This vlog is about things I've been doing to catch up in my world. It includes how one gets a weight when they're in a wheelchair and can't stand on a scale, Covid booster shots, my emotional support cat celebrating his birthday and my sheer joy in seeing and listening to the nearby carnival.
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Friday, June 10, 2022
Friday, October 31, 2014
Global Climate Change Is Evil!
That clipping is the scariest thing a trick-or-treater can see minutes before the start of candy begging time. That was the weather at the start of the 6-8PM festivities for the kids tonight. It's raining on Halloween for the second year in a row and tonight it's 38 degrees and mixed with snow. I think we need to move trick-or-treating to September next year. It only has 30 days, so we could just switch the 31st to the end of September instead of October.
I didn’t do candy this year of course, but I have a plan to be back at the door with my 150 bags of “stuff” enabling the sugar buzzes next year. I’m kinda glad I had to bow out this year. Not only would I be so cold I couldn’t feel my hands or feet womaning the door but I’d feel guilty for giving candy and encouraging kids to come out in the wet and cold. I heard just a few squeals outside, but I think the majority of costumed cuties found an indoor party, at least I hope they did! This is their night and they deserve candy and costumed fun.
I’ve been thinking of being scary and wearing my “Got Celery?” shirt to give out candy next year, but after last year and this, celery might be just too scary!
Friday, October 24, 2014
Happy Little Pill and Happy Little Pumpkins!
Let me tell ya, all pills are NOT created equal! A thin little round pill can be a lot more potent medicine than one of those big horse-pills. I still had the giant anti-inflammatories that reduce swelling in areas and thus quell pain, But the smaller pill seems to do a strikingly lot more! I don’t think there was any place on my body that wasn’t stiff and in pain. Even sitting at the table, when I usually don’t feel pain and little discomfort, was an excruciating experience yesterday. When there weren’t little shots of pain beaming through my legs and arms, there were stiff spasms I had little control over, some in my legs so strong they almost made me slip out of my chair!
If you’re even thinking for a moment “Oh, Nani I feel so sorry for you,” then trust me; you didn’t want me to write a blog post or visit/comment at your blog yesterday. My Papa was a Navy sailor in WW2 and the language and decibels those words were screamed in when I tried to lumber into the bathroom would have confused and offended him. (I’m not proud of that but owning my shortcomings gives me the right to be proud of my accomplishments, right?)
Today, properly medicated in the right amounts at the right times I’m feeling like me again. I speak like me again too. I find it easier to live with the PG rated version of Nani too!
GO ROYALS!
Friday, May 10, 2013
One Meme or Another
This has been a busy and quick week. The powerchair came to live with us. Carla and Kaline seem to like it a lot more than they did Morgan. Carla has not jumped up in it to nap like she does my walker, but give it time. Kaline will sit in my lap when I’m sitting in it and it’s turned off, but I still get that “Daddy’s legs make a better pillow” look from her. David’s legs are a decent bit longer with a flatter tummy. I still have the hip and chest she prefers. When I turn it on and move, they clear the way just like they do when I walk; it seems the powerchair is not as scary as the vacuum!
Tuesday we met with reps about getting a stair lift and a ramp. It really is just silly to wear out my arms with the manual chair to go the doctor’s office when I have the power chair he did all that paperwork for me to have! The powerchair seems bigger, like it may not fit all the places the manual chair does, and after I’ve complained that handicap bathrooms seemed to be made for powerchairs. We’ll see, maybe it just feels bigger because it’s more comfortable.
To punctuate the need for the stair lift, I slipped on the top step coming down Wednesday morning. I didn’t go headfirst down, but I fell back on the landing hard on my butt. I’m okay, but boy was I sore all day.
Thursday David was off work and out In the west side of the state. I stayed home; I got up slow and wanted to take it as an easy day. I seemed to be busy all day and didn’t really get a lot done.
I had a really nice salad for lunch with tuna and black beans and then I got caught in my current book which has about 100 pages of intense rising action right before the climax. How could I stop? Now, having discovered that there was entirely too much book left after the climax, I’m trying to get through the drawn out finish. Unless there is a serious OMG moment in the last 70+ pages, it won’t be getting 5 stars when I write my review. I guess what I got a lot done of yesterday is reading, which would be impressive if I was about 10, it’s a bit of a slacker at almost 47.
After that volume of that I did this week, how about what most of you are here for; one meme or another!
Follow Friday Four Fill In Fun Blog Hop
This week’s statements:
1. If ___ then____
2. ____ is my ___ of the ____
3. Once, I was surprised to find myself __________________.
4. To keep from going crazy, I _________.
My Answers:
1. If you’re going to stare then say “hello!”
2. Self-activism is my project of the year.
3. Once, I was surprised to find myself cheering for the Reds in the playoffs against the Braves when I thought I was a Braves fan. In the heat of passion, the heart shows its true self.
4. To keep from going crazy, I read. I have always hated waiting but now I have to accept it. I read more now.
Five Question Friday
1. What's the one personal hygiene thing you will not do in front of your spouse?
I was raised in a household where respect of privacy and personal space was paramount. That’s not to say I was given “alone time” as a toddler or that I wasn’t hugged as a teenager. I actually didn’t want much alone time as a toddler and I was very touchy-feely with my friends and hugging, probably because hugging was an encouraged sign of affection at home.
That being said, I have always ben pretty private about personal hygiene. I think brush my teeth is the one thing I will so in front of my spouse or anyone. Personal is personal. When Tori and Rina were little, from about 4 up, rather than use a handicap stall to cram all three of us in, we did “shoes.” When one of us was in the stall, the other two stood in front of the door so the person inside could see our shoes. It was meant to respect both our privacy and our need of the security that the other two are there. Okay, that last one was more for me than anything, but they both asked to see shoes when they were in the stall too.
2. What's your favorite thing about a newborn?
That it will grow up? I’ve always said that the great thing about kids is that they get cooler and cooler as they get older. They start out helpless, then they learn and you learn from how they learn too. Then everyone shares and they grow closer and closer to peers, When they become fellow adults you just enjoy being with them. I enjoy watching kids grow and being involved, but honestly, I've never known a kid its whole life that I've ever wished was a baby again. Every person younger than me has become more of a joy to be with as they’ve gotten older. The best thing about a newborn is that promise that the investments of diaper changing and frustrations will pay off with interest.
3. When is "too young" to have a Facebook account?
My arbitrary age for socializing on the internet is 13. I won’t use any more than initials for kids under 13 on my blog too. I think a shared account with a parent is okay before that and hopefully some supervision while you can still get them to at least learn the actual words before they start using text slang. It’s also a good idea to be one of their Facebook friends or at least have a single-no-kids friend or relative you both trust to be on their list.
4. What are your hoping for for Mother's Day?
Last year I got a very sweet text from one of my nieces acknowledging the role I play in her world and wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day. I was moved to tears.
5. What was the best field trip you ever took in school?
My 11th grade Humanities class went on an architectural tour of Detroit. I love classic architecture with lots of detail and downtown Detroit has some beautiful old buildings.
Tuesday we met with reps about getting a stair lift and a ramp. It really is just silly to wear out my arms with the manual chair to go the doctor’s office when I have the power chair he did all that paperwork for me to have! The powerchair seems bigger, like it may not fit all the places the manual chair does, and after I’ve complained that handicap bathrooms seemed to be made for powerchairs. We’ll see, maybe it just feels bigger because it’s more comfortable.
To punctuate the need for the stair lift, I slipped on the top step coming down Wednesday morning. I didn’t go headfirst down, but I fell back on the landing hard on my butt. I’m okay, but boy was I sore all day.
