Less Hustle More Coffee

It was fun to get out yesterday. Just a gorgeous sunny warm day. A bit hot but not too bad and lower humidity than we normally have in the summer. We took a drive by the new Amazon building not too far from us- so big it should be called an airport! Here’s a clip as we drove by. I know the reason they are building near us is so they can be near me since I keep them in business! :-O

Our first actual stop was restocking on spirits! Ha, yes we have been low in spirits in several ways. Here is the store we go to on occasion in our area, Providence Wine and Spirits. See store – first photo at the top.

They are a bit different in that they have a gift area and they even sell Pasta from a long time Italian Restaurant in Nashville area, Coco’s.

We then went to Aldi. Going to the grocery stores always did bring delight in our family.

Side note: It was interesting that they no longer have anyone wiping down carts even with virus going full blown now. I think so many are just over it. And the numbers show as people let the guards down. We are hunkering down though. We did go to a grad party and that was our riskiest thing yet. But we really don’t want this thing and we really don’t want to take anything to our pregnant daughter in Texas and we don’t want to take anything to Mom. We will be seeing her soon as well. And as George says, if we get it, we could die. We would like to avoid that if we could.

But it doesn’t keep us out of the grocery stores for our necessities and we are both wearing our masks now as it is a requirement. Still there are some who refuse under the requirement. And one lady yesterday was on the phone “just a fussin’” about something at Aldi. We had to wait behind her. I thought oh my we are breathing in all her hot air and germs and I tried to stand off aside. Isn’t it funny the things we think now. I’m thinking as mad as she was flappin’ her gums that if she had COVID we were all going to get it. You want to stand up and say “no body exhale, just hold your breath til we come through ok?” LOL LOL LOL

Anyway regardless we had fun at Aldi. It had been a while.

And then we went to Houston’s Meat market. Had we ordered on line we could have got 10% off. But then you have to wait 4 hours to pick it up so we just got what was in the store. It’s a little store and kinda hard to stand 6 feet apart. But we all tried our best. We bought pork chops for dinner. I found my old recipe. I’m shocked at how worn it looks. It’s had a lifetime of use. Also found the BBQ Meatloaf recipe as well. Is that not awful looking?

But you know what it says? They must be some darn good ones to have been used that much. TRUE THAT! I think the recipe for pork chops needs to say 1.5 hours and check it. They are scorched looking at 2 hours but….they don’t taste scorched.

See, they looked burned. But mainly it was what was on the side. They were heavenly. And yes the beautiful casserole dish had to do a major soak. So yeah. 1.5 hours NEXT time.

I made a squash casserole with it also. YUM! And asparagus. And we had noodles left over so I made a pasta salad with simply olive oil, red wine vinegar, feta cheese, shredded carrots for crunch, garlic powder, onion powder and Penzey’s “Pasta Sprinkle”.

George is the usual one to cook. He loves it so. But it’s nice to give him a break. He needs it more in the summer as he spends a lot of time in the yard. I’m glad to do it. And last nights meal was pretty darn good if I can say so myself!

When the pork chops were put in the oven, George came in and fixed us a cocktail. He fixed us a Manhattan.

I picked the Rye Whiskey as I’m not much of a drinker beyond wine or beer or a refreshing herby or fruity drink – like a margarita, mojito, or something like that. I suggested a better one so it would be smoothe. I like to add an “e” on the end of “smooth” for dramatic effect when needed. I wanted smoothe! So we went for this one.

But our friends, Don and Lisa, made these for us in Tybee Island so it’s been a big hit. When the first round was gone in Tybee, as Lisa and I made dinner, I offered to refill the guys drinks as they conversed on the porch. I thought surely I can recreate these. I watched a video like I do everything these days when learning. And I didn’t have a measuring cup so I just guessed on the quantity.

Let’s just say the guys stuck to “sippin’” that one most of the night. And they STILL talk about my Manhattan! lol lol I guess it was a little too STIFF. Or should I add extra “FFFFF’s” for dramatic effect? It was a STIFFFFFFFFF one.

