Suzy's Blog

Well I hope everyone out there has a Happy New Year. There are a lot of changes coming next year. My hubby has taken a new job in another state and starts on Jan 9th. I however will be staying here in Illinois unitl our house sells. We are very happy about this as it will have us a lot closer to family. We have been gone from Alabama for far too long. I am looking forward to being closer to my family and old friends who are still in the area.

This afternoon I figured I would run into my local Wal Mart and make use of some gift cards I had recieved. One was from work and the other was from my hubby for our Anniversary on Monday. I thought that place was bad on Saturdays but I was wrong. It is 10 times worse 2 days before Christmas at 1:30pm on a Thursday. Now I know why prefer to do my shopping online from the comfort of my home. No fighting for parking spots. No rude shoppers running you over with their cart because they are not paying attention to what they are doing when they are barreling through the store like a race car driver.

You Are a Glam Rocker! You put the "show" in rock show with your larger than life self. No doubt, you are all about making good music... But what really gets you going is having an over the top show. Glitter, costumes, and wild hair are your thing - with some rock thrown in! What Kind of Rocker Are You?

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups Very popular, one of you is not enough. What Kind of Candy Are You?

Warning Long Rant Below So yesterday I was waiting for my husband to call me on his way home from work so I could put dinner in the oven. He called and we were not able to hear each other. I tried to get on the internet to see if Vonage was having problems but not able to get on the internet. Well he finally made it home. I told him that the phone was ringing funny and I could not get on the internet. After dinner he proceeds to try to fix our problem. He spent 1 1/2 trying on his own trying to figure out what is going on. It was not on our end so he called Mediacom which is our cable provider and was told by customer service that someone from our home had requested to turn off the internet. After holding for 20 minutes and nothing he decides to call back. Person number 2 that he speaks to tells him that it appears as if your wife walked into the Chillicothe office and made the request. I would not have gone to an office that was over 1-2 hr drive one way to cancel my service when th...

You Are 50% Weird Normal enough to know that you're weird... But too damn weird to do anything about it! How Weird Are You?

Arty Kid Whether you were a drama freak or an emo poet, you definitely were expressive and unique. You're probably a little less weird these days - but even more talented! Who Were You In High School?

Your Slanguage Profile Southern Slang : 75% Prison Slang : 50% New England Slang : 25% Victorian Slang : 25% Aussie Slang : 0% British Slang : 0% Canadian Slang : 0% What Slanguage Do You Speak?

I hope everybody had a good holiday yesterday and did not eat too much. A few days ago I received an email from an old friend from high school. I had not seen or heard from this person in forever. I was so glad to get back in contact with this person. Anyway, she was updating me on her family and telling me her oldest was 17 and a junior in high school. I really was not feeling me age until I read that. I told my husband that I remember when we were in High School and Middle school Choir together. I was also trying to remember how far back this individual and I go back. It turns out we were in Brownies and Girls Scouts together. That was well over 20 years ago seeing as how I quit girl scouts in middle school.

You Are Chinese Food Exotic yet ordinary. People think they've had enough of you, but they're back for more in an hour. What Kind of Food Are You?

How evil are you ?

You Are 90% "Average American" You are average because you don't have a college degree. You are not average since you don't think affirmative action is necessary. How "Average American" Are You?

Your Birthdate: December 11 Spiritual and thoughtful, you tend to take a step back from the world. You're very sensitive to what's going on around you, yet you remain calm. Although you are brilliant, it may take you a while to find your niche. Your creativity is supreme, but it sometimes makes it hard for you to get things done. Your strength: Your inner peace Your weakness: You get stuck in the clouds Your power color: Emerald Your power symbol: Leaf Your power month: November What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

We head home to Alabama on Saturday. I am looking forward to seeing my family. I also emailed an old friend of mine that lives in the area that we are going to and she was glad to hear from me. I met this individual while my husband was in the navy stationed in upstate New York. Anyway, I hope that I will get to see her while we are in town. Also my sister and Niece will be coming up from Atlanta and I am excited to see them. I do not get to see them very often. Last time we were in town I did not get to see them. Oh and before I forget Bama is playing Ole Miss on Saturday. Roll Tide!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog. Just Reinstalling Haloscan since I changed my template.

Well it looks like it is that time of year again. This time next week Art and I will be in Sweet Home Alabama visiting family and friends. I am so ready to go but I am not ready to spend 10 hours in the car. We are leaving sometime early on Saturday Morning. I will also get to see my niece for the first time in 2 years. I also figured that I would go back to my old template too to show my support for the Crimson Tide. I will keep this short since I need to do some laundry later today. Roll tide!

