What's Your Favorite Comfort Foods?

We’re now in the middle of the winter and we’ve had some pretty cold weather. It hasn’t been as bad other places in the US but the DC area still has it’s chilly moments. I was wondering what are some of your favorite “comfort” foods for the winter? They can be full meals, entrée’s, side dishes,, snacks or drinks, whatever gives you that warm feeling inside. Feel free to give the recipe’s too!

A New Way To Grocery Shop?

Have you been to Giant Food lately? What do you think of their new log and colors? Dani came back from college and didn’t like the changes. Have you tried the new Scan It devices that the have at the front of the store? If you’re not familiar with these they are a handheld scanners they you scan and bag as you shop with a running total on how much you’re spending and saving.

I decided to try this new gimmick last week. I logged in with my phone number at the front of the store, picked up the scanner the display told me to take and then away I went a-shopping. I usually start in the fruit and vegetable area and then move through the dairy aisle. I ended up with about 20 items in my cart, and knew exactly how much I was spending. “What a great way to shop”, I thought.

My first issue was when I went to the cashier line to check out. I didn’t realize that I was supposed to bag my groceries as I put them in my cart. I was holding everyone up while I was bagged my items. After a few more trips back to Giant I have found a few other issues that I have with this new system. As I now go up and down the aisles it seems as though shoppers are bagging the groceries in their carts and not paying attention as they block the aisles. It’s tougher to get around these people, they are preoccupied with their little scanner and groceries. I also have come to detest the little “Ca-ching!” sound that the scanners make when you scan an item. Everywhere around you, you hear “Ca-ching” throughout the store.

I’m sure that the learning curve will take a little time and people (and I) will start getting used to them and using them properly, just like the self checkout lines that most people have acclimated themselves with. Ah, progress.

My Sunday

Yesterday was a crazy day! I was honored to be a guest soloist at Fairfax Presbyterian Church for both services. I sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing for the early service and The Lord is Beautiful with their choir for the second service. It was a song written in Swahili where I did a call and the choir answered, it was a lot of fun. Maybe I can get my choir to sing it.

While I was at Fairfax Pres. Dani and Barbara were at our church, Grace. Barbara was singing at both services with club 456 a youth group made up of 4th, 5th & you guessed it, 6th graders. We all met back at the house after our services and Dani and I took Barbara and her friend Sage to a 456 meeting at 2:00. We stopped at Einstein’s Bagels for lunch and they were out of about everything. After dropping the girls off at their meeting Dani and I drove to Dulles airport to pick up her roommate Rebekah. Rebekah was traveling back from Texas where her family moved last summer. My brother Bill went with us so we’d have two cars. Once Rebekah landed she and Dani left for Shenandoah University and Bill and I came back to Springfield to pick up Barb and Sage.

Sage’s dad called asking if Barb could go to the movies with them. They were going to take the bus so I offered to drive them all and drop them off. On the way back home I stopped off at Giant for groceries and as I got to the parking lot my brother Bill pulls up. We decided to go and have dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Burke. It had been over ten years since I had been there and it was still pretty good.

By the time I made it back home Barb was getting in. She finished her homework, I did some laundry and off to bed.

What I Did Over My Christmas Vacation

For those of you who don’t know my Lady, here she is.

First of all, I didn't take a Christmas vacation.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Mine was nice, busy and a bit relaxing all at the same time.

Dani and Barbara left for Florida on December 22 to visit their mom and her husband for the holidays. Mary’s parents have also moved to Florida so they were able to see them as well. As a bonus, Mary’s sister Linda was visiting so it was a close to a Payne Christmas as you can get.

While the girls were gone I helped to lead the Longest Night Service at my church. It’s held on December 21st (the longest night of the year) and is for those who may not be feeling the Christmas spirit. There were people who, over the last year, had lost loved ones, their job or had any other issue that kept them from feeling the spirit. It was a very moving service with a lot of music. We had our choir director Scott, good guy, and three other friends singing.

On Christmas Eve I sang at both of the services at Grace Presbyterian. I was fortunate enough to be asked to sing a few solos at each, Who Comes This Night & Gabriel’s Message. Scott accompanied me on guitar and they went pretty well. After the services I went to some dear friends, Dave and Janet Little, for a Christmas Eve party. The food was great but the company was even better.

Lady and I got up Christmas morn and started cooking dinner for my family who was coming over at 2:00. 2:00 came quick enough but I was able to have the food ready by then. I usually cook a turkey with all of the good stuff with but this year I decided to cook a roast. I still added a few of the “turkey dinner” sides. My folks, brother Bill, sister Diane and her husband Brian and daughter Betsy all made it for dinner and then we exchanged presents afterward. It was very nice and I was zapped by the time most left. My brother Bill hung around and we decided to head downtown to see the National Christmas Tree. It is a tradition with the girls and me but since they were basking in sunny Florida Bill and I decided to keep the tradition alive.

We made a good choice in bringing Lady with us, that dog is a chick magnet! The place was more crowded than I can remember in the past years and there were a ton of women who wanted to have their picture taken with her. Of course I had to be petting Lady when they took the shots so I am in every one of them. I overheard the majority of them walking away saying something about Photoshop and cropping pictures. Not sure what that means.

On Saturday between the holidays my friend Leanne and I went to the Kennedy Center to see A Night Of Andrew Loyd Webber Music. There was a full orchestra on stage and six Broadway singers including Liz Calloway who Mary and loved in Baby. The concert was great but I know friends who sing good enough to have been in the show. They know who they are.

Since the girls were gone for almost all of the Christmas vacation I decided not to take time off of work except for Christmas Day. I got a lot of work done at the office and it was pretty quiet there. On New Year’s Eve I had dinner with my brother Bill at Metro 29 Diner in Arlington. If you haven’t eaten there you should really give it a try. It’s as close as you can get to a New Jersey or New York diner in Northern Virginia.

After dinner we went to my parents house where my sister and her family was. We quietly celebrated midnight with Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest and my family and then went home. On New Years Day I help my boss and friend Doug work on his house since we are moving our offices there within the next three weeks. We were able to get a lot of good work done but there’s still a lot more to do.

My girls got back home on Friday afternoon and we celebrated our Christmas that evening. They seemed so glad to be home and I know that I was ecstatic that they were back. Saturday was chillin’ out day with my folks and brother coming over to give the girls their presents. We stayed home and played a game of The Office, I don’t care how often you watch the TV show some of the questions were still hard.

Sunday was back on the regular church schedule, two services. The girls were pretty tired so I drove them home in-between the services so they could rest while I went back to sing the second. After church I was actually able to do some house cleaning and made chicken stir-fry for dinner. And here it is, Monday, all of the holidays are over, time to put away all of the decorations (kept them all out because of the girls getting home so late) and enjoy Dani as much as possible before she takes off for school again on Sunday.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and may God bless you in 2009.