You know, more than anything, I think George loves my participation in planning our meals. I’ve noticed that he seems to really like my input and so I’ve tried to do more of it. We have taken a lot of joy during this Pandemic at planning our upcoming meals. Often we open the freezer and do a Geeky type of inventory and make lists of what all we could have.

It’s kind of a hobby to fill the freezer up and then work really hard at eating it all up before the next cow and pig we purchase. And George has a huge lot of recipes, also Geeked out in an Excel Recipe spreadsheet and organized by type and references the cookbook and page number. Oh yes. We are both Geeky in the things we do.

Here’s George’s plans, with my help. We will wait a bit to plan Week two upcoming here, but all our choices are in the side bar.

I personally like to have a variety of meats and not too much of the same in a row. I really like my chicken and fish and less of the reds these days as I think it’s better for you. And I’m a stickler for wanting my greens and veggies now. Really have worked hard to cut out the pasta. But I am keeping the taters and beans when it comes to carbs! Natural foods are better than enriched flour but sadly I’ve succumbed to bread a bit more.

Just this morning we had biscuits from Houston’s meat market. They have a lot there in addition to meat. They have a small store kinda like a campground store. Just enough to be able to have sides with your meat for the evening etc. But they also have a little cafe with a few tables and you can get plate lunches and sandwiches. It’s these cute little individually owned stores that make life wonderful. There should be more of them. No pics. Too many people and it’s awkward to take pics of everyone, lol.

I did laundry and worked on the kitchen and took some things down for storage.

I also have some VERY good news. I decided to bring up the flooring. We had a good day and I thought maybe it was a good time to bring it up. It’s usually never a good time to bring up spending huge amounts of $$. But, I asked WHEN it might be good to look at flooring and the costs and when it might be feasible to redo our floors. Adding in that the longer we wait the more of the house we’ll be needing to upgrade because later trying to match it might not be so easy.

I showed him a pic of the look I wanted. I really like the look of a grey floor. We had grey carpet in our old house and it was so relaxing looking. Grey blends with beige and just about any colors when it’s uniform throughout like this. Any room can be whatever decor you want and it lightens the room in a relaxing and refreshing way.

He also has his own ideas, but we will go and price this before long and he says either late in the year or as I suggested after the first of the year as we are still paying for major re-plumbing. Which probably means February as the baby is due in January and we can’t schedule anything. And I probably will be working whatever weekends we are not in Texas or traveling. January will be hard time to get it.

But, you know me! I’m as excited as I can be just having a tentative date. Who knows maybe we can do it sooner. But no pressure. I know he wants to get this other paid off first. Best to do 12 months same as cash on one thing at a time.

Of course if we end up moving that will be a non issue point I guess. But I was told by Kate not to move that they would be coming home before too long. I just know they are happy down there. But we have Momma up here. She may go with us to Texas but she might not want to. So that would be an issue of how to make sure she is taken care of, but I’d want her to go with us. I just have a feeling they will come home so the baby can be with the grandparents and they can have baby sitters. We can all help them get set up and re-situated when the time comes. Right now though, it’s probably best to stay put with the virus anyway – for them. On our end, we feel like getting in the car and hauling our stuff and just going down there right now. lol Of course we couldn’t do that. It would take a lot to get us down there. I mean new jobs, and selling our houses (plural if Mom goes). All that would not be an easy feat. Nothing is guaranteed, so I want to move on getting the flooring. Even if we do sell our house it’ll be a plus and add value. But like I always say, I’d like to enjoy it since I’ve waited for it for so long. No more blue linoleum. Soon. Very soon! Hearing those words were like the heavens opened up and angels came down and began singing a righteous and glorious tune that I will call “Sonya’s Song of Old Blue Be Gone”.

It was a marvelous day yesterday. We enjoyed our day so much! And today is a day of rest and fun and a few chores, and getting ready for the work week.

So what all did you do interesting this weekend? Cooking anything new? Any old favorites? What are you doing to keep moving and shaking? What are you doing to keep YOUR spirits up!