Hi Happy! I have just sat down after a long day. I have brewed a pot of Tetley's tea; my shoes are off and my nightgown is on.

Friday was the opening of both dove and deer (bow) seasons; DH has been off duty since Thursday night. He goes to work tomorrow and then is off Thursday to take me to a Pulmonary appointment.

Between my bum knees, feet, and hands, messed up hip nerve, and breathing issues ( Lordy I'm a mess! ) it's getting difficult to drive 45 minutes to get to town.

DH offered to take me in this afternoon. He drops me off at the doors; it makes getting around much easier.

First stop was to pick up his new prescription sunglasses. Then we ate at a favorite Mexican restaurant. Okay, those two stops were easy. I stayed in truck for one and ate yummy food at the other!

Then a U-Haul shop stop for a bunch of boxes. I'm packing most of the books and crafting items from the sewing room. I want to make space in there to rearrange everything to help that room "work." I'm also moving the writing desk back in there from the living room.

Next up was Sherwin Williams. I still have not painted the old concrete bird bath to transform it into a Fairy Garden. I bought the paints and primer months ago. I wanted to take them back today so they could give them a thoroughly professional shaking before I start painting.

Dashed into Wal-Mart hoping to find the older style "Nature First®" hummingbird feeder. No luck. The older style has a wider base and large petal-shaped ports are molded into the top of reservoir. I want four more if I can find them.

By now my happy meter was pegging out and I still had two more stops. I decided Bed, Bath, & Beyond could wait. I ran into Lowe's and found a wooden toilet seat. I wanted black; but all they had was white. Good enough. DH just installed it and now I'm ready to kick back and relax!

Night-night all.

good for you! glad you cornered the mngr and got the sale price. stores do that all too often! I hate it also.

boy, the weeks just keep rolling on by... it seems that 1 day it's Mon and the next thing I know, the news is saying it's Friday! week after week!

i'm looking forward to cooler weather here in Az, in about 2 weeks. we just had a quick shower... we've had a lot of those lately and the weeds are getting as tall as I am. again. I pulled a bunch of them the past few days - where the washer water runs out. the dirt was softened up, so I started yanking on 'em. got a pile of them lying there dead now.

will need to work to the west of my back steps next. except no water running there to soften the dirt. I'll have to start whacking at 'em.

I ordered a new vacuum. cordless and light. my upright is more heavy duty for carpets. I no longer have carpet. my hand vac I use, but have to bend down by the floor, edges of room, furniture etc, cause with the long part on it, it has no suction. I decided I'd had enough of that and needed to do something different, with so much dog hair. I swear I looked under the box spring and saw another dog under there the other day! HSN had a pre sale of an upcoming TSV and after listening and watching for about an hour, I jumped on it. I convinced myself. if they lied, they'll get it back with a bad review. I did look it up on amazon and it was around 50.00 more there. good reviews.

and today, I used the hand vac and sucked that 'other dog' out from under the box springs... my girl sleeps on the floor right there, so while she's sleeping it seems that fur creeps away... I used the vac on her too today. She watched closely, in case she was about to be attacked.

caroline -

I wish I had a 'favorite' Mexican restaurant still. mine closed a yr ago last May 30th. My sister and I had been eating there for 17 yrs I think it was. Since 1998. I was so unhappy about that. I've tried numerous Mexican places within a 10-13 mile radius, but they're terrible. the one that took over the building of the old one, should pay people to eat their food. I won't go back. and I tried one that's a family 'chain' around here - well known and always busy. didn't like it either. There are a few more to try but they're over my 13 mi radius, so will have to wait til I have a doc appt close or need an xray/MRI type thing done. the one is close to my eye surgeon's surgery place, so maybe in Nov we'll try it.

and, I really limit my 'errands' now. a few yrs back I cut back from about 5 on a trip out (including quick pick ups/gas type ones), to 3. if desperate and felt ok, I could do a 4th, if a quick stop. but this summer I've been lucky to make it to 3. I've gone out 2 days in a row if needed to stay at 2-3 of them. I think it's been 4 days now since I've gone out. was gonna today but decided I was too tired. will try tomorrow.

I really have to force myself to go out lately. maybe it won't be so bad, when the heat gets down to around 90 or less. I hope it helps. I wish I could hire a 'driver'.