Thursday David was off work and out In the west side of the state. I stayed home; I got up slow and wanted to take it as an easy day. I seemed to be busy all day and didn’t really get a lot done.
After that volume of that I did this week, how about what most of you are here for; one meme or another!
Follow Friday Four Fill In Fun Blog Hop
This week’s statements:
1. If ___ then____
2. ____ is my ___ of the ____
3. Once, I was surprised to find myself __________________.
4. To keep from going crazy, I _________.
My Answers:
1. If you’re going to stare then say “hello!”
2. Self-activism is my project of the year.
3. Once, I was surprised to find myself cheering for the Reds in the playoffs against the Braves when I thought I was a Braves fan. In the heat of passion, the heart shows its true self.
4. To keep from going crazy, I read. I have always hated waiting but now I have to accept it. I read more now.
Five Question Friday
1. What's the one personal hygiene thing you will not do in front of your spouse?
I was raised in a household where respect of privacy and personal space was paramount. That’s not to say I was given “alone time” as a toddler or that I wasn’t hugged as a teenager. I actually didn’t want much alone time as a toddler and I was very touchy-feely with my friends and hugging, probably because hugging was an encouraged sign of affection at home.
That being said, I have always ben pretty private about personal hygiene. I think brush my teeth is the one thing I will so in front of my spouse or anyone. Personal is personal. When Tori and Rina were little, from about 4 up, rather than use a handicap stall to cram all three of us in, we did “shoes.” When one of us was in the stall, the other two stood in front of the door so the person inside could see our shoes. It was meant to respect both our privacy and our need of the security that the other two are there. Okay, that last one was more for me than anything, but they both asked to see shoes when they were in the stall too.
2. What's your favorite thing about a newborn?
That it will grow up? I’ve always said that the great thing about kids is that they get cooler and cooler as they get older. They start out helpless, then they learn and you learn from how they learn too. Then everyone shares and they grow closer and closer to peers, When they become fellow adults you just enjoy being with them. I enjoy watching kids grow and being involved, but honestly, I've never known a kid its whole life that I've ever wished was a baby again. Every person younger than me has become more of a joy to be with as they’ve gotten older. The best thing about a newborn is that promise that the investments of diaper changing and frustrations will pay off with interest.
3. When is "too young" to have a Facebook account?
My arbitrary age for socializing on the internet is 13. I won’t use any more than initials for kids under 13 on my blog too. I think a shared account with a parent is okay before that and hopefully some supervision while you can still get them to at least learn the actual words before they start using text slang. It’s also a good idea to be one of their Facebook friends or at least have a single-no-kids friend or relative you both trust to be on their list.
4. What are your hoping for for Mother's Day?
Last year I got a very sweet text from one of my nieces acknowledging the role I play in her world and wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day. I was moved to tears.
5. What was the best field trip you ever took in school?
My 11th grade Humanities class went on an architectural tour of Detroit. I love classic architecture with lots of detail and downtown Detroit has some beautiful old buildings.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Wednesday Hodge Podge
Good Wednesday morning! Let's get right on to joining Joyce from From This Side of the Pond for Hodge Podge!
1. Share your traditions surrounding the Christmas stocking.
Christmas stockings were something everyone got; my brother and I had the really big ones that Mom made and everyone else got smaller ones. Mom filed the stockings with everything from lip balm and tic-tacs to socks ad scarves to perfume and nice jewelry. I filled hers and had so much fun working on duplicating that same style of contents but very personal for her, like she did for all of us.
The first Christmas without Mom was hard; she was the Christmas Spirit in our family. I tried to do her job, to fill the stockings, even my own because Tori and Rina weren’t elves yet and Santa had to be properly represented; I had NOT been bad, and create the over spilling tree. I think I did okay. I remember that my meditation time after putting Baby Jesus in the manger on my nativity was long that year with lots of tears. I think I let out everything I’d held in since September that year. But I finally felt closure and a great peace on Christmas morning.
2004 was a little easier because Rina and Tori had become elves. They transitioned from believing, to telling me that Santa didn’t really travel on Christmas Eve; he just told parents what to buy if the kids were good, to embracing that magic joy of giving when you grow up to be a Santa yourself. Alter having gone from kid to elf in one brutal day at school, I was so happy they had such a neat view on that transition!
David and I started with the rule that we only exchanged what fit in our stockings on Christmas morning, but somewhere between gifts that were too big that we really wanted to give and Mom’s influence showing as I put so many packages of candy and fun little things to fill the stocking that even a package of Ferrero Rochers didn’t fit and were under the tree one year, that we’ve opened that up and added a couple gifts when we find them. I like that a few gifts under the tree make the tree look better. Last year when Rina was with us on Christmas day was the best because I got to fill 2 stockings and do a lot of the other old family traditions.
2. How many hours of sleep do you average at night? Is it enough?
5-7 depending on the night. Yes, it’s usually enough. I learned self-hypnosis quite a few years ago, it’s a lot of why I am an EX smoker 22-1/2 years later. Being able to quickly get into a deep sleep was helpful when I finished my degree going to school full time and working 3 part time jobs!
3. If you had to give up one thing for the remainder of this year what would it be?
Pain! The question didn’t say it had yo br something I liked I was giving up!
4. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (or Wills and Kate as I like to call them) have announced they're expecting a baby. Do you follow news of the Royals?
Um, ahem… If I lived in Kansas City I’d probably follow the Royals, but Toledo is perfect for me because we get the FOX Sports channels for the Reds AND the Tigers!
5. For me, the sound of childhood is__________________.
It’s also one of my favorite springtime sounds; the sound of childhood is the sound of laughing outdoors when a group of kids are at the playground.
6. Fruit cake-yay or boo? What's your favorite dessert made with fruit?
Depends on the fruit cake. Ridley’s Café in Rochester Michigan makes an awesome tea cake with fruit called “It’s A Wonderful Loaf.” Celebration Generation made the BEST Fruit Cake cookies. You can’t order them anymore, but the recipe is here:Fruitcake Cookies
7. What is one thing you want to accomplish before 2012 comes to an end?
Get my baking done. I’m physically having a hard time this year. Before next year I really need a taller kitchen work chair and a stand-up mixer. My arms are just not doing so well with the reaching up or the mixing anymore. The thing is my Christmas baking is my greatest joy at this time of the year and I’ll still do it even if it wears me totally out.
8. Insert your own random thought here.
I woke up with an ear-worm and I don’t know WHAT I was dreaming about to but it’s there. I can’t get the old Fritos jingle out of my head!
Munchabuncha munchabuncha munchabuncha munchabuncha Fritos go with lunch…
1. Share your traditions surrounding the Christmas stocking.
Christmas stockings were something everyone got; my brother and I had the really big ones that Mom made and everyone else got smaller ones. Mom filed the stockings with everything from lip balm and tic-tacs to socks ad scarves to perfume and nice jewelry. I filled hers and had so much fun working on duplicating that same style of contents but very personal for her, like she did for all of us.
The first Christmas without Mom was hard; she was the Christmas Spirit in our family. I tried to do her job, to fill the stockings, even my own because Tori and Rina weren’t elves yet and Santa had to be properly represented; I had NOT been bad, and create the over spilling tree. I think I did okay. I remember that my meditation time after putting Baby Jesus in the manger on my nativity was long that year with lots of tears. I think I let out everything I’d held in since September that year. But I finally felt closure and a great peace on Christmas morning.
2004 was a little easier because Rina and Tori had become elves. They transitioned from believing, to telling me that Santa didn’t really travel on Christmas Eve; he just told parents what to buy if the kids were good, to embracing that magic joy of giving when you grow up to be a Santa yourself. Alter having gone from kid to elf in one brutal day at school, I was so happy they had such a neat view on that transition!
