What I Ate Wednesday and a Countdown

I have decided that I LOVE participating in What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW) presented by Jenn at Peas & Crayons!

It’s so much fun and with the opportunity to read so many other bloggers posts, I’ve come up with some new favorites.  I’ll share some of them with you on a less crazy day, especially since my computer (or is it WordPress??) is not cooperating this morning.

Due to the craziness around here right now I only actually ate dinner but you’ll understand as I go along.

After posting on BCDC Tuesday morning, I headed to sister Ele’s house to do as I promised.  I had emptied the contents of our storage unit into her dining room. 

That’s probably less than half of it, maybe a third of it.  The other two-thirds are already upstairs.  Left to right, all that I still need to move are the 2 piles of cardboard boxes on the right of the photo.   I lost steam after the first 3 piles!  I’m headed over there this morning to finish the job.  Bless my sister Ele…she is the greatest to let me do this.  I get to finish my sort and toss after we get back from our trip.

When I got back from Ele’s Ralph was up and I wasn’t thinking about eating.  I told him I needed to start to pack…not nagging, just hoping my statement would get him started.  Not sure how far he got, but I now have 4 bags packed, not including my book/computer bag or my dress up clothes for the reunion which are on hangers! 

 I think now that I know where I stand, I need to go back in and rethink things and weed out what I don’t really need.  It is tough going at this time of year.  It could be warm, it could be cool.  I know, I know…LAYER!!

Breakfast/lunch only consisted of a bowl of dry Fiber One which I ate like a snack.  Actually it is a great snack because it doesn’t count much on Weight Watchers, it’s filling and it’s good for what ails me! (Thank you, Gram!!)  A whole cup is only 4 points and is actually a LOT of cereal.  I usually only eat a half cup.  I knew this would be lunch so I splurged! 😉

After all my bags were packed (sort of!) I decided to stay out of Ralph’s way to let him work on his game plan for packing.  Spent a while reading Love in the Time of Cholera.  Hmmm…not sure what I think of it yet.  My friend Debbie, told me Saturday that she Loved it Loved it Loved it and couldn’t wait to hear what I thought.  It’s a fascinating story.  I think the difficulty comes with translating from another language.  I doesn’t flow like something originally written in English.  I don’t hate it, that’s for sure.  Boy, I really need to start doing that book blog!! 

Dinner finally came around 4pm.  We were both hungry and thought that Pat’s Pizza would be quick and easy.  I was mostly starving by then so pretty much anything was ok with me.  This was actually better than just anything.

I had their spinach salad.

It was spinach (duh!), gorgonzola cheese, red onion, dried cranberries, walnuts and a hard-boiled egg.  It was supposed to come with raspberry vinaigrette, but I asked for balsamic instead.  Also supposed to have bacon which I declined.

It came with 2 slices of garlic bread which helped fill me up.  It was a real treat.  I will order that again!

My other savior was 2 Tootsie Pops, one mid afternoon and one in the evening.  You can bet I’ll be packing lots of them for the trip.  Fortunately, Ralph likes them too and they’re something that’s easy and not messy to eat while driving.

So…the next WIAW will be while we’re on the road.  Not sure how easy it will be for me to post during the trip until we get to Colorado Springs.  I’ll try to do some quick things here and there, and they may have to be without photos, but I’ll keep you all updated.  You can follow me on Twitter @BCDCfran and hopefully my phone will stay charged for me to do that!

Today I finish my project at Ele’s and then start thinking about lightening up my clothes packing and starting to assemble the household things we’ll be taking. 

Happy What I Ate Wednesday!!  3 Days to Go!!

Done And Done, Then Let’s Eat Quesadillas!

It took some work, but I finally have Everything out of the storage unit and it is no longer ours!  I’m excited.  I got the last of what was there out and at sister Ele’s house on Monday.  Now I just have to do the moving around over there.

I’ve got about 20 boxes still in her dining room which I need to move this week because she’ll be having company for the weekend and she doesn’t need my things in there.

The proof is in the photo…I present an empty storage unit!  I’m very excited about this!

