Something About Nothing............ #14

[schumigirl]

I baked twice a week when my boys lived with us.
With them gone and have their own homes, the Mr and I will occasionally buy a dessert at Publix.

Other than that, we cut back buying foods that won’t be eaten within a few days.

We`ve had a few nice desserts from Publix when in the States, their Dutch Apple Pie was beautiful and a couple of others we`ve tried have always been lovely.

But, yep, nothing beats home made!





Late dinner tonight, and not long finished our pie with whipped cream, didn`t make custard in the end, but cream is hard to beat too.

Will pack up in the morning, for tonight, lazy night in front of the tv. Gifts have been wrapped and the fizzy we`re taking up has been put in wine boxes ready to lift into the car in the morning.

Think it`ll be an early night again for us, but cuppa time!

 

[macraven]

Weather right now where I am, is calm and sunny.
Supposedly Saturday we could be hit with heavy rain.

(We get weather alerts all the time and most times it’s all hype.)


Have a few things in the freezer that will carry us through it.

Of course if power would go out, electric oven would be useless…

All our utilities are electric in our area.

 

[keishashadow]

Spent hours outdoors today, topped out @ 83 degrees. If not a record high, it’s very close. Really enjoyed soaking up the sun and enjoying afternoon at DS house…while he worked from home. I went out & grabbed ice cream from Dairy Queen that ruined everybody’s dinner. Some days are designed for ice cream for dinner!

do have a picture from up here of the fog coming in one day, where we were was sunny and bright, but this huge bank was working it`s way inland!

Would love to see that one

Have a great celebratory weekend!

Ask away. I'll do what I can.

Thanks. Poked around for hours last night and it does seem that the area between Flagler Beach and south of Jacksonville aren’t really tourist meccas. Well, lovely in their own right but, mostly B&B or VRBO sort of condos. Not what we tend to book, need a pool and the basic amenities to keep a kid occupied. Probably will just hang at the old skool place we discovered in Ormond Beach last year.

Currently at Hoop Dee Doo. This is how close we are.

I’m told they assign seats there based upon time people book their reservations. We have been fortunate to generally have gotten seated in the front row, to the left of the piano. Cool spot indeed. Now, I’m hungry for their chicken.

Well, we slept like rocks last night

Haha good for you. Never did it occur to me a decade ago that a good night’s sleep would be at the top of my wish list each day.

But, Pi day.....so apple pie will be the order of the afternoon to be baked,

Thanks to my HS Physics teacher…



I cheated and bought Dutch apple pie at the grocery store today, cost was…

$3.14, naturally

Sugar’d out from the ice cream, think I’ll have a warm slice for breakfast tomorrow.

Other than that, we cut back buying foods that won’t be eaten within a few days.

Not sure what it says about us but, we are perfectly capable of eating a baked good product within a couple of days lol.

When i bake cookies, usually wind up freezing half the batch and pulling them back out within a month. Nice to have stockpiled in freezer.

Rain, rain go away for you. Unfortunately, looks like most of the country will be getting various degrees of storms this weekend

Of course if power would go out, electric oven would be useless…

We fire up the gas grill all year long, often use it during power outages. Feels a bit like camping when the electric goes out for longer periods.

Reminds me to remind (nag) the mr to get around to figuring out how to set up the Generator I gifted him when he retired more than a few years ago.

 

[keishashadow]

Happy Saturday all. A few TS this am, had me on my treadmill. Haven’t used in ages. Couldn’t figure out why I was struggling so soon. ‘Somebody’ set the incline all the way up.

The youngin’s here might not get this one

 

[macraven]

Totally remember those desks from my school days…..

Especially the ones that were wood and not medal.
But then, I am a few years older than Keisha.

 

[macraven]

Our weather alert has passed and now my cats are sleeping on our enclosed screened porch deck.

What a great life our cats have.

When I die, let me return as a cat in a home that has unlimited cat food.

just saying….

 

[disneyseniors]

Salsa was fun, we did the Tango and Rumba as well as a few others tonight, by goodness my hips are groaning again! But, can`t wait till next week.

