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Thursday, November 30, 2006
I finally figured it out!
Ok to give you some history on my problem that I have figured out (I have been working on this in my head for about 2 weeks now). My living room is long and narrow...12 1/2 feet wide and 27 feet long. Weird and very hard to place furniture. Only one way as a matter of fact.

I have a huge entertainment center that I had custom built to hold my TV (27") and my 30 gal aquarium among other things. But there is no leeway for other sizes of tv's etc. Anyway it sits on one wall between the two windows and my sofa goes on one end of the room and breaks up the foyer area and the love seat goes on the other end and the two lounge chairs in the middle on the opposite wall from the entertainment center. Now this in itself is a problem in that people on the sofa and loveseat have to strain their eyes and neck to see tv. It's always been uncomfortable.

Oh, the opposite wall in the fireplace and the entire wall is made of sand stone. The hearth goes completely across that wall so there is no sitting a chair or lamp or anything there either!

Sooooooo anyway, the existing TV is going out. The color has turned to sepia instead of color. Thus the need for a new TV. With all the new flat screen and wide screen crap out there on the market now, there is no TV on earth that would fit into the whole in the entertainment center that was custom built. There inlies the problem. Where are we going to put a new tv and what do we do with all the furniture?

Solution! Sell the entertainment center (I really love the entertainment center because I designed it and had it built and it's beautiful. But back to reality...Sell the Entertainment center. Buy and new TV and Hang it above the mantel over the fireplace. Put two shelving units on either side of the mantel to hold the dvd/vhs recorder/player and the dvd movies, etc.

Then I can put the sofa on one wall and the love seat on the other wall, and the two recliners opposite the fireplace near the foyer! Yahooooooo! Everybody can sit comfortably, and everybody can see tv easily! It would open this room up so much! I love the idea.

What do ya think? Do you think there would be too much heat above the mantel and would it hurt the tv?
 
posted by Cindy N. at 11:17 PM | Permalink | 2 If you would like to say something about what you just read, please say it here
Saturday, November 18, 2006
My contribution to Thanksgiving Dinner

We all have special things we do for Thanksgiving every year. My husband and I always go to his brother's wife's relatives house. They move around each year and always have 50 to 80 people that show up for dinner at whatever house they go to. There is more food there than 80 people could possibly eat in TWO sittings much less just one sitting.

Anyway, they found out that I can make some pretty good deviled eggs, so that is their demand every year when I ask what I should bring this year. It's always "just bring whatever you would like to have to eat, any special dish that you like, Deviled Eggs would be nice", so I end up bringing deviled eggs. This is quite a production because you understand I have to bring enough for about 60 people. Over the years I have created a conveyor belt type of operation for doing many, many, many deviled eggs. I end up with 3 to 4 platters of egg halves. Thank God, Tom helps to peel them.
In case anyone else would like to make Deviled Eggs like I do, here is my recipe.
Deviled Eggs
1½ Dozen Eggs (fresh eggs won't peel easily. Week-old eggs work best.)
Items below are `to taste':
Mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip)
Mustard
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Pickle relish (optional) I don't use.
Paprika
Place eggs in large pot and cover with cold water. Heat on highest setting till water comes to a boil. Boil all eggs for 15 minutes (after water comes to a boil). Pour hot water off eggs and cover in cold water to cool. Once cooled,peel all eggs. It's easier to peel them under cool running water.Cut egg in half the long way. Drop the yolk into a bowl and put the white half on an egg dish or platter. If the white is messed up, dropit in the bowl too.
Mash the parts in the bowl (or use a food processor) and add all above ingredients (except the paprika). Fill each egg white half,with a spoon full of your egg mixture and top with paprika. Place a toothpick in each egg and cover with Saran Wrap until serving time. The toothpicks keep the wrap from mashing the eggs.
This yields about 30 to 32 pieces.
I made a great purchase about 3 years ago. I bought the Pampered Chef Cake Decorator. I make my stuffing for the eggs and fill the cake decorator with the stuffing and squirt into each egg half. Boy that makes it go so much faster and I don't get the 'stuffing eggs neck/shoulder ache' anymore. Whew!
Well, I need to go read the other blogs I keep up with, so I will write more in a day or so. See ya!
 
posted by Cindy N. at 11:42 PM | Permalink | 5 If you would like to say something about what you just read, please say it here
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Changes and frustrations
We are making more and more progress around here. I have the guest room almost complete now. I got the pillows in and Tom hung the new blinds and the valance for me. It looks nice. He also installed the overhead lights in the living room and got them working this weekend. I repainted our porch light fixture and he rehung it and now it works too. YEAH! Things are working again! Oh and we also installed the towel rods and TP holder in the master bath. Now all I need to complete that room is a cabinet to hang on the wall over the toilet. Then I can store things OUT OF SIGHT! I just have to go pick one out.