Ralph was out for the afternoon on a mission so I went over to Gail’s house to try out one of the gadgets we got on the Great Thrift Store Tour in Florida.

A shiny red quesadilla maker.  They had tried it in Florida but after I left, so I was excited to see the results.

Very tasty!!  With black beans of course!

We even made nachos!  But since we cooked these directly from tortillas, I’m not counting them as chips, so my record still stands (No Chips For Me!)

To finish off lunch, Gail made wonderful little parfaits with fat-free vanilla yogurt, strawberries and grapes…So Tasty!

We went off to our chiropractor appointments after lunch and we are all standing taller now!

Ralph was home when I got here so we hung out for a while talking about our plans for the trip and soon it was time for some dinner.  I made Ralph his salad that he likes with tuna.  I made myself a fairly recognizable one.  I probably won’t be making anything to out of the ordinary.  Don’t want to be buying a lot of stuff, since we’ll be away for almost a month.

The last of the romaine and the wonderful baby spring mix we get from Sam’s Club. So glad Gail’s a member! 😉

Added black beans (of course!), some freshly made couscous (I was going for quick here) and more of the light ranch I’m trying to finish up, with Mrs Dash’s Fiesta Lime seasoning added.  Definitely one of my favorites!

The finished product.  Always good and always filling.  Only needed a Lemon-Lime Tootsie Pop to finish off my night a little later.

Wanted to share a cool photo I took in Ele’s front yard.  It’s a small branch that came down during the storm.

Acorns on an oak tree branch.  A sure sign of Fall!!  Can’t wait, myself!

So I’m off to do some lugging around of boxes at Ele’s house.  When I get back, I really need to think about packing…We are going away in 4 days!!!  Yikes!  I’m off!!

Happy Tuesday!!

My Gyro!

Up early on Sunday.  I’ve got a lot to accomplish this week with getting ready for our trip and emptying the storage unit, so I wanted to get an early start.

I was still hard at work on the computer, catching up on blog reading and doing some updating on BCDC (more to come) when Ralph got up.  I hadn’t had anything to eat yet.  He asked if I’d like to share his coffee (what a sweetie!) and asked if I wanted some toast.  A local store carries this wonderful rye and marble rye bread which comes in fresh.  It’s one of Ralph’s favorites and he gets it pretty regularly. 

Very tasty and it held me over.

Late morning found me at my sister, Ele’s house.  I had left her with a dining room full of boxes from the storage unit.  I wanted to get them upstairs to their new temporary home.  Together we got most of them up there.  I’ll be filling it up some more today with the last of what’s in the unit.  Cannot Wait to have that finished!!  Thanks to Ele for helping me with this!

Mid afternoon, Ralph decided we needed some lunch/dinner.  We decided on the Gateway Diner.  They have something on their menu that I’ve been meaning to try.  We go there so often for breakfast, not so often for lunch or dinner.

I know now that when it’s a lunch/dinner visit there, This will be my go-to choice.

May I present…the Vegetable Gyro Special!

The special comes with a small Greek Salad.  No problem there for me!  Asked for the dressing on the side and it was so tasty!

The main attraction…

This was Huge and Delicious.  On the gyro you get, spinach, lettuce, onions, tomatoes and mushrooms.  As I ate through it, I detected cheese also.  You get the tzatziki sauce on the side which was also good.  It came with a side of potato salad ( Should have put that on my Greek salad! ) and cole slaw.  I didn’t eat the potato salad and got a container to bring it home for Ralph.  Of course, I promptly left it on the table when we left. 😦

This was so delicious and very much worth waiting for.  I know I will order it again.  Any vegetarians in this area really need to try this.  It is the best!  The bread was soft and fluffy and the veggies were nicely spiced.  It was however VERY MESSY!  Ask for extra napkins to start!

Monday morning and I’m just waiting until it’s time that I can get into the storage unit and do the last of my clean out.  I can’t tell you how glad I am that it will be finished.

Countdown…5 days to the Road Trip!!

Off to face the day…Happy Monday!! 

 

Goodbye, Irene!

