Trying a Pinterest tip

  While browsing through Pinterest the other day I came across an interesting 'hack' for making beat up wood floors look better. You simply take a couple of tea bags and steep them in boiling water until the water cools down then mop the hardwood floors with the tea.

Since I had the water from processing the pineapple preserves on hand I added three tea bags and left this to steep and cool:

 

I poured this into a small bucket and used my mop

 

Our floors are pretty 'shabby chic', weathered, scratched, and 85 years old but I was happy with the tea results. They aren't shiny but the color is better:

 

I will be treating the floors with this again, probably about once a month.

Paying some attention to the 'garden;'

 I have a list of jobs I want to complete during this week and the next and one of them is to purchase and plant my summer flowers and herbs. Another one is clearing all the weeds from the brick patio out back and then washing down the table, chairs, and umbrella so we can use them. So far we have had three days of rain on and off and the patio project is moving at a snail's pace.
I did go to the nursery yesterday and ended up going over my budget of $60. I kind of figured this amount wasn't going to be enough. I spent just over $100 ($119 and some change) but the largest amount of that was for the hydrangea bush that will fill the space previously occupied by a rose bush that didn't make it through the harsh winter last year. It was $45 because I wanted one that had some growth on it.

 

Adult son will be doing the heavy digging and getting this in the ground.

I also purchased a beautiful hanging basket of Superbells in a buttercup color for the shepherd's hook in front of the porch:

I rounded out the purchases of two pots of purslane in a yellow color

These I will transplant into bigger pots along with a variety of the three flats of flowers I purchased

blue lobelia

assorted colored nicotania

 

and these lovely pink and white striped torenia.

I made up two nice pots with nicotania and lobelia

and two large pots with purslane, torenia, and lobelia

and a small planter box with torenia

 

The remainder of the flats will go into a large planter for next to the side door, a couple of smaller planters as well as an empty hanging basket for the back patio.

 

 

 

 

Free and not so free to me

At the close of the school year I was the recipient of two very nice gift cards to Target, one for $50 and a second one for $30. On Saturday I made my way to the store to use these cards for some items I'd been wanting. Not things we necessarily needed but things I'd had on my list of items for the house. I picked up a new broom and dustpan (our old one while still serviceable just wasn't doing the job I'd like it to do, it will become the cellar/driveway broom), a container of carpet deodorizer (ok at least one item was something we needed), a set of taper candles in cream as well as a ball shaped candle in cream to replace one that had gotten broken on the iron candle holder in the living room.

The new candle is the slightly larger one in the center. The empty space has been driving me nuts for quite some time. I also used the gift cards to "purchase" two new summer weight (not fleece) throw blankets for the two leather couches. To keep the room looking not quite so masculine and to soften it up a bit I have accessorized with throw pillows and blankets on the couch, love seat, recliner. All throw pillows have been either gifts or purchased at Big Lots (I love their home décor section and the prices)

I also purchased a new white tablecloth for the next FREE item I received this week. My married daughter K was the recipient of a beautiful pottery barn farm table and spindle back chairs in a cherry wood finish that will seat 8 people. She had a smaller farmtable with black legs and a maple finish top with 6 spindle back chairs that she asked if I would like to have. I snapped it up since the oval dining room table I inherited from my mom was very wobbly and two of the nuts that held the legs on were stripped and would not tighten any longer. Adult son J and I took apart this table and hauled it to the tree lawn for trash day. He then used his pickup to get the new set. I  had purchased four nice faux leather dining chairs with maple legs a couple of years ago. We decided to use one of these at the computer desk, a second one at the roll top desk in our living room, and the other two for the head and foot of the new table. Four of the spindle back chairs that came with this set went on the sides of the table and the other two replaced the worn oak ones we had in our kitchen. The two oak chairs went on our large front porch around the drop leaf table that is out there for a small outdoor 'eating' section. 

