Tips and Tricks - Travel Checklist

I've been lucky enough in my life to do a fair amount of traveling. A few years ago, I was flying a lot, and realized, that every time I went, I was making the same travel list over and over again.

Finally I had a lightbulb moment, and decided that if I make a master list, I won't have to write out the same things over and over again, forgetting something important.

I saved it on my computer, and each time I go to travel, I open the file, and print it out.

Now, rarely do I need fuzzy slippers and a bathing suit on the same trip, so I quickly go through the list, and scratch out the things I don't need. That leaves me with a master list of things I need to pack!

Sometimes, I find something new that needs to be added, and I'll make a note. When I get done packing, I'll update the list for the next trip.

I know this sounds overly organized - which I am not - so if I am doing it, it would be super easy for you to do it too! In fact, I'm going to include the text of my list below (most of it), so that you can just copy and paste into your own word processing program of choice. Add the things that YOU need and voila! This will save you from ending up in London with no skirts and nice dress requirements on London's west end (happened to me).... or, if you're more like me now, you won't end up at your destination with no make up. (yep, happened to me too).

Lana's Travel Checklist:

ENTERTAINMENT:
____ Books
____ Books on tape/CD
____ DVD's
____ Scrapbook supplies
____ Magazines

ELECTRONICS:
____ Camera
____ Batteries
____ Memory cards
____ Battery Charger
____ Laptop
____ Laptop Charger

MEDS
____ Advil
____ Dramamine
____ _______________

GIRL STUFF:
____ Q-Tips
____ Hairbands
____ Hairspray
____ Hairbrush
____ Shampoo
____ flat iron
____ Blow Dryer
____ Make up
____ make up remover
____ Purses
____ Alarm clock
____ Razors
____ Bandaids
____ Robe

MISC:
____ Pillow
____ House Keys

CLOTHES:
____ Jeans
____ Dress slacks
____ Capris
____ T-shirts
____ Dress up shirts
____ Socks
____ Underwear
____ Bras
____ Pajamas
____ Swimsuit
____ Flip flops
____ Tennis shoes
____ Dress up shoes
____ Jacket
____ Jewelry
____ Slippers

NECESSARIES:
____ Passport
____ License
____ Boarding Pass
____ Credit/Debit Cards
____ Cash
____ Headset
____ Sunglasses
____ Maps/Directions
____ Cell Phone
____ Phone charger
____ Itinerary
____ Extra Suitcase/tote
____ Car reservation info

Stuff to do:
____ Leave note
____ Pay bills
____ Turn down water heater
____ Hold mail
____ Take out trash
____ Dishes
____ Laundry
____ Bank
____ House payment
____ Wax eyebrows
____ Feed Cats/Mice
____ Charge camera batteries

I'm a bad bad blogger

yes, I know. I've been a bad blogger, and a horrible internet friend. But damn. It was nice taking a few days off without blogging. Apparently I needed a break.

I did feel terribly guilty when I sat down this TUESDAY (woot) to read my blogs and saw that many were blogging all weekend. Oops. I slack. *hang head in shame*

Let's do some updating shall we?

Friday, our weekend started early by being oh so lucky and getting to go to the dermatologist in KC.
AGAIN.

I shouldn't complain, Gene's allergy is getting better. Wanna know how? He's been tanning. Yep, the dermatolgist did something he rarely does, and ordered tanning session 3 times a week. Gene is getting a nice deep tan. (we hate him). Somehow this builds up a barrier to the chemicals he's allergic too. His body is better, his hands were worse, so they gave him 2 steriod shots that's supposed to clear everything up and then hopefully he can get ahead of it. We'd love that considering he's been itching for over 2 years now.

We got home around 7 ish, and I sat down for 1/2 hour, than got back up ahd head out the door to Tanner's very first Marching band event ever. Spoofhounds vs. Lafayette. Hounds won!

He did a really good job. Great form there Tan! I stayed and watched the rest of the game, and listened to Tanner. I had to stand the whole time because seating wasn't the best, and also, I was scared to walk down the steps with my boot on. No hand rails, I feel like I'm gonna fall. (I have stair issues.)