After my success at Weight Watchers on Saturday, Gail, Alice and I went to the Gateway Diner for breakfast.  It was our first visit there since the Girls got back from Florida.  It’s nice to be back in our routine, if only for a short time.

I got my usual, 2 eggs scrambled, with sliced tomatoes and dry rye toast.

Very tasty as usual. 

After breakfast I stopped to pick up a few things that I thought would be helpful if we were house bound due to Irene.  Some saltines and grape jelly, we already had peanut butter at home. What more did we need??

Since it was already raining and there was no hope of doing work at the storage unit, Ralph suggested that he go pick up lunch before the storm hit.  His idea-Chinese food.  I figured, what the heck, I did well at WW and with all this hurricane stress, I needed something to cheer me up.  😉   I made a suggestion to him.  I had never been able to eat with chopsticks so I asked him to ask for some for me.  I might as well do something constructive while I’m waiting for the hurricane!

Ralph headed off to the China House to pick up my favorite…Veggie Delite with brown rice and Chopsticks!!

This is a shot of me using my chopsticks…I’m so proud! 😉

Yes, it worked and I did eat the entire bowl WITH the chopsticks.  I couldn’t finish the whole order, though, saved some in case I needed a mid-hurricane snack.

Ok, Veggie Delite, not such a bad choice and it’s Saturday after all, I can splurge a little.  In truth, I did ask Ralph to bring home some kind of sweet treat.  Forgetting that the Ritz Bakery is in the same shopping center as the China House.  The Ritz is a wonderful bakery that we’ve loved for years, but try to avoid for obvious reasons!

This is what came into my life…

Ok, so I was stressed: there was a hurricane coming, I was bored, I did well at WW, I needed a snack.  So I had a snack.  There is special dispensation in the Weight Watchers contract under hurricane related stress.  Pastry is OK.  Read the fine print…it’s there! 😉

So we finished off our Chinese food.  We read for a good long while with NO TV which was very nice. I couldn’t listen to any more hurricane coverage.  I would have turned on the TV because there was supposed to be a Phillies double-header, but I’m sure it didn’t happen, at least I Hope not!!

Later on, I made a pot of coffee, we drank our coffee and ate our pastries…yes, ALL of our pastries.  My theory with something like that has always been…I’m going to eat them anyway, the sooner I eat them, the sooner my body will start burning them off.  I think it’s a simple and functional plan.  Works for me anyway!!

It rained but certainly not as hard as the storms a few weeks ago.  The wind blew but not as bad as it could have.  We have a tree limb down in our back yard, fortunately it didn’t hit the house.  It’s lying there right next to the other one that fell during the winter.  We like a “woodsy” feel around here.  We’ll get rid of them eventually!

So all in all Irene was not such a bad old girl.  Our area seems to have come through without excessive damage.  I got on my exercise bike first thing this morning for 45 minutes so my Veggie Delite and pastries will hopefully not do too much damage.  I believe the sun is trying to come out although it is still a bit windy. 

What a week…earthquake, tornado warnings, hurricane, pastries…I just try to sit tight and get through it all one step by step.  Thanks for sticking with me, Cookies!!  I’m so happy to have you all along for the ride!

Happy Sunday!!

Success At Last

Hallelujah, Friday!!  I was able to get into our storage unit and get some serious moving done!!  Turns out the power went out at the whole storage place which is why no one was there.  As I explained to the manager, I was ready to strangle him on Friday when I arrived there.  I suggested that a good customer service move would have been to put a sign on the door explaining the situation.  He agreed.  Whether it would ever happen if that situation arises again…I don’t know.

I got two Very full car loads moved from the storage unit to my sister Ele’s house.  There is probably about 2 moderate car loads left.  Our plan had been to go there today with both our cars and finish the job.  However, the rain has started and I think I’ll have to finish up on Monday if the weather improves.  I was pretty tired yesterday after moving all of those boxes so I was not looking forward to moving more today.  Another couple of recovery days will be good.

