A Few Short Stories

I've got a few (hopefully quick) and random stories for you today. Here we go...

My neighbor Jeff is out of town for the week. He went to Virginia to visit his mother as I'm pretty sure her birthday is around this time of year. On Saturday, as is often the case when he goes out of town, he asked me if I would mind picking up his newspapers and putting them in the chair on his front porch. I said it would not be a problem at all. Jeff headed east on Monday morning and presumably took his newspaper with him as it was not in his yard. On Tuesday morning, as I was gathering my things to walk out the door for work, I remembered I needed to pick up his paper before leaving. When I opened the door, one of Jeff's friends was at his house watering his plants and she had picked up his newspaper. The fact that he asks me to pick up his newspaper and another friend to water his flowers and garden always gives me a chuckle - either he doesn't trust me with his vegetation or his other friend really loves to come over and take care of the vegetation, or maybe he knows I hate the heat and wouldn't want to spend a lot of time in the heat watering flowers and such. Whatever the reason, it baffles me because really it would be no problem for me at all to water the flowers and garden and it would probably be no problem for his other friend to pick up the newspaper if she is already going to be there. Maybe he just wants us to both feel loved and appreciated. Another thing that made me laugh about the friend watering Jeff's flowers on Tuesday morning was that it rained pretty much all throughout late Monday night/early Tuesday morning - so what was the point in her watering when God had just taken care of that? Something to think about...

Speaking of the newspaper, I recently cut my subscription back from a Saturday/Sunday delivery to a Sunday only. I never read the Saturday paper unless it was during football season, and now that there won't even be a Saturday paper during football season, I figured, what was the point? It was a waste and it immediately went into the recycle bin. On Monday, a representative of the newspaper called to say they would be providing me with the Wednesday and Friday editions for the next six months at no additional cost. As you may recall from my recent post, the newspaper is only going to be producing a paper on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday beginning in October. So, my assumption is they are trying to get everyone on board with this new three-day schedule and then in six months they will jack up the prices. Remind me six months from now to closely watch my monthly bank draft from the Huntsville Times

Monday afternoon, I was putting some things in car in preparation to leave for Ladies' Night Out. I was apparently in my own little world, arranging things just so when all of a sudden a man rode by on a bicycle and said, "That's a pretty house." My first reaction was a scream, not a blood-curling one, but still a scream. Clearly I wasn't expecting to be spoken to and the man startled me. I said, "Thank you!" and he said, "I didn't mean to scare you, I just wasn't sure if I had the breath to speak." I laughed and said, "no problem, I understand!" All of this took place as the panting man continued to ride down the street. It was a pretty funny moment if I do say so myself and it's always nice to get a compliment on your home.

Friday when Jackie came over to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, I modeled my new cycling jersey for her. Needless to say, it gave her a great laugh!

Back tomorrow with a few more of these random snapshots from my life.

The Past Few Days

Yes, I know, no post on Sunday night/Monday. I just was not in a writing mood on Sunday night and am actually still not in much of a writing mood; but, my public awaits or something like that. I just do not have much going on right now and sometimes it's hard to make boring interesting. Where to begin?

Last Thursday I had an appointment at the Downtown Y to get set up on their FitLinxx System. It takes about an hour and basically one of the staff sets you up on all the weight equipment. Then when you go to work out, you sign in and at each station, the system tells you where to place the settings for the seats and backs and how much weight you are supposed to use as well as how many reps and sets. It's a pretty interesting system and tracks your progress and how much weight you lift, etc. I'm pretty excited to start using, although it will be a few days yet as almost every night this week I have something on the calendar.
After the trip to the gym, I came home to mow the lawn. I started about 6:15 with the weed eating and finally finished up a little before 8:00. It was hot and really humid; I'm sure I could have wrung the sweat out of my shirt. Waiting until later in the evening was a good move though because I didn't think I was going to kill over like I did the week before.

Friday night I had planned to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and do some laundry and cleaning; however, in a twist of plans, Jackie decided to stop by (not uninvited although she never said for sure yes so I thought she wasn't coming - ha!) and so all the cleaning and laundering came to a screeching halt while we chatted about everything under the sun and watched the ceremonies together.

