Pizza Day

We have had a beautiful weekend. The sun has finally come to shine on us in these last days of September. :-) Yesterday, Brit Boy and I went into town to do some errands. There were a few stalls there that were reminiscent of the continental markets that they have sometimes, but it wasn’t a full blown market. There was a French food stall, a Dutch stall, and one with jewelry and handbags. We didn’t buy anything there, but it all looked great. We did our errands and then headed to the grocery to get a few things so that I could make a pizza later. I have been really wanting to give this a try, so we took a whirl around the grocery store. I already had bell pepper and onions, so I was searching for pepperoni, mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, and a pre-made crust (haven’t figured out the crust from scratch yet). We got everything along with what we thought were dough balls to make crust. So we headed home and later we chopped everything up, readying it for the pizza. Then I realized that we didn’t have dough balls for making dough, we had dough balls for toasting and dipping in sauce. Boneheads we were. (laugh) We were rushing a bit in the store and got the wrong thing. But in the end, they turned out good and were a nice addition. No sweat. :-) We were in an adventurous mood and we would not be deterred, so we headed back to the store and picked up some roll-out pastry that made a GREAT crust. On the ride back home, the sunset was so beautiful. So when I got inside, I snapped this photo of the view out our back door. Back in pizza mode, I layered everything on the pastry crust. I started with a thin layer of mozzarella and mature cheddar and then the sauce with some onion granules and a bit of pepper sprinkled over that. Then I finished it off with layers of the other ingredients and voila! Here is a photo after we had already devoured half of it. There’s a pattern here. I always seem to get the photo after we have been eating. (laugh) We usually just can’t wait. It turned out divine. Today is a gloriously sunny day and it feels like we are getting spring and summer a bit late. But I figure, it is just a beautiful bonus. Here’s a photo I snapped today. It sort of says it all, the beautiful sky is there, and the rosebush has shed and is going to sleep for a while. But it will be back before we know it. :-)

Mascara and Movie Love

My weekend was pretty laid back. Brit Boy is on holiday/vacation for a few days, so we are having a chance to spend some quality time together. On Saturday, we had a bit of a lie-in and then got up at about 10am and decided to go into town. We haven’t been into town since I stopped going to have acupuncture a few weeks ago. I stopped by Karen’s acupuncture shop to say hello to my new friend. She was doing fine.

Brit Boy and I went into town to pick up a few things that we had been wanting and also to get a newspaper. I had the thought that I loved going to acupuncture in the past because of how it restored me, but it was nice to go into town and be able to put on makeup and do something to my hair. When I used to go in for acupuncture, I didn’t bother with doing much to my hair and just pulled it back. And makeup wouldn’t have survived since I spent nearly the whole acupuncture session with my face pressed into the opening in the table. I don’t wear much makeup anyway, but the first time I went to get treated, I wore a bit of eye shadow and blush and when I got up from the table, the paper was smeared with the imprint of my face. It was like looking at my face staring right back at me. (laugh) So Saturday was my first venture into town with a bit of makeup. It was another sign to me that I am healed.

We went into town in search of various things. I wanted to get a proper pizza pan, because we have been putting frozen pizzas on a rectangular cookie sheet forever, but it always leads to one half of the pizza getting overly brown and the toppings slide to one side. It just doesn’t work out right. Also, I am going to try my hand at making a homemade pizza soon, so I want to give an authentic round pizza pan a try. We found one at a discount store, so that was a good find. I have also been looking for a particular mascara by Covergirl that is supposed to be amazingly durable and waterproof and doesn’t clump. But alas, I have found out that I can’t get Covergirl products in the UK. So I put that search aside for the day.

I bought a lottery scratch off ticket and won £2 on it and that was cool because the ticket originally cost £2. So it was a win-win. (smile) Then Brit Boy and I have both been wanting to get the new “Now 70” CD which has a lot of the current hits on it. We searched a couple of different stores to get the best price. While we were on our CD search, we also came across two other great compilations. We bought a compilation of 80s hits and one of 90s hits. When we were in the store, I had one in my hand and Brit Boy had the other one and we volleyed back and forth reading out the hits that we remembered from back in the day. It was great. (smile) Ahh, the good old days! That is one thing that I love about the music stores here, they just have loads of compilations on offer. The 80s CD is three CDs long and the 90s one is five CDs in total and they were around £5 each, so they were a great bargain and we got lots of music.

On Sunday we had another lie-in and then got up and had breakfast. We had seen a combination printer, copier, scanner in town on Saturday for a mere £25 and so we decided to go back into town to pick one up. The price was too good to be true. We didn’t get it on Saturday, because we forgot to stop back by and pick it up. It was a good thing that we went back when we did, because when we got there, the pile of about twenty from the day before had been reduced to five. So we got one. I have been in love also with these cheap ergonomic pens that I have been using and thought that I would pick up some more for us. They were cheap when I got my first two when I was trying them out. Well, this time we really got a deal and got ten ergonomic pens for £4.95, which is a good deal since they are very comfortable to the hand and write smoothly. So Brit Boy and I will be writing with those pens for years.

I ended up getting some mascara finally. As I mentioned, I can’t get Covergirl products here, so I got a comparable one that was waterproof. And here’s the kicker, yeah, it works really well because I can’t get the stuff off now. (laugh) Well at least I have long, full lashes. Note to self: Get some proper mascara remover the next time I am out before my lashes fall out. In the end though, we had a great rare weekend of shopping and we did it in wonderfully discounted style. It was fun to save a pound or two.

