Monday, October 27, 2008

Monday, Monday

Normally I don't like Monday's too much.

I guess there aren't too many people who do really. The weekend is gone, back to the grind of working for a living - but today I find myself very calm and content.

Aside from the "I eat poop" graffiti on my car Saturday morning, M and I had a really nice weekend. Saturday we went to see Rachel Getting Married. I'm still not sure if I liked it or not, it was different. There are parts that I liked, parts I didn't understand and parts that just kind of dragged on for no apparent reason.

I do have to say that I'm glad I don't have a family like that! Sheesh!

Saturday night we had a nice little dinner and then settled in to watch Mean Girls. M had never seen it before and it's a funny movie. It was a dark and stormy night on Saturday - perfect for getting in your jammies early and then watching a movie.




Sunday we walked the dogs in the park. They made some new friends: two pugs, a great dane pup who was nearly as tall as I am and a border collie. They hunted for various vermin - unsuccessfully but we let them think they are the greatest vermin hunters in the world and praise them when they try. Unless of course they are dragging us to a groundhog hole. It's amazing how strong Westies are when they are after an animal. Small dog - lot's of power!

After the dog walk I went out side for the back yard clean up: leaves and poop. Thanks to my trusty blower/vac it was a breeze and the doggies had a clean yard to defile in only about an hour and a half.



As is our custom, whenever I finish the yard work the boys and I hang out in the back yard for a beer.

It's our bonding time!




They chase each other around thankful for their clean back yard and I just watch them and serve as "base" whenever one dog doesn't want to engage. Usually it's Casey. He'll just hide under my legs while Corky tries to flush him out!

M was inside doing laundry and tackling the home finances. It's good having a CPA in the house because I SUCK at finances.

Next up for me was giving Corky a bath. Westies are known for their skin problems and now that Mr. Corkyman is a senior his have started. I carried him upstairs, prepared for a fight but actually I think the cool water and the scrubbing must have felt good on his itchy skin because he just let me bathe him.

After a bath there is about 1/2 hour of rolling and scrubbing on the carpet to try to get the "clean" smell off him!

Daughter C was upstairs brooding because she actually didn't have any plans and was bored. M and I choose to ignore her.

Next up...cooking time. I was just in the mood!

I had a hankering for some good ol' fashioned fried up chicken cutlets and I know if I make enough of them we'll have plenty of leftovers to kind of hold us over for the week if we need a quick meal. I put on Vivaldi Four Seasons and got to cooking.





I'm not the best cook in the world, but I enjoy it when it's not the day to day trying to figure out what to have for dinner. That bores me to no end. The constant" what do you want for dinner?", "I don't know, what do you want?", "Well I don't want chicken. We had chicken already", "Ok, how about pasta?" , "No, too many carbs." "Ok, how about steak?" "No, not in the mood." "Ok...how about you make yourself whatever you want and I'll make myself whatever you want?" "but I don't know what I want!?"

And on and on.

Does anyone else have these kinds of conversations in their house?

After the chicken cutlets were all done, then I have been meaning to make some Pumpkin Spice bread. I bought all the ingredients over a week ago, but just haven't had the time to make it.

The smell of that bread while it was baking was intoxicating! Even M and Daughter C who do not like to eat the bread liked the smell. Just the combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and all spice on a nice cool autumn day was heavenly.



The bread was a little "dark" on the corners, but still scrumptious!




We all had our dinner in shifts. M had some chicken cutlets with leftover rice and beans she made on Saturday night. I had a big salad with chopped cutlets and Daughter C finally made some plans and went out, then came back in and then went back out...came back in and then back out again.

Oh to be 21 again.

NOT!

Another lazy night in front of the TV until the days activities finally caught up with me about 8:30 and I headed for bed.

M stayed up to watch the baseball game I am sure. GO PHILLIES!!!




Monday's I work from home - so they aren't typical "ugh, gotta go back to work" type days for me. I am a lot more relaxed knowing I don't have to drive 1 1/2 hours into the office. I can sleep for an extra hour and not have to rush out the door.

I've sort of planned out what customers I need to take care of today and am working on trying to clean out my e-mail inbox since it's told me that I've exceeded my storage limit...again.

The dogs are quietly snoozing on the futon next to me and the hum of the filter in the fish tank and my typing are about the only sounds I hear.

It's actually very nice.

I think I'll get a lot done today!

Have a good one all!

12 comments:

finn said...

oh that sounds glorious. Like one of those feel-good-no-worries days...

too bad it's tuesday tomorrow.

Middle Girl said...

Does anyone else have these kinds of conversations in their house? NO, not any more. Thank goodness!

I must get some bread a-bakin' Yummy.

Shazza said...

Finn - :::sigh::; yet Tuesdays are my Mondays.

Deb - homemade bread is good for the soul. The smell is just wonderful! Enjoy!

mccutcheon said...

I'm glad you had such a lovely weekend. Now I want one too :(
And I totally have to bake some bread next week when this is all behind me.. yummy. Maybe you'd want to tell me your recipe?

finn and I know those what's for dinner conversations. my parents never had those, we simply ate what my dad cooked - come to think of it I prefer the conversation.

Shazza said...

McC - My Mom and Dad didn't have those conversations either. If my Dad wanted to cook, my Mom was all for it!

Here is the link to the site where I got the bread recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Spice-Bread/Detail.aspx


You may be able to convert it to metric

mccutcheon said...

thank you for the recipe :)
I don't even have time to eat now so I'll definitely make that one after my exam. But I already bookmarked... yum yum

Presbyfruit's History Bits said...

Oh man, I want some of that pumpkin bread. YUM!!!!

I'm lovin' the PJ's and socks. You two are about as exciting as we are.
Although I much prefer it to the old days when we would be taking our Saturday night disco naps at 8pm in preparation for the big night at the ladies' bar.

BTW, "Mean Girls" rocks!

Presbyfruit's History Bits said...

Oh man, I want some of that pumpkin bread. YUM!!!!

I'm lovin' the PJ's and socks. You two are about as exciting as we are.
Although I much prefer it to the old days when we would be taking our Saturday night disco naps at 8pm in preparation for the big night at the ladies' bar.

BTW, "Mean Girls" rocks!

Shazza said...

McC - GOOD LUCK on your exams and I want to see pictures of you in a suit!

Presby - We need to move closer to you two so we can keep each other up past our bedtimes and be "bad"! I'll send you a batch of pumpkin bread, it was really good!

neetzy said...

We have those conversations every night. Last night was our anniversary and D wanted my rice and beans. I make mine cuban styled with black beans and pimentos. (Thanks to a Cuban American friend of mine named "Margie McDonald"). Tonight I got one of those pre-basted Turkey breasts from Purdue. They are pretty good. Go Phillies from York, PA."

dive said...

Woohoo, Shazza! Hot legs!
Actually, that's a lovely photo.
And that pumpkin spiced bread looks soooo gorgeous!

It sounds like you had a lovely Monday.
I'm just sneaking in here to apologise for being too busy this last week to follow my favourite blogs, but things should have eased off by the end of the week.

Have a good one.

Vic Hubbard said...

I love the puppies!!! They are cuties!

Love the PJs, too:)