Here we go again, ya'll. And this one is a doozy.
It has rained in Tuscaloosa all weekend. In fact, it must have started during the night last Thursday night, because when Heather left for work Friday morning at 5:30am, she announced the current weather conditions on her way out the door.
To be honest, I had been watching Mickey Ferguson every morning, so I was aware of the approaching rain. And yet I did nothing to prepare for it. The cover was off of the charcoal grill and the charcoal and lighter fluid were out. The little gas grill that I bought last year because it was on sale (and mainly because it has speakers built into the base of it with an outlet to plug in an i-pod making it possible to cook and sing along with my favorite tunes simultaneously) was still out in the weather as well. So I jumped up out of bed and went out on the deck to cover up or bring in the things that didn't need to get wet.
What happened next is unclear. I was barefoot. I was in my boxers. The deck was wet. There was a wrought-iron chair involved somehow, I think. All I know for sure is that one minute I had a bag of charcoal in my hand and the next I was on all fours with my head in a wooden planter and covered in dirt.
I think some choice words were voiced at this point. I'll leave you to your own imaginations regarding that.
I got up, wiped off as much dirt as I could, and finished what I set out to do in getting things put up. Then I went inside to get a shower and get ready for work. My hand did hurt, and I had a cut on the side of it. And I realized that I had hit my right eye on that planter, and that it was attempting to swell a bit.
I shave in the shower. Much easier than at the sink. I have a fogless mirror mounted on the shower wall, and keep my razor and shave stuff in there as well. When I started to pick up my razor, I couldn't hold it in my fingers like I normally do. I had to shave left-handed. That was the real clue that I may have hurt myself.
So I finished getting ready and my eye was looking rough. I called Heather at work and told her I thought I had broken something in my hand. Then I called the office and gave them the same spill. When my doctor's office opened, I was sitting in the waiting room. After x-rays, the news was confirmed....broken finger. They wanted to put a cast on my hand to my wrist, but I talked them into a splint. Even that is driving me crazy at this point. But I have 2 more weeks to go.
Now on a normal weekend, this would not have been as big a deal. But we were driving to Opelika and Auburn this weekend for a wedding! I suppose I could have cancelled. But honestly, I was ready to put the new car out on the road and drive it, and we had waited too late to cancel the hotel reservation without a penalty. So onward we went!
The wedding was held at Auburn First United Methodist Church. It's an old church, and was absolutely beautiful. It was a very nice ceremony, despite the fact that it continued to pour down rain outside.
Then we went back to the Grand National Marriott for the reception. From there it was a night of great food, great drink, and great music. I got to catch up with a lot of old friends from college, and also with our regular tail-gate crew as well. The bride and groom left for the Atlanta airport around 11:30pm and the party wound down soon afterward. At least it did for me. I think some folks took cabs to the Supper Club and stayed out til 4am, but thank goodness for once I realized my age and I was greatful of that Sunday morning.
We wound up the Auburn visit with a Sunday lunch trip to Cheeburger Cheeburger. For some reason, Heather thought that she should order the One-Pounder Burger. If you actually finish one of those, you get your picture taken and hung on the wall. Boy, did she really want her picture on that wall! But needless to say, she did not even get close to finishing the burger. The patty hung way over the bun, and she basically cut off the excess meat and ate that, leaving what would normally be a very large hamburger for us to take home. In fact, there was so much left that we split her leftovers and had them for supper last night. We also had fries and homemade onion rings! Our bodies were in complete shock! I wanted a cremesicle shake, but I figured I'd better just settle down and stick with what I already had. No sense in getting too wild!!!
I hope this is a dull week. I don't know how much more I can handle.....
Monday, March 16, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Happy Birtday to Me!
Yesterday was my birthday.
When I was growing up, birthdays were always a big deal at our house. Heather says that wasn't really the case with them, but with 6 kids in the house, I can kinda understand that. But there are just 2 of us kids in my family. So Mama always went all out. Birthdays were "your day." We each got to plan and go or do whatever we wanted for our birthdays. Mine was usually during Spring Break, so school wasn't a problem for planning my day. Sometimes my sister would have to have "her day" on the weekend though.