Put an X next to all the movies you've seen. There are 237 movies listed. If you get more than 70, you're a movie whore. (X) Pirates of the Caribbean ( ) Boondock Saints ( ) The Mexican ( ) Fight Club ( ) Starsky and Hutch (X) The Neverending Story (X) Blazing Saddles (X) Garden State (X) The Princess Bride (X) Young Frankenstein (X) Anchorman ( ) Napoleon Dynamite ( ) Saw ( ) White Noise (X) White Oleander (X) Anger Management (X) 50 First Dates ( ) Jason X (X) Scream (X) Scream 2 (X) Scream 3 ( ) Scary Movie ( ) Scary Movie 2 ( ) Scary Movie 3 (X) American Pie (X) American Pie 2 (X) American Wedding (X) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (X) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (X) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ( ) Resident Evil ( ) Resident Evil 2 (X) The Wedding Singer ( ) Little Black Book (X) The Village (X) Donnie Darko (X) Lilo & Stitch (X) Finding Nemo ( ) Finding Neverland ( ) 13 Ghosts (X) Signs (X) How the Grinch Stole Christmas (X) The Tex...

Well today I came home from work and I was already to post something, but the wireless was being uncooperative. Why is it when you have something to say and want to post it the wireless gets flaky? I was telling Art tonight that it took me 5 different tries to post something over at this site Maybe just maybe I should have posted it in notepad or word the first time. Don't get me wrong I love having wireless internet. In fact I like it so much that I spend more time on my laptop than I do my desktop. If you don't believe me ask Art he will tell you the same thing. In fact Art and I like wireless so much that when we travel and stay in a hotel we actually look for hotels with high speed connections or wireless connections in the hotel room. We even purchased a travel router that we carry with us. Can you say geeky?

I am sure that everyone has already heard about this train derailment . My question is why was the train speeding before it derailed? I know it has been all over the news but I figured that I would post something here about to let people know that I am still among the land of the living.

Yes, I am still alive and breathing. This past week has been busy. I have either been looking all over town to replace my old POS gateway laptop or looking for night tables for the bedroom. I found the new laptop earlier in the week and we found the nightstands yesterday. So, things are somewhat better around here. The nightstand story is one for another rant. I feel like I have been all over the Midwest looking for what I wanted. I really did not think that it would be so hard to match my bedroom furniture. It turns out it is damn near impossible to match the color exactly but we did it. Things hopefully are not as busy as last week was.

The other day I was reading an old friends blog and as I occasionally do I posted a comment to his blog. So since I do not use livejournal one of his regular readers thought that I was spam. I always post my name and a link to my blog so that my friend knows that it is me and not spam. Anyway, I was really surprised to find that people would think that I am spam. It is not like I was posting links to poker or viagra or something of that nature that you see all the time showing up in your referrer logs. I hate blog spam just as much as the next guy and maybe even more so since I see a lot of it out there on the internet. I have posted about this old friend a few times before. His wife and I are friends and he and I go way back. I don't get to see them often and try to keep in touch as much as we can.

This week has been an interesting one from my perspective. First off on Tuesday I was on my way home from work when traffic comes to a dead stop. So I did what everyone in front of me was doing I moved over a lane. It turned out that they were doing construction at a major intersection. Of course there were no signs that morning or the day before to warn of the construction. They had a sign up about 1 mile from the actual intersection. So as I am sitting there in this long line of traffic I see cars in the lane that is closed thinking oh we can get ahead of everybody by driving in the closed lane. Dumb idiots. So after this jackass goes flying by me at 60 miles an hour in a closed lane I changed how I drive through construction zones. I was also behind a van during all this so instead of staying directly behind the vehicle in front of me I move over just a little bit so I am part in my lane and the lane that is closed. So if you are one of those jackasses who think that you can cheat i...

This afternoon I was talking to my dad on the phone. My niece is staying with my parents this week while my sister and brother in law are on a trip. Anyway, my dad asked if Olivia wanted to say hello to me and of course she did. She is so cute. She was chatting away with me and telling me about starting preschool next week. Anyway, as she is chatting she says that she misses me and can't wait to see me. During the course of the conversation she says I have something to tell you. I asked her what is it that you want to tell me? She says I live in Atlanta now, but when I was a little girl I lived in Huntsville which anyone who knows me and my family knows that my Niece was born in Atlanta and has lived there all her life. I thought it was too cute. Every now and then she will say something like that of course all of the adults get a kick out of that. I would love to see the look on my sisters face when Olivia tells her what she told me. She also said that she saw pictures of Stacy an...

