Tag: Dexter

Enjoying the Blissful Long July 4th Weekend, Dexter Dog Photos, and Some Good Eating

On By BackporchwriterIn Dogs, Food7 Comments
Dexter, Sleeping in My Office

The Bliss of a 3-Day Weekend and Dexter Dude Update

Saturday was quite blissful, waking up and knowing that the 3 day weekend was before me and I really only have to get out of the house to go get Mom on July 4. I love being at home and the three day weekend always brings such balance. We should have them every week to have true balance, lol! (Wishful thinking at play here.)

Mr. Dexter has been quite good yesterday. Today might be a different story but it’s mainly because he does not want me to blog, put play. As I type this I’ve somehow managed to obtain a headache which has something to do with my eyes and sinuses. I’ve a bit of a runny nose and my head hurts when I read or type but goes away when I shut my eyes. I have a lot to do today getting things ready for our meal tomorrow so I hope it gets better.

I love it when he is calm. Most of the time he is. It’s just those two hours – one on each end of the day. Sometimes it doesn’t coincide with our schedule. Like right now, I really want to get this blog done. I have to get in the kitchen and start cooking soon. We had a really good day with him yesterday and when I relaxed mid day, he took a nap in my lap. I love this! This pic cracks me up. Don’t you love my crocs? lol. I love that he feels safe to be in my lap.

When George is on the computer, he goes under the bed. Not sure how much longer he will fit under there, so his 2nd spot is on the other side of George’s computer chair. He hid there while I blow dried my hair. He does not like the blow dryer, nor the vacuum. And is not sure of the bathroom drawers that make such noise when opened and closed. Yes, remember this is the dog that is scared of a bird tweet outside, lol!

Sometimes I Conflict With My Goals – Do You do That?

A New Peanut Butter

OK so you know how I said I am cutting back and going cheaper with our groceries? We always make a liar out of ourselves. We might have just paid close to $30 for two jars of gourmet peanut butter. I’m not even sure I want to admit it. So I’ve now fully contradicted myself. lol I’m still on with my cheaper goals but I reserve the right to forget that fact here and there. Our neighbor asked us if we wanted to order some. Together our order would give us free shipping. So we said “sure why not”. The Cinnamon Toasties was really good. American Dream <—-clicky here and it will open in a new tab. The regular peanut butter though is $6.99 so not too bad, but the shipping costs could be bad if you don’t order enough. It’s healthier peanut butter. So the link is there if you want to check it out.

I put it on toast yesterday and it was heaven!

Getting Ready for the July 4th Meal

Yesterday I prepared our dining table for the 4th. George had to clear off all of his “stuff”. He managed to clear all but the end. Isn’t it just like a man to lay claim to the domain, even if it is just a slice. A woman can’t have a perfectly clean table for a holiday meal? Go figure. I’ll do my cooking today. I went through the house to find any red, white and blue items. I don’t like red so not much here. Anyway, I thought the red radio flyer wagon would be great to put the chips in. So I washed that out and put a napkin in there. The “Cracker Barrel” golf tee game seemed American enough to add to the table. lol And of course I added the flag. I bought the 4th of July decoration in the middle at the dollar store a while back. It’s about time to go back to the dollar store. I have some ideas for future endeavors and gifts. 😉

George ran errands yesterday and went to Houston’s local butcher to get the meat for the burgers and he also stopped by the local “farmer’s market” for fresh veggies.

Getting Some Time to Catch Up, Cut Hair, Do Research, and On Line Shopping

I also had time to look up some things on line and do research on self parenting, narcissism, and ended up finding some reading on your “inner child”. It’s all fascinating stuff. Anyone in therapy has probably been through all this stuff. I have never had therapy although I’m sure some family members wishes I had. Same to them if so. I may have the same wish about them, if asked or prodded or backed into a corner. lol. Truth be known we all could use a little therapy! I am happy that between God and myself we usually do our own. Not to knock therapists. I probably would have gone to one by now if it were free. I always loved psychology. So these kinds of topics always interest me. One day I will write my thoughts on it and post it as what I call one of my “canned” blog entries. I usually write about my day. But I like to throw those things in every now and then. There is a canned blog entry coming Tuesday! 😉 It’s already scheduled but it’s about “Confusion”. It’s still my thoughts on it though, and my opinions, so while it’s a canned post it’s still very much my writing. When I call something canned, it’s like writings for a rainy day, or writings that deserve it’s own post and not buried within my daily updates.