David and I started with the rule that we only exchanged what fit in our stockings on Christmas morning, but somewhere between gifts that were too big that we really wanted to give and Mom’s influence showing as I put so many packages of candy and fun little things to fill the stocking that even a package of Ferrero Rochers didn’t fit and were under the tree one year, that we’ve opened that up and added a couple gifts when we find them. I like that a few gifts under the tree make the tree look better. Last year when Rina was with us on Christmas day was the best because I got to fill 2 stockings and do a lot of the other old family traditions.
2. How many hours of sleep do you average at night? Is it enough?
5-7 depending on the night. Yes, it’s usually enough. I learned self-hypnosis quite a few years ago, it’s a lot of why I am an EX smoker 22-1/2 years later. Being able to quickly get into a deep sleep was helpful when I finished my degree going to school full time and working 3 part time jobs!
3. If you had to give up one thing for the remainder of this year what would it be?
Pain! The question didn’t say it had yo br something I liked I was giving up!
4. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (or Wills and Kate as I like to call them) have announced they're expecting a baby. Do you follow news of the Royals?
Um, ahem… If I lived in Kansas City I’d probably follow the Royals, but Toledo is perfect for me because we get the FOX Sports channels for the Reds AND the Tigers!
5. For me, the sound of childhood is__________________.
It’s also one of my favorite springtime sounds; the sound of childhood is the sound of laughing outdoors when a group of kids are at the playground.
6. Fruit cake-yay or boo? What's your favorite dessert made with fruit?
Depends on the fruit cake. Ridley’s Café in Rochester Michigan makes an awesome tea cake with fruit called “It’s A Wonderful Loaf.” Celebration Generation made the BEST Fruit Cake cookies. You can’t order them anymore, but the recipe is here:Fruitcake Cookies
7. What is one thing you want to accomplish before 2012 comes to an end?
Get my baking done. I’m physically having a hard time this year. Before next year I really need a taller kitchen work chair and a stand-up mixer. My arms are just not doing so well with the reaching up or the mixing anymore. The thing is my Christmas baking is my greatest joy at this time of the year and I’ll still do it even if it wears me totally out.
8. Insert your own random thought here.
I woke up with an ear-worm and I don’t know WHAT I was dreaming about to but it’s there. I can’t get the old Fritos jingle out of my head!
Munchabuncha munchabuncha munchabuncha munchabuncha Fritos go with lunch…
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
How Davinities Started
2011 Davinities
If you’ve been a regular at my coffee shop, The Chronicles of Nani, for a while, or if you searched for Digitalegacies Designs scrapbooking freebies or found some tidbit that encouraged you to read back a bit, you’ve read and seen photos of my Davinities creations every Christmas. My Secret Santa this year could be one the folks reading the old entries, maybe? I have found not just good reading getting to know my Santees through their blog archives, but I also found some nice tips for their gifts. I’m not revealing anything this year, but Linda, of Linda’s Bee Hive, is the one who gave me the idea to send her a letter from Santa Claus, Indiana last year! Let it suffice to say that if I follow you, I’ve read your first blog entry and a few in between.
The beginning of Davinities is somewhat like the beginning of a blog. If the current blog is the first blog you did and you’re still blogging a few years later, watching the transformation is neat as the blog grows into its present level of blog proficiency. Maybe you blog more often now, maybe less often but you only blog about causes you really believe in. Maybe you started blogging before you were even expecting and now your blog is a full-blown Mommy or Daddy blog. Me, The Chronicles of Nani started out claiming it was a coffee shop on the Information Superhighway, which it still is, but I really feel like I moved in more of the comfy chairs. I hope you all like them!
So, Davinities roots were, plain and simple, a little girl trying to make Daddy happy, and everyone knows a nice treat from his Little Princess makes Daddy happy! Princess was what Pop called me when I was little. I imagine I was princess baby since I honestly don’t remember a time before he called me “his princess.” Davinities is what I call my baking at Christmas, often shared with friends at gatherings or given as gifts. The story goes that there was once a Little Princess who so loved the King that she wanted to create a confection of his favorite flavors to present to him as a gift. Pop’s favorite sweet flavors are peanut butter and butterscotch, and I found the recipe for what later became the Original Davinity when I was seven, so of course sweets were the only flavors that mattered. And Pop really did/does love them. So the rest of the story is that the King was so pleased that the Little Princess honored him by sharing them with all of his people, and the tradition of sharing Davinities with special people was born. I’ve given and shared Davinities every Christmas since then. I‘m 46 now; that's a LOT of baking!
But the beginning is not just a recipe I tried at 7, for how did I ever get the idea of making something special for my dad? Well, it was the first time that I used the stove by myself, under Mom’s watchful eye and with a chair to boost my height, but it wasn’t the first treat I’d made him!
Circa Nani's Easy Bake Oven
I got my Easy Bake Oven the Christmas before. Pop ate many mini chocolate and yellow cakes with white or chocolate frosting. That’s possibly four totally different cakes! I loved the magic of baking with a light bulb and seeing my dad smile when I presented him with dessert. It’s not like I never ate any of my cakes, I did and I liked them a lot. I made them for Mom and even Dave, although sometimes he wanted to help and it bugged me that anyone wanted to “bake in my kitchen.” I did get over that when I made the first Krisp Kringles, then called Peanut Butter Scotch Krispies in my first cookbook. I was in Mom’s Kitchen and she shared, I guessed I could too.
Circa Tori's Easy Bake Oven
When Tori was 7, I got her an Easy Bake Oven. Rina didn’t get the oven because she didn’t have the cooking passion Tori already had. If “Baby T” had been Trevin and not Torine, and he showed the desire to bake, he’d have gotten one too. I don’t buy the “sexist toy” crap about getting the oven for girls and I wouldn’t have bought the “girl’s toy” crap if I’d had a nephew who was interested. I really didn’t hear a ton of feedback, but then again this is the daughter of the kid who gave back a drum to my Mom, and complained that it sounded like a toy, the Christmas before he got his first real drum set. It’s possible she thought the cakes tasted like toys too! But she is a great cook at just 18. I was a great baker, but in trying to create a meal, I’d burn Kool-Aid until my mid-20s, so she has a serving-table leg up on me there.
What brought this reminiscing about my younger baking years to mind was an internet search for a Christmas gift that brought me to a search hit for this:
Today's Easy Bake Oven
The modern Easy Bake Oven plugs in but NO LIGHT BULB! How do you pass up the joy of baking with a light bulb? Let alone the additional science questions and answers that come with baking with a light bulb. It’s how we knew in the early 90s that putting a bag of mini hotdogs on the dashboard of the car in the zoo parking lot would give us hot cooked hot dogs by lunchtime. It’s part of an adult not having to tell you not to leave a candy bar on a sunny window sill or touch the bulb when you turn off a lamp. It teaches not just how to bake a cake, but it also imparts some critical thinking too. They do still have a light-bulb powered oven, but it’s the lesser product.
I’ll comment more at some other time about “girl’s toys” and “boy’s toys” and how awful those stereotypes are. Dave and I played with our dolls together; oh excuse me, action figures. My PJ action high school girl dated his GI Joe doll while my action coed, future lawyer Barbie was in love with action med-school Brad while action construction worker Ken and the Six Million Dollar Man doll fought over the attention of action Barbie’s action sorority sister Christie. Oh, it was something like that.
So, did you or someone you know - friends, kids, grandkids - have an Easy Bake Oven?