Hounds won! I found myself really watching the game and paying attention to what was going on. Which I haven't done with football for a long time. Maybe I'll start going at the very beginning and not just half time heh.

Anyway, Gene used to be in the band too, also a trumpet player. Well, cept for the year he waited to sign up and ended up playing the tuba. hah. I always give him a hard time for that. Dude.. there are no tuba solos. He's promised to go to some of the games with me. *it's important* (my dad never went to my stuff so this is a sore spot with me.)

Saturday:
I had a wedding. Michelle and Joe got married. I'll share pics soon of the wedding. I did well, I shot it all in the walking boot. woot. I was so tired by the end tho. I know I was moving a little slow at moments, but I don't feel like I missed anything.

My class had a 21 year reunion that night and I kinda half planned on going, but I was dead on my feet at 9 p.m. so it was a no go.

Yes, 21 years. I know. We were a close class and they have decided to make this an *annual* event. Probably easy considering so many of us are still close to home.


Sunday:
We wised up to mom's scheme. Last Sunday we got stuck up there all day working on that damn floor. So this Sunday we got some things done here FIRST *then* we went up to mom's.

Gene broke the wet saw. Crap. So we couldn't cut 2 tiles we needed to. Mom said forget it and we worked around it. We were short on mastic, so she'll lay the last couple tiles herself. It will look nice when it's done! Putting down tile when you can bend your ankle is quite the experience.

Monday:
Went to St. Joe to get a new tile saw, had lunch at Panda express, bought some india ink to dye some wood trim (I want it black, you can't buy stain that's black enough), ran the scooter at lowes into a stack of cemen board... Gene was entertained. lol, Lost and found my cell phone, came home and worked on the island.

We have the island ready for tile, then we have to do trim. I am ready to order the tin for the backsplash, then we'll cut the backsplash and install. We're almost done!
Cept the ceiling
Oh and the lighting
Oh and the crown molding around the cabinet tops.
and the undercounter lighting

Yeah that.

And now, I'm sitting here trying to play catch up. It's going to be a long week!!

Did you bring your man with you little lady?

It really has been home improvement central around here lately. OK, not 24/7 like we're trying to flip this house in 3 weeks or anything. We have however set some goals for ourselves, and chilly weather and hell month (otherwise known as wedding season) has been a big incentive for us.

Remember this?:

It's a very pretty antique dresser that we bought last December so that we can retrofit it into an island in our kitchen. We decided that before we did ANYTHING, we'd just let it sit in the middle of the kitchen for a while. Just to decide if we really really wanted it there or not.

After a probationary period, we determined that yes, we do want lots of extra storage. Not that this kitchen needs it, I have no less than 27 cabinets. That doesn't even include the extra 4 that are in the laundry room, right next to the kitchen. I'm not kidding. Oh, and 6 drawers.

Can I tell you a secret?

I have a couple cabinets with nothing in them.

Which would be a great place to hide all the crap I leave sitting on my desk, but that's another post someday.

ANYWAY...

So last weekend, we determine that we're going to work on said island. The only hitch is, we have to go to my mom's first, to do her home improvement project of laying some tile in her entry way.

As my 19 year old said last night "Oh that will only take a couple hours".

HA to the HA.

It took the ENTIRE DAY and we still didn't get done. I'm glad that it was Gene and I that went, because when we get to looking at it, something looked funny. Under the linoleum, there was a thin sub floor, then the old linoleum. fortunately, it made the floor too high, and I told Gene that we should rip it up, after all, why did they put in this weird sub floor?

We found out why! There was wood rot.. a lot of it! So we ended up having to drive another 35 min in the opposite direction to get some plywood, and to yell at the lumber yard guys for lying to us.

You see, let me put this delicately... I am the one that knows stuff about construction. I have been fascinated with home improvement shows back to when "this old house" was the only one out there. Now we have not one, but two channels dedicated to nothing but making our homes and gardens better. 'Rock on' I say.

