Frugal Tip of the Week:Coffee Creamer

I love flavoured coffee creamers...

I know, I know...they're really horrible for your arteries...and your waistline...if you have one...

so I recently went back to using half-and-half in my coffee...not all that exciting, but it'll do...

but the special holiday flavoured creamers were my undoing...I bought 6 in one fell swoop...

2 gingerbread, 2 peppermint mocha and 2 pumpkin spice...

I'd buy more & freeze them thus ensuring a steady supply throughout the year but I believe the labels specifically state "Especially Formulated to Blow Up Your Freezer"...dastardly marketing move...formulate the stuff so it can't be frozen and all the little Flavoured Holiday Creamer Junkies like myself are in withdrawals for the rest of the year...

yesterday, I realized I was about half way through my first container of Peppermint Mocha...and I was sad...until I realized I had 1 1/2 containers of half-and-half in the fridge...and decided to try mixing the Peppermint Mocha creamer with the half-and-half in equal portions...

It tastes good...the flavour isn't as strong, but it is still "there"...and now I'll have Special Creamers for longer with doing less damage in the area of Weight Control (the half-and-half has decidedly fewer calories per serving than the creamer)

The Olive Tree Cometh...

Last evening when Mr G and I pulled into the driveway after our jaunt up to Atlanta, there was a sizable oblong box propped up against the garage door...

I was too tired to care...Mr G poked at it and declared the box to contain Our Olive Tree...

and we went inside, leaving right there...

But, today we went out to open up the box...

The pot that came with the olive tree is much too small for the root ball...but while the Cheap Fiend in me had to grouse about that for a bit, the Gardener in me was a Happy Camper...

Plus, what gardener doesn't have a GaBillion pots sitting about the place anyway?

Anyhoo...the manner by which one comes into possession of an olive tree these days




















































It doesn't look quite like this, does it?

Well, all good things in time...knock on wood...

Basset Hound Rescue of Georgia

in case you haven't noticed, there is a little link thingie on the left side of your screen for BHRG...Basset Hound Rescue of Georgia...

Mr G and I adopted 2 basset hounds from BHRG...Flossie who was not with us very long due to CHF and Suki who is wonderfully saucy and spoiled...and has a little spotted cow belly...

BHRG does an outstanding job of placing basset hounds who have been "turned in"...what are they? checked out library pets?...at shelters...or just found wandering the streets in poor condition...not uncommonly pregnant with little mix-parentage puppies (I swear if you want a little mix puppy, basset hound mixes and corgi mixes make some of the most adorable adult dogs you'll ever want to see)...

BHRG appears to have a core group of committed volunteers who are able to Make Things Happen and have kept their group afloat where many well-intended rescue groups go the way of the Passenger Pigeon...due to underfunding, lack of community co-operation and too few volunteers available for too many homeless animals...

so many animal welfare rescue workers/volunteers end up with their own homes stuffed to the gills with animals waiting for adopting families, taxing their own bank accounts and their neighbors' patience while tryin' to help out those who can't ask for help for themselves...

been there, got the Crappy T-Shirt...

Mr G and I worked several years with a rescue group in Savannah...and then we burned out like so many others...our small home contained not just our small family of 3, but my maternal grandmother and one of my brothers...and his dog...along with our collection of dogs and cats...I think our house was somewhere between 1400 SF and 1600 SF...3 bedrooms, 2 baths...

we had reached maximum capacity...physically, emotionally and financially...

a strong spiritual backbone is required to work rescue...it does not matter how good of a week your group has...if that 3-legged dog finally, after months and months of attending adoptions where person after person walked on by and after you (tryin' as hard as you could not to) came to love that dog with all your heart, got a wonderful home...and 5 cats were adopted...along with allllll of those black lab mix puppies who went to good homes...there are always more little furry faces waiting to be pulled from Kill Shelters...and picked up off the streets...and taken from non-caring owners who kept them chained in the backyard regardless of the weather...

Sigh...

Mr G gets angry when he sees yet another pitiful creature in need of a good home...he can't understand why people toss animals away without any thought...like yesterday's trash...

