Coffee Crankiness

I’m finally starting to hear some good news! Yesterday when I called in to see what the status is of my new power chair I was told it's done and in shipping. That means it maybe at Reflection Medical today or the beginning of next week! When I told Rick, my rep there, that I really wanted the chair in time to go to my niece's graduation next weekend, he told me if there was anything left to be assembled when it got there, he'd make sure it was done so I have it in time. SQUEE!!!

I’m really ready to have the new chair to move around the house and get out of the house. I'm starting to get cabin fever and I do notice that is really starting to tax my personality. I mean that I'm crabby. Things seem to bug me and set me off much quicker than they have in the past. For instance…


I scrap project life a little differently than everybody else. I journal a few lines about the day every day and when I scrap it I add photos if I take them or other random things that add to the character of the days. For the past two years I done my pages in quadrants with each day getting a quarter page. This year I’ve changed up a little bit and I'm doing a 2-page spread for each week, putting the journaling bits on one page and assorted supporting visuals in block form on the other page. Here's an example of what the 2-pager looks like:

I don't post my project 365/52 layouts in the forums or anything so I don't keep track of exactly what elements from what kits I'm using. BTW, I also use images from the Internet, which is completely legal under fair use since I'm not profiting from the use of publicly distributed material. But that explains why I don't have credits listed under my week 11 layout. If you scrap and you see anything about that layout that you just HAVE to know where they came from, drop me an email and I'll see if I can get that info for you.


I showed week at 11 as an example but I am caught up all the way to the present. That is, I’m working on scrapping week 19 today. Part of weak 19 was Mothers Day, My comments for Sunday included that the kids asked me to text daddy at work and ask him to bring me home a fat free latte from Starbucks for Cat-Moms Day. It was a wonderful latte that the kids gave me but I didn't take picture of it. So to include an image representation of that wonderful latte on the page for week 19, I did an image search for Starbucks latte. I found myself irritated by, in my crabby brain," idiots who are irritated for the sake of being irritated." No, I don't miss the irony of that statement. But this is my blog and therefore I'm irritated buy things that are REAL.

Starbucks is very good coffee to those who consider it very good coffee. If you don't consider it very good coffee don't buy it and shut up and let people who consider it good coffee enjoy it as good coffee. It is not necessary to create or forward, because you don't have the mind or talent required to form and promote your own opinion, cute little anonymous memes to place yourself in some place of authority to belittle people who have a different opinion than yours. Free trade agreements and corporate decisions to obtain materials and labor from outside of the US make pretty much everything some percentage of not an American product. Nobody is a bad person for choosing a product that they like because the cup is manufactured with materials from outside the country. You are not a good person because you choose to invest your money in other products with portions made in another country.

Also anyone who is so terrified that there might be something in their coffee or anything else that they get at a restaurant has no business ordering anything already made. In America restaurants are required to supply nutritional information and ingredients for food that they serve. You have a choice of asking for it, not giving your business to establishments that don't produce it without asking or not caring about the content of items that you consume. If you choose to consume products with high sodium or lots of sugar, fat or artificial flavoring that is your choice and you are NOT a bad person for making that choice. The only person that you potentially harm with that choice is yourself and that is only a potential harm because every person is different and every body reacts to different things is differently. In moderation or even in excess, you may very well be harming no one at all. If you personally have made the choice to not consume all product you are NOT a better person for attempting to insist that anyone else should be just like you.

Finally, Starbucks is a product sold for profit. If it was overpriced, it would fail. From the consistent lines I've seen when I've been in a Starbucks, it’s not failing. There are many people who like Starbucks coffee who consider it to be very good coffee and not overpriced. Many can afford to drink Starbucks coffee every day and they do. There are people, like me, who consider Starbucks coffee to be very good coffee and something I choose to have as a treat, even a couple of times a week. There is NOTHING wrong with that. If the coffee you prefer is less expensive there's nothing wrong with your taste either. But to criticize Starbucks and belittle their customers for their choice is wrong. It makes you sound either jealous because you'd like to be drinking Starbucks coffee or just a judgmental idiot.

Again I do realize the irony of judgmentally calling out judgmental idiots.


See what I mean about grumpy? I think maybe next weekend on Saturday I should see if I can get Tori and Rina for an hour, carjack the van from David and the three of us can go to Starbucks. hehehe


I know this has a lot to do with being stuck in the house. As we head into all of the major political crap it brings out the absolute ugliest of people. I try to stay away from Facebook, which is rich and political poison, and I try to avoid TV news. I like reading the paper because then I can ignore the political stuff. We're not a country that's politically polarized. We've become a country of selfish individuals, at least the loudest people are selfish individuals. But that includes everybody that forwards “Information” without verification or context. That's also known as gossip and that's been dangerous since the playground. Personally my opinions and my political opinions are not necessarily the same. Oftentimes they are, but when I think of casting a vote or encouraging someone else to I can't think about just me. I'm voting on issues or candidates to represent an entire constituency that I'm part of. What might be perfect for me may have devastating consequences in general if it becomes a law. The political process might be smoother and less violent if people could step out of their own egos long enough to realize that they aren't alone. None of us are.


I’d better stop now before my cyber coffee shop becomes as empty as the Folgers crowd wishes Starbucks was. Have a great day and be kind to everyone - you never know how long they’ve been cooped up!

AHHH!!! Fresh Air!

I really don’t want to talk about weather anymore although in addition to the 22 inches we’ve already gotten since the first of the year, I got to watch more fall overnight, yay. It’s supposed to get above freezing and rain over the weekend. I say more sincere “yay” for the above freezing but I’m not so looking forward to the rain, be in it and the possible hazards it could cause. Sigh, 2014 weather-wise is not so stellar so far.

Before I going further I have to show you this:

It’s my first wallpaper of 2014. David sent it to me on Facebook and it had to be with me always. Well, at least for most of January. I didn’t’ create it but it sure inspires me; It’s just so me!

2014 has been feast or famine as far as the weather goes and kinda feast or famine as far as my goals and projects go. Folks, I hadn’t been out of the house yet this year before my doctor’s appointment this morning. With the snow, freezing temperatures, level 3 snow emergencies and all of the subsequent cancellations, not just by me but by people and businesses I was going to as well, I just really haven’t had any reason to go out. When there’s been snow or the temperature below zero I really had no desire to make up a reason to go out either. So I haven’t been out to stock up the cupboards with fresh produce and other important healthy grocery items and although I’ve been kinda careful about portions and balance I haven’t been very true my diet plans. What I did have is dwindling fast and my grocery list is growing.