So this morning I was driving to work as I usually do. I always look ahead to see what is coming up and the possibility of people darting out in front of me. So I was more than halfway to my destination this morning between 6:30 and 6:45 when this women walking her dog crosses in front of me. I had a green light. Yes you heard me it was a green light. That sucker was not going to get any greener so this woman walking her dog walks right in front of my car on a 4 lane road. So being that I am such a nice person I stopped so she could cross without getting hit. I look up as she is in the lane next to me and she is not only walking her dog but she apparently is talking on her cell phone not paying attention to the fact that she is crossing a 4 lane road where the the speed limit is 45 MPH and cars regularly exceed that. Most people are in the range of 50- 55mph in that stretch of road. This stretch of road also has a turn lane as well. There are lots of businesses on this road and lots of...

I was checking my email this afternoon when I got home from work and found out that another old friend of mine has joined the blogging community. Go over and say hi to my friend and tell her Suzanne sent you. I have not seen this friend in years but I do keep in contact with her regularly through email.

Boy is it ever hot here. Today it was 103 actual temperature no lying. We have had hardly any rain this summer. It has been well over a month. Anytime it has rained it has been very short lived or just missed us by a few towns or cities. Hopefully we will get some this week. I know I have not posted much lately, but things have been kind of crazy for the past month or so with work. I am hoping that will slow down soon. We have seen a few good movies this summer also. We do not normally pay to see movies in the theatres but we recently saw Batman Begins and War of the Worlds. I liked both of them. Art was not too impressed with War of the Worlds. Next up is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie and the Chocolate factory the original with Gene Wilder is one of my favorite childhood movies. I am looking forward to seeing the remake.

Well Tuesday is Art's birthday. Go over to his blog and wish him a happy 35th birthday. While you are over there leave him a comment and tell him he needs to blog. I know I am posting this a few days early, but I may not get around to doing it tomorrow night before he goes to work. Now that his birthday is upon us mine is not far behind. In a way I am looking forward to it but everytime I think about it it makes me feel old.

You Know You're Addicted to Caffeine When... You haven't slept since the Clinton Administration. Your next-door neighbors often call to complain about the sound of your chattering teeth. Instead of Tic Tacs, you suck on Vivarin. You plan to name your twins "Cappuccino" and "Espresso." On the way to work you get pulled over for speeding and you don't even have your car. You kill a guy for trying to switch your regular coffee to decaffeinated Folgers. You wake up in the middle of the night screaming "Pepsi! For the love of God, I need Pepsi!" When a Maxwell House commercial comes on, you actually lick the TV screen. You drink so much coffee it starts shooting out your ears. You're shaking like Michael Jackson on his wedding night. You think sleep is for the weak. You've just had your 20th cup of coffee within 20 minutes on a Friday afternoon, at 4 o'clock, just so "the milk doesn't go bad over the weekend" You believe th...

Boy am I glad that today is Friday and I have a long weekend. Ever since we got home from our Trip 3 weeks ago things have been very busy at work. It has also been hot and humid with no rain here as well. We did eventually get some the other day, but it was not nearly enough. The other night Art and I went to dinner at Granite City Food and Brewery afterwards we stopped at a new ice cream place called Maggie Moos . They have pretty good ice cream. I had cake batter ice cream and it is made with vanilla cake batter. It was very yummy. Anyway, just thought that I would post something to let everyone know I am still here. Just worn out from being so busy at work.

This show is addicting. I know it sounds cheesy, but I actually like this show. The host is kind of annoying, but I enjoy seeing the bands perform. I was actually bummed to see that A Flock of Seagulls were not as good as I had remembered them. I was also disappointed in Loverboys Performance.

Your IQ Is 90 Your Logical Intelligence is Above Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional Your Mathematical Intelligence is Below Average Your General Knowledge is Average A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Well we got back from our trip on Sunday to find out that one of our favorite restaurants is back in business. We were coming home from eating Mongolian barbecue on Tuesday or Wednesday night and we noticed a restaurant sign that said Two Young Brothers on it. This is one of the first restaurants that we discovered when we first moved to the Quad Cities almost 4 years ago. Well this restaurant has had various names and has been sold a few times and format changed once or twice. This morning we went for breakfast. Also I should note that it is owned by our neighbors. They are really nice people. The food is just as I had remembered it. I will be going back since the food is good and so are the prices and service. If you live in the Quad Cities here is the map of it. I highly recommend that you try it if you have not yet.

You are What Rejected Crayon Are You?

My post below came to me in the form of an email from an old friend. Possums sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in Alabama. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Alabama, plus a couple no one's seen before. If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites. Onced and Twiced are words. It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy. And let us never forget, it's not a garden hose or simply hose, it's a "hosepipe" (one word). Fire ants consider your flesh as a picnic. People actually grow and eat okra. Mamanem means the whole family. ("Are mamanem comin?") There ain't no such thing as "lunch". There's only dinner and Then there's supper. Backards and forwards means I know everything about you. Jeet? is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat yet?" You know you're from Alabama if: 1. You measure distance in minutes. 2. You've ever had to swi...