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Halloween Prep and Hodge Podge
This is all an important count to me and seeing the number rise each year is a big issue of accomplishment for me too. You see, I love kids. Just because I didn’t want the “mom” job title doesn’t mean that I don’t just adore kids! Since we don’t have to pay for braces, school clothes and eventual car insurance or prom dresses, we can spoil a little more on the night where you can give a bunch of candy to kids you don’t know without anyone looking you up on an offenders register! I love the cute and creative costumes and the happy kids. I usually find that most of those kids are sweetly polite and I hear “thank you” much more often than not.
Halloween was such a disappointment for me in Michigan. After my own trick or treat years passed, I looked forward to being the one at the door passing out candy. When we were still going out in our small neighborhood, it was mostly just the neighborhood kids that went there, so there were usually large bags full of candy or full size candy bars. There were even homemade cookies and caramel apples for the neighborhood kids the homeowner knew. I was excited to be the giver the first year that I was no longer one of the beggars. That year we had a grand total of about 10 after I’d made up generous bags for 20. The number went down each year until there had been 2 years in a row with no knocks on the door and no happy screams of “trick or treat!”
I was so excited in 2007 when I got to host my first Halloween Door in a city neighborhood! David said he and Vanessa were home and had done treats once or twice. I asked if he remembered an approximate count and he said it was maybe 35. I was so happy! That number already topped the high point of my giving in Michigan. I made up 30 bags with an overflow bowl. I went through those 30 and gave out from the overflow bowl and had a happy, happy night; Over 40 kids! 2008 was a warm Saturday night and David and I dressed up in our Mounds and Almond Joy costumes and sat on the porch. We lost count of the overflow after our 45 bags after 15. In 2009 I did 80 bags and had 12 more kids after that. I liked the trend! I did 100 in 2010 and last year 150. I’m sticking with the 150 this year since we weren’t that much over last year. I can’t be happier than to see the number of kids at our door jump from 45 to 158 in just 5 years! Giving out candy is my absolute favorite part of Halloween; keep the grown-up parties, I’d rather treat the kids.
So, it’s Wednesday, let’s join Joyce at From This Side of the Pond for the Hodge Podge!
1. So, do you like beer?
Yes, but I’m picky about beer and I have to be in the right mood to drink it. I finally drank my last Pumpkin Spice Ale from the 6-pack David brought me last year. It’s good beer and I’ll drink it again; the last beer lived in the fridge a year and was still good! I like Canadian beer, my favorites being Blue Light or Molson Ice. Honey Brown made in New York is a personal favorite of mine. I like a darker beer with a sweet edge to it and I love trying the samplers with a taste of several beers in Microbreweries. I’m not likely to chug a 6-pack, like in my early 20s, but when I do have a beer it will be a Nani-rated GOOD beer.
2. What's your least favorite repetitive task?
Refilling prescriptions
3. When was the last time you rode a bus? Where was it headed?
I have a face to face interview to be accepted in the local Paratransit program next month, then on to vocational rehab and hopefully I’ll be using a bus daily to get to and from work.
The last time I was on a bus was…probably in Metro Atlanta in the mid-90s taking the Park-N-Ride from the Mall in Cobb County to downtown Atlanta.
4. What song from your childhood or from your own children's childhood could make a parent's nerves stand on end?
Well, my own nieces when they were with me. The Curly Lasagna tapes used to make my Dad a little nuts, but we loved to listen to them together.
“And the cow goes MOO. MOO. MOO-MOO-MOO!”
5. The US Presidential election cycle is drawing to a close (can I get an AMEN??), and the third and final debate was held last night...what was the last thing you 'debated about'?
My greatest debates lately have been internal.
6. Can a person make too much money? How much is too much?
It totally depends on the person. There are those who do good things for their family members and charity while enjoying some luxuries for themselves with great sums of money earned providing goods or services that have filled a great need or convenience to people and they treat the employees who made their success possible with respect. (I also consider entertainment to be a quality of life need) Those people don’t have too much. I think of Steve Jobs (was) and Bill Gates (is) as people who don’t have too much.
What I call obscenely wealthy people indeed have too much. They make money providing a good or services that have no measurable value or do more harm than good and don’t treat the employees doing all of their work well. They only give to charity in as much as they need to for tax shelters. They lavish themselves but even family members are only rewarded for the things done that boost their ego. (Drug dealers and unscrupulous businessmen fall into this category) These people have WAY too much. I’m thinking of a former employer who was arranging for scalper tickets to the Super Bowl while I was training the guy in India over the phone who would be doing my job by May as an example of “too much.”
7. Pop-soda-coke-something else...what's it called where you live?
Where I was born and I think where I live too, it’s “pop.” I call it soda. Worked as hard to make that a habit as the proper pronunciation of “W” and “hundred” when I was in broadcast school; good clean Broadcast English.
8. Insert your own random thought here.
I spent a couple of hours Smashing yesterday. Before I get started on the Friendship Books with Kelly, I wanted to get a feel for the rhythm of Smashing, get my supplies organized and get in the creative habit of a few tricks for better smashing. I have my paper things; ticket stubs, cartoons I cut out, receipts I’ve kept and auricles and a few other flat mementos separated into decades. Seriously, I have a huge box and I’ve been going through it and deciding if it’s Smash or Trash stuff. I’d say if I have a couple afternoon hours today, I’ll be ready to assemble my second binder starting with 2005; the year I met David.
The “Archive Smash” books are in simple 3-ring binders done with scrapbook papers and elements. I’m finding that the package of plain velum paper and stickers works great for making pocket for some of the items and I’m also noticing how my taste has changed since 2007 when I switched to digital. It’s so curious to me how many more coffee cups and polka dots I have in digital. I’m really trying to avoid buying them! (Although I did buy the polka dot Smash tape last week…it’s been tempting me more than a pumpkin donut since I first saw it!)
So, Binder 2 will start with the 2005 items and go from there, with the intention that I’m going to start using actual Smash books for 2011 and do a new one for each year from there. We’ll see how the plan works, but so far I love having one fun place for all that ephemera instead of little folders and boxes all over the house. I’ll post some progress pictures in the next week or so.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Friendly Friday Fest
Well, we all made it through another week. Yay us!! There are a few Friday memes I have participated in or at least followed and enjoyed. Today’s post is going to include a bunch of them! I call it Friend Fest because that’s what memes are all about, getting to know a little about fellow bloggers and taking advantage of how small the world is online.
The Chronicles of Nani is my coffee shop on the Information Superhighway, where the coffee, or whatever beverage you prefer, is always made perfectly to your liking and the black forest cake is 100% calorie free. Yes, you make your coffee at home and the black forest cake is cyber-cake, but let’s not mince details! The point is it’s a neighborhood coffee shop and every regular and first time visitor is just a few characters after the http:// away.
There are a few little things to tell y’all about, but those things will be at the end. You’ll see why!
So, let’s get this Friday started!
Hilary at Feeling Beachie is our host for The Follow Friday Four Fill-In Fun. It’s easy…ish. Just fill in the blanks with thoughts from your world! I love reading everyone’s answers to see how our minds match up. Some statements are interpreted so differently. It’s fascinating!
This week’s statements:
1. Given the choice to do ___ for ____ I would pick ___
2. When I watch ________ it always makes me want to _____________.
3. When I have people over I always make _________, it always knocks ‘em dead!
4. I always feel like I accomplished something when I __________.
1. Given the choice to do something illegal for a million dollars I would pick driving the getaway car for a single Mom robbing an ATM to feed her kids. Then I could at least feel a little okay about it.
2. When I watch Spring Baseball it always makes me want to eat a hot dog and some ice cream in a mini helmet. And I have a collection of mini helmet for just that!
