Wednesday Hodgepodge

Happy hump day! Not a ton of detail this morning. I want to have the kitchen done at the end of the day, which means I need to have everything for David to move out ready when he gets home. Words can’t express how cool it feels to have one of my 9 targeted rooms, including both bathrooms, almost finished!

Now, on with the Wednesday Hodge Podge, courtesy of Joyce at From This Side of The Pond.

1. The first day of spring is here...do you enjoy working in the yard? Weeding, raking, mowing, planting-your favorite springtime garden chore? How about your least favorite?

I enjoy planting flowers. I enjoy it because it’s necessary for watching them grow! My physical problems keep me from doing a lot of lawn work. David and I are not home and garden enthusiasts at all. We keep the lawn treated and mowed and landscape, well we landscape enough that our neighbors next door and across the street, who are lawn and garden hobbyists with beautiful lawns, don’t throw things in our yard! ;)  My least favorite is pulling weeds. The only thing I like less than pulling them is looking at them in my flower bed.


2. What puts a spring in your step?

Sunshine. Feeling it warm on my skin just makes me happier than usual.


3. Describe a time when you had to spring into action?

I sprang into navigation action on a stormy evening in Atlanta in 2000, after I flew in that morning for a job interview. In the waiting area for the plane, we saw lighting hit the tarmac and the entire airport’s lights flashed off then on. Our plane with several others was still in the air and did not land. The airport was a mess for the whole weekend and I couldn’t get a flight until the next morning. I was going to have to sleep in the airport because I didn’t bring enough cash for a hotel room and they were filling up fast anyway. A woman scheduled on the same flight I was asked me if I knew the area well enough to get to a hotel if she got a room. We talked a bit and she offered that we could share a room if I could navigate the subway. It was a business expense for her. It worked well. She wasn’t searching all over for a hotel she couldn’t find and I didn’t have to sleep on the airport floor!


4. We're having carrots for dinner...would you prefer yours raw or cooked?

I’d definitely prefer raw and organic. The organic ones are just like candy!


5. Do you take the shampoos and other sundries from your hotel room when its time to check out?

Yes! I use them to travel with in case we’re in a hotel that doesn’t offer them, some of the small4r or cheaper places don’t. Also, everyone should take the shampoos and such. Did you know that shelters are always looking for little shampoos and soaps? If someone seeks shelter after an emergency or in the case of abuse, they usually have not packed toiletries.


6. What's the most enjoyable team or club you've belonged to and what was it that made it so?

My hockey team when I was 9 years old. It was enjoyable because we were girls playing ice hockey in the 70s. We were special!


7. Is cloning a sign of progress?

Depends what you’re cloning. Cloning athletes to make an unbeatable team, no. If they could clone healthy myelin cells from me and replace the spots where my nerves are bare, then it’s awesome progress, bring it on!


8. Insert your own random thought here.

I’m getting pretty good at this coupon thing. We’re averaging about $20 saved when we do the big shopping trips. That helps to make up for organic carrots and almond milk being more expensive than regular carrots and milk. We have a big grocery trip coming up soon and it’ll be Eater candy time! I’ve always regarded Easter as the candy holiday. Halloween is the pumpkin spice holiday! Gimme jelly beans, gimme chocolate bunnies! I got coupons for them!

Happy Spring 1st

Good morning Cyberpals! Happy Spring!

The high temperature yesterday was 81 degrees here, blowing the old record away by 3 degrees. We’re forecasted for two more days in the low to mid 80s…in MARCH! I’m over the flower sadness now and ready to just enjoy the warmth! Mid 80’s is the temperature in my fantasy paradise.


Global Climate Change. Hmm… I’m still not sold on cars and aerosol cans being to blame for the weather, not yet. Climate goes in cycles and just 2 years of bizarre weather doesn’t mean a permanent change. Even if warmer weather and more violent storms become the norm, I’m not so sure it’s all our fault. True that we haven’t done much to slow it down and we really need to be more ecologically conscious, but we weren’t here with our pollutants during the time of the great glaciers. Where I’m sitting right now used to be a solid piece of ice all year round. The climate does naturally change in big ways, always has. I suppose it would have been an alarming thing to be sitting happily on my glacier and suddenly the cable goes out because there is water in my modem from the glacier melting. I’m just sayin’. It could be the process of major global climate change that’s happened before. Still, like I said, we haven’t helped it slow down the process and conservation is a great idea. Major climate change is slow. The glaciers didn’t melt overnight and I doubt any of us will be fried to a crisp. But we need to do what we can to slow the process so there will be more future generations before they all have to swelter in parkas on an average Ohio 110 degree day in January because the hole in the ozone has made sunscreen ineffective.

