Holiday Time!

I hope everyone had a great Canada Day yesterday! As a border-baby, born just 5 minutes away from Canada, Canada Day has always been the start of a month of celebration for me ending with my Birthday Festival. When I was a kid the Freedom Festival was a festival in Detroit and Windsor celebrating both Canada Day and Independence Day with carnivals and a huge fireworks display from a boat in the Detroit River. Of course it was an open border and no one ever needed a passport to cross from one side of the festival to the other. It’s not so difficult to get to Canada now, but needing a passport to cross the border is sad. It’s kinda like having to get someone’s permission to see your sister.


Yesterday was also my brother-in-law, Ben’s, birthday. David’s baby brother turned the same age my baby brother will be in September. It’s mean how they keep getting older and force us to stay ahead. ;)

We’re enjoying a holiday weekend starting today since people who work in media don’t get regular holidays. David will be working Saturday. We toyed with thoughts of going out of town for three days but ended up opting for sleeping in this morning. Sleeping in here means we woke up when my third snooze on the alarm went off at 7:20. If you’d have told me that would ever be “sleeping in” when I was 17, I’d have called you crazy!

I sent David out to photograph some local trains while I continue to recover from physical therapy yesterday. I was just stiff yesterday. The therapist I was working with noted that and asked if I was affected by the weather. Well, duh! I always remember that AFTER I say “what is wrong with me today?” I usually ask that question on the cloudy, rainy days or when the humidity is still up after a heavy rain. So today I’m just a little sore and slow, but when I’m sitting I don’t really feel pain, but the mild stretching at home reminds me of the pain. The steroid shot didn’t make the pain go away but it does seem that it helped and it may be time to think about doing it again. I didn’t really notice that the second one was a huge difference at the beginning of the year, although the first one was noticeable, so maybe 2 a year 6 months apart is what I need. I’ll have to give the pain doc a call next week.

Today is the first day of the 27th week of 2014, or the half-way point. I know this well because in my Random 2014 project I keep my notes in weekly files and then sort those files into quarters so I can access them if I need to. I’m a little OCD like that. But one of the plusses of condensing and organizing all of my files is that it takes less time and less scrolling to find things which takes it easier on my hands.

Now, in a 365 day year today is the top of the hill and there have been 182 days of 2014 before today and 182 to go. I’ve been thinking about doing a full 2-page spread for today and starting the rest of the weeks with Thursdays. That OCD sides doesn’t like that at all because it makes the first and second halves of the same year different. But then what do I do with the extra day? Put it in the extra box in Week 52? But what if I want to do a special section for goals for 2015 or a wrap-up of 2014 in that section?

Wednesday is still the first day of the weeks of 2014. I’d confuse myself if I changed it.

Another Fabulous Friday!

Mmmm….Coffee…

You’ll see my candy list in a few minutes, or less if you are a fast reader. I did a scrapbook page yesterday from our time in Canada on one of the days of our vacation last year. Yeah, somehow I’m falling behind again instead of catching up. Hey, maybe I can do a bucket list after all! If I put “finish my scrapbooks” on it, I would achieve immortality!

Anyway, I did the page from the day in Canada was the day we made a Shopper’s Drug Mart stop to load up on Canadian chocolate bars. David and I both love Canadian chocolate and a visit to the Sisterland, because the US and Canada are sisters, always includes a candy stop! Now we haven’t been to Canada in over a year and I’m craving a Coffee Crisp like mad! We really need to do something about that.

I’m not dissing American chocolate at all! Ghirardelli and Hershey are both American and they make some of my favorites too. But Canadian chocolate is different. It’s its own kind of awesome.


And now for a couple of the Friday Memes…

This week’s statements:
1. when I was little I was called ___
2. ___are my favorite candy
3. If I could have one magical power it would be______
4. If I could go back to school it would be to become a _________


My Answers:

1. When I was little I was called Princess by my Dad.

 

2. Mr. Goodbar, Pretzel M&Ms, Almond M&Ms, Baci, Coffee Crisp, Hershey’s Air and Mint Aero Bars are my favorite candy.  Plus some others, but they all have chocolate in common.

3. If I could have one magical power it would be the power to heal the sick. Yes, I’d start with myself, but after curing Multiple Sclerosis, I’d move on to Cancer and every other disease out there.

4. If I could go back to school it would be to become a Computer Programmer.

1. Do you prefer to drive to your vacation spot or fly?

I used to love flying, but when it got to the point where it took longer to fly from Detroit to Chicago than drive because of all the “arrive early” and invasive security that’s almost scarier than any threat I became a bit disenchanted.

When I was flying and I had to sit on the floor to remove my shoes to go through security because the limited seating was taken up by business flyers who had to have an extra seat for computer cases while they took off or put on shoes, I realized that airports had become such a hassle that travelers were losing manners or even the awareness of other human beings in the vicinity. It’s that loss of awareness that completely cancels any feeling of safety all the security measures might give.

Oh, and airplane, wheelchair, airplane bathroom… I can’t help but think it will be an uncomfortable trip if I ever fly across country or to Europe again. I may need some extra absorbent Depends!

I prefer to dri…have someone drive, because it puts us in control rather than at someone’s mercy. And I can usually even talk David into a pit stop now and then! ;)


2. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

Toledo, Ohio with a winter home in Las Vegas. I really do like the city I’m in now, just not the winter. So I’d go play when it’s cold.


