Wrapping Up January With a Bow

From Holiday Elegance by RK Designs

Happy end of January! Man the first couple of months just seem to fly by, don’t they? It’s not time itself speeding though, not really. I always think, “yikes, fast!” at the end of January, but by the end of the year I think back and January seems so long ago. I think it’s just that everyone is so busy planning their projects for the year and making and breaking resolutions. It could be too that I am busy trying to break the mid-winter doldrums and that accelerates the time. Whatever the reason, I really don’t mind if the winter passes a little faster.


Speaking of the Weather

I have been watching, reading and listening with all the empathy I can muster as my friends and family in the states that have been hammered so bad with snow this year. One thing I NEVER did was giggle because it wasn’t us, which is what David says is the reason a major snow is coming through again and making a point of stopping in Toledo. Oh, he knows it’s not me, but he also knows there are people who laughed because it “missed us again.” Well, this time we’re gonna get it. The snow is supposed to start tonight, with 1-3 niches expected. Then Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday all day, we’re expecting up to a foot by Thursday morning! They are calling for wind too, making near blizzard conditions. :( Nani doesn’t like snow!

I’ve already canceled my afternoon therapy for Wednesday and Rapid LLC is scheduled to do driveway scrapes tomorrow morning and Wednesday night so David can get in and out for work and then the full plow-shovel-salt after it all stops. I am entirely blessed to already be on the regular customer list with Rapid. I won’t be scrambling all over trying to figure out how we’ll ever get out of the house before March while David is trying to dig a tunnel to his car. Whenever possible, proactive is the way to go!


A Black Eye

No, that’s not a metaphor for anything. I have one! I can’t tell you how much I DO NOT fancy this becoming an annual thing! If you’ll recall, last January I did a number on the left side of my face with a fall. This year, Thursday, I stumbled on some shoes by the door and couldn’t regain any balance. I fell face first into the corner of the refrigerator, putting a gash in the side of my face with the hinge on my glasses and leaving the right eye pretty well blackened! I didn’t hurt anything else, in fact, some of the things that are sore seemed to loosen up a little, but the shiner is so ugly! Yeah, I look tough, no one will mess with me, but I’m a people-person! The scary look just doesn’t suit me!


MRI Results

So Friday I went to therapy in the morning and my appointment with the doc to discuss the results of the MRI, sporting my new colorful eye. Well, see the back and eye are related like every other issue is related to the back. What makes me so unstable and makes me fall is the disk trouble and subsequent nerve trauma from more than on troubled disk! After doing some research and talking to some people who’ve had back surgery, I knew what I wanted. The doctor kept talking about pain management and steroids and I’d rehearsed my line. My Idea of pain management has no drugs – I’m in pain, I’ll manage. Except that I’m really not in pain. My pain is mental, I’m frustrated because I’m too weak and too unstable.

My first thought was happy and victory when the doctor came in holding the MRI results and said, “Well, we need to get you to a neurosurgeon for a consultation." Then it kicked in. If my steroid-advocating doctor is jumping to surgery, it’s bad! I’m waiting on the call-back from the Neurologist to set up an appointment for the consultation. There are several disks that range from deteriorated to herniated and screwed up nerve endings to go with them. Beginning with the end in mind, I’m ready to begin the six months of rehab after surgery. Then the surgery word hits me. Wow. Scary stuff. I’ve had oral surgery, but I’ve never been unconscious while someone carved me up before.

Well, right now is the consultation, finding out what insurance will and won’t cover and figuring out what I can afford that they don’t. This is big and I don’t want it done half way! So, I’m going to take it one day at a time, says the recovering ibuprofen addict.


Flying Grocery

The definition of “flying grocery” USED to be that I’d stumble to the door, sore from grocery shopping, and toss the bags in the house, hoping I didn’t break anything I’d forgotten I’d bought that was fragile. As of last week, Flying Grocery is how my groceries come to me without being tossed anywhere! I’ve been getting sorer quicker lately and David will get any groceries I put on a list for him except fresh produce! Most of what I cook, what I eat is fresh produce. So I did a search for grocery stores or markets that deliver locally and found Flying Grocery, a small service company in the Toledo area.

