Monday, August 4, 2008

Two Hours of Tennis Was Very Fun!

Yesterday Gerard and I went to a very nice neighborhood park not too far away from our home to make up for being stuck at home all yesterday afternoon. The tennis courts there are very nice without any cracks. Our first set took an hour because we needed a tie breaker at 6-6. Gerard won! I was having trouble putting the ball where I wanted it. The sun was bright and we took a water break in between sets. I won the second set 6-2 and so then we had to play a third set which is very unusual for us since I normally win the first to in an hour. Gerard was more tuckered than I so I won the last set 6-1. It was very fun though, but it got hot and we both wanted to get to some shade so we passed on the bocce ball and headed for the pond to read on the swing in the shade. Unfortunately, there is only one swing in the shade and it was occupied. Gerard settled for reading on the ground under a tree and I read in the car. It was a very pleasant day and it felt good to get out and exercise.

I got a headache from all that sun so watched "Death of a Cheerleader" and "Fab Five" on Lifetime when I got home. I enjoyed both those movies.


Sunday, August 3, 2008

Monkeys Helping Hands


This is an amazing video which shows how useful monkeys are. I received this in an email and wanted to share it with my readers. (This is not a video I made.)


Saturday, August 2, 2008

Out With Cox Cable and In with Direct TV


We finally decided to switch to Direct TV from Cox Cable to get the Sunday NFL ticket. That is the only reason we switched and I hope it's a good move. This is something Gerard has been wanting for a long, long time so I finally agreed when I saw a special advertised through AAA. I called on Wednesday and the appointment for insatllation was set for Saturday.

When I called Cox to tell them we were switching to Direct TV, they pretty much talked me out of it. They have really good sales people in the "Termination" Department. Following are the points she listed:

1. If something goes wrong with their box, we have to ship it in and will be without TV for days since they have no local office here.

2. If it's bad weather where the football game is being played, we may not got a signal so won't be able to see the game anyhow.

3. There's a 2 yr. contract we have to agree to with Direct TV that we don't have with Cox. That's because people want to switch back.
At this point I was having some second thoughts.

I then emailed a co-worker who lives up the street and has Direct TV to see how they like it. She told my then never had any problems with it and if they did lose the signal on occasion, it came back in just a few minutes. She told me they never had to go up to brush snow off it. So at this point, I was convinced to switch over.

I called Cox back and got David this time who was very nice but again who gave me a couple more reasons why I shouldn't switch:

4. They have to rewire everything so if you do want to switch back, you have to have Cox come out to re-install it.

5. It's a big, heavy satelite dish that weighs 45 lbs. on your roof. (So what?)
He was very nice though and said that if I want, we can wait to have them disconnet the cable until after the Direct TV is installed to make sure it's what we really want to do after we see how the Direct TV works. He said if we still want it disconnected Monday, that he won't charge us for the the weekend.

Then I called Direct TV and asked about the weather problem. The lady said it's a non-issue, that she's had Direct TV for 15 years and loves it. She lives in Florida and it's been through lots of bad storms. Knowing Gerard really wants this, I went ahead and kept the appointment I made.

Today the installer was supposed to come between noon and 4:00. Want to venture a guess what time he got here? It was 5:45 and that was after Gerard even called twice to find out what was going on. Of course, it was a beautiful day out and we had to stay home to wait for the installer. The installer is drilling another hole in my house for more wires as I type this and shaking my floor. The big satelite dish now sits on top of my roof, but at least it's in the back of the house. I hope the product is better than their service!

We're really looking forward to football season this year. With being able to see all the games, I'll be a nervous wreck pulling for the teams I picked in my office pool. Time will tell if this was a good decision or not.


Dining Out on Weekends (my 100th Post)

I am easy to please as far as eating out goes. I do not care for fancy, high-priced restaurants and Gerard, my husband, doesn't either. I think the most expensive restaurant we ever went to is The Olive Garden. Since we don't cook, on the weekends we usually go out to eat somewhere just for some variety. Here is the list of our favorite places to eat:

Golden Corral: This we both enjoy because of the wide variety of choices AND there's no waiting! Generally, we wait until we are hungry to go for lunch so once we arrive, we are ready for our food! I usually eat four to five plates of food and Gerard usually does two.

Hometown Buffet: This is another buffet place that is even closer to our home than Golden Corral where we can really chow down. Although I don't think it has as much variety as the Golden Corral and not as many desserts to from which to choose, it is more convenient and we are always full afterwards.

The Cracker Barrel: The first time we ever went to Cracker Barrel I think was on Sweetest Day. Thus, it has become a tradition of ours to go there on Sweetest Day each year. This is a real restaurant, but the decor is early American. There are wooden rocking chairs for sale, a small "general store" attached with all sorts of things from years ago such as old-time games, old-fashioned candy, some home decor stuff as well as more modern things such as Ohio State Buckeye apparel. On our first visit Gerard purchased a very pretty sweatshirt for me with a fall scene on it that has pockets! The food is delicious and the service is fast! They even have a checker board set up where we played checkers once and little hi-Q games at the tables you can play while you wait to be served.

CiCi's: Since I am a pizza lover, we order pizza every Sunday from a small neighborhood pizza place called Casamel's. We like it better than the major chains because it's not not as spicy. We limit ourselves to just two pieces each and then I take two to work for lunch on Monday and Tuesday.Sometimes though, we'll even treat ourselves to CiCi's on a Saturday. Again, this is a buffet but with only salad (which we usually skip), pizza and pasta, breadsticks and brownies and cookies. They have a row of pizzas out with different toppings--even spinach and macaroni! Gerard always counts how many slices I eat--usually around 6-8. He generally eats two but likes the breadsticks and cookies.


If we don't want to take much time for lunch and just want something quick, then we hit these fast-food places: Arby's, Subway, Wendy's, McDonalds. I love breakfast food any time of the day!

Yum, Yum!