What's Happenin'

Thinking: About all I need to accomplish in the next couple months. I promised Aunt Marie that I'd help her do some clean out before she moves. I need to get to St. Louis. Our resolve to travel more is having an impact on our free time!! Mostly in a good way.

Thankful for: Spring! It's upon us. Also, we're getting lots of rain and it's not even April. 

Cooking: So. We tried a new home delivery meal service. Marley and Spoon---it's the Martha Stewart one.  Right away, I was not impressed with the packaging. There were individual brown bags for each meal, meat in another package and then assorted ingredients in yet another. Once you decide to make the meal, you have to figure out the ingredients. Not hard, I know, but still an extra step. Plus, unlike the other two that we've tried, you have to add ingredients. Now I don't know about you, but I don't keep apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar or sea salt. So, Butch had to go to the store for those---$6.00. You have to figure that in to the cost of the food. And now I have these things that I don't use. The recipes  took about the same time to cook as Hello Fresh. There were a couple things that I thought were ridiculous to do. Two of the meals required grated parmesan, so they sent two tiny squares that I was to grate myself. WTF? I just used the parmesan that I always have on hand. To grate those tiny squares would have ruined my nails and/or bloodied my knuckles. The first meal was a steak with parmesan roasted potatoes. The instructions said to put the grated cheese on an olive oiled baking sheet and the potatoes on top. I knew what was going to happen. That cheese browned and stuck to that pan. They didn't even taste that good. The steak was a sirloin, but we are filet people. Filets just melt in your mouth. The sirloin was too chewy for my taste. The chicken schnitzel with braised cabbage was really good and so was the French Dip burger---but what a mess on the stove--grease splatted everywhere. We NEVER fry things. I'm not sure the cleanup was worth it. Anyway, the bottom line, we'll stick with Hello Fresh---and not very often. We've about had it with roasted vegetables. After awhile, they all taste the same!

Wearing: Workout clothes. Don't be fooled. I was just on the treadmill. Trying to get back at it.

Hoping: To finish some travel planning. Everyone knows, we are planners---to the nth degree. That requires a lot of time. A lot.

Taking: Some bridge classes with Connie. We're both learning a lot and getting a lot mixed up! It's a very complicated game. I've always said I'm an average bridge player. I might have to downgrade that.

Planning: Finished planning our mother/daughter trip to Newport. Lots of fun surprises in store for the girls. Starting on our family vacation at the Stillwater Resort near Branson. We are not sit around people, so you can expect our week will be jam packed with activities.

Working: I'm ashamed to admit, I'm not. This is the second year in a row where I vowed to clean out all the closets and haven't started yet! I didn't even finish my closet yet. I thought we might do one room at a time on our Butch and Barb days, but that hasn't happened either.

Reading: Becoming Mrs. Lewis for our book club. It KILLS me that I had to buy the book as the wait was too long for the library. I've gotten spoiled with ebooks from the library AND I'm saving a ton of money! Last year alone I saved $663. Since I'm living off of my social security, this is significant! As for book club, we need to pick older books that are easier to get!

Loving: Morgan's new life. We went down to her new apartment this afternoon to help her hang a few things. She lives near downtown in an area called Germantown. She asked for macrame plant hangers for Christmas. At first, I was just going to buy the supplies and help her make them since I made so many in the 70's. But then, I saw that you could get a set of 3 for less than 20 bucks and decided it wasn't worth the effort. Butch put up the hooks and we shopped across the street from her new apartment (not only new to her, but a new complex) at the Farmer's Market. Wow! People always talked about buying plants at the farmer's market. Well, I don't think they are cheaper. I was very surprised at the cost of houseplants. Admittedly, I haven't bought any in years. We bought Morgan 3 as a housewarming gift Then we went back to the apartment to get them in the hangers. Now I remembered what a hassle that was. By the time you wrestle the plants in to the hangers, they are pretty mangled. We convinced Morgan to forget about putting the wandering jew in one. It was just too thick and hard. Instead, we put it on her entry table. Everything looks great. She got her first paycheck from her "real" job! She's on her way!

Watching: I'm pretty bored with just about everything. Stephanie suggested a Netflix program called Snapped. At first it seemed pretty good. I like all those Dateline shows. But I grew tired of Snapped pretty quick. It's ALWAYS the spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend. Oh wait, that's true of Dateline too. I've watched a couple movies but nothing all that great. I've re-watched The Greatest Showman for about the 12th time. Still love it and never get tired of it.

Creating: I'm moving along on the Easter train that I'm stitching. That's why I want something interesting to watch. I set a goal to do each one in a month. I'm on track to finish in time for my next new project---that workshop in May on this (I know you've seen it before, but I just can't get enough of it! If you are local and want to join me, please do!):

Bumming: That we have to get a new dishwasher. I swear if someone had asked me how old it was, I would have said about 7 years. When the estimate to repair it came in at over $500, I figured I better see how old it really is. I pulled out the file---we bought it in 2004. It's 15 years old! OMGosh, I couldn't believe it. And then I couldn't believe it actually lasted this long. I guess we're lucky. Still, not looking forward to the hassle. Butch is going to do the research. White will cost us. It always does!

Hearing: The news. Funny, I started this post in the early morning--listening to the news and here it is now late afternoon and I'm listening to the news again. Here's something interesting that they just reported:

Nashville is still the "it" city. It's growing 3 times faster than other places in the US. There are currently 379 hotels with approximately 40,000 rooms in the area with 115 more hotels in the building/planning stage. In 2018, there were 6 months where over a million rooms were sold. Lots of people/friends don't like to hear it, but I do. This is a fun, happenin' place! You just never know what/who you might see. Pink did a concert on Sunday night downtown. I love her and wanted to go, but didn't because, well, I'm old and it was Sunday night and then there's the parking situation. For the lucky ones downtown, she made a surprise appearance at Tootsie's across the street from the arena and put on another little mini concert. Gotta' love that!

Appreciating: Butch---every time it comes to reading things like contracts. I can't even. And numbers are not my thing. Luckily for us, he understands all that crap!

Regretting dreading: Those darn taxes! Oh wait, after my experience last year, I don't have to do that anymore! Click on taxes if you want refresh your memory on that story.

Weekending: No real plans yet. I do need to get up in my scrapbook room because, I think I have a problem. I sort of tore things apart trying to use my Circut (electronic die cutter). I think it's been "fried." Now I have to see if my sewing machine is toast too. I hope not. I won't be replacing either one. I'm just not scrapbooking enough to make it worth it. Sad but true.