Saturday I went to a baby shower for my sweet friend Shelley and munched on some awesome sausage rolls (I couldn't get enough!) and delicious cake. There was also fruit tea and you can never go wrong with fruit tea. The shower was out towards Hampton Cove so I made a stop by Mr. Donut before my weekly trip to Publix. I haven't been to Mr. Donut in a long while and I was kind of disappointed with the donuts I got that morning. They didn't taste as fresh as they normally do. I need to consult my parents on this as they stop by much more frequently than I do. Saturday afternoon I napped and then watched more Olympics and cleaned and did laundry. For the first time in many weekends I got all of the cleaning done before Sunday. I contribute this to boring television and the fact that I already knew the results of the swimming thanks to NBC blabbing about it earlier in the day.

Sunday, as is always the case, was a trip to church and the continuation of the quest for a class. I was sans Jackie on this particular Sunday so I went with my cousin Anna again. I know I keep saying I will one day blog about this in detail and I swear I will. I guess I want it to have a happy ending before I start writing that story. I had lunch with my cousins Chris, Amy and Bennett who is now about 10 feet tall and while dining we ended up sitting next to a former flame/friend - awkward. Isn't it ridiculous how you can be so close with someone for 12 years or more and then act like complete strangers and not even speak to one another. Life is so bizarre. Sunday night we had the fifth Sunday singing at Chase Park and it was filled with some sappy songs. I cooked some spaghetti for dinner that night and generally enjoyed an evening with The Tide who seems to not be feeling so well these days. I'm not sure if it's the heat, the old age or the supposed fronts of rain coming through. Perhaps she is just depressed, although I don't know what about because that dog has it made.

That was my weekend in a nutshell.

I don't know about you, but on Mondays, I wear the same outfit to work that I wore to church the previous day - provided I don't spill my lunch all over myself anyway. I guess I must have taken my cardigan off such that it was wrong side out on Sunday because I wore it in to work wrong side out this morning. Oh yes I did. The guy who sits behind me finally noticed it and brought it to my attention. Needless to say, it gave me a good laugh. Hopefully it brought you a good laugh as well.

A Conundrum of Sorts

As I'm sure you all know (and are probably sick of hearing) I am a fan of cycling. My favorite team is Garmin-Sharp, an American based team with an exceptionally cool team manager. I, of course, follow them on Twitter and also follow the merchandise store on Twitter because the store is always having contests and sales and I'm not one to shy away from a contest or a sale for that matter.

This past weekend, they announced via their Twitter feed that all orders placed before 11:00 p.m. on Sunday would receive a surprise gift. Well, if that's not an incentive to buy something, I don't know what is. So, I bought a t-shirt that was on sale for $16.99 and sat on pins and needles for the next five days while I awaited my package to come in the mail. I figured it would probably arrive in the post on Wednesday and I was correct! On Tuesday they had announced all the great things they sent out as surprise gifts, including Garmins, water bottles, t-shirts, etc. On the way home Wednesday, I started thinking about what I my number one choice of a surprise would be (autographed jersey) and then decided, well, a jersey in general would be exceptionally cool and then said to myself, I do love their water bottles and would be happy with one of those as well. There were so many choices to think about on the way home!

When I arrived and saw and felt of my package, I knew there wasn't a water bottle inside. I knew it was clothing of some sort. After letting The Tide out, I tore into my package to discover my surprise was a cycling jersey! Oh yeah! Not only do they retail for $99, but they are also exceptionally cool and I don't have any and how awesome would I look riding around the streets of Huntsville in my very own Garmin jersey. I would be the envy of everyone! After taking a couple of photos and tweeting about it and sending an email to the now jealous Tony, I took a closer look and realized they had sent me a women's jersey. Now, to most gals, the women's cut would be preferable; but, most women don't have as large of a bosom as I do. I'm just being honest here people!

I don't know if you other gals have problems with the women's cut shirts, but I have always had a problem with them because they are way too tight in the chest. So, when I saw that the jersey was, albeit in my size, a women's cut, my heart fell. I went ahead and tried it on and enjoyed a good laugh in the process. Now, cycling kits are supposed to be tight, but I don't think they were meant to be as tight as my jersey was on me. If they had sent me the men's jersey, it would have been tight, but I think it probably would have worked okay because it wouldn't have been cut so tight in the chest. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Every time I have tried on any women's cut t-shirt, etc, it doesn't fit through the chest and therefore I have to stick with the unisex or men's t-shirt - not as flattering, but at least my bosom is the poking out for all the world to notice.