Your #1 Match: INFJ The Protector You live your life with integrity, originality, vision, and creativity. Independent and stubborn, you rarely stray from your vision - no matter what it is. You are an excellent listener, with almost infinite patience. You have complex, deep feelings, and you take great care to express them. You would make a great photographer, alternative medicine guru, or teacher. Your #2 Match: INFP The Idealist You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world. Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships. It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close. But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop. You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist. Your #3 Match: ISFJ The Nurturer You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal. A good listener, you excell at helping others in practical ways. In your spar...

Your Dominant Thinking Style: Exploring You thrive on the unknown and unpredictable. Novelty is your middle name. You are a challenger. You tend to challenge common assumptions and beliefs. An expert inventor and problem solver, you approach everything from new angles. You show people how to question their models of the world. Your Secondary Thinking Style: Visioning You are very insightful and tend to make decisions based on your insights. You focus on how things should be - even if you haven't worked out the details. An idealist, thinking of the future helps you guide your path. You tend to give others long-term direction and momentum. What's Your Thinking Style?

I do not normally post these but Bari has tagged me@! 01. Total volume of music files on my computer? None 02. The last CD I bought was? Alabama Ultimate 20 #1 Hits 03. Song playing right now: Song of the South by Alabama 04. Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me(in no particular order): Building A Mystery By Sarah Mclachlan Harem By Sarah Brightman It's a Beautiful Day Sarah Brightman Sweet Home Alabama Lynard Skynard Live Like You were Dying Tim McGraw 05. Which 5 people are you passing this baton to, and why? None it ends with me.

   Last week Art and I were watching tv and there a munsters marathon on tv.  Yes, I know the show was before my time, but i grew up watching it  in reruns.  Anyway, so later that night I was trying to figure out the years that it originally ran on tv.  As I was researching it on imdb I discovered that there is going to be a remake of it into a movie.  Written by the Wayans Brothers.   How scary is that?   How many people out there that read this blog remember the munsters and watched it?  Anyway, it was interesting watching a show you have not seen in years and still liking the show.

SUZANNELEIGHMETCALF S is for Striking U is for Unforgettable Z is for Zippy A is for Active N is for Natural N is for Neat E is for Emotional L is for Likeable E is for Energetic I is for Intense G is for Giddy H is for Heavenly M is for Musical E is for Extraordinary T is for Tough C is for Cheerful A is for Ambitious L is for Loud F is for Fresh What Does Your Name Mean?

You Scored 55% Correct You are a solid child of the 80s You'd never confuse Tiffany from Debbie And while you may not know Prince's first #1 hit You know every word to Little Red Corvette How Much Do You Know About 80s Music?

A few months ago I discovered this recipe website. I have tried a few of the crockpot recipes there. A vast majority of the recipes sound tasty. I think I utilized my crockpot more last month than I did in the first 5 years I had the thing. Anyway, go and browse the recipes. I am always looking for new ways to cook old favorites like chicken and fish. Anyway, if you know of any good websites feel free to comment and let me know or heck just comment on some of your favorite recipes. My hubby and I are not too picky.

I may have posted this before, but I figured that I needed to counterbalance my 10% Yankee from the other quiz. You Know You're From Alabama When... You have a party or a barbeque whenever Alabama plays Auburn in football. You go to Gulf Shores every summer. You call the Atlanta Braves baseball team "us" like they're actually from Alabama. You would much rather visit Florida than California. You don't "take", you "carry" or "tote"... as in "You want me to carry you down to the 7-11?" A soft drink isn't soda, cola, or pop, it's Coke. You call it a "buggy" and not a shopping cart. You've said "fixin' to," "might could," or "usetacould" during the last week. Someone you know has used a football schedule to plan their wedding date. You know the meaning of the phrase "Fobbed again." You can properly pronounce Eufaula, Opelika, Bayou La Batre, and Oneonta. The Tall...

I found this quiz over at technodaddy's blog. I told my husband that I have been gone from dixie for far too long. I have lost my Dixie to Yankee. Your Linguistic Profile: 60% General American English 30% Dixie 10% Yankee 0% Midwestern 0% Upper Midwestern What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I found this little link surfing the web. It is kind of cheesy, but kind of cute too. I just had to share it with the small world that reads this blog. I know that posting lately has been few and far between. With the hours that he has been working and my hours not enough in the day to get dinner on the table before he has to leave to go to work. Anyway, after tonight I think that things will get back to as normal as possible in this house.

