do today instead?

Well, we started out the day with a hunt for Christmas window clings. I like window clings. They're cute and easy decorations. Once we finally found window clings (I had to look in five different stores) we headed home to put up our Christmas decorations. We put lights in all the street-facing windows, around the pillars on my front porch, and across the front of the house. I also put big bows on the pillars and on the little corner fence in my yard. It looks really nice if I do say so myself and I will. I also put out all my Christmas stuff in the house too. No tree yet cuz we get real ones and I like to wait until we get a little closer to Christmas so it will last until Jan 1. We need one more strand of lights on the front of the house and then we'll be all set. I didn't get to decorate last year because...well, for a lot of reasons so we're going all out this year to make up for it.

I also stocked up on my new favorite drink. Does anyone like green or white tea? I hate all varieties of teas except for white and green tea and my favorite brand is Snapple green tea with mango and Snapple white tea with raspberry. I can't seem to get enough of it. YUUUMMMM!!

Lastly, I absolutely soaked myself giving the dogs a bath. They have FLEAS!!! We've never had fleas before and I CAN'T STAND IT!!! We've been using Frontline every month since May of 2005 and this is the first time we've had to deal with fleas. I called the vet and they said that everyone's having a rough year with fleas. I'm pissed though because Frontline costs $43 per dog so that's $86 down the freaking drain. Literally. And that's not mention the money we've spent on pesticides for the yard and carpets. I'm calling Frontline on Monday to give them a piece of my mind. I have a really hard time living with bugs of any variety. It makes me feel dirty and it's embarrassing. Ugh!