New Year's Eve

 We went out briefly Saturday midday and came right back to a nap...lol. Well, he watched football. One item needs more documentation, so no return there. I will fix it. I managed to get the cups we desperately need so that we don't have to wash a million glasses. I also bought a red bin, large one, for Christmas decorations. I found a box of nasty butter cookies in a pretty tin. After paying for the cookies, I dumped them all but six into a bag and gave them to the two children behind me. The tin had Santa on it and was cheaper than a tin at a yard sale. We replaced the lamp with another floor lamp. Done! 

At Publix, I returned the stemless wine glasses. They had huge bottoms, no roundness at all. They are ugly and hard to hold. The three coupons I needed to use on last night's purchase gave me cash back. Altogether, I was ahead $10 and used all but $1.11 on purchases. 

I found a Moscow Mule mug and got it, beautiful red with a painted-on white tree. I had a Santa mug for 50 years that I put candy canes in at Christmas. So, the red or green mug will work. Plus, I got cookie cutters. I had to buy three to get the star cookie cutter I wanted.

We dropped off red rice and two packages of Hamburger Helper to Lynda. I hate HH. 

NYE fare is decided--leftover taco soup, sausage balls, Ruffles and dip, regular grape juice in our 7-Up. Tommy says he does not like Ruffles, but I know he will have some. I asked what kind he wanted and he would not say, so it is done.  

At one place, I saw a Party in a Box but did not stop to examine. Great idea. Of course, decorating for NYE has never been a thing I do. 

Oh, I forgot to tell you. At the last doctor's appointment, I had lost five pounds. I don't know if it was different scales or what, but I had been cutting back a bit since the previous appointment since I was horrified at my weight.

A memory: One NYE, I went to a party where the doors were open, we wandered in the garden in party clothes. The host had built a fire that was driving us all outdoors! It was so warm that I wore a sleeveless, sheer outfit and needed not even a sweater. It was wonderful. The host was a musician. One room had a piano in the corner and about 30 instruments on the wall that anyone was welcome to use at the party. One man in the garden had a flute. I commented that he had gotten attached and must be planning to play again that evening. He said it was his own instrument, that many of the people at the party were members of some orchestra from NYC that was playing somewhere in Birmingham. It was a memorable evening. I even drove people to another party because I did not drink. 

What is on the agenda for NYE at your house? Of course, I will have no problem staying up until midnight. The day was pretty, clear and warm, in mid 60Fs, so I am sure people will be out tonight. I just hope no shooting is involved in celebrating. A child was killed in her bed in her home last week. The tragic, random shootings must stop. I digress.

Are you going out? Staying in? Having company? Treats? Staying up late? Having fireworks? Found any more markdowns? 

Do you have any special traditions for NYE?

When do you take down Christmas tree and decorations? Mine will come down Jan 1st. 

Happy New Year! 

Midnight Kiss

 It has been over two weeks since the dishwasher has been loaded and run. However, Tommy keeps washing just enough dishes. He just wanders off and stays gone in the kitchen. When I stagger in, the kitchen looks pretty good. It is not perfect, but he keeps enough dishes washed so I can cook.

All decorations are still up, although I did bring the wreath in. It lies here, ready to be put away.  Tommy washed three loads of laundry and offered to do more. He washed his fuzzy blanket I gave him years ago and four of the throws. I had to hang all four of the small throws, and he dried his in the dryer. The dryer has only one setting--hot--so I never put anything in it except kitchen linen and bedclothes. I don't feel like hanging things, especially since the last are not dry. 

The temp reached 80F today, so this gives us the opportunity for bad weather. 

Since we received the filters from Amazon and Tommy replaced the old one, the furnace no longer roars and strains. It is a smooth-running machine now. 

New Year's Eve, we wanted to watch one of the musical specials. But, that was not to be. So, I think we watched Gunsmoke. The fireworks were far away, so we saw nothing. There no special snacky things here. But, all in all, since I felt so horrible, it was a pleasant evening. 