So, while I am super pumped to receive an awesome surprise gift, I am also sad that I will more than likely never wear it. I will keep it though and the next time I am able to go to a race, I hope to get some autographs on it and then it will be a treasured keepsake. Here are some photos of my very first cycling jersey:

 Fresh out of the package - Jersey on the Left, T-Shirt on the Right

 Front of Jersey

 Back of Jersey

Book Review: Faith and Other Flat Tires

I have another Thomas Nelson Publishers book review for you today and I think this is one of my favorites to date of all the Nelson books I have reviewed. The title of the book is Faith and Other Flat Tires and it was written by Andrea Palpant Dilley. As soon as I received the email from Nelson with the name and description of the book, I responded with a big, "Yes, please include me!" Sadly, in my excitement to read about the subject, I apparently neglected to request a giveaway copy which is unfortunate because I would love for someone to win this one.

The subtitle or catch phrase or what have you of the book is "Searching for God on the rough road of doubt" and I don't know about you, but there have been many times in life when I've had doubt in my life about God and my Christianity. I think this is part of the search for finding truth and I was so glad to see that someone had put down into words their journey and as it turns out, it was a journey that I could relate to with almost every turn of the page.

Mrs. Dilley's story is her own, a memoir of her youth as the child of a missionary, her teen and college years as she struggled internally with her faith and grew increasingly frustrated with a lack of answers, her 20s when she eventually left church and then her late 20s when she returned. She basically takes readers along on her journey to discover what being a Christian is and finding out what faith means to her.

I don't know Mrs. Dilley's age, but if I had to guess she is probably about the same age as me which I have no doubt is part of why I found her personal journey so relateable. No doubt many of the ways she rebelled and acted out were the exact ways I rebelled and acted out at the same age, and while I may not have verbally asked the questions she was asking (nor did I have a menage a trois  like she did, just wanted to clear that up for those of you who may read the book), I was in fact asking many of the same questions in my heart and at times wondering what was the point of all of this. I think this is just part of passage into adulthood. No one ever tells you about the transition from dependent to independent and when you add to that questions about God and faith and Christianity, well, sometimes it can feel like your whole world has been turned upside down. I feel like every Christian has at some point in their life questioned God, the existence of God, why do bad things happen to good people, etc. It's just part of coming to terms with the fact that we believe in a God that we can neither touch or see.

I really enjoyed the book from start to finish. Although Mrs. Dilley is of a different faith than me, I was still able to follow her story as if it were my own. She never gets finite answers to her questions about faith and God, but she comes to an understanding that she can live with and I think that's something we are probably all searching for - an understanding. I did find the end of the book to be a little disappointing. I guess I expected it to end where her life is now, saying something like, after I went through all of this doubt in my youth, this is where I am now. It was more of an open end for me which I didn't care for because it left me wondering, well, 10 years later, what are your thoughts? At times I felt like the stories were kind of thrown in without much purpose and that felt odd as well.

Overall it was a good book and I'm not sure my little review here does it justice. I suppose the thing I liked most about the book was that someone put on paper the doubts and fears that a lot of us have but may feel is taboo to talk about. If you are looking for a book about struggling with faith, this one would be a good choice. The folks at Nelson sent me a sample chapter to share with you all, but once again I cannot figure out how to link a PDF file. I'm thinking it's not possible. If you know how, give me a holler! Faith and Other Flat Tires is available in paperback or on Kindle from Amazon (you can also read a sample chapter here), in paperback or on Nook from Barnes and Noble and other fine retailers.

Movie Experience and Review: The Dark Knight Rises

As mentioned in yesterday's post, this past Saturday I met up with my cousin Jan and saw The Dark Knight Rises, and y'all, it was so good!  Jan and I planned to go to the 6:30 showing. Since the movie was two hours and 44 minutes long, I decided an earlier start time would be good. I had dinner at my parents' house before the movie but of course saved room for popcorn.

