Quote of the Week

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.  - African Proverb

I've had a tough time with this one, trying to find the deeper meaning here and express it successfully.  I think it means that if you are at peace with yourself, if you are not torn or conflicted by things going on in your life, then you will be better prepared to weather the ups and downs of life and less likely to fall victim to the wrath of others.  This state of being, however, will not protect you from the physical side of living.



 

Just Messin' Around

If things look different at times, it is because I'm messing around with colors, fonts, pictures, etc.  Maybe I'll come up with something I like better.  This is a work in progress with a lot of experimentation going on, so don't be surprised and think you've landed in the wrong place. 

For your viewing pleasure, here is a gorgeous sunset from last year.

  View from my front door

Snow Again!

It's not your average winter here in North Carolina.  I mean we do get snow and sometimes a lot of it all at once, but that doesn't happen every year, and some years we're lucky (or unlucky if you dislike snow) if we get a dusting.  This is an unusual winter because we've had three ground-covering snows since the middle of December.  We even had a white Christmas thanks to the deep freeze that descended on us after that first snowfall.  Lots of times it snows, and the next day the temperature is 50 degrees.  Bye-bye snow!

Not this year.  No sir.  Why we even went sledding.  I dusted off my nearly antique sled, waxed the runners and took off.  We bundled up and went over to Ashley's to sled on their street.  Unfortunately, since I said we wouldn't be able to go sledding by 11 a.m. they made other plans.  [pouty face].  They did stay and sled for about 20 min. before they really had to leave.  They said "Go to Mt. Carmel".  There is a hill there beside the church that is just the best for sledding.  We weren't first.  There were lots of kids (big and little if you know what I mean).  We were among the "big" ones.  My sled did OK, but it is made more for street sledding where the snow is really packed down and slick.  This hill was snow-covered grass but it had been semi-packed by the tube sleds.  Those are great, by the way.  We borrowed one for a few trips down the hill, and it was a wild ride.  You end up spinning around and flying down the hill backwards.  It leveled out to a flat straight away and some tall grass before you go into the woods.  Such fun.

Later I paid for that fun with sore muscles over the entire body.  I'm not too old for this.  Repeat.  I'm not too old for this.  I have recovered and would do it again except now all we have is white slush, and we are engulfed in a cold rain.

Here are some more pics from the last snow on Sunday after the sun came out.  Compare with these.  What a difference the sun makes!

View from the front door.

Street view looking left.

  

Street view looking right.

Here is what it looks like today.  We got about 2.5 inches of snow overnight, and the road was snow covered about 7 a.m., and then the rain started.  These were taken around 11:30.

Today's view from the front door.

Slushy footprints on the sidewalk.

Is the Eggo Shortage Affecting You?

A while back I started seeing signs in the grocery stores about a shortage of Eggos.  I hadn't noticed, nor had I seen anything in the paper.  Now I don't read the paper word for word, cover to cover, but you'd think I would have seen the Eggo thing. Oh well.  We do eat Eggos, but we'd been getting them from Costco in the 60-count box, and up until the last month they had a good supply.  Now our supply was cut off.  I found a few boxes in the grocery stores for the outrageous sum of $4.99 for a "family-sized" box of maybe 16-20.  We pay $6-7 for the big box.

We decided to try the Kirkland brand 60-count waffles that Costco had as a replacement for Eggos.  Now we're getting to the heart of this post.  We had two Eggos left so we opened the Kirklands and did a side-by-side taste/texture test.  They are two completely different products.  The Kirklands, in taste and texture, are more like homemade waffles, but drier and less flavorful.  The Eggos, to me, have never been really waffle-like, so I eat them like toast, with just butter.  OK, laugh at me, but that's what I've always done, and I like them that way.  The Kirklands are not that great that way, so I do the butter/syrup thing  The problem is that I make homemade waffles every Sunday morning which we eat with butter and syrup, and thus it is just more of the same.  This doesn't affect my DH, though.  He always eats Eggos that way.  The weirdness is all me. 

Here is an excerpt from the Eggos website about the situation and the outlook on getting Eggos back on the shelves:

Kellogg Company recently experienced supply constraints caused by flood damage at our bakery in Atlanta. In addition, we’ve been making significant equipment enhancements and repairs in our largest waffle bakery. Unfortunately, this is taking longer than anticipated.

The Eggo™ team is working around the clock to bring everyone’s favorite waffles back to store shelves as quickly as possible. We hope to regain full distribution of Eggo® products by the middle of 2010. This is a top priority for Kellogg Company.

Click here to receive periodic updates from the Eggo® brand about your favorite products, including news about when they will be back on shelf, or for more information, call 866-971-3320. Thank you for your patience during this time, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Don't get me wrong, both are good products, I just enjoy them in different ways, so yes, the Eggo shortage is affecting me.  How about you?  Is it affecting you, and what you are buying in place of Eggos. 

Eating Out For Less!

We all like to eat out now and then, and now we can do it for less.  Restaurant.com offers deeply discounted gift certificates of $10, $25, $50 (and up) to many restaurants.  For example, you can get a $25 certificate for $10.  After the initial purchase, that equals a $15 savings.  Go here to see what restaurants are available near you, and enjoy the savings.  Just enter your zip code (or any zip code where you will be dining) in the "Find a Restaurant and Save" box.

Now here's where it gets even better.  These certificates go on sale every so often for up to 80% off.  That makes a $25 certificate only $2  Wow!  I got a $10 one for La Botana for just 80 cents.  We used it Monday and got $10 off our $21 total.  We had two entrees and one beer on the bill.  The meal was delicious, by the way. 

Just to be clear, there are restrictions such as a minimum purchase amount, and some restaurants do not include alcohol in the required purchase amount, so read carefully before you select your certificate.  They e-mail you the certificates and you print them out, so you don't have to wait for snail mail.  They make great gifts, too.