It's Halloween!

I was just thinking about how few memories I actually have of my own childhood Halloween experiences. I remember gutting pumpkins and hating the goo and strings inside. I remember one year gutting a pumpkin and then puking up curly fries from Arby's that I had eaten that night for dinner (I believe this was the last year I ever removed the insides of a pumpkin). I remember one Halloween walking around with my Dad and sister in our Michigan neighborhood with glo-sticks. And I remember one Halloween in Tennessee. That's about it.

Since then, I have dressed up from time to time, and sometimes have given out candy, but I guess Halloween isn't too special of day for me. This year, Mike and I were going to carve a pumpkin (on the basis that he was going to clean out the insides) but we didn't. I haven't carved a pumpkin in probably 18 years. And that's no exaggeration. Maybe next year I guess. I do like to eat roasted pumpkin seeds, so if for no other reason, I'd like to carve a pumpkin to get to the seeds...after someone else cleans the pumpkin out for me of course.

This is the first Halloween that Mike and I have spent together. He's always been either working in North Carolina or working in Iraq. So, I guess you could say this is a monumental occasion. But I don't think we are going to make much of it. I've made a trip to Walmart today for candy and now I'm cooking a broccoli and cheese pizza for us for dinner. There have been several groups of kids come by already and I guess as soon as they stop knocking, we'll probably call it a night.

Tomorrow morning John McCain is going to be in Springfield. Mike got tickets. I'm not going because it's going to be 40 degrees and I'm not willing to stand outside in that weather for any amount of time for even Obama so definitely not McCain. He was planning to go, but I think he's second guessing for the same reason. But I'm not influencing him either way.

Well, I will leave you with a "Happy Halloween" and sign off for the day. It's time to eat pizza.

Nothing too new

Nothing really to report. After my delicious veggie pot pie on Monday, I made homemade gnocchi with tomato sauce on Tuesday and then a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Wednesday. I need to go to the grocery store to stock up on more vegetables because I'm pretty much out again. Plus, I still need to get candy for the kiddos tomorrow night.

Our bedroom is pretty much complete. I need finish painting the closet in there and touch up where I screwed up the ceiling in a couple places and then clean up. That's it! So, it's very possibly by tonight we may have a bed in there again. I've been enjoying sleeping on the couch the last few nights because it's more comfortable to me than the cot. But my hubby hasn't been too happy with the situation. It's not like he even knows I'm beside him at night anyways. We have two cot bars between us!!

I also got the call back on our windows today. They are in and ready to be picked up at Home Depot. The makers of the windows told me that they could install them for us, but Home Depot has told me otherwise. So I guess we are on our own trying to figure out how to remove the current windows and put the new ones in. We may wait until my dad's in town to mess with the installation since we have no place to put the old windows once they come out. Dad will be bringing his truck so at least we could take them somewhere. Does anyone know if there is a place to recycle windows? I bet there is.

OK. I smell. I think it's time for a shower.

Monday night MEALS!

I am proud of my concoction for dinner tonight. I have never had a pot pie before in my life but I found a recipe for a vegetarian pot pie on line. It was very lenient on ingredients so I decided to put broccoli, spinach, onions, peas, red bell pepper, potato, and garlic into this pot pie. I put it in a white sauce with milk, soy sauce, and some herbs and then covered it with a homemade pie shell. I think I could improve upon the taste of the pie shell (needed more salt) but the rest of the meal I found to be very impressive! I can't wait to make it again! I think it would be really good with carrots (I'm usually not a fan), fake chicken, and the rest of the stuff I already had in there. Even my omnivore husband really liked it. I think I may have to try this recipe out on my father again here in a few weeks. I'm SO glad to have my kitchen back!!!

I guess that's all for today. I just wanted to blog about my pot pie I am very impressed with. I'm sad that the Sarah Connor Chronicles was not on tonight. Instead was some stupid baseball game...what, the World Series or something?

Sunday brunch

I just finished making our extravagant Sunday brunch of scrambled eggs with sharp cheddar, mozzarella and garlic and whole wheat toast. Yup. I spent all morning cooking on that one! Now I've just set up the Wii to wireless Internet and am waiting for it to update the system. I need to create my Mii. I haven't even played this thing yet since Michael set it up early last week. All we have is one controller and the sports game that comes with the system so it's not too interesting at the moment. But I think once this Internet finishes updating and we can buy games online, we may find some we like.

Dinner out on Friday night in DC was good. I ordered a platter of vegetarian food consisting of a cheese enchilada, chile rellenos and guacamole taco. I was so full I could only finish the chile rellenos and a couple bites of the other two. Everything was good though. I'd like to go back and try to finish all of the plate. We also had some margaritas which were yummy as well. Afterwards one of Mike's coworkers took us walking around the city near Dupont Circle and that was pretty boring. I guess he was trying to find someplace we'd like to go afterwards to hang out, but it ended up just being a tramp around DC in fairly cold weather. So, after an hour or so of that Mike and I said we were going back to find our car (we ended up driving after all) and it seemed that everyone was going to call it a night then as well. Not too much excitement to report.