 

The tapers and tablecloth are new from Target:

 

GF and I dropped into an estate sale also over the weekend. I spotted a waffle weave cotton throw in a red and white for $2 and snatched that up for the leather recliner.

 

I also picked up a nice framed country setting picture for $10

 

and a set of four Currier and Ives decorative small plates that match the prints I have in the living room for $3 for the whole set. Unfortunately I forgot to grab the plates out of GF's car so I have no picture of those. I will use a plate hanger that I already have to display these in our dining room.

It makes me feel good to tweak our décor at home and gives the rooms a fresh look. It will also be great to eat at a table that doesn't move around on you. At a total cost of $18 out of my pocket for the estate sale items I think I did mighty good.

 

Pardon our construction dust....

  For the last several years I have lived in a kitchen that was desperately in need of ceiling repair, new paint, new counters, new sink, and a new floor. A leaking second floor porch put several holes in the breakfast nook area and a combination of leaks and bathroom renovation added some impressively large holes to the main kitchen ceiling area. Adult son who lives at home works in the flooring industry but previously worked for a home builder. He is completely capable of tearing out and replacing said ceiling (with a little help since it is not a one man job) but as is usually the case when there is the money there is no time and when there is the time there is no money.
Here is a picture of the main kitchen ceiling (and the plaster wall which sustained damage from the now repaired leaking) to show you what I mean:

 

But it seems as if the cosmos has come around in our favor. I came home a couple of weekends ago from GF's house to a lovely surprise. Adult son and a buddy of his had torn down the ceiling in the breakfast nook area and totally replaced it as well as repairing part of a plaster wall in that area that had been damaged:

 

A new ceiling light fixture is already purchased and ready to go once son is done with the sanding and painting. The main kitchen area will be next! The new dry wall is currently living in front of the dining room window seat and son already has a new ceiling fan to replace the really ugly fluorescent fixture that has been there for years. The bow window that you can partially see in the above picture does not open and our stove does not have a fan hood so a ceiling fan will be a real joy once it is in place. On the list of things I plan to do over the summer (or spring break depending on how the ceiling comes along) will be to totally paint this kitchen. The sponge painting and stenciled border are old and dated and need to go. We are also talking about sanding down the cupboards and painting them white (son would like to replace them entirely but sadly there is no money for that) and possibly replacing the countertops. A new double stainless steel sink (gifted to son by ex builder boss) is in a box down cellar waiting to be put in place as well. Our current sink is porcelain and badly chipped. And finally son is hot to replace the floor which can be done very inexpensively since he can purchase the materials at a floorer's discount.

Seems as if this old house (85 years young this year) always has a need. It feels good to see work finally getting done on this.

 

The forgotten holiday

Lots of work and out of work busy-ness has kept me from blogging as often as I would like to. With the Christmas season rapidly approaching this will probably continue to be the case.
My favorite holiday is not Christmas but Thanksgiving, a holiday I feel is often overlooked or forgotten in our rush towards gift giving cheer. Over the last several years I have made a point to collect decorations for both the inside and the outside of my home to reflect my love of the Thanksgiving holiday. What is better I ask than a day dedicated to counting your blessings, spending time with the people you love, and enjoying some good food?
Taking advantage of having election day off from work this year I made a point after spending a lovely day watching my youngest grandbabe of getting out these Thanksgiving decorations.
I began by hanging this fall wreath on my side door (I already had one up on the front door, somehow this smaller wreath got stored with the Thanksgiving decorations instead of the generic fall & Halloween decorations).

 

I then gathered and set up my front porch. I got the set of wooden "turkey parts" at a craft show I attended this year with a friend. It is a neat thing to do with a pumpkin that was part of the fall/Halloween display.

 

Here is a closer shot of the table and chair display using a Fall sign I picked up for a couple of dollars on clearance at a local craft store:

The antique drop leaf table used to be in our breakfast nook until I found a 1940s drop leaf enamel table. An item I had been coveting for a long time. this table and the chairs (which I intend to paint this coming summer) make a nice spot for a morning cup of coffee in the summer or a good place to perch with my laptop when the weather is warm.