I arrived later than I would like as I didn't know how long it would take from my parents' house. I bought my ticket and immediately went to the concession stand. There was a kid in line in front of me who looked to be all of 12 or 13; presumably his parents had dropped him off to watch a movie and can I just say that this sort of thing didn't happen when I was a wee lass back in the dark ages. So, the kid ordered a popcorn and big soda and his total came to $11.50. Clearly he didn't add up the costs in his head before ordering because he apparently only had $11 and gave it to the guy behind the counter. The guy asked him for the other 50 cents and the kids started searching his pockets and obviously had no more money. I told him to go on I would take care of the 50 cents and the kid just grabbed his goodies and took off - WITHOUT SAYING THANK YOU! Maybe he does this every time he goes to the movies. I mean, I was in a good mood that day so it didn't really get under my skin, but still, a thank you would have been nice! The cashier said thank you. I guess that will suffice.

I then made a pit stop where I had to dodge running and screaming children and a screaming mother and had to air dry my hands because there were no paper towels. After that detour, I went to the theater and looked for Jan who was already inside with a seat. I must have looked up into the audience for a good five minutes before I finally saw her - on the second row! I think it goes without saying that I was thrilled to finally settle into a seat.

The movie started a few minutes later and the theater was not nearly as crowded as I expected it to be. I guess the shooting in Colorado deterred some folks from visiting the theater. The previews started and they all looked good! I love previews and these made me want to spend every spare dime at the movies so I guess the mission of said previews was accomplished. 

The movie, as mentioned, was quite lengthy, but did not seem like it at all. I was sucked into this movie from the moment it came on the screen and the time passed by so quickly it seemed like it was only five minutes long. I have really enjoyed each of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies and this one was no exception and in fact, I think was my favorite of the three.

I'll sum up the plot by saying that a villain comes to Gotham and overtakes the city. I think that much was certain. Bruce Wayne, who has retired as Batman, obviously comes out of retirement. I think that much you already knew as well.  Batman is aided by Catwoman, played by the always wonderful Anne Hathaway. She was fantastic in the role and I thought she and Christian Bale had great on screen chemistry - it was like watching a well rehearsed dance. The superb Michael Caine is back as Alfred, the enchanting Morgan Freeman returns as Lucius Fox and the always intriguing Gary Oldman once again portrays Commissioner Gordon. (I'm using my adjectives today). Joseph Gordon Levitt makes an appearance in this film as the character John Blake who met Batman as a child. He, as always, does a remarkable job portraying his character.

The movie is jam-packed with excitement from the very beginning and I gasped at least twice that I can remember. There were a few times when I have no doubt I held my breath and probably another time or two when I wondered how in the world order would be restored in Gotham. There is more than one twist in this film and I will leave those to you viewing pleasure so that you will be just as pleasantly and shockingly surprised as I was.

This was the last of the Christopher Nolan directed Batman movies, completing the trilogy that has far surpassed all other Batman portrayals, in my humble opinion. The ending to this movie was absolute perfection! Absolute perfection, people! I really don't think it could have been done any better. I shed a tear, smiled and maybe shed another tear - it was just perfect. There's really no other way to describe it.

If you are looking for a movie to see to get out of the heat or get away from your life for a few hours, then do go see this one. It doesn't get much better than this in my opinion.

Every Day Is A Big People Convention

I shall begin today's post by answering a couple of questions regarding yesterday's Cooking in the Car post. I have no idea what people think when they walk past the car. I sure wish I did though. It would be great to have a camera set up and watch people's expressions as they walked by. I can only imagine the look on the faces of people and Lord only knows what is going through their heads. I would guess that in the mornings most people probably don't pay attention because they are more than likely not fully awake. I would guess when people leave for lunch or leave for the day is when the dash gets the most curious looks. Who knows? It would be fun to watch though. To answer a second question, no, I did not give the bacon to The Tide. She prefers her bacon crispy just like me! If anyone else has questions about the bacon, let me know. I realize it wasn't the most detailed Cooking in the Car post and I want to make sure everyone gets all the information they need here on The Chronicles of Nat.

Now that the questions have been answered we will move on to our regularly scheduled blog posting.