But, being shut in and made it a little easier to blog more, scrap more and read more. Of course reading Delusional Traits had me a little attached to my Nook so for the first few days I was a little slow with the page-a-day scrapbooking but I’m ahead now. We’ll see how well I stay true to that once I actually get out of the house. (Chuckle) I’ve also been doing phone calling and setting up some appointments to tackle some of my other goals, or anyway to see how affordable they are.

Here are a couple of my first 2014 pages:

Credits: Life Captured: November by Pixelily Deigns,
“Freebie Template 5” downloaded with no TOU, preview or credits. 

Credits: Life Captured: November by Pixelily Designs, Challenge template by Lindsay Jane

It’s supposed to be above freezing with some rain and snow/rain mix this weekend. I don’t like the bouncy weather patterns, but I have rescheduled lunch plans this weekend and I can do above freezing and rain much better than snow and ice and this below zero stuff has to go!

The dark spot in my world right now are phone calls from a fake “prophet” who wants to
prey onpray for me, for a price of course. If anyone reading this or someone they know is getting inundated with calls from Prophet Manasseh Jordan Ministries pleases email me and I’ll pass on the email for someone who is gathering information for a class action suit. I’m aware of others with diseases, like my MS, or who have had a house foreclosed ort filed for bankruptcy that “god” has asked the “prophet” to contact with a prerecorded message so they can send money so they pray for them. Disease and money legalities are either public record or not to difficult to get lists. Is the fake prophet’s prophecy to hack databases to exploit the most vulnerable? What kind of diseased mind feeds off people when they are at their most desperate points? Please, if you or someone you know is being harassed by this sicko; send them my way so I can give them information to be part of the class-action suit. Creating a fake “religion” to take advantage of the sick and poor is where my religious tolerance draws the line.

“Screwper Tuesday,” Oh Boy!

(Beware of Political Rant! If you'd like the calmer, gentler Nani, please scroll down to Tell Me Tuesday!)

It’s been an odd day for me schedule wise. David is working late because of the Ohio Primary Election. We did some other errands and voted before he left for work..

Before today I only voted in one primary election in my voting life. It was a Republican Primary in 1992. I lived in a moderately conservative district and was served well by Republican William Broomfield for whom I voted when he was on the ballot every time since I was able to vote in 1984. He retired after 1992.  There were three candidates to represent our district in that primary, 2 of them were excellent choices to represent us, conservative on the moderate side, like Broomfield was, and one candidate who was too conservative for the values of our area. Most of the district agreed that the other two candidates were better qualified, but the problem with 2 equal candidates and one lesser one is the 2 better candidates split the majority and the lesser candidate won by a plurality. I don’t remember the other candidates’ names from 20 years ago, but I do remember that Joe Knollenberg won the congressional seat in November. The Democrats basically put in a throw away candidate in the district we were in because for years Broomfield was unbeatable and we were considered “Republican Territory” but that year, a good moderate Democrat could have won that seat. Instead Knollenberg won pretty much by default.

This year in Ohio, I voted in the Democrat Primary. Due to Republicans in Columbus peeing on rocks, that is redistricting that happens in any state when the capitol changes parties, we’ve lost representation by a great member of congress, Marcy Kaptur, and she is in danger of losing a seat all together as they have combined parts of Toledo and Cleveland into the same district. Um, it’s cramming the city areas together to push out the Democratic representatives. Oh, I know the Democrats do it too, but I think redistricting is something that should be done after the Census IF necessary because of population growth or movement. It’s cheating, cheating the people for the good of the party; again. If redistricting is done to cram the “other party” together so they are less represented, then the entire state is not represented. It’s electing officials from different areas that gives an honest representation of the political needs and wants of the state. My opinion and I’m open to factual data that says I’m wrong, but in a state with a lot of acreage of farms and maybe 4 or 5 cities of notable population size, those cities should not be sharing congressional districts. We have 18 representatives and if one represents 3 times the people of any 2 others combined, it’s very “special” math!

Anyway, we didn’t even make it into the district that Marcy is in. I guess the Republicans in Columbus consider our neighborhood to be a “good neighborhood.” I feel dirty. I don’t want any political party to call me “good” or “equal.” That’s an insult!

Anyway, that’s my take on Screwper Tuesday. I didn’t want to vote in the Republican Primary at all. I don’t care who they choose from the nuts wanting to be President, I won’t vote for them. They frighten me. I truly don’t think the incumbent could harm the country more than the Right’s lunatic fringe candidates could devastate it given the opportunity. Give me two decent and qualified candidates who are respectful to each other. I miss the days of respect for your opponent and most importantly, for the people.

I’m not a loony left liberal. Loony Left Liberals would probably stone me for my opinions on crime and punishment. Some moderate conservatives might help them. I’m an American, moderate; little left and little right. Help people, but expect something in return from them for the help and don’t spend everything we have to do it. If the elected officials spent a little time using their brains and consciences, they might actually be PROgress instead of its opposite. And by conscience I mean that they are there to serve EVERYONE they represent and not just their party, themselves, or only the people who voted for them, consider what is in the best interest of the people not the party or the next election when they vote. If the country, and each state, is in a better political place and things have improved going into the next election, the run for an incumbent will be a lot easier, regardless of any single issue or what they thought of it. It helps to be part of a successful whole instead of a “winning” part of a giant bickering failure.


Stepping down from soapbox…or I guess wheeling down the soapbox’s ramp? I couldn’t have stood and said what I wrote with any vigor for as long as it took to write it.



So, Super Tuesday made it just a weird day. Aside from voting, it feels like Saturday. But it’s not Saturday. It’s Tuesday. And Tuesday is Tell Me Tuesday at The Coloradolady!






Today’s prompt from Suzanne is this:

Is it out of reach? Or have you just not stretched yourself far enough?

Boy, after a political rant…


“It.” What is “it.?”

Well, to me “it” is what I want. As simple as a coffee cup from the top shelf or as complicated as reorganizing my entire house, I have to want “it” to stretch enough to have “it.”

