Monday, March 18, 2024

Hello Monday - March 18, 2024

 

I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah this morning for Hello Monday and a weekend recap.

I left the house early on Friday to get to the hospital pharmacy ahead of the crowd.  I think I was in and out in under 15 minutes, unheard of!  Then it was off to the base for a quick stop at the exchange and the commissary.  I got stuck at the gate (you have to show your ID to get on the base) behind a young man who had not only an expired ID card, but also an expired driver's license (and he was driving!).  He was dropping his active-duty wife off at work, so he had to move to the passenger seat while she got behind the wheel.  Then the military policeman (there were five of them present at this time) pointed out that after he dropped her off, he wasn't going to be able to drive.  I'm not sure how it was resolved but off they went, escorted by the military police, so she could get to work.  Perhaps they escorted him to the nearest DMV?  All in all, it was about a twenty-five-minute wait for the resolution.

I finished my shopping and headed home, making a quick stop at the donut shop.  They were closing early so the only filled donuts they had were key lime - oh my goodness, this is my new favorite donut, they were delicious!  Sorry, there's no photo, by this time, I was starving and pretty much inhaled it!

Laundry and a few chores and then Vic came home, walked Malone, and we headed out to the movies to see One Life with Anthony Hopkins.   



As a parent, it was really hard to watch but an excellent movie. I knew the story, but I still cried.


Movie night dinner. 

Speaking of movie food, anyone else appalled by the cost of concessions these days?  Along with all of the other prices that have gone up, a soda and tub of popcorn are getting unreal.

Vic checked his e-mail while we were waiting for the movie to start and there was an e-mail from one of the companies he was interested in, requesting that he contact them for an interview.  It's an exciting and very busy time in our household.  Resumes, references, applications, interviews...it's all go.

 It's finally warm and dry so on Saturday, the gardeners arrived to take care of the yard.  I asked them if they had time to tidy up the mulch area in the corner of the backyard.  They did and quoted me a very reasonable price and it looks great now.  It was a layer of underlayment covered with mulch and Malone had just destroyed it doing the "I've finished my business" dance.  Vic plans to clear the rest of the mulch and gravel and plant grass here.


Just to the left of the tree is Malone's favorite spot.  On the other side of the fence is Pepper, the neighbor's dog and they carry on quite a conversation whenever they are both outside.


Here's an aerial view from the photos that were posted when we bought the house.

Vic headed out to church for the quarterly Men's Breakfast while I took a shower, started some laundry, and had breakfast.  When he got home, we bundled Malone into the truck and headed out to the post office (time to send our taxes off to the tax lady), and the supermarket (refill time for the 5-gallon water bottles).  Home for a quick snack for lunch and then Vic went into the guest room to continue his work while I sat down to work on this post.

Dinner was pizza from our favorite spot.

Off to church on Sunday morning and then home for Vic to continue in the guest room.  I snapped these daffodils in the grass next to the church parking Iot.


It was such a beautiful afternoon that we decided to take a drive to check out the commute to one of the Boeing facilities near us.  It could be a job opportunity and we weren't too familiar with the route.  It turned out to be a reasonable commute, let's hope that if it is the one, it's still a reasonable commute to and from work.


I put corned beef in the CrockPot so we enjoyed that with champ and marionberry pie for dessert.


My favorite leprechaun, taken after we attended the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Rhode Island in 2010. 

And that was our weekend!

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Friday Favorites - St. Patrick's Day

 

Putting up a late post as I completely forgot to hit publish on this one yesterday!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here are my decor favorites.


Michaels is always a hit for festive decor.


St. Patrick's Day garland from The Fickle Felt Tree on Etsy although she doesn't seem to be selling any longer.


Silk tulips - part of my stash from the gift shop where I volunteered in Virginia.


My Irish two-tier server - love the Belleek china pieces and the fun accessories from LacyBelles on Etsy (and they are still actively selling).


May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Around the 'Net

 

If you've watched The Great British Baking Show, you'll know that there is an episode titled "Pastry Week" in every series.  This popped up on my Facebook the other day - a sample of some of the yummy pies that are available in British grocery stores or made at home although shepherd's pie doesn't have a pastry crust.  There is nothing better than a pie, warm from the oven, served with chips or mashed potatoes.  Banoffee Pie is a delicious dessert.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Hello Monday - March 11, 2024

    

I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah this morning for Hello Monday and a weekend recap.

I stayed home almost all day on Friday (took just a 20-minute run to the grocery store) because our new chairs for the morning room were supposed to be delivered.  I waited and waited and waited, no delivery.  About 9:00pm on Friday night, the tracking changed from "today" to "delivery delayed".  Bummer.  Vic picked up Chick-fil-A on the way home and we enjoyed that with another episode of our continuing Grey's Anatomy marathon and then Vic continued with the closet installation in Sophia's bedroom/guest room.  I put a slash there because it looks like she may not be coming home as originally planned.  We're waiting for an update so stay tuned.