I expected the prices to be high or for a large delivery charge for that kind of service. I was so pleased! Delivery is $5.00 and the prices are so slightly higher than I pay when I hobble in on my own. The delivery charge is waived for the first order, so I figured I’d take a chance. I selected a delivery time, between 5 and 6, when I knew I’d be home. At 5 minutes past 5 there was a knock on my door. The owner of the company made my delivery herself. She refused a tip and instead gave ME a bouquet of flowers as a thank you for the business. The produce was all but perfect! Instead of the easy to grab bag with red delicious and granny smith apples with oranges, I got gala apples, my favorites, bananas and Bartlett pears. I also got a cantaloupe that is still making your refrigerator smell like a piece of Heaven with one piece still wrapped up on the shelf. I got beautiful, crisp and unblemished bell peppers in 4 colors, cucumber, celery and a bag of salad plus a bag with some beautiful zucchini. I got a couple of other things too, some lunch meat, a couple frozen dinners and egg beaters, to try out the non-produce part of the service too. Flying Grocery is a godsend now as I’m sure it will be through surgery and recovery for my back.

Let me add another thought, if you are in the Toledo area, imagine going on vacation and submitting a grocery order from your computer that will be delivered the next morning instead of trying to scramble to fill the cupboard and refrigerator after your plane gets in or after driving all day so you have basic lunch items for work and school the next day. With Flying Grocery, it’s that easy! I can think of a ton of great reasons you might use this service on occasion, sick kids, major project at work, anything that would have you picking up dinner on the way home instead of cooking a healthier meal, and in the long gun, more expensive than the delivery price.

I’m getting ready to place this week’s produce order, but for Friday, after the snow.


Okay, January blogging is a wrap! Back to school!

Links
Rapid LLC, Toledo snow removal and more!
Flying Grocery, awesome grocery delivery service in Toledo, Ohio

Success Faster Than Good Intentions!

David and I went to Paws and Whiskers yesterday. Lacey found a home and it was time to sponsor a new furbaby to try to help it find a home. “One cat at a time,” that’s our usual motto. We sponsor and I blog, post on Facebook and we bring our sponsored kitty up whenever appropriate, whenever we can. Yesterday there were two that we liked and I guess David would tell you I gave him “that look,” when I said, “Can we do two?”

There was a reason to sponsor two, a great reason!

Let me tell you about Cami.


Isn’t she just beautiful? She’s a classic tabby with the colors of just about all the tabby cats! Cami is estimated at between 1 and 2 years old and was in a home for a while, but the little boy there developed and allergy to her. She is a pretty new addition to the Paws family and is a shy girl. When we opened her cage to pet her, she let us, but only after reaching in because her first reaction was to cower away. With the right person, she likes to be held and her motor does get running if she’s held close.

I got a phone call earlier this afternoon. Cami was adopted today! Imagine the smile on my face, just the day after we sponsored her! The Paws volunteer told me it was oddest thing with Cami because she’s so standoffish, but when her new parent held her, she nestled in right away and stared purring right there in the shelter. THAT was a match that was just intended to happen, huh?


We also met an sponsored Mittens yesterday.


Mittens was brought to Paws at 6 months old last October. When David entered into the cat cages area at Paws, Mittens started calling him right away. He wanted David’s attention. He had something to tell the man who he saw eye to eye with from his top level cage. Now I’ve said before that shelter cats don’t purr, and for the most part that’s true, but Mittens purrs! David scritched him between the bars and he purred and cuddled.


When we opened the cage, hoping to maybe hold him, he backed off. He was a little leery, but he still purred when we pet him. Mittens was born to a stray, but he was very friendly and he could be picked up and petted. The people at the home where he lived outside thought he could adjust well to being an indoor cat and brought him to Paws to find a family and a home. He craves the attention of humans, but is still a little skittish outside of the cage around the other cats. He may be a good candidate for a one cat home, but that’s what they thought about Carla at first too. Integrating her was NOT automatic, but she and Kaline chase all over the house now and all three of our kids sack out together on the bed upstairs. Some cats take a little more special care to integrate than others.

