My New Fav

Cape Cod Style Dried Cranberries!

Ok so I know what most who know me are thinking...Twelve inches of snow has put her right over the edge with the cabin fever! You would think, wouldn't you? I mean I do not go for the dried fruit thing. Have never. I mean Chocolate is my Thang....Any kind of chocolate. I could eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner...with a chocolate shake.

I would watch my mom eat those dried bananas like they were going out of style. I tried them and Yech...couldn't do it. Give me my chocolate any day.

But in an ongoing effort in the past couple of years since the Shankster's heart attack, I have been on a mission to find "healthy" snacks. Most were too expensive, and this year beyond my reach totally. Others were misleading. I mean you really need to know how to look for what you need and what you don't need to have. I have to say I am one who never looked at the ingredients or the calories. Then there was a time when I would only look at the calories. But now, I have found that you have to look FIRST at the serving size or nothing else will be right. Then you have to know which nutrients to limit and which to get enough of. Usually by the time I would get the calories in my mind and then the serving size and then ask myself the question how many servings am I going to eat.........somebody has rammed me in the ankle with their cart as I have been there for 20 minutes trying to figure it all out in my head.
Then the total fat, the saturated fat and don't even get me started on the High Fructose Corn Syrup. Geez, I used to love to go grocery shopping...now it can be a nightmare.

Which brings me to the dried cranberries. I don't like cranberry. I actually cannot stand it. The Shankster drinks the Cranberry juice like crazy. I can hardly muster up enough courage to take one sip. But especially in the winter months I try to make sure to get as much fruit in him and Homie as I can. Hence the Dried Cranberries. I got them to try to see if I could come up with a trail mix that would satisfy the Shankster for a snack. Of course the other ingredients I got to mix it with failed miserably. OMG...Elvis won't even eat it. So there the dried cranberries sat, for at least a month.
Yesterday while the Shankster was having one of his narcosleepy's, I decided to get my butt in gear and do some much neglected cleaning. After cleaning the Fridge out and the pantry I came across the cranberries. I thought hey why not take a sit and have a handful? I mean there was not chocolate in the house........what harm can it do? SO I did the unthinkable, I ate a cranberry.

I have to say they were not bad at all. I actually loved them. After eating a handful I didn't even think of wanting that Hershey's Chocolate Candy Bar.

Really.


They were really good. Expensive, but good. But I have had several handfuls and have not even put a dent in the container. They are jammed pack in that sucker. I think they were about $3.95 or so, and since I am my father's daughter I thought that was ridiculous, if it were for me, but I don't care when it comes to the Shanksters health, which is why I bought them.

But hey, he is going to have to find him something else. I love these. Have had several today too. These are my new favorite snack.
Dried Cranberries. Go figure.



I am wondering however, how good a Mountain Dew would taste with them?

The Necessities..

You need in case you are snowed in.

These are the few items we had to run out in 12 inches of snow and get.

Bread (got the last loaf)

Eggs

Ground beef

Ham

Colby Cheese

2 Hershey bars (most important)



&



Lips..........I just could not resist

Did I Already Say We Have Snow?

Well we do and about a foot of it!

Yahooey!

I love the snow and this much or even more is what I live for! Don't know why, can't do much out in it anymore cause of the stinkin knees, but still love it!


The Shankster and Homie took turns shoveling. After about 4 hours the nice man from last year showed up to do the drive for twenty bucks. The Shankster being respectful asked Homie first and Homie said NO. What? NO? waddaya mean no? why come?

Geez....it was only twenty bucks? Hey if we would have had it in our pockets just then I would have just told them to do it anyways! But of course we didn't prepare ourselves for this snow so we didn't have it. And you know those guys sure won't take a credit card! Sheesh! :)


So the Shankster and I decided since we didn't prepare and were out of a few essentials we would jaunt out and see if we could make it. Yeah we are gluten's for punishment. When I saw the drive as we left, how narrow Homie shoveled it, I knew we were in for it upon the return. And of course the bottom drive was overcome with about 30 inches of snow due to the snow plow for the road earlier. So we were really in for it upon our return. But I tried not to think on it. We made it to the grocery just fine. All the main roads were actually pretty clear, considering 12 inches of snow.......I mean 12 inches! wow...I think like to just keep saying it. :) Where was I? Oh yeah, groceries. You know we had to get the things we couldn't live without for a few days at the local grocery to keep us so we didn't have to try a road trip to Walmart in these conditions.
Geez you were thinking I was talking about 24 inches wouldn't you?

Anyhow, we were on the way back and upon the turn in of the drive I thought WOW we just might make it.......Oops....thought tooo soon. We were stuck, couldn't get up....couldn't get down. Then we were sticking out in the road and on a hill that is slick with snow and ice...not good....The Shankster immediately after we started sliding into the ravine yells for me to exit the car and he tells me to run up the hill.


(ok a little info here on running. I can't do it. Not that I do not know how. I just can't run. Since the knee surgery, which I still do NOT regret, I cannot run. I have tried but can't.)


So I moved as quick as possible up the hill..on the road, not the drive, which is what I thought the Shankster meant...I thought I was to detour or stop traffic from coming over the hill and slamming into him. No problem, I can do that, I could have done it.....but that was not what he meant! Oops! He said UP the DRIVE WAY HILL NOW! OK so up I started to go....slipping and sliding as it is gravel with snow, then ice, then snow and a lot of it. ( you know 12 inches) I could not get on the yard part as there was about 18 inches of snow there (due to the shoveling) and I put one foot in and lost my footing and so I managed to get back out on the driveway and kept trying to hurry. Hurry for me is an almost brisk walk. On dry pavement that is. ON this, Hurry meant a fat girl in tennis shoes with bad knees trying to grab on the snow for help all the while wobbling from side to side trying to dig my shoes in somewhere for some traction...frantically. Why was I hurrying? Cause as soon as I started up the driveway the Shankster started trying to get up also. I was puzzled...wasn't I supposed to get up safely FIRST? Or was he just going to PUSH ME? I had a million things going through my mind as I kept hearing the tires spin and each time I looked over my shoulder, all I could see was the headlight on the car! WHAT the Heck?

I Finally managed to get up and could not believe what had just happened, he was right behind me. What was going on in his mind I thought? Why didn't he wait for me to get up first before gunning it? Has he finally lost his mind?

The Shankster's explanation was this. I am such a goofy girl he was sure I was being just that.......goofy! He thought I was trying to make a bad situation funny like I always do by acting silly wobbling up the hill slowly!




Oh..Yeah....that's what I was doing.

Chocolate

What? We have 12 inches of snow on the ground, the possibility we might not get out for days and NO CHOCOLATE IN THE HOUSE?






I can't do it man.

Can You Say SNOW?

We got us a bit of Snow!

Finally!

YIPPITY~DO~DAH!

The Lost Diamond Necklace

First off I have to say I am not much into jewelry. Not that I don't like it, it's just that it isn't for me I guess. I have always just wore my wedding ring on the left and on the right my class ring. Until the dang thing shrunk one day in the not too distant past. (they just don't make gold like they used to) :)


But early on in my relationship with the Shankster, he bought me a gold diamond necklace with matching diamond earrings. They were just perfect. A very delicate soft gold chain held the diamond, like none I ever saw. Just enough bling for me. After 20 something years I still love them. He had since bought a few other beautiful pieces that I cherish, but these are by far my favorites. Since the day I got them I have worn the earrings each day.
They have been through a lot and even a stem on one of the earrings broke, but I found a place that repaired it beautifully. I would wear the necklace a lot at first then later only when I dressed up. Before moving here I had a special place for the necklace when it wasn't being worn. Upon moving here that wasn't an option as there is just no space for my "delicate" items such as that. But I did find a place that worked for me ok. Right above the light switch in "The room", there is a box type switch for the electric heating that used to be in this room. I would hang it there. Up high, easy to find. Until one day when I went to get it. I have not been able to find it for at least a year, maybe a bit longer. I have been dreading telling it to anyone, least of all the Shankster. What would he think of me? To have lost something so meaningful? He would surely think I was awful not taking better care.
But then again he knows more than anybody how I have no privacy, no room for anything so he would understand. Yet I still could not muster up the gumption to tell him. So I kept quiet. Each day looking yet in another cubby hole I have stuffed something into in the past several years, thinking I surely put it there for safekeeping. I remember worrying about it when the boys were here putting in the windows....even though I was sure they were good boys (even though they turned out not to be) I was thinking I might have moved it to a more secure out of the way place at that time. But could not remember doing that. It started bothering me even more lately and one day while the Shankster and I moved things in "The Room", I tried to look more closely on the floor thinking it could have fallen off the box on the wall. But I didn't see anything. That's when the Shankster noticed me looking. So, I finally told him. He understood completely and started doing as I had been doing for more than a year and was looking at all possible places.....and as I had done thinking the unthinkable as well. That my lovely necklace was forever, gone.

Then one day last week, I decided to give my vacuum cleaner a good once over. You know where you take the thing apart and clean it inside and out? I don't think I have done that with this cleaner since moving here as it was brand new when we moved here. I took the roller bar with the brushes on the bottom off and cleaned it and changed the belt. The suction hole at that point seemed to be clogged with a few pine needles...great....Just when I think I am done with the pine needles in this house....yech. I pulled them out and in between those was a small piece of paper from a chewing gum wrapper. You know those white cover papers in between pieces of gum in a 17 piece pack of gum? Geez, I have eaten way too many pieces of gum...But, I am talking a small piece of paper. I grabbed it and started to take it over to the trash as I had with all the other icky stuff I got out of there. But for some reason put it aside on the counter and finished with the cleaning. As I got done with the vacuum I was cleaning off the counter and saw the paper and started to trash it......then there it was...shining up at me.....my diamond necklace! I could not believe it. After all this time, it had done just what I feared it did, fell on the floor and got swept up. But luckily, again, not away. It
has been there for a while as I have not chewed that kind of gum for about 2 years.



Thank God for small wonders.

Help Me

Snow on the ground and below 30 temps = Homie staying at home doing all kinds of things that can bug the ever loving crap outta me.

#1 on the list for today



Listening to a Ball Game on the radio WITHOUT his earphones. I don't particularly like ball games....especially on a radio with static and in a home with no door between you and it.
Now for any of you following my blog who does not know Homie.....He cannot hear anything without either using hearing aids or turning up the volume loud enough to blow your mind.



As of now, My mind has officially blown.

"THE ROOM"

I finally did the unthinkable. I did a major haul in this "room" we live in. Well not major.....as MAJOR would have entailed tearing out the stinkin paneling and then redoing the walls and even putting in some fresh new carpet.....for a start. So what I actually did was just move things around. For too long it has been the same way and I just could not take it anymore. I am not claustrophobic....but was beginning to wonder. I was beginning to feel like I could not step one foot in "the room" for fear something would fall out from behind the computer/door or off the wall or up from under the bed. I have stashed too much of my belongings under the bed or just anywhere it can be stashed so to be out of sight as there is just no space for anything, since there is no closet to speak of here for me. But having it this way for more than 5 years was getting to me. Big time. As I cannot find anything I am looking for or need cause I have obviously stashed it and then trying to get it out at the exact time I need it is getting to be a pain in the BOO TIE......And with trying to bring up all my boxes of things from B's as he really needs to have the space for his and M's things (not that he asked for it..I just think its rude of me to keep my things there my gosh its been going on 6 years...the barn is starting to overflow once again. I actually put a dent in the barn this past summer, although most of which I had to burn or trash as it was ruined from being out there so long, I opened up some room in there. Then we had to sell the best lawn mower ever just to get more room (and for other non mentionable reasons here) and now its filling up again. My hope was to go through all the boxes from B's as I moved them here, but with no where to put any of it...that just is not happening.

Gee, I really didn't think I started this as a complaining/whining post.........OH Whatever......... its MY blog. :)

Anyhow I spent all day with the help of the Shankster moving things out and around in "the room". I have literally spent years thinking of it over and over in my mind of how it would work another way. Yes, again I have NO LIFE.......I sit here and think and think and think............Anyhow, its Not the best way as I have arranged it, but I think so far it might work. Its a CHANGE....and I needed a CHANGE of any kind. I was surprised at how easy it was to hook up the computer and all the electronics again. All the stinkin wires can just be overwhelming, especially with a room with only one electrical outlet.

Gee, am I whining again?

Anyhoo, I am hoping to be able to bring up my bookshelves or at least one of them and put in "the room". Maybe change out the lamp as my cute reading lamp just has no room in here and has actually suffered being tossed around. How lovely too would it be to bring up my Library desk? Or my chairs? Gee, I would love to bring up and put up a few wall pockets...or heck I would just be happy with one bookshelf.........


AHHHHHHH....what a dreamer I am.

Happy New Year