well it's

New Years Eve and it feels like any other day, any other day plagued with a sinus headache that is.  But hey, I'm okay with that.  I've got allergy medicine with a decongestant and gel to squirt up my nose every 10-12 hours.  If I fall asleep, I fall asleep.  Whatever.  It's all good.

Our first order of business is a change I made on the "About" page of my website.  I am not scheduling any portrait appointments at this time.  

Up next: more flying.  Cosme took me on Sunday morning to fly in a different, more powerful plane.  What can I say?  We went up and it made me nervous.  We were on the west side of Houston.  See?  I have to admit I was a little fascinated with the clouds around the buildings.  (I'll spare you and only show you one of about fifteen...)

I think that's the beltway towards the bottom of the picture.

I went to Costco yesterday and bought a few things.  I bought some new hand towels for the front bathroom.  Let me just say that when we painted in August, I went with a dark grey hand towel for that bathroom.  Once I got it home, it seemed purple.  Yesterday I found some other grey towels at Costco.  As soon as I got home, they looked purple.  Really???  So apparently, as grey as I'd like that bathroom to be, it'll be accented with purple towels.  EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE ALL REALLY GREY!  Here's a comparison of the old and new.

Here's the new one outside under the shade of the front porch.  And yes, I'm wearing a robe at 10:00 in the morning.  I'm cold.

Whatever.  I give up.

Also, I sampled some pickles.  They're a little bit spicy and a little bit sweet.  They're very crunchy and I love them.  I bought a Costco sized jar of them, hoping to put them on a sandwich for lunch and maybe even in some deviled eggs.  Here they are.

But when I got home, I realized the seal had already been broken.  I was standing here talking to Eric and pushing the button when it hit me that the button shouldn't be pushable.  I wonder if the jar was opened by the sample lady since I did take it from her stand but I don't know.  The longer I look at it, the more I try to convince myself it'll be fine and want to eat one.  I'm going back on Thursday but I really don't feel like waiting.  UGH.

I think I need to make a dip to go with the wonderful sourdough baguette chips I also picked up from Costco.  I'm sure that'll make up for the towels and pickles.  Although, I guess this means I have to change out of my robe to go to Kroger.  Decisions, decisions...

i need to take a quick

little break from my "stuff and thangs" (that's a little fun people poke at The Walking Dead).  I'm in the middle of catching up on everything that was neglected during Christmas, well... maybe not so much the middle but at least I've started.  I'm in the first quarter of catching up.  (Hey, there's A LOT of catching up to do.)

Anyway, Cosme got his pilot's license last week so Mom and I went for a ride with him.  We left Cypress and flew to Angleton so we could have lunch and swap places with Eric.  So here are a few of the pictures from our ride:

Downtown Houston

A cruise ship docked in Houston

And the jetties where I normally end up on photo excursions

The dryer just stopped so I'm off again.  TCB

and here's the

new end table

I love it!  Mom rode with me to Rosenberg yesterday to pick it up from Southern Sister Designs.  (The table is made by Wine Barrel Woodcrafts.)  Here's their card.

And if you would, please check out my fingernails.  After we got the table, Mom and I stopped for manicures.  I never paint my nails but since it's Christmas and I finally got my table, I decided to celebrate and add a little color.  I'm really not expecting it to last more than a couple of days but I did it anyway.  I wonder what crazy things I'll do today...

i'm excited because

a few months ago, before we had new furniture, I saw an end table I knew I NEEDED.  I had the perfect spot for it.  Then the talks of new furniture became more real, like it was something that was really about to happen.  Dismissing the end table to focus on couch, chairs, coffee table.  (Remember post on the coffee table?  I knew I wanted that table and the room would have to focus around that.)  Anyway, we have the couch and one of the three chairs (SIGH...) but the more we've been hanging out on the new furniture, I've realized that I have a new perfect spot for that table.  So, after I finish my grocery shopping (which I hope will start between 6:30 and 7:00), I will drive to Rosenberg to get my table.  I'll post pictures but for now I'll just tell you it's a table made from a wine barrel.

I'm off to the grocery store.

i have a long vent

but for now I'm just posting this.  What good is the freedom of speech if we don't have freedom of opinion?