THAT sounds like fun. I would love to do the Tango and Rumba, but that's not on my list of things to do right now,

, tomorrow looks much better and the weekend itself looks decent which will be nice for travelling up to Scotland.

Yes, your Mother's birthday is this weekend, Have a wonderful time

Hair all fresh and new again, didn`t get a lot off this time

That sounds very nice. It's so comforting to get your hair done and be pampered.

Oh so much here too! My GD & DiL sneaking down next weekend for a last minute 3 night spring break trip to say goodbye.

Janet, I don't know where this quote came from???? I must have highlighted the wrong one.
I'm glad you finally got a date for your surgery next Friday. I hate waiting around for those type things.

It does look a bit better today weather wise, still cold but not as bad, might get a few drizzles this afternoon, but we`ll get everything done this morning.

Sounds nicer than what we are getting.

Supposedly Saturday we could be hit with heavy rain.

Well, we are getting blizzard weather right now! The snow is blowing sideways from the North, and it is heavy. They are predicting 8 to 12 inches today....... We finally had grass showing through the snow and warmer weather. Now we get this!!! Robin says she might stay in Florida, LOL. She is due to fly back tomorrow, Sunday.

(We get weather alerts all the time and most times it’s all hype.)

I know what you mean, Mac. When we lived in Tn., we had so many bad weather alerts and we did tend to ignore them after a while. Not too smart, I know.

Spent hours outdoors today, topped out @ 83 degrees

That sounds wonderful, Janet. We had 62 degrees Friday, but now it's a blizzard and 20's. Thankfully it will be over by tomorrow and we get the joy of plowing out of 8 to 12 inches of snow....

grabbed ice cream from Dairy Queen that ruined everybody’s dinner.

I'm still dreaming of that strawberry milkshake. I'm getting weaker and see a delicious milkshake in my near future (after the blizzard, LOL)

Rain, rain go away for you. Unfortunately, looks like most of the country will be getting various degrees of storms this weekend

At least we aren't in that dangerous, horrible weather in the South. They have been having terribly bad storms with tornados this year. I guess we can get by with lots of snow.

We got everything we needed to do yesterday because of the predicted snowstorm, and I am glad we did. Roger will be plowing out of this one again tonight or tomorrow.
I hope this year isn't like one Spring that we had. We got 3 blizzards (yes 3 blizzards) in the month of April, after warm weather and flowers starting to bloom. Never forget that one.

I fixed the worst pie I've ever made last night. Roger asked me to make a lemon merange one 1 and half hours before supper. It's the cheater kind that you mix up with sugar and eggs on the stove, no baking required. I put it in a prepared graham cracker crust pie shell. Well, it did not set up for supper and we had company. Fortunately it was my soninlaw who is not too picky. I also had frozen cool whip that I tried heating up on our gas stove. It came out like a glob with some oily looking stuff in it. So I put it back in the freezer and got it out later to top the pie. It then looked like a colder blob of cream. ICK. The guys wanted to eat it, so I put it on the plate and it looked awful!!!! Now we will just eat the lemon pie without topping and pretend like it's pudding, LOL. Some days you just need to follow your intuition and ignore others. I knew the pie would not be ready in time and the topping would not be thawed out. Live and learn

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

ruth

 

[macraven]

Sometimes I eat the lemon meringue pie with out the crust…

Follow me for short cuts in making pie desserts.

 

[Lynne G]

Mac, I’m with you, I tend to like the pie filling more than the crust. Lemon is one of my favorite.

Was rainy early this morning, then felt cold enough, turned heater up in car, when we have had it off the last couple of days. Tomorrow, will start overcast, as it was all day today, then 40 to 50 mph winds before a Thunderstorm Watch issued for early evening. Soaked trash cans at the curb, I assume. And will still be rainy a little Monday morning. Joy for that day’s start. Not.