Sometimes it’s a simple stretch, I use tongs to grab things off the top shelf, a trick Grandma taught me. Sometimes I think ahead and ask David to get a can of soup off the top shelf for me before he goes to work. But my stubborn side doesn’t often let me remember to do that. Weight Watchers totals say I’m NOT starving!

As far as reorganizing the house, that’s coming along. It means I do a little more every day, a slow stretch. That tests my patience with myself, but I’m doing well with that too.

In the fall, I want to start job hunting again. I’d love to find a legitimate work from home job. I'd love something where my mental and creative skills work and my mobility isn’t an issue.  I'll stretch into something new and I'm going to have to sell myself as a candidate and possibly ask a company to stretch their opinions of what accessibility means.  Truck driver is pretty much out of the question. Not because they don’t have semis with hand controls or elevators to get me up to the cab. I’m just not fond of driving and the hours really kind of suck for a married person. I totally tip my hat to the men and women who do that essential logistics job! It takes knowledge and skills to do well that are seldom appreciated.

I think I’m resourceful enough to pretty much have anything I want. I mean that. I think everyone has that quality. Some people may have bigger “its” than others, but the instinct is to make something happen if you really want it to. And there’s the point. How bad do you want “it?” The cups are on the top shelf, but I’ve never wanted a cup of coffee and not had it. I really want the coffee. I let that small thing be proof to myself that I can always have something if I truly want it. So maybe more that are you stretching enough, the question is: Do you want it bad enough to stretch for it?

Come join us for Tell Me Tuesday at The Coloradolady!

Sunday Ponderings

Just a few things that have been on my mind today, a little long, a little controversial too.


“Grow Up and Eat Your Vegetables!”


I love this time of year, veggies a plenty! Whether it’s a roadside stand, a farmers market or that friendly sign at Kroger or Giant Eagle telling me how they are supporting local farmers by carrying Ohio-grown produce whenever possible, the fruits and veggies are naturally ripe and fresh! Last weekend when Pop barbecued for my birthday, he also gave me my birthday present. My birthday presents from Pop are always awesome! I got a bag of cherries, a half dozen white peaches and a big bag of zucchini. Pop always picks up my favorites, down to choosing the white over yellow peaches. With him working in the produce department, he picked my goodies up after work Saturday morning. I couldn’t get fresher if I got them myself. But, I also get the “pick of the litter.” Pop knows what looks the best coming off the truck in the morning! I still have a couple of zucchini left, but the peaches were finished by mid-week and well, the cherries lasted through Sunday!

In the world of trying to make less of me, I tried Nutrisystem. It’s a good program if you can afford it and if you have a modest amount to lose. For me it was a good jump start. I dropped 40 pounds after a slow start. Their counselors on the phone are great. I switched a few things around and changed my dairy or protein add-ins to mostly protein instead of dairy and then I started losing better. Well, the start of the year I quit losing, even gained a little. Mostly due to stress as I was going along on the journey to the ultimate MS diagnosis.

Unfortunately, while the switching out most of the dairy worked for getting the weight loss going, lowered Vitamin D goes with MS and my blood work said my Vitamin D levels were DRASTICALLY low. That’s not Nutrisystem’s fault or the fault of the counselors. I didn’t even know I had MS when that “fix” was made in my diet. A year later the only “good riddance” feelings I have is to the prepackaged food. The diet plan is sound but the food as a whole isn’t so great.

So, I did some doctoring with the food, adding spices to save the flavor. Some of it was beyond help. Those things were mostly the dinner entrées, which are usually just swimming in not-so-good to gross gravies. I do still have a few breakfasts left that I will miss when they are gone.

Visiting the community message boards there was a shock! I was hoping that someone had already called counseling and gotten an “Okay” to dump most of those gravies or at least had some good ideas for fixing the flavor. What I found was a lot of very unsupportive people insisting you had to “do it MY way” because they were “experts.” It only takes losing some successfully and posting a lot to be an “expert.” Oh jeez, I can’t stand uncredentialed experts. The board bullies were brutal to people and probably lose Nutrisystem as many customers as they help.

The one thing the board bullies had in common was that they HATED vegetables. Oh, GROW UP! I’m thinking that’s maybe why they ended up there in the first place! For me it was mostly the nuts. I discovered my greatest nemesis in the weight gain world was the portion sizes of nuts, pumpkin seeds and the like. Maybe that explains the cholesterol issues for me? I got my fat servings under control and not only did I drop some weight, but I got my cholesterol levels down too. Of course, I didn’t get the adults who don’t eat vegetables. I mean, they hate ALL vegetables? What are teaching their kids?

I’ve always eaten a lot of vegetables, often raw and when they are cooked I only seldom add any more than a little spice or a touch of butter. The bully experts told me I had to eat all the gravy because it was important for "the stats." They all seemed to agree that the answer to the gravy issue was to steam large amount of vegetables and pour the gravy over them because it made it easier to eat the vegetables. What? After already saying that I ate lots of veggies raw or naked and liked them they tell me to put the gravy I don’t like on my veggies? My answer was that I quit ordering the stuff with gravy. That made the selection very limited.

So, I switched to Weight Watchers when I found out how bad my Vitamin D level was. Like I said, not at all blaming Nutrisystem for it, but I’m eating lots of dairy now and losing again. I’m also not bored at all and no gravy baths for anything because I cook it and my veggies-a-plenty are raw or un-gravied too! I’m diet-wise in a better place.


Stem Cells


I’ve always thought that stem cell research was a good idea. The results there have been in tests are near miraculous, but I’ve never climbed on the soap box and supported it because it didn’t promise a benefit to ME, so I hadn't researched a lot. My bad on that one. You never know when something that’s a good idea for “other people” may end up being an idea you want more done about for YOU! That’s kind of where I am now. There is a lot of research being done on the results of stem cell treatments for MS patients. So now I’m stepping up on my soap box in support of it. It was a great idea before, but when it became personal, my eyes opened wide enough to see my empty soap box.