This week has been one for accidents. Thursday night I was coming into the house with dinner I turned to close the garage door and twisted my right knee. It has hurt like crazy since then. Tonight Art had gone to work and I got up from the sofa to feed the cat. I started to stand up and my foot was asleep. I noticed this morning that my ankle was swollen. I did not think much about it. Anyway, as I stood up to walk to the kitchen I heard a popping sound and next thing I know I was in the floor on my ass. I heard that same popping noise when I twisted my knee the other day. The older I get the worse I become about spraining and twisting things. I should mention it was also my right ankle that I sprained. I know it is sprained because I can walk on it. It hurts like the dickens. As far back as I can remember I have had broken toes and sprained ankles. Anyway, I have been sitting on the sofa with ice on my ankle and it is still bruised and swollen. I think I sat in the floor for a good 5...

So the other day I was visiting Technodaddy's blog and he posted about seeing the ghost of Elvis. Was Elvis eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich? No seriously go check out Technodaddy's Cover of Walkin In Memphis and tell him that Vejadu's Wife sent you. I remember when Marc Cohn did this song in the early 90's or late 80's either way I really liked this song.

  I know it has been a while since I have posted something.  The end of last week and all of this week has been kind of hectic.  The hubby has been on 12 hr shifts all week and will be until sometime in April. 12 hr midnights 6 days a week for a month. Anyway, I have been rushed to have dinner on the table when I get home so I have not had much time to post anything.  I have utilized my crockpot more in the last week than I had in the previous year.    I also had the thing for 5 years before I cooked in it.  Call me crazy.  I guess I had this thing about leaving a crockpot plugged in and turned on when nobody was home.  I will keep this short it is almost time to feed the kitty her dinner.

I know a lot of people have stopped watching The Screensavers. They have lost yet another host. I am one who does not watch anymore and have not for awhile. I just never got around to unsubscribing from the newsletter until tonight. When I unsubscribed I noticed that there was a host missing from the lineup. Serves them right to lose yet another employee after how they butchered the show since moving it to LA late last year. All I have to say is bury the show already there is nothing left to salvage not after the last revamp late last year. Anyway, I know I am ranting but this show has been torn to shreds since g4 purchased techtv.

  I am still here I just have not had much to say lately.  Last week I was either removing spyware or replacing my wireless card.  Somehow I got some pretty nasty spyware about the middle of the week.  I use various spyware removers including Microsoft, ad aware, spybot search and destroy.   I ran all of these multiple times so I finally tried spy sweeper and that got rid of the nasty stuff.   Then on Friday night my wireless card pooped out on me.  Anyway, that was fixed on Saturday when my husband and I went to Best Buy.  I bought it and he installed the software for me.  What a guy.   I don't know what I would do without built in tech support here.  I will keep this short as it is past time for me to be getting some shut eye.  I have felt crappy all day long and it is not getting any better.

  Art and I went to Red Lobster  for dinner tonight.  We had not been there in long time.  One of my favorite things that they have is Lobster Pizza.  Art is not as fond of lobster as I am, but he does like the lobster pizza.  I tried a new dish tonight.  It was Lobster Crusted Salmon .  Very Yummy1  I will more than likely order it again if they keep it on the menu after lobsterfest. This week has been much better than last week was.  We were very busy, but business has leveled off again.  Thank goodness.  Last week was a long week.  This week is going by much quicker.  I will be glad when the weekend is here again.

   So last night Art and I are sitting here watching 24 when the cable goes out.  So needless to say we missed the last 20 minutes of the show.   Of all the nights for the cable to go out.  I also did not get to see the Osbournes either.  We had no cable and no internet.   What did we do before cable?  I will never know because most all of my life there has been cable in some form or other.  Why is it just when you want to post something either the wi fi goes all nuts or you have no internet connection at all.  I know I am ranting here, but it seems like every time I get serious about wanting to blog I can't because the internet or wi fi will not cooperate.

  Well sorry for not updating much this past week.  It has been a busy week.  Glad it is over and a new week is starting.  I am still alive.  I just have not had much to say lately.  The hubby is at work so I am finding time to update the world on the fact that I am still alive and kicking.  As I have posted before I was and still am having a hard time thinking of something to post.  When I do find that I want to post something my wireless internet decides that it wants to act up.  Well I will keep this post short since I am losing my train of thought.  More later.

Our mail carrier is usually very early. When I say early I mean he is at our house like clockwork between 10:30 am and 11:30 am. When I arrived home today the garbage and the recycling people had been but no mailman. I just went outside to bring the garbage can back into the garage and check the mail. When i brought the recycling bin into the garage I noticed that my neighbors flags were still up on their mailboxes. It is now 2 pm still no mail carrier in sight. i usually hear cars on our street and check to see if it is the mail carrier. I am not expecting anything in the mail but, yesterday was a Holiday and then the mail carrier is a slacker today. Boy I wish I had a job like his where you get all the government holidays and then you get to be a slacker and get paid for it the day after the Holiday. I know I am on a rant here but I hate going to the mailbox 20 times a day in the winter why can't the mailman be regular this week. On the other hand I was reading th...