3. Should grown women wear leggings?

GROWN women should where whatever they feel comfortable wearing. I wear leggings in the summer and in winter under my jeans…which are also leggings. It’s what’s comfortable and easy for me. If you’re offended by how I look, I’m not trying to impress you; don’t look. If you can’t help but look, I’m sorry I’m so captivating; resist or get some help.  Not my problem.


4. If you could change your name to any other name, would you? And what would it be?

I changed my name when I got married; maiden name became my middle name and David’s last name became my last name. I didn’t hyphenate; I kept my identity and my married identity as two separate parts of who I am. I also wasn’t crazy about my middle name. Of course, my middle name was the name I was baptized as, so the Catholic Church has an APB out for me! hehe

As far as the first name, I have always really, really liked my name and wouldn’t consider changing it.


5. What magazines to you have subscriptions to?

I have subscriptions to Momentum and Neurology Now, both publications with MS research and information, and David and I share our subscription to the Mensa Bulletin.

Happy Canada Day/Joyeuse Fête du Canada!

I want to wish happy celebrating to all of the Chronicles visitors from Canada or border towns in the US where you gain Canadian cultural influence. I know I grew up with a lot of Canadian influence in metro Detroit. We were in the ADI, area of dominant influence, for the Windsor TV channels. In fact, CBET, channel 9, was a station we watched Canadian programs before cable. Some of the shows I loved as a child were Canadian kids shows, adding a few words of French to the Italian that enhanced my formative English. I think that early influence is why I ultimately chose French to study in high school and college. I’ve always said the border towns produced babies that were 100% one country with a 10% the other by birthright. That makes us 110% people, just a little more.

So everyone knows how much I love Canadian McDonald’s and how I grumble about needing passport to visit. It seems the government doesn’t recognize that 10%. I figure if you have a birth certificate that says you were born less than 60 miles from the border from either country, you should get a free pass. Okay, I’m an American who loves Canada and I’m cheap, but harmless. I’m a good girl too. I've had my passport almost three years and I’ll probably be getting my fourth stamp in it soon.

I loved growing up so close to another country that it almost didn’t seem like another country. The big fireworks show on the Detroit River was part of the Detroit-Windsor Freedom Festival, which had concerts and carnivals, a street fair that you could see more of from either side of the river. I grew up knowing the beginning of July meaning a celebration of two countries.

Common to many of my generation who grew up in Metro Detroit, Canada is the first place I had a legal drink without my parents there. I’d had a legal drink in San Marino, when I was 12, but my parents were with me, so it only kinda counts. Canada is also where I chose to go for my “travel test” with Mom to get the okay to drive somewhere and stay overnight. It’s also where I tasted a scone for the first time, long before they were common anywhere in the US. I’ve seen baseball and hockey games in Canada and made a donation to the local economy at the video poker machines at Casino Windsor. I went to Niagara Falls many times before I even knew what “for lovers” meant and the Skylon tower is why I never had a fear of heights! I dated a couple guys from Canada and when we were in Canada, I never felt like a foreigner and never felt like I was dating a foreigner when we were in the US.

I celebrate Canada Day, not just for my perceived 10%, but as anyone would lovingly celebrate a favorite sister’s birthday. My life experiences would be much smaller if not for the many trips through my almost 45 years and I will keep that passport that I begrudgingly need now because I won’t give up the next 45 years or so with the other country I love so much.

Happy Birthday Dear David!

June 11, Red Sox @ Blue Jays

Yanno, at certain times of the year I just don’t blog all the time because, well, because I’m not in front of the computer to blog!

Last weekend we were in Toronto! My birthday gift to David this year was dinner and a ball game. Well, the Red Sox were in Toronto on June 11, so I took him to dinner in Toronto too, since we’d already be there for the game! The Red Sox really had their way with the Blue Jays all weekend long, including the 16-4 shellacking on Saturday, when we were there. I have told him to remember the gift I gave him when he takes me to see The Reds for my birthday!

After the game, we went to dinner at Kit Kat Italian Bar and Grill. What a wonderful meal! Incredible ambiance all the way! We sat in the outdoor patio, listening to Frank Sinatra and others doing American and Italian standards until the live jazz from a few doors down took over as sunset segued into a vibrant city evening.

Antipasti Misto

I had an antipasti misto, veggies grilled just to the perfect middle of crispy and flavorfully cooked with Italian lunchmeats and cheese. Canadian food laws in the area of aging and curing luncheon meats and cheeses make the Canadian variety of the Italian favorites I grew up with in Michigan just a bit more of a spoil for the palate. And did I say the veggies were good? I mean HEAVENLY good! Also the coffee, a latte with Italian grounds, espresso brewed. I had one before dinner and one with dessert, YUM!

Okay, and this was dinner for David’s birthday, so let me make it clear that it’s not just me. He enjoyed it too. Before we left, I was perusing the Toronto dining online. He said he wanted a steak or maybe his swordfish for the year for his birthday. The steakhouses had good sounding menus, but the average steak dinners were in the $60-80 range. It’s not that my wonderful man isn’t worth every penny of that, but my bank account isn’t so worth every penny of that. Kit Kat’s menu included many good sounding dishes, including a couple of steaks for a bit less. I could even afford us wine and dessert!

When our waiter told us the specials, I smiled. It was swordfish with a mango relish. That was what we both ordered. Now, you know you’ll be served well when the owner of the restaurant and a friend are in the table next to yours. You also know you’ve made an excellent choice for dinner when said owner is enjoying the same meal you ordered! The swordfish was wonderful, with more of those great veggies! While chatting with the owner, we mentioned that we were celebrating David’s birthday and after the meal, our server brought out a tiramisu with a candle for him! We ordered a fudge cake and shared both. It’s definitely a restaurant I’ll want to go back to and one I’ll recommend to friends and family as a must-eat-there in Toronto!