The political world is quite threatening. I am not a registered anything but a registered voter. As far as party goes, I’m American. But I’m a disabled American now and I’m starting to see myself leaning left enough that I could totally walk away from the Republican party members because they have become quite anti-people. If that party has its way, the healthcare reform that was passed will be revoked. In addition to healthcare for people who can’t afford it, it also means that if my husband were to change jobs, I’d be uninsured with a life-long debilitating disease. That reform includes the end of “pre-existing conditions” as a reason for an insurance provider to refuse to cover someone. In the end, money is SO much more important than care, right?

Also, greatly influenced by the religious anti-choice nuts, the Republican party is really paying at least lip service to cutting funding and halting stem-cell research, because I guess research to save lives encourages abortions.

Don’t misunderstand me on this one. Anti-choice is a carefully chosen term. As an American I am pro choice. I don’t understand how anyone can not be. Personally, I would never have an abortion or encourage anyone close to me to have one. I also personally don’t condone use of fertility clinics. My personal thought is that there is a reason for unplanned pregnancies and a reason some who want babies can’t have them. It’s my spiritual beliefs that say if you are pregnant, didn’t plan to be and don’t want a baby, DO NOT KILL IT. Have the baby and give it up so the parents who want a child can adopt it.

Of course, I realize my belief that it’s killing a baby is religious. In a country where we have the freedom to choose, or not choose at all, a religion that’s right for each individual, we cannot make laws that prefer one religion to any other. If there are religions that do not hold that a fetus is a human life until birth, how can we as Americans govern when the fetus is a life?

The mini-abortion rant does go back to stem cells, really. There are two things the Republicans that are sleeping with the church ladies need to consider. The first is that not all stem cell research is embryonic stem cells. There is a hospital I was reading about, not in the US, because the treatment isn’t approved here, that uses your own stem cells, drawn from fat cells that are processed and reinjected. There have been good reviews from MS patients who have the courage and money to try it out. Last I checked the most obese country in the world has plenty of fat to donate to that cause.

The second thing, while they are kissing butt for the anti-choice religions, is MY religious beliefs. Who do I have to cozy up with for my religious convictions to be a political star? I don’t know if someone is going to Hell for having an abortion. As a ‘lil old human, I’m, not qualified to say “God says….” Best I can do is say “I feel like what I am doing will or won’t please God.” But let me ask this of those church ladies. If it’s a baby before it’s born and it’s killed. Does it go to Hell too? My belief here, it would be un-American to choose a religious influence to create a law, my spiritual beliefs find some solace in that the stem cells from aborted fetuses can be instruments to save people that are already living with diseases. The anti-choice church ladies may be seeking to strip those lives of their purpose.

Ah but, these are the same people who throw their own children in front of cars to keep people from going in to a family planning clinic. People or a soul’s purpose have little meaning to them compared to their own agenda and being right at any cost.

If you have an opportunity to talk to a candidate or your legislators, ask them where they stand on stem cell research and if they’re against it, WHY?


Feline World


David and I are thinking of expanding out family again. It’ll be a while yet. We didn’t want to run out and adopt another cat right away, part because we wanted to honor Baggle’s memory and let Kaline and Carla get used to each other without him. Yeah, they are a little different together than they were. Kaline and Baggle were that way after we lost Chester too. But the other part was that we do a lot of weekenders in the summer and have vacation plans coming up too. It wouldn’t be fair to introduce a new cat and then leave. All three of them needed us there as they got used to Carla being in the family. There are definitely things we could have done better with introducing Carla and I’d like to make sure we do them better with the next new cat. So, we’re probably looking at mid to late fall, like we did with Carla.

We do have a name picked out, Joe or Jo Morgan, Joe for a boy and Jo for a girl. I think we’ll probably use the middle name, but as David says, “it depends on the cat.” I guess I gotta agree with that. The reason for the choice was that we have a Red Sox cat and a Tigers cat. We give bonus cat treats when all three of our teams, Tigers, Red Sox and Reds win. I thought we ought to have a cat named for a Reds Hall of Famer. But David thought it was a little unfair to have two cats named for my teams and only one for his. Joe Morgan is the name of the Hall of Fame member of the Big Red Machine, 1972-79, and also the name of the Boston Red Sox manager, 1988-1991. No, not the same guy. Their playing careers overlapped just briefly at the end of the Red Sox manager’s career and the beginning of the Big Red Machine member’s. It’s a puurrfect name for our third baseball kitty!

Donnez-moi plus de cafe!

Cup art from the kit Couleur Cafe by Katussia

Ne dis jamais “ça suffit de café!”

Happy Sunday, everybody!

Isn't the cup cute? It's from a freebie kit, Couleur de Cafe by Katussia just-a-dream here on blogspot. I love coffee kits and I scrap about coffee every now and then for spacer pages between my 2-page layouts in my scrapbooks .

Yes, I blew it on the last day of the week! No post on Friday means I did NOT post every day of the week and here it is the last day of the weekend. It’s Interleague Play. I hate Interleague Play and it just messes with my whole day when it starts. The Cubs pretending to be an American League team in Boston was on the TV because David hates Interleague Play slightly less than me and he still watches. I saw enough to know I couldn’t even pretend it was the World Series because, come on, the way the Cubs are playing defense in the National League, there’s just no real way that could happen this year!

I will probably at least have the Reds game on today. The Reds and Indians is a viable pretend World Series this year and the Reds have lost the first two games. Shame on the Reds for requiring the fans to watch Interleague trash to get a win! I wish it as the Reds home series. I like National League ball better. I’ve said it many times, the designated hitter position is just a way that millionaires can still make those millions a few more years when they don’t have what it takes to play the whole game. It’s more overrated than the closer position. Hey there are, or are supposed to be, 30 professional closers and Mariano Rivera and 4 different other guys every year who can actually do the job. Closers get paid more than the other relief pitchers and the designated hitters get paid like any other player when they do half the work. Wouldn’t it be grand if we all got paid that way? But we, the baseball fans of us anyway, pay those overinflated among the overpaid salaries every time the prices at the ballpark go up. By the time you figure parking, tickets, concessions, it’s easily over $100 to take a family or even a date to a Major League Baseball game. Interleague Play may bring in the casual fan who has money, but to get real baseball fans in the park cut the crap and bring down the prices! Make it affordable by getting back to the roots of the game. The players can still have their money, but ask them to kindly perform for it. I say get rid of the designated hitter and bring us dollar hot dogs and $3 beer!