After I "jumped" off the stool, Tommy was coming into the living room past me. I turned and started to kiss him. He lowered his head like I intended to kiss him on his head. I said, "We have lips." We then shared a peckity kiss. 

Jumping into New Year, Literally!

 In the early 90s I attended NYE parties at Heidi's house. Every year she would insist that everyone stand on her chairs and sofas and jump off when the ball in NYC dropped. I suppose I did this for 15 years.

On NYE, last night, I decided to do the same. I got a small stool that I have had for many years and positioned it where I could get it quickly and jump from it. Tommy had to help me up. I sort of hopped down one foot at a time. Tommy said, "Well, I guess that will pass for a jump." So, I have jumped into the New Year. 

It is supposed to be a tradition in Austria, where she claimed she was born or lived. Everyone said she was Germany, which she vehemently denied. I only know what she said.

I was also going to say "rabbit" as the last word of the year and say "rabbit" as the first word of the new year like Urspo (click on Urspo) does, but I was too busy say, "Help me."  and "Hurry." Well, I successfully managed to get on the stool with Tommy's help and the door facing. 

Do you have any superstitions/traditions to employ for good luck in the new year? 

Blackeyed peas, Explained.

 If you are not familiar with the Southern Tradition of eating blackeyed  peas on New Year's Day for luck in the upcoming year, the explanations in Mental Floss will be interesting.

We will never have a full meal  for Christmas since I am barely up to getting out of bed! Since I just got up from a nap, I will try to load the dishwasher with the usual help from Tommy. 

For brunch, I had half a banana and I think I had milk. Who knows? At almost 5 pm, I had a plain turkey sandwich with Miracle Whip.  Tommy can eat anything he can find. 

Yesterday, I threw out a bottle of MW that was getting too spicy. Today, I opened a new bottle and it was sweet and creamy. YUM! There was not much left in the bottle I threw out. I over bought last summer. Oh, well, still saved money. 

Sitting right here in the living room, you will find me sorting blackeyed peas. Of course, I will do it dry and then rinse the beans later. The crock pot cooks them perfectly. I don't mind if they get a bit mushy. I wish I had some chow chow. I might eat them plain or with some catsup.

Do you eat blackeyed peas? With Chow chow? Catsup? What?

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day

 So, it is still NYE. I did not feel like writing  and the shirts were so cute. I really need one. 

NYE I priced Hunt's Tomato Bits and Hunts Tomato Sauce. Publix is cheaper than Piggly Wiggly!  I will wait for a better price. Since I cannot find collards in a small can that does not contain anything but water, I bought a #10 can of collards. When I open them, I will freeze them in portions for two. 

Blackeyed Peas are in the crock pot. Collards will go well with those. Plus, I will make cole slaw. That will go well with peas, also. 

For about ten years I attended a New Year Day party that was just for women and we had our cards read by our host. We all brought food, even after attending her NYE party the night before. Some people brought bacon and eggs and cooked there. Someone always brought a huge bowl of cherries. I finally asked them to put the cherries at the other end of the table because I had no willpower in the face of cherries. 

I always brought blackeyed peas with no seasoning at all, not even salt. Surprisingly, some people were thrilled with no sodium. Plus, I brought slaw. Both were a hit and none was left. 

Those were twenty happy years. Sadly, our host for many parties died suddenly. We never recovered our parties. She hosted politicians, attorneys, teachers, professors, nurses, and the rest of us..lol. Conversation was always interesting. Tommy went there one or two times and found two other guys who were into Doctor Who. We always played Trivial Pursuit--one side of the room against the other. We had so much fun. 

I digress. 

Tonight, we are having cabbage and onions, the last two healthy hotdogs, and roasted potatoes. When the blackeyed peas are done, we will have those tonight and definitely tomorrow with slaw and ham. 

The NYEs that I stayed home, I had Coke, Ruffles, and onion dip. So, tonight, that will be my treat. I have the rest of the Port Wine Cheese Ball and half a log of goat cheese in blueberries, and Wheat Thins. I will only have a bit of these along with fruit.

When I told Tommy I had gotten a blueberry goat cheese log for NYE, he grunted in approval. Then, one day he got half of it and ate it! What was he thinking? So, I suppose we have less.  