I must tell you that either on the actual day or somewhere close to it, I always celebrate my birthday with "pink pie." I never really liked birthday cake when I was little, but Mama made this pie that I loved. I think it has strawberry jello and evaporated milk and cool whip or something like that in it. The crust is Nilla wafers and the wafers stand up around the edge of the pie. Heather has told me to not even consider her making it for me, because she knows there is no way that her pie will be able to compete with Mama's.
Heather did make me a key-lime pie though. On the top, in green gel-icing, were the words "Happy Birtday Derek." She made a picture, and that's when she realized she had left off the "h". I'll have to post the picture later on today. The pie was really very good, and she made it from a low-carb recipe. I've had some the past 2 nights.
I didn't have any really significant plans for my day this year. Heather had to work yesterday and today, so there was not time for going out or anything like that. I did however decide to take an early day at work and head to Birmingham to shop for my present.
I drove it home. It's a Volvo. Here's a picture, although this really isn't mine. Mine is black with tan leather everywhere. I absolutely love it, and I think I look pretty good in it too.
When I was growing up, birthdays were always a big deal at our house. Heather says that wasn't really the case with them, but with 6 kids in the house, I can kinda understand that. But there are just 2 of us kids in my family. So Mama always went all out. Birthdays were "your day." We each got to plan and go or do whatever we wanted for our birthdays. Mine was usually during Spring Break, so school wasn't a problem for planning my day. Sometimes my sister would have to have "her day" on the weekend though.
I must tell you that either on the actual day or somewhere close to it, I always celebrate my birthday with "pink pie." I never really liked birthday cake when I was little, but Mama made this pie that I loved. I think it has strawberry jello and evaporated milk and cool whip or something like that in it. The crust is Nilla wafers and the wafers stand up around the edge of the pie. Heather has told me to not even consider her making it for me, because she knows there is no way that her pie will be able to compete with Mama's.
Heather did make me a key-lime pie though. On the top, in green gel-icing, were the words "Happy Birtday Derek." She made a picture, and that's when she realized she had left off the "h". I'll have to post the picture later on today. The pie was really very good, and she made it from a low-carb recipe. I've had some the past 2 nights.
I didn't have any really significant plans for my day this year. Heather had to work yesterday and today, so there was not time for going out or anything like that. I did however decide to take an early day at work and head to Birmingham to shop for my present.
I drove it home. It's a Volvo. Here's a picture, although this really isn't mine. Mine is black with tan leather everywhere. I absolutely love it, and I think I look pretty good in it too.
I got home about 20 minutes before Heather. I sat out in the car and checked out all the gadgets that I couldn't play with while I was driving. Then when Heather got home, we went to Shoe Station so that she could get some shoes to go with the dress she bought for this wedding we have to go to this weekend in Auburn. Even Hershey got to go along for the ride. Maybe I can get Heather to drive to Auburn and I can keep figuring out the car.
When we got home, I had 6 voice messages from Happy Birthday wishers. Then I logged on to the Facebook, and had 45 messages on there! So it was a good day indeed.
Happy Birtday to Me!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Wild and Wacked Out Weekend
Well, I don't even know where to being with this one. It was definately not your typical weekend for the Reeves'. But then again, nothing for us is normal, so maybe it actually was a typical weekend for the Reeves'.
Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day, and I had Spring Fever something fierce. So when I got home from work, I decided it would be a good night to cook outside on the grill. Heather made up a pile of burgers, and I cooked them. I had stopped on the way home at Publix to pick a couple of things, but of course forgot the charcoal. I rummaged through the utility room until I found 2 bags that when combined, gave me just enough to make do with. Halfway through the burgers, that old charcoal gave out on me. I had a pack of conecuh sausage (because if I am going to the trouble of lighting the charcoal, then I am cooking some conecuh sausage) that seemed to take forever on the lukewarm coals, but eventually everything got done. Heather made a new cole slaw that is low carb and probably some of the best I have ever had. I'll include the recipe at the bottom of this post.
