Monthly Archives: November 2008

Black Friday Weekend

I had to go shopping on Friday. I was dreading it.

But I had to go to the grocery store for a few items I needed for the second Thanksgiving dinner. We go to my sister’s house and therefore there are no leftovers. No carcass for me to make stock from. So I make the turkey and all the favorites after Thanksgiving.

Turns out I needed to make dressing to bring with, so I didn’t have the main ingredient in my stock anymore. So I had to go to the grocery store.

I set out on Friday at 9:45. There were not many cars in the lot. I went in the store and there were not many people there either. Got my shopping done quickly and even though there were only three lanes open (one was 15 items or less) I didn’t have to wait at all.

It seems everyone was out shopping everywhere but the grocery stores. Yay!

Only once did I actually venture out to try to get something on Black Friday. My mom wanted to get some Furbys. She talked my husband and me and Dad into going to WalMart at 5 am to try to get some. We got there that early. And there weren’t any Furbys. Never again.

When I was checking out at the grocery store I told the clerk that I needed new slippers too. She said, “but not today!”. I agreed completely. I may need new slippers, but not on Black Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving

reposted from last year:

Thanksgiving Hymn

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing:
sing praise to his Name, he forgets not his own.


Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;
so from the beginning the fight we were winning:
thou, Lord, wast at our side: all glory be thine!


We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
and pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation:
thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Words: Nederlandtsche Gedenckclanck, 1626;
trans. Theodore Baker, 1894.
Music: Kremser

Enjoy this day with your family and friends.

What Are You Thankful For?

I am thankful for my family and friends, our home and our pets, and for God, from whom all blessings flow.

What are you thankful for?

Monday Morning Musings

We had some shopping to do this weekend. A Costco run for TP and coffee. Of course the list got a bit longer once we got there. A nice fresh Butterball for 99¢ a pound, a spiral sliced ham, some beer, half and half, sour cream.
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The place was packed. We lucked out and hit the cashiers during a lull. When we left more and more cars were circling the lot…

Then we went to WalMart for a couple of things and it was packed too. After we got home, I had to run to the grocery store and it too, was packed.

Before we went to Costco we’d been to Petsmart and our regional DIY chain, Menards. We got a small, prelit with multicolored lights, artificial tree. It’s quite lovely. Fits on a table so it doesn’t take up floor space. We needed a new tree because of flooding this summer that ruined everything we had stored in our crawlspace.{/column1}
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Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree

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What Gender is Your Blog?

Via Don Surber we find this GenderAnalyzer site.

Results

Silhouette of a manWe guess http://musing-minds.com is written by a man (58%), however it’s quite gender neutral.

I thought, like Don, I’d try a couple of other blogs…

Electric Venom has a one percent chance more than mine of being written by a man. However, like me, Kate is all woman.

Gender analyzer thinks The Anchoress is a man too. 77% in her case…

Need a New Microwave

The other day my microwave oven’s turntable motor decided that it was time to quit. It’s probably about ten years old, so I think I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it. (I pulled it out and looked at the back. It’s 11-1/2 years old, manufactured April, 1997).

Now it’s time to start researching new ones. I don’t have have room for a toaster oven too, and I’ve seen a microwave with a 2 slice toaster on the side of it, so I decided to see if there was a toaster oven/microwave combo…

There is it’s a Sharp R-55TS Warm & Toasty Toaster/Microwave there are also microwave/convection ovens and microwave/convection/grill combos.

Sharp Convection Microwaves

Sharp Grill 2 Convection Microwave

Haier Microwave Oven for Convection, Grill and Microwave Cooking

So, can anyone tell me if these are any good? I do have convection on my regular oven, but this could be nice in the summer when one may not want to heat the house with the oven… Also nice for one small batch of cookies.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

She’s 18, 18! years old today. Where did the time go, I was sure it was only yesterday or the day before that she was born.

She was born on November 19, 1990 at 6:47 am EST. 4 pounds, 10 ounces. 18 inches long.

Now she’s 18. She’s special needs. She has a developmental delay, moderate hearing impairment, epilepsy, and lupus. When we went to Legoland on Saturday, I asked her how old she was. She told me nine. When I asked her again, she said ten. She loves Barney, Dora, Steve of Blues Clues and Bumblebee from the Transformers movie. She’ll often put a cd of kids’ songs into the DVD player part of her TV and just listen to her “radio”.

She adores roller coasters. It’s a good thing we live near an amusement park and can get season passes for the summer. We can go many times and she can go on all the roller coasters.

Baby Girl Hours Old

Baby Girl Hours Old

Baby Girl 21 days old

Baby Girl 21 days old

Don't Bail Out US Automakers

#dontgo has a petition up to send to Congress to protest bailing out US automakers.

You can go here to sign it.

CW has it that American car makers don’t make cars that people want to buy. I don’t think that’s the real reason. People want the cars that Detroit builds, otherwise they wouldn’t buy those cars at all. I see so many pickups and SUVs around, especially here in northern Illinois. Often times, the only way to get out of the driveway after the snowplow goes by is with a 4 wheel drive vehicle.

The reason is that people don’t want to spend that $5K-$10K premium per vehicle that is added to the price of the vehicle to cover the unsustainable labor contracts that the Big Three are currently burdened with.

Smaller, more fuel efficient, more eco-friendly vehicles are all well and good, but a Smart car, adorable as it is, can’t carry my family. A Smart car won’t get over the plow sh*t at the end of my driveway. And that’s the stuff that’s the hardest to remove… Icy, watery, heavy crap that the plow leaves along the side of the road. Depending on the accumulation, those piles can be more than a foot high. Easy to traverse with a four wheel drive SUV, impossible with a smaller car.

People also don’t want to pay a premium in the thousands for eco-friendliness (e.g. 2009 Saturn Vue FWD base price $23,745 eMPG 19City/23Hwy vs Hybrid Saturn Vue $28,625 eMPG 25City/32Hwy – a $4,880 difference.) We have one vehicle, an SUV. It handily accommodates our entire family. A sedan could accommodate the three kids and two adults too, but that’s all. We couldn’t take Grandma or a friend, or my sister, her husband, and her daughter with us as we can with our 8 seat vehicle.

And don’t even try a run to Costco or Sam’s Club with family in a small sedan. We once had a 1982 Toyota Corolla Tercel and only two kids at the time. You should have seen it. We had to pack it like a clown car with all the stuff and try not to suffocate two children while doing it.

Since we just have the one vehicle, I have to walk to the elementary school to pick up The Little Guy. It’s a mile there and back. I wear a leg brace and use a cane too. One of those Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) or a Smart Car could work for that, and for the small amount of close-in travel to the Post Office, Dunkin Donuts, the grocery store, etc that I might do during the day, but these little, tiny, eco-friendly vehicles cost about the same as a larger compact car does. And the gas powered car goes much further than the 40 mile range of a plug in electric.

Let’s not bail out the US automakers. Let’s allow them to declare bankruptcy and shed the unsustainable labor contracts. Let’s give the US automakers the same advantages that the foreign automakers here in the US currently enjoy.

Monday Morning Musings

We went to the Legoland Discovery Center on Saturday since the Little Guy will be 8 years old tomorrow and The Big Girl will be 18! years old on Wednesday. Yep, he was born the day before his big sister’s 10th birthday.

The Legoland Discovery Center in Schaumburg, Illinois is one of three in the world, the only one in the United States. It’s also America’s only indoor Legoland.

Legoland Discovery Center Entrance

Legoland Discovery Center Entrance

More after the jump…

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