3. When I have people over I always make cookies, it always knocks ‘em dead! (We really don’t have people over except at Christmas)
4. I always feel like I accomplished something when I get my walker back in the car when I’m out alone.
Five Question Friday is hosted by Mama M at My Little Life, at 5crookedhalos at BlogSpot. I just LOVE that address!
1. Are you looking forward to the time change this weekend?
No! I hate daylight savings time! I grew up in Metro Detroit and now I’m pretty much due south. We’re in the Western edge of our time zone. Kids gather for the bus in the dark at the beginning of it and can you imagine being a child who is sent to bed when it’s still daylight out? I used to scream and cry because it “wasn’t bed time yet.” Add to that in the summer, it was already so late when we went to a drive-in movie that my brother and I were lucky if we got to see the whole first movie and fireworks displays don’t even start until kids are too sleepy to enjoy them.
2. Are you getting the new iPad/would you want a iPad?
I don’t really want one. I don’t really think I’d use it. I’ll probably eventually have to use a smart phone and I’m not looking forward to that. There’s too much of me in something that’s too easy to lose in my dumb phone!
3. If money was not a problem, what is the one thing you would splurge on?
I’d have out train layout with a house over it custom built with perfectly placed pegs and shelves for my mug collection, a stair lift into the basement so I can play with the train too, the basement done to David’s exact specifications for his layout, laundry on the main level of our ranch and a state of the art kitchen with a dishwasher. The 1950s kitchen was a quaint place to visit, for over 5 years, but I really want something a nice 60 years newer with the vintage in décor not vintage reality.
So, right the ONE thing would be a new house!
4. How did you and the Mr. (or Mrs.) meet?
He emailed me in an online group we were both in to invite me to a presentation he was giving at the regional Mensa gathering in Michigan. He was inviting people to make sure he had an audience on a Sunday morning. A few emails later after I gushed about his show being about trains and chat about baseball, he invited me to the Tigers-Red Sox game he had tickets for after the Gathering. It’s always been baseball and trains 2with us.
5. Summer is right around the corner. Bikini or one-piece?
Yeah… LOL
Mrs. 4444, pronounced Mrs. /Fours/ is the host of Friday Fragments at Half Past Kissin’ Time. If you don’t want to join in, you should still go check out her blog! I was drawn to her sense of humor, she’s opinionated but respectful (something I strive to be) and If Mondays are rough for you, or even if they aren’t, she’s got a post for that!
Unsolicited promo done. Let’s talk about Friday Fragments.
Do you ever get what is the exact opposite of blogger’s block, a lot of little things to say? The problem is they are a lot of little things. I am capable of going on a tangent about little things. If you follow The Chronicles of Nani, you’re probably aghast saying, “No, Nani! A tangent, really?” I once wrote 2 pages about eating a single red jelly bean in a journal assignment in high school. Cute at 15 years old and a captive audience; writing in the journal for class was graded. It’s a little over the top at 46. Friday Fragments celebrates those things that are worth telling about, but not enough to fill an entire post. Instead, we out them all in the Friday Fragments post!
So, here we go…
** Bedtime last night, this morning, was 2 AM. It was a stunningly clear and starry night and after dinner, David and I went out to see if we could see the Northern Lights which can possibly be seen in Ohio and possibly farther south right now. We parked in a couple places in the middle of farm land and studied the sky, nothin’. Of course we parked near train tracks, so we’d see some night trains even if the Aurora Borealis didn’t show itself to us. It’s supposed to be clear again tonight and we may try again.
** It’s National Breakfast Month. Who comes up with these “holidays?” Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept of making every day a holiday for one reason or another. It’s just like to thank the person who made me crave a double chocolate Dunkin Donuts donut on Twitter yesterday!
** Many doctors believe that patients who are affected by the weather suffer from psychosomatic pain and that the barometric pressure has no effect on actual pain. Many believe that the weather does have an actual affect. Last week I asked my doctor what his take on that was. He said he has too many patients who have joint issues that are worse when it’s raining including some that if it was up to them, it wouldn’t affect them, that he had to believe the weather and barometric pressure has a real affect I’m one of the patients that if it bothers me, I has to be real. :D
** I finally have almost all of my Chronicles of Nani pictures replaced after the Google+ fiasco last fall. There are still a couple of scrapbooking promotional and freebies entries I need to locate the photos for since I didn’t archive those posts in my annual compilation of all of my blogs and my personal journals. 20 years from now, ki6ts that are no longer available and smaller reproductions of pages in my printed scrapbooks will not have been worth archiving!
** Finally, you may notice the new countdown on my sidebar. Opening Day is a National Holiday that is pretty big to me, has been for a long time. As a traditionalist baseball season starts when the ump yells “Play Ball” in Cincinnati. My tigers will play the season warm-up game before the season actually begins at 4:05 PM. The TV in this house will show both games!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Wednesday Hodge Podge
Welcome to Wednesday. I’m joining Joyce from From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodge Podge again!
1.February 22nd is National Be Humble Day...what makes you proud? What keeps you humble?
I think my scrapbooking makes me proud. It’s not just that as the years have passed since I started digital scrapbooking I’ve gotten better at it, but it's me, the things I’ve done, my people and the silly things I scrap that make me happy, proud of all that I’ve accomplished and earned in my life.
No question that MS humbles me. I’ve had to earn to do many things differently, most significantly, I’ve learned how to ask for help and accept it graciously.
2. Where is the catch-all (aka dumping ground) in your house?
Um, kinda embarrassed, but the purpose of The White Tornado project is because the answer to that question has been “yes” for too long.
3. Do you make it a point to visit State/National Parks when you travel or even in your own hometown? What's your favorite?
When I lived in Michigan I was just a couple miles away from Maybury State Park and I was there about 4 or 5 days a week average. They had wonderful and peaceful walking paths, paved and rugged. I walked every day, at least a mile. I knew those woods well! In the winter I used my stationary bike for exercise, but it was nothing like the mental break of a walk in the park.
Grandma and I went to Tawas Point State Park for a picnic at least once every time when I visited her, except in the winter.
4. How would you define honor?
Honor is respect, dignity. You honor people by giving it and when you receive it, you’ve earned honor.
5. Angel's food or Devil's food-which cake do you prefer?
Where’s the chocolate in Angel Food cake? Paraphrasing Billy Joel, “I’d rather dine with the sinners than diet with the saints.”
6. What's the most recent road trip you've taken? Where did you go and how many hours did you spend in the car? Do you like to zoom to your destination without stopping or leisurely wind your way there with stops along the way? What is your car snack of choice?
Connecticut for Christmas with David’s family. He estimates that it’s about 10 hours each way. We meander, big time! We stop to photograph trains, barns and other things that strike our fancy. My car snack of choice is pretzels.
7. Recent headlines told how a preschool child in NC had their packed lunch from home taken away and a school lunch substituted by a school inspector who deemed the homemade lunch unhealthy. Reportedly the parent was then billed for the school lunch (chicken nugget meal) although an update to the story says the parent was not billed. The inspector was conducting a routine inspection of the classroom-he/she was not there solely to peek in the lunchboxes. The packed lunch contained a turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple juice box, a bag of chips, and a banana. You can read the story here. Your thoughts?
From the story:
“The state guidelines require that one serving of meat, one serving of grains, one serving of dairy, and two servings of fruits or vegetables are provided with each meal.”
“children who ate in the cafeteria on Wednesday were served a lunch that consisted of fish sticks, corn, peaches, potatoes, and a small carton of milk.”
“(the) girl’s lunch — which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips — ‘did not meet USDA guidelines.’”
