This Old House

Since Liz asked I thought I’d give a piano lesson update. It is going well. I’ve had three lessons so far. Besides actually playing the piano we are working on Music Theory and learning to read sheet music as well. Once I learned the tricks for remembering which note is which I am surprised that I can actually tell what notes are what. I’m not very fast or fluid mind you but I’m sure with practice that will get better. You’ve got to love flash cards. So after three weeks I can play a couple of simple tunes, I can somewhat read sheet music and I am starting to learn to play both hands AT THE SAME TIME which is just CRAZY!! I subject The cat to a lot of bad practicing. Lee is lucky he is traveling a lot so he doesn’t have to wear ear plugs :-)).
B

On a totally unrelated note although I love this mild winter we are having my sinuses don’t and now I have a cold which I’m sure will turn into a sinus infection because hey why should this time be any different. Almost makes me want below freezing temperatures…….almost, I’m not completely crazy!

I had my 1st piano lesson on Wednesday. I can now find middle C on the keyboard. I am practicing scales, reading music and intervals. Everytime I turn on the keyboard at home to play the cat looks at me like “Not again!”

Funny story - The girl who is teaching me is in High School. Very nice girl. Patience of a saint. She asked me why I wanted to learn piano so I told her I always wanted to play and what Pete said about making time for it and just doing it. She said ” Yeah I started late also, like 7th grade…..” It was all I could do not to laugh. I’m sure she meant nothing by it but I find it quite funny.

We are supposed to get a big snow storm today. They say it will start between 10-11 this morning with the heavy snow coming down betwen 1PM and 7PM. They are calling for about an inch an hour. JOY! The comute home should be fun. I stopped and topped off the tank this morning. And it’s BITTER cold outside. BITTER. Just like my attitude about winter.

Have I mentioned this winter how much I HATE winter. Just in case you forgot from last year….

I signed up for piano lessons today. My 1st lesson is a week from Wednesday. I can rent a keyboard from the music center to start. I’m excited! And yes, Denise, if you can play Little Drummer Boy on the piano I’ll learn it for you!

We are back! Fun was had by all. Lot’s of sun. I said it would rain every day but it never did. Just sun, sun and more sun. Here are some pics - yes - we are just back tonight and I’ve already downloaded the pics. Of course there were also pics from last Thanksgiving and Christmas on the same card but hey - better later than never right. Anyway - enjoy

Pictures from our balcony -

This is how Lee enjoyed himself:

To be fair, we spent everyday out in the sun all day and the sun makes you super tired after awhile. These pics were taken at the end of the day each day

We were there with about 40 other people for a wedding. I will post pics of that plus sunset and sunrise pics. But I leave you with this. You know how I love pottery! Pete will hate this but I love it!

Lee’s in Massachusets yet again. Let’s just say he’s glad he made the decision to stay on for no more than 3-6 months :-). He did get to have dinner with Paula and the girls yesterday while they were touring the countryside looking at colleges. That was a nice bonus! And yes, I am a little jealous

In the last couple of weeks, both of Lee’s sisters came to visit. Mike and Maryann were with us for about a week visiting friends and family and last weekend while they were still here Kathy drove down from Minnesota. It’s the first time in about 18 years that all three siblings have been together at one time. We did take some pictures of them together last Sunday when we all had dinner together (cooked beautifully by Den - she even made a home made cake at the spur of the moment and brought that also - Thank you Denny!) Everyone left early last week (including Lee) and it’s just me and Maggie for now, who right now is sitting in the window soaking up the warm weather watching the squirells. Speaking of warm weather….

Who doesn’t love Indian Summer. Fall is my favorite time of year anyway but this October has been incredible so far. September was wet and cold and now October is sunny and hot but cools down at night. It was 85 yesterday. 85!!! The tree’s are turning very fast and I’m sure colder weather is on its way but for now we will enjoy what we have. Especially since they keep saying in the news that this is going to be be a very cold and very snowy winter for us. JOY!!!! You all know how much I love that!

I know I haven’t posted in a while. Get over it. I lead a very boring life. Nothing ever happens worth mentioning. Nothing. Really. It’s so boring I have to write about a vaccum cleaner

So on the woot-off the other day they had a refurbished Dyson Vaccum cleaner. Now I’ve wanted one of these for a long time but really could not bring myself to pay the price. But an older model at 1/2 the price I could do. So I bought it. Wow. Is my house filthy! Seriously that vaccum can really suck (no pun intended). The amount of cat hair and dust it picked up off the floor was ridiculous! Eventually I will bite the bullet and buy the expensive animal one and move the older one into the basement for use down there. Eventually - not now.

Lee came home Friday after spending two weeks in the Boson Area. His sister and brother in law are coming to visit and are staying at our place this week so he won’t go back for a week and then will be gone again for almost two weeks and then we go on vacation! We are going to a wedding in Cancun and I can’t wait!

Yesterday I went to the movies with Den. Why you ask? Because she’s a sissy and is afraid of the sound of a circular saw and her neighbors where working on their roof. This is part of our conversation:

Jeannine: They are doing work next door, not at your house. The saw can’t hurt you
Denise: Well, it’s right outside my bedroom window and it could slip out of their hands and come thru the window.

She’s a freak! (I embellsihed our conversation a little -but not much)

So we went to see Contagion. Mostly because part of it was filmed at the old Sherman Hospital in Elgin but also because we had heard good things about it. Wow. What a great movie. Kind of scared the shit out of you. I wanted to go drown myself in hand sanitized when we left.

Okay - that’s all for now. Back to my boring life.

I touched a cow. We’ll post pics when I get home

We got in from Mrtlye Beach around midnight. It would have been earlier but it took 2 hours to get thru Cincinnati. If I had known 71/75 was under construction we would have went thru Louisville instead. Live and learn. We are tired but no one got burnt to a crisp or sick this year so we are calling it a sucess. I’d post pics but I only have the ones on myy phone. I’ll sync the phone tomorrow and see what I can do. I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed but not to going back to work.

Oh yeah - our passports have arrived also!!

As some of you may remember I got broncitis when we went to South Carolina last year. And a very nasty sinus infection when we went to Maine last October. And Bronctis when we went to Galvaston - you can see the trend.

Well this year I thought we’d try something different. My ear starting bothering me this weekend. Most would say what’s the big deal. Well for me that’s a precurser for things to come. And by Monday it was really hurting and by Monday afternoon I felt like I had the flu and my head was starting to fill up with snot. I didn’t sleep very well Monday night due to the flu like systems and the phlem. So instead of going to work Monday and waiting until it was full blow sinus infection I chose to stay home and start my drug reigment ahead of time. So I’m now on Allegra D (I’ve still got some of the prescription kind - I know they say the OTC stuff is the same but I think that’s bull) and Antibiotics and the Advair (which I was already taking). Let the sickness be now and not when I’m sitting at the beach watching Lee walk around with his metal detector and watching Denise bob up and down in the waves for hours on end (only stopping to come back in to relather with sunblock).

Other than that everything is fine. After seeing side by side before and after pics of Jopin, MO today, I find I have nothing to complain about.

Everyone else stay healthy!

It sure took it’s sweet time. It’s supposed to be 78 today. Even the nights are warmer now. Some of our bushes in front did not do well this winter. I don’t know what the problem is. Not sure if they just didn’t get enough water last summer. They were really pretty bushes with little violet flowers on them but half of each of the bushes is dead. We may just have to replace them. My burning bush doesn’t look so good either. Maybe I can get one of those soaking hoses that we can just lay by the bushes and then turn on. You know I’m not getting my hands dirty outside :-). I’d rather touch a cow!

Winter is coming…..

Thanks to Den the DVR recorder is opporational and I also figured out what the problem was the tuner on the computer so we are ready for recording in approx. 15 minutes. Disc’s will go out in the mail tomorrow from work.

Also, for those of you who enjoy Torchwood, Starz is doing a new mini series starting in July. Torchwood:Miracle something our other. Yeah!

Gotta go….Winter is coming!!

Jan 6th - N has her 14th Bday. As usual I’m very late getting her present out
Jan 26th - Dad has his 72nd Birthday.
Jan 31st - Den closes on her Pretty Pink House.
Feb 1st - Lee’s company announces they are closing their doors at the end of the year and moving to Massachusets. Note: We will NOT be going with.
Feb 5th - K turned 5!!!
Some other day in Feb - David Jr also had a bday
Feb 2nd - We have a blizzard that closes everything down for the day and then some. I really thought we’d have snow till May but it was all gone before the end of March!
Feb 19th - I turn 50. God I’m old.

March was kind of lame - nothing really happened other than we filed paperwork with the State to get Lee’s mom on Medicaid and did everything they asked us and they rejected it because they said we didn’t turn in all the paperwork they asked for (WHICH WE DID!) and now we have to appeal. I hate the State of Illinois Government Workers!