A simply scarecrow in the bed next to the mailbox

 

And a fall flag complete my exterior display

 

 

I'm back!!!

I cannot believe it has been two months since my last blog post. Going back to work and getting back into the routine has been a real struggle this school year.  On top of the usual rearrangement of schedules with two kids now commuting to a local college and my work day being 11 hours five days a week I have faced a few minor health issues.
Thankfully I have health insurance these days due to those extra long work hours though. A check up plus some blood work revealed that my BP is a bit high although not high enough to need meds. A simple change in diet to eliminate foods high in sodium is helping. Blood work revealed my total cholesterol is not good and my triglycerides are also high. After doing some research on Lipitor I declined the prescription in favor of more dietary tweaking, limiting red meat to once a week, eating more salmon and tuna, choosing Egg Beaters over whole eggs, and adding a daily Niacin supplement to the MegaRed fish oil I already take. More blood work in three months should tell if these changes are making a difference. Following doctor's advice I am also making myself get at least 7 hours of sleep each night and eating regularly. A scare during the weekday where I got dizzy and started seeing double was a big reminder that it isn't safe to fool around with my blood sugar levels.
I have also added a five day a week 30 minute 2 mile power walk to my mornings. Two of my fellow staff members and I meet early in the gym to do this together. I am feeling pretty good now and my energy levels are rising. And I'm already noticing a difference in how the waistband of my jeans fits. All good news.
On the home front we are in full winter preparedness mode. With the Farmer's Almanac and the weathermen predicting a winter similar in temperature to last year I am being especially vigilant. Next Saturday my GF is coming to give the furnace a cleaning and maintenance check. It is 30 years old and there is no room in the budget for replacement so keeping this healthy is a must.  A new furnace filter has already been installed since I was forced to turn on the heat three times this week for short periods of time to take the chill out of the house. I have programmed the thermostat to reflect the fact that the house is empty of people for longer hours during the day now that youngest son is in college. Window film has already been purchased as has a case of fireplace logs. More logs will be bought as well as a couple more draft dodgers in the coming weeks. I am also considering hanging an old flannel sheet or even a thermal blanket we no longer use over the French doors in the dining room. This is how we let the dogs in and out of the yard but these doors are old and very drafty. Last year we hung up a cotton sheet and it helped but I think something heavier would be  even more effective. Our main floor was the area hardest to heat and keep warm last winter so my focus is on improving our winterization methods there.
Some much needed yard maintenance has also gone on. Last year we had the top part of a dead poplar tree come down on the power lines during a storm and this summer yet another one came down on the fence this time luckily missing those power lines. The GF and my adult son J who lives at home spent a Saturday removing 5 more dead poplars that were do-able with ropes and chain saws. We still had two very tall (one 12 foot, one 10 foot) dead poplars remaining. Yesterday we rented a bucket man lift ($168 for 5  hours) and J and a friend of his took down those last remaining trees as well as the 10 foot black walnut tree that was in a bad spot. The yard looks a cyclone hit it. J will spend time cutting those trees down into moveable pieces and another friend of his is going to take all of the wood to burn in his wood stove this winter. We considered keeping some for our fireplace but I don't like the creosote buildup  you get and decided to stick with the processed logs we buy.
I finally did a real grocery shopping trip two weeks ago. The first full sized trip I've taken since stocking up last June. Surprisingly we still have quite a bit of stuff in the pantry and the freezer as well. I did have to restock a few pantry essentials (juice, snacks, coffee creamer, steak sauce, mustard), get in some meat ( a whole pork loin, some ground beef, ground bison, corned beef, chicken, an eye of round, bacon, and chicken sausage and cheddar brats) and fish (a large package of salmon fillets and several cans of tuna), some dairy (milk, cheese), and fresh produce (loaded up on the seasonal items of squash and apples as well as salad produce). I also bought cleaning supplies, toilet paper, and some toiletry items. Next week I plan on restocking pastas, smart balance, and things like detergent, fabric softener, cat litter, cat food, and more fresh produce.
I've missed sharing here and hopefully now that I feel I have more of a grip on my free time I will back on a regular basis.