I ask Mr G how can he expect a society where so many children and old people are cast aside like old worn-out shoes to care about four-legged ones...ones without voices...and fewer laws to protect them...

anyhoo...back to my point...yes, I'm Southern and yes, Digression is My Middle Name...Wednesday morning, I got a ring from BHRG's Rosemary...seems there was a basset in the county pound and Rosemary (the BHRG rescue coordinator?) asked me to run over to verify that this little girl was a basset hound (BHRG has taken basset)...if she was a basset to pull her for rescue...

now, another digression...there is a Very Real Reason why all the years Mr G and I worked rescue that I was never tagged to make the trips to pull from the pound...I simply am not strong enough for those little faces behind the wire to not just rip my heart out...I expect those faces rip every one's hearts out, but some of us are better equipped to keep that boxed up so it doesn't affect the good work ongoing...

but I would have been consistently draggin' the Worst Case Scenarios out of the pound...

so if there had been anyway to gracefully refuse, I would have...I knew what it would cost me emotionally to walk down by those cages, with all those eyes focused on, tails wagging...

you know, there really are good reasons to evict people from the Gene Pool...those faces are right up there on the Top of My List...

the good news? the dog in question is a Basset...so I pulled her on Wednesday afternoon, drove her to our vet where she began treatment for skin wounds, bad tick infestation [shudder] and got on the roster for a bath that afternoon...because Basset Girl was one stinky customer...phew...man...we're heading off in a few minutes to pick up Basset Girl for transporting up to Atlanta where she will go into the BHRG adoption pool...and, knock on wood, get a wonderful family and a new home...

We got to pick Basset Girl's new name...

We choose "Liberty"

Thank You

I've read some beautiful blog posts about Thanksgiving...and I have this overwhelming urge to stick my oar into that water...

But with thoughts of sticky egg-and-bread goop waiting to be made into dressing...and cranberries not yet made into cranberry sauce, I'm not feelin' especially poetic this morning...thankful, yes...poetic, not especially...




I'll just keep it simple:

1. When you wake in the morning, say Thank You...and let that Thank You encompass a whole lot of things...Thank You for waking up...again...Thank You for the chance to Brighten/Lighten the Coming Day for Someone Else...Thank You for Indoor Plumbing (I say Thank You a lot for that one...I'm really not one of those people who think things were all rosily Hunky Dorey in the 15th century...I'm one of these people who think it was probably pretty much an emotional challenge to just get out of your bug-infested straw in the morning...ugh)...whatever...Just Say Thank You

2. Keep saying Thank You throughout the day...Thank You that while Democracy in Action is a whole messier than Democracy in a Textbook, you still have a whole lot o' options a lot of other people in this world don't have...have never had...and will go to their graves having never had...Thank You that Your Significant Other(s) made it safely through the Crazy Traffic to work/school/where ever...Thank You for Any Other of a Possible Thousand Things in Your Life that maybe you haven't said Thank You for lately...or ever...Just Say Thank You

3. After you've made it through another day...after the kitchen is wiped down for the night and the coffee maker set in place for the crack of dawn tomorrow...after the dogs have had their umpteenth last Look I'm Not Opening This Door Again Potty Break...and after your Freshly Scrubbed Teeth are settled in bed, about to commence Sawin' Logs...Say Thank You one more time...for Another Day Completed with Your Loved Ones Intact...for the World Makin' It Through One More Day Without the Crazies Winning...and for All the Burdens Shouldered By God that you didn't even know about, much less think about...Just Say Thank You

Now...Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

A Retraction

Today, at Wal-Mart, I saw more Tarted Up Poinsettias (these were blue...and then there were the lovely shade of purpley red ones)...and felt so badly when the young check-out lady said how pretty she thinks they are...

so now I like them just fine...because, without getting into Deep Philosophical Waters about it and into Signs of Our Decadent Times Talk about it and Blah-Blah-Blah-Blah about it, if a little paint & a lot more glitter on a plant that is not long for this world anyway can give pleasure to someone...well, far be it from me...

Three Loves Has He...