So Friday was fairly calm.
Saturday morning we slept late. I had a meeting scheduled at the house with a friend of ours to get an answer to a couple of questions concerning the tax return I am doing for her, and while she was there, the Fed-Ex man delivered my new printer from Dell. After K left, I spent the next few hours trying to set up the wireless connection between the printer and my laptop. I never got finished with that.
Heather works with a girl at UAB who she has gotten to be friends with, and who had invited us to their house for dinner and karaoke. Now let me just take a minute here and say that I have done my share of karaoke in the past. Actually, Katie Benefield and I were quite the entertainers at Harry's Bar back in the day. But that has been the extent of my karaoke....bar singing, if you catch my drift. Well, Rachael and Ricky are not bar people, which is of course, just fine. I'm just saying that singing without a little liquid courage was something that I was not recently familiar with.
Back in high school, at dear old Jackson Academy, I sang in a barbershop quartet. We called ourselves "The Jackson Four." (Get it? Like the Jackson Five?) We wore white pants with red and white striped shirts and straw hats. I guess we were good. We sang all over the place, and we actually won a couple of national competitions. But that was over 20 years ago.
So Heather and I drove up to Oak Grove and had dinner with Ricky and Rachael. About half way there, I went over a railroad track that I should have slowed down for. It didn't look rough, but there was a dip in the pavement just on the other side of it. I hit it at about 45mph and thought I had knocked the bottom out of the car! My head actually hit the car roof. I had a stadium cup full of diet coke in the console, and it flew out and landed upside down, covering us with coke and soaking everything in the console.
Ricky cooked for us, and it was absolutely outstanding! We had a shrimp and andouille sausage pasta dish with "Olive Garden" salad and big pieces of crusty bread. So much for the low-carb. I thought my body might go into shock right there at the table! It was all sooooo good! Strawberry cupcakes were for dessert! I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.
Until after dinner. Then they fired up the karaoke. And nobody would take no for an answer. I think I did ok though. After the first couple of songs, I got over myself and actually had a good time. We all took turns singing and joining in to help each other out. In fact, we sang until nearly midnight, which with the clocks springing forward, put us getting home around 2am!
Sunday was non-eventful until the afternoon. I spent a hella lot of time on the phone with Dell. That printer is still not working wirelessly. They are now sending a replacement printer because evidently the wireless card is faulty. Why in the world can't I have something simple for once?
I had picked up some shrimp to do for supper. I seasoned it up really good and let it sit for a while in the fridge, and we were wrapping them in bacon when I noticed a bright light shining through the oven door. Early in the week, the oven had caught on fire, and I put it out with baking soda. We weren't so lucky this time.
At this point I need to stop and clarify that we do not have a dirty oven. That is not why it caught on fire, I don't think.
But yesterday, the thing was burning again! This time, I couldn't get it put out. I turned off the oven and it kept burning. It was this white sizzling fire that was moving along the bottom element. I was concerned that it would reach the back of the oven and then we were going to be in a mess. Heather already had the phone book out and was going to call the fire department, but I told her to wait. She said she couldn't find their number anyway. I guess she has never heard of 911.
The fire eventually stopped, but the oven is kaput. And that's fine. My dad suggested weighing the cost of fixing it instead of buying a new one, but Heather said no. She wants a new one. So I guess tomorrow when she is off, we will be at Lowe's or Home Depot or Sears shopping for appliances. We were already looking at microwaves. We'll just add a stove to the list.
And that's our weekend in a nutshell. Nuthouse may be more like it.
Here's the Coleslaw Recipe:
Ingredients:
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons Splenda brown sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon plus one pinch salt
1 lb cabbage, shredded
Mix all cole slaw dressing ingredients together, and then mix them into the cabbage. Balance the lemon juice and sweetener to your own taste.
Nutritional Information: This makes about 7 servings of 1 cup each. Each serving has 4 grams effective carbohydrate plus 2 grams fiber, 2 grams protein, and 145 calories.
Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day, and I had Spring Fever something fierce. So when I got home from work, I decided it would be a good night to cook outside on the grill. Heather made up a pile of burgers, and I cooked them. I had stopped on the way home at Publix to pick a couple of things, but of course forgot the charcoal. I rummaged through the utility room until I found 2 bags that when combined, gave me just enough to make do with. Halfway through the burgers, that old charcoal gave out on me. I had a pack of conecuh sausage (because if I am going to the trouble of lighting the charcoal, then I am cooking some conecuh sausage) that seemed to take forever on the lukewarm coals, but eventually everything got done. Heather made a new cole slaw that is low carb and probably some of the best I have ever had. I'll include the recipe at the bottom of this post.
So Friday was fairly calm.
Saturday morning we slept late. I had a meeting scheduled at the house with a friend of ours to get an answer to a couple of questions concerning the tax return I am doing for her, and while she was there, the Fed-Ex man delivered my new printer from Dell. After K left, I spent the next few hours trying to set up the wireless connection between the printer and my laptop. I never got finished with that.
Heather works with a girl at UAB who she has gotten to be friends with, and who had invited us to their house for dinner and karaoke. Now let me just take a minute here and say that I have done my share of karaoke in the past. Actually, Katie Benefield and I were quite the entertainers at Harry's Bar back in the day. But that has been the extent of my karaoke....bar singing, if you catch my drift. Well, Rachael and Ricky are not bar people, which is of course, just fine. I'm just saying that singing without a little liquid courage was something that I was not recently familiar with.
Back in high school, at dear old Jackson Academy, I sang in a barbershop quartet. We called ourselves "The Jackson Four." (Get it? Like the Jackson Five?) We wore white pants with red and white striped shirts and straw hats. I guess we were good. We sang all over the place, and we actually won a couple of national competitions. But that was over 20 years ago.
So Heather and I drove up to Oak Grove and had dinner with Ricky and Rachael. About half way there, I went over a railroad track that I should have slowed down for. It didn't look rough, but there was a dip in the pavement just on the other side of it. I hit it at about 45mph and thought I had knocked the bottom out of the car! My head actually hit the car roof. I had a stadium cup full of diet coke in the console, and it flew out and landed upside down, covering us with coke and soaking everything in the console.
Ricky cooked for us, and it was absolutely outstanding! We had a shrimp and andouille sausage pasta dish with "Olive Garden" salad and big pieces of crusty bread. So much for the low-carb. I thought my body might go into shock right there at the table! It was all sooooo good! Strawberry cupcakes were for dessert! I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.
Until after dinner. Then they fired up the karaoke. And nobody would take no for an answer. I think I did ok though. After the first couple of songs, I got over myself and actually had a good time. We all took turns singing and joining in to help each other out. In fact, we sang until nearly midnight, which with the clocks springing forward, put us getting home around 2am!
Sunday was non-eventful until the afternoon. I spent a hella lot of time on the phone with Dell. That printer is still not working wirelessly. They are now sending a replacement printer because evidently the wireless card is faulty. Why in the world can't I have something simple for once?
I had picked up some shrimp to do for supper. I seasoned it up really good and let it sit for a while in the fridge, and we were wrapping them in bacon when I noticed a bright light shining through the oven door. Early in the week, the oven had caught on fire, and I put it out with baking soda. We weren't so lucky this time.
At this point I need to stop and clarify that we do not have a dirty oven. That is not why it caught on fire, I don't think.
But yesterday, the thing was burning again! This time, I couldn't get it put out. I turned off the oven and it kept burning. It was this white sizzling fire that was moving along the bottom element. I was concerned that it would reach the back of the oven and then we were going to be in a mess. Heather already had the phone book out and was going to call the fire department, but I told her to wait. She said she couldn't find their number anyway. I guess she has never heard of 911.
The fire eventually stopped, but the oven is kaput. And that's fine. My dad suggested weighing the cost of fixing it instead of buying a new one, but Heather said no. She wants a new one. So I guess tomorrow when she is off, we will be at Lowe's or Home Depot or Sears shopping for appliances. We were already looking at microwaves. We'll just add a stove to the list.
