Monday Night Fights: Holiday and Sweepstakes Edition

Good Monday Afternoon...

I didn't plan on posting today, as I write much of my Good Monday Morning material on Sunday evenings (save for the intro), but I thought I would anyway, being that this is the first day back after the holidays.

Nothing much happened this holiday weekend. I must say I enjoyed everyone else's activities.  Between all the facebook and twitter talk about Prince's performance at the Essence festival and various family get-togethers, there was a lot going on. And I felt like I was experiencing it all myself.

I myself did nothing particularly special for the 4th. Holidays make me extremely skittish and for the most part, I don't really care to deal with them. (My sister and I had a conversation about this last month, and I said something that disturbed her deeply. I will do a food-for-thought post about that soon).

Anyway, I hadn't heard from my sister, and my goal is to make sure she has a good holiday. Our family just doesn't get together. It's WAY too much drama, and you know I can't deal with too much over-stimulation these days. But our tradition for the two of us has been to get together and hang out and cook and watch movies.

I gave her a call since I hadn't heard from her, and she forgot that a holiday was coming up (Yes, she seems to be like me. But she repressed the holiday. Wow). But I told her I would cook a little something up, and that I did.

Now I would have LOVED to have some of this:










And some of THAT:





LOL

But we didn't.

(But that sure does look good, doesn't it... especially the shrimp and crab. WOW)

I haven't cranked up my grill in some 5 years. I'm thinking about getting rid of it. Instead I bought 3 or 4 ribs and 10 drummettes off the barbeque bar at the local whole foods.  That was as good as it gets. (Oh and that was from the super high upper class rich white peoples' Whole Foods. I go out there when I am feeling a might bit... fancy).

I was more interested in my vegetables. I made my favorites: kale, mushroom and potato stirfry and a roasted butternut squash-pear- cranberry dish.  I also made potato salad and baked beans. And I bought some grilled veggies off the Whole Foods bar. So I think we were all good. I just wanted to make sure she had her fill, I had mine, and she had a good size plate to take home.

I have my veggie side dishes for the week. And that was my main goal.

Anyway, we watched a couple of movies. She hadn't seen the Thor sequel, so we watched that. And there was a movie she liked on Netflix titled Pretty Ugly People. That was good, but it was a bit too deep for me. I may have to watch it again to "get" it.

Now, I've been into a couple of interesting series on Netflix:

 

Both of those are good. And they are great as backdrops for when I am cleaning up. LOL

Let's see... I didn't do much of anything on Saturday, save for travel out to the east side to get a new battery for my house alarm system. There's nothing worse than laying across the bed and that panel just starts beeping like crazy. First of all, both cats dashed like someone was chasing them. And I'd never heard it before. They mailed a battery the last time, but this time I had to roll out and get it. It is ODD going in a store that just sells batteries. And the place was crowded.

Afterwards, I visited a Whole Foods in that area. And it was the smallest one I'd ever been to. They won't be seeing me again. But they did have my cheap vegetable staples I like a lot (which are cheaper than at my farmers market and grocery store). And they did have my 39 cent water refill station. Hell, that's all I care about. So IF I happen to be out that way, I can drop in and get what I need. I came back and home and that was about it.

Now on Sunday something horrid happened... Well horrid to me. I fell down outside in the driveway. I don't know how. All I know I was laid out on the ground face down, left cheek to the ground, next to Pam. Lord help me.

I scraped my knee something horrible and I sprained my ankle slightly. I am still trying to figure it all out. But I had to bring out some of that old nasty witch hazel. That worked out well. And for some odd reason, Witch Hazel drives Callie Jo CRAZY. Not sure what's in it, but goodness... that little cat was trying to attack me while I was using it. Wow. She's too young to react to catnip, but that witch hazel did something to her. I have to make sure to keep that put up.

I was a little messed up last night, found it hard to walk. I was better this morning, and I went into work late.  I am limping slightly, but I seem to be healing up fine.