Fred, Suki and Wilma (from your left)...they came with those names...*

our rescue basset hounds...

we rescued Fred & Wilma from the Spalding County pound (okay, animal shelter/control...)
and Suki came from BHRG (Basset Hound Rescue of Georgia...link on the left side of the screen)...

can you believe I actually got up from the sofa last night so Fred could have a spot on the couch with his sisters?

can you believe we're actually considering buying another sofa so we'll have somewhere to sit?

you'd believe it if you had to listen to Fred's Whine...never, I say, never have I heard a dog sustain such a loooonnnngggggg irritating whine...and repeat without ceasing until he gets what he wants...kind of like a child in Wal-Mart...after being out shopping all day...and not gettin' a nap in...that kind of irritating whine...

I do have the acquired parenting skill required for raising one's offspring without serving time...the skill of Tuning Out (that's just awful, isn't it? oh well...got DS of Teenager Hood with all body parts intact...although there were some dicey moments)...but even if I can successfully Tune Out Fred...Mr G, well, he is just a push-over for those bassets...and don't even ask about the murder Gillie the Corgi Princess gets away with...

our favorite vet used to chide Mr G for allowing Bad Behavior (because, yes, I ratted him out...especially when I was getting lectured for having rotten misbehavin' furry children)...but now she just shrugs, realizing that Mr G simply does not possess the genetic material required to actually keep the fur babies in line...and it is all wasted breath...

*************************************************************************

*however, we have adjusted those names a little

Fred is still Fred...but with a twist...Freddie Frou Frou (I don't know...nicknames don't always make sense)...and sometimes Mr. Wonderfully Ridiculous...
Wilma is now Fleebie Weebie...
and Suki is Baby the Woo

Little Happy Things

Yes, I am a Coffee Mate Seasonal Flavours Pig...oink, oink...













and, yes, I love Claxton Fruitcake with an intensity that could be considered frightening :)















and these bulbs are 50% off at our Lowe's...so I got 2 packets....




















and this is the pattern I picked up for 10 cents on Saturday...after the holidays are over, I plan to try to actually make this skirt...not with the pleats...believe me...a pattern with pleats, my lack of sewing skill and my patience level...well, jail time could be involved...

Things I Don't Get...

Color me Out of It

But I don't "get"

Upside Down Christmas Trees...

...Why???





and I don't get Purple Poinsettias...okay, confession...I would have loved these Purple Poinsettias* when I was 13...but now they are a shock to the system...














I'll recover...

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*photo of exotic purple poinsettias taken in Lowe's Garden Center...for all of you who would never confess to, but are going to, go buy yourself one [vbg]

and in case you want to ramp up the poinsettia level of excitement but aren't quite willing to commit to purple shiny paint to do so...
silver & gold glitter poinsettias :)

Sooooo...guess who could not resist Wayside Gardens' marketing ploy (e-mail)?

and guess who ordered an olive tree?!

I've been on the lookout for an olive tree for months now...no such critter around here...

and the ones I found on-line were prohibitively priced...

I'm so Garden Happy right now :)

before any one becomes frightened, I don't plan on brining any olives...I just love how mature olive trees look in a garden...

I almost ordered two...

I should have ordered two...

hmmm...

Turkey and Tofu

Do ya'll realize Thanksgiving is only, what, 10 days away? I think it is 10...but I'm far too lazy to get up to check the calendar...all the way in the kitchen...on the other end of the house...

Mr G ordered our turkey from Brighter Day...their last free range turkey...I'm hoping since we're payin' two-something a pound for Mr. Tom (are all turkeys that make it to the table males? I've always thought of them as *males*...but perhaps not) that there will be a marked difference in taste...of course, the best turkey I've ever had was smoked turkey...but other than than, turkey is kind of like chicken, isn't it? it only tastes like what you put on it...sort just...bland...

(and trust me...it absolutely about killed my cheap self to give the nod to ordering a turkey for two-plus a pound when deep down in my heart I know that the grocery stores will be selling them for next to nothing this coming week...and even cheaper after the holidays...this turkey better taste beyond very good...)

One of these days, I hope to completely eliminate animal products from my diet...I've not eaten cows or pigs for years now...but I just don't seem to be able to make that step to completely eliminating flesh products from my diet (that is gross sounding, I know, but let's call a spade a spade)...

