What DO you drink...?!

Okay. In my last post I mentioned that I'm not a drinker, and I listed several very common drinks that I just happen NOT to drink. Today I thought I'd make a list of what I DO drink, in response to some shocked questions by readers (you know who you are...! And thanks for asking!)

1. Water: We have really good, cold water here in Nebraska, and ours comes directly from our well.

2. Tea (version #1): Sometimes called "iced tea," except we don't put ice in it, because we're too lazy to make ice cubes in our ancient refrigerator. A friend of ours insists we should bottle and sell our "Huebert Tea," even though we don't think it's particularly special. (wait a minute- yes we do. We think we have the best tea around!) Here's how we make it: Put some water in a small saucepan. When it comes to a boil, put a regular tea bag in it, cover, and let steep for a couple of hours or so. Pour it in a gallon of very cold water with a shy half cup of sugar and stir well. This is our "staple" drink for every meal.

These two comprise most of my drinking. But I also resort to the following on occasion:

3. Milk: The in-laws raise milk goats, so we use goat milk.

4. Juice: Cranberry, apple, orange, lemonade; as long as it's real juice and not artificial.

5. Tea (version #2): Also known as "hot tea." Sometimes black tea, sometimes chamomile tea.

6. Chocolate Milk/Hot Chocolate: Made with homemade chocolate syrup. Mmmmm!

7. Water with Lemon: This is what I usually order when I'm eating out. (The lemon makes the chlorinated city water more palatable.)

8. Lime Fizzler: Ginger Ale with fresh lime squeezed in it.

9. Gatorade: Usually in summer when we're working. My favorite flavor is "Riptide Rush."

10. And-- once in a while, a little bit of Coke or Pepsi, especially if I've made pizza for the meal. For some reason, Pepsi goes really well with pizza.

Why don't I drink coffee? Well, it's not for lack of trying. Coffee is the American "grown-up" drink (aside from beer). Everywhere you go that adults are gathered, coffee is being served, so I have tried to join the ranks, but I just can't get it down. Hubby will sometimes drink a small cup, and I will drink a couple of sips of it, but it's just too bitter for me.

Why don't I drink more pop/soda/carbonated beverages? They're just too sweet and syrupy, at least for my taste. Although, as I said, sometimes I do like to have some. And I don't drink diet kinds because artificial sweetener tastes bad and makes me ill. (Boy, I'm picky, aren't I?)

And why don't I drink alcoholic beverages? Umm, I think I'm afraid.... Besides, it smells terrible.

Sometimes I wish I could just be "grown up" and swig coffee and wine with the best of them. How do YOU manage to drink coffee? Do you have a favorite that is really good, that maybe I could try?

It's all about me......

I've been tagged by Carrie at ChocolateTheOtherWhiteMeat to write a list of seven random, interesting things about myself.

Good heavens. Does it take anyone else as long as it's taken me to come up with seven things?

So-- Here are Seven Random Things About Me, Maybe Interesting, Maybe Not

-- I play a four string guitar strung like a bouzouki. I don't play extremely well, but I know how.

-- I like to talk to people, but I never know what to say to start the conversation rolling.

-- I'm a terrible procrastinator: Oh no, it's time to make dinner, and I have no idea what to make. I think I'll just check a blog or two, to clear my head. Oh no! It's time for dinner right this minute, and I STILL have no idea what to make, and now it has to be something I can fix in five minutes. I wonder if I have any email. Oh no, dinner was supposed to be half an hour ago...AAAAACK!

-- In spite of #4, I am a pretty good cook.

-- I'm not a drinker: no booze, no wine, no coffee, no cappuccino, no diet Dr. Pepper. I'm waiting till I grow up.

-- I love babies, and I wouldn't mind having another one, in spite of the fact that I'm over forty.

-- Now that my kids are pretty much grown, I have no idea what I want to do with my life; and I'm distressed about it. I told Hubby, "I hadn't thought that far!"

I'm supposed to tag seven people now, so if you're reading this: TAG! You're IT!

a few of my favorite things.....

I told myself Thursday that I could post a Thursday Thirteen rant of 13 annoying things if I also posted a list of two good things for every annoying thing. Sort of a "two for one" thing. Why? Because all of a sudden one day I found that somewhere along the road I had begun seeing what was NOT in the glass, and my life became half empty. So now I'm working on purposefully thinking about good things. That doesn't mean I want to ignore or sugar coat bad things. I don't want to become dishonest. After all, there ARE some awful, annoying things in life. But I hope to change my focus. Here's to making the glass half full. Scratch that. How about a FULL glass, for a change?!