If you are in the Toledo area, or not a far drive from Toledo, and looking for a furry companion to give you love, won’t you consider this handsome, neutered and friendly young man?

Links:
Cami's Page at Paws and Whiskers
Mittens' page at Paws and Whiskers

I Need a Break

Yeah, I know, “What? Already?” It’s just that 2011 has started off with so much, so fast!

Of course, there was the sad part, losing Kendal and then hearing about Tom on the same day. Well, you know I was a bit of a wreck. But, my faith is strong. I’ve had my personal periods of mourning, my alone time to meditate and accept. Kendal’s funeral was huge, as can be imagines for someone so young who fought so hard and inspired so many. I have experienced twice what I had long thought was the most gut-wrenching sight at a funeral, a pregnant woman crying. One carried the child of the man being laid to rest and was a good friend of mine, the other was Deanna just a few weeks before Tori and Rina were born at my Grandfather’s funeral. In both cases, my strength faded and the tears came freely. Greater than my own loss or feelings, was the pain of what the future would not have to hold.

I thought that was the most poignant example of human pain I’d ever witness until the night I was at Kendal’s viewing. At the end of the evening, a large group of her friends came two or three at a time and gathered by the casket, holding each other, heads bowed, some tears, some just holding on so tight. THAT was both beautiful and painful to watch. That show of love for Kendal and support for each other by her friends. The way it happened spontaneously. Teens are in their invincible years. When a disease can attack one of them, take her from her family and her own future, take her from her friends’ future, they are all robbed of the joy of those immortal years and forced to accept the sobering reality of mortality. I think that especially stings in me because I love teenagers. I worked with them many years at Omnicom. I think they deserve a few years of careful immortality.

I’m still reading my cousin’s posts on Team Kendal. Part to share in the celebration of her life and part to make sure he is doing okay. Love and courage are two things that grow when they are shared. Kendal derived strength from her parents and brother and gave it too. In reading the memorials on Kendal’s Facebook page, she shared that with her friends too. The family and her friends, in time, will all be okay. Guardian Angel Kendal says so!


Of course, everything good and bad all happens at once! School started the week of the funerals. This semester is all online classes, but I added to my class load, so I’m juggling and sorting files to get myself focused correctly. My XML class is assignments due every week and my Imaging class is two weeks of work due every two weeks. I have things pretty well organized now. I have to be honest, the imaging class is a little boring right now. The beginning of the Photoshop CS5 book reads like it was written for someone who’d never even seen an Adobe interface before. If I had bought the software and the book to help me learn the new tricks since Photoshop CS, the most recent one I have on my Mac, I’d have skipped the first few chapters and gotten right in to the good stuff. ::sigh:: But as a student I have to read the chapters, know the vocabulary and do the exercises. My fellows scrapbookers will chuckle at the idea of reading in a book, “layers are a very powerful tool” The thing is that was peeking a couple chapters ahead. I just finished “how to open and save a file!” I need this class for the web design certificate. But I hope the first test is multiple choice so I don’t have to come up with words that don’t start off, “what worked in 1997 and still does today..." hehe

The XML class is pretty cool, all new stuff, well, newish, different code, but similar in many ways to HTML. I just like writing code and opening it a browser to see a cool page. It’s like unwrapping and unveiling a present.

I’m doing better and better in therapy, but sorer and sorer outside of therapy. I try, I really try, to NOT take the super-charged ibuprofen prescription I have, but it doesn’t do any good. I do the therapy stretching exercises at home, they actually can be hard to get started, but then they feel so good! Still, I can’t function well without the anti-inflammatory effect of the ibuprofen and forget about trying to sleep without it. I hate that, feeling like a junkie, gotta have my drugs! Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be going to the hospital for an MRI on my back. About time, huh? It’s really a toss-up with me whether I dislike drugs or health insurance companies more. We’ll see what happens after the MRI If the insurance company okays fixing me, the drugs are worse. The insurance company might even be deemed good if they okay surgery or whatever it takes to make me okay. I don’t know if one can get addicted to ibuprofen, but I’m fearing addiction because it’s something I’ve had to take every day for the last 6 weeks. Too much!