Bookshelf Project

  One of the projects I've been meaning to get to this summer was a total clean out of the two built in bookshelves on either side of my fireplace. I love books and my home is filled with them. They had gotten a bit out of hand lately with books just stacked on the floor behind our tv and stacked on top of other books lined up on the cubby shelves above our mantle. In addition we had a full set of encyclopedias with year books from the mid 1960s just taking up room in one of the book cases and another set of Time Life Countries around the world from the same time frame in the second bookshelf. It was time for these books to go so the first thing I did was clear these off the shelves and box them. Sadly after a few phone calls I discovered I can't even give these away anywhere. The boxes will go out to the tree lawn on the next trash day. Maybe the recycling truck will take them (I'd feel better about that then just seeing them go to the dump). I removed all the books that were stacked on top of other books in the cubbies, removed all books from the bookshelves (working one side at a time), wiped down the shelves, then neatly placed all the books in the shelves. These are pretty deep so the paperbacks are two rows to a shelf. Beleive it or not this little project took up the better part of Tuesday afternoon. But I'm pretty pleased with the results

 

In case you are wondering, yes I still have a lighted pine garland on the fireplace. I just love how it looks so much in the evening that I didn't put it away after Christmas.  And as you can see by photo number one I now have a small pile of wood for the fireplace and a wicker basket with books in it next to the fireplace instead of stacks of books piled on the floor behind it.

I finished my Tuesday project day with a continued clean out and shredding of old mail that has piled up as well as taking down and laundering all the dining room and living room curtains, the throw pillows on the couches, and the throw blankets as well.

It was a really productive day!

Projects!

Yesterday, today, and Thursday are going to be devoted to getting my list of projects shortened. I have not felt at all productive on the homefront since vacation started, although I don't feel as if I have not been busy on other things. Wednesday this week will be spent at youngest son's college orientation day.
Yesterday my project du jour was to empty, wash out and then organize the cabinet in which I keep my spices, baking supplies, and teas. Of course as so often happens one thing led to another projectwise. This cabinet is pulling away from the wall at the top for some reason so adult son who didn't work yesterday figured if I was emptying it out anyway he wanted to get to it and re-secure it to the wall. I totally emptied everything out of the cabinet, washed the shelves and interior walls and then son did his thing. Sadly he discovered the reason the cabinet is pulling away is there is no stud to attach the screws to. He put an anchor in and did his best but there is still a slight gap at the top between wall and cabinet. The shelves in these cabinets (all of them) have also began to sink in the middle over the years. He turned all the shelves upside down and told me to put the heaviest items in the center where the shelves now curve upward. The weight should eventually make them level again. I can see that this is going to lead to a whole new series of projects, son commented that he was going to start buying unfinished new cabinets one at a time to replace the budget oak ones we have now. The entire kitchen is in bad shape. The ceiling has holes from the bathroom remodel and the second floor porch leak (adult son tore off porch and rebuilt porch floor sealing it good against leaking last week) and needs to be totally torn out and redone. Floor is cheap vinyl, 18 years old, and in horrible shape. Adult son said it is time to replace ceiling and flooring and we might as well then do the cabinets and countertops. We have a nice stainless double sink in a box down cellar that he got free somewhere so we will change that out as well. Of course all of this will take time so I don't expect anything except the ceiling tear out to happen within the next couple of months. After all he still has to build the new railings around the upstairs porch in his 'free' time. And speaking of the porch, adult son also loaded up the entire bed of his pickup yesterday and hauled all the rubble away. $20 at the landfill to get rid of this.
As for the cabinet project once I shop vac'ed the sawdust from the re-securing up I then organized all the stuff as I put it back in. Top shelf is all baking supplies, middle shelf is large bulk containers of spices as well as my collection of Pampered Chef & Penzey's rubs and spice combos. Bottom shelf is single herbs and spices, alphabetized on one side and all my teas on the other.