I don't even know where to start with it all but all I do know is there are a lot of people claiming to be "open-minded" and condemning the "close-minded" for speaking their minds.

I will stop before I get worked up more.  I have shopping that needs to be done and can't get caught up in this right now. 

i knew this time

would come.  You know, the time where, after weeks of having plenty of time and saying I'll do it later, I'm left with a lot to do.  I need to run errands in three different directions.  I need to make a trip to Houston but it'll have to be done in two trips because one item is needed now while the other is needed later.  While I'm out running errands, I need to be home doing stuff like cleaning out a closet and moving poles for Christmas lights.  Knowing all of that, I've decided to sit here and write about it rather than do it.

This Christmas season's shopping has had a few hiccups.  First, I LOVE shopping online because I HATE dealing with crowds.  (It's not only the actual crowds but the germs they carry and the traffic they cause.)  I signed up for 2 day shipping for several different packages.  This first was with an Amazon order.  When Friday, December 13 came and went, my tracking status still read "On schedule for December 13".  UPS was lying.  When Monday morning came, I decided to contact UPS.  They said I needed to contact Amazon because Amazon prefers to deal with any shipping issues.  So I chose the "chat now" option with Amazon.  (Not only do I not have to leave the house to shop but I don't have to pick up the phone to chat.  The only way it could possibly get better is to think of things I want and have them magically appear.)  Anyway, I "talked" to Ajmath at Amazon.

What's irritating with chatting and trying to get a point across is typos.  "Deliver" should have been "delivery".  I was so irritated with them so I did what any ill-tempered lady would do when hanging up on the other person wasn't an option.  I clicked "end chat" and I clicked it hard.  That was my way of slamming the phone down.  A few minutes later I got an email from Ajmath.  He apologized.  Whatever, Ajmath.  Whatever.  The next day the package came.  And then there's the whole issue I've been having with a seller on another site... ugh.  Either way, it's still better than dealing with the crowds.

Speaking of crowds, I did have to get out and do some shopping after 1:00 yesterday.  BIG mistake.  It reminded me why I try to get all of my shopping done before lunch.

Oh well, I guess I'll quit putting it all off any longer and go get busy with something.  I think I might take off in one direction, stop back by the house and then head in another direction.  Maybe the third direction can wait until Friday... or Saturday.  (When Christmas comes and goes, and I'm complaining about having to have gone out and dealt with that Saturday before Christmas crowd, remind me how I sat here and suggested it and how my current self should have told my future self that is a TOTALLY bad idea.)

Now it's time to TCB.  One task at a time.

UPDATE: The Christmas cards are still sitting here.

do you know how long it's

been since I've sent out Christmas cards?  Years.  It's been years.  I've purchased a set every year, planning to send them out but I just never got around to it.  There were a couple of times I even had them addressed and ready to go and just never got around to sending them.  I was talking to someone the other day about cards and decided that this year I am doing it.  I'm picking one of the boxes of cards from my stash and sending them out.  So yesterday I did it.  I opened a new box and began to address them all.  I'd finished the return address on 9 of the 10 cards and thought to myself, "This is awesome.  They only included the exact number of envelopes as cards and I've managed to not mess up on ANY of them."  To someone who has always been asked to (and is still asked to) write things for people, this is kind of a big deal.  So as I grabbed my last envelope to address, my "Ad..." came out as "An..."

Typical.  Today I will try to finish the cards.  I already have my Christmas stamps so it's just a matter of getting them to the mailbox.  FYI, there's a 99.75% chance I will get distracted and not get that done... today.

you know those

moments when it feels like you're forgetting something?  That's me today.  Actually, I've been feeling it all week about today.  For some reason Friday's been stuck in my head.  Now that Friday's here, just like I've done every other day this week when thinking about today, I'm going over it in my head and realizing that no... there's nothing I'm supposed to be doing... I don't think, anyway.  (If anybody out there knows that there's something I'm supposed to remember for today, please let me know because I've clearly forgotten.)  I mean I know of a few things on the calendar but nothing major like making another trip to Houston or some kind of a deadline for something.  Or is there and I'm just overlooking it? 