You probably noticed my Tweet Box in the right column. Yes, I’ve decided to use my Twitter account. That’s baseball oriented too. Brandon Phillips, second base for the Reds has an account that he uses regularly. Twitter is the source where the Cardinals rivalry with the Reds brews! Brandon tweets tongue in cheek bravado with Cardinals fans and he is a “hated man," greeted with choruses from the St. Louis boo-birds. That rivalry he has with the fans under The Arch seems to make him bring his A-game to St. Louis.

Brandon’s Tweets are not all about jeering the opposition’s fans. He Tweets from a players perspective about the games and things going on in the Cincinnati community. He welcomes tweets from his fans and sometimes gives prizes for trivia. One kid Tweeted to invite him to come to their little league game on a Reds off day. Sounds cute and crazy-kid, huh? Brandon went to the game, met the kid and signed autographs while spending time with the little league team! When the Reds were in San Francisco, there was an interview with a couple of reds fans on TV. They weren’t Reds fans from San Francisco or fans that bought tickets while they were on a baseball vacation. They were fans who answered a trivia question on Brandon Phillips’ Twitter page and won tickets to the game. In interview, they said they figured they’d get the tickets and try to find a discount fare to go to the game. Nope. Brandon included the full trip as the prize! As much as I complain about the prices of MLB things going up with all the money the players make, I can’t complain about Brandon Phillips. He gives back in a huge way. Sure the personal love from his fans must feel good, but he’s giving back not just things, but of himself in a more personal way than a lot do! Now, I don’t actively get involved in the Twitter games. I don’t have Twitter on all the time anymore than I do Facebook, but I DO follow DatDudeBP.

I’m going to try to leave a one-liner for the day on Twitter that will also show up on The Chronicles. If you have a Twitter account, please feel free to follow me and interact with me there!

Monday Mug Shot

I know, I’m a day late for Monday, but I’m not going to change the feature’s name for a day late. I suppose I could call it “Tuesday Tea Cup,” but I only have one mug that is a tea cup only and I know I’ve done that one already.

I know! We’ll call it “Tuesday Tardy Mug!”

Oh, why don’t I just get on with it?

Monday Mug Shot

Canada

If you’re wondering why there is a little stuffed moose with my cappuccino in the photo, it’s because the little stuffed moose came with the mug! We stopped at the Duty Free store on the way back over the border when we had our day trip in Canada in January. When we go someplace that sells mugs, I always have to have a look.

It was a pleasant day trip. With sunny skies, we got a few nice train shots and I got a few water towers too! That was also the day I got the call about Lacey finally finding a home and that started something – we sponsored 2 more cats who found homes within a month. We also got lunch at McDonald’s, which I’ve said before is SO much better if the is a red maple leaf in the middle of those Golden Arches! It was a great day that gave some stress relief at a time I really needed it.

The border is the fun part, both going and coming home. David is used to asking, “Can you stamp my wife’s passport, please?” When we cross into Canada, I MUST have my passport stamped. It’s part of my 10-year research and statistics project. All total, that passport cost $100. The ONLY reason I have a passport right now is to go to Canada, a country I have freely traveled in and out of since I was an infant. I “earned” my right to drive on overnight trips before I was 18 from my Mom by mapping out and planning a trip to Stratford, Ontario to go to the Shakespeare Festival. When I was suddenly required to have a passport to do that I was, well, irked a bit, okay a lot. The passport has to be renewed after ten years and the stamps in it will tell me if it was a good economical investment and one worth making again. I’m just being practical and fiscally responsible.

Going home, we stopped at Duty Free where we got not only the cappuccino mug with the moose, but we stocked up on some Canadian chocolate! Okay, it was mostly the made in England Cadbury, but Canada food regulations affect a lot of items that only appear to be the same as the commercial products we have. We pay extra for chocolate the quality of everyday Canadian chocolate. The souvenir chocolate includes a huge bar of Cadbury with whole hazelnuts. YUM!

We’ll see what my calculations are in eight years when I will need to decide whether or not to renew my “Go to Canada book.” If it works out to $10 a year, the chocolate alone may be worth it!

Three Coins for a Fountain Drink

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of iCoke.ca. All opinions are 100% mine.

Well, actually it’s for a bottled drink, but what a tasty way to win a Canadian Gold Medal! Exclusively at Mac’s Stores, in Canada, you can get a FREE Coca-Cola Collectible Medallion. You can get one of three Canadian Olympic Coke medallions when you purchase 2 Coca-Cola 591mL products at Mac’s.

Mac’s is one of those places that David and I make sure to stop at when we railfan in Canada. They have a good selection of those Canadian chocolates we love and a great selection of refreshments. Those refreshments include the bottles of Coca Cola products that will earn you the collectible coins celebrating the Olympics and Team Canada. You don’t have to be Canadian to participate or enjoy Coke!

I look at it as similar to the collectible pins. I know I have a host of souvenirs from the Atlanta Olympics. Mom bought Dad a shirt with flags for all of the countries that participated on it, which included San Marino! I think the coins in celebration of the Vancouver Olympics are a great addition to any sports memorabilia or Olympic mementos collection, and all you have to do is enjoy a couple of refreshing bottles of your favorite Coke product. For me, that’s Cherry Coke. I drink Cherry Coke a lot when we railfan. There is definitely an art to making a good cherry cola and there is none as good as Cherry Coke! And now, when we railfan in Canada, my Cherry Coke comes with a collectible Olympic medallion!