Today’s good news…I had a very fruitful Weight Watchers meeting today…I lost 1 and a half pounds!  I was very excited.  With this long road trip looming in my future, I want to be at the top of my game to start.  Once we get to New Mexico, I can cook regular meals and that should keep me in check.  I’m looking forward to going to a WW meeting in NM.  I haven’t gone to one there.  Last year when we were there, I forgot my membership book so I couldn’t go.  I won’t make that mistake this time!

After all of my hard work Friday morning, I thought I deserved a special breakfast.

I had found this interesting bit of memorabilia in my kitchen cabinet.

It’s a glass measuring cup from my Grandmom.  It’s neat because it doesn’t have a handle and you could use it as a glass or in this case…for a parfait!

The assembled parts… 1/2 cup of Fiber One, 2/3 cup fat-free vanilla yogurt, strawberries and blueberries.

The beautiful finished product.  This was incredibly filling and it only counted for 4 Points on WW!!  Was I excited?  You Bet!!  I’ll be making this again!  The measuring cup made the perfect container for it, too!  I think there’s another one of them around the house somewhere, that way I could make one for Ralph as well!

Dinner will look rather familiar with a different twist.

Lettuce, thy name is Romaine…

I took the last of the pre-made quinoa, added 1 cup of black beans, ground black pepper, garlic powder and Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning.  Mixed them together and microwaved for 1 minute.

I had some light ranch dressing which I thinned down with some water and added more of the Mrs. Dash.

The finished product…So Yummy!

One last fun photo for you.  My best friends Gail and Alice are home from Florida.  One of the things they brought back was a “lemon” from Gail’s brother’s tree.  It doesn’t look like a lemon, perhaps more like a grapefruit.

I put it on the stove so that the heating elements would give it some perspective.  The thing is HUGE!!  Alice uses it for her tea and I think she told me it lasts her at least week.  Very cool!

The rain seems to have let up.  I don’t know if we’ll lose power, but I’m about to charge my phone, my camera and I’m already charging the little computer that works on a cell phone number.  Hopefully there will be no interruption in BCDC due to the lovely Irene.  I hope she decides that she dislikes New Jersey and leaves us alone!  Everyone try to stay safe!

Happy (probably Wet) Saturday!!

Hrrummpphh…

Or at least I Think that’s how you spell it!  I’ve been whining about not getting anything done, about no focus or motivation, about being the biggest Slug in the world.  But you know folks…sometimes it’s just not my fault!

As I mentioned yesterday, I was up since 2:30am, just because.  I got my exercise done (complete with reading!) got my blog posting and blog reading done and I was ready for my mission for the day.

Go to the storage unit at 9am…when the office opens…so that the manager can help me open the STUPID DOOR THAT DOESN’T WORK!!!  Calm down and take a deep breath.  Ok, I’m better now.  I get there and the sign on the office door says “Closed.”  Hmmm.  Well it’s only 5 after 9 and I figure I’ll give him a few minutes.  Then I notice that the gates that require a code to enter are also open.  Hmmm.  I wait for a few minutes then think, well gee…I’m strong, maybe I really Can get the door open myself.

My drive to the unit itself proves futile.  I really Can’t get the door open.  I drive back to the office and wait some more.  I decide I’ll call the office number, maybe there’s a message saying the office will open later today.  If that was the case there should have been a SIGN ON THE DOOR to say that.  I call and there is no recording, no voicemail.  Nothing!!  I waited about 30 minutes and then drove home. 

I tried calling a few more times throughout the morning, but nothing.  I got really excited because one time it rang busy but then I realized it was probably someone else who was trying to find out what was going on.  Any wonder I came home in a bad mood.  Any wonder I didn’t feel like doing anything.  Sometimes I’d just rather stick pins in my eyes that deal with businesses like this!

I wasn’t a complete slug.  I started going through clothes, trying to determine what to take on our trip.  Yikes!! It’s already next week that we’ll be leaving.  I’m excited for the trip but annoyed that I can’t get this storage thing worked out because I don’t want to pay for another month.  I could wait until I get back, but then I’d be paying for 2 more months!  Not gonna happen. 

I got something of a plan going for what clothes I’m taking.  Trying to figure out what I’ll need at such a transitional time of year and in a mountain (probably cooler )area is making my brain hurt.  I don’t want to over pack but I want everything I need.  Rent a U-Haul, possibly?!?  Just kidding.  I’ll figure it out. 