I always get confused about what you all like the best. Many of you say the daily updates as opposed to my bullet pointed thoughts and opinions. Does that still hold true? I like to grow the blog though and sometimes these other posts interest the outsiders to come in, and maybe they like the daily updates as well, but no one can find me as there are so many of us. If you are here and read, like, comment, I thank you. Or if you just read, I thank you too. Anyway, I was glad to have time to do some on line things yesterday.

Oh, I also cut my hair! It feels better to have some layers. It was very hard to do on my own. It’s just hard to cut the back but I did the best I could. It will hold me until August for sure. I may not need much of a cut then to tell you the truth. I may have to move it out, but we’ll see.

Most of the laundry is done also.

I ordered a trash can with a lid yesterday from Amazon and also ordered a recipe binder for the Hello Fresh meals. We refer back to them so much. Last night George made grilled carrots and green beans and a tomato salad of sorts. He looked up the Hello Fresh menu to see what degree to put the oven on. We had a lamb roast. Also fresh corn! It was really good. I had some of my Halo vanilla bean ice cream after.

We are sort of in a crises mode as to what to watch. We have finished all the shows we wanted to watch. I’m awaiting the summer shows that are supposed to show up but haven’t. I thought Virgin River would be out by now. There is not a lot left that we BOTH like. So hopefully we will have something we want to watch soon.

I will leave you today with a pic of our lovely doggie and his nice display of modesty along with today’s to do list. He got some good rest yesterday. We gave him his heart worm med so it could have made him lay around more. But anyway he’s a live wire today. George put on some mellow YouTube music but I hear him in there doing zoomies, lol!

Today’s to do list, in case you are interested:

  • Make more tide mixture to clean the floor with where Dexter misses. 😛
  • Change our sheets
  • Make dressed eggs, caprese salad, and a cake
  • Next weeks vitamins and meds in the daily containers
  • Check prices for dog food, pee pads, etc and get the next order placed
  • Iron (pressing a few items for next week’s wardrobe
  • Decide on Doggie Health Insurance – Is it worth it?
  • Brush Dexter – he likes it.
  • Make the sure the outside cat has water

If I have any time left to play:

  • I’ll clean up the latest video debris and start working on the next one which will be more fun I promise.
  • Do research on how to improve my video thumbnails
  • Canon classes and photography learning
  • Blogging ideas with Canva
  • Learn more about Tube Buddy and do I really need it

Everyone have a great 4th. I love to hear from you. If you made it this far let me know. Ahhhh Dexter is finally setting in. George left to go take Mom to church today. We are dividing and conquering on Sunday’s so the dog is not alone and then we also get 8 to 12 hours a month back into our schedule to get things done here. Kinda helps offset the time we are spending doing care-giving for Mom. We don’t mind it at all but we just have things here we need to get done so dividing and conquering seems to work. Over and out ya’ll! Much love to each and every one. Be safe.

Trying a New BBQ Place, Cooking Enchiladas, Finding My Ambiance, Watching Mr. Bean, and Making a Healthy Coke

On By BackporchwriterIn Food4 Comments
New Moon BBQ, Lebanon, TN

Mom and I went to church Sunday and then afterwards went to try New Moon BBQ. It was pretty good. You get a plate full of food.

Afterwards we went back to her house and I threaded two needles for her for something she needed to repair, and then ordered her a magnifying glass you hang around your neck that has a light with it.