About two months ago, I actually bought a small container of organic lite (that is how they spelled it..."lite"...drive me crazy too) something-tofu...and I fully intended to use that pricey little container of stuff...I checked out tofu cookbooks from the library...looked through my issues of Vegetarian Times (check out their Tofu Turkey...just cracks me up)...and yet I couldn't make myself peel back that film atop the container...I don't know why I'm just so hesitant about The Stuff...

days passed...then weeks...until one day I decided it was into the breach...I was going to serve tofu-something that night or there would be no dinner at Number 17 (please read that last bit in the manner of Katherine Hepburn's character reciting "Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight" in The Desk Set...I love that movie) ...

but I couldn't find the Tofu...

at first, I thought I must have just not looked everywhere in the fridge (I know...that is stupid...but you know how you keep looking in the same place for something...it isn't there...it isn't there...it isn't there...and then, ta-dah, said object(s) magically reappears...and you wonder if that, um, extremely brief experimental period* in high school is comin' back to haunt you...or if another discussion with your gyn about HRT isn't such a bad idea...)

but as finding the Missing Tofu wasn't all that high of a priority on my List, for several days, I would wander to the fridge, open the door and peer a little hopefully into the disarray, thinking I would see The Stuff...

Then, I began to think Mr G had pulled a fast one on me and tossed The Stuff...I had thought about the possibility of this as I put the groceries away the day I brought Tofu into our happy home...and so made sure the Tofu wasn't positioned front-and-center at Mr G's eye level...

but fielding an accusation like that requires concrete evidence...I had none...

so even more time passed...once in a while I'd still wonder what happened to that Tofu...and then one day I decided to clean the veggie bins...and discovered our top bin has a space behind it...

just perfectly sized to hide a small white container of tofu...


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*said extremely brief experimental period may, in fact, be referring to the day we [several close high school friends and myself] piled into my orange VW bug...appropriately nicknamed "Orange Blossom"...drove to every McDonald's in the city, ordering caramel sundaes with nuts and eating them until we were all sick

CrumBum

This past week could pretty much have been described as "crummy"...Non-Relenting Crummy

I usually rise above Crummy without a problem...Crummy can be dealt with...Non-Relenting Crummy will wear a body down...

Run-of-the-Mill Crummy gets cast to the side by laughter and thankfulness...some looking outside of one's self...and resolution...both internal and of the external...Goofy cats, spastic little House Wrens, deer in the back yard ...bossy bassets...E.L.O. on the stereo...thoughts of friends...our son...and a little back-bone straightening...all of these can handily rout Routine Crummy...

Unfortunately, NRC often comes knockin' where there is no foreseeable resolution...of the internal or of the external...maybe of both...of a Big Problem...

NRC can be a side symptom of Control Freak (Out)...sometimes the problem that wants resolving cannot be Put on a List or Researched to the Nth Degree or Reasoned With...sometimes you just have to go along for the ride...do the best under given circumstances...and remember to breathe...

While trying to remember that someone, somewhere, has it worse than you do...usually a lot of someones in a lot of somewheres...

(yes, that old there-are-starving-children-in-_ _ _ _ _ line your mom fed you at the dinner table along with something green, slimy and inedible was/is true...and no, it doesn't often make one want to eat the green, slimy and inedible stuff any more than that type of reasoning can often pull one out of downward travelin' NCR)

Unfortunately, as Mr G and DS will assuredly agree, my memory skills are, let us say, lacking...

This past week, Thursday to be exact, a flock of Canadian Geese flew low and fast over our backyard...pretty much over the back deck...for a few exhilarating moments, my heart soared up along with those honkin' geese...NRC fell away...

Wouldn't it be loverly and warm if I could say the moment that chased the darkness away with a relentless light brought me to my senses and all was well? I wish I was that spiritually evolved...but I am decidedly not...

The moment was glorious...but quickly I fell back into Crumminess...ah, shame on me...

That reminds me of that old joke about the man/woman/whomever prayin' that asked God for a sign...and while the thunder rolled, the angels heralded and the flashin' lights flashed, the person continued to pray "just a sign, any sign"...

Maybe if the geese had been in formation spellin' out "It's Okay...God Has Got This One"...

But then again...maybe not...because I'm dense like that some times...I'd have probably been busy fussin' at Callie for chewing on Mikey's ear, dumping basset drool out of the water bowl and talking to Mr G on the cell...because he's a Lucky Man, that's why...