So, here are a few of my favorite things....

the way GuitarGeek uses his eyebrows
the way DrummerDude feels all sleepy/snuggly when I wake him up in the morning
MB3's muscles
LovelyDaughter's gentle ways
Hubby's smile
walking out to the mailbox
having a clean kitchen
christmas lights
stars at night
sitting by the fire
hanging out in LovelyDaughter's room with the windows open
hot chocolate and toast in the winter
fresh strawberries on New York Vanilla ice cream
sauteed broccoli and mushrooms
a full moon
using my pda
mineral makeup
my silver necklace
wearing brand-new socks
jeans that fit
figuring out the perfect violin interlude to play on the worship team
my MacBook
sitting on the floor when it's carpet
laughing with friends
being called by name
taking walks with someone and talking like mad the whole time
going on quiet walks to watch the sun set



There. That's 26 things, plus one for good measure. I can feel the level in the glass rising...

What are some of your favorite things?

Who?

Sample of conversation at our house:

MB3 (reading LovelyDaughter's t-shirt): Huh. "Leave Your Mark." Who's Mark?

Me (laughing): Mark got left behind.

MB3: Like, "Fire at will!"

Me: Poor Will!

LovelyDaughter: Duck, Will, duck!

(It was funny at the time.)

I wish, Wish, WISH, I had taken notes last night at supper. One of these days I will, and submit for your dining pleasure a round of GuitarGeek's commentary. Just swallow your mouthful first, so you don't choke.

Thursday Thirteen #6: Thirteen Things That Annoy Me

Thirteen Things about MomHuebert I had a different list ready to go, but LovelyDaughter and I were having a talk the other day and started commiserating and laughing about things that annoy us. And suddenly I thought, What a great rant list! So here you go: Thirteen Things That Annoy Me 1) "Pour" instead of "pore." As in, "He's pouring over his books." He's what? What's he pouring? I get a picture of someone dumping a pitcher of syrup all over a pile of open books. The word is PORING, when it has to do with studying. 2) "Loose" instead of "lose." As in, "Be careful not to loose your keys." What? Be careful to keep the keys tight? Oh-- you mean don't "LOSE" your keys. Yeah, I want to be able to find them. 3) "Prophecy" instead of "prophesy." Prophe-CY is a noun. The prophet gave a prophecy. Prophe-SY is a verb. It's what you do when you give a prophecy. [I guess I could have put these first three under one heading of "misspellings," or "misuse of words," but these are the ones the annoy me the most. Besides, one of my favorite t-shirt slogans I've seen is "Bad Spellers of the World-- UNTIE!"] 4) When people pull out in front of me, and slow down. There's no one behind me for miles, but the car coming off the interstate quickly pulls out in front of me, and then slowly drives across the overpass--in front of me-- and turns off at the gas station, while I'm fuming with impatience at having to hit the brakes and wait for them to turn. 5) Someone reading over my shoulder while I write. Don't look! It's not presentable yet! 6) Someone reading over my shoulder when I'm reading. Makes me nervous for some reason. Plus, if that someone reads more slowly than I do, I can't turn the page till THEY'RE done. Who's reading this, anyway? 7) When I say something to someone I THOUGHT was listening to me, and get no response. Talk to me! 9) Too many cats. What do you all want? I just fed you! Get out from under my feet! 10) Gratuitous bad language. An occasional strong word in a frustrating situation I understand. But a stupid bad word in every stupid sentence is just stupidly stupid. 11) The way sex is used to sell EVERYTHING. Does everyone have a one track mind? 12) The way someone will ask me about my life, and then proceed to interrupt me two sentences in and spend two hundred sentences telling me about THEIR life. 13) Fw: Fw: Fw: emails that shout at you with guilt-producing messages and then insist that you spread the annoyance by forwarding them to everyone you know. Yup--I forward them all right: To the trash! MUAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!!! Okay, that's my rant for the day. How 'bout you? What makes you annoyed? Oops-- Sniz says I forgot number 8. I guess I just missed it. Here it is: 8) When someone (usually a certain someone) insists on turning an ordinary conversation into a debate/argument by contradicting EVERYTHING I say. Stop already! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. bloggers 2. jenn 3. yh 4. Sniz 5. joyismygoal (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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"C" means "Compliment"

Monday was Girls' Day Out. It was LovelyDaughter's day off and she and I planned a week in advance to go out, just the two of us. We wanted to go to Kimmel Orchard and pick apples. They have a "U-Pick" option where you basically buy a sack, and then walk through the orchard and fill it yourself. It's a wonderful way to spend a beautiful fall day; and we usually come home with a great variety of apples to munch.

But, of course, you know what they say about best laid plans.

Before we left, we called the orchard, just to make sure all was well. It's a two-hour trip each way, so we didn't want any unpleasant surprises. And it was a good thing we called. We had forgotten about the early frost last spring that ruined our own apple and apricot blossoms. The nice guy on the phone told us regretfully that most of the crop had been destroyed. There were some apples for sale, if we still wanted to come, but no picking allowed. Rats.

Okay, Plan B was to go get our hair done. Big City (only an hour away) here we come. Well, we went to the Big City, but we didn't get our hair done. Couldn't decide where to go. Couldn't decide which haircut we wanted. We ended up with Plan C.

First, we went to Olive Garden, and ate:

It was wonderful. For not much more than fast food, you can have all the soup and salad and breadsticks you can eat. I'm not kidding. They refill everything as often as you want. Someday I'm taking our bottomless pits boys there to eat.