Once home, I was a bit tired. I’m not sure why. But when I came home George had cleaned off the “pub table” in the kitchen. And had moved his musical equipment to another area. He said it was impractical to have it there with the dog. lol

I looked at the schedule for the week to see what all we needed to work around. One of us needs to be here ASAP in the afternoons for Dexter because he is almost beside himself by the time we get home. I think he sleeps most of the day but he is both hungry and ready to play when we get home. If he doesn’t get a lot of exercise he really gets mischievous. What is hard for me is having to time to blog and work on videos uninterrupted. Right now he’s doing “zoomies” all around me.

Anyway, what I am trying to get to is that our schedule is free this week. No doc appointments, no nail appointments, no hair appointments, just come home. That is awesome! George and I both are having to coordinate which nights to work over. It’s quarter end for me and he has to work more during the week to get his half day off. He gets a half day Friday. So my days to work later were Monday, Tuesday and I work also Friday. Like I’m going to want to work late on Friday but I will work a bit later to make some room for quarter end activities. It’s a 4 day week next week so that doesn’t help me as far as quarter end goes. Since I have dog duty some of the week, it’ll be harder to get quarter end done. So I may have to go in on a Saturday and if I do it will make me madder and iller than a hornet on a hot day. But if I do, I’ll take that time off later. We already have short enough weekends as it is. Last night after leaving the house at 5:45 a.m. and getting back at about the same in the p.m. I was tired, worn out, didn’t want to think, didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to do anything but go to bed. I had zero patience for the dog also. I worked on video, called and checked on Mom, ate and went to my room. The day was exhausting.

There’s a few things cropping up on my “to do list” personally though. I just keep moving them forward as I end up blogging or editing videos instead. But this weekend perhaps I’ll have a 3 day weekend in which to work on a few things. I’m trying but I’m not sure I’ll make the video by this Saturday. There’s still a chance. I’ve gotten 50 minutes of footage down to 40 but I need to shave off and at least try to get it into the 20’s if I can. Thirty is just too long. The time period covers Mom’s move to her house through Thanksgiving weekend. I didn’t want to break it up into two. It just wouldn’t be interesting enough so I’m working through the weeds. I can probably get it edited but getting the upload done and thumbnail set and scheduled may be pushing it.

This pic is hilarious. If Dexter has run out all of his energy, he can tolerate some Mom lap time. I love to hug on him and when he gets older he’ll be a great snuggle buddy. But right now he is a live wire still for about two hours of day. Once in the morning and once in the evening and then he can settle “for a bit”.

So I fixed enchiladas on my own this time, using the similar recipe and instructions from Hello Fresh. I’m just so excited about being able to make enchiladas and the “crema” sauce. Now I can always just make enchiladas with whatever we have. I think I’ll make having tortilla’s a staple. I mean you can even open a can a beans and make bean quesadillas, or open a can of white chunk chicken and even throw in rice. So I’ll keep those little cans of salsa verde as stock also. And I’m thinking we’ll keep sour cream as a staple too b/c the crema is awesome. And you don’t have to have a lot.

Beef and Bean Enchiladas

I also make the bean paste to put on the tortilla (think pizza sauce for pizza – same concept). It’s really just mashed up black beans but you could use pintos also. Then put the filling on one side only and then roll them up and bake seam side down. I have mentioned this before, but I’m so taken with the process! I had to share my personal try at doing it. It was a success! Hello Fresh teaching me how to cook. It’s not only good food and recipes but it’s cooking lessons! ha!

So we began watching “Man vs Bee” with Mr. Bean. Oh my gosh we laughed so hard. Typical bean only he talks more. It’s an easy watch. If you haven’t seen it, watch it for some good deep down laughter. I think it was on Netflix.

So I have found some pretty awesome ambiance channels fro YouTube. At one point I got cold in my office yesterday so I looked for a fire place to play and found this. It’s set in Greece and even has “Little Bit” (black cat) on there. I can’t wait to put this on the big TV and read one night, lol.

I wanted to share this with you. The channel is called My Ambiance. However there are also some other channels that have beach cafes etc. and play jazz. I like to clean house and do my Saturday work and routines with those playing.