Whew! I sometimes don’t know where my blog will go when I sit down in front of the keyboard. I write to keep myself at peace and centered, so if something needs to get off my chest, my hands will take it out on the keyboard!

So, it’s Sunday, second cup of coffee day! Ne dis jamais “ça suffit de café!” is Never say “that’s enough coffee!” That’s my Sunday battle cry. Et maintenant, j’ai besoin de plus de café. (Now I need more coffee) And I put the game on and Joey Votto hit a deep home run in the first inning. With that kind of apology, I really can’t turn my back on my team during the “let’s pretend it’s October” play date with the Indians.

If I close the shades on the windows, crank up the air conditioner and put something stronger in the coffee, it might even feel like October!

A Little Bit of This – Spring 2011

Mom with Dave and me, Easter 1970

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Moms out there and to all of the Mom helpers. That photo is the one I have as my ID on Facebook right now. I saw a few people using their Mom’s photo as their profile photo for Mother's Day and I thought it was a neat idea for the holiday, so I used that one. It turns out that my photo was such a good idea that my brother snagged it for his profile photo. Now we look like twins, but as I posted on his page, we kinda look like twins in that photo! (But trust me, we really are 14 months apart!) It’s my Mom with my brother and me on Easter Sunday in 1970. I was almost 5 and Dave was 3-1/2. That’s a photo my Dad carried in his wallet for a long time. There is one that goes with it, Dad’s other wallet photo, of us with him on the same day. We were almost adults and we were still under 5 in Dad’s wallet. The staples in Mom’s wallet were a little more up-to-date. She always had the current school picture, then we got to be seniors forever, but the First Communion photos were always there too.

Today is the 8th Mother’s Day that I won’t be at a ball game with my Mom. “Take Mommy Out To The Ball Game” was our Mothers Day tradition. She loved carnations and that was one of the Mothers Day perks. Many ballparks give a carnation to every woman who comes to the game on Mother’s Day. Sometimes it was a Tigers game, sometimes a Minor League game. In 1996, the ball game was the day before when Heather and Tracy were with us in Philadelphia. We saw the Braves and Phillies after a rain delay the night before and the three of us treated Mom to lunch at Old Bookbinder’s before we left for the airport. When I wrote the tribute that was on her memorial website, I mentioned that she’d see Roberto Clemente, one of her heroes as a kid, play again at Heaven’s ballpark. For this year’s Mothers Day game, she’ll get to see Sparky Anderson manage one of the teams.


Speaking of Baseball…


A little tirade of questioning Dusty Baker - why, oh why, would he put Francisco Cordero in to pitch when they were only ONE run ahead in the ninth inning, I don’t care if they call him “closer," which by the way is the most OVERRATED position in baseball, Cordero is more accomplished at throwing a lead away when it really counts than he is at saving games. I listen to the commentators on Fox Sports talk about how closers seem to perform better with men on base. PLEASE! Any other reliever, we’d call that “not able to get the job done,” “Poor performance.” But for a closer, the ulcers for managers and fans are part of their, I don’t know, legend? YEESH! The first batter Cordero faced went yard and tied the game. Correct me if I’m wrong, but a tie does NOT close a game! Oh yeah, but he did close it in the ninth. The Cubs got another run in to beat, Cordero. It just sucks that the Reds and their fans have to take the hit for his inability to do his job. Yes, he has a bunch of saves, but when the game has been tough or the score has see-sawed or just if it’s not easy, Cordero is NOT the man you want on the mound in the ninth. I don’t care how much of a Reds ticket goes to pay his overpriced salary, I’d rather pay him to sit on the bench and record a win.

Okay, that rant ends. If you read it all, thank you for indulging me. It’s just that Cordero really irks me. Congratulations Cubbies on the victory, but we took it easy one you and gave you Cordero and his beach ball pitches in the ninth. You can thank us by not hitting today!

So after watching the sad ending to the Reds game, I tuned in to the Tigers game in the fourth inning. What better way to wipe my emotions clean of that nasty Cordero inning than Justin Verlander! He was phenomenal yesterday, the second no-hitter of his career and just inches shy of a perfect game! In the bottom of the eighth in Toronto, after facing and retiring 22 straight batters, he went to a full count and walked batter 23, then ended the eighth with a double play. So, he did only face 27 hitters, an almost perfect game!

Justin Verlander - 2nd career no-hitter yesterday!

It was very cool to watch the game. As David said when he got home yesterday, we usually only see the last batter or at most the last inning when a network games breaks into it as the no-hitter is completed. I loved watching the game and seeing the pitcher for one of my teams pitch the gem. Verlander is only the second Tiger in history to throw two no-nos and at 28 years old, he has time to do it again in his career. Can he do it? Could he throw five more and match Nolan Ryan’s record seven in his career? Yeah, no one can answer those questions yet, but it’s going to be exciting as a Tiger fan to find out!


School’s Out For Summer

Well, this semester was tough for me. Planning on the medical issues being much simpler, I took two classes. Even in the easier one, Web Imaging, which is basically Photoshop 5, I only got a B+. I say “only got a B” because it’s my first grade since returning to beef up my resume that wasn’t an A! I had some of straight-A semesters through high school, trade school and college, but I was never a 4.0 student when all was said and done. I am proud that my cumulative average has always been in the “A” range, but really, I’ve never been asked what my GPA in school was in a job interview, so in the greater scheme of things, a B, even if it was a C, doesn’t hurt anything but my ego, and even my ego is only slightly bruised.

But the ego bruising fades with some very glowing remarks and the full 250 points for my final project in Photoshop! For the final project, we were to create two original pieces using the tools and methods we’d learned in class. I created the first one to be an in-store promotional poster for home and garden departments in the fall for spring perennial bulbs planting. I used photos of my own flowers and the labels from the bulbs with one of Darlene Haughin’s papers from the Everyday Life collab.


For the second one, I used a paper from Darlene’s portion of On My Knees, we had to secure permission to use anything we didn’t create or photograph ourselves, and photos of my own cane and walker. Remember that I got the walker when I was in aquatic therapy because it took me a little to get my land legs back after getting out of the pool. I positioned this as a motivational poster and one that could be used in a co-op ad or public service ad for a nonprofit like Paralyzed Veterans of America or Special Olympics.