This offer is subject to availability, so get out there and buy your coke products, exclusively at Mac’s, while the supplies last!

Photoblog Wednesday

Chocolate Treasures

David and I both love Canadian chocolate bars! The Hazelnut Kit Kat bars were on sale, so we got a few of those. Boy were they good! There could be a new favorite in the wings! That’s a good thing because we were specifically looking for Caramilk Maple, a household favorite and a staple “souvenir” every time we go the the Great White North and couldn’t find it anywhere. We even searched every convenience store we stopped at. Caramilk Maple seems to have gone the way of my Creamy Latte yogurt and David’s KC Masterpiece Ruffles!

Make It Like Mama!

Okay, the first thing I’ll say is YUM!

The next thing I want to do is tell you about the Dr. Oetker Kitchen Makeover Contest. You can win a $20,000 kitchen makeover or one of 8 great second place prizes. You just have to visit Savory Moments to enter your PIN and get a bonus PIN when you sign up. The PINs for the contest are on boxes of of Dr Oetker’s Casa Di Mama pizzas.

Now there is a contest catch. It’s a Canadian company and the sweepstakes is open to Canadian residents only, but this American woman has already signed up for the Savory Moments newsletter and bookmarked the site!

In the Casa Di Mama tab, right after a scrumptious-looking featured Casa Di Mama Ultimate Pepperoni Pizza is a recipe for tzadziki! I love tzadziki! There is also a beer suggestion to go with Ultimate Pepperoni pizza, a lemon cream cheesecake recipe for dessert. There ’s also a tip on making it an ultimately warm and relaxing pizza evening! There is a full feature for both Ristorante and Casa Di Mama featured pizzas and a link to past features, like a tasty online library!

Of course, if you’re in Canada, treat yourself to their fabulous gourmet pizzas and keep entering PINs to win that “Make It Like Mama” giveaway for a full $20,000 kitchen makeover. The contest runs until January 4, 2010. You can sample Ultimate Pepperoni, Hawaiian, Meat,Cheese, Deluxe, try them all and try the ones you like best again! Then log on to your account and enter those PINs!

If you are a winner, let me know - But I’m going to ask for an invite to have one of those Casa Di Mama pizzas in your new kitchen!

Why McDonalds Canada is Better!

I just posted “McDonalds is way better in Canada than the US” on my Facebook page and it caused a little bit of a stir. I got an agreement, a disagreement and a couple of “why?” posts on my wall in reply to it. I don’t really get replies to my wall posts that often. I’m not on Facebook as much as a lot of my friends are, maybe once or twice a day on days I visit a lot.

Okay, back up a little.

David and I took a weekender trip to Hamilton, Ontario, hoping to get some train photos in fall color this past weekend. I can confirm that my new passport works! I have a Sarnia, Ontario stamp to prove it. When crossing into Canada from the US, you have to ask for a passport stamp. The customs agent was less than enthusiastic when he stamped my passport, but he did it. They don’t commonly stamp credentials when you are crossing from the US to Canada by car. But they will stamp mine every time I cross!

If you have read some of The Chronicles of Nani, you know how grumbly I am about paying $100 dollars for a passport to go to a country I was born a half hour from and traveled to without a passport for 42 years. So, I’ve paid my $100 to go to Canada. Seriously, I have no plans to go anywhere else that I need to spend the $100 for. So, the passport is good for ten years. I’m going to ask for a stamp every time I cross the border. It’s sort of my receipt. In ten years, I’ll count the stamps and determine if I’ve used it enough to make it worth renewing.

Oh, it will more than likely be worth it. I’ve spent a lot of my now 43 years visiting Canada. I’ve had many birthday dinners in Windsor. Of course, now they’d be smaller dinners because of the 7 people at my last birthday at Spago Ristorante, only 2 have passports, so my plate of gnocchi would go up $500 in price!

Now I’m hungry for Spago’s gnocchi. I guess it will have to be an intimate dinner with my husband.

Fall colors in Ontario - with sun

It was a pleasant weekend and the fall colors were very vibrant, especially when the sun was hitting them. Unfortunately, that was not an often recurring theme. David had said that if it weren’t for the fall colors, the weather forecast really wasn’t optimistic enough to make the trip, but with a promise of partly sunny skies, we gave it a try. We got a few shots, but a lot of frustration as the clouds filed in both days. But the railfan cuisine was good!



See that wonderful, amazing double chocolate muffin at the top of this entry? Oh my! It was SO tasty and, unusual for muffins, no heartburn after! I love muffins, but don’t eat them often because the grease gives my heartburn for half the day after I eat it. I had that with lunch, an awesome salad, on Saturday. It was moist and very chocolatey, but NO heartburn!

It’s from McDonalds!

NOW we’re back to why Canada McDonalds is so much better! With that wonderful muffin, I had a Garden Fresh Salad. You can’t get a Garden Fresh Salad in the US; too many vegetables. I’m serious about that, although it’s said with a sarcastic air. This salad had bell peppers and red onions on it with just a little shredded cheese as a condiment. The salad I like best at home, and I do like it, just I’d order it less often if we had the choices they have in Canada too, has gobs of cheese and a mound of bacon on it.

