Money makes the world go round...

Why are my tastes so darn expensive? I want a certain look for my home, and I've found some great ideas, but they are all way out of my budget. Being bored at work today I started to surf the web and came across a few interesting sites. First I found Velocity. A store with ultra-modern decor for your home in and out. Now I'm not too modern, I like the earthy side of things, but some of this stuff I can't resist. My first pick are these "plastic elements" that you connect together to make a type of screen. Love them! The red was definately my favorite. They also come in white, green, or black. One piece is 12.25" x 10" roughly. They can be purchased in packs of 6 for $30.00 or you can get a 50 pack for $200.00.

Next I came upon the Anthropologie web site. This site offers a wide variety of goods from clothing to furniture. I found quite a few of goodies on this site that I could easily blow my paycheck on. First are the hidden mushroom pillow and hidden owl pillow. They'll run you about $128.00 EACH. Yeah, that's right, each... But at the moment, funds are tight and maybe when I can spend some money on things like these, they'll be in the sale section. Anthropologie has a great sale all the time. Most of the stuff I clicked on was cut by an average of 60% or more.

Okay. I'm going back to making myself look busy. Till next time...

Broccoli, Carrot, & Tofu Stir Fry

Last night was nice and relaxing. Ronnie was staying with his dad. I got home and went through the mail in peace. Yay, the new Design Within Reach catalog came in. I can't afford a darn thing in there, but it's fun to browse. (So I guess it's not really "within reach", at least not for myself.) I then proceeded to make dinner. But what to do when you're cooking for one? STIR FRY! I found a recipe in my favorite vegetarian cookbook, "Student's Vegetarian Cookbook" by Carole Raymond. I cook out of this book more than any others. It's not at all just for students, it's great for any beginner vegetarian on a budget. I stir fried some broccoli, carrots, and tofu and at the end dumped (by mistake) some soy sauce on. I also cooked up some Uncle Ben's Instant Brown Rice. I then toped it all off with some slices of green onions. The recipe calls for cashews for a garnish also, but I didn't want the added fat. I was just about to dig in and I thought, 'Why not do what all the other food-bloggers do?'. So I took out my camera and snapped a picture of my dinner. (You like my Martha placemats? I do.) I then proceeded to eat. Mmmmmm... It was yummy. After the dishes were done I sat on the couch for a minute. What to do, what to do. I went for a walk. It was close to dark already, and getting cool outside, but it was a perfect evening. I'm glad I got up and moving. The TV was still there when I got home...

Just give him 30 seconds...

Good afternoon. How we all doin'? I'm pretty good. It's Friday again. It's also my grandparents 50th anniversary today. Congrats to them. Wow! 50 years, 7 kids, 11 grandkids and 1 great-grandkid later, here we are. (Geez, I hope I didn't forget anybody, then I'd be the bad guy.) Well, tomorrow we're having an "Open House" for them. I know what a open-house is, I just thought it usually had to do with the actually house. Not in this case though. It will be fun and I'm looking forward to it. I'm making my much loved spinach-artichoke dip for the occasion. I had a bit of a problem at the grocery store though. I guess everyone's still afraid of spinach. They had no fresh spinach, bagged or not... I had to opt for the frozen. We'll see how it goes.

Oh yeah, about my title. Well the pictures I plan on posting in this blog, (if everything goes okay, I seem to have trouble with that sometimes), are shots of my son sitting on my lap the other day. All 4 pictures were taken in about 30 seconds, probably less. I've posted them in the order they were taken. You'll see my point when you check out the pictures...

A Day Out with Thomas

So.... Two weeks ago my parents, Connie , Dave, Noah, and my son, Ronnie, made a trip to Lebanon for "A Day out with Thomas". It was actually great for the kids. I can't believe the number of people that were there. The first thing we did was ride the train. This is my son and I waiting in line showing our tickets off. The ride was great, (could have been longer then 20 minutes for $19.00 a ticket), but I'm not complaining too loud because Grammy and Grampy bought our tickets. Ronnie just sat on my dad's lap most off the ride with his head sticking out like a dog in a car. After the train ride we went to go see Thomas himself. It was pretty cool, they had a big "engine" that looked like the real thing. My parents made their way over to the refreshments while Ronnie and I waited in line for those big blow-up bouncy things. I don't know what they're called. After waiting about 15 minutes in line, my son decided it wasn't such a great idea after all. I was surprised that he allowed a stranger to put one of those temporary tattoos on him. Ahhh... like mother like son. I guess we'll be the two going to the parlor together to get inked. All in all a fun day was had. Something to do every year maybe. "Thomas is comming to town! We gotta go visit!" Yeah, until he's 8 or 9 or maybe even 5 and Thomas is soooo yesterday.