The day before yesterday I had some errands to run.  Eric called and told me there were two men in the backyard.  This didn't alarm me too much because of the whole fence/easement situation (if you want, you can refresh your memory HERE... just don't read a few posts after that or you'll see warm sunny days in Puerto Rico) but these guys were doing something against the house outside his window.  In the true Melanie fashion of overreacting, I told Eric to get a gun and go ask them if he could help them with anything.  He didn't make it out there before they were gone but I was on my way home.  When I got here, the local cable company had about 5 cars parked in the street.  As normally done, the cable company knocked on my door to let me know they'd be in the backyard trying to locate their cable (which they were suspecting to be right up against my fencepost).  So, I figured the other guys had something to do with that.  Fast forward to yesterday.  I heard a thump happening every minute or so and figured it was Maggie.  I looked out the back window and saw the water hose and its reel near the back porch.  (Sigh...)  I figured it was definitely a Maggie noise.  I went around the house later to check out the crime scene and that's when I heard the thumping noise coming from our gas meter.  There was a faint smell of gas so I, once again, overreacted and called Centerpoint.  They sent someone out and he noticed that the two men were probably contractors that had been by to add some new box to my meter.  Ahh... mystery solved.  He smelled a little bit of gas but it wasn't registering on his gadget so he decided to check on some gasket around the new box.  About 10 minutes and some clanking later, he came to tell me he replaced the meter.  The contractors literally did a bang up job on installing the new box which pushed some part over causing a thump to hit.  Great news.  He also said that since they messed it up and the thing wasn't rotating right, it wasn't reading anything so I had about 24 hours of free gas.  "Excuse me, utility company, can you come fix my meter so you cannot undercharge me?"

I'm leaving you with a random picture I took a few weeks ago out at the wildlife reserve.

i think i might

have scored myself an extra Christmas present yesterday.  I know you're all wondering how.  Here it is...

This pie.

Pies have never been my thing.  You can tell by looking at the crust that I don't do it often.  It's not that I don't love pies, it's just that I guess I've never had great luck with making a crust.  I usually leave the pie baking to Mrs. Smith or Marie Callenders.  Well, a couple of weeks ago, Eric asked if I'd try making a pie sometime so when I went to the store on Tuesday, I bought apples.  Long story short, this pie was a hit.  Eric said it's better than the one I normally buy.  Imagine that.  I made an edible pie.  As for the recipe, I always knew if I tried making a pie crust, I'd use the crust recipe from a former coworker.  Then there was the filling.  I searched on All Recipes and found one with the highest rating and number of reviews and did it.  The only thing I did differently was add cinnamon.  (I might not know much about pies but I know enough to add cinnamon to my apples... even when the recipe doesn't call for any.)

Now I have two goals for today:
1.  Finish pictures that I'm working on.
2.  Try to stay away from the pie.

i really know

how to start a day off right.  After writing a lengthy post, I went and accidentally deleted it.  I guess it's the blog's way of getting back at me.  "Victim of neglect, my arse.  I'll show her."

Anyway, I'm still here.  I'm as close as I can be to overdosing on clementines, trying to keep any nasty bugs away with vitamin C. 

Oh.  There is something I wanted to share but forgot about in the deleted post.  Thanksgiving came and went and I tried something new.  First, I loathe dressing.  Each year I think that it really does look good and each year I give it another try and each year I find it just as disgusting as the previous year.  This year though, I saw something.  I'm a fan of Barefoot Contessa on Food Network and I caught her on their Thanksgiving Live special.  Anyway, she gave a recipe for an alternative to dressing.  It's Mushroom & Leek Bread Pudding.  I made it and I really liked it.  I know it probably sounds weird but I enjoyed it.  I mixed it all up and put most of it in a larger dish but put some aside in a smaller dish to sample it (since I prep all my sides days in advance).  Here's my sample of it.

Another new thing I tried the other day was a recipe I found on Pinterest.  It only makes an 8x8 pan so it doesn't go very far but I liked them fine.  It was Creme Brulee Cheesecake Bars and I found the recipe HERE.  The only thing I had to change was the filling.  I only had one block of cream cheese on hand so I halved the filling, leaving the crust as is.  So here's a pic of my bars.

Now I should quit talking about food and go buy some.  As much as I don't want to get out in the cold, it's sunny so I'm taking advantage of it.