  Art got home from work this afternoon and asked what was for dinner.  I was unsure of what to cook so we decided to go to a local german restaurant.   We have been there before but It has been awhile.  They have really good food.  Art likes all the choice of beer that they have on tap.  I also was not feeling much like cooking tonight since my back has been bothering me for a couple of days and today it was pretty bad.      Last night I tried a new recipe for chicken in the crockpot.   It was delicious.  The chicken recipe was found here.   I also found a new recipe for Mac and cheese.    It was tasty too.  Thanks to the recipe addict for the Mac and cheese recipe.

   I was telling Art the other day that SNL is 30 years old.   I stopped watching it a number of years ago when it stopped being funny.  It still has it's funny moments but as a whole it is not funny in the sense it was in the 70's ,80's and early 90's.  I think that  some of my favorite skits from Saturday Night Live are from a time when I was too young to watch it.  You see I was only 4 years old about to turn 5 when Saturday Night Live first aired in 1975. Although I have seen a lot of them in repeats.  I think that I will watch the special on Sunday night since my regular Sunday Show will not be on at 9pm. Speaking of Art check out his new moblog over at textamerica.   He has finally joined the 21st Century he got his own Cell Phone. It is a camera phone.   It is not bad for a camera phone.  

It has been a nice weekend here. I wish we could have more days like yesterday. No rain and 50 degrees for a high. Today it was rainy and upper 40's for a high. I really dislike Monday's they seem to come to quickly. Hope everyone has had a nice weekend.

  Yesterday I was reading Leoville and he said that Microsoft would be putting out 13 patches for windows.  I ran windows update and it found 10 of the 13 the be critical updates.  !3 patches in one day.  All I have to say is wow.  It did not take long to update and install them. It took me about 15 minutes to download and install.   I am going to make this a short post since I need  to get in the kitchen and cook dinner soon. Pork Chops and Garlic Shells.  We received about 1 and half inches of snow last night.   They were saying 3-5 inches.  The storm went  farther north than the had expected it.

   I would like to send a big congratulations out to Mike and Wendy on the birth of their baby girl.   As I have blogged about before Mike and I went to High School together.  Our families went to the same church.  We practically grew up together.  You never know who your going to find out there in the blogging world.  I actually found his blog listed on al.com over the summer.   It has its own section for weblogs and they are categorized by cities in Alabama.  Pretty neat thing to have.  Again, just a note to congratulate the Mike and Wendy on the addition to their family.

  I found this quiz on webgrits.    Here are my results below.  Can You tell that I lean to the south and not the Midwest where I currently live? Brownsville, Texas McAllen, Texas Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Florida Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi Savannah, Georgia Mobile, Alabama Corpus Christi, Texas Killeen, Texas Bradenton, Florida Kissimmee-St. Cloud, Florida Dothan, Alabama Jackson, Mississippi Bryan-College Station, Texas Melbourne, Florida Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida Tyler, Texas Albany, Georgia Athens, Georgia Ocala, Florida St. Petersburg, Florida Beaumont, Texas Tuscaloosa, Alabama Augusta, Georgia

This is one of my favorite Salmon Dishes. I discovered on the inside box of near east couscous and decided to try it. Very Tasty and it is easy to make too. I use roma tomatoes insted of plum tomatoes. PESTO SALMON WITH COUSCOUS 1 package (5.6 oz) NEAR EAST Couscous Toasted Pine Nut Mix 2 plum tomatoes, chopped 1/4 cup green onions with tops, sliced 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest 5 tablespoons prepared basil pesto sauce, divided 4 skinless salmon fillets or any type of white fish (~4 oz. Each) Prepare Near East couscous according to package directions; stir in tomatoes, onions, lemon zest and 3 tablespoons basil pesto sauce. Meanwhile, in large skillet, cook salmon with remaining 2 tablespoons of basil pesto sauce; cook for 5 to 8 minutes or until well browned. Top couscous mixture with prepared salmon fillets. 5 Servings Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes

  Tonight dinner was Crispy Baked Chicken.  My grandmother used to make this for us when we were growing up.    As with all recipes I try I usually tweak to my taste.  My grandmother used to use a whole fryer cut up or chicken breasts with the bone in.  It takes longer.  Below is my revised version. My Crispy Baked Chicken 4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast 1 sleeve of Garlic Butter Ritz(Crushed) 1 C of Cheddar Jack Cheese Shredded 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder 1 Tbsp Roasted Garlic Pepper (Mccormicks Brand) 1 Tbsp Dried Parsley 1 Stick of Butter(Melted) Mix Your  crushed crackers cheese and seasonings.   Dredge your chicken in the butter and then coat with the Ritz Mixture.  Put in a Foil Lined Pan and Bake in a 375 Degree oven for 35 minutes.   If you like you can add extra cheese on top during the last few minutes of cooking.  I prefer the Boneless skinless chicken myself. It is much easier to work with

  I was just surfing the internet and found out that my hometown is under a winter storm warning.  They are supposed to get sleet and freezing rain.  I was looking at news on one of  the local tv stations websites and saw the winter storm warning.  It is cold here but, the only thing in our forecast is snow and not much of that in the forecast.  It is not often that you here about freezing rain in the south.  I was talking to my mom this afternoon and she told me they were going to have some icy weather tonight.  I am glad that we are not in the south tonight for that reason.  I hate driving in freezing rain even when we were getting it here earlier this month but having it in the south is even worse.

   Art and I had dinner at The Captains Table .   The food was tasty.   Art and I both agree that it was kind of expensive compared to Red Lobster.   I know Red Lobster is a chain but they  do have good food.  We had a good meal and will more than likely go back but save it for a special anniversary or birthday.  Today it was nice outside.  When I was coming home from work this afternoon the radio said it was 51 degrees outside.  It will be not quite as warm tomorrow but we have had two days where it was well above freezing.  I came home and Art was on his desktop computer.  I say that because it is a rare thing to see him on his desktop.  Now, that we both have a laptop we spend more time on them with the wifi instead of our desktop.   He changed some settings and then his desktop did not want to operate so now he is spending time in there working on it..  Actually he has been in and out...

   Just about every night this week we have had some form of frozen precipitation.   Right Now it is sleeting outside.  We are also supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow tonight.  I am just glad that I got home before it started sleeting today.   I just barely missed beating it home last night.  I turned into our subdivision and it started snowing.  We did not get much snow it was just a dusting.  It was less than an hour after I arrived home that I heard it sleeting outside.  You could hear it hitting the storm door as it was falling.  I told Art the other day that I would like to hibernate for the rest of the winter.  It has barely started and I am already wanting spring to get here.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be cold after all the snow is finished and we have to got to the grocery store and get gas for my car also.  I am just glad that the weekend is here.  It has been a long week for me. ...

   Boy is it ever cold here in the Midwest this weekend.  Yesterday I had to pump gas and it was all of about 3 or 4 degrees outside.  I am not kidding you.  I was bundled up and still froze my tail off putting gas in the car.   Today was just as bad.  Today I had to go Grocery Shopping in the cold and again it was all of 3 or 4 degrees outside.   Hopefully we will warm up sometime Tuesday or Wednesday.   If we hit freezing it will be a heat wave to me.   Art is working a 12 hour shift tonight and tomorrow night.  So we have to eat early both days before he goes to work.  I know all I have done is rant about the weather but it is cold here.  I grew up in the Deep Dixie South as Art refers to it so we are not used to such cold temperatures for long periods of time.  It gets cold but, not this cold and for this long of a stretch.  We are also supposed to get some snow tonight too.  It wil...

We recently dropped SBC and At&t for Vonage which offers Voice Over IP. So far I am happy with the change. Art and I had been looking into this option for a while and noticed that Vonage nor At&t Callvantage was available in our area. Well that changed last month. We signed up for Vonage at the end of December and also ported our phone number as well. I faxed the paperwork to Vonage on Dec 31. We received our phone adapter the middle of last week and Art hooked it up last Friday night. The same day he hooked it up I received an email that said our number transfer would be complete on Monday the 10th of January. I was told that it takes 20 days to transfer the number. It took 11 days for us. It happened very quickly. What I really like about it is that I know have unlimited local and long distance with most of the features that I had with SBC for under $30 a month. I had waited to see how I liked it before I posted and so far I am happy. The one feature that ...

   This January has been quite an interesting one so far.  First last week we had ice and then 6 inches of snow. In fact most of that snow is still in my yard piled up.  Today we had ice again.  Tomorrow we will have a high of 45 degrees and you guessed it plain old rain that will turn to snow late tomorrow night.  Last night Art and I went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner.  When we were driving home it started raining.  I was glad that we made it home before it started freezing on the roads last night.  You see we have to travel to Iowa to go to Outback Steakhouse.  Iowa is not that far but, we have to cross the Mississippi river to get there.  Normally, crossing the Mississippi does not bother me that bad but in the winter it does.  2 Years ago just before Thanksgiving we drove to Iowa to eat at Outback Steakhouse.   On the way home that night it started to snow and the bridge was starting to get slick....