Mom’s lunch:
turkey & cheese sandwich – protein, dairy, carbohydrate (grains? it didn’t say what kind of bread)
banana – fruit
apple juice box – fruit or at least a percentage of fruit (many juice boxes aren’t 100% juice)
potato chips – a treat which in moderation (like one lunch sized bag or chips) is fine
The school lunch on Wednesday:
Fish sticks - protein under breading and fat
corn – carbohydrate (NOT a vegetable or whole grain)
peaches – fruit
potatoes – carbohydrate (NOT a vegetable or whole grain)
milk – dairy
Aside from a recipe for forming habits that can result in obesity and diabetes, the state is lacking in a fruit or vegetable. The peaches are probably canned in syrup too.
Conclusion – the girl’s mother should be teaching the school board some classes about nutrition.
I would be livid if it was my kid, especially since all she ate was 3 fried chicken nuggets instead of the healthier lunch I packed her. If the school boards and government are going to raise our kids for us, they damn well better first prove they are capable. This North Carolina school - FAIL!
8. Insert your own random thought here.
It was snowing this morning. I asked David to pull the shade on the front window. What I don’t see doesn’t hurt me, right?
Monday, February 13, 2012
Monday Mug Shot
Sky Dome, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
It’s legally called The Rogers Centre now, but it is and will always be Sky Dome to me. As much as I love advertising, I can’t stand selling the naming rights to sports arenas. I grew up seeing baseball at Tiger Stadium and the Junior Wings, and once in a while the Red Wings, at Olympia. It just crosses the line when the naming rights are sold to the highest bidder. It’s an old complaint now, name the arenas for something historic to the sport or the city, and let the fans name the building, as was done with The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan. If you have to sell the naming of the building to pay the bills, cut the bills someplace. Honestly, players and owners, how many MILLIONS a year do you need to get by when fans can’t even afford to see you more than once a year?
Steps off soap box. So the building where the Toronto Blue Jays play is the Sky Dome. When I say Sky Dome, that’s the place I mean.
I have been to the Sky Dome 4 times. The interesting piece of irony is that the first time I was at the Sky Dome for an event, it wasn’t baseball! In 1990, with a group of friends, including my Mom, I went to the WWF’s WrestleMania VI, the first WrestleMania outside of the United States. I was 24 years old and our group called ourselves The Zoo Ringsiders from Parts Unknown Heights. We went to the World Wrestling Federation local matches every month, usually buying our tickets for the next month at the matches, where they go on sale first. We always had ringside seats and did we heckle? We did more than heckle, we dressed up!
I still had a room full of spandex pieces and patterns that I made or altered for costume designing for my brother’s band. I did the sewing parts, but everyone joined in designing our fan costumes. For the WWF matches, where there were a lot more young kids, we dressed as good guy fans and dressed as bad guy fans for the WCW matches, where the crowd was more young adults. We had the best times with the matches. We watched on TV, of course, to keep up with the story lines, and we did a newsletter, where we filled in our creative “behind the scenes stories.” I even did some photo cut and pasting long before I’d ever tried out Photoshop!
One of the most fun things we did was when we recycled sewing room scraps. When the Ultimate Warrior was new on the scene, the kids just loved him with his face paint, wild hair and arm and knee band with long flying tails. We cut the scraps of bright colored spandex and made sets of “Warrior Fringe” which we carried in a couple of black drawstring bags. We went to the matches at The Palace in Michigan and asked kids if they wanted Warrior arm bands. Parents questioned if there was a cost for the arm bands and we assured them it was free. We told them we made the arm bands from scraps in the sewing room and we just wanted to share. There is nothing cooler than kneeling on the floor of an arena with a line of kids waiting for you to tie their arm bands on! Equally cool is going back next month and seeing the arm bands you gave out last month come back! The truth is, we did the arm bands a second time when The Ultimate Warrior was in town, and I “donated” some larger pieces of spandex to the cause to make sure we had a good collection of them. Both times we “sold out” including one of the guys taking his own arm bands off when he had two kids and one set left. It was so much fun with the kids. Heck, in our 20s we were still kids!
The main event at WrestleMania was The Ultimate Warrior vs. Hulk Hogan, good guy vs. good guy. Of course, we were cheering for The Ultimate Warrior because he was from Parts Unknown, just down the street from Parts Unknown Heights. But we were concerned that a match like this meant that one of them was turning into a bad guy, one of the fan favorites loved by lots of kids was turning bad. We were so happy at the end of the match! First, because the Ultimate Warrior won and became champion, but second, because as he celebrated his win, he encouraged everyone to cheer for Hulk Hogan, they slapped hands and gave a quick victory hug and saluted each other to the fans. Two good guys, the championship belt switched hands and they were still good guys when it was over, like it should be in sports, right?
Not long after WrestleMania, our interest in pro wrestling started to fade. The lines between good guys and bad guys were starting to gray, not cool in a “sport” followed by so many young kids! When Hulk Hogan said in promos that he was “taking potions to make himself stronger” to face an opponent at the time we were shocked. Performance enhancing drugs? Yes, definitely in pro-wrestling, but since it’s more acrobatic acting than a sport, not a big deal. But it becomes a big deal when you are telling kids you’re taking “potions,” that taking anything to get an edge is okay. There were other characters who were the worst kinds of good guys, who for their inability to be calm or curious in interviews would have automatically been bad guys a year earlier were suddenly introduced and you didn’t know if they wore a black hat or a white hat. They were becoming something in the middle, not the Saturday afternoon cowboys they used to be with their moral stories win or lose. Instead of moral guidance in the stories, it had started to become the question rather than an answer.
If you'd like to see some of the photos of our group in costume, drop me an email for a Friday By Request! ;)
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Ah, Summer!
I love these bright sunny days! Yes, as much as I complain about the snow and cold, I revel in the glory of the summer sun! I’m a Leo after all. We lions have an identifying connection with the sun. Okay, but Lions are also cats, which explains why I dislike the humidity. Too wet! I’d still rather sweat than shiver.
I had a great weekend in Indy! David and I went to join my brother and fam to see the last Harry Potter movie. Tori, Rina and I officially saw every one of the Harry Potter movies together in the opening week. I cried at a few points in the movie, during deaths and the mushy parts, but I successfully did not cry after the movie because they were done, like I feared I might. Dave, my brother, replied to my facebook post that I was sad to see it end with a “don’t be sad, it’s a happy thing because you’re visiting us!” I truly appreciate the fact that baby bro was excited to see me, but he’s not seeing it from my perspective. Ten years later, those almost 7-year old girls that Mom and I took to see the first movie are almost adult witches themselves! They’ve grown up right with Harry, Ron and Hermione! The movies being complete means that we won’t be going to another one, a major event is gone and that chapter of their childhoods is closed.
Rina and Tori at breakfast Sunday
Okay, truth is, they’ll be off to college by the end of next summer. It would be getting tougher to get all three of us together for opening week of a movie. Good thing Warner Brothers thought about that and planned accordingly!
Thinking ahead, Nanifest XLV starts this Friday! The girls will be in Michigan on their summer Grandparents Tour and Pop is hosting a birthday dinner for me on the mid-festival Saturday, rather than on actual Naniday, to be sure David can go and the girls are going to come back with us for two reasons. First reason is I’ll take them to the meeting point with their Dad Sunday evening and I’ll get to see Dave and Laura during the festival. The #1 and biggest reason is we’ll go to Ya Halla for lunch on Sunday! Ya Halla is our favorite Toledo Middle Eastern restaurant. I don’t go there alone because it’s a little bit of a drive, north side of town and we’re on the south side, and usually if I go to a restaurant alone, it’s something simple. We have a Cracker Barrel right across from the place I go for physical therapy and I have occasionally made it my lunch stop. So, Ya Halla is a “must go” when the girls visit.