Just suggesting to use reusable shopping bags and save the water in a jug while it’s heating up to make spaghetti in the kitchen, water the house plants or make coffee. We love our eco-ghetti! And recycle, recycle, recycle!

I have a really cool barn to share with you and liking to Tricia’s Barn Charm at Bluff Area Daily.

I saw this farm when David and I took a day trip last Sunday, March 11. It’s a beautiful farm, even with the dry remains of the corn field and look at the barn!

It’s on Ohio 423 between Marion and Waldo. I love the unusual color and the fact that the barn and house match!

This week’s prompt from Suzanne at The Coloradolady for Tell Me Tuesday at first glance should be easy for me.

What is the best part of your average day?

As an optimist, “the best” should be easy!

But, as an optimist the first thing I thought when I contemplated the question was, “just one?”

I could say “waking up,” and the best part of waking up is that Folders is NOT in my cup. And then I guess I could say the best part of any day is when I can paraphrase advertising and slam Folders in one sentence!

The thing is that right now I don’t have average days. I mean, I’m not employed. I clean and organize, write a sponsored post when there is one available. That’s my working day. The best parts are when I discover treasures in my boxes form relatives’ estates or when I rediscover something we thought we’d lost. There have been a couple of those.

I could also say the best part is lunchtime when I relax, read a few blogs and usually experiment with something in the kitchen, whether it’s the meal or a new drink concoction.


Then there’s later in the afternoon when Kaline visits me wherever in the house I am just for some attention. It's even better just before David comes home when they both visit me although that’s in part because it's “Fresh Kibble” time.

But I think truly the best time of the average day for me is when David comes home. It’s the “Honey I’m home” kiss I starting missing as soon as the warmth of the “goodbye” kiss fades. I like my alone time during my breaks during the day and Heaven knows that it’s hard to accomplish any cleaning or organizing if there’s anyone else with me, but it’s when my partner in life is home again and I can share what I’ve accomplished during the day with him that I can really say it’s been a good day.

Wow…I’ve been totally consumed by Donna Reedishness, huh? I wonder what Donna Reed would have blogged about?

Putting my apron back on…


Join us for Tell Me Tuesday for a prompt that makes you think a little. You might surprise yourself!

Meet Me in Marietta Monday with a Mug

Oops… It’s PM not AM and I’m finally posting Monday. It’s been a busy day, lots of phone calls, errands and White Tornado stuff. I’m working on the kitchen right now. That’s the toughest one to have done because it’s one of the rooms we use all the time, but the pantry cupboards are becoming wild confusion for the places I can’t reach. So, I’m recruiting my tall hubby to help organize those cupboards to have the less everyday things out of reach and the total everyday things, like soup, closer. I’m ready for lots of “shorty” jokes!


When I went out this afternoon I swear it smelled like summer! In fact, the record for the warmest day in Toledo history for March 19 was 78 degrees in 1921. Today it was 79 degrees at 6:00 PM! I’m happy to say I’m again part of Toledo history, but sad too. This winter was so awful for my flowers! This is only their second spring and perennials need the cold and snow to “rest.” Just like people need sleep to be their best. The crocuses bloomed way too early after our practically snow-free and mostly too warm winter and they just weren’t pretty like last year, not robust at all. March isn’t even over and the crocuses are all gone.

Friday - March 16, 2012

(Notice the withered remains of a purple crocus?)

Last year I took photos of the very first blooms on March 28. My gorgeous purple stripe crocus and the daffodils were in bloom April 10 and the rest of the narcissus joined in after the crocuses were done April 22. The narcissuses are all bloomed after yesterday morning’s rain and they just look weak compared to the photos last year. This is web-published, so feel free to come back to it and link me up to myself if I complain next January, but I really hope it’s much colder with a lot, a real lot, more snow. They say that after the nuclear winter there will be robust growth and there were definitely beautiful flowers after Snowmageddon!

Okay, there’s my crying over spilled petals. There will be fewer flower scrapbooks pages this year and the photos won’t show as much of spring’s splendor. I’ll concentrate on the older daffodils that predate me living here. They are more established and are much stronger on short rest!

April 10, 2011

Meet Me On Monday

And now I join the bloggers who share with Heather at Acting Balanced for Meet Me On Monday...only mine is Meet Me On Monday Night!