There are fireworks somewhere, sort of rumbling. I have not gone out to investigate. 

I suppose we are watching a Doctor Who marathon. 

NEW YEAR'S DAY

Last night, I ate only a few chips, little dip. We saw no fireworks, just hurt them popping, nothing close.  After I finally went to bed at 2 am, I had just drifted off and was almost asleep when fireworks started again and startled me. And, they were close. 

I definitely do NOT like Doctor Who. 

Today is the day we are starting to take down decorations. I was going to wait until Saturday, but Tommy is taking the lights off the wreath now. Whatever. Most years, it take me two weeks to finally get everything down. I take them all down on one day, but keep finding things I forgot for days. 

The one thing we did have was a bottle of Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice. I had never had any, so I picked up a bottle last week. After I poured us a bit, I dropped some of the frozen white grapes in it. We should have put in 12 grapes, eaten them as we made wishes. The drink tasted like NuGrape drink, a bottle soda. Have you ever had NuGrape? It is the best of the grape sodas. No, we will not drink all this as I will pour it out. 

I had other things to eat that were snacky, but we did not eat much during the evening--a good move. 

My fever is within a tenth of a degree or two-tenths of a degree of normal. So, I feel better! 

It is 2 pm and I have not had breakfast or lunch, so I will make cole slaw and have blackeyed peas, collards in a few minutes. 

My one goal this next year is taking care of my health. This will include my weight, exercise, and figuring out how safely to go to doctor's and have tests performed that I delayed because of covid19. So, my goal encompasses many areas. 

Even though 2020 is behind us, I do not think turning a calendar page makes one bit of difference! The only thing that will make a big difference is getting the pandemic under control by whatever means necessary. That is not pessimistic, just realistic. 

So, Happy New Year's. Stay safe. 

Plans Deferred and Shopping--NYE

Since it was NYE and I had lots to do, I suggested we leave early because many places will close at noon. We went to two dollar stores where I found a great buy on Christmas cards at the second one..
8 cards for $0.30 x 4
32 cards for $0.90 x 1
I will not need to buy cards for years! Dollar General has a great supply of cards. They are marked 50% off, but, the $.30 cards (8 in a box) were $1 originally.

Publix for milk and other stuff that I am too tired to think about.
McD for free apple pie, but they gave us two with me saying over and over that I only wanted one. Finally, I left with two pies and we did not have to share.
We went to a place that sells mobility carts and lift chairs.
Walked into Walgreen's to get diabetes pens and needles and shopped. I used a coupon that gives me 5000 ($5) points for buying $20 of merchandise. I did well. One item was reduced, and I had a $2 coupon. Miracle Whip was also reduced--$2.99 and I had a coupon for $0.75. Forget what else I bought. I walked into CVS and left immediately. I meant to go into Walgreens, so I got an ad and left.

We were gone for 3 hours and it took three trips to get everything out of the car. We bought 2 half gallons of a2milk, crackers, leaf lettuce, freezer bags, and other stuff I have forgotten. Oh, a trip to the bread store for $.99 bread with Jan 4 date on it. We had turkey sandwiches with leaf lettuce and halo for lunch.

At 2 pm, I took a nap and got up at 7 pm with a fever. Tommy was watching tv. When I told him how sick I felt, he went straight to the kitchen where he gathered his own dinner--turkey, potato, leaf lettuce and a halo. He may have had a tomato in a salad.

I have not cooked the carrots in the crockpot, nor have I frozen the leftover turkey. Since I did not cook it until Friday, today is the last day to save it. I haven't even cooked black-eyed peas. There is some kind of seasoned pork I have thawing in the freezer that will be ready to cook tomorrow.

It was a gloriously beautiful day, so I got my quota of sunshine. But, the wind was so high that it was cold out even though it was in 50s, I think. All the windows in this house are covered ad MUST stay that way.

It is 8:20 pm and folk around here are sporadically shooting off fireworks.