I also started my master list.  Although, I’m not the most organized person, I always have a big list…on my clipboard…like an organized person would (  😉  ) with everything I need to pack.  I cross things off as I go along.  This time it’s trickier because I’m listing some household things I want to take along to leave at the house in NM.  It will all depend on trunk and back seat space once we get our rental car. 

Funny thing is…I was frustrated when I started writing this, but talking about New Mexico is making me feel better.  I like it!

I finished reading Water For Elephants yesterday and I liked it.  I didn’t appreciate the cruelty to the elephant or some of the humans for that matter.  By I liked Sara Gruen’s style of writing.

I started Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Another one of those “must-reads” that people tell me about.  Interesting so far, but it annoys me when an author does not make it clear where the story takes place.  I have so many rules about books…sometimes I hate myself for it! 😉  I really do need to start a book blog.  Then these writers would know the rules!!

So I finally got to food just in time to eat and watch TMZ. 

The Big Romaine…sounds like a Coen Brothers movie!!

Tomato, green bell pepper, leftover quinoa and my wonderful freshly home-made black beans.  The Best!

Yum…nothing better…a big salad in my Big Purple Bowl!

Finished the night with this…

A book and a Wild Black Berry Tootsie Pop.  What more could a girl ask for?!?  Fell asleep watching Project Runway, but I woke up just in time to find out “Who’s In and Who’s Out!!” 

Off to face the fun at the storage unit.  I HAVE to get this done before the fool hurricane gets here, too….Hrrummpphh…

Happy Friday!!

Egg-streme Day

Ralph’s appointment in Philadelphia was scheduled for noon.  We were both up and ready, so we were on our way by about 11am.  Since the office he was visiting was across the street from the Melrose Diner, our plan was for me to wait for him there until he was finished.

To keep the waitress happy since I would be taking up a booth for a while, I ordered breakfast.

My choice-a spinach and feta cheese omelette with sliced tomatoes and dry rye toast.  It was tasty and I was excited that they had orange marmalade for my toast.  It’s so hard to find that in diners in NJ. 

I didn’t mind waiting because I had my book with me.  I’m still working on Water For Elephants and still loving it!!  It’s moving quickly and an extra hour of reading time was a nice gift.  Especially when it came accompanied by coffee!!

Ralph finished his appointment and joined me to have some lunch.  He felt it was a productive meeting and he’s excited about it.

When we got home I got my black beans out of the crock pot.

I just love having a nice batch of beans all ready and waiting for me in the fridge!  Unfortunately, time got away from us when we got home, Ralph took a nap and I did a few things around the house.  It was almost 7:30pm when we thought about eating.  I didn’t feel like getting anything ready so Ralph took the quick trip around the corner to Picasso’s.

Boring person that I am, it’s easy to guess what I asked for.

My usual, pepper and egg sandwich.  Yes…Eggs again…I love it and I’m not going to apologize!! 😉

In an effort to be “artsy,” I took what I think is a cool photo of the condensation collecting inside my crock pot.

It doesn’t translate quite as well as I would have liked, but hey…I love my crock pot and I’m not going to hide it!!

So it’s Thursday and I’ve been awake since 2:30am.  Could Not go back to sleep!! 😦  I tried.  I was on my stationary bike by 4am, did my 40 minutes.  I have plans today to get to the storage unit and get a lot more of what’s stored brought home.  Hope I can stay wake to do that.  I can always take a nap when I get home! 

On to a Productive Day!

Happy Thursday!!

Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Goin’ On!!

But first to introduce the day….It’s What I Ate Wednesday!! 

I didn’t forget this time and in spite of yesterday’s weirdness.  I’m prepared!

I was out early Tuesday morning.  Off to the storage unit and so proud of myself for getting there early.  I had to wait until 9am because I’m still having the issue with the door and the manager has to get me in and out.  He’s been very cooperative about it and I appreciate that.