As I mentioned already, I currently have an Incomplete in my XML class, with three chapters and the final to catch up by the beginning of August, I want to redo some of the chapters before that so I have the language down moving forward. As I said before, my instructor is awesome, very compassionate and understanding. I want to excel on the portion of the class that’s left, not just for me, but as a way of saying thanks to him too!


Flowers!

The entire length of the house next to our drive is in bloom!

I’m having so much fun watching the flowers Kelly and I planted in October come up! That photo was taken May 4. The tulips are up now and the colors along the side of our house are just beautiful! But, after the tulips are done, that’s it! I planted spring flowers. I’m still new to this flowers thing! I’ve been doing some looking for summer blooming perennials and next I’ll look for fall blooming ones. I’d love to be able to have continuous blooming plants through to fall on the side.

Here are three I found that are right for the growing zone we’re in and I just think would be beautiful in the summer.

Gladiolas

We’ve had glads in the side bed all along, but they were dug up when our basement waterproofing was done and we didn’t get them back in the ground soon enough. I want to get some to plant now because I know they’ll grow there and David picked a Glad branch for me a couple times, when rain or wind knocked them down, and I had a glad branch on my desk at work. So, they have sentimental value too.

gaillardias

clematis

These two are one I found that I just think are so pretty! I want to get some each of the gaillardias and clematis. I love the colors and the sunburst of the gaillardias is just SO summer! Kelly did the planting while I was at school in October, but I know how she did it and I figure I can set out the bulbs in the driveway and just move a chair down to each section to do the planting. David said he’d help too. I’ll see about choosing fall flowers and maybe planting them all at the same time.


Okay, I’ll be back with more later!

The Problem With Healthcare

Oh, Woman-I-Haven’t-Met. I know your name. I know you are skinnier than me and your breasts are perkier. I also know that you have nasty scoliosis of your spine. The doctors have known that since last year.

I know these things about a stranger because the medical profession seems to be more concerned with processing records and getting the paperwork out the door than they are with the patients. Plans are underway for me to go to a specialist in Cleveland for “my” adult scoliosis, to see if it might have something to do with my mobility issues. Except that the x-ray included in the packet with my MRI prints is not me. I discovered that this morning, so I can’t even stop the referral process until Monday.

After seeing the x-ray in the neurosurgeon’s office, I was a little freaked out. I saw a very curvy spine on the light box across the room. Even with my iffy eyesight, I could see that it was bad. I was a little in shock. I’d been tested for curvature of the spine when I was in middle school, no curve, no signs of one potentially starting. When I’d been in a car accident at almost 30 which compressed my lower spine, I had full back x-rays done and no sign of scoliosis. Now, here I was looking at a badly curved x-ray with my MRI print films.

This morning, I wanted to look at them again. I have three packets of prints. The set of prints I brought in for my appointment on Wednesday was incomplete. The chunk of the MRI pictures that warranted the most comments on the analysis sheet wasn’t there, but the spine x-ray that made my heart sink into my stomach was. When I looked today, the full set, that had all the pictures that were on the CD I took home was there and that x-ray with the scoliosis had been moved to in the new packet. I pulled it out and looked at the crooked spine. When I unfocused from the S-shaped curve, I noticed something wrong. I’m not that thin! My breasts are bigger and not anywhere hear that perky! Then I decided I’d see if there was a test number to compare and make sure the prints were all from the same test. Better than a number for matching, my MRI prints have my name, age and the date of the test. The information on the scoliosis x-ray was dated last year and included all the personal things I know about Woman-I-Haven’t Met!

I don’t know what part of this infuriates me the most. When I got the MRI done, I asked for a copy of it on disk for my records and a set of the prints on film for my neurosurgeon and a copy of the results sent to my doctor. They told me that because it was done digitally, they didn’t do prints, but the CD would be the same thing. My MRI was the end of the day on Friday. I think perhaps Happy Hour and the weekend had more to do with them not doing prints than the scan being done digitally. I had even expressed that the MRI I had done in January was done digitally, but I had to get prints to bring to the doctor. When I called the hospital on a weekday, there was no problem ordering the prints.

The problem with ordering the prints after-the-fact was that they were incomplete and had someone else’s x-ray in them. I have no idea who got the rest of the prints from my MRI, but I have someone else’s confidential medical information and there is confidential medical information of mine “somewhere.”

So the hospital screwed up. They screwed up by lying to me about whether or not they “did” the prints that the neurosurgeon requested, then they screwed up by putting only part of my MRI prints and someone else’s x-ray in my envelope. Again, I have no idea where the rest of the prints from my test are. But hey, the neurosurgeon viewed them twice, including the x-ray, with me sitting there and didn’t realize it wasn’t an x-ray of me.

Slow down! Read things and double check. Healthcare is dealing with very private matters and with people’s lives. Patients aren’t stupid, I’M not stupid, but when I’m presented with a terrible misshapen spine and told it’s me when I already have bulging disks in my lower back and major mobility issues, I want to be able to trust that the healthcare people, the ones who make a lot more money for their time than I ever have, are doing a careful job. When you’re sick, or getting tested for something unknown, if you’re in pain or getting stuffed into an enclosed tube for an MRI, you’re not on your mental “A-game.” It should be no problem to expect that you can trust those medical institutions with your health and safety.

What I do know is that I had to have patient advocate paperwork that we’d had done by Grandma’s lawyer to ask questions and get information when Grandma was in the hospital and when one of my best friends was dying, I couldn’t ask for information on his condition without John’s sister’s okay. I’m not happy about having a stranger’s information or that anyone else could have mine.

Woman-I-Haven’t-Met, I hope your x-ray gets into your doctor’s hands and they can do something to help you. I hope that whoever got my MRI prints finds out they have the wrong ones before they start to treat or test further for something they don’t need.

What Do Groundhogs Know, Anyway?

Groundhog Doodle by Artgal Style

This was scheduled to be a much longer blog. I started writing and got on a roll. Then in rereading, I realized that there was a lot of tongue-in-cheek talk about religion, religion and groundhogs, but religion just the same. I didn’t want to publish it in case it might be offensive to someone stopping at my cyber coffee shop for the first time. I think that first half may just be in the personal archives. If you want to read the copy that didn’t get published, drop me a line at chronicelofnani@gmail.com and I’ll send a copy.

After the religious stuff the post kinda changed direction...