I had planned to make nibbles for later tonight, but scratch that thought. Even if it kills me, I am waiting up until midnight to see the ball drop. In the meantime, I having a replay of lunch which I loved.

It appears we are in the midst of a Big Bang Theory marathon.

Monday Chores

During the weekend we talked about going to Cullman this week. This morning, Tommy said we should go today, Monday, or Tuesday which happens to be NYE, Since I want to be home and not on the interstate on NYE, I said we should go today.

He asked me if I could be ready in an hour. At 8:03 we were in the car. The day was beautiful, cloudy when we started but a brilliant blue sky with little whispers of clouds by the time we arrived. Traffic was normal on the trip north, but unusually heavy on the way home.

Before we left, he said he needed to get his license renewed Monday or Tuesday and thought it would be easier at my courthouse. There is a room where there are seats and more places to sit in the central hall of the courthouse. In Birmingham there is a line standing in the hall with fifty people in the line, especially this late in the month. There were two or three ahead of us and we could both sit. More importantly, there is a ramp. In Birmingham, there are two sets of steps to get to the long line. We got that chore out of the way first thing. As we left the courthouse, hoards were coming in the doors to get their DL.

When we went to my house, the whole end of the driveway was dug up from the road to the property line and filled with red mud, muddy mud. I called my go-to guy and told him I had had the sewer dug up before and only a line where the drain was had been disturbed and there was gravel put in the dug place. He called and for some reason, the city had dug up and capped off the sewer. He explained why, but it made no sense, so I just thanked him. Oh, they will put gravel on today or tomorrow. I assured him there was no hurry.

I attempted to return something to Belk's but there was a glitch. Tommy had tried on the Gold Toe socks and they were too long for his taste. He wants socks that hit about five inches above the ankle bone. Good grief! I forgot to take them back. Hopefully, they have shorter ones. The ones I got him were about six inches below his knee and too long for his taste.


There was a package for me at the PO. It seems that the free garden supply time is upon us, so that seniors in the program can grow vegetables. I have not looked over the stuff I have to do. I get $40 for giving them a stool sample, fingernail clippings. I let them weigh me and fill out a questionnaire. This way, I can at least get some of my gardening things replaced. Now, I just have to haunt yard sales to try and find chairs and stuff for outdoors.

When we got back to Hueytown, I came in and took the Apple Blossom Amaryllis back to Lowe's. If you are not familiar with them, they are a lily, sold with a disc of dirt to rehydrate and a pot. They are a beautiful pink blossom on very long stems. Well, when I brought mine home, one blossom and stem was attached, growing prematurely. The usually green stem and pink flower were a ghostly white. I cut off the stem with blossom and tried to grow it anyway. Well, the only other stem evident grew about 2 inches and just stopped. So, I got $12 put back on Tommy's Lowe's card.

We got Tommy's mail and there was a package for me. I ordered a red nylon coat just liked I had and lost. YAY! It is way too small, size-wise, but sort of fits. I feel like I look nice in it, anyway. Tommy has seen my old coat and thought this looked nice on me. It was only $14. !!!

Tommy and I have been talking about rainwear for him. He was adamant that he hated ponchos and was not going to wear one. Well, as it turns out, he has an Auburn poncho and wore it working at Sam's gas station and hated it. Sooo, he is just stubborn. I reasoned with him about not being soaked using his rollator. Now, he tells me he got this in the 70s when he attended Auburn. He went to closets, trying to find it. We will find that. I really cannot understand why he is so evasive when he needs to stay dry. It is not like I am trying to get him to wear it and suffocate and sweat, the reason he hates to wear a poncho.

I cannot find Christmas cards on sale. They must have all sold the day after Christmas. I will find them in the next few days.

I stopped in and shopped in Cullman--black-eyed peas 1lb @ $1. So, I am ready. I bought more, but that is for another day.

Two potatoes are baking in the oven. Tommy will have turkey, potato and tomato tonight. The potatoes will be done in ten minutes, so I have to go. Then, it is back to ebay for me. I just googled the brand and color coat I wanted and it popped up.

What do you have planned for NYE or NYD? My plan--black-eyed peas and staying home.