I weeded through a lot of stuff, made some trash, made some Goodwill bags and loaded the car to bring stuff home.  I was very proud of myself and I’ll be there again over the next few days to get it all out of there.  Thank goodness there’s not more there…I’d be in trouble trying to accomplish this feat of strength!!

When I got home I was very hungry and fortunately I had overnight oats (OOIAJ) ready and waiting!

Sadly, the few strawberries I had left were all funky so I only had blueberries, but they were just yummy!  I guess I never have to worry about Ralph stealing my OOIAJ.  He told me he looked over at it and it made him quesy…hmmmm…kind of how I feel about your steak sometimes, dear.

Anyway, we had some banking to do and our plan was bank, then lunch, then Verchio’s to pick up some produce.  The bank went well.  We decided on Subway.  We both like it there, we can both get what we want and it was on our route.

I got my usual favorite, the Veggie Delite!  Provolone cheese, spinach,  tomatoes, red onion, sweet peppers, green peppers, lots o’ black olives and the Southwest Chipotle sauce.  Very tasty.

As we’re sitting there eating, Ralph started to kick the table…or so I thought.  We’ve discussed it since then and this is how it went.  I say, “Honey, why are your kicking the…oh, you’re not kicking the table!!”  That because I suddenly realized that it wasn’t the table that was shaking…it was my chair.  After it started, it paused then went on, twice.  It was the strangest sensation.

Ralph and  I both remember an earthquake in this area, probably 30 some years ago.  I was in college up late studying and there was no one with me to ask, “Hey, what was that?”  That one I heard, too.  It sounded like a train.  This was much more of a feeling sensation, I think because it went on for so long.  Probably only about 20 seconds, but it “felt” like it went on for a long time.

As we left Subway, we tried to call my sister, Ele to see if she was ok and she had gone to the storage place to see if I was ok!  When she saw my car wasn’t at my house she thought something might have fallen on me at the storage unit!!  Of course I found this out later because all of the circuits were busy and all I knew was that she had gone to the storage unit!  What a crazy day!!

Everyone was ok and that’s what was important. I went over to her house and we watched the earthquake coverage on TV for a while.  We always worry about our cousins who live in California and the earthquakes there.  This time, they were contacting us on Facebook to make sure we were ok.  Quite a turn around.

I finally did get to dinner.  Ralph and I both opted for salads.  I make him the kind he likes with tuna and I set about to make what is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

A fresh pot of quinoa cooked up in veggie broth.

Romaine, Jersey tomato and green bell pepper.

My last cup of pinto beans… 😦

Quinoa and pinto beans added

The finished, yummy product!!  I’m not too sad about the end of the pinto beans because I remembered to soak some black beans last night and they are now happily crocking away in my crock pot!!

So that’s my story for What I Ate Wednesday with a little earthquake stuff thrown in for good measure.  All in All a very interesting day!

Today might be interesting, too.  We’ll See!!

Happy Wednesday!!

Big City, Small Town

Ralph and I started out in Philadelphia on Monday.  We had to find an office where he has an appointment this week.  With very little difficulty we found it.  We were told it was directly across the street from the Melrose Diner and that was true!  Made it very easy to find.

The Melrose Diner  ( I forgot to take a photo…) has been in business since 1935 and you can tell it has that old-time diner feel about it.  We decided to sit at the counter and it was a good idea.  We had a very nice server and she gave us a little history of the place.

These paintings are from the original diner and were kept when it was renovated some years ago.

Everyone was extremely friendly.  I went with thoughts of breakfast but ended up with lunch.  I was surprised and happy to see a black bean burger on the menu so I zeroed in on that.

It was big and tasty and I enjoyed it.  I tried for a side salad to replace the fries, but I could only get a vegetable from the day’s selection.  I picked apple sauce and I thought that was a good alternative to the fries.  Their coffee was really good and it was overall a good experience!

It was an incredibly beautiful day.  The temperature was in the 80’s and the humidity low.  Skies were blue and as we drove home Ralph suggested that we take a ride to the Park. 