Kicken Chicken

Here was last night’s meal. As you can see there was no need for seconds, lol. I’m still full this morning. The chicken was panco crumbs and Frank’s red sauce. There was a sauce that went over it and then you drizzled honey over that. George made it so I’m not sure what all it had on the chicken but I want to make that on my own sometime. I’m going to order a recipe book holder for all these big recipe cards from Hello Fresh. I need to measure to make sure they will fit in the plastic holders.

Gotta try this:

I did a screen shot of Tic Tok of this lady making a healthy coke. It’s ice with a little bit of balsamic vinegar and then add a LaCroix or some kind of bubble water over it and it tastes like coke but it’s healthy for you. lol I have not tried it but probably will.

And there is this little piece of fun I’ll leave you with. Katy sent Dexter a toy from Texas. It was his first piece of mail! lol

So I’ll try to be back on Friday! Ya’ll have a good rest of the week.

Heat Stroke Scare, a Picnic Lunch with Friends, and Happy Dog Pics

On By BackporchwriterIn Brewery, Dogs, Family, Food, Friends6 Comments

Friday came and went. It was a short day. I had a pretty good week last week being able to get my weekly, monthly, and quarter end taxes paid. Now I’m all ready to move forward with the quarter end processing in the coming week. I only worked half day on Friday since it was Mom’s eye injection day. So I left at Noon. (This is the reason I go in early every Tuesday so I don’t have to burn half day of PTO.)

So off to Lebanon to get Mom, and to Hendersonville to the doc appointment. For the first time ever they were very behind. We figured the docs must have had a heck of a lunch that day, lol. Who knows? Anyway her appointment still only took a little over an hour. I went through all of my emails. I think I was up to 500 or so. I try to stay on top of it. I have my normal email through AOL plus my blog email and sometimes just the gmail account that I had to have to go along with the blogging before LessHustleMoreCoffee was in existence. (Side note: It got confusing after the AOL blogs transferred to Blogspot, and then at some point I started with WordPress, and then when I started the YouTube I had a special email for that. Sometimes I wonder as I age if I’ll be able to keep up with it all. Probably not, lol! ha. I also use google to host my website domain. But for the most part I think I only have 4 active emails if you include work. I still go in and log in to the bookncoffee emails on aol -which also has the gmail version- again confusing but was necessary with the blog switcher-ooos and sign ons). I have to remind myself to log in to bookncoffee once every quarter. I don’t want to lose my old blogs. I can entertain myself for hours anywhere if I have my phone.

Mom and I ate lunch at Jonathan’s Grille in Hendersonville after her eye appointment. I had chicken tenders and Mom had quesadillas. It was all really good. I only ate a portion of mine. George ate my left overs with my permission. We also went to the store at Kroger. I had to do both mine and Mom’s groceries. While I didn’t even have a whole buggy full, it still took a while to get it done. Mom sat in the car with the a/c going. I was really feeling rushed and tried to go the fastest I could. It was one of those mega Kroger with clothes, shoes, linens, and everything else. I could have shopped all day but had to ignore any fun to check anything out. It took me forever as nothing was where I anticipated it to be and I had to look for items. I think I was in there for 45 min to an hour at least. I kept seeing $$$ in my head for Mom sitting out there with the a/c going. Half way through the shopping I began to get really anxious, like I knew I needed to rush rush rush. Well I ended up forgetting the Buddig meat for Fancy. ::sigh:: But George got it yesterday while he was out, so I’m taking that to her this morning.

Photo by Fabio Partenheimer on Pexels.com

However, when I got checked out and went to the car, Mom was sitting in the car with no a/c, windows down, and an umbrella out the window blocking the sun. OMGosh. She said the a/c quit and she was afraid we had burned it up as it took so long.