All decided Chinese for dinner tonight. Was delicious as usual and always very hot when we get opened at home. They are only about 10 or so minutes up the road for us. And not as much traffic near it, as road closed right above it, until November. Ugh. Makes getting past the closed part of that main drag very near us, annoying, and is giving lots more traffic to the other main drag that goes the same way, but is miles apart, and gives us a little longer to get home if we want something above the blocked part of the road.

Now, chilling as have done most of the day. Kids even brought me home a chocolate croissant for an afternoon snack. They were at the park above that bakery, again trying to catch a Pokémon.

Hope all are having a great weekend. And glad not seeing snow, like Ruth.

 

[keishashadow]

IDK if I shared this already or not, every time I see it, have to laugh



Seems as tho I’ve cooked & baked the whole day. Decided to do the corned beef/cabbage/potatoes/carrots St Paddy’s day feast today. Tomorrow will be Reubens & red skinned potato salad I made this afternoon (which always seems to taste better after it sits overnight).

The Daves got a boring beef roast, they don’t know what they are missing! Walnut brownies & my soda bread, which family sez puts Finnegans to shame. Tooting my own horn

When I die, let me return as a cat in a home that has unlimited cat food.

just saying….

As long as they serve the good stuff & keep the litter box clean, I could live with that too lol

The snow is blowing sideways from the North, and it is heavy. They are predicting 8 to 12 inches today.

Holy moley! We haven’t had that sort of accumulation in one storm in years. Thank the powers that be!

Thankfully it will be over by tomorrow and we get the joy of plowing out of 8 to 12 inches of snow....

Gotta wonder what folks do that are unable to handle that chore? They started a program here this year, called Snow Angels. It’s a good way for the high school kids to accumulate their mandatory community service hours

At least we aren't in that dangerous, horrible weather in the South. They have been having terribly bad storms with tornados this year. I guess we can get by with lots of snow.

My two older boys are again coaching a semi-pro indoor football team. They played in Greensboro last night. Said it was non stop tornado warnings all the way back home.

We had one in force for all day. There were some of the winds associated with them in the area but, all we got was 1/4 inch hail and a ton of rain, with sunshine in between; no less!

I fixed the worst pie I've ever made last night. Roger asked me to make a lemon merange one 1 and half hours before supper.

I’ve yet to make that pie well. My mom’s was best I’ve ever eaten. I’ve used the same recipe and several off the internet. All to no avail.

I tend to like the pie filling more than the crust. Lemon is one of my favorite.

When I found out how many calories were in pie crust, decided to skip it going forward no matter how flakey it is

 

[Charade67]

Happy Sunday! I am home and trying to recover before going back to work tomorrow. We had a wonderful vacation, but I am exhausted. This post is going to be a trip report, so follow along if you wish.

Friday, March 7 - Mostly uneventful day. I finished packing and picked up the rental car. When dh got off work we drove to our favorite hotel in the DC area to spend the night.

Saturday, March 8 - Checked out of the hotel, had lunch, then drove to Reagan International airport to return the rental car. Our flight was just after 3:30, but it was a direct flight, so we were in Orlando just after 6:00. We took the Mears shuttle and were at the hotel around 8:00. We had dinner in the food court and decided to call it a night since we needed to get up early in the morning. We had a corner room on the second floor of building 6 at the French Quarter.

Sunday, March 9 - Got up early and headed to Animal Kingdom. We had an 8:00 breakfast reservation at Tusker House. The food was okay, nothing phenomenal, but the character interaction was fun. The last time we were here was when B was 7. We didn't purchase any lightning lanes for this park and were able to do Kilimanjaro Safari, Dinosaur (I had never ridden this before), and Expedition Everest (dh and B only). As mentioned before, we tried to see the Lion King show but it was shut down due to a fire alarm and there were no more shows for the day. We still don't know what happened. We did the walking trail and saw the new tiger.

Not the best picture. I have a better video that I shot by accident.

We also went out to the conservation station to do the animation experience. I have always avoided this because I am a terrible artist. We did it on a tour at Disneyland and I realized that even a horrible artist can create something recognizable if you follow their instructions. We drew Donald.