So, the Germans who settled in Pennsylvania are the ones who brought the tradition of rousting a hibernating mammal on Candlemas for predicting Spring to break up the mid-winter doldrums. The two used to be intertwined, but Groundhog Day was like the spin-off that grew to become more popular than the original show! The original mammal was a badger, but they settled on the Groundhog and that’s why Punxsutawney Phil is the head honcho Groundhog, the home of the original Groundhog Day.

Yes, I know I’ve been going on and on about the Groundhog this month. It’s just that, like the German settlers in Pennsylvania that brought the silly part of their Candlemas holiday with them, I’M TIRED OF WINTER! This year’s been especially cold and especially snowy.

So here’s my problem with the Groundhog – Politics. The Groundhog is too much of a politician. Tells us what he thinks we want to hear and then leaves us to just live with it until by some miracle it happens or we discover he lied again. And it’s not just us humans. It’s everyone alive! This morning I was having my muffin and coffee at around 5:30 before I started my test questions for the day and as the sky started getting light, Kaline joined me on the table and had that, “did you hear something? I heard something!” look. I listened close to see what she was hearing. I heard some dripping from the back window where there were some moving sounds from the icicles and some early commuters n the main street, but wait! Then I heard what her eyes were following to the window behind me. She jumped onto the buffet and seemed to ask me to pull the shade. I obliged her. What we were both listening to now was a Cardinal’s song, just outside the window.

Cardinals sing the end of winter and beginning of spring, their song is the first to fill the air when the end of winter is near. With a big storm coming that prompted my doctor’s office to call and suggest that I cancel my appointment tomorrow, I’m sure the Cardinal was either duped by the Groundhog too or is part of his plan.

Then I remembered that spring means Spring Training and the Cardinal’s song reminded me that Lance Berkman is a Cardinal now. How did we let that happen? If the Cardinal is on the Groundhog’s payroll, then the Groundhog is not a Pirates fan, like I would have guessed, but he’s a Cardinals fan! The groundhog seeing his shadow in the fall made Lance Berkman a Cardinal! Talk about power-drunk! GRRR!

Just one more reason to put groundhog on the menu!

Lance Berkman and his pet groundhog can go play in the snow. I’M going to go hibernate!

Soap Box Between Cookies

I was having my morning multitask, coffee and a banana nut muffin, reading news stories and making Krisp Kringles, well, okay I made and poured to set the Kringles before coffee and news. One story I read was about the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Gay Rights stories often get my dander up.

I have had friends and good acquaintances that are gay over the years, but there’s not anyone that I am aware of in my family, relatives and friends, who is gay. Still Gay Rights issues are a huge deal to me. I’m not sure why, other than the fact that I can’t stand the government or ignorant special interest groups stepping on another person’s rights “because you’re not like ME!” I was a girl who played ice Hockey in the 70s and a woman in sports production in the 90s. I guess it’s just that I know a thing or two about being told I’m not enough like someone else. NO ONE has a right to tell ANYONE that, EVER.

I am so happy that Rina and Tori, kids in high school in general, are becoming more understanding and accepting. I am proud that the girls find those who bully, abuse and inflict violence and murder for those insecure excuses to be the deviants and worthless members of society. Human morals and values are becoming more normal in that area.

It does pain me at this time of year to think that any kind of discrimination is still in the news. Not in MY world. In my utopia it’s not even a hot topic. It just doesn’t exist.

I look at our Christmas card this year and think, if I was a lesbian and David was a woman and my partner, that card would be the same. I still would have written the sappy verse, still would scrapbook and have designed the card, the cats would still be there on the rumpled comforter on our bed and there would still be a photo of us at someone’s wedding. The difference would be that we wouldn’t be married living in Ohio. Somehow, there are people who think that would be wrong. Since we don’t have kids, I don’t get what the difference would be. It’s not like we took advantage of the ONLY thing a marriage can do on its own exclusively with opposite sex partners.

With the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the haters will hate louder. The supporters of equal rights for human beings, need to support louder too.

Stepping off soapbox now. Gotta start another batch of cookies. :)

Cup of Coffee? Seriously?

Okay, first off, there is gloominess in the world of the Cincinnati Reds today. A limited-time marriage of number-one nemesis, the St. Louis Cardinals, and he who owns Great American Ballpark, Lance Berkman, was announced today.

No, I’m not writing to make a big worrisome, or not, statement about that, not today. I’ll have to digest that first. But I’m writing to complain about how I heard about it.

I was in Connecticut this morning. I head a about the signing of Berkman by St. Louis on New York’s WCBS radio. “After a cup of coffee with the Yankees,” Berkman is going to St. Louis. “A cup of coffee?” What? Oh, the Yankees ego!

A “cup of coffee” is a term used to describe a short stint in the major leagues, NOT a short stint with the Yankees. I wonder how Mets fans feel about that in their own city. It makes me wonder if the ugliness in bandwagon Yankee fans is their own attitude or a product of the team’s ownership or even the media in New York. I mean come on, for a news station to infer that the Yankees are the big leagues and 29 other teams are not? Please!

As I recall, the Yankees were not even the American League team that lost the World Series this year. Oh yeah, the Yankees had their cup of coffee in the playoffs earlier, before Texas cut them from October.

International Furbaby Weekend

It’s snowing. It’s been snowing all day. I’ll repeat that last part with the correct emphasis; ALL DAY!

::sigh:: I am sick to death of all of this snow. I mean, it’s the end of February. Opening Day is less than six weeks away! Curse the Ground Hog! Note to Buckeye Chuck and all his furry buds – USE YOUR TEETH! When your slumber is disturbed on as chilly morning because the sunlight is shining in your eyes and you see a hand reaching to grab you BITE IT! You go back to sleep without seeing your shadow and we all do a happy dance because spring is coming sooner rather than later. To allow yourself to be pulled out of bed to see your shadow when God gave you teeth to fend off the intruders is just a flagrant abuse of power.

Actually, this year it would have been kinder to bite that hand and send the shadow to Vancouver so they wouldn’t have had slush issues during the beginning of the Olympics. Selfish ground hogs.