You’ve heard me talk about the Park before.  Red Bank Battlefield lies along the Delaware River and has always been a part of our lives because my sister, Ele and I grew up here.  It is a Revolutionary War battle site and I’ll let the experts tell you the history.  Please read it because it’s a wonderful history.  In October there is a reenactment of the battle.  I’ll hopefully be going this year and I’ll share it with everyone.

A cannon from the fort.

The statue of Colonel Christopher Greene, one of the heroes of the battle.

The plaque explaining the history of the battle.

Two wind-blown tourists!  We walked around the Park for about a half hour and had a great time.

The beautiful, blue sky and the old trees of the Park!

It was a great day and later I had the chance to enjoy it again when Ele called to ask if I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful day and take a walk.  Well, I already did, but I’ll do it again!!  It was very pleasant and I can certainly benefit from the extra exercise.  But don’t you know it, when I got changed I took off my pedometer to find out the battery was dead and I got NO credit for any walking on Monday! 😦  Ah, well…it’s always something…

Tuesday looks pretty sunny so far.  I’m headed over to our storage unit to do some work there.  Still have things to sort out and I hope to get some of it to Goodwill.  I’m trying to get it cleaned out before we leave on our trip.  I don’t want to have to pay for it another month.  Trying to be thrifty!!  We’ll see how it goes!

Happy Tuesday!!

The Best Laid Plans…The Slug Still Lives

I had lots of things I wanted to work on Sunday, but that never seemed to happen.  I’m just going through a stage.  The Slug Still Lives.

My sister, Ele texted me early to ask if I wanted to have a K-Mart adventure with her.  I figured, why not.  I could already tell I wasn’t motivated to do what I had planned to do.

I picked her up after she finished church and we were off to K-Mart.  There were sneakers on sale and she wanted to take advantage.  Not only were sneakers on sale, they were having a buy one get one 50% off even on clearance items.  I was in love!

Ele didn’t want a second pair and said if I found something I wanted, I could be her second pair…well, my sneakers could be her second pair!!

What do you think?!?  Red, white and black plaid sneakers with double laces, so cool.  Why am I obsessed lately with odd sneakers?  The best thing is…they were on sale for $7.99 so with 50% off…they were $4.00!!  I’m so excited!  They’ll actually be perfect for our trip.  I’ll fit right in when we get to Silver City!  The hippies will Love me!!

We decided we’d stop at Dunkin’ Donuts for a treat.  (Where’s my boyfriend, Captain America…:-(  )Mine was a small iced coffee which I was happy about.  Staying on track is my life’s work!

Now, Ms. Ele…

Caught in the act with her caramel machhiato with the whipped cream!!  She has her nerve dipping the ole finger in there!  Lucky for me I don’t like whipped cream so I wasn’t tempted.  We chatted for a while and it was fun!  Regular readers will realize that we always sit at the same table.  We have our rules.  There were people there when we came in, but we dawdled and they left!

I started reading Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen.

Many times, I’m reluctant to read a book that has so much acclaim.  I tend to drag my feet about it.  The reason is, I’ve been so disappointed in the past by books that have been “must reads.”  I’m happy to say that so far this is good.  Well written, descriptive, not too wordy and the story is moving along quickly.  The best part is, this is one of the books I bought while I was in Clearwater on the Great Thrift Store Tour.  My price…49 cents!!!  It’s in good condition (which doesn’t always happen at thrift stores) so I’m excited.  It kept me peddling away on my stationary bike this morning! 😉

Dinner was catch as catch can and will look familiar to you except for one addition.

I got this wonderful artisan lettuce at Aldi’s for only $1.99!  I was so shocked when I found it.  Ralph had paid almost $8.00 for a container like this earlier in the summer. 

It was a colorful and tasty addition to my salad.

A Jersey tomato, red bell pepper and the last of my romaine.  Also added were a cup of my pinto beans (almost gone) and the last of my quinoa. 😦

Yummy salad with a trick I learned last Saturday…how to change my camera setting to do close-ups.  I think I like it!

Ralph and I are off on an adventure today to find an office where he has an appointment later in the week.  I’ve been told there will be breakfast involved at a rather famous Philadelphia food spot.  I’ve got my camera and I can do close-ups now!  I think it will be fun.

Happy Monday!!