Making a list

 and checking it twice is what is going on today. Our temperatures have fallen into what can only be described as 'fall-like". A high of mid 60s in mid July is almost unheard of here but I plan on taking advantage of the cool down. Especially since we will be more summer like in the mid to high 70s the rest of the week. Still not our typical swealtering July heat and humidity but I'm sure we will get some more of that sooner or later. I'm making a list of what needs to be done and doing it. I will be out and about visiting tomorow and Friday and then with the GF over the weekend so today is my domestic duty day this week.
On my list for today:
 1.Bake bread. We are all out except for the ciabatta rolls I bought yesterday. This needs to be remedied.
2.Declutter piled up mail. Between myself, adult son and college age kids we have accumulated a stack of mail that is mighty impressive in size. I will go through all of it, shredding anything that does not need to be kept. The important stuff like mortgage, insurances, auto payment, and utilities are paperless but we still get mailings from all these places regarding offers, etc. A new system of shredding and disposing daily will be put in place.
3.Give the house a good clean. Between graduation party prepping and running around the house is dusty, the floors need attention, and the bathroom is in need of serious work (except for the toilet which gets cleaned on an every other day basis to avoid grossing me out entirely).
4.Finally if the sun comes out (currently it is overcast and looks like rain is imminent) I will weed the brick patio out back . I also plan on getting college age son to dig out the dead rose bush stump out front in the bed by the drive so that I can get a new hydrangea planted there if I make it out today anywhere.
Wish me luck!

An orgy of cleanliness and something a bit different

  Yesterday was highly satisfying for me. Outside of a small trip to take youngest son to pick up a job app at a new fast food joint near us and then dropping him off at girlfriend's house I spent my entire day in my home. It felt so good. Cooler temperatures in the mid 70s and rain most of the day meant I concentrated on doing inside chores.
Although I prefer to hang laundry outside I have gotten quite behind in my laundry chores plus I wanted to wash all the throw pillows and blankets from the living room so I decided to just go ahead and use the dryer and catch up. I still have three loads to do today and it is threatening rain once again. I will finish up with the dryer and then it is strictly clothesline useage from here on out.  After feeding the cat and the dogs I went down cellar and tossed the first load in the washer.
My next goal was to give my small kitchen a good cleaning. The fact that the kitchen while eat in is still pretty small and it took me a good two and half hours of cleaning should tell you how deep this clean was. Top to bottom literally with me using the swiffer duster to knock down a couple of cobwebs on the ceiling (I cannot tell you how much I hate popcorn ceilings and the way everything sticks to them. UGH), dusting the ceiling fan and the tops of the cabinets, and working my way down to giving the floor a good wash. Continuing to move laundry along: washing, drying, folding, putting away I moved into the living and dining areas of my home (the entire first floor), dusting (once again top to bottom...I love my swiffer with the extendable handle, makes those 10 foot ceilings a breeze), sweeping, vacuuming, cleaning glass cabinet fronts and the storm door windows.
Midway through my orgy of cleanliness I realized I hadn't taken out anything for dinner. I knew it was going to just be myself and adult son so I grabbed a package of three pork chops from the freezer. I checked my menu plans and decided to swap the greek pork chops idea for a new recipe I'd been eyeballing from Gooseberry Patch's 101 Farmhouse Favorites for Maple Pork Chops.
I took:
 1/2 cup maple syrup ( I used genuine but 'fake' syrup would be fine)
3 tbl. soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
and mixed them all up together. I placed the chops in a glass dish and poured half the marinade over the top as per the recipe directions:

