Another fun giveaway

Found this one from Heather's blog too. It's a giveaway for a free Hoover Sweeper. Now, many of you might now that I grew up in a Hoover Vacuum household, since my grandfather worked there for 55 years. Many of you didn't, but now you do! Anyway, Mama Kat's giving away a new model, and you might just win one for your house!

Fun Giveaway!

I found this site through a friend. A Resting Place is giving away a $25 gift certificate for looking over her store and for leaving a comment on her blog. Go check it out-the contest is over tomorrow (the 29th)! (Sorry for the late notice!) I really liked a lot of the items, and I hope you do too!

Why does my crock pot hate me?

So as one of the many ways to save money here in la casa del Ramey, I've vowed to start cooking more. I know. I'm hilarious! But, it's worth a try. Especially since I'm still gluten free and feeling better as a result.

Today I decided I'd start the new cooking regime now that there is food in the fridge. (Hey, it only took a week after the storm, that's not too bad!) So I decided I'd make chicken, broccoli, rice and cheese in the crock pot. Now seriously, it was that easy. Put all of those ingredients, some water, some seasonings, cream of chicken soup and cook on High for 3 to 4 hours. Sounds easy. Perfect for putting together when I get home from school and ready for Joe when he gets home from work, now that he works until 5 instead of 8:30. Um, yeah, not so much. In 3.5 hours, the rice wasn't cooked. So, I let it cook a little longer and then I went ahead and made more rice in the microwave. The results? Blah. the food had no flavor. I'm so disappointed! I really wanted to like it. I need to tweak it somehow. How, I don't know. If you have suggestions, let me know. An empty crock pot will be waiting by...

Hurricanes and things

You know, living in Ohio you wouldn't think that we'd be bothered by a hurricane. HA! Yesterday the remnants of Hurricane Ike came barreling through Ohio, including our nice little city of Green. I say barreling because wind speeds were up around 60 mph or so. Insane! Around 3 or so our power went out for the first time. There was no rain, just the crazy winds. I didn't mind too much, it was daylight, so I could still see to read. I just couldn't play on the Internet or watch tv. Or go to the bathroom or take a shower. Or cook lunch/dinner.

We decided to drive to the local home improvement store to check out different drainage solutions, and in turn of a/c and a bathroom if we needed it. We went and did our grocery shopping and returned home and there was power. Yay! Joe decided to do a load of laundry and I watched TV, basically to see what the weather was going to do. After all, if this was what was left of a hurricane, I wanted to know what we were in for! The winds really started picking up, so much so that I decided it was time to go to the basement. The trees were really moving and we're pretty sure our car moved a couple of inches. We'd turned on a football game and I was just finishing my food and POOF! The power went out again. I went upstairs to see the wind just whipping around, branches and leaves flying. The neighbor had a huge limb down and we noticed we had a limb that if it were to drop would take power, cable and phone out for our house.

I have to say that the folks who have weathered storms like these amaze me. I wasn't scared so much as bored. I still am, to be honest. 24 hours later and we're still waiting for our power to come back. We bought water so we could flush the toilet, and we bought extra candles because well, it gets dark! You never know how much you rely on electricity until you don't have it. Even the little things like looking at the alarm clock in the middle of the night isn't possible. This morning I received 2 calls asking me to come in and sub. I couldn't do it. I wanted to, but I really wanted to take a shower, and I didn't want to go in feeling icky. So I stayed home. Joe, on the other hand, had to go in, so he used what water we did have to take a shower. He's called me a few times to ask if we've got power yet. Nope. That's why I'm bumming electricity here at Panera. My phone is pretty much dead, so I needed to charge it up, and while I really wanted to read one of the many books I've checked out of the library, I wanted to get online. The Internet is an addiction. I've realized this. Here's hoping we have power soon. Otherwise, thank you Kate for saying I can come over and take a shower. I so appreciate it!

As for other things. Yesterday morning we had to go move furniture for Joe's aunt. He's only met her twice. I think I've seen her that many times as well, and it's been when Joe wasn't with me. So she's not exactly a close relative of his. Anyway. We drove down to Navarre to move some furniture that she needed to get out of her apartment because she was being sued by her niece/cousin. It was crazy. Her apartment definitely helped me see that I cannot become a pack rat. I have a bunch of stuff in the basement that I need to start going through. i don't think I'll be able to live like his aunt. There was stuff EVERYWHERE. There wasn't an empty shelf, counter, chair, sofa, whatever. It was crazy. The only good thing was that we got to see some old pictures of Joe's dad, and that was pretty cool. We both liked that. I love seeing old photos anyway, and to have them be of Joe's dad when he was 8 and 9, that was just awesome. Now I just need to figure out how to get copies of the pictures for us-without having to see his aunt again.

I am back on the 'sauce'. Sauce being Dr. Pepper. I'd been off for about a week, but yesterday's event caused me to go back. I only drank it yesterday, and even then it was just a bottle. I've decided I'm going to give myself one day a week to have some DP for about a month, and then I'll get off. I needed the caffeine, and since I couldn't open the fridge to get to my iced tea (or make more, for that matter), I had to get some sauce. I still haven't gone back to gluten though. I don't see that happening. I feel so much better without it! Plus, I really don't miss bread. I am at Panera now, and I do miss their desserts, but I'll survive.