Well, Gene's job doesn't call for a circular saw or even a hammer. Not that he can't use either one, he just never built things. I'm the one that knows the difference between a stud, a king stud, and a jack stud. I also can tell you what a knee wall is and can explain the inner workings of a rope and pulley window. (unfortunately, so can my ex. Ask him about the "lost summer" one time working on ONE WINDOW) So because I understand how things work, I'm the one that asks for things.

Somehow this really pisses off some "men" at the home improvement stores. For instance, there was the time that we were at Lowe's. This is where we bought our shingles for our new house, which was the very first project that we worked on.

A 'gentleman' works there, and shingles are his turf. He asks us what we're doing, and we explain that we bought a repo house, and we're looking to put a new roof on it. He says that we should just buy the 15 year gray shingles because they're "good enough".

*blank stare and a polite smile*

We end up buying the highest priced 30 year architectural shingles.

So he was still ok with this process at this point. We put the roof on, with the intention of using the extra shingles to make a ridge cap. That's the line of shingles across the ridge of the roof. What looks like the "first row" but is really the last row.

Getting this far along, we realize, that we're not going to have enough. Instead, we'll just go back and pick up a couple boxes of the regular ridge cap shingles made for this color/type of shingle.

Easy peasy right?

HA.

They don't have them. For some reason, the shingles is a stock item, and the ridge cap is special order. *oookay*. So we go to special order. We get the same guy again. Now, this is the same guy, that every time he asks a question, he directs it at Gene, Gene looks at me, and I answer the guy.

This is obviously irritating the guy, but sorry, I know what I want, and since I'm buying, the choice is mine.

Gene leaves me with stupid, up at the front trying to order the ridge cap. Gene goes back to the back for some reason, hoping i guess that they'll have what he wants *right then*. El Stupido is trying to put in the order and I can see ON THE SCREEN he's ordering the wrong thing. I say, "no, that's not the cap, that's just the shingles".

You can see him gritting his teeth.

He's getting more and more flustered as he can't get it into the system.

Shingles again.
I correct him again.

Finally he SNAPS, his face boils over, steam comes out of his ears! Dammit he's gonna go find my MAN!!!

My eyes cross, I resist every single urge that I have not to punch him in the face, and I make it back to Gene about 15 seconds before El Stupido does. I proceed to exclaim in my loudest voice, that he's going to have to deal with this absolute male chauvinistic IDIOT from this point on, and make sure he actually orders the G** D*** ridge caps!!! (Gene, missing the whole scene, gets irritated at me. Yeah that helped.)

El Stupido is directly behind me.

I walk away, count to 12,962, pay my money and leave.

It was that point on that I realized that I would have to let Gene be my interpreter. So when we go into Home Depot I whisper "Tell the guy we need 28 one by eight by eight yellow pine straight and good on at least one side."

To which Gene says "Yeah, sir, we need 28 one by eight by eight yellow pine straight and good on at least one side."

Yeah that's my life. I get to be be the "lil' lady" that just stands there and looks pretty. What could I possibly know? After all, I have prett nails. *bats eyelashes, blank dumb blond stare* (Ask me about the time I took a pistol on Southwest airlines (looking like the dumb blond). Yep, you can do that).

So now the running joke between Gene and I, is when we go to work on a project, or buy something in the store that a man would "normally" buy, he says with this best southern drawl, "now stand back lil' lady, I'll take care of this for your purdy lil' self."

It's only irritating 87% of the time.

So back to Sunday, laying tile. I call and ask for hardiebacker board. I specifically ask for it in 1/4". No, it's not concrete board, hardieboard is a brand name.

"yep yep.. we have it"
Get there. Nope nope, they don't have it.

They try to sell us some CRAP that is meant for walls. Seriously. It's water resistant drywall. They want me to use it on the FLOOR. *eyes cross*

Long story short (snort), Gene ended up defending my honor since he'd heard the whole conversation. Not surprisingly, this is another old school guy that thinks the girls pick the paint swatches and the guys swing the hammer. Period.

We left with concrete board. Which is not what I wanted but it's what I got.

A few days before that, we were at a local place, and Gene was looking for a piece of hardieboard there for our island. All they have is concrete. I'm having a discussion with Gene about how you don't cut the concrete backer, you snap it.