Also for the festival, the Toledo Mud Hens are home and once again this year are having fireworks to celebrate Naniday. How can you say “no” when the home team is going to such lengths to celebrate for me? Hey, Naniday is a big enough deal to the Hens that they often have fireworks on my day even if I can’t make it!
K. Now I need to get ready or the rest of today, errands and a few more planning things for the upcoming weeks. Summer is almost half over! School starts up again next month!
I had a great weekend in Indy! David and I went to join my brother and fam to see the last Harry Potter movie. Tori, Rina and I officially saw every one of the Harry Potter movies together in the opening week. I cried at a few points in the movie, during deaths and the mushy parts, but I successfully did not cry after the movie because they were done, like I feared I might. Dave, my brother, replied to my facebook post that I was sad to see it end with a “don’t be sad, it’s a happy thing because you’re visiting us!” I truly appreciate the fact that baby bro was excited to see me, but he’s not seeing it from my perspective. Ten years later, those almost 7-year old girls that Mom and I took to see the first movie are almost adult witches themselves! They’ve grown up right with Harry, Ron and Hermione! The movies being complete means that we won’t be going to another one, a major event is gone and that chapter of their childhoods is closed.
Rina and Tori at breakfast Sunday
Rina and Tori at 7
Okay, truth is, they’ll be off to college by the end of next summer. It would be getting tougher to get all three of us together for opening week of a movie. Good thing Warner Brothers thought about that and planned accordingly!
Thinking ahead, Nanifest XLV starts this Friday! The girls will be in Michigan on their summer Grandparents Tour and Pop is hosting a birthday dinner for me on the mid-festival Saturday, rather than on actual Naniday, to be sure David can go and the girls are going to come back with us for two reasons. First reason is I’ll take them to the meeting point with their Dad Sunday evening and I’ll get to see Dave and Laura during the festival. The #1 and biggest reason is we’ll go to Ya Halla for lunch on Sunday! Ya Halla is our favorite Toledo Middle Eastern restaurant. I don’t go there alone because it’s a little bit of a drive, north side of town and we’re on the south side, and usually if I go to a restaurant alone, it’s something simple. We have a Cracker Barrel right across from the place I go for physical therapy and I have occasionally made it my lunch stop. So, Ya Halla is a “must go” when the girls visit.
Also for the festival, the Toledo Mud Hens are home and once again this year are having fireworks to celebrate Naniday. How can you say “no” when the home team is going to such lengths to celebrate for me? Hey, Naniday is a big enough deal to the Hens that they often have fireworks on my day even if I can’t make it!
K. Now I need to get ready or the rest of today, errands and a few more planning things for the upcoming weeks. Summer is almost half over! School starts up again next month!
--Summer-- Summer--Summer--Summer--Summer—
Saturday, July 9, 2011
In The News Editorials
There have been a few notable things in the news lately and of course, I have opinions. I read national news daily through my Google home page and the local news through the Toledo Blade’s website.
Fatal Fall in Texas
Yesterday in the second inning of the game between the Oakland As and Texas Rangers at Texas. Josh Hamilton threw a foul ball up to a father and his young son in the front row. The father reached over the get the ball and lost his balance, falling over the rail, 20 feet down behind a scoreboard.
The 39-year-old man died while paramedics did everything they could to save him. His 6-year old son was in the front seat of the ambulance.
I watched the footage, a few times. So sad. So shocking.
There is talk of changes needing to be made. But what kind of changes?
Players won’t be allowed to throw balls in the stands anymore? I’m sure an understandably distraught Josh Hamilton, who didn’t throw balls into the stands often, won’t be doing it again anytime soon. I suppose hitters will be fined if they hit a home run too.
Raising the already waist-high railings would change the game, put balls back in play that would have been home runs or fouled out of play. That could actually make it dangerous for players, having more opportunity for those leaping catches.
The Rangers have started a fund for the family. My thought would be first to make sure there is counseling available for the son, who witnessed his father’s deadly fall. The first empathetic pain I felt was for “Dad’s catching me a ball…” He’s going to need someone to talk to who can help him understand, and not feel responsible.
After seeing the video, it was an accident, a horrible accident. My skin will crawl if there’s a lawsuit, especially when the Rangers are already taking steps to help the family.
Today, for a while, please keep that little boy, Josh Hamilton, the Rangers organization and soul of that loving dad, in your thoughts and prayers.
Jobs Figures
The job figures are dropping again. That’s bad news, especially personally as I’m hoping to be back in the market in the next year!
Washington Politicos, this isn’t a Republic back scratchers and Democrat back scratchers thing. It’s an US thing. It makes me dizzy how many times a way to get jobs back runs around in my head as I try to articulate one more time to the customer service rep in India what’s wrong with my Japanese made electronics or my Mexican built car. If the item is assembled in another country and the customer service is in another country, then part of the product is foreign and subject to the percentage of it that is in import tax. If the jobs don’t come back, companies that deny the American workforce a livelihood will at least be paying for the extended unemployment or welfare necessary to keep Americans alive.
Henry Ford had the right idea when he planned to pay and price his people and products so that his employees, all of them, could afford to drive a Ford. Now it’s all some CEO’s third wife wants a fourth house. So you raise the prices and cut the staff, but expect the same output. That’s not America. That’s a two-class society with a lower class sweat shop.
Caylee’s Law
I am among the many people who was shocked to find that there are not laws that require a parent or guardian to report a missing or dead child in a set minimum time. A child doesn’t have to be missing long at all to report it to police, but it never occurred to me that there wasn’t a maximum. That Caylee Anthony was missing for a MONTH before it was reported and the defense could even think of using a weak story of, “Oh, it wasn’t like that at all, she died in a pool a month ago,” was just appauling.
Just like it takes a deadly accident to get a traffic light at a dangerous intersection, it takes a suspiciously dead toddler to wake up lawmakers to needed legislation.
From the parts of the trial I watched, what angered me most was the right not to testify as a defendant. Testifying doesn’t incriminate you. It may confirm that your deeds incriminated you, but the deeds are already done. If I’d been on that jury, I’d likely have voted the same way they did. There just wasn’t enough hard evidence for the stronger charges. I suspect, Casey Anthony testifying would have supplied either total reasonable doubt or unquestionably reasonable undoubt.
This was a huge trail that left a lot of people feeling “dirty” about our judicial system. We do have the ability to make right some wrongs in our laws. I’m sure no one ever imagined that it was necessary, I sure didn’t, but there are sick people in this world who would not bother reporting their child missing. It should be a law that if broken, makes your children wards of the court and gives them a better future than a parent or parents that care that little.
It’s not a law to be made because this injustice happened. The injustice happened because the law wasn’t made.
Commercial Break…
Okay, commercial commentary break. Not that I’m a huge fan of Miller anyway, but what’s with the un-delivery guy, the one who steals bad beer from events that are to classy for bad beer, insulting our troops? Iraq is NOT pronounced /EYE-rack/ I would think, I’d hope, that our defenders fighting in a war there have at least heard the name of the country they’re in enough to have heard it pronounced /EE-rock/. Anyway, EE-rock is the closest American English pronunciation to the proper Arabic. EYE-rack is the closest to American Redneck, and not the “LOL Redneck” ala Jeff Foxworthy.
I’m just saying, for the probable paycheck a regular commercial image makes, it’s no wonder the rest of the world thinks were rich, stupid and arrogant.
Toledo Weather:
Boy it was hot today!