We ended the day with dinner at Rainforest Cafe.


To be continued.

 

[drenalin'junkie]

Happy Sunday all!
Made a simple mint devil's food cake with a white chocolate and mascarpone ganache as my nod to St Patty's day.
I may never make another icing, so versatile.

 

[Charade67]

Monday, March 10 - We slept in a bit, got breakfast at the hotel and then headed over to Hollywood Studios. No lightning lanes here either. We were able to ride Star Tours (twice for me, Toy Story Mania, Mickey and Minnie's Run Away Railway (I miss The Great Movie Ride), Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash (just me and B), Rock N Rollercoaster (dh and B), and Tower of Terror (just dh). We also went to the Muppet Vision show. At one point dh split from me and B because he wanted to go to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show and B wanted to see some characters. She still has the autograph books we got her when she was 7. B and I had lunch at Woody's Lunchbox. I thought it was pretty good. The portions were reasonably sized, just enough for a lighter lunch. We eventually met up with dh. By then it had turned really chilly and our jackets were back at the hotel. We all hit the shops to get new hoodies. Dinner was at some quick service place. I don't even remember the name. We ended the night watching Fantasmic.





Almost forgot - I wore my Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem shirt and got several comments/compliments. My favorites were the woman who saw my shirt in passing, turned to the person she was with and said, "Electric Mayhem. See, I told you that was the name of the band." and the guy who told me my shirt was bad @$$.


Tuesday, March 11 - Today was another sleep in and get to the park late day. I just don't have it in me to rope drop anymore. We had breakfast at the hotel and then got to Magic Kingdom in time for our Lightning Lane for Tron. There was an 80 minute standby wait. I opted for the bench seat because I was concerned about my knees. I enjoyed the ride but thought it was too short. We stayed in Tomorrowland and did Space Ranger Spin and the Monsters Laugh Floor. We had a late lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern. This was a last minute decision and I literally booked the reservation about 15 minutes prior to eating there.
After lunch (we were all stuffed) B wanted to go find princesses, so she set off on her own . DH and I rode Pirates of the Caribbean. By this time the standby lines for all the rides we wanted to ride were at least 50 minutes or more. I decided that I was going to make my way back toward Tomorrowland very slowly. I think dh went to the Tiki room and It's a Small World.
I stopped frequently to people watch, but eventually got to Tomorrowland Terrace. We had booked the Seats and Sweets fireworks package. To me it was worth the cost to be able to sit comfortably and watch the fireworks. We didn't get the full effect of the castle projections, but Tinkerbelle flew right over us. We ended the night after the fireworks.





More to come later.

 

[Lynne G]

I hear ya, Charade. Alarm set and back to week day routine tomorrow too. Sounds like you had a great time and did a lot during your vacation.

Trash at curb and rain to come in the overnight, and probably will have a rainy predawn ride as saying rain to stop mid morning. One to one and a half inches before it departs.

Had a nice time visiting sister, and glad the rain has held off on the ride home and getting into the house.

Happy Sunday, and a fun St. Pat day tomorrow. And yay, last day of winter is Wednesday. Camel better be thinking spring to be on the rest of the week.

With all the Easter stuff in the stores, it still seems far away, as a month from now.

Time to have some tea, and wait to hear the rain come. Have a good night all.

 

[Charade67]

Wednesday, March 12 - Another late start. I think I am getting too old to do 4 park days in a row. Today was EPCOT. Since it is the Flower and Garden Festival there were lots of food booths to choose from. Brunch was a Cubanito sandwich. We ate these while watching a show based on the movie Encanto. We had a little time for our food to settle before using our Lightning Lane for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. I think the standby line was around 90 minutes. This ride was so much fun! I think it's my favorite ride now. Unfortunately it made me a little dizzy. Not sick dizzy, but just a little off balance. The song we got was Disco Inferno.
Next up was the character meet and greet for Chase Disney Visa cardholders. We met Mickey and Goofy there. B wanted to look for other characters, so she went off again. Once again most of the other rides had long wait times, so dh and I decided to just walk around the park and stop at some of the food booths. In addition to the Cubanito we had street corn, scallops, chicken & waffle, jerk chicken, a citrus slushy, citrus baked brie, and an orange lemon slushy. There were other foods I wanted to try, but I was too full at this point. We met up with B at the front of the park and decided to call it a day.




