Stormy Day

Yesterday we had a short break from the rain....blue sky and sunshine. Then last night the rain returned and brought the wind with it. The wind was pretty strong through the night and it continues. The sun screens are rattling on my craft room windows. We can expect this kind of weather for a few more days.

Last night I was irritated because I thought my favorites didn't get copied from my laptop to my desk top. Then I discovered my pictures were "lost" too. Well, Gerry did some searching and found everything. Huge relief. Now I just need to move everything to where it should be.

Right now I'm going to go get some lunch...

Desk Top Computer/Dinner Tonight

I have a computer to use again. The laptop is terminal so it has gone bye-bye. Gerry took my desk top to the computer guy and he fixed whatever was wrong with it. It is alot faster than it was even though it is running XP. My laptop had Vista. It will take some adjusting to get use to using it again. My desk top has a 19" monitor so it is HUGE compared to the 15 inch laptop screen.

Gerry had picked up the laptop when he took the desk top in to the repair shop. When we went to pick up the desk top, we also took the laptop so the computer guy could copy all my stuff over to the desk top. We specifically told him to be sure to copy all my favorites. Well, unfortunately that didn't happen. So now I've got to figure out what all I had on there...that will certainly be a daunting task. Gerry is going to call him tomorrow and find out what happened.

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Here's what I made for dinner tonight:

Oven-Baked Chicken Parmesan

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 1/2 lbs)
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs
1 jar (26 to 28 ounces) Ragu Old World Style Pasta Sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400 deg. Dip chicken in egg, then bread crumbs, coating well.
In 9x13 inch glass baking dish, arrange chicken. Bake uncovered 20 minutes.
Pour Ragu Pasta Sauce over chicken, then top with cheese. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Serve, if desired, with hot cooked pasta. Serves 4.

I used 1 package of breast steaks. There were 2 pieces. If I make this again, I'll season the chicken a little. It was a little bland. I found this recipe when I was cleaning up in my craft room/office last week. It was okay...just needed some additional seasoning. I was going to cook some pasta, instead cooked rice. The rice didn't go very well with it. And we had more of the fruit salad.

I've got to get the software for my camera on the desk top then I can add pictures. I'm just thankful to have a computer to use again. :) Trying to do things on my phone was not the easiest and I wasn't able to use Gerry's laptop much...

Fiesta Cabbage

This is what I fixed for dinner tonight. I think maybe I have posted it quite some time ago.

When I was doing some cleaning in my craft room/office last week, I came across a bunch of recipes. Fiesta Cabbage was one of them. I found it in a Southern Home magazine.

Here's what you need:

1 package of Kielbasa Polish Sausage
1 head of cabbage
1 small red onion
1 bell pepper
1 - 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes

Slice the sausage and brown in a large skillet Take it out of the pan and drain on paper towels. Cut up the onion and bell pepper (I used a red one) and saute in the drippings from the sausage. Cut the cabbage up and add to pan. Mix it in with the onion and pepper. Put a lid on the pan and wilt the cabbage (about 10 to 15 minutes). Add the sausage back to pan along with the can of diced tomatoes. (I rinsed the can out with a little bit of water and added that to the pan). Add salt & pepper then mix everything together. Let it cook for about 5 minutes or so until everything is heated through.

I served it by itself. I had also fixed a fruit salad...fruit cocktail, mandarin oranges, pineapple chunks, mini marshmallows, coconut and cool whip.

The mixture probably doesn't sound very good...however, it is really yummy!! There is just a little bit left over.

Stormy Night

The rain continues to fall...

Yesterday it was pretty ugly...then in the late afternoon the winds picked up. At times it was blowing so hard, the windows would rattle. It was a little spooky. The paper this morning says the wind gusts were up to 49 mph late last night. We have a motion light on the back porch and it was on most of the time.

Sometime in the wee morning hours, the power went out. The light in the dining room has a remote control that turns the light on and changes the speed of the overhead fan. For some reason, when we lose power the light comes on when power is restored. It was on this morning. My clock radio said 3:58 am when I woke up about 8:30am.

The winds are suppose to be heavy again today although it looks pretty still outside right now. Rain is expected through the week too.

The weather service has issued flood watches for small streams and low-lying urban areas. We are not close to any streams that would flood over.

Well, it will be nice when all this stops and we can enjoy some consecutive sunshiney days...not just teasers every once in awhile.

New Computer?

Gerry got a phone call from the computer repair shop where we took the laptop last Friday. It seems the motherboard is the problem...so it appears a new computer needs to be purchased. I forgot to ask him about all my stuff that is on my laptop. Not real happy!!

He left to go to Sam's...he ordered new tires for the Nissan and they are in. He asked me if I wanted to go look at computers. It is raining and I didn't want to go out in it.

It has been raining since Sunday afternoon. There's been some breaks...yesterday afternoon it was clear. However, today it has been pretty steady. Supposedly rain is expected most of the week.

Being without a computer has been a sorta good thing...I've been doing some cleaning in my craft room/office...going through stacks of card samples I printed off the computer and magazines where I've tagged recipes. I threw out the magazines...I've got so many recipes that I'll never try them all in my remaining lifetime. Slowly I am beginning to see the top of my lateral file cabinet.

Back to my cleaning...

Today

The day started looking very gloomy. The sun came out for a little bit this afternoon and then it started raining, as predicted.


Remember I mentioned how we like to cut out coupons for restaurants around town...Gerry had cut one out for Chevy's. It was buy one entree at regular price and the second entree was $3.99. So today we drove out to Chevy's by the river. We've been to that particular one a few times. It was crowded and we ended up sitting at a small booth in a corner in the bar area. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to manage it, with short legs it is somewhat difficult to sit at anything that is high. Anyway, I managed it. We both had combination meals...I had a cheese enchilada with green tomatilo sauce and a soft carnitas taco. Gerry picked 3 items...a chile rellano, flautas and I don't remember what the other one was. We were stuffed.


After we left there we drove down the Garden Highway which turns into Arden Way. We decided to stop at Arden Fair and go for a walk. We have not been there in quite a while. The traffic moving through the mall area is always crazy. Surprisely enough we found a parking space close to one of the back entrances to the mall. The mall was packed too. We walked down one side on the bottom floor then walked back on one side of the 2nd floor. We stopped at one of the sporting goods stores and Gerry bought a couple of University of Texas tee shirts. The son of a dear friend of ours is a freshman there this year.


After we got home we sat at the breakfast bar, he at his laptop and me reading the paper. I checked my email off of my phone. I am getting more comfortable in figuring out how to do things on my phone.


I was looking over his shoulder as he read his FB posts and noticed one of his Bike Journal friends mentioning that she had been looking at digi stamps all afternoon. So I said to him "ask her if she is a stamper". He turned the laptop around so I could leave a comment. We commented back and forth and then he told me to go "friend" her. When I went over to my FB, she had already "friended" me. I'm not sure where she lives now...Gerry did tell me she was teaching school overseas for awhile, however is back in the states now.


I just cooked a little bit of rice...got hungry all of a sudden so I am going to have some of the leftover Kalua pork I fixed on Friday. It is kind of late to be eating anything heavy...oh well.


It sure seemed a little strange for it to be lighter later than usual. The time change always takes a little bit of adjusting to it.


Don't know when I'll get my laptop back. Hopefully we will hear something tomorrow about what is wrong with it.

Laptop Died

My laptop died this morning while I was reading my email. We took it to a repair shop after Gerry got in from his ride. They will call in a few days...probably by Monday and let us know what is wrong. :(

In the meantime I am using my phone. Not real easy to do.

The pictures and videos I've seen of the earthquake and tsunami have been horrendous.