   Have I said before how much I hate winter?   I was sitting here on the computer this afternoon reading blogs and email and checking the weather for the week.  This week looks to be a hairy week weather wise.   We are set to get some crappy ice, freezing rain and snow starting tomorrow night.  The weatherman is saying about 1/4 inch accumulation of ice.   I am glad that Art bought some ice melt.   A 50lb bag to be exact.  I am thinking that we will need it over the next couple of days.   Just when all the snow we got last week is starting to melt we are getting ice now.   Not my favorite kind of precipitation.   Boy do I wish I was back down south this week and last week too.   I know I rant here a lot about the weather but, I am a Southern Girl and we do not fair well in ice or snow.

   Well we wound up with about 5 inches or so of snow this morning when all was said and done.  The county we live in pulled the plows around 8:00 pm and they resumed around 3:00 am.  They were only plowing main roads and emergency routes first.  So I pulled out on John Deere Expressway and saw that it had been partially plowed.  I am not kidding when I say partially plowed.  They had only plowed one lane each way of a four lane road.  They one lane that was plowed was only half ass plowed.  Needless to say it was a long and messy drive to work this morning just ask Art.    I finally saw a plow about 1 mile or so from the house and it was not headed the way I was. It was a much better drive home this afternoon.  I turned into my subdivision and all the streets but mine had been plowed decently.  My street looked like John Deere did this morning on the way to work.  Hopefully they will come plow again or it will eventu...

I just added new pictures to my moblog. Enjoy them.

Well I did finally hear from Art about 30 minutes ago he is leaving Chicago soon. They just issued a snow emergency here. They do that so that people who park on the streets can move their cars so snow plows can plow the streets. Granted the snow emergencies are issued when there is 2 inches or more of snow. I have not heard an official total yet, but I am pretty sure it is a few inches because the street is covered and so is my driveway. Kwqc noon news just said 6 inches in some spots already. I am glad that I decided to stay home and not travel today. As I have said before, this makes me wish that I was back home down south in Alabama. Dad said it was in the high 60's and would be in the 50's tomorrow. Anything, to get out of this winter weather would make me happy. At 10:00pm last night the news said that some people in Hampton and Some in Rock Island had power outages. We have been lucky here at our house no power outage yet from this storm. Art should...

   Well I made it to work okay this morning   The roads were slippery in spots but not a sheet of ice.  My driveway however was an ice slick.  I backed out of the garage.  I did not have my foot on the gas or the brake and the car kept going.  I called Art before I left work and suggested that he salt the driveway so it would not ice over anymore than it already has.  I got home and Art said that he walked to the mailbox to get the mail and the garbage cans and fell 2 or 3 times between the garage and the mailbox.   I told Art that I think maybe he should have salted the driveway before trying to walk to the mailbox not after.    I just got an email from Art about 1 hour and a half ago.  He made it safely to Chicago for his concert.  Tomorrow may be another story since the snow is supposed to be heavy at times.   We are supposed to get ice tonight and it turn to snow tomorrow morning.  I prob...

    What is it with snow storms?  Art has been planning to go to Chicago for a concert tomorrow and now we are going to get anywhere in the neighborhood of 5-10 inches of snow.   Art said to me earlier this evening that maybe he should start going to concerts in the summer time.  When we lived in upstate New York Art drove in a snow storm twice to a concert.  Once he drove to Boston and the other time it was New York City.  I am beginning to think that may be a good idea to not go to concerts in the winter around here.  We have had a pretty decent winter so far.  We have not had much snow.  What we have had has been less than 2 inches all winter.  I personally think that he is nuts for wanting to go to Chicago but, he is a big boy and can take care of himself so I do not worry to much about him.   

  This is one of my favorite Salmon Dishes.   I am actually making it for dinner tonight.   I have altered the recipe slightly.  It calls for Cilantro as the Herb.  I have made it with Cilantro but prefer to use parsley or basil.   Below is my version of the recipe.  1 pound butter 1 to 2 lemons, juiced 4 to 5 garlic cloves, crushed 1 tbps of parsley or basil 3 green onions, thinly sliced 1 (4 to 5 pound) salmon fillet Melt the butter and squeeze in lemon juice and add crushed garlic, parsley or basil and green onions and mix well. Place salmon fillet on a piece of aluminum foil that is large enough to completely wrap and seal the fillet. After placing the salmon on the foil, brush or pour the butter mixture on the salmon. Seal the salmon in foil. Place on the barbecue grill and cook for 10 to 12 minutes per side. Any longer will dry out the salmon. Cut in portions and serve immediately. Fish can also be cooked in a pre heated 350-degree F ov...