In the corner of my eye, I see a guy that works there, stop, turn, stare at me a good 5 seconds and then leave. I guess he figured there was nothing he could "help me with".

Wow I've gone on such a tangent here.

So back to our island.

Saturday, we had started to cut a big giant hole in the island
ACK!
WTH?

Yep, I wanted to cut out 3 drawers because I really want a posh beverage refrigerator in my island, with a prep sink on the other end. Only problem is, we don't actually HAVE the fridge in hand.

The second problem is, I made the mistake of getting on the phone and trying to get answers from big box stores from old school guys.

We gave up and drove to St. Joe and bought the first one we found.

Ain't it purdy?

A whole box, just to keep my diet coke cold. And heavenly music rains down from above. (or hums softly from the center of my kitchen)

Saturday was blown, Sunday was blown. Monday after Gene got off work we attempted to cut the hole with only ONE fight. Success!

And FYI, I did it by myself, well, with the exception of Tanner's help, who I'm training up right.

At least he'll get to ask for his lumber without an interpreter.

Oh, and PS. I'd warn you in advance if these posts were gonna be so damn long, but you know me and my tangents.

LLL (longer letter later..... LOL!. what you don't remember 1979 and hello kitty sticker laden letters passed in study hall??)

Recipe: Easy stuffed mushrooms

I have a confession.

I've been making these mushrooms for 20 years!! You can thank one man for today's recipe. Richard Simmons. Yep, that guy. Years ago, I did the deal a meal program, and it had a cookbook with it. FYI: DAM (lol) works really well and kinda kicks your butt. No "eat anything you want just count the points" crap. If it's the end of the day and all you have left is green veggies, guess what? you're gonna have green veggies. LOL.

Anyway, these mushrooms (or a variation of) was in the cookbook, and I've made them ever since. I mentioned this recipe in passing, and one of my lovely readers msged me to request it.

Aww. I feel so ... USED! lol

You'll need whole mushrooms, get them as fresh as possible
Garlic Powder
Butter (I use the light stuff, I cook with it all the time)
Parmesan cheese Yep, I have the shake stuff. I suppose you could use the real thing, and I have the real thing, I have always just used this so I stick with it.

Clean your mushrooms.
Now I know technically, you're supposed to just brush off the "loose brown stuff" with a brush and not wash them, but I'm sorry, I can't stop with the "They're grown in poop!" mentality. So I rinse them in cold water.

Pull out all the stems carefully, try not to break the tops. Set the tops on a plate for later.

Chop all the stems into smallish pieces. I actually chopped them to about 1/2 this size. you could also use a handy chopper machine thingy (which I have but hate to wash), but I wouldn't use a food processor, it'll make the pieces too small.

Add a tablespoon of your butter and approximately 1/2 tsp of garlic powder. I say approximately because I like garlic so you might put in more or less to taste.

About a tsp of parmesan cheese.

Then nuke for 45 seconds. Yep, we use the microwave around here for more than just warming up coffee and popcorn. (someday I'll teach you how to make actual meatloaf in the microwave lol).

Take a spoonful of the mixture and press it into the openings of the tops. If you don't nuke them a long time, they might be heaped (it's ok if you don't nuke the stuffing long enough). If there's melted butter in the bottom of the bowl, I even pour that over the tops. Then, sprinkle more cheese on top.

Nuke uncovered for approximately 2 minutes, or until they start to get soft.

You must serve them immediately. No cooking ahead on these guys.

They are very yummy, quick and if you're dieting, a filling food with very little calories (or points). I believe they are 1 point for almost a whole 8 ounce pkg.

BTW, I did well on D.A.M. (sorry that's just funny). I lost 41 pounds, then I had Tanner and I found it all again.

D.A.M. kid.
:p

Scrapbook page - Maid of Honor

New wedding album page. I know, you're really tired of the wedding pics, but I am making headway!

Paper: (blue floral - I'm not sure), diecutpaper: Making memories (I think! lol)
Fabric stars - they either came from Stacy a few years ago, or a garage sale. I can't remember!
Letters: Loopy Lou by Doodlebug
Buttons and string
Gray tomboy pen
Brown EK pen