You Are Not In Charge Of Fixing All The Problems All The Time (or, to keep it short, Y.A.N.I.C.O.F.A.T.P.A.T.T....why is the word "fat" in there?...yet another message from the Universe?) is a lesson I keep having to re-learn...

We all have life lessons that are hard for us to absorb...Not trying to control everything within drivin' distance and remembering that, sometimes, there is not a Happy Ending...only an Acceptable Ending...(or even a Well, I Did The Best I Could ending...) appear to be be 2 of the biggies for me...

well...those two and Pastries Are Not A Health Food...

Come Home, Little Reindeer, Come Home

Try as I might, I couldn't do it...I actually dragged my two pitiful looking reindeer (in my mind, Mama Reindeer and Baby Reindeer) down to the end of our driveway and left them there for any fellow Curb Shopper to pick up...

All afternoon, upon hearing a car coming down the road (and that's a lot of cars), I peered out of the kitchen window, craning my neck to see if some one was rescuing Mama and Baby (and that was a lot of craning...our kitchen window faces about 90 degrees from where the reindeer were sited)...

Finally, in the late afternoon, I could no longer stand it...

That's right...I went back down the driveway and dragged them right back up to the garage...

I'm going to Make Them Over, give them a new lease on life...they're officially positioned on The To Do List

Honestly...I did try...

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out.

What Donut Are You?

I love these goofy little quizzes...but I despise Boston Creme Doughnuts...now a chocolate-covered creme-filled doughnut is a cat of a different colour...

oh...it is true...I do pout if the variety I want is sold out...in fact, I've been known to throw a hissy fit about it...not proud of it, but there it is...

in fact, I once fired off a bitter angry e-mail to Dunkin' Donuts about the sad habit our local DD had of running out of Bavarian Kreme doughnuts on Sunday mornings...they no longer run out...

don't mess with a chubby gal and her doughnuts...

Pansies

Just some pics...

I realized it had been a while since I posted...

things have been in an uproar around here for the past week or so...

but with this splitting headache, I'm thinking I'll save Reasonable Thought for some other time...

can you tell that I desperately need a tripod for my up close plant photos? I hate using a flash for plant photographs, but without it, my photos look as if I've got a serious case of the DTs...or as if the plants do...little boozers...

anyhoo, Santa has been notified that a tripod figures high on the Wish List...even a used one off e-bay is fine with me...

here are some of the pansies we picked up over the weekend...about 7 6-packs were already installed when I dragged the camera outside...I don't usually plant my pansies this early...to me, pansies are plant language for Winter Is Really Here...and so it is a rite of seasonal passage for me to plant my pansies the weekend after Thanksgiving...but 2 factors got me moving a little early...Factor Number One...we're hosting an open house the first Saturday of December...and while I would enjoy mucking about out-of-doors while Mr G mops and dusts and does all the other insane things we do when company is comin', I feel sure there would be Rebellion in the Ranks were I to pursue that line of action...Factor Number Two...an old and dear friend who happens to be a stellar gardener (I have 3 amazing gardener friends...the dust beneath their beds is probably verdant...just makes me sick) and lives just up the road a bit puts her pansies in just around Halloween...so I decided "when in the country"...

Anyhoo, I digress(I can't help it...even with a killer headache the Southern Storyteller gene just won't cut me a break)...I give you the Pansies...
The dark ones go by the name "Halloween"...

they are truly and deeply purple...

but that freakin' flash...

The multi-coloured ones are, of course, my darlin' Johnny Jump Ups...I love Johnny Jump Ups...in our first home, they seeded themselves all throughout the front lawn...and I enjoyed them so much...

so I'm hopin' for some seedin' action here even tho' Mr G scowled a bit when he saw me loading them onto the little wagon...

I don't know why...we don't use lawn chemicals anyway...the most the lawn gets from me is some hand weeding, compost application and some water when it looks extra-crispy (ummm, fried chicken)...

there is some dusty miller in there...love dusty miller tho' I know it has been Done To Death...and some little white violas...

well...gotta scoot...Mr G just came home with a gift for me...Nashville Star daylilies and Sea Oats...landscaping work at the office necessitated these coming out and Mr G put my name in the pot for any homeless daylilies (I'm thinkin' "What?"...people aren't brawlin' in the parking lot over these? Are they crazy?")