It was another busy weekend for me. I guess you can say it got kicked off on Thursday night when I took the time to mow the lawn and thought I was going to kill over from heat exhaustion in the process. Although we haven't had a 100 degree day in a while, the humidity was so unbearable it was hard to breathe and I probably could have collected five gallons of sweat from my clothing. It took a good long while to get the grass cut since it had not been trimmed in over a month and with all the rain we have received recently the growing has been a wee bit out of control. I was glad that I got it done though as it started raining again on Friday and on and off on Saturday and Sunday. Sadly, it already looks like it needs to be cut again which means I'll be right back at it later on this week. When we were in high school, my friend Willie had a shirt that said "I Fought The Lawn and the Lawn Won" and that is exactly how I felt this past Thursday.

So, this time last year I was in France. I'm sure I've mentioned that like 10 times but for whatever reason it is just so surreal to me to think that I was in France on this day last year. I can't let it go. I need help. Moving on...

Friday night I went to a singing at Lincoln Church of Christ. Thankfully my friends Janet and Deborah were there or I would have had to sit all by my lonesome. The singing lasted a couple of hours and afterwards there was a plethora of sandwiches and cookies to munch on. I was a wee bit hungry so I fixed myself a plate with a few things on it and took it to go since Janet and Deborah weren't staying.

On Saturday I watched the tour, did some cleaning and lots of laundry and watched Batman Begins in anticipation of going to see The Dark Knight Rises later that evening. My dad fried some fish for dinner that night and then I met my cousin Jan for the movie (review coming later). Thankfully I brought an extra shirt with me to my parents' house so I wouldn't smell of grease at the movie theater. I'm not even kidding when I say that on Monday I still think there is a hint of grease smell in my hair - but I have an unusually strong sniffer thanks to my grandmother's genes.

Sunday I got up early and watched a wee bit of the last stage of the tour before heading off to church. Before leaving, I realized that someone had stolen my Loretta Spencer sign out of my yard! Don't worry though, I had a back-up and I'm advertising for Loretta once again. At church, Jackie and I struck out once again on finding a class to our liking (more on this in a later post). It's tough out there, people. After church that morning, I finally made it for my weekly grocery store trip to Publix which took all of 30 minutes because I was hungry and didn't want to linger and end up buying a lot of useless stuff. I then ventured over to Zoe's Kitchen to get some lunch and let me tell you, it was a madhouse in there. I would advise that you do not go there on a Sunday afternoon. I finally received my to-go order and headed home where I ate and then mixed up some dinner for me, Erika and Kendra.

The girls came over Sunday night and it was great catching up with those two as I had not seen them in quite a while. Kendra told us about going to the Little People Convention which was in Dallas this year. I made comment that there needed to be a Big People Convention to which Kendra replied, "Every Day is a Big People Convention" -Touché, Kendra, touché! I made a new chicken recipe which turned out quite good. Click here for the link if you want to check it out. The recipe calls for a crock pot, but I cooked it on 250 in the oven for six hours and it worked quite well. The girls left a little after 9:00 and I watched a little TV before climbing into the bed to close out the weekend; and that sums things up for me. Hopefully you had a nice one as well.

Cooking in the Car: Bacon

I've got another Cooking in the Car post for you today. This is the last one for a while since this is the last one I tried when we had that stretch of 100 plus degree days. This one I was pretty excited about but it didn't turn out as I expected and I think I might want to try it again some time.

I tried cooking bacon in the car on Monday, July 2. I had a doctor's appointment that morning and so I didn't get to work until about 9:15. I placed the bacon in a small baking dish and placed it on the dash before heading in to the building.

I got off work around 4:00 that day and while it reached over 100 degrees during the day, it was also overcast on and off throughout the day so I'm not sure the bacon got the full Cooking in the Car effect and I would like to try it again maybe with a drip pan. I will say the car smelled like bacon and you can't go wrong as far as that is concerned.

There was A LOT of grease in the bottom of the pan and the edges of the bacon had cooked, but it had by no means cooked all the way through. Perhaps on anther hot and sunny day, the bacon might cooke a little better.

So, if you want bacon, it's probably best to just go ahead and cook it on the stove, or the oven, or whatever your normal method of cooking is.