We got back to the hotel and decided it was a good night for beignets.




Thursday, March 13 - Today was a free/rest day. DH decided that he wanted to go back to Hollywood studios and then Disney Springs. B wanted to go back to Animal Kingdom and see Lion King. Before she left she texted guest services to make sure the show was running again. When she told the CM that we had been evacuated on Sunday and didn't get to see the show the CM gave her a lightning lane that could be used any time that day.
I decided to actually have a rest day. After breakfast I stopped in the gift shop to purchase a pair of Crocs.


Despite my best efforts I managed to get a blister on the side of my left foot. This was my footwear for the rest of the trip. On my way back to the room I took a few photos of the resort.









I am so in love with this resort now. I don't know that I can go back to staying at a value resort. I decided to stay in my room and rest until it was time to go to dinner.

 

[macraven]

you take great pictures!

it has a stunning area

 

[Charade67]

Dinner tonight was Hoop Dee Doo. we took the bus to MK and then the Boat to Ft. Wilderness. I couldn't believe the table we got right in front of the musicians. The piano blocked my view a bit, but it was so much fun interacting with the piano and banjo players. The food was really good and the show was very entertaining,

Sorry, not the best picture. The redhead reminded me of Carol Burnette (not just the hair but the acting stye too) and the guy in the hat was like a combination of Tim Conway and Donald O'Connor. I will definitely do this show again.
On the way out we caught the fireworks.






Friday, March 14 - Today we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to MK for the Keys to the Kingdom tour. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures. It was a fascinating tour and I learned some things about Disney that I did not know before..The utilidors were fascinating. We saw several characters getting ready for the 3:00 parade. Lunch was at the Columbia Harbor House and we got to ride the Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion.It was nice being able to skip the entire lines for these rides. We finished the tour in time to catch the parade.



I tried to do a little shopping, but couldn't find what I was looking for. We went back to the room to rest for a bit, then took the boat to Riverside to have dinner at Boatwrights. Today was pi day so I wore a pi tee shirt. I got so many compliments on it. After dinner we took the boat to Disney Springs where I was able to find a couple of Disney shirts.
Back at the room we started packing. We had an early flight in the morning. We didn't get to bed until around midnight and had to get up at 3:00 to finish getting ready to leave. The Mears shuttle picked us up at 4:10. We left MCO around 7:30 and flew into LaGuardia. I thought the airport would be crazy busy, but it wasn't. The best part was we got off our plane, turned right and took a few steps, turned left and took a few steps, and were at our next gate. I am used to having to cross the Charlotte airport to get to my next flight. The flight from LGA to Charlottesville, VA was only about an hour. We picked up our rental car, drove home, returned the car, and vacation was over.

I have decided that 4 park days in a row is too much for me. I need more rest days. I have arthritis in my knees, but my PCP told me to take naproxen twice a day (already had a prescription from something previous) and I didn't have sore knees the entire trip. However, I was very sore in my lower back/hip area, had some ankle swelling, and got a bit of the "Disney rash". I think I see compression socks in my future.


If you are still reading this, thank you for indulging me. I will end with something closer to home. Apparently I slept through some strong storms last night. We had very strong winds this morning. This is my backyard today. This is not my tree.

 

[macraven]

nice picture you took !

 

[macraven]

i like all your pictures!

 

[Charade67]

Happy Sunday all!
Made a simple mint devil's food cake with a white chocolate and mascarpone ganache as my nod to St Patty's day.
View attachment 948566I may never make another icing, so versatile.

Looks great. I need to find something green to wear tomorrow.

you take great pictures!

it has a stunning area

Thank you. It is such a beautiful resort.