In Sports…
Red Sox and Tigers both won their games in the daily “bonus cat treats” qualifier games. With the Reds up 2 by going into the bottom of the ninth, Carla came up on the table and cried her plaintive meow in concern when she realized that Francisco Cordero was on the mound. I tell the TV over and over that anything less than a 4-run lead is not safe to have Cordero pitching.
After walking the leadoff batter, he got usual Reds-killer, Ricky Weeks out. There was hope. Then a wild pitch puts the runner in scoring position, followed by a triple. The second out came on an incredible play by Ryan Hannigan, blocking the plate and taking a hit as the runner from third tried to go through him.
Then there was another walk, then a soft hit. Bases loaded. Mark Kotsay at the plate. All it took was a single with two runners in scoring position to render Hannigan’s heroics non-existent and two of the sweetest baseball kitties running off their frustrated energy on the stairs…and in the kitchen. I need to see what they knocked over.
Cordero is a cat-hater.
Fatal Fall in Texas
Yesterday in the second inning of the game between the Oakland As and Texas Rangers at Texas. Josh Hamilton threw a foul ball up to a father and his young son in the front row. The father reached over the get the ball and lost his balance, falling over the rail, 20 feet down behind a scoreboard.
The 39-year-old man died while paramedics did everything they could to save him. His 6-year old son was in the front seat of the ambulance.
I watched the footage, a few times. So sad. So shocking.
There is talk of changes needing to be made. But what kind of changes?
Players won’t be allowed to throw balls in the stands anymore? I’m sure an understandably distraught Josh Hamilton, who didn’t throw balls into the stands often, won’t be doing it again anytime soon. I suppose hitters will be fined if they hit a home run too.
Raising the already waist-high railings would change the game, put balls back in play that would have been home runs or fouled out of play. That could actually make it dangerous for players, having more opportunity for those leaping catches.
The Rangers have started a fund for the family. My thought would be first to make sure there is counseling available for the son, who witnessed his father’s deadly fall. The first empathetic pain I felt was for “Dad’s catching me a ball…” He’s going to need someone to talk to who can help him understand, and not feel responsible.
After seeing the video, it was an accident, a horrible accident. My skin will crawl if there’s a lawsuit, especially when the Rangers are already taking steps to help the family.
Today, for a while, please keep that little boy, Josh Hamilton, the Rangers organization and soul of that loving dad, in your thoughts and prayers.
Jobs Figures
The job figures are dropping again. That’s bad news, especially personally as I’m hoping to be back in the market in the next year!
Washington Politicos, this isn’t a Republic back scratchers and Democrat back scratchers thing. It’s an US thing. It makes me dizzy how many times a way to get jobs back runs around in my head as I try to articulate one more time to the customer service rep in India what’s wrong with my Japanese made electronics or my Mexican built car. If the item is assembled in another country and the customer service is in another country, then part of the product is foreign and subject to the percentage of it that is in import tax. If the jobs don’t come back, companies that deny the American workforce a livelihood will at least be paying for the extended unemployment or welfare necessary to keep Americans alive.
Henry Ford had the right idea when he planned to pay and price his people and products so that his employees, all of them, could afford to drive a Ford. Now it’s all some CEO’s third wife wants a fourth house. So you raise the prices and cut the staff, but expect the same output. That’s not America. That’s a two-class society with a lower class sweat shop.
Caylee’s Law
I am among the many people who was shocked to find that there are not laws that require a parent or guardian to report a missing or dead child in a set minimum time. A child doesn’t have to be missing long at all to report it to police, but it never occurred to me that there wasn’t a maximum. That Caylee Anthony was missing for a MONTH before it was reported and the defense could even think of using a weak story of, “Oh, it wasn’t like that at all, she died in a pool a month ago,” was just appauling.
Just like it takes a deadly accident to get a traffic light at a dangerous intersection, it takes a suspiciously dead toddler to wake up lawmakers to needed legislation.
From the parts of the trial I watched, what angered me most was the right not to testify as a defendant. Testifying doesn’t incriminate you. It may confirm that your deeds incriminated you, but the deeds are already done. If I’d been on that jury, I’d likely have voted the same way they did. There just wasn’t enough hard evidence for the stronger charges. I suspect, Casey Anthony testifying would have supplied either total reasonable doubt or unquestionably reasonable undoubt.
This was a huge trail that left a lot of people feeling “dirty” about our judicial system. We do have the ability to make right some wrongs in our laws. I’m sure no one ever imagined that it was necessary, I sure didn’t, but there are sick people in this world who would not bother reporting their child missing. It should be a law that if broken, makes your children wards of the court and gives them a better future than a parent or parents that care that little.
It’s not a law to be made because this injustice happened. The injustice happened because the law wasn’t made.
Commercial Break…
Okay, commercial commentary break. Not that I’m a huge fan of Miller anyway, but what’s with the un-delivery guy, the one who steals bad beer from events that are to classy for bad beer, insulting our troops? Iraq is NOT pronounced /EYE-rack/ I would think, I’d hope, that our defenders fighting in a war there have at least heard the name of the country they’re in enough to have heard it pronounced /EE-rock/. Anyway, EE-rock is the closest American English pronunciation to the proper Arabic. EYE-rack is the closest to American Redneck, and not the “LOL Redneck” ala Jeff Foxworthy.
I’m just saying, for the probable paycheck a regular commercial image makes, it’s no wonder the rest of the world thinks were rich, stupid and arrogant.
Toledo Weather:
Boy it was hot today!
In Sports…
Red Sox and Tigers both won their games in the daily “bonus cat treats” qualifier games. With the Reds up 2 by going into the bottom of the ninth, Carla came up on the table and cried her plaintive meow in concern when she realized that Francisco Cordero was on the mound. I tell the TV over and over that anything less than a 4-run lead is not safe to have Cordero pitching.
After walking the leadoff batter, he got usual Reds-killer, Ricky Weeks out. There was hope. Then a wild pitch puts the runner in scoring position, followed by a triple. The second out came on an incredible play by Ryan Hannigan, blocking the plate and taking a hit as the runner from third tried to go through him.
Then there was another walk, then a soft hit. Bases loaded. Mark Kotsay at the plate. All it took was a single with two runners in scoring position to render Hannigan’s heroics non-existent and two of the sweetest baseball kitties running off their frustrated energy on the stairs…and in the kitchen. I need to see what they knocked over.
Cordero is a cat-hater.
That’s the news. Good night and have a better tomorrow!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
I Need a Break
Yeah, I know, “What? Already?” It’s just that 2011 has started off with so much, so fast!
Of course, there was the sad part, losing Kendal and then hearing about Tom on the same day. Well, you know I was a bit of a wreck. But, my faith is strong. I’ve had my personal periods of mourning, my alone time to meditate and accept. Kendal’s funeral was huge, as can be imagines for someone so young who fought so hard and inspired so many. I have experienced twice what I had long thought was the most gut-wrenching sight at a funeral, a pregnant woman crying. One carried the child of the man being laid to rest and was a good friend of mine, the other was Deanna just a few weeks before Tori and Rina were born at my Grandfather’s funeral. In both cases, my strength faded and the tears came freely. Greater than my own loss or feelings, was the pain of what the future would not have to hold.
I thought that was the most poignant example of human pain I’d ever witness until the night I was at Kendal’s viewing. At the end of the evening, a large group of her friends came two or three at a time and gathered by the casket, holding each other, heads bowed, some tears, some just holding on so tight. THAT was both beautiful and painful to watch. That show of love for Kendal and support for each other by her friends. The way it happened spontaneously. Teens are in their invincible years. When a disease can attack one of them, take her from her family and her own future, take her from her friends’ future, they are all robbed of the joