christmas shopping is over!

every gift (except the one bobo is responsible to buy) has been ordered or purchased. no more shopping for me. whoo-whoo! done before december. if i didn't have such bad knees, i'd be up dancing around. i am that excited!

note to self: dec. 15, follow-up on bobo's gift!

now i have to giftwrap. i usually thoroughly clean the living room and take it over. wish i had remembered that part before i bought such large gifts.

frugal hint:  buy bows and rolls of giftwrap mid-january. i'm using some nice thick hallmark paper i got for 90% off. have lots of tape and sharpen the scissors!*

*always consult a professionnal before using sharp implements.

do you ever wish you had a personal chef?

i could seriously use a crew from martha stewart living to help me with thanksgiving.

i agreed to have thanksgiving so bobo's elderly aunt could come and enjoy the meal and not exert her self. today her son called and she had a stroke, so she is going to be in rehab for about a week. he is planning on taking her some food on thursday, so i really don't have to cook ANYTHING.

but my son root is coming over and bringing the kids. chicky has to work, so at least i will have a nice peaceful meal. i love my grandkids and i can't wait to cook for them.

i took a nap this afternoon and i was woozy, kind of carsick, when i woke up. i hope i am able to eat something later and get over this before thanksgiving. the thought of food sounds really repulsive to me right now. i even drank a REAL coke and it tasted like crap. that has never happened in my life.

but at least i have all the food bought, so i don't have to get out tomorrow and fight the barbarians. i did most of the shopping last week and bobo bought the last 4 things yesterday. so we are set.

i just hope this illness goes away before thursday. just in case, we are doing half of the cooking tomorrow. stuff like deviled eggs and some of the casseroles. we are also doing the ham tomorrow, and the turkey/dressing thursday. i am also making a cherry pie and an egg custard pie.

i hope i get to enjoy thanksgiving.

fear of crowds

i'm almost finished christmas shopping. i have purchased gifts for almost everyone on-line. i am having bobo buy a gift for his aunt because she stumps me every year. i have to buy christmas gifts for the kids, but my dr. oz cards came on thursday, i think. so each grandkid gets $50 worth of stuff. i may buy some smaller things for them later as my budget allows, but i am using the target card for their main gift.

i dread buying their gifts, as i'm sure the crowds won't part to allow me to float to the front of the line. i haven't ordered their gifts on line, as i like touching them and making sure it is something they will love.

something i would play with, i guess, is the true criteria.

i'm back!

i have nothing to say today, but i'll try.

i met the kids and root at a chinese place. SUSHI BUFFET PLACE! mmmmmm, i even got sweet tea!

i have been sleeping since i got home.

now i'll be up all night.

playing the sims 2,

tired

i can't believe that thanksgiving is right around the corner. i think i am behind schedule.

severely behind schedule.

i hope to be back soon!

wizard of (dr.) oz

thank you, dr. oz!

i just got an email today that i won a $50 target card in the dr. oz giveaway last week. yeah, free christmas money! it's supposed to help me eat better breakfast, which i have started to do anyway, but i think christmas is better than breakfast any day! this gift card will exactly pay for for the doll at target itchy wants, the same doll that has a coupon for a free outfit when you buy the doll, the same doll that's on sale this week for $10 off. does it sound as if itchy is getting a new doll! a free doll at that? yeah, somebody's getting a new baby for christmas.

i didn't post the giveaway here because i only found out about it 10 minutes before it started. i will be posting some good giveaway here from other bloggers. i won a pair of beautiful crocs (that don't look like crocs) in a back-to-school giveaway. saved me $60! well, rather more like, saved me from having to wear the same shoes i wore last year. the same group of bloggers are putting together one that starts in a day or so, so i will post it here.

anybody have an ideas for boy's toys for a rowdy 6 1/2 year old? it's can't have any tiny parts, as his mission in life is taking things apart or breaking them. i might just give him a hammer, some safety goggles and a pile of bricks. oh yeah, gotta get him a hard hat, maybe a pair of work gloves! he can't afford to lose any more brain function- who can????? he's so different from my son was at that age. i bought him a gaggle of baukugan, bacongun, whatever they are called, for his birthday. they are little balls that turn into robots. they are from japan. he likes to dig and build little ditches. i am leaning toward lincoln logs.

i still haven't had a mcrib, but it's coming soon. i will give you all the juicy details. i better hurry. after all, it's only available for a limited time!

we are in the limited times now...

...cuz mcrib is back, but only for a limited time! therefore, i have determined we are living in what historians will later call "the limited times", as those are the only timeframes in which a mcrib is available on the free market.

suddenly i want a mcrib. i had forgotten about, having only eaten them for small amounts of limited times. it slipped my mind. of course, i had tried the night hawk "a taste of texas" faux mcrib dinner i bought for $2 at the ghetto grocery store:

not even close.

so i guess i will bite the bullet and get a mcrib. they are good, as long as you leave the pickle off and add a ton of onion. 

always remember to cut it in half so you may eat it daintily, like a lady who enjoys a fine mcrib.

for a limited time only!

broke but satiated

i had $100 to spend and make last until next friday.

i blew it all on groceries.

i figure if i have food at home, i will be forced to eat at home. it will be cheaper, healthier and generally just a wonderful thing to do. i won't waste gas going to get fast food- at least 15 miles each way. i won't waste calories eating crappy junk food.      

i actually have some money stuck back, not much, maybe $25 if i drag every coin from every hiding place. but i have everything i need, if i just stay home and don't go anywhere except the library and my diet group, i won't need to buy gas or spend money for anything. okay, i think i have a small fine, but that's my fault and not really a factor in determining the fiscal realized cost of using the librbary. it's free- unless you screw up and                                                                                                    

a local locale, all across the country

on the news tonight, there was as story on about a pedophile trying to abduct a child at a wal-mart.

why does so much crap happen at wal-mart? is it now the hub where everybody's circle congregated. does the smiley smile hide a grimace of evil? has it replaced the general store has the town hang-out?

if wal-mart keeps rolling back prices, why isn't something free yet at wal-mart?

okay, rant over. back to real life.

i have asked my dil to bring cookies to the thanksgiving meal. i didn't ask her what she wanted to bring, i just asked her if she could bring cookies. yes or no. no dickering over what she wants to do. yes or no. she said yes. i put it on the grocery list in a section where i put the things other people are bringing, so i will know not to duplicate anything. if she brings them, good. if she doesn't, it won't ruin the meal. her ability or inability to being cookies will not affect my day, as i am trying to get through the holidays without gaining any weight, from halloween through new year's.

good luck to me!

i am trying to lighten up the dishes a bit, so that i can enjoy the meal (and left-overs!) without that oppressive guilt that can bum your holiday out. i refuse to feel guilty about anything i eat as long as i have looked at each dish and make it as diet friendly. if it's too bad, i will just skip it (au gratin potatoes, i'm looking at you! fish stink eye back at ya!) and i will make sure i have a good salad. i am planning a huge salad with rings of red onion, cherry/grape tomatoes, croutons, freshly grated parmesan, pepperocini peppers and i think i will spring for a bottle of the real deal salad dressing from olive garden. i made it one year and work and my boss kept messing with me, asking me "is it really a salad made of olives from a garden?' i just told him if he didn't like it, don't eat it and laughed like a maniac.

my salad was finished by the group in no time. and i make a HUGE salad in a big  bowl that could qualify as a laundry basket. well, almost. but it's huge.

i was also the deviled egg lady. i made them simple-egg yolks, mayo, mustard, salt, pepper- and i made a lot. i also brought in different garnishes, like bbq rub, dill, sage, chili powder and paprika, so the eggs would have the taste you like the best.

yes, a deviled egg bar. you can tell i am in mississippi. a deviled egg bar is such a mississippi red neck thing to do. try dill or chili powder instead of paprika sometime. it will rock your world!

i am also taking the focus off dessert  by making coffee and hot chocolate first, then offering tasting portions of the desserts on small plates. seconds will be available of course. i have a nice tea set and i'm ready to show it off.

i refuse to make that nasty green bean casserole anymore. just because there is one person who eats doesn't mean i have to make it. they can bring it. everyone is getting a menu ahead of time. if they want to add something to it, great. just bring enough for everybody. i ain't making it. what you see in black and white is what i am making.

this year, i made my normal list of items and ingredients. and proceeded to lose the notebook. i went through dozens of notebook, which tells me to stop buying so dang many notebook, and it's gone. so i bit the bullet and pulled out a really nice lined leather journal, 8" x 10" or so. it's red and has a black satin bookmark. it has 180 pages, so it should last several thanksgiving seasons. i plan on adding pictures.

i redid the lists.

i feel so martha stewart-ish. like my rituals and recipes are important enough to put into a book. i wonder if 20 years from now i am gone and itchy has her own family, will she continue writing in my thanksgiving journal? or will i lose it like i did the original notebook? or will chicky give it away to some stranger on freecycle? only time will tell...

i need a new tonic or a kick in the pants...

since i am having thanksgiving this year, i have been making plans. i have the master list of food items and ingredients. i am starting the list of special cleaning rituals, i.e. clean the inch of fuzz behind the bathroom door.

i also have a list of items to buy or find at the thrift store: serving dishes, dish towels, trivets, etc.

so far, i have 8 people for dinner and another possible 2 people who do not know if they are coming. bobo made mention that we need to start figuring seating out. my table seats 6, i have a bistro table that will fit 2, and the 2 kids can sit on the floor with cushions at the coffee table.  or else i can bring the patio table in and cover it with something, it seats 8. maybe i will just say to heck with it and buy a 6 foot folding table. maybe i will check around and see if i can borrow a table. with all the yard sale people i know, someone is bound to have a table.

i need to get up off my duff and start cleaning. i honestly think that the next time i get all the dishes done at once, i will tape off the cabinets and we will eat off paper plates until thanksgiving day. it's too much trouble to keep trying to catch up when bobo doesn't empty the dishwasher as fast as he should. i end up washing the dishes by hand so the kitchen won't be nasty, and i end up mad at bobo for being a lazy nut.

sometimes it's just not worth it.

all the same, he better go empty the dishwasher soon.

louisiana style

we were out today doing errands when i remembered that popeye's fried chicken was giving away samples of the new fried crawfish. we went throught he drive-through to buy some fried chicken and had to wait for 4 minutes to get our samples.

we got 2 tiny pieces.

we really didn't get enough to taste it well. what i did taste was just another bunch of greasy fried goop.

not anything i would ever spend money on.

i was glad for the tiny sample, because it was just enough to let me know it would make me very unhappy to spend $5 for an entire order of it.

i guess i will just spend my money on fried chicken. their new cajun dressing is the bomb, but not for eating.

in other words, the business cards i ordered for my friend- who had her birthday party saturday- arrived on monday.

too late for the party.

but they look gorgeous and i know she will love them. her current cards are red with black print and you can't read them. these are brownish with some westerny looking cirliques. they aren't cutesy or girly, i think they will work for her.

i have the bills for next month worked out and everything looks to be fine- except there is money for christmas OR propane, but not both. i entered dr. oz's target giftcard giveaway. hopefully i will win a $50 target giftcard. i will have to do some fast swag-bucking. i am going to  make an effort to collect free gift cards during the next year and save them for christmas, NOT spend them for groceries! i would have about $300 for christmas if i had saved my target cards and not spend them.

next year, they are going into their own little wallet and going in the bill folder marked CHRISTMAS!

rainy day again

it's gray and drizzling here. i am very stiff. my knees hurt.

my diet group has been cancelled for tonight. it's always cancelled whenever it's rainy, plus everyone else is elderly and also has arthritis. so i don't mind.

but it's going to be a long night. i hope i don't end up playing the sims 2 all night!

token entry

this is the entry i wrote last last night, but did not publish! so i'm counting it as my nov. 1 entry for nablopomo. i can't let technology mess up my month.

halloween was a bust. we get no trick-or-treaters out here anyway. we decided to go to a free harvest festival at the church by our house. it was a  bunch of trunk-or-treat vans in a huge circle, a cake walk circle and two fires- a big firebox for hotdogs and a firebowl table in a litttle lounge area with tiki torches and lounge chairs. we walked around and ate hotdogs and chips. i started going around getting candy, so we had a  good bit of candy before i left.

no one spoke to us.

i know that as a non-churchgoing spiritual person, i am a marketable commodity. when i have been to other churches, i have gotten many perks, from free meals to swag bags. but this was a church i had thought about actually joining, because it's right down the street from my house.

no one spoke to us.

i see that if i am going to join a church, it will be the one i have been attending off and on. they would have a welcoming committee, a coffee committee and a witness committee and no one would escape without having been greeted several times. they made you feel welcome and that they were glad you were there.

no one spoke to us.

i would have rather had someone greet me happily than give me candy and feed me a hot dog.