April 2nd - Den has a small gathering at her house to show it off. A good time was had by all that attended. I’m sure there will be more gatherings as other family members come in to town as well.

That’s it for now. Here’s a preview of 2nd quarter:

Easter will be at Den’s this year.
Paula has a birthday coming up.
J has a bday coming up
Jospeh will graduate from College!!!!
A trip to SC will be taken again
plus more to come.

Last night I dreamt that I almost touched a cow. If I had touched it would it have counted?

Mostly just because I haven’t posted in a while. The holidays were a blur and then back to work. I was a bit (okay a lot) under the weather this weekend but am feeling fine now. Not sure if it was a touch of the flu or a little bit of food poisining. Something sure didn’t like me. Or my cat for that matter either. She was sick and did not eat at all on Saturday but has slowely been getting back to normal also. Maybe she was just being sympathic with me. Hmmm…..

The 2nd reason for posting is now Mike and Liz will be forced to

One of my links over on the side is a blog written by Jenny Lawson aka The Bloggess. She’s crass and mostly talks about zombies and booze but she did a really nice thing this Christmas. Here’s the article from the Washington Post. This was pretty cool.

Stephanie is cancer free and officially done with her treatments. What a great Christmas Gift!

My friend Jen always says if it’s going to be cold it might as well snow. This year I almost agree with her. We have a little snow on the ground (nothing like Minnesota or Buffalo NY thank goodness). It has been bitter cold her since Thanksgiving. ENOUGH ALREADY!!! What the heck is it going to be like in February???

Okay, I got that out of my system.

Today Den, Rich and I went downtown to the Kristentine Market in Daley Plaza. As long as you were in the sun it wasn’t too bad but if you were in the shade you froze your everything off. Stll, we had a good time - Potato Pancakes (YUMMY), watching the pigeons cook themselves (there is an enternal flame monument and the pigeons where all around it warming themselves - we were jealous) and then we went to Schaumburg and had a yummy lunch at Mongonlian Stir Fry and then made Rich go clothes shopping with us (40% off the entire store at Avenue - to good to pass up). It was good day but I told them next year I’d just meet them for lunch. The market is too cold for me!!

Wraping of the presents will commence tomorrow plus laundry. The basement is looking AWSOME!! A big shout out goes to Den for all her help cleaning it out and putting down the new carpet. Who knew it was that big!! Mom and Dad and Den are coming over tomorrow for Dinner (we are ordeing out from our new favorite italian restaurant because I’m lazy) and then just a couple more days and the big event!

By the way, just so everyone know now, I’m competely changing up Christmas Days menu. Change is good!

Well Turkey day has come and gone. It was a great day. Good Food. Good Company. Lots of help from Den, Rich and Gina. I COULD NOT have done it without them. The Turkey was PERFECT! I used Alton Brown’s fool proof recipe. We brined the bird and stuff it’s cavity with aromatics and it turned out beautiful (I have a picture I will download it and add it) and was delish! That was my first time brining a bird before. It will not be the last.

The house is clean (who know how large my house is when it’s clean and I throw half of it away) and ready for Christmas. Bring it on!

Meeting Den for coffee later so I finally got dressed. It’s only 5:30PM.

I love this time change. I needed that extra hour. I’m up, I’m dressed and ready to go. That hasn’t happened in a long long time. Now if I could just get Lee up…..

I have this obsession with those little books filled with recipes that you see at the check out at grocery stores. I buy them ALL the time. I never make anything out of them. I think maybe one recipe in 25 years. Not a good ratio. I also like the special additions of magazines for holidays with recipes in them also. Also buy those all the time, never make anything. Do you see a pattern here?

Well I recently bought this Holiday edition of Homes and Garden Magazine and it had a receipe for Chicken Wellington’s in them that sounded interesting and easy so I convinced Den that we should make them for dinner some Saturday. We were going to do it last Saturday but I left the magazine at work. She sent me a text Friday and reminded me to bring home the magazine and we gave it a try yesterday.

Super Easy. Super Super Delicious. It really only has 4 ingredients that you might have to purchase and the other two are an egg and breadcrumbs which most people have anyway. We were worried that the chicken would either be not cooked enough or too dry but that was not the case. Cooked perfectly and super moist. If anyone is interested in the recipe I can give it to you. It looks like something fancy and could be used for a special occasion but it’s easy enough for a regular dinner (maybe a weekend when you have a little time - prep time is around 1/2 hour)

We even took pics!