I wanted to tweak this so I added about 1/2 teaspoon of rosemary to the marinade I poured over the chops then covered them and let them marinate for an hour, turning them occasionally. While they were marinating I scrubbed and put a couple of russet potatoes in the oven to bake and threw together a tossed salad.
When the hour was up I heated my gas grill and then put the chops on, turning every 6 minutes they were done within 18 minutes. I removed them from the grill, drizzled the remaining marinade over the top and plated them up with the potato topped with smart balance spread, plain nonfat yogurt, and salt and pepper:

Salad went into a small side bowl since I didn't want the dressing to mix up with the marinade flavor.  The reviews were good, both adult son and I liked the flavor and I was glad I'd added the rosemary. I think it would've been a bit bland without it.

My son the miracle worker!

  Believe it or not we have been without a fully functioning bathroom sink for about 2 years. It amazes me how long that time frame looks in print when it really didn't seem that long in actual time. Adult son renovated our old and tired bathroom while college age daughter and teen son and I were visiting family out of town two years ago. At that time we were having issues with the sink draining very slowly. Despite removing the pedestal sink from the room, replacing the drain pipes inside the sink and running a manual snake down the pipes inside the wall the drain continued to be so slow and eventually stopped draining entirely.
We moved tooth brushing operations to the kitchen sink and hand washing to the bath tub. On and off adult son has putzed around with the sink trying to get it to work. No luck. Son in law that used to work in plumbing tried and said he thought we'd have to tear out the kitchen ceiling to get to the section of pipe running from the sink. The ceiling already has issues from the bathroom renovation (replacing section of drain pipe from bathtub) and a leaking second story porch that adult son has since fixed. The holes remain and frankly I just didn't want more holes. Adult son has promised to totally remove and replace ceiling but there just hasn't been the time and the money all at the same time so far. Needing to get serious about this issue he has promised this ceiling will get replaced SOON.
In the meantime son had a few days off from work and according to him got bored. I wish he'd be bored more often. He has a buddy with an electric snake that he borrowed. He once again removed the pedestal sink from the bathroom to get to the pipes inside the wall and ran that snake. Funny thing happened, when the sink drained the water backed up in the bath tub. Hmmmm....Adult son then made use of the hole in the kitchen ceiling to remove a section of bath drain pipe and run that electric snake directly into that pipe and amazingly enough that seemed to do the trick. Both tub and sink now drain beautifully!!!!! According to son the problem was at the t-joint where both sets of drains came together.
Now that the sink was working once more son decided we needed to upgrade it a bit. It is the original 1929 bathroom sink that was put in when the house was built. The porcelain is in great shape for a sink so old ( few rust stains but overall not bad) but it had two separate faucets for hot and cold water. It also had a capped off center hole that we suspect once held a soap dispenser. Son took a trip to Home Depot, came home with a center faucet, a new drain cover  (the old drain cover was a simple rubber stopper), and two caps and got to work. The result:

 

All three of the kids and I agreed it is really awesome to once again be able to brush our teeth and wash our hands at a bathroom sink. Its the little things in life.

Antarctica called....