Then we went browsing aimlessly, usually known as shopping. Our favorite store to browse was the Health Food Store. In the soap aisle. It's the one place where I can enjoy smelling all the great scents without getting a headache. I can't even walk PAST a Bath & Bodyworks, believe me. But the all-natural soap aisle is a joy for the nose. Scents like Oatmeal Vanilla. Coconut Lime. Cassia Clove (cassia is code for cinnamon). Tangelo. And a really great one called something like Mom's Best Pure Soap that made LovelyDaughter think of clean babies and want some of her own. Yes, babies and soap, both. (The soap I can do. The babies-- I told her to take that up with God....)

I even bought some fancy soap ("Badger Healing Hand Bar-- volcanic pumice & birch: Fine Organic Soap; Good Stuff For Hardworking Hands") as a birthday present for Hubby's dad, whose B-day is today. Normally, we don't make much of birthdays around here unless it's our kids'. I told Hubby his dad earned a gift this year because of something that happened Monday morning before LovelyDaughter and I left for our big day.

Here's the story: Hubby's dad and mom dropped by in the morning to 1)pick some grapes from our vines, and 2)borrow the log splitter. They were standing outside with Hubby when I walked around the corner into the sunshine and suddenly I found myself the object of my father-in-law's scrutiny. He walked close to me with a big smile, put his hands on either side of my face and said wonderingly, "You're turning gray!" and he gave me a big kiss on the cheek.

I was taken aback. "Yeah," I laughed nervously. "I have tinsel in my hair."

Then he said, "It makes you look very dignified." And he kept smiling at me.

In my twenty-five years in this family, my father-in-law has NEVER kissed me before. (One time when he congratulated me on something, he shook my hand.) And you may be thinking it wasn't very tactful of him to mention my strands of grey, but he said it in such a way as to be one of the nicest compliments I've ever had. I still can't believe it. I think he likes me! So, like I said, he earned a birthday gift.

At the end of the day, LovelyDaughter and I came home tired in body, but refreshed in spirit. We had time to vent talk, and shop; we had a great meal; it was a beautiful day. And I had an unexpected compliment. Not bad, really for a Plan C day.

What's My Name?

Carrie at Chocolate The Other White Meat (I think she and I have something in common....hmm....) posted a list of interesting instructions on how to find out what your name would be if you were a rock star or a superhero or a TV anchor. Here are my favorite ones:

If I were a Rock Star, my name would be Sunny Z. [first pet + current car. The first pet was a cat I named Sunny, short for "sunshine" because he was coal black. And our current car is a BMW Z3, which I call the "Z." Makes for a cute name, I think.]

If I were a "Gangsta", my name would be Chocolate Chocolate Chip. [favorite ice cream flavor + favorite cookie flavor. Actually, my most favorite ice cream is Jamocha Almond Fudge, but that didn't make a very good name....On second thought, maybe it would make a really interesting name... Hello, my name is Jamocha Almond Fudge Chocolate Chip. Just call me JAFCC for short.]

If I were a Detective, my name would be Detective Burgundy Feline. ["Detective" + favorite color + favorite animal. Strange. I could have said "cat" instead of "feline," but that sounded so mundane. Detectives have to be a little glamorous, don't they?]

If I were a soap opera character, my name would be Kathleen Kansas City. [Middle name + city of birth. Doesn't really have a ring to it, does it? Now, my husband's soap opera name would be "Lee Lebanon," which I think has a great sound.]

If I were a superhero, my name would be The Green Tea, or maybe The Pink Lemonade, or maybe The Blue Chocolate Milk. ["The" + 2nd favorite color + favorite drink. I can't really make up my mind on this one.]

If I were a NASCAR driver, my name would be Donald Dwight. [the first names of your grandfathers. I kinda like this one. The funny thing is, it would be my daughter's NASCAR name too. Her grandpas have the same names as mine....]

If I were a-- well, it says "stripper," but I think I'll say dancer, my stage name would be Jasmine Dove. [name of favorite scent--"Night Blooming Jasmine" (a perfume no longer in existence) + favorite candy-- Dove dark chocolate = Jasmine Dove. Kinda catchy.]

If I needed a name for the witness protection program I would be called Kathleen Howard. [mother's and father's middle names. I like it.]

My TV anchor name would be Ellis Edinburgh. [Fifth grade teacher's last name + major city that begins with the same letter. Two comments: for a wonder, I just happened to be thinking about teachers I remember so I can actually come up with a name; and, how in the world do they come up with this stuff?]

And one more: If I were spy, my name would be Autumn Rose. [favorite season + favorite flower.]

I think I'm going to hang on to some of these in case I ever need another username or ID for a forum or an online account. This could be really handy. Maybe I should make up some of my own. Let's see, favorite insect + brand name of your stereo system = your radio announcer name. Or, no, how about...your favorite food + your cousin's maiden name = your opera singer name. This could be a good business. Pseudonyms while you wait.

Well, this is Ladybug JVC, signing off. Till next time....