Saturday Survey - Coming Home

After a long day at work, do you change clothing?

Me?  YES.  If I don't have any other plans for the evening I nearly rip my bra off like a man wiggling out of a tie.  Then it's only feasible to change into my tshirt and shorts (PJ's).  It's almost torture if I have to wait a few more hours because I'll be out in public.

Saturday Survey

How do you prepare for the holidays?  I guess maybe I should first ask what holidays you celebrate in December? 

What puts you in the festive mood?  What traditions does your family practice?  And what preparations do you need to accomplish before the big day?


For me:
1.  Christmas
2.  The music, the piney smells of Christmas Trees, wrapping gifts
3.  We're more of the commercial variety with tree, shop til you drop and gifts on Christmas morning sort of people.  We don't go to church, but I will say that the Sunday services the week before Christmas is by far my most favorite to attend simply because of the music.
4. I need to put up my tree (artificial), send out Christmas cards, figure out my gift lists for everyone and go shopping.  I don't typically make cookies for Christmas, but I kind of have an itch this year... we'll see.  So far, as you read in yesterday's post, not a single thing has been done.


This morning I received my PartyLite shipment of candles.  Among them Winter Spruce.    I'm burning them right now and that piney scent is starting to stir something in me.  Tomorrow I have to venture into a store, maybe that will help too?

Saturday Survey - Card Games

When was the last time you played cards?  Do you have a game you prefer playing?


My husband came from a family that played a lot of cards.  I mean A LOT.  Nothing but a bunch of card sharks!  Their most frequent game is 500, a form of rummy.  We play it quite a bit and over time I've improved enough to win more than a few hands.

Most importantly it was quick to learn - deal 7 to each player and one for the discard pile.  At the start of your turn you can pull 1 card from the pull pile, or as much as you need from the discards.  If you need the fifth card down you have to take all of the cards on top of it, but you absolutely have to play the bottom card of what you pull (ideally more if possible) and keep the rest for your hand (except one discard).

A play is if you have 3 of a kind or a run of 3 (or more) in the same suit - lay those down during your turn, don't wait until the end.  You can also play off sets from other players.  No restrictions on how many you lay down and it can be without having any of your own cards out on the table, but you keep your played cards in front of you so you can count your points at the end.

Aces can be played high or low (AKQ, or A23) but it cannot be both (KA2)

Make sure you have a discard.  Be careful because if you discard something that can be played, someone can call rummy and steal that card for their own use - don't throw away points!

The goal is to be the first to empty your hand WITH a discard.  If you have an empty hand without a discard, play continues around the table.  If your next draw is another playable card, play continues.


Points:  Ace = 15 (no matter how it's played)
             10, J, Q, K = 10
             2-9 = 5

Add them up an the first person to reach 500 wins.

Saturday Survey - Going Gray

Okay, let's talk gray hair. I'm done fighting it. I've heard all of the arguments about how it ages women 10-20 years. I'm ready, I don't care. I'm more fed up with trying to fight it. My grandmother went silver by her 40th birthday and yes, it aged her but she never seemed to mind.

So how do I do it? Stop coloring cold turkey? Color just part of my hair and gradually get there?

Who here has gone gray? How did you do it? Or do you know anyone who has gone through this skunk stage and survived? (I found online that this is called skunking when we decide to let it grow out - but no real advice)

My hair is naturally a million shades of brown with red and blonde mixed in. At some point in the last ten years my roots have become nearly black with tons of gray. Had I not used our friend Miss Clairol I would be truly salt and pepper right now. I have huge swaths of gray over and behind my ears where the black hair barely shows. I almost wonder if I should match the dark brown/black in my next coloring session and then let the gray take over from there.

Fed up, confused, tired, and ready to look like a grandma...

Saturday Survey - Bobblehead

Do you have a bobblehead in your car?

Do you own a bobblehead, but don't display it in your car?

When was the last time you saw a bobblehead?


I do not, nor never have owned a bobblehead. As part of a different conversation I just looked up where to buy a Jesus bobblehead, unfortunately the head doesn't bobble.  It's more of a Jesus-on-a-spring deal.

I have fond memories of my grandpa's Shriner bobblehead.  He sat in the back window of their car, greeting the people driving behind him.

Saturday Survey - Drinking

What sort of adult beverages do you most enjoy?  Are you a beer drinker?  Wine?  Mixed drinks?  Shots?  Avoid the stuff all together?