And that's our weekend in a nutshell. Nuthouse may be more like it.
Here's the Coleslaw Recipe:
Ingredients:
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons Splenda brown sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon plus one pinch salt
1 lb cabbage, shredded
Mix all cole slaw dressing ingredients together, and then mix them into the cabbage. Balance the lemon juice and sweetener to your own taste.
Nutritional Information: This makes about 7 servings of 1 cup each. Each serving has 4 grams effective carbohydrate plus 2 grams fiber, 2 grams protein, and 145 calories.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Temptation
I have hit the diet trail full force this week. I'm watching the carbs, and I have made it to the gym at lunch to run/walk on the treadmill. I am determined to run the Mayor's 5-K at the end of April.
So when I got up this morning, I was starving. I turned on the coffee pot and Juan Valdez saved my life when I got out of the shower. After a couple of cups, I thought I might actually make it without eating the entire jar of pre-salmonella peanut butter.
I grabbed a couple of Adkin's shakes on my way out the door and headed to the office. When I got here and went to put them in the fridge, I noticed that some thoughtful non-dieting person had brought 2 boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts for everyone to enjoy. They weren't just the plain glazed ones either. I'm talking chocolate covered, creme-filled, cinnamon dusted, candy sprinkled and basically whatever else Krispy Kreme was making this morning.
So far so good. I have resisted. Maybe everybody else will eat them before I cave in.
So when I got up this morning, I was starving. I turned on the coffee pot and Juan Valdez saved my life when I got out of the shower. After a couple of cups, I thought I might actually make it without eating the entire jar of pre-salmonella peanut butter.
I grabbed a couple of Adkin's shakes on my way out the door and headed to the office. When I got here and went to put them in the fridge, I noticed that some thoughtful non-dieting person had brought 2 boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts for everyone to enjoy. They weren't just the plain glazed ones either. I'm talking chocolate covered, creme-filled, cinnamon dusted, candy sprinkled and basically whatever else Krispy Kreme was making this morning.
So far so good. I have resisted. Maybe everybody else will eat them before I cave in.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Last Night's TV
I have become an outcast in my office. Last night Heather informed me that there was nothing on TV at 7, and that I should find something for us to watch. I scrolled through the channel guide, and of course I saw that The Bachelor was on for 3 hours, but seeing as how we have not watched one single episode all season, I just kept on looking. In all honesty, I can't really remember what we watched, except that at 8pm we did catch Two and a Half Men, and at some point we watched the Dog Show on whatever channel was showing it.
So when I got to the office this morning, folks started asking me how I felt about this whole Bachelor debacle. You'd think I had sprouted an extra nose on my face when I responded that I didn't watch it. I mean, come on people.... who in the world watches that crap when a rerun of the Dog Show is on? Not me. But evidently I am in the minority. Go figure.....
So when I got to the office this morning, folks started asking me how I felt about this whole Bachelor debacle. You'd think I had sprouted an extra nose on my face when I responded that I didn't watch it. I mean, come on people.... who in the world watches that crap when a rerun of the Dog Show is on? Not me. But evidently I am in the minority. Go figure.....
Monday, March 2, 2009
Monday Morning Excitement
Here's a first for me. I got to the office this morning after having been in Auburn last week to find the usual pile of things on my desk, and my email in-box filled to capacity. I figured that I'd have plenty to do to make the day fly by. At 8:15 we went in for our usual Monday morning management meeting in the Finance Director's office. Things were moving along normally, until we were interrupted by the news that some idiot had phoned in a BOMB THREAT and that we had to get out of the buildings immediately! So I grabbed my jacket and stood with everyone else outside in the biting wind for 45 minutes until the police gave us the "all clear" to reenter the building. I guess they didn't find anything.
Since the municipal court is on the first floor of our building, it makes me wonder what exactly is on the docket for today. Maybe somebody was trying to keep from going to jail.....
Since the municipal court is on the first floor of our building, it makes me wonder what exactly is on the docket for today. Maybe somebody was trying to keep from going to jail.....
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