H is for Home Improvement

In the never ending quest to improve the house, I have made a three page long list of projects around the house. Some are small (like get the carpets cleaned) while some are huge (new countertops for kitchen and bath). Some we can do quickly (paint the vents in the bedroom) and some we won't do for awhile (plant shrubs outside...we are in a drought and they would die).

This year we have replaced the back door (see D is for Door post) and just last week we got our new stove delivered. This time we only had one delay (the range hood was backordered). It was supposed to be delivered between 8-12 and at 11:15 I got a call saying they would be there shortly. Good thing Dan was home that day and I wasn't sitting around the house waiting for the guy to get there. Dan sent me all sorts of pictures of what it looked like under the old stove when it was pulled out. He had the cleaning supplies waiting so it would be spic and span.

Now I just have to get used to a convection oven, super powerful gas burners and adjustable racks in the oven. I'm almost afraid to use it and mess it up but of course I'll be cooking on it this weekend.

Weekend Wrapup - Super Edition

At first I didn't think I did anything this weekend. Then I realized I was wrng. It was jam packed.

First and most important we went to lowes and ordered the back door. With all the extras (they are painting it and got different hinges) I walked out with a can of spray paint and $1000 charged to my lowes card. Two weeks the door should be in and installed!

Because it took forever to get it ordered ( computer issues) we were late getting home. My plan to make a new recipe beef bourgignon was not going to be dissuaded however. So we ate dinner at 8 Saturday night. It was so dried out. Which was sad because it cost a lot of money to make. Next time crockpot cooking.

Sunday at church we had tailgate Sunday. Lots of inflatables for kids and grown ups. Free burgers and hot dogs. Ushers wore referee shirts. It was a lot of fun but hectic. Our church started a new satellite church yesterday so a lot of volunteers went there plus we closed a satellite church in town so we had a lot of those people come in. I was acting head usher and I was scrambling. We ran out of seats and had to put out chairs. Not my finest example of ushering but hopefully people will be back next week and well be better organized.

Since we had to buy new locks for the back door, we also decided to get new front door knobs and locks. We installed them after lunch. It took longer than we planned because one of the holes in the door wasn't big enough and we had to get the drill out. But dan was great and got the job done.




This is the 20 year old crappy looking stuff.




The hole that wasn't big enough.




The finished project.

Of course now we need to change the door knocker and the door handle on the screen door to match the black but we can do it.

And finally there was the game. We made gumbo which wasn't ready until 8 because the door took longer than planned. Do you sense a theme here. But it was worth the wait. I've posted the recipe for it last year. Delicious.




I was also on the USA Today ad panel I got to rate all of the Super Bowl ads. We had a lot of them online so we could rate them earlier because it had to be done by the end of the fourth quarter. I'm happy to say that the ones that I thought were the best did come out on top. Budweiser Clydesdales were my number one. The other good ones were Doritos princess and the jeep one saluting the military.

I'm not going to even mention the worst one. Lets just say it is always on the bottom every year and if I could have given it negative numbers I would have. I don't often say something was disgusting but that one was.

And so as you can see, I did have a busy weekend. Bring on the week!