Yesterday we spent the day listening to the rain outside, staying under heating blankets and watching the Food Network and HGTV. Nothing was accomplished on the house but Mike did go to Home Depot to get more paint and some other things. Today he is taping more trim and I'm going to finish our Master bedroom. Stuff needs to come out of our closet too so I can paint in there as well. Mike also suggested bringing up our bed from the basement and putting it in the living room for the time being. I think we can manage a few more days on the cots. Plus, last night I slept on the couch with Stumpey and Skye and it was quite comfortable.

It's Friday!

Which means it's just like every other day of the week for me except tomorrow I will have a husband that can sleep in past 7:30am too. Yesterday I went and got my car fixed. We had to replace the rear brakes, left exhaust hanger, windshield wipers and right side light. I also threw in an oil change since it was almost 3000 miles since the last one (and the last one was 1 year ago. Yes, I didn't even drive 3000 miles last year!) Then I went and officially passed my inspection. So I am now legal to drive in the state of Virginia. We got the deal that Mike wanted on a 2009 Prius, $100 over invoice, but we just don't have the money to pay another several hundred dollar bill every month. I'm just hoping my car lasts until we do have a little extra money. Soon my car will be 11 years old! I don't think any of my family has ever had a car that long. We are the family that gets a new vehicle every other year or so. Maybe by the time I start looking for a car again the 2010 Volt's will be on the market. I don't think I would ever drive on gas! And even if I let Mike drive that one, he could go to work and come back and still have more than half of the mileage before falling into using gas. I think that car would be the best way to go for our driving. Everything is so short distance!

So a house update. Last night Mike removed the trim wallpaper from our master bedroom and painted the ceiling white. It's my job today to spackle holes, tape the ceiling and paint the walls. Things are coming together!

Tonight we are going into the city to meet some of Mike's co-workers at a Tex-Mex place. I called and they don't use anything but water and salt to cook their rice and black beans so I think I'll actually be able to eat there. We'll probably drive over to the Springfield metro and take that into the city. I'm thinking parking would be difficult on a Friday night. It will take us a long time to get there on the metro, probably an hour I'm guessing, but when you take into account time looking for a parking space, I think we'll be making up for it. This will be the first time we've been to the city since we moved into this house. It will be a nice little break, but I'm not looking forward to walking around in 50 degree weather. I need to find the box with my wool coat in it and break it out for tonight. Even if I only walk from the metro to the restaurant, I still don't want to be freezing.

OK. That's my Friday October 24, 2008 update.

Just another day

So yesterday I painted the computer room. All that is left to do in there is painting the trim. It looks a million times better than it did with the floral padded wall and greenish-gold colored paint. I still haven't taken any pictures but I will. I think we are supposed to work on our bedroom today but I haven't started anything as of yet. The trim wallpaper needs to be removed and then we can paint. No need for primer in there; the walls are already off white.

My allergies are much better today. I'm feeling like I have been in this house for the last month which isn't perfect, but it is much of an improvement over the last two days.



I just finished making baked fuselli and cheese with broccoli and spinach. I added some cajun seasoning as well so it should be a little spicy. We'll see how my creation turned out here in a little while once my hubby gets home.



I thought I would leave you with an amusing photograph taken last week when I had forgotten that the trim had just been painted. I was watching Stumpey and Skore play together and I sat on the floor and leaned backward. Have a nice day!

Miserable

The last two days I've been just miserable with horrible allergies. I didn't sleep all night on Sunday because I couldn't lay down without snot running down my throat or out my nose. So, I watched TV all night. Yesterday wasn't any better. We kept the windows open all day and it was cold outside so I was snuggled under a heating blanket all day long while trying not to allow snot to get on anything. I finally slept last night after taking some NyQuil. I think that may have been the first time in my life that I've ever taken that stuff. It tasted terrible. And I'm pretty certain it didn't make me fall asleep. Even a couple hours after taking it I was still awake. But I finally got to sleep, I'm pretty certain, on my own accord. I slept for about 12 hours. I woke up and probably could have slept longer but felt it was about time to get up and see how I was going to feel today. I dreaded sitting in a vertical position because I knew that the coughing would begin and the snot would start draining again, which it did. But, all of my symptoms are to a lesser degree today. I have the windows open again and it's still pretty chilly outside but not as cold as yesterday. I'm coughing up a lot of crap now, and still sneezing and have a runny nose, but I have confidence that it is getting better. I've taken another Claritin-D today, but it hasn't seemed to be working the last few days so I'm not sure if today will be any different. I think I'm going to tape and paint the computer room today. I didn't do anything yesterday and that makes me feel like a slacker even though I had a good excuse. I can't let my husband work all day and have me just lay around. Today I don't feel miserable enough for that. Time to eat some breakfast at 1pm. I'm actually hungry today which is a good sign I think!