Sunday morning I had a basic breakfast burrito. They don’t have the burritos with potatoes and meat in them, but the basic sausage, cheese and egg burrito also had onions and bell pepper in it. It’s FABULOUS and still only 300 calories. Lunch was a Mediterranean salad. OMG!! Peppers, onions, olives and feta. Canadian McDonalds is actually a restaurant, not heart attack in a bag. And the food tastes good. We had three stops at McD's this weekend and three really good meals. Amazing! At home, I don’t like the convenient railfan meals so much. They don’t taste bad, but they don’t taste good. They’re just fast. In Canada, McDonalds was a stop to look forward to at meal time!

McDonalds Canada Mediterranean Salad

The major difference between the quality of food at the fast food giant in the two countries is the veggies. Why are we Americans so deathly afraid of vegetables that they aren’t marketable at our suicide joints? The lower grease muffins can’t be found at an American McDonalds either. On Saturday morning, when we hit the drive -thru before we left town, we were told they didn’t make substitutions when I asked for apple dippers instead of hash browns. Huh? First off, that was that location's policy. I’ve substituted the fresh apples for the fried potatoes before, but why isn’t that franchise policy? Seems to me they’d sell more food if they helped keep their customers alive and healthy longer.

Anyway, McDonalds in Canada has healthier choices and their healthier choices are better tasting than McDonalds in the US. In the end, that could make the passport worth renewing all by itself!

Scrap News and Stuff

I’m going to try to get back to my regular features next week. This over a week between blog entries is SO not me! I think things are getting to some semblance of normal in my world again. It’s a new normal, but it’s okay. I just have to adjust.

I keep updated in between visits to Grandma via phone and I make the 2-hour trek north to visit her twice a week. The Nurse Practitioner advised against putting her back on the medications that made her so cloudy in the hospital (YAY!) and she has plateaued with not exactly clarity of mind, but memory of all of her people. That was Grandma’s greatest worry, that she’d hurt the people she loves by not remembering them. So, Grandma wins this round! She’s even doing her word searches again, though she’s not as fast as she’s always been, but I’m so glad to see her doing them again! I think I’ll bring her another copy of our wedding program so she can do the word search again!

The toughest thing to get used to is the phone and the driving. I don’t like either and I’m finding them taking a lot of my time now! The best thing I do for myself with the driving is make a point of at least one of those trips every week is also a stop on the way home for dinner of coffee with one of my friends. I get to see my family of friends in Michigan so seldom since becoming an Ohiogander and the long drives to the Motherland are a great way to get some quality time with them! Now, I just have to get my “happy head” working again. The driving makes me grouchy, well grouchy for me anyway, and I don’t like that! The nicest thing the phone does for me is the battery dies. Then I get an hour off while it recharges!

I lost a few days on my project 365 when Grandma was sick and in the hospital. When one is fearing the worst about her last grandparent, taking pictures is not really in the foreground of my mind! Also, this project is our first married year and many of those days I wasn’t with David. So for the scrapbook layouts for those weeks, I have some journaling in place of the photos for some days. I’m okay with that and I don’t feel like I failed the project. If a picture’s wroth a thousand words, then journaling CAN replace a missing picture! That’s how I scrap events I want to tell about but didn’t photograph too.


Going Out Of Business Sale!


I told you there’d be a sale in connection with my leaving the design business! When my resignation was accepted at Scrap Bird, I was also told that I could come back if I wanted to get back into it. Very cool. But I am there until the end of the month and all the Digitalegacies Designs products, I mean everything in my store, is half off until the 31st! If there’s anything that I’ve created for the store that you might want, now is the time to get it! Some items, like the add-on for Homemade Love or my brag book pages for My Blue Heaven and Laura are only 50 cents! There is no I Wanna Talk About Me challenge this month, but I did do one last contribution to the store collab kit for November, so there will still be a little Digitalegacies in that!


Creative Team stuff!

This new scrapping direction, well return to my old scraping direction, gives me more quality time to spend on my own layouts. It also gives me more time to work with Darlene’s kits again. Her newest kit, Happy Camper, is free with a $5 purchase at SAS right now.


Now, as I was explaining to Darlene, as one who walks with a cane, I really don’t have many camping photos in my current “to be scrapped file.” But the kit is very versatile! I created a nice layout for week 21 of Patch 365 with it. I just LOVE that butterfly and it HAD to be used on one of my layouts!



Also with some extra time, part of my congratulations to Veelana for becoming a new SASy Lady was an offer to create for her! Her “yes,” was enthusiastic and I’m helping her brag about her first kit in her new store!


My first layout with this kit is the second page I did for our trip to Sand Patch in October 2006. I did this for Darlene’s quote challenge at Scrap Bird. Vee’s kit is just perfect for the fall train pictures!



In celebration of my new passport, David and I are going to spend some time in Canada tomorrow checking out their fall colors and trains! Now, I need to finish up some laundry and get ready to go see Grandma. I see a pumpkin spice coffee stop in my near future!

Monday Mug Shot

Shakespeare Festival
Stratford, Ontario, Canada

The first time I went to the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, was 15, almost 16. I had just fallen in love with the Bard through the half a Semester of Shakespeare in 10th grade English. When I heard about the Shakespeare Festival in Canada, so close to us, I wanted to go in the worst way! I even sent away for the information brochure, if for nothing else, to dream about going. I really begged Mom about it and she did NOT say “No!”

She didn’t say “yes,” either. I had a task to do! The plays I wanted to see, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and All’s Well That Ends Well, lined up at the different theaters right for a three-day trip just before my birthday. I was on my driver’s permit, but wouldn't have my license yet. I needed a parent to not only say “okay,” but go! What Mom told me was to put together the trip, the directions including the Canadian laws about unlicensed American drivers with a permit, an itinerary and a budget sheet. If I assembled the plan and she verified that I was correct, she’d pay for the trip. If I couldn’t plan the trip, we couldn’t go! Oh, yeah, and I still had to do stellar on my final exams at school!

So, my April/May hobby was planning this trip! The first thing I found out was that I could not drive in Canada until I got my license. I still had to plot out the course on the map, much like AAA did at the time with a highlighter, but I had to do it myself. I planned the budget for the tickets, found an inexpensive hotel that was a nice enough hotel for Mom to sleep in for 2 nights, found the other museums and gardens we’d visit and got those prices, budgeted for food and gas, which included getting the average price difference between Michigan and Ontario. That estimating took converting the gallons and litres to figure out how much we’d need for a full tank. Keep in mind, this was 1981. I’d never used a computer at all, let alone have the Internet for all of my fact finding!

I presented my plan to Mom and she spent a good hour looking over my details, asking questions and verifying where I got my information. Finally she smiled at me. “Congratulations, kid, ya done good.” We were Stratford bound! The next day I called to make the hotel reservation and order the tickets for all three plays!

Monday Mug Shot

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Another set of demitasse in the collection, these ones are memorable for many reasons, but including in a big way, the coffee!

As an adult, traveling with my parents was always a ton of fun. I got to enjoy their company with all of us as adults, but they still spoiled me like their kid, but in an adult way. They took me places I couldn’t especially afford without really saving up, then they told me to put the money I’d saved away. I eventually learned it did no good to protest, but I could afford extra spoils for all of us. On this trip it was the coffee!

In February of 1997, The three of us took the train from Windsor to Toronto. Dad is not, nor has he ever been, a train geek like my husband, but Dad is where I got the rail bug. The appreciation of watching the trains and travel by rail is something Pop brought with him from San Marino when he emigrated at 13 years old. They lived near local tracks that at the time of his teens and my childhood were busy and while he’s never admitted to sneaking trackside to squish pennies on the rails, something I did when we visited Noni, we did always count the cars and celebrate the lights coming on when we neared the tracks when visiting. Pop had gotten, or anyway, had Mom get, a set of first class tickets on the Friday morning VIA train. Our weekend was to include seeing The Phantom of the Opera at The Pantages Theater, Brunch at the CN Tower and a visit to The Hockey Hall of Fame.

David’s eyes will roll when he reads this, but the coolest thing about arriving at the station in Toronto was the coffee shop before you even had to go into Toronto’s cold February air. One of the things Dad loves about Toronto is when he asks for a small coffee cup, 8 ounces, of espresso, no one looks at him like he’s on a death wish mission. The truth is, if you’re jittery after a cup of espresso, you’re reacting to the rich flavor of the robust coffee or the conditioning of your brain to react to it, not the caffeine. A shot of espresso has less caffeine than a cup of light breakfast blend coffee. The lighter coffees don’t have the caffeine roasted out while they get their flavor! Anyway, our first stop just HAD to be the coffee shop!

We checked in to our hotel, the Westin Harbor Castle for the weekend, where, you guessed it, there was a coffee cart in the lobby! The coffee cart was a full espresso and cappuccino cart! You could have room service bring you a cappuccino too!

Everywhere in Toronto was bustling with activity, people bundled up to brace themselves for the cold, but the outdoor newsstands and carts were still in full force. Hearty Canadians, eh? I had to make frequent stops indoors to get warmed up, even though I too was bundled! What Dad has always loved, at least as a tourist, about Canada is the melding of his favorite characteristics of Europe with his favorite parts of the US. I don’t think I’ve ever been in Canada with my Dad that he didn’t smile all the time.

The coffee theme was pretty much a mainstay. We had street vendor coffee with hot roasted chestnuts, a stop during intermission at the coffee bar at The Pantages with wonderful after dinner cappuccino at Alice Fazoulis, where we had reservations for after the show.

The brunch at CN Tower included Mimosas. Oh yeah, the other great thing about traveling with my parents was I didn’t have to drive. Well, okay, we’d taken the train. No one had to drive. But a champagne breakfast is always a cool thing anyway. After brunch...yep, MORE CAPPUCCINO! About the only place we went that did NOT have a coffee bar was the Hockey Hall of Fame. That's a shame. They have that great giant coffee Cup there too. ;)

The toughest part of the weekend for cold-allergic me was the sub zero wind chills in February in The Great White North. Ah, but all the rich, warm coffee drinks helped me get through!

Snippets

Memorial Day Weekend, 2006

It was a nice Tuesday today! I paid some bills and while out doing that, got a a new job lead source! I also, feeling lucky from my errands run, jiggled a little at the connection on the computer for the bike and it powered right up when I plugged it in! YAY!!! Now I can set the resistance to “uphill!” 5 minutes and not just my legs, but even my butt was tingling! And the sensors on everything worked too, when I asked for the results of my 1-mile mini-ride, it gave me high marks for speed, calories burned and heart rate. Aside from the crippling pain in my knee, I’m in pretty good shape for too round! LOL


As you know, I collect “shorts” for my blog and post a variety blog every now and then. Well, except that I just had to put a little stand-alone post about my plans to roast Chuck for dinner after implying that we’d have 6 more weeks of winter. That was topical and needed to be presented first thing...the day after. :) Hey, I live with a newspaper man. It may not be “live” but I take the time to make sure the facts are right.

Well, and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!


Read Any Good Books Lately?

I’m reading “Slouching Toward Fargo,” by Neal Karlen. David borrowed it from a coworker and let me read it after he was done. Yes, he warned his coworker that I’m a slow reader. This one, even though it’s a baseball story, has started really slow for me. It's not just the dyslexic slow. It’s a “not feeling it" slow. It’s written in first person and the beginning of the book is very much about the writing business. I can so get why David would enjoy that, a combination of “talking shop” and a personal passion second only to trains...well, maybe after trains and poker now. But the “shop talk” for a shop I’m not in was a little drudging for me. David promises it gets better, more baseball and less about writing. I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt.

I've left the link for Book Swim on The Chronicles’ bulletin board. The click is still worth 50% off your first month there! I’m thinking I might see if David would want to give it a try. I don’t read quick enough. It’s like someone who watches one movie a month joining NetFlix, but between the two of us, maybe. I know I was avidly searching the house for a new book after the holidays. I wasn’t going out through a foot of snow with a nasty cold to even go to the library at the beginning of the year. It would have been nice to have a book delivered to my mailbox!


Guest CT Spot

Oh, this one isn’t me looking. (although if you’re interested, Digitalegacies Designs still has a couple of openings!) This is about me BEING! I am a guest CT member for Tirza’s Treasures for the month of February. I was originally going to be her guest for January, then I got my own store. It was Linda’s suggestion that I might want to postpone my CT agreement until I got settled at Scrap Bird. I SO appreciate her wise suggestion! It really did take the better part of January to get into a rhythm as a pro designer. But now, I’m so happy to get this CT position!

I made the offer to CT for Tirza’s Treasures during the SAS designer contest. Linda was forced out of two contests thanks to Ike and a power outage that kept her from making the deadlines. Her kits are fabulous and I offered that when, not if, but when, she gets a store, to contact me about CTing. So now I get top play with some really great kits (that I didn’t have to make first!)

The first kit I’m working with is “Soft As Steel.”

Isn’t this a gorgeous kit?? Such perfect colors for a spring weekend combining the awakening greens with the cool steel of the rails and dusty industry of a limestone plant!

This is my first layout with Soft As Steel.

Credits: kit - "Soft As Steel" by Tirza's Treasures
Fonts - Ma Sexy and Chalkboard

I’m using this kit for all of the pages from our railfan trip in Canada Memorial Day of 2006. See? I am making a little headway in catching up!



FBR Anyone?

I’ll finish this entry with a reminder about a feature that hasn’t had any love since Thanksgiving! I guess, it’s kind of okay, since I’ve been so tied up with getting the new settled in my world, but I’m a well-adjusted job seeker by day and newlywed-pro scrapbook designer-Donna Reed by night and I’m ready, willing and wanting to take a Friday challenge again!

If you aren’t familiar with Friday By Request, you can check out the guidelines for making a request here. There is also a link to every request I’ve done since August 2006, 52 entries on Blogspot or Yahoo that have been requested by you the readers of The Chronicles of Nani!

I welcome your new challenges for 2009!

Monday Mug Shot

Seagram Museum
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Alas, poor whiskey, I knew it readers, a museum of infinite wisdom with a great restaurant! The Seagram Museum closed in 1997, but I’d been there a few times! Mom and I discovered the Seagram Museum en route to Stratford the first year we went after I’d turned 19. What better combination than Shakespeare and Canadian whiskey?

Turning 19 as a Metro Detroiter, is almost as cool as turning 21! There is the mandatory birthday celebration in Windsor, to have your first legal drink, but remember that if you come home drunk, you’re an instant felon! Then there is just the fact that for the next two years, you really are an adult in Canada. For me the big thing was that I could have a glass of wine with a nice dinner, so if I was going out for a nice dinner, I usually wanted to go to Canada!

The Seagram Museum was so cool! There were displays of old timey whiskey making tools, diagrams about how the whiskey is made and helpful people that were more than willing to answer any questions!

Perhaps the most memorable trip I took to the Museum was when John and I went in 1987. When I’d been there on a previous trip, I’d gotten a bottle of Museum Blend whiskey, a blend made especially for the museum shop. It was wonderfully smooth and had a good flavor. I was 21 in 1987. While the first bottle I brought home I bought, but it came back as Mom’s, now I could even legally bring my own purchase home!

John and I decided that we’d like to get a bottle of the Museum Blend for Christmas. I’ve known John since I was 15, but he’s always been legal to drink at home. My big bro has a few years on me. But this was my thing. I was old enough and I was bringing my own whiskey home!

When traveling to Canada, at that time anyway, you were allowed to bring home one bottle of alcohol per person, per night stayed in Canada without paying duty on it. We were driving to Kitchener for the purpose of buying the bottle of whiskey and stopping for a nice dinner in Stratford before heading home. We weren’t even staying a full day, so I knew I’d need to pay duty on the bottle. I was 21. I was more than happy to pay duty on MY bottle of whiskey that I was bringing home as a souvenir from Canada.

I planned ahead. the worst thing in the world to a 21-year-old is to have the booze, be able to legally bring it home and NOT have enough money left after a day in Canada to pay the taxes! So, the first stop of the day, was the customs office in Port Huron, Michigan, to find out what our duty would be so I was sure to have enough left when we crossed the border that night.

Ah, youth. Honesty is such an innocent thing.

We puled the blue Monza with Michigan plates into the US Customs parking lot. It was early on Saturday morning in December, so there wasn’t a wait. When the woman at the counter asked , “can I help you?”” I told her that we were planning to go to the Seagram Museum in Kitchener, Ontario and I wanted to bring back one bottle of their Museum Blend whiskey, a blend that can only be purchased at the museum store and I wanted to know what the duty would be when we brought it home.

“Can I see some ID?”

Remember, I was 21. That was such a normal question! Besides, I figured that she wanted to confirm that I could legally bring the bottle back. She asked for John’s ID. That still made sense to both of us and John handed her his license too. Then a man walked in, also in a border cop uniform. They both looked at our IDs, made a few inaudible to us comments and the man asked, “Is that your blue car?” I said it was and he asked for the keys!

Remember, we hadn’t left the country yet and were getting the third degree for asking a question, for being honest! We stood in the lobby of the customs office and watched them search my car in the parking lot for asking a question! They still had both of our IDs too. I remember asking John if what they were doing was legal. He told me that they were US government officers, everything they did was legal. I was between being worried and angry. I knew there was nothing they’d find in my car to give me grief, but I also knew there was nothing about asking a question that made it plain I wanted to follow international law to make me a suspect of anything.

After about 40 minutes of asking us questions and completely searching my car, they FINALLY told me, it would be about $1.25 US, for the duty on a bottle of whiskey.

I think back, and I still say “YEESH!”

The rest of the day was not nearly as eventful, except that now we were about an hour behind the schedule we’d planed. We toured the Museum, got our bottle of whiskey and had a nice dinner in Stratford. We decided that we did NOT want to cross the border in Port Huron on the way home, so we came back through Windsor into Detroit.

When we pulled up to the customs gate, at about 10 PM on a Saturday night, the agent asked if we had anything to declare. I told him that we had bought a bottle of whiskey at the Seagram Museum. He asked me to pull into the parking lot. The agent there asked me to open the hatch of my car. I was afraid it would be anther hour-long ordeal to pay my $1.25!

The agent looked over the back hatch with his flashlight and at the one bottle of whiskey in plai n sight, but out of reach of the driver, legal placement in Michigan for a car without a trunk. He smiled and said, “Thank you. You can close the trunk.”

I asked where I went to pay they duty in the whiskey. Again he smiled and said, “What whiskey? Have a nice night.”

In the end, honesty DOES pay!

Monday Mug Shot

Canada
(Windsor, Ontario)

I LOVE the Beaver on hockey skates on this mug! It was obviously a made-to-order for tourists mug and was bought in a souvenir shop in Windsor that was owned by an immigrated French national. The fact that the shop was run by a Frenchman is very important to the mug’s story!

In March of 2003, Kelly and Brooke came up to Michigan to visit for Spring Break. It was a “Zoo Holiday,” as Kelly’s visits usually are, for the whole family, a week of gatherings, dinners, and fun activities. One of our day trips was John and I taking Kelly and Brooke to Canada for lunch and a visit to the sculpture gardens in Windsor. I was Brooke’s first visit out of the country!

Brooke was 17 and having spent a decent portion of her years in Missouri, had that funny way of always asking “What accent? I have no accent! Y’ALL have an accent!” She was also excited about going to Canada to hear another language!

Canada, our sister-country to the north has 2 national languages. All the packaging in Canada is written in both of them as are the road signs. This recognizes English, the language spoken in most of Canada and French, the language spoken as a first language in Quebec, the only language in some areas of Quebec. Brooke was completely naive of the fact that there were two languages and that English is still the most common of those spoken there. In fact, she refused to believe that she wouldn’t be showered in French the moment she crossed the border.

Well, as much as the 3 adults, who’d been to the foreign country 20 minutes away from our places of birth many times, told her that in Ontario they speak English, she insisted in knowing how to say “hello,” and other key phrases in French before we got over the border. With a chuckle, I obliged. When we parked the car near the Big Tomato, where were having lunch, the giggles in the three of us became stomach aching laughter as Brooke, insisting that she was going to proudly speak the Canadian language, began to greet people loudly in her “accent free” Missourian tones “Bone-Joor!” The reaction she got was sometimes a laugh, sometimes a quick look away and even quicker steps away and sometimes a look like we were taking our patient out for some fresh air!

She was troubled that our waiter didn’t speak French, not even when she asked him to! She continued to greet strangers at the outdoor sculpture garden with “Bone Jour” and continued to get the typical responses. No one said “Bon Jour” back!

Of course, she did realize that we were being straight with her when we said that they speak English in Canada, but was having a grand time TRYING to embarrass us. When you are a teenager, you don’t realize that the older you get, the harder it is to embarrass you! Actually it was a barrel of laughs and smiling memories for us all!

The end of our day in Windsor was stopping at a few of the souvenir shops. Kelly and I were still browsing in one shop when Brooke drug John along to a store a couple doors down. When Kel and I walked back onto the street, Brooke was excited. “I FOUND MY FRENCHMAN!”

Kelly and I looked at each other, a little surprised but laughing. John was shaking his head and smiling. He told us, it wasn’t even a French-speaking Canadian. Brooke drug us all into the shop. The shop keeper, who was about a grandfathers age to Brooke and spoke English just fine, was laughing at Brooke with adoring eyes. He spoke a few more lines of French to her and she gushed with approval and satisfaction. We were 5 people smiling and laughing nonstop.

Before we left the store, I found this mug, very touristy-Canadian and NOT with any writing in French. But the mug is still filled with great memories of family, fun and a sweet man from France, who absolutely made an American girl’s day speaking his native language to her in his new home country on her first trip to Canada.

Bone Joor, Y’all!