I got the groceries in the car and got in the car. It was 96 outside and I have no idea how hot it was in the car, but if it was too hot for me I know it was too hot for Mom. So I drove off and the wind was not giving any relief. I told Mom we would have to stop and have George come get us that we couldn’t drive home in this. She said she didn’t want to leave her car. Ok then we can go by ambulance and have twin heat strokes. Anyway, I was trying to drive and figure out what to do and it occurred to me to check the a/c. I mean Mom is so good at fixing things and if she said the a/c was out, I assumed it to be true. But I realized then “oh she can’t see” – especially after her shot because they have clouded up her one good eye. I said “Mom, did you mess with the controls over here or did the a/c just go off”. She said it got cold and she cut it down and it quit after that. I pushed the A/C button and cold air started coming out. LOL LOL LOL. Thank the Lord!

Photo by Aleksandr Slobodianyk on Pexels.com

That was a horrible experience that could have led to Mom having a heat stroke if I hadn’t gotten to the car when I did and finally figured all this out. Of course I’d have taken us to a/c and we’d have stayed inside somewhere, but I never dreamed that she had hit the a/c button. I figured she would have known to try that. But I don’t think it even occurred to her that she could have turned it off. So this is sending me all kinds of signs, bells, and warnings. Geez. A scary moment. Such a simple thing could have been a catastrophe. I told her I wasn’t going to leave her in the car again even with the a/c going. Unless of course it’s reasonable temp outside or we just have an item or two. I should have taken her home and then gone back out for the groceries. I just didn’t really think it would be a long drawn out grocery run. But with two of us and a huge grocery I never go in- yep it was forever!

Friday night I slept well and Saturday George got up with Dexter dog, letting me sleep. I was thankful. I got Dex a new toy at Kroger. Here’s a 40 second video. George is goofing with Alexa in the back ground! He told her to add “grocery list” to the grocery list. lol. I’m gonna mess with George and change it to the man voice. Yes, there is a new voice available. Unsure if we should call him Alex.

Dogs crack me up the way they lay sometimes, but this says he is beginning to be really comfy around us I guess. lol

So Saturday we had a lazy morning – well I did laundry – some of it! George ran some errands. We had to drop off his car to get tires rotated and shopped at Target while it there as Target was next door. Then we set out to meet Don and Lisa and Amber and Dillon at Monday Night Brewing in Nashville. Lisa packed us some sandwiches and George and I brought some sides to go with it. We had a spread and a half and of course we had couple of beers as well. I had one and a half. I can’t do two anymore.

I’m special. I had the crown, lol. And water!

Making our Own Fun at Monday Night Brewing with Picnic Lunches

We didn’t ask if we could bring food, but being that we were picnicking on the outside, and each had our own little bag – no one said anything. If they had we’d have gone and ate in the car and come back in I guess. lol

Monday Night Brewing, Nashville, TN

Cumberland River, Nashville, TN

Above just random pics around the brewing company and also in Nashville.

When we got home, George and I spent the evening reading, much of the time with Dexter Doodle in between us. He learned to jump on the couch yesterday all by himself. He missed the first time but managed to try again and made it and surprised us all!

So today, I’m taking Mom to church and out to eat and then I have to do a couple of things for her. Then we have to go get my car which is in the shop, but getting spark plugs and a new headlight so I can hopefully more safely drive it to work.

I have to come back also and do the ironing (my ironing is mostly just pressing to get the few wrinkles out for the work week), and I’m making enchiladas tonight, as the Hello Fresh taught me to do. I’m making them on my own. Looking forward to it.

Anyway, hoping church is ok today and the weird man doesn’t come back. Mom and I are going to sit somewhere else. I think it is supposed to rain/storm sometime today too. Anyway it’s horribly hot in these parts. Summer is definitely here and June about to come to an end.

Will be planning the July 4th meal next week. I have not looked yet to see what all we have planned for next week. I’ll be doing my reconciliation report next week at work. But not sure what appointments we have yet. I’ll look at the calendar Monday morning. I don’t usually have appts on Mondays.

Anyway, I’m glad ya’ll enjoyed the video. If you missed it – see yesterday’s post. I actually gained 4 subscribers. Wow, lol. I’m so happy. I am already working on the next one of course. I think you will like it even better. We are closing in on the rest of 2021 and make it through Thanksgiving in this one. It’ll be a little longer than some. Then the following one is our Asheville trip – so stay tuned.

I better go so I’m not late.