Okay, let’s finish this blog off on a happier note, shall we? I’ve been working hard on scrapbook pages, Lots of templates used, even one quick page. Yes, I do Darlene’s Clutter It challenge at The Studio every month and I have used a couple clutter-it kits, but this one was a freebie page:

Credits: QP by Pixiepics & Scraps, using Snow Princess by Rainamoon Scraps

(Click name in credits to go to blog for QP)

Isn’t it cool? I seldom use quick pages and I always doctor them up. But this one just struck me as perfect for these photos and the only thing I added to the layout was journaling. I had originally done a layout for these photos at the Monday Night Chat with Ambowife at The Studio. It was the “paper-only” layout. I liked my layout from chat, but Pixiepics’ quick page was just better. It was there for me to find. Needed to find it!

I am getting a couple or three done a day. I’ll finish up Kelly’s visit in early October tonight. Then 7 more to finish the month. Yes, I know. Today is January 20. I hope to have all my Imaging homework done by tomorrow night. I’ll be huffing and puffing, but I still think I can get 2010 done by the end of the month.

Okay, now back to school. I’m learning how to find a file using the browse button!

Let's Talk About The Weather

I hope everyone in the East has power, or a backup generator, and is successfully digging out today. It may surprise readers, but I’m just not a big fan of snow. If you’re a regular at this cyber-coffee shop, you are wide eyed at my sarcasm there saying, “NO! Nani, really? You don’t like snow?”

My Georgiagander pals, Jeff and Jeanne were snowed in for days. Georgia just doesn’t know what to do with itself when it gets serious cold and then SNOW! Jeanne is a teacher, so work was closed for not a snow day, but more like a snow week! Crazy!

We had a few inches here in Toledo too. Nasty day, Tuesday was! Yes, back to Nani hates winter. Ya know, I’m not much of a hater, just a few things: Snow and spiders. I’d rate them about equal except that snow has one saving grace – snow will freeze a spider to death. Spiders don’t do anything to snow, so since it does do one thing worthwhile, I guess I’d have to admit I don’t hate snow as much as spiders. Okay and every time anyone mentions spiders, including myself, I do a ceiling scan. I don’t apprehensively look out the window at the mention of snow. Self-analysis saves on therapy bills.

Yesterday, in all that snow on the ground, was therapy day for me. Our plow guy, Rapid LLC in Toledo, sent me a text Tuesday night asking if I’d want snow removal on Wednesday. Yes, he wants the business, but he sent the text to set up his schedule and put his regular and return customers first. He asked what time was good for him to come in. It made me really feel like I was getting pick of the day for my convenience. Calling your regular customers first before the people who call after they are snowed in is great business! I told him that David would help uncover my car to get to therapy and the drive would be empty for plowing after 10:30. I got a text as I was leaving therapy letting me know the snow removal was done. If you are local and need affordable, great plowing, shoveling and salting, follow the links at the end of the post!Rapid LLC is simply the BEST!

About David “helping” me uncover the car? When I got in the shower, he said he’d pull the car out for me. What a doll. I’d say I was blessed in marriage just at that, but when I went out to go to therapy, the car was cleaned off, pulled right up to the door and the steps were shoveled and salted with a path shoveled from the steps to my driver’s side door! I posted my “Greatest husband in the world” on facebook yesterday and had a few people asking if David trained other mates. Chuckle-worthy!

Well, now, all that icky snow in both Ohio and Georgia has converged on the East! I know Edna had some pictures of the mounds and mounds of snow at here place yesterday. David’s brother is in Connecticut and we have friends all over the New York/New England area. Crazy this year. I know I’ve made comments about wanting that Global Warming they promised, but seriously, it’s Global Climate Change. I like the idea of “Global little bit warmer in winter” better. I’m not sure if it’s something we’re doing so much as it’s normal ecological cycles. I suspect that we might accelerate it with what we put in the atmosphere. I recycle, try to combine trips when I can and my next car will be a more fuel efficient one and save water in several ways too. It’s just a little, but if we all do just a little, it might help.

Starting today, everyone do just a little something to reduce that carbon footprint. Maybe the snow will stop and we’ll warm up by April. ;)

Okay, my coffee is done and it’s shower time. Then hit the books!

Have a great day!

Links
Rapid LLC
Excellent and affordable snow removal in Toledo!

Miss Edna’s Place
See some pics of the snow in Massachusetts yesterday!

Mmmm…FEISTY!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TABASCO® Original Red. All opinions are 100% mine.

After Halloween to Christmas, the sweet days, comes January, and into February, the Feisty time of year! What better way to get a little zest than TABASCO® Original Red?

Now if that suggestion sent a fire alarm off in your head and nothing else, you’re only getting half the picture! Tabasco is so much more than just hot. Original Red is a simple combination of salt, red pepper and vinegar that has been around since 1868. The aging process produces a sauce that enhances and makes the natural flavor of food pop. Myself, I like to splash a bit of it in my low sodium vegetable juice. You read that right, Tabasco and Low Sodium. A shake of Tabasco Original Red has no calories and only 30mg of sodium, only 1% of the RDA. For me, Tabasco is the secret ingredient to making a healthy, but bland drink a spicy fiesta!

Italian Poor Boy, peppers, cheese and a Kick!

Mom’s recipe Italian Poor Boys marry bell and hot peppers with mozzarella cheese. As a rule, I don’t keep a lot of hot peppers on hand and when the caving for the meal with a kick from my youth hits on a snowy night, a few dashes of TABASCO® Original Red gives my Poor Boy that zest just like Mom’s did. By the way, that’s ALSO a low fat, low sodium diet wonder!

Now, since I’m going on about the diet plusses of Tabasco, let’s talk about how to keep that healthy vision into February. You know what I’m talking about. A healthy Super Bowl? I looked at some of the suggestions in the Game-Day Party Menu There are wonderful ideas and recipes for wonderful chili and dips.

Remember, moderation for healthy! A bowl of Game Day chili and veggies with hot crab dip or cheese dip. And don’t forget, Tabasco is the key to Pizza Perfected! My tongue is tingling with the thought of those on Super Sunday. I think I should add another bottle of TABASCO® Original Red to my shopping list! There is also a recipe for a couple of spicy munchies, including spicy popcorn!

My favorite football watching food goes great with Super Bowl chili. I make Oyster Bombs. Splash a dot into an oyster cracker. BOOM! Spicy, feisty, tasty! The great thing about those is the cracker tames the fire a bit and what you’re experiencing is pure flavor!

Okay, it’s snack time now! Join me?

Roller Coaster

That’s what this weekend has been. Friday was the sad news that Kendal had passed, a pain that will grow this week as funeral arrangements are made in Michigan for an incredible 17-year-old girl who brought a community together in support and hope. My Aunt and Uncle arrived from San Marino and Dave and I both have plans to get back to the Motherland with our families. It will be a sad time for the great loss in our family, but a time to Celebrate Kendal’s life and all she accomplished, the inspiration she was to so many, in her too short life.

Friday evening I got a private message that was addressed to me and a few friends that are former coworkers. When I was the Public Access Coordinator and Local Sports Producer at Omnicom/Continental Cable in Michigan, I shared my office space with the Local Origination Coordinator. The two coordinator positions were equal in department stature and, as was true with all the department, we worked as crew on many of each other’s productions. The LO Coordinator I worked with the longest, and whose company I enjoyed both as a coworker and as a friend after work, was Tom Scallen.

Tom and I worked on many major productions together, notable I directed Fall Festivals in Plymouth, Michigan that he produced and he was the commentator on several of my sports productions, including the big Red Wing Alumni hockey game I did, a benefit for a local high school student with cystic fibrosis. That game we did play by play with my brother doing color. He’d been on a train adventure a group of us took to Chicago for a Cubs/Braves game and the Monet exhibit at the art museum. After I left in 1996 and many of the family we were in local programming had gone other ways, we had a sort of reunion at Tom’s wedding to his wife, Theresa, who he’d met at Continental where she worked for one of the other departments.

Theresa and I are Facebook friends. The message sent to our group was from her. She apologized for sending her message as an internet correspondence, but she didn’t have current phone numbers for us. Last Wednesday, Tom passed away suddenly after a bout with pneumonia. I was shocked. Tom was 42.


Saturday David and I took Baggle in for a re-check on an infection he had. He is much improved from earlier in the week when we initially took him in. We have to continue the arduous task of giving him pills he hates twice a day. His doctor made it look so easy. At least he enjoys the sip of milk he gets after “cat torture.”

David worked on Saturday and I pretty much let myself shut down a little. I had originally planned to scrap all day while David was at work, but I wasn’t in the mind to scrap. After the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords, I spent the day bouncing between CNN, facebook and Team Kendal, rereading notes and pondering the senselessness of so much of the world. It was not my usual happy day, my usual ability to see a good side was lost. I had reached the bottom of the valley and it was feeling like the carnival car was stuck!

Today was a sunny day and David was going out to find some trains to photograph in the sun and snow. I joined him. I wanted to get away from information about anything for a day to center myself again. We ended up spending the day in Canada in the Chatham area. A little after one, my phone rang. It was a volunteer from Paws and Whiskers.

The first thing that hit my mind, my part still sore from the last couple of days mind, was, “Oh no, please don’t tell me anything happened to Lacey.” As you’ll recall, Lacey is the cat we sponsored in June who was still living at the shelter, in a cage. After living in the shelter for such a long time, cats , any domestic animal, can become depressed and antisocial. They can become afraid of people, perhaps the fear that they’ll pet them and cuddle them and not take them home either. This is why I prefer not to go visit the cats I sponsor too often, I start feeling guilty. I feared she’d become so depressed she’d gotten sick, or worse.

Well, something indeed DID happen to Lacey. She found a forever home! At the end of last week, while so much pain was happening in my world, little Lacey met a new Mommy! Ladonna, the volunteer I spoke with, told me that Lacey had become so skittish and shy, but she warmed up to the woman she met and relaxed when they were in the visiting room. The woman was widowed and seeking a furry companion to share her home. Lacey went home with her that day.

Oh, the power of pets. When Azreal came to live in our home, not long after Noni passed, she was a tonic to my Pop, who was emotionally weary after taking care of his mother in her last days. Now, Lacey is going to offer companionship and comfort to her new Mom. And the both of them have given a ray of hope, of love, that saved me from the depression I’m not at all accustomed to. I’m usually the one who is the rock that offers the soothing words, even through my own pain. Thanks to Lacey and her new Mom, that flame in me has been fanned and I know in the days and weeks ahead I can offer some words of comfort to Tom’s wife and the strength and love my cousin’s family will need me to be able to quietly offer too.

After I got off the phone and shared with David what he knew from hearing my half of the conversation, that Lacey found a forever home, with a big smile on my face, I said, “Time to sponsor a new cat!”

He smiled back and said, “Yes it is!”


Tonight I say a prayer for Kendal and for Tom, for their families and for the victims and families of the Tucson shooting and for our country. May we find cures for diseases that steal our youth and their potential from us all. May we find ways to detect medical complications and be able to reverse them before they take us from our loved ones when we’re in our prime. May we find a way to keep weapons away from incoherent fanatics, fanatics of any kind, who are not able to voice opinions in a civilized way and resort to heinous acts that include nine-year-old girls in their video-game-like scores. Let’s all be human beings first and think about religion and politics later, respect as we want to be respected.

And last, let’s open out hearts and homes to cats and dogs in shelters. They become the most loyal and loving companions and that unconditional love makes a huge difference, for everyone involved.

God bless everyone who is suffering tonight. And God bless Lacey and her new Mom.

Links

Team Kendal
Kendal’s Inspirational journey of strength and courage

The obituary for Tom Scallen

Paws and Whiskers

Sad Day For Our Family

I saw snow falling today after I found out you’d left us.
I know it was the angels dropping
feathers from their own wings
to give you a soft path to Heaven to join them.
Kendal, you will always be one of the strongest
and most beautiful people I’ve known.

We sent a new angel to Heaven early this afternoon. Kendal’s Facebook page and the Team Kendal Blog have become cyber shrines where friends are leaving their goodbyes. That one was mine.

Please keep my cousin and his wife and son, our whole family in your prayers.

Scrapping and the First Freebie of 2011!

I promised a little scrapping update! I’m a few pages from finished on our late summer vacation. There were lots of trains and lots of baseball in Iowa the week after the girls’ Sweet 16 party!

Here are some of the baseball pages:

Field of Dreams Movie Site page 1

Credits: Corn Maze by Let Me Scrapbook, baseball elements from Home Run by Design by Kyra

Page 2

Credits: Corn Maze by Let Me Scrapbook, baseball elements from Home Run by Design by Kyra

And this one is for a baseball game that wasn’t meant to be.

Credits: Talkin’ Baseball by Digitalegacies Designs

The Clinton Lumber Kings game was interrupted at the start of the second inning by a rain delay. Kudos to the young grounds crew for their quick work getting the field covered! After it rained a while, a clearing at the horizon at sunset presented a gorgeous rainbow on a dark sky! The audio guy didn’t miss a beat as Dio’s Rainbow In The Dark serenaded the end of the storm. It looked like they’d get the game in as the grounds crew worked on clearing the tarp and applying Quick Dry to the home plate and mound areas, but another downpour came, even quicker than the first, and the game was called. The game was to be played the next day, but we were planning to be in Cedar Rapids for the Kernels game that night. So, we’ll just have to try Clinton again some time.

There were trains-a-plenty for the week between the ones we chased in Illinois the first couple days and the Iowa Interstate, a DM&E train going down the middle of the street in Bellevue and Union Pacific;

Here are the pages I finished yesterday:

Credits: Sassy by Shelly Marie Scraps, First 2011 Templates by Digitalegacies Designs

Speaking of Union Pacific, UP is collecting votes for routes for their steam excursion. You can vote once a day and I am doing all I can to stuff the ballot box for the Tuscola Turn, which will bring the UP steam as close as Chicago to us. David says we’ll go to Chi and chase it if it does and I LOVE steam chases!

Tell ya what, for clicks on that banner and a vote for the Tuscola Turn, I have a freebie for ya, sound good? I know I have to have faith that some will give the banner a click instead of a thanks in the comments, but I’d sure love that steam to come close enough to chase!

Train fan or not, you might just have use for the first Digitalegacies Templates of 2001!

Click preview to download
Password is Happy-New-Year

I appreciate any feedback, preferably in the form of a comment here or an email to chroniclesofnani@gmail.com. Of course, if you’d rather just visit the UP site and cast a vote on my behalf, that would be COOL!

First Post of 2011

Word Art by Tiffany Richards


Good 2011, everyone!

The morning news is bleak, as usual, but I make a point of reading some news with coffee every morning. I was a little lax on that during the holidays. Part of it is busy, but part of it is just that news doesn’t tend to complement that Holiday Spirit well! I read this morning about a 10-year-old boy in one of our rural counties here in Ohio who shot his Mom, on purpose, knowing what he was doing! There’s not a lot of detail right now, of course, because it’s a kid, a ten-year-old kid! A headline said the gun was a Christmas present. At 10, that could still be the belief that Santa sent him a sign! Now, this is a kid whose had some trouble in school and on the bus, a few incidents according to the article. My mind is asking, “bullying, maybe?”

Another story, the big story on the Google wire at 7 this morning, was about the President hoping he can get the new Congress to help him continue to revive the economy. It’s been slow, and although I don’t agree with his Healthcare solution but commend him for actually doing something, I have to admit that things are better now than they were in 2008. Remember, a community college campus, where the face of the average student has changed to 40-somethings looking for new skills because they are out of work and have been for a while, is a great place 5o hear the bleakest of the stories. There is hope now that there wasn’t before. Sure, it’s hope with a little bit of cynical, “show me,” but it is hope that wasn’t there in the beginning of 2009 when I was one of the new 40-somethings on campus.

Of course, in-coming Republicans want to try to reverse everything. I read yesterday that many are saying they want to “return the country to 2008.” Too bad they weren’t saying exactly that during the election. We’d still have our Democrat governor. With the House Republican and the Senate Democrat, we do have one good thing for us, if they can’t compromise FOR us, they won’t be able to pass anything to do TO us! I just hope they’ll be able to maintain the upward movement, no matter how slowly upward, of the last two years rather than stop it or move it to the downward direction it was in 2008. If spurring the economy means that stocks slow a bit, I don’t mind. If my investments yield a little less when I’m 65, I’ll gladly give that for a job to retire from!


So far, one actual day in to 2011 as far as the plans for the year go, I’m doing well. David and I were in Dayton for Bortrail the first couple days of the year after a quiet and cozy New Years Eve. I didn’t do a show of my train pictures this year. I’m hoping having that woman cave will make it easier to organize for 2011. There were a number of nice shots of John Deere tractors. That made me giggle a little, because I got a great shot of a John Deer Tractor this year too!


The tractor was for sale, all polished up and sitting near the road where we were waiting for a train in Iowa. I just had t snap a picture of it for my Agrirama collection! The farmer selling it stopped by, asked if we were interested in the tractor. We told him we were waiting for a train to photograph and he chatted with us a bit, then wished us luck with the train and asked us if we heard of anyone looking for a tractor, to send them his way. It s a nice-looking tractor!

At breakfast on Sunday, I was talking to a friend about the impending MRI and she started a sentence, “When I had my back surgery…” I had no idea she’d ever had back surgery. You’d never guess that by her mobility and lack of complaining! I had heard about some really miserable stories from people who had such a hard time recovering and was folioing very scared and alone with the impending possibilities of surgical intervention. Stella drew a simple diagram on a napkin to show me what they did on her and talked praisingly about what it did for her. We chatted in depth about what I ought to make sure I ask the doctor and what things I need to be sure I take with m4e after the tests. It made me feel quite relieved of all of my fear. Then yesterday, the physical therapist I worked with, not the one I work with all the time, talked with me while I was doing my hip and back weight strengthening. She’s had a surgical procedure done on her back after a sudden and rare spinal cord infection. She talked to me about the treatment and the gradual gradation form a wheelchair after surgery to a walker, a cane and now she moves quite freely. She said water therapy was a great help. Why is it that the most vocal people about surgeries are the ones with complications? I SO needed to hear the glowing reviews from an “up” point of view! If it’s determined that I need back surgery, I AM going to do well, get all of the information I need, recover well, following the doctor’s instructions to a “T.” disciplined therapy and I’m going to be very vocal about how happy I am to offer some potential relief from the fear and apprehension someone else may be having.

David sent me an article yesterday about the increased number of hip and knee replacement surgeries in younger people. The article sites that people are doing a lot more moving and asking their joints to do more now. More people rum marathons, or 5-mile bike rides. Hey, even I used to walk for a mile in the park every day to get some exercise and relax. I also think with more job that DON’T ask us t move and a greater obesity problem, we are asking our joints to do more. Great paradox that in order to give us some relief from the weight, we exercise more and stress our joints in other ways.


I wish Starbucks would contract with Keurig to produce K-Cups! They do have Verna in Tassimo cups, but for a Keurig maker, I have to do the coffee filter attachment and make my own. I got my bag of Christmas Verona from David this year and really had myself going, “ZZZT!” on Christmas Day after making a whole pot and drinking too much of it! This morning I used a scoop and a half in my K-filter and I made a nice cup of Verona. It’s still messy and I’d love a ready-made K-Cup in Verona. David would kill me if I got a Tassimo maker TOO just to have the Starbucks coffees and where would we put it in our little 50s kitchen anyway?

I’m about half-way through our end of summer vacation in scrapping. I’ll do a scrapping blog a little later and show some of my pages. For now, the coffee cup is empty and I haven’t’ even had breakfast yet! Gotta get going on the day!