and it wants its weather back. It seems as if Mother Nature is playing the same song over and over this year. Snow. Cold. Cold . Snow. Snow and Cold. Regardless of the weather the work week goes on. Temperatures have yet to get so cold and the snow so bad that another snow day would be called. For that my checkbook is grateful. I'll take that morning commute being three times as long as usual if it means getting paid. One issue we are having at home though in regards to the cold is that when temperatures hover around zero degrees in the early morning our furnace is struggling to get the house warmed up. We have a programmable thermostat similar to this one: . It is set for 68 degrees from 6 am until 8 am, then 60 degrees from 8 am until 2 pm, then 68 from 2 pm until 10 pm, then back down to 60 overnight.  Friday morning we awoke to zero degrees outdoors and  I noticed that after running for over an hour the main floor of the house was still only 63 degrees. A discussion with adult son J and looking at the subzero temperatures predicted for the upcoming week and we are going to try something new. Instead of fluctuating temperatures we are going to leave the thermostat at 68 degrees around the clock. We are hoping that this means the furnace will have to run less to maintain a constant temperature. The natural gas bill I received for heat (stove and hot water) mid January included the two days of polar vortex temperatures in early January. It was more than twice the amount of last year's bill for the same time frame (2013: $111.11....2014:$230.80). We have covered the main floor windows with window insulation, covered our French style patio doors with a sheet the is secured at the bottom with a heavy draft dodger and a throw rug pushed up on top of that (this door is always drafty). Our front door is insulated as is our side door. A shower curtain hangs at the top of the basement steps to prevent cold air from immediately hitting the furnace. We've taken all the measures that can be done to keep the main floor as warm as possible. Hopefully our new plan of a constant temperature while the weather is so severely cold will help the bill.

In the meantime we wander around wearing hoodies and snuggies like a cape and cover up with multiple throw blankets when sitting down.  And when we get really cold we all huddle in the bathroom where despite the furnace vent being completely closed it is perpetually sub tropical hot.

A trip to Lowes

 After a beautiful walk with the dog in the softly falling snow GF and I set out to run a couple of errands. We determined that Lowe's would be our first stop. I was in search for five gallon buckets with lids as a new storage system for bread flour, AP flour, and sugar at home. GF wanted mini paint bucket liners and a couple of new faceplates for his house. Our next stop was going to be Target and our final stop was to be OfficeMax for GF to purchase desk calendars for work.
Lowe's had five gallon buckets for $2.87 a piece or 'food grade' buckets for $4.87 a piece. Lids, the same ones for both, were $1.97 each. Since I plan on lining the buckets with large clear plastic bags saved from work and not intending to keep the dry goods for an extended length of time (just want to keep them free from damp and bugs in the summertime) I settled on the regular buckets. I bought three to start (may get more of these for storing bags of dried beans & pastas) at a cost of $4.84 each for both bucket and lid.  I also noticed a cat litter pan on the clearance shelf of the pet supplies aisle and asked customer service to scan for a price. It was $4.04. Sold. And we've been having an issue with my pug Mr Guido chewing on furniture. I grabbed a bottle of bitter spray to prevent chewing for another $2.18.
Total cost out the door : $21.84 with tax.
We skipped our next stop at Target. I'd purchased the litter box and had begun to feel pretty exhausted (that late night rearing its ugly head). GF ran into OfficeMax while I waited in the car. I'm sure we can borrow some litter from a neighbor to tide us over until I get to the store tomorrow.
An hour's nap put me right again after we got back to GF's house.

Merry Christmas to Me: My new 'toy'

  While browsing around the internet checking out those Christmas gift ideas I mentioned before I came across an item I thought would make a wonderful addition to my own kitchen: the Cuisinart 5-in-1 griddler. I coincidentally had a $10 coupon for use on Amazon. I gave it some thought, compared the price of this item at several websites and I realized that not only did Amazon have the best price before using my coupon, once I'd used it and my Prime account free shipping I was way ahead of the game, so I decided I'd earned a treat for myself. I gifted myself with this and ordered one. Free shipping, $10 off, and it arrived on my doorstep in two days.
I immediately washed it and took it on its first test drive making 'grilled' steaks for dinner on Tuesday. They came out really nice, far better than the old George Forman I used to have. So on Wednesday I made 'grilled' pork chops. Also a winner.
This week I will be testing out the Panini press feature! This is the perfect size for our family of 4 now at home, it cleans easily since the plates (one side for grilling, one for use as a griddle) snap right out and go in the dishwasher, and it uses way less power than turning on the stove. And I didn't have to brave the cold and using our gas grill outdoors!!