Category: Life

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Wearing Green and Drinking Beer

This weekend is all about Saint Patrick’s Day. Here in Nashville we love any holiday that gives us an excuse to drink beer, so this is a big deal for downtown bars and restaurants.

I heard some big numbers on the news about how the downtown bars and restaurants can only actually seat something 75,000 people on a weekend.

To be honest, I do not drink much beer. I tend to not want the hassle of watching my intake and fretting about driving home without the risk of trouble with cops. And second, I don’t want all the extra calories. Third, I only like beer that is ice cold. I don’t want to hold a bottle in my hand and just sip on it for an hour with the heat from my hand raising the temperature of the beer. I don’t like drinking from a bottle anyway. I like a glass – and not plastic, I mean a real glass.

Sorry if I sound so finicky, but I have learned what I like and what I don’t like and I will certainly seek out the things that I like if I have that option. Maybe once in a while I might be at the boss’s house for a backyard barbecue and have to drink a beer from a red Solo cup, but most of the time I will be seated in a sports bar or a stadium suite and enjoy an ice cold beer served in a glass along with the peanuts or Chex Mix and a good baseball game or hockey game underway.

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The Internet offers consumers different ways to order things

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I go shopping online I am uncomfortable filling out an order form that requires my credit card information. With all of the recent publicity about hackers getting into systems through the Internet, I find more and more that I would appreciate finding the item I want to purchase, and then actually placing the order with a phone call. So I was relieved when I was thinking about buying something from the musician’s friend website to see “To place your order, call us toll-free at 800-449-9128” as an option for ordering. I think in this day and age, this is a little bit more secure than sending the information electronically. What do you think?

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I just couldn’t resist

I have been looking to sort of fix up the place when I realized that I could use a new look myself. I found some great deals online with coupons to places like Old Navy Stores. I don’t know about you but I love Old Navy Stores. They have some great deals and some even better sales too. But what I liked about this site is it’s linked right to Old Navy Stores online and you can use the coupon when you check out.

Shopping online saves you not only with the coupons but you don’t have to run out any of your gas either. If you live out in the boonies like I do, that adds up quick. Do an online coupon search and you’ll be amazed at how many sites there are like shopwiki. That’s one of my favorite sites because you can find just about anything on there.

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Garth Brooks Concerts

One of my all-time favorite country music stars is Garth Brooks. When I was younger I really enjoyed the music of Kenny Rogers (and I still do enjoy some of his classic songs, like “The Gambler”) but when it comes to more recent country hits, Garth Brooks has to be the winner of the competition between the two. Largely because I love his song on his Christmas album “Baby Jesus is born” (which I wish had an official video to go along with the song) but also I love his song “Friends in Low Places.”

Recently I became friends with a couple of people that love going to a karaoke bar once a week, and they have invited me to join them several times. When I have gone, I noticed that someone always sings the “Friends in Low Places song” but that never includes that third verse that is my personal favorite! I wish the karaoke version of the song included that verse!

Yesterday one of those friends told me that she wanted to buy some http://garthbrookstours.com for her husband and give them to him as a birthday gift. She has no idea how to use the Internet at all, and she wanted to buy the tickets as a surprise, so she asked me to help her find out how to get more information on the newest Garth Brooks tour so she could find out when and where Garth will be performing close to where we live.

I told her I’d go online this weekend to the http://garthbrookstours.com website and see what I could find out for her about getting the tickets. Well, I went to the website and found that the closest concert to where we live is so far away that they would have to make a weekend trip of it – fly up the day before, and fly back the day after! I don’t know if that is something she is going to want to do. I’m going to have to call her tomorrow and let her know what I found out!

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Pesky Old Groundhogs

My first memories of groundhogs are probably unusual unless you grew up on a farm. I did not grown up on my grandparent’s farm, but we did spend a lot of time up there visiting my mom’s parents. I believe that my sister and I were left on the farm for a couple of weeks when she gave birth to my youngest sister. I was not yet in school, so being gone from home for 2 weeks in October was not a big deal to anyone.

My grandparents had bought a huge property when he retired from the Navy. They had cows, pigs, dozens of cats who lived in the big barn, and two hunting dogs. My grandfather would often take the shotgun out to the fields and kill groundhogs. He said they were bigger pests than roaches and needed killing or they would destroy his crops.

So my experience with groundhogs is that they must be killed – not celebrated and expected to guide us on the next 6 weeks worth of weather conditions.

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Comfort Food for this Cold Weather

Winter is being a little more harsh this year than in recent years. It’s not just in this area, we are actually missing some of the snow and extreme cold (knock on wood!). Even so, the cold that we are having makes me crave comfort. The kind of food that cooks for a long time and makes the whole house smell yummy. The kind of food that tastes so good that you barely chew it – you shovel in your mouth so fast that you practically inhale it.

Some of my favorite comfort foods are chili, beef stew, and the #1 favorite, chicken and dumplings. All three of these are made from scratch and often turn out slightly different each time, depending upon what I have on hand and how hard I shake the spice jar.

I also love macaroni and cheese, but that always turns out different and I have several different recipes. I have a speedy version, my cheap version, recipes clipped from magazines over the years, and my full blown childhood memory of my mom’s version. Sometimes I use elbow macaroni, other times I uses ziti or rotini or other specialty pastas. And the kind of cheese can be anything from from shredded four state cheddar to Velveeta.

What are some of the special foods that you like to cook during the cold weather months?

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Sick on New Years

I tried to stay up last night with my husband but I just felt awful. I woke up this morning puking up my brains. I hope this isn’t a sign that I’ll be having a yucky year. This definitely isn’t my idea of a great and happy new year. If I’m lucky this will just be a twenty four hour bug and I’ll feel terrific tomorrow. I can’t wait to see the Rose Parade in the morning!

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Christmas Traditions Can Differ a Lot

When I was a kid, we had Christmas on just one day – Christmas Day – and it was a very busy day for us. We always woke up early and tore into the presents under our tree in the living room. Then we had brunch, got dressed up and visited my Grandmother at her house. We always took gifts to her house for her and she always had gifts for us waiting under her tree. We visited for a couple of hours and then left her house and went to my other grandparent’s house for a huge family party.

I am amazed to learn that many people open their gifts on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning. Some families hang stockings and some don’t. Some families don’t even have Santa come visit – I think that is sad. Even when the kids are grown, everyone still likes to get a little gift from Santa!

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Alligators Dancing for Christmas

graphic of alligators dancing

One of my good friends was born and raised in Louisiana. I found this cute graphic of alligators dancing while wearing Santa hats. I posted it on his Facebook wall and he got a great laugh about it. I think it is so cute!

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Would love to learn how to salsa dance

salsa dancing (free clip art)
salsa dancing (free clip art)

I always wanted to take a variety of dance classes when I was married. My ex agreed to taking a brief course in ballroom dancing, but it was a disaster. He kept telling me that I was trying to lead and made a big scene. I used to dance with a variety of partners before we married, and nobody ever told me that I was trying to lead! Maybe my ex just needed to be a little bit stronger in his leading, I don’t know. Regardless, we never went dancing after that, and that made me really sad because I love to dance! I wish I could find a partner to take salsa classes santa monica with me so I could go out and have some fun again!