Anyone here grind their own hamburger? if so, what do you use for it? chuck roast? have you ever 'ground' it in a blender? I have a ninja - does a good job but I stopped too soon maybe. didn't want it to liquefy... and there were a few clumps in it. ick. maybe I should try a different cut?

I'm not much of a meat eater, but I do like some ground up beef in a soup I make, for meatloaf and for chili. I don't like what i'm getting around here, so thought I'd try 'chopping/grinding' it myself.

My mother used a meat grinder that attached with a wing nut. I think she used a wooden chair because the metal cabinets she had didn't have a lip that she could attach it to.

next try, i'm gonna let it go a bit longer - using just a small piece, and see what happens. today, I broke down and bought some ground round to use until I figure out what else to buy. the ninja does a good job of it, I might just need to play around with it a bit. or break down and buy a grinder. being not a big meat eater, I didn't want to spend more money for another gadget, that I might use every 2 months or so, to grind a lb of meat.

what I did last week, had no flavor.

A hand grinder shouldn't cost much. Look in the second hand stores first. They are more expensive new than I thought.

http://www.jcpenney.com/p/roma-manual-meat-grinder-sausage-stuffer/pp5004040175?pTmplType=regular&country=US&currency=USD&selectedSKUId=78114970018&selectedLotId=7811497&fromBag=true&quantity=1&utm_medium=cse&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=meat%20grinders&utm_content=78114970018&cid=cse%7Cgoogle%7C004%20%2d%20home%20furn%20leisure%7Cmeat%20grinders_78114970018&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhKzt0dmV1gIVD0R-Ch1X8ghZEAQYBCABEgIT1PD_BwE&kwid=productads-adid^206241217092-device^c-plaid^333878085022-sku^78114970018-adType^PLA

But I also see there are attachments that fit a mixer and now that I think about it, I think my mixer has a grinder attachment.

thx i'mhappy!

the hand one isn't a bad price. I'll have to look around and see what I could tighten it onto.

I know that they make the grinders for kitchen aide mixers - that I don't have. those are more than I'd spend on a mixer - I seldom use one anyone. even in the yrs I did a lot of baking, I didn't have one, I had a sunbeam.

could be I have something to hook it to - a printer stand? a piece of counter top i'm having put in a back room for things like scrap books, gift wrapping?

maybe on an amazon site it'd tell how thick the 'board' or whatever is needed to tighten it to. I'll look on there.

thx. that might even be easier than my ninja - I fear cleaning the blade in it - I cut my finger once on it. it is sooooo sharp! and it has 4 blades.

It would be at least a couple of inches. My table had an "apron" around it and although the table top was fine I couldn't get the two pieces of the wing nut onto the table top far enough to really hold it. I found a chair seat worked just fine. 'Course that was back in the day when I had plain wooden chairs with the wooden seat. By chance do you have a pull out bread board? That would work. The apple peeler things have a wooden 3 sided stand. Something like that would work. All you need is a flat space large enough to screw the bottom thingy up to the table so it's tight enough to hold the grinder steady.

my table is wood, but I'd be afraid of ruining the finish on it.

I did see one that's plastic - didn't really want plastic, but - it has over 500 reviews and has a 4.5 star rating (better than several metal ones I looked at). I was surprised. I read a bunch of them and people seem to really like it. it wouldn't be for massive grinding, but a lb of beef every 2 months wouldn't be much. they say it's easy to put together, operate, clean and put back together.

I'll probably go with that, for 30.00. sounds like a good deal and if I don't like it, I'll return it.

one reviewer said she had a metal one, but the little grinder wheels rusted, so she bought this one. I 'spect she didn't have a good one, or didn't dry it good, or both.

hopefully, this will work for what I need and I won't have to worry about cleaning the ninja double blades, or what the store puts into ground beef.

I did see some neat gloves on HSN - shark gloves I think they were called. they have steel threads woven throw, so a knife won't cut thru them. or a sharp tool - not that I'd take a chain saw to one... but I thought they might worked for changing and cleaning these blades. I got a nasty cut the last time I cleaned them. oh, and they'd be good for working around cacti - which we have out here, or picking up broken glass (I have a lot around the old place still).

I'll probably buy the grinder next month or so. I just bought a new vac, so I'd better not spend any more this month. I can easily get carried away shopping...

thx for your help, I'mhappy!

You could use a piece of cardboard on your table top to protect it. Or a cutting mat/board. Plastic. Just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Life gets too complicated sometimes.

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stef! You'll never guess what I saw!

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