That just shocked me... Ugh. I was just trying to go get some gas for my lawn mower. Now I can't mow my lawn. And I have to go to Wal-mart after work and get some gauze and tape.

These are high class problems. It could have been worse. And I am thankful it wasn't. I will happily carry my tail over to the underground Wal-mart some 5 miles from my job and buy as much gauze and tape as I can hold in my arms. Yes I will. Happily, mind you.

That's it for me... We MUST have a Song of the Week. I listen to a ton of music on my Spotify account. And this is one of my top 10 favorite songs of all time, and it happens to be playing right now.  Patti Austin's "Heat of Heat":



I just love love LOVE that song. It was playing at my high school prom. My date was Reggie. I was sixteen and he was 21. He was my Mom's friend son, and I asked him to take me. And he said yes.

I liked him. He looked like a broke singer Prince with a short afro... if you could imagine such. He even said he met Prince once. He worked for UPS and had a delivery for him while he was here in Atlanta and he was so shocked at how short Prince was without the high heel boots. LOL.

This was the first song we danced to. And we slow dragged to a couple of other songs. (I WISH I could remember those songs). I was just SHOCKED to dance that close to this dude who I thought of as "grown".

We went to the Red Lobster afterwards. He ordered a shark entree, and he ordered a drink.

Ordering shark, having a drank, and being 21.  In my young 16 year old mind, he was... dangerous.

But he had always been really nice to me, and that had to have been the most fun on a date I'd ever had, even though it was purely platonic. (Don't worry about this age thing. This was 28 years ago. And I was a senior in high school. And I was FAR from virginal. Nothing was happening that night. That was my mama's friend son... talk about getting in a load of trouble. Yikes). 

The last time I saw Reggie was at his mother's funeral a few years later. I shook his hand and told him I was sorry about him losing his mother. Haven't seen him since. But he was a really nice guy, and I am sure he still is.

And every time I hear that song, I think of him and the good time we had.

I just want to get up where ever I am and just do... Wonder Woman spins.

HA HA...

Okay, with that... that is all...

Heads up... 9th bloggaversary is coming up in early August. So you know what that means: 

SWEEPSTAKES!!!! 

*cartwheels*

And you know the trend.

My seed sowing has really sucked this year. I have a certain amount I like to give away per year, whether it is by helping someone, giving to a charity, etc. And the last two years have been bleeeeeeh... as I have only met half my goal.

And it is a strange feeling to offer to help someone and get rejected. Ugh. But that is alright.

You know the trend with sweepstakes. So we have some $99 gift cards available.

Some means more than one... So you know there will be two. Possibly 3. Not sure yet. I would LOVE to give away 3 gift cards... I have for some reason been salivating about that for the past few months for some reason. Wow.

My special employee Commander By is deployed on a special mission out on the West Coast right now, but he should be back in time to pull a name out of the hat. And as always, there is a prize for most comments. And I might shock ya with a third gift card.

Wal-mart and Target are your choices. Blame Serenity_23 for that. She had me on a witch hunt for a dang MAC gift card. Never again... frickin' chicken.

So this will run from now until bloggaversery date which I think is August 13th.

And like I have always said, I am not a comments whore. Ya'll can continue to lurk. I don't care.

But you need to get that money, honey. Comment here, or text me if you have my cell number, or send a tweet, or email... Oldgirlladylee@gmail.com.  We have some Ladylee sweepstakes veterans who have some interesting techniques and strategies, and they have won over the years.  So get on it, doggonit!

I like email and texts. We have some serious private convos about posts. It is mad enlightening, it is.  Ya'll really do solve a ton of my issues.

So work it out. Comment to win. Get your money honey.

I have a TON of posts. Might get a good 40 posts in, as I am pondering the first half of 2014 pretty hard. A load of food-for thought is laying around in my brain.

Hmmm....

With that... have a good week.

By design and On purpose.