I'm a mixed drink, umbrella, girly, sweet drinks type of person.  The other night though, a beer was what I craved.  It doesn't happen often, not enough to keep beer on hand and I certainly don't enjoy the after affects of getting drunk on the stuff.  I keep a bottle of wine around the house but it lasts for a mighty long time.  I'm good with one possibly two glasses of wine otherwise you might as well pull out the camera because I cannot handle that at all.  Hard liquor is easier for me to handle, but I do not like it straight.  Cover that stuff up with juice and fruit cocktail on a miniature plastic saber.  If my plan is to get drunk, hard liquor is my poison of choice.

Lately, however, I've been the no-alcohol designated driver.  Not for any particular reason, it's just easier with fewer affects on my system, not to mention cheaper.

Saturday Survey - Toes

Quick question for today...

What color are your toenails right now?

Mine are hot pink.  Freshly painted this morning.

Saturday Survey - BBQ

Okay, it's summer and time to display our regional differences...

When you toss a slab of meat on the grill, what do you call it?  Grilling?  Or BBQ?

When you have genuine slow cooked barbeque, do you use a rub or a sauce? 

If you use a sauce, dare you grab something off the store shelf or do you whip up your own concoction?

And does that sauce have a spicy kick, heavy vinegar overtones, or is it sweet?


St. Louisans call the act of grilling "barbequing" and for as much as everyone spends time tossing stuff on the grill, there are not a lot of BBQ restaurants in the area.  Most don't do rubs, but I don't think anyone would turn it down if someone did it for them.  We lean towards the sweeter KC and Memphis sauces.  Most everyone I know uses stuff off the shelf.

Saturday Survey - Mac Or PC

Okay folks, what way to do you swing?  Are you PC and Windows at home or have you let Apple infiltrate your lives?  And what about at work?

Me?  I'm a Mac Girl all the way, both at home and at work.  I've even landed an iPhone, although that will soon change but certainly not because I don't like the cool little device.

I was introduced to Mac's back in the mid 90's at my newspaper job.  It was cute but not effective for the projects I was working on.  My next job at the school district was exclusively Mac and I have stayed on that track.  I remember OS7 and 8 and 9 and then X.  I can reformat the drives with my eyes closed and coach someone to set up a sever over the phone.  It wasn't too hard to sway my Windows loving husband to come to the Mac-side and we now have a beautiful iMac as our home computer.

From a function standpoint, I think either platform is fine.  I love to razz my Windows friends, but hey if it's working for them then go for it.  Mac happens to be my comfort zone.

So, how about you?

Saturday Survey - Milk Shakes

Treated my son to milk shakes after yard work this morning.  We went someplace special that I'll highlight in tomorrow's post.  Hubby got strawberry, I got chocolate and Ian got vanilla.  Another local place, Steak N Shake, offers side by side flavors and my fav there is banana and chocolate.

By the way (and this totally is not a paid endorsement) Jack In The Box has some pretty kickass shakes.  Many people have never tried their shakes, so if you have a store near you, check it out.  Totally worth the trip.

So do you have a favorite milk shake flavor?  Do you make milk shakes at home?  What is your specialty there?  (We make a lot of banana milk shakes at home)

And finally, do you have a local spot that offers fabulous milk shakes?

Saturday Survey - Auctions

It feels like FOREVER since I posted... oh, wait, it has been!

Hell week comes to an end tomorrow night.  Of course there will be Monday Madness to tally the money raised and Tuesday is our staff meeting - no rest for the weary or something like that.  On top of it all I'm sick as a dog!  I'm suffering old man sneezes - ones where you fart with each sneeze.  What the hell is up with that?  Oh, sorry, TMI.

So tomorrow is the annual dinner auction raising a cool $100,000 for the foundation where I work.  It's our biggest fundraiser so it's a pretty big deal and the reason that the last two weeks have been devoted to nothing but auction.

My question today is when was the last time you attended an auction? 

I won't count the work auctions since I'm working not bidding (although I do have my eye on a particular item in the silent auction).  That means the last auction I attended was back in the early 90's!  It was a Saturday in a very small town in northern Missouri - a country auction.  My friend Booty came out with an antique luggage stand and I landed a box of fabric and quilt squares.

It was hard to contain myself as I got caught up in the bidding frenzy so I have avoided auctions since then.  I realize there are rules as for setting a dollar amount and not going over that which is all fine and dandy for the strong, I am no such person.

Saturday Survey - Garden Planning

Who here gardens?  When I bought my first house I found I really enjoyed maintaining a flower garden.  Each year that little patch under the front window got bigger, finally extending the width of the house, around the corner and into the yard around the lilac bush.

I am kind of itching to get another flower garden going at my current house, but there are lots of problems here.  A couple of years ago we tried tomatoes in large planters but we started too late so this year we're going to start much earlier.  Tomorrow we'll get our seedlings and hopefully they will thrive in my sunroom until I can take them outside - about three more weeks.  It's hard to believe with a day like today in the 90's that we could still have a hard freeze yet that's happened plenty of times.