But this blog entry is not to grouse about the ground hogs. As an optimist, I may hate the snow that’s been taunting me all day, but it’s keeping the people who clean the snow employed. Food delivery services make more when the weather is icky too and the drivers get tipped better when it’s a snowy day. I will remind the delivery people to drive safer in the bad weather and to the people ordering - tip like you didn't want to go our and drive in it!

But this blog is about an important holiday weekend! This weekend is International Furbaby Weekend! It’s a holiday I just created to get over the snowy day blues. This holiday is all about showing off your Furkids! In honor of the holiday weekend, I want you to leave a comment telling us about your furbaby, linking to pictures of your four-legged domestic companions or to your blog post about your pets and this holiday!

Here are our kids. I just did a page for each of them for my 2010 scrapbook with recent photos, so it works to be just in time for the Holiday!

Baggle is our senior cat, the retired alpha who retains his rule at the food bowl!

Credits: Papers from Black and White Birthday by Kris Myers,
other elements from Lily May by Kitty Cat Designs,
Red Gel Alpha by Marie at freedigitalscrapbooking

Kaline is the Queen. She’s kind to Baggle in letting him remain “Lord of the Food” and kind to Carla too, most of the time.

Credits: Papers – Creamsicle by Wenchd Grafix ,
Elements from Flowers Blooming collab by the designers at Scrap Bird,
alpha – Puddles of Sunshine by EvaK Designs

Carla is the baby of the family. She’ll be 2 in September. Don’t let her adult build fool you! She still has a lot of kitten left in her and she is always starving for attention!

Credits: Neon Funk by Creations by Rachel,
Live, Laugh, Love alpha by Kimberkatt Scraps

Your Present!

Now, what would a holiday be without presents? To get you in the mood for National Furbabies Weekend, here is some appropriate word art for tour scrapbook pages or for your blog!


Click on preview for download page
Password is purrrr

Don’t forget to leave your links to your furkids or tell us all a little about them in comments. Aw! Thinking about all our great Furbabues is making me feel happier and warmer already!

I am Super Woman 43!

What a festival this year. I still have a few days left, and I’m hoping there is more reward than challenge to show me how much of a super woman I am!

On my actual birthday, I woke up early, as I usually do because my husband has turned mme into a bona fide morning person, I just wake up around 7 AM, even without any alarm now. Whoda ever thunk that would happen! I did a scrapbook page in mt ever winding road to catch up. I’m almost 40 on paper now! It’s David’s 40th on the laptop and cats around the time of mine on the Mac. So I did a cute kitty page and it was nearing David wake-up time. I needed him to get a top shelf photo album for me so I could post that Photoblog. I didn’t have the picture of Mums and me on my 17th scanned yet. Then we went downstairs, I made coffee and washed up the dishes that I didn’t get to Tuesday nighty.

Maybe that’s the problem. I didn’t do the dishes Tuesday night and that jinxed me. Physical therapy has made me quite quite weak in the back nd hips as we’re working on retraining my walking muscles. Near the end of a not very large sink of dishes, my back weakened and I was teetering standing up. That is so frustrating when it happens! I put the last pan in the drain and stepped away and was hit with pan in my left lower back-hip area like a bolt of lightening! It’s like a combination muscle spasm and cramp. Nasty birthday present from fate, huh? So, ice, ice, Nani time!

Ice, Advil and Icy Hit rub have made it bearable and bit by bit better over the last three days, but I haven’t been as mobile as I wanted to be! Just today I’m finally feeling up to trying to get the laundry done and run a few errands. Yeesh!

But then yesterday, add to superwoman for this week, I get a phone call from Grandma’s next door neighbor, at Grandma’s house. There is a sad truism about living alone as you get older. If Grandma doesn’t feel physically up to fixing a meal or even going into the kitchen to get something to eat, she just doesn't. Not a good thing for a diabetic! Her friend, whom she talks with a couple times a day, was worried because she just didn’t sound okay, so she called the neighbor who went to Grandma’s house. Grandma’s blood sugar had tanked, again. The neighbor got her some juice and made her breakfast, then called me.

After I called her doctor and subsequently, he called her, the neighbor brought her in to see him. Now she’s in the hospital getting some tests done and getting some heart-related issues tended to.

I’m her power-of-attorney person and the one the doctors give all the information to, so I am also Grandma-info-central! I have more area codes in my recent calls list on my phone than someone who doesn’t like talking on the phone should have! Thankfully, when I talked to Grandma this morning, she sounds great. She was complaining that they are feeding her so much all the time and I encouraged her to just listen and eat when they say eat because that’s why she ended up there! Dad is working close to her place and is visiting after work. Dave and Dad were planning a visit next weekend anyway and my Cincinnati pans have changed to traveling north rather than south. I’ll go up to bring her home when she gets out of the hospital and be there when the rest of the family gets there. At her doctor’s suggestion, our goal is to get her to be on board with the thought of a senior apartment.

Her doctor says it’s really time to think about assisted living. She has her independence, but 24/7 help when she needs it. I’d really prefer Grandma to be okay with it rather than have to play the “You signed papers saying I can bully you” card! Wish us luck!

So, since turning 43, I’ve been on ice and painfully immobile, Grandma is in the hospital and, oh, there was a back-up and overflow in the bathroom this morning, that I fixed and cleaned up, sopping wet towels with my cramped back. I firmly believe that life’s challenges are God’s way of showing you how strong he made you. He’ll never give you more than you can handle, but sometimes I just wish I wasn’t so strong!

Just in case God telling me I’m super woman wasn’t enough to make me smile, when it’s all done and I realize what I’ve accomplished, there are some nice things that I didn’t have to work for too! There have been a ton of birthday greetings on my Facebook page, email greetings including a cute email card from Sheri. My Dad called Wednesday just to say “Happy Birthday” and Dave called and the whole family sang “Happy birthday davonna-sis-nana...” to me. I got a sweet card in the mail from Heather. David cooked me a fish dinner and brought home the ice cream cake he ordered, and he gave me a card. I LOVE cards and he’s not a huge giver-of-cards, which makes me feel even more spoiled and totally romanced when he gives me one. There was also a sweet personal note in it that made me get misty too!

Now, I’m going to take Advil again for the back, switch the laundry loads, run a couple errands and stop at Cold Stone Creamery with my free Love-It Size birthday coupon. The make a fat-free cake batter than is just crying to have chocolate chips and cherries mixed in it for me!