I love the Elfa closet components from The Container Store, but I honestly don't remember ordering these pieces.  I had two drawers (not used in another closet remodel) so they only sent two for the four-drawer configuration, but my drawers don't match the ones shown here.  I called on Saturday morning and found out that the drawers I have are platinum (silver color) and platinum was discontinued.  I don't remember discussing this with the closet specialist.  Bottom line, I can't do anything about it now, so I'll have to take a trip to the store to exchange my platinum drawers for two more of these graphite ones.

On Saturday we headed out to the Chowderfest.  It was drizzly but we both had hoods, so it wasn't too bad.


Each of the participating restaurants had one of these signs outside.  Here we are with the grey and drizzly waterfront behind us.


Here Vic is enjoying Chipotle Cream Chicken Tortilla Chowder outside a really cool used bookstore that had stacks of old LIFE magazines from as far back as the 1940s.  In the next photo, he's lined up for Champagne Seafood Chowder (with dashi base) that came with the added bonus of an octopus gyoza.  The gyoza was yummy, the chowder not so much.


A view of the marina, in the distance you would be able to see Mount Rainier if it wasn't so cloudy.  We hadn't been to this end of the waterfront before so we discovered some new restaurants with great views that we will re-visit.


A neat mural outside one of the restaurants.

It was a long walk from one end of the fest to another, so we hit five of the stops at one end of the waterfront and then walked back and drove to the other end where we hit four others.  We missed three but by nine stops, we were pretty chowdered out.  Vic's favorite was a classic New England-style chowder while mine was a brisket and corn chowder that had the added bonus of being gluten free.

I can't believe I didn't take a single photo of the inside of one of the chowder cups!

On the way home, we stopped at a new Filipino restaurant near us to try their lumpia.  We're taking lumpia to our small group on Wednesday and our usual go-to is a bit of a drive, so we thought we'd try somewhere closer.  Think again, it was a fail.  The lumpia were giant, greasy, and limp.  I'll spare you a photo!  Vic dropped me at home, picked up Malone, and headed to Lowe's for baseboards.

Saturday night was snack night with more Grey's and since Vic was finished with the closet, he put off working on the baseboards in favor of working on his resume.  He had two call backs from the job fair he attended with recommendations for fine-tuning his resume, so he needs to make sure he's got all the keywords that federal employers are looking for. 

We skipped church on Sunday because the tracking for our chairs updated that morning and said that Sunday was delivery day.  It was really raining and since it was a doorstep delivery, we didn't want to take the chance of the boxes sitting in the rain.  Vic went back to his resume, and I finished up the Adventures in Washington two-volume scrapbook.  When the chairs arrived, Vic brought them in and put them together.  They are sitting in the living room right now as the morning room is a mess while he tackles a rewiring job.  Photos coming soon.


They look low to the ground, but they are not, it's just my lousy photography lol!


Malone lounging on the couch, totally disinterested.  He only perks up for "treat", "walk", "ride in the truck", or "dinner".  So spoiled.

And that was our weekend!

Sunday, March 10, 2024

10 on the 10th - March 2024

 

Thank you, Joanne, for the reminder that it's time for 10 on the 10th with Marsha over at Marsha in the Middle.  Here we go with 10 of my favorite green things.

1.  Any countryside scene in England.  This one is from Kettlewell in the Yorkshire Dales, my favorite place in the world.


2.  The beauty of our home state, Washington.  There's a reason it's called the Evergreen State.


3.  Our Christmas Tree - this one is from 2014, our first Christmas in Washington.


4.  Other touches of green at Christmas - my Christmas group did a green theme for Christmas in July one year and it was fun to see how many green things I found from a "green" and "Christmas" web search.  Here are just a few.



5.  Ireland - always associated with green and a place I would love to visit.


6.  Holly - more Christmas greenery - I took this photo through the fence at Chester Cathedral.


7.  4-H - Sophia was a member when we lived in Rhode Island.  She cared for several leased horses during our time there (not all at the same time, we had to make changes when one was sold) for her Horse Project, competed in the 4-H horse shows, and turned her passion into a lifelong learning experience.



8.  Whole Foods, my favorite grocery store - it's a bit of trek which is probably a good thing, it would break the bank to shop there every week!


9.  Starbucks - had to include my favorite coffee spot as well.


10.  It was really fun to go back through my photos to find green things and I loved Sophia in this outfit from Christmas 1998.

Mothering Sunday

 

To all my UK friends!