I will also put marigold seeds and a few other flowers in the pots with the tomatoes.  I just can't go without some pretty blooms!

So what are your garden plans this year?

Saturday Survey - Game Night

What do you think about board games and cards?  Which are your favorites?

At home we play cards, a game called 500 that is a version of rummy.  The Husband is a pro and usually wins.  When we're with friends we've played a variety of games, but the one we keep coming back to is Mexican Train, a variation of dominoes.

Saturday Survey - Earthquakes

I was born in Los Angeles so my family has many earthquake stories.  There was  big one in the early 1970's that dumped the entire contents of the kitchen in my grandparents house onto the floor.  After that all cabinet doors were secured with rubberbands and the good china was tucked away in padded bags.  The 1994 Northridge quake shook the same house, but not nearly as much was lost.

One of my early memories was an earthquake that jolted me awake in the middle of the night.  My mom reports we lost one fish out of the aquarium.  The aquarium wasn't damaged, just the contents sloshed out.  I remember sitting on a rocking chair the next morning, watching cartoons and the chair seriously started rocking on its own - aftershock.

There was a 3 point something earthquake that rattled St. Louis a couple of years ago in the middle of the night.  It took a minute to register what was going on.  I was woke up by my birds squawking - they never make noise during the night unless someone falls off a perch (it happens more than you would expect).  There was a rumble I could feel from my bed in the basement and then the house started to shake. 

Several houses in my neighborhood suffered some damage to exterior cement stairs - they detached from the houses.  On my house the gutter downspout detached from the wall and the kitchen counter dropped a quarter inch.  Nothing major, all quite fixable and I haven't resorted to my grandmother's penchant to securing cabinets with rubberbands.

So, tell us about your earthquake experiences.  Have you ever been in one?  Any major damage?

Saturday Survey - Moving

Have you ever lost anything when you moved?  I have a friend who lost her wedding dress.  She laughs wondering what happened to it since the movers did manage to wrap her trashcan WITH TRASH INSIDE and safely transport it in the same move.

Personally my major loss occurred when I moved the last time.  I was at the sending end of the move and my mom and friends were at the new house receiving the stuff.  Being the helpful souls they are, they unpacked most of the kitchen before I ever arrived.  A few days later I couldn't find most of my pots and pans.  I had a few skillets and definitely everything I needed for day-to-day cooking, but I didn't have any sauce pots or the big deep one I used for everything to boiling water for spaghetti to mixing up rice crispy treats.  I dug through boxes in every corner of the house on my mission.  They were NO WHERE.  I called my friends hoping they would remember, but no everything they touched was in the cabinets. 

hmmmmm...

After a few phone calls I was granted permission to enter the old house whereupon I found my cookbooks!  OMG, I hadn't even realized I was missing those and unfortunately not all of them survived as the helpful cleaning crew threw away some of them (bastards).  It verified to me that I must have left behind more in the kitchen than I realized and somebody else must now possess my favorite cooking utensils.

I was truly sad over the loss.  I sucked it up and started scrolling through the internet for replacements - woo buddy, that was eye opening.  No wonder these pieces were my favorite, they were freaking expensive!  (okay, not SUPER expensive, but much more than I was willing to pay) I was resigned to building a savings account devoted to new pots.

One day, MANY WEEKS later, I was standing in my kitchen and it struck me that I never use the broiler.  In fact, since it's an electric oven the broiler is IN the oven.  What I think of as the broiler is actually a drawer.

Guess what was in that drawer?


So really I didn't lose anything, but I sure thought I did.

Okay, what have you lost?

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Saturday Survey - Road Trip

What is the most memorable road trip you ever went on?

Six years ago I took my 3 children on a 5,000 mile trip from St. Louis to Oregon, down the length of California, to the Grand Canyon and back home.  I drove every single inch by myself.

Saturday Survey - Peanut Butter

So I posed a question on Thursday and then I thought, this would be fun to make into a weekly event.  So I'll pose the question again, but I promise next Saturday to ask something new!

How do you like your peanut butter?  Or do you like peanut butter at all?

Are you a chunky or creamy person?  What is your favorite peanut butter infused candy?  Do you eat it with fruit?

I love peanut butter, preferably Jif chunky.  I am, however, a peanut butter purist and do not like it in my candy or cookies.  Yet, you will find me slathering it on pancakes and waffles (with syrup - OMG, TRY mixing it with syrup.  So divine).  In a fit of "can't find anything to eat" I will always resort to peanut butter and toast.

So, how do you like peanut butter?