1. How do you like your eggs?
I prefer Egg Beaters, omelet style or as the Quichettes I talked about Friday. Oh those are so yummy! When I do get the mood for a yolky regular egg, I like them over medium, better if they’re overdone than underdone if it’s in a restaurant.


2. Who is the last person you spoke to on the phone?

David. Even though it’s his Sunday, he’s been monitoring the temperature for work so they can report it.


3. Do you have a place you keep 'junk' in your home?

Yes, our home. *See White Tornado Project


4. What is on your 'spring cleaning' list?

See answer for #3.


5. What blog post have you written recently that you'd like more people to know about? (don't forget to link it up)

I’ve actually been pretty happy with the hits to my blog since I started blogging daily during the week. I’ve become a regular reader of more blogs too. I don’t always comment but I still read. Although right now I have a bookmarked file I need to catch up!

If there is a post I wish had more attention, it’s The Main Event, from January 2009. It’s not so much that it needs attention, but I’d love to share it with my newer blog friends. It’s the post where I revealed to my cyber coffee shop regulars that I’d eloped.




Monday Mug Shot

Marietta, Georgia

When I was bound and determined to end up in Atlanta, Marietta was where I hoped to live. The visitor’s center is the old train depot and freight trains still run past it when you visit. I got to see a Piggyback train th3e first time I was there with my Mom in 1989. It was double cool because the construction company I worked for at the time got shipments of upgrade lumber from Canada via piggyback; semi containers already on the trailer ready to go from the rail car and be attached to a waiting truck. Yes, that was a vacation, but I liked trains anyway and it was an opportunity to see the headache I wasn’t having at work; “Piggyback, and I don’t care where it’s going!” They are very cool cars to watch!

I stayed in Marietta when I went to Atlanta on my own in 1990. That was the trip where I sat with a Headline News writer at lunch and talked. His advice to me was to enroll at Specs Howard Broadcast School when I get home and come back. I took that advice and a year later I was back. John came with me that trip because I had an interview with a production company in Marietta that did train videos and he wanted a trip with lil sis because I was about to become a 12-hour drive away and he wouldn’t see me as often. We stayed in the same hotel I had in 1990.

On the day of my interview, I drove John to the bus lot. He was going to go to Six Flags since I wasn’t a big theme park fan and he was, and I’d drive back after my interview and shop at Underground Atlanta a little before we met and got dinner in the city before we took the bus back to my car.

I thought the interview went okay. It would be a dream job, videoing trains all over the country as an assistant producer for the small company. I also knew I was really inexperienced and the job was a bit over my head as my first interview after broadcast school. When John and I met back up downtown I was excited to tell him about how the interview went. He had enjoyed Six Flags and told me about th4 roller coasters he’d ridden. He was 32 years old and put him near roller coasters and the inner child just blossomed! Then he gave me a plaque, which hangs on the open wall in our closet area today. There was a booth where you could get personalized plaques done and he had my very unusual name in wood letters next to a carousel horse, which I had a modest collection of at the time. SO perfectly me. It was to hopefully be my congratulatory gift. John always had more faith in me that I had, but everyone needs friends that can lift you up that way.

I called the company on Friday, just before we were leaving. I didn’t not get the job. They had done some number crunching and decided that the new position for which I had interviewed was one they would have to put on hold. They gave very positive feedback about my interview and welcomed me to keep an eye out because when they did decide to hire it, they’d post in the same magazine I’d originally gotten their address from and welcomed me to apply for it. They could have not told me where they’d post it and not said to apply. I took it as a good interview. I got a week’s vacation with a dear friend and one more week in Marietta.

Blog Defragging

Digitalegacies Designs’ One Step At A Time was inspired by the Jordin Sparks song

Last night I started putting this post together with the intent of scheduling it to post at 6 AM, which is usually right before I wake up anyway, even though my alarm is set for 7:05. The last couple of days I’ve been waking up around 7:30! It’s more sleep than I usually need, but if the body says “hit the snooze,” I’m going to give the body what it needs if I don’t have a pressing reason to be up earlier.

Yesterday was a weather mess! There were tornadoes up in Michigan and flash flood warnings all over. We had "take your pick” lighting; gray clouds, but give it a minute, look, sun! Unseasonably warm and just as you opened the windows, rumble.4rumble,” says the sky. Seriously, I heard ominous rumbling that shook the house with bright sunlight washing our street! All that sound and fury was going on in the afternoon and it didn’t rain until almost 10:30PM! Last night was a weather mess. It rained like the dickens, lots of rain, thunder, lightning and a little hail. The day in our part of Toledo started and ended with hail. Hmmm.

So far today the radar is clear and there is a little glint of sun showing, but that is scheduled to change this afternoon and become cloudy. We’ll see. I’ve come to think of weather as a gamble based on science rather than an actual science!

Follow Friday Four Fill in Fun Blog Hop

Every week Hilary at Feeling Beachie hosts the Friday Fill-Ins. This week’s co-host is Boca Frau who added the last two fill-ins.

This week’s statements:
1. I get my best ideas_____
2. When I am ___ I ___
3. When I have a cold, I like to_____
4. Watching a ____ move, can be ______.


My finished statements:

1. I get my best ideas when I’m trying to get a great idea. Seriously, I’m what I call a linear rather than lyrical creative. My best stuff comes from needing a great idea. Even my best scrapbooking ideas come while I’m working on a page and I just can’t put a page together unless I have the photos and journaling done first.

2. When I am bored I watch TV. I don’t watch a lot of TV! :)

3. When I have a cold, I like to drink regular Coke heated up in the microwave. A cup of Coke zapped for 60 seconds makes it sweet and warm with a fine fizz that massages the throat. For me with a cold it’s the ultimate comfort drink.


4. Watching a windmill move, can be very calming. Even the less classic looking wind turbines have a soothing effect on me.


Join us! It takes a few minutes to do the fill-in and a couple more to read the other blogs and see who thinks like you and who reads the fill-ins way different! It’s fun!

Friday Fragments

Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissin’ Time hosts Friday Fragments, a chance to defrag your blog by emptying those short things from your “To Blog” folder. I can’t be the only one that has a To Blog on my desktop. It’s an opportunity to post those things that are worth blogging, but just not big enough for a whole post. If your blog could use some weekly defragging, why not join us?


** Grandma crocheted mini afghans for the family cats. I have a bunch of squares she crocheted that I need to put together to make one for Carla. Grandma didn’t meet Carla but she saw pictures and said, “Guess I need to make another kitty afghan.” So, it seems appropriate that I use her squares to make one for Carla


** I was treading Ronalyn’s blog, The Adventures of Esa and Zed, last week. Zed lost his collar, his Washington Capitals collar. It was a big deal because his Capitals collar had his tags on it. When Ronalyn found the collar, Zed had located it and was sniffing it as if to say, “Mom, over here!”

Before she got sick, Azzie wore a collar with a bell and even a bow at Christmastime. I took the collar off for good when she got her paw caught in it when she had a seizure. I worried that it could have broken her front leg. But Az loved her collar and even the bow.

Years before when I had gotten Ritchie, a black cat, his red collar with the rhinestones on it, he strutted around with his head up and showed it off to everyone. I think it was his badge of “I’m not an alleycat anymore; I’m a loved housecat now! When Ritchie died and Pop buried him, he took his collar off and gave it to me to remember him. It’s still in my box with memorial prayer cards and keepsakes.

When Kaline was a kitten, I got a less expensive collar without a bell in blue for her as a “training collar.” I planned to move to a nice navy blue collar, so with her orange coat she’d sport Detroit Tigers colors, with rhinestones and a bell when she was adult size. She hated the collar with a passion unknown to any cat before her. She unhooked the collar numerous times before it was finally lost for good. I think she hid it in the basement somewhere. She won. When we moved to Toledo and Chester and Baggle didn’t wear collars, I knew our sweet baby girl would never wear accessories. She’s 6-1/2 now and has never worn a collar since she was a kitten. And she really never wore that one either.


** We had an issue Sunday about warm vs. hot and iced vs. hot coffee. David got me an iced coffee because I “usually have iced coffee when it’s warm.” Huh? It was in the 60s Sunday. NOT iced coffee weather! I love that he remembered that I sometimes go iced in the summer, but I only have iced coffee for my first coffee of the day if wake-up temperature is near 80! I even have hot coffee with breakfast on days that hit the 90s if they start off at 75 or below. Any other coffee drinkers want to chime in? What time of day or time of year is iced coffee time?


** I’ve been in a bit of a cooking mood lately. Thursday dinner was Froot Loop Chicken. Moms, Grandmas, this is a simple recipe that is a good kid idea! I used chicken cutlets, but chicken strips work too. Dip them in egg or egg substitute, the coat them with Froot Loops that have been ground into crumbs in a food processor. I use my little 2-cup chopper. Bake for 20 minutes at 400. Tasty and fun!

Froot Loop Chicken -

(Don't be concerned, the salad and raw carrots had a separate plate!)

I got the idea from the fried Captain Crunch chicken strips at Planet Hollywood about 15 years ago. Froot Loops are similar in taste and just more fun!


** New music ot The Chronicles of Nani includes some more upbeat, springy stuff, including One Step At A Time by Jordin Sparks. No question that since hearing that one the first time it easily rates in my top songs of all-time list! I just love it from the lyrics to the feel of the melody to that incredible dress she wears in the video! It’s an all around total package of great music!


Okay, blog defragged for another week! :)

Thursday Thoughts

Good gloomy Thursday! All right, it’s gloomy in Toledo, but the sun always shines in Cyberspace, right? I guess it’s not so sunny if you have a cyber-nightclub, but in this cyber coffee shop, it’s always sunny.

I was awakened in the middle of the night by a flash of light and a breeze coming in the open window. It’s not a vivid memory, I sleep soundly, but I recalled it when I looked outside and saw wet pavement this morning. I remember hearing the rain start and saying to David that he should probably close the window. The window is on his side of the bed. Only, David wasn’t there. He’d gotten up for some reason and was coming back into the room and made a comment about “fat raindrops.” I said it sounded like hail. He looked out the window and studied the downpour. He confirmed it was hail and it was coming down hard, making a lot of noise on the metal roof on the enclosed porch off the bedroom. I asked him where Carla was because she gets scared from the sound of rain on the metal roof and the hail was very loud. He said she was downstairs…and that’s the last I remember. I suspect if there was any more conversation, I was talking in my sleep.

Remembering dreams from the middle of the night is much more interesting than remembering reality when the weather wakes me.


Yesterday was Pi Day, 3-14! To celebrate, for lunch I made a perfectly round, and perfectly fat-free, pizza Pi!

A full Pizza Fit ‘n Free is a perfect fit for my new 8” plates!

Pizza Fit ‘n Free  is fat free pizza that tastes just fabulous! The pizzas are shipped with very tasty sauce and the fat free cheese. I added a strip of turkey bacon and a couple spoons of sautéed onions and bell pepper. There is just a trace of fat in the toppings and it adds just enough to make the cheesy gooey. A plain cheese pizza if still great, but the cheese doesn’t get so gooey without the trace of fat the sautéed veggies and turkey bacon added. It was fantastic and a whole pizza id s just 6 WW points!


Since I was going to be preparing the toppings for my pizza, I went ahead and chopped the whole onion and bell pepper, as well as cooking three more slices of turkey bacon to make Quichettes. They turned out great!

Real simple recipe too!

Ingredients

3 strips of turkey bacon cooked medium crisp and cut into squares
1 diced bell pepper
1 diced medium onion
1 tsp. margarine
1 piece string cheese, diced.
1 cup Egg Beaters
2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

Sauté onion and pepper in margarine. Mix cooled bacon, onions and pepper with string cheese cubes and Egg Beaters. Add Parmesan cheese and stir until blended. Pour evenly into sprayed 12-cupcake tin. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes 12 Quichettes



Remember my mug cake recipe?  I made a very tasty variation. I omitted the cocoa and used 2 Tablespoons of raspberry jam in place of half the Splenda.

I admit it’s unquestionably uglier. I suspect the raspberry and almond flour combination is what made it turn grayish teal. But for the taste, I accept it as a yummy blue raspberry cake!  Next time I'll add a drop of blue food coloring so I can know I meant to do that!


Okay, so there’s the new “what’s cookin’” stuff. How about something old?


Here’s a neat little piece.

It’s a pin that looks like it was never taken off the paper it was displayed on. It says “souvenir of Newfoundland" and on the back of the British Flag the hand is holding has Great Britain engraved on the back.

detail

Newfoundland was originally part of Great Britain and became the tenth province to join Canada on March 31, 1949. So, this pin is at the very least that old. It was in the box with the trinkets Papa bought back from WW2 and Newfoundland was one of the places he was stationed for a while in the early 40s. I read several postcards he sent grandma in 1941 and 1942 which would have been when he was 18, shortly after he enlisted and when Grandma was still in high school. So my best guess is that it is from the very early 40s.

See more unusual and common vintage pieces at Vintage Thingie Thursday, hosted by Suzanne at The Coloradolady.

Links

Pizza Fit N’ Free

The Coloradolady