On the way home from town, we decided to find this car park/parking lot that we noticed the other day when we were sitting on the train, getting ready to head into London. We both had never noticed it before since we usually board from another platform. So we did a bit of detective work and did locate this secluded little parking place that is adjacent to the train station. Brit Boy has lived here his whole life and had never noticed it. The place is rather hidden from view, but is very convenient. So we were excited to find it. Hey, we are easily amused. (laugh)

We got home and I made some dinner. While it was in the oven, we watched the movie “Stepmom” with Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts. It was just starting when we turned on the TV. I love this movie and I have watched it many times. Brit Boy had never seen it. It was a good movie for a Sunday afternoon even though it is sad, but it does have uplifting bits to it about going on in life.

After the movie, I did what I do a lot now. If I am loving the locations in a movie, I will look online and try to find out where the movie was filmed. Brit Boy and I simply loved Susan Sarandon’s house in the movie. It was a gorgeous old two story house with a wraparound porch. I found out that much of the film was filmed in New York state and New Jersey. Brit Boy is now really feeling some love for the suburban beauty of New Jersey. (smile) Me too. I have a friend who is going to be moving there next year, so I told him that when we go visit her after she gets settled, we can go give some love to New York and New Jersey.

Pizza, The Moon, and EVPs

I didn’t know what to do with myself when I woke up on Saturday morning and didn’t have to get dressed to go to the acupuncturist. I was accustomed to getting up out of bed and getting into town by my appointment time. There hadn’t been that many Saturday lie-ins for me or Brit Boy lately. So I woke up at 9am and sat up to look at the clock. I thought that I had overslept. Then a few seconds later it dawned on me that I was taking a break from acupuncture. So I flopped back down on my pillow. It is funny how something can become a habit so quickly in life. Brit Boy was already up and he was downstairs studying in his pajamas. He is racing towards a deadline with his work, so he got up earlier. I stretched out over the whole bed for a few minutes to luxuriate in having it all to myself. Don’t get me wrong. I love being married to Brit Boy and having a bed buddy, but it’s also fun to hog all of the bed for yourself sometimes. (smile) Although a bed alone on a cold winter’s night is not ideal. It is just fun sometimes to play with having a choice. (smile) And I wouldn’t trade my cute bed buddy husband for anything in the world.

After I got out of bed, we just hung out around home. I made some breakfast while Brit Boy studied. The weather has been rather windy and overcast here lately. So it was great when the sun came out at the end of the day. I was so excited that I decided to document it and save it for later.(smile) Here is a photo that I took of the lovely blue sky. I was leaning back on our bed as I took it. It was a beautiful end to the day.



We were running kind of low on groceries, so we splurged and had a pizza delivered. We did our bit to support the local economy of our village and ordered from a place on the High Street here. It’s a little independent shop and the pizza is quite good. We ordered their version of a Mediterranean pizza and it was really tasty. In the past we used to order from them quite often, but we have pulled back from that to save money and besides I love to cook. Of course I hate to wash the dishes, but that’s a story for another day. (laugh) Anyway, they used to know us so well that when we told them which address to deliver it to, they would finish our sentence for us. (laugh) This time though, they had to be actually told the full address, so I think we are definitely on a more frugal track now. (smile)

To finish off the night, I watched this show about paranormal phenomena. I have become a bit obsessed with shows like this lately. There are so many of them on TV nowadays. I joked to Brit Boy that I know I must be watching too many because one of the ladies whipped out a piece of equipment and I immediately said, “Oh, that’s her EVP.” (smile) An EVP for those who aren’t into this stuff is an electronic voice phenomena recorder. It is supposed to pick up the voices of ghosts. As I have written before, I love creepy movies and all things Vincent Price, so I guess that shows like this are fun for me to watch sometimes. It makes for a great night in.

After my shows ended, I went downstairs to take a look out our back window. We have a big window that shows our back yard/garden and there is a glass door next to that. So you can get a great view of things. I was soon joined by Brit Boy. I have this lifelong love affair with the moon and I have brought Brit Boy along for the ride. He enjoys looking at it with me too. The moon was full here on Friday night, but it was cloudy. So I went to see if anything was visible. Brit Boy and I were not disappointed. The moon was big and fat and luminous with a scattering of clouds shielding it at intervals. I love the full moon when there are no clouds, but I think that I love it more when there is just a hint of cloud to add some mystery.

Watching the moon always makes me think of my parents. Whenever I was outside following my daddy around the garden at the end of a summer’s day and the moon was just showing itself, I would love it. I would tell my daddy that I wanted to bite a piece out of the moon. He would humor me and say, “Yeah, I guess it does look like cheese.” And I was very fond of going outside to see it as I grew up and would sometimes drive further down into the countryside to get a clearer look and my mom would always come along for the ride. She never liked missing a ride. (smile) Those calm, sweet moments that I remember with my parents always carry me through when I am missing them. (smile)

Today, we had a grocery delivery just in time. We were getting rather low. We had one more coupon that we could use to get free delivery. So since the truck is always out our way, we figured that our groceries could catch a ride along with everyone else’s. (smile) I do like that about living here that you can get groceries delivered from most of the supermarkets even if you live a ways out of town. Maybe things have changed back home since I was there, but when I was back in my part of Georgia, we didn’t have this service. It is a great idea though. It saves time and gas.

Now the day is coming to an end and I am going to go and watch my other favorite kind of TV show…mysteries. They make a lot of mystery type shows here in England that I love to watch. I love the whole whodunit thing and also they are usually filmed in some lovely villages across the country. The program started a few minutes ago and I have been typing this during the commercials, but now I am going to give it my proper attention. Later, I may take a look outside to see if there are any other interesting things twinkling in the sky tonight. And hopefully my bed buddy will come too.