But I also got the headboard in by UPS Wednesday and Friday when I took it out of the shipping box, it was all beat up and heavily damaged. UGGHH! I am so frustrated with that because now I will have to fight another battle with an ebay seller. Oh joy! I couldn't believe the blasted thing was so damaged. It took a month and a half to get it here in the first place and now it's damaged! I just want my money back and I am just going to ship this thing back to them and go somewhere here in town and buy one that I can actually look at before I bring it home. I should have done that in the first place. STUPID STUPID STUPID. Live and learn.


I am really missing some of my friends from work. We write back and forth in email, but it's just not the same. I had lunch with Renee last Wednesday for her birthday and I really enjoyed that. It was nice outside and we sat out on the patio of the restaurant and fed grapes and fries to the birds. They were so cute. They were just sitting there watching us as if to say, 'when will you give us some of your food. We are being nice and friendly'. And they were. They were so cute, we just laughed at how they seemed to manipulate us into giving them food. They would sit and watch us with those cute little faces. I could almost reach out and hand feed them. I enjoyed that lunch time.
Heather spent the weekend with us from Friday night till this afternoon. She had to get her hair cut on Saturday and she still comes back to Baton Rouge for that. After that, she came back here and got me and we went to get our nails done and then to Walmart. After getting home and eating supper, we watched CARS and then THE ISLAND. Both were pretty good movies. I love Mater on CARS. He was cute. But my favorite cartoon movie is still FINDING NEMO. Anyway, I had a nice weekend having Heather around for a bit and the weather was nice too.
Hope you are all doing well.
 
posted by Cindy N. at 10:44 PM | Permalink | 2 If you would like to say something about what you just read, please say it here
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Birthdays and celebrations
There are a couple of birthdays that we celebrated last weeked. My mom turned 72 years young and my daughter in law is 29.

Here is a pic of Mom and Heather . Heather has been loosing weight for a while now and has lost almost 40 #s. I am proud of her because she is looking and feeling so much better.

And here is a pick of the other birthday girl, Deirdre along with her husband, Kirk, and my brother Frank.








Here is a picture of my niece and her husband.



Here is Heather and her husband:












And Tom and me:


We you have almost my whole family here. My son was not there, nor my nephew nor my sister in law. But the rest of us with the exception of my niece's daughter, Ainsley who was at home sick, were there.

Today, Mom and I went to Lowes and I got a new lamp for my guest room. Here is the picture of it. I actually put it all together piecemeal. I bought the base, the shade, and the finial separately. You can't really see in this picture, but the main part of the lamp is amber colored glass with blackish spots on it. It's really pretty. The finial just happened to match the bronze base almost exactly. Then I bought the decorative curtain rod that matched the bronze look. I can't wait to put that up tomorrow. But the funny part about the lamp was that after I put all the parts together and plugged it in, I tried to turn it on and the damn thing would not work. I kept trying to figure it out and FINALLY, realize, ........are you ready? No light bulb. I didn't put the BULB in there!! That's sounds really blonde, doesn't it.

Oh well, it is really nice and we have had a fairly good week around here and now I need to go to bed. Later folks.

 
posted by Cindy N. at 9:09 PM | Permalink | 2 If you would like to say something about what you just read, please say it here
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Decisions decisions!
I went to the eyedoctor today and I have good news and bad news. The good news is, I have no diabetic eye damage to my eyes, no signs of glocouma, no cataracs (sp?) etc. etc. etc. The bad news is, my eyes have changed slightly, so I need a new pair of glasses. Now comes the decisions. I hate looking for new glasses, because whatever you get, you pay out the whazoo for them and they are going to be ON YOUR FACE for the next two years! It's not like buying a new shirt or a new pair of shoes. You can't have 25 different pairs just in case you want to change every now and then. NO! You have to get ONE pair and be happy with them. So here are my choices.

There are the take over your face eyeglasses:
I think I would feel like Atom Ant! Now I am dating myself.


Ok, now I have see it all:

Here are the pierced glasses: Just attach them to your nose every morning when you get out of bed and you're good to go! And you don't need the over the ear holders either.


Or:
Maybe I should just go for the Elton look:

And along those lines, I DO sort of like these!
Elton would be proud!


Oh GEEZ! I really hate making these sorts of decisions. HELP FOLKS!
 
posted by Cindy N. at 12:21 AM | Permalink | 4 If you would like to say something about what you just read, please say it here