Ok. I'm done for now. I think I'm going to write a book review shortly, and then maybe see if there's power back at home. I've been here for almost 2 hours now, and I have a feeling they're going to ask me to leave. Have a good one!

Greatest American Dog, Season Finale

I haven't mentioned the show for quite awhile, but I have been keeping up on the show. I was pretty upset when the Brittany Spaniel was voted off. She really was a talented dog, and the owner definitely showed a love for his dog and his family. I tuned in tonight not really realizing it was the final show. When I started watching, the final of the border collies was being 'expelled' leaving the smallyippee toy dog and the boxer. I still really love the boxer. He's just a pup, but he's got so much energy, and his owner, well, you can just see how much he adores his dog. The final challenge was for the dogs to go through a maze, a teeter-totter, a wobbly board thing, do two jumps AND get their toy out from underneath an elephant. The boxer was first to go, and he flew through the first 4obstacles like there was nothing to it. The elephant, yeah, not so much. But hey, who wouldn't be a bit scared?! He didn't go under until his owner proved that it was ok by going through himself. I totally gave him props for that. The second to "compete" was the yippee dog. (It was a Maltese, totally clung to his owner. Couldn't handle being away from her and would run to the door when she left. She claims he wasn't clingy. Psh, yeah, RIGHT!) Anyway. The Maltese was up, and she was like practically holding it through the first 3 obstacles. Then he flew through the jumps and easily retrieved his toy from under the elephant. I seriously think he was more afraid of his owner than the elephant! So, at the end they had to decide who was the best and who would win the title Greatest American Dog. It was rough, both dogs really did know their stuff. It had to have been rough for the judges. In the end they picked Presley, the boxer. Yay! I was so happy. They said that they had a newly wed type of relationship, and that the owner totally showed America what it was like to be a dog owner. I totally agree. So, even though I didn't agree with the judging through most of the show, at least theyippee dog didn't win AND the psycho dog didn't win. Phew!

Now...on to other shows...

Cemetery Walks

Many of my friends know that I enjoy going to cemeteries and walking around. While I was in Tennessee it was no different. A few years ago, my uncle and I had found Johnny Cash's grave through a geocaching adventure. I had promised Lauren I'd take her there, so she and I went back, along with her sister Jenn, while they were in Mt. Juliet visiting me. We drove out and paid our respects to the man in black and his wife, and then moved along. I wanted to go back, so a few days later when I had the car, I did. I walked around and observed the different stones. I found it quite interesting that so many stones would have epitaphs or even just sayings on them. Maybe it's common elsewhere, but around here it's not. There was a set of stones that was a family and it explained the genealogy of the family. I thought that was a nice touch. A week or so later, Joe's sister and the girls and I went back. We had seen a movie and it was still early, and Chris thought it would be fun to see Johnny Cash's grave. So...we drove back. This time we walked around more, and we found the stone pictured. There are 20 years between JD and Iris, but they have the same last name. Not sure if it was husband and wife or father and daughter, or even brother and sister. But, poor JD is still alive and there written in bronze, "My wife, My partner..." How many Johns are wives?

Now, you're asking, why did you go back to the same cemetery three times? I had planned on visiting other cemeteries while I was there, but it didn't work out. Plus, I honestly had fun exploring the one. Each time I'd find something a little different. Next trip I do plan on visiting a different one, possibly two. I've been checking out the listings on findagrave.com and it really is interesting to see the different people who are buried in the locations. Who knows, maybe you have somebody 'famous' buried near you!

Hi honey, I'm home!

As of 11 pm last night, I'm home. It took us 11 hours to drive the usual 8.5 hour drive. I fell asleep in the car on the way home, only to awaken to "What the Fuck?!" Now...let me say, last time I fell asleep on the drive home from TN and heard those words, we were being pulled over for speeding in Covington, KY. So...I was a bit worried. (The ticket was $180!!) This time, however, it was a WTF in response to the traffic jam on I-65. We went from speeds of 70 mph (the fastest we dare let the car go) to zip. After about an hour and 15 minutes, we'd gone all of 5 miles, if that. We finally reached an exit, and I recommended we get off. I didn't know where the road went, after all, we were south of Louisville and I didn't have a map, but I determined life would be better if 1.) we were moving and getting air circulating in our non-AC car and 2.) I went to the bathroom. So, we stopped at the truck stop, I looked at the $30 buck map and took care of business. Funny...the traffic jam was the result of a truck that spilled oil (or so the people at the truck stop said), and it was going to take several hours to clean up. Now...wouldn't you think that if the police knew that it would take hours and traffic would be at a standstill, they'd divert traffic? Not in Kentucky! Luckily, I had checked out the map and found an alternate route. What a ride! A rural Kentucky road, full of twists and turns, and a speed limit of 55mph. It was quite amusing! We were glad to finally get back to our usual route, but it was fun to see some parts of a state we'll probably never need to see again! Now if only I hadn't received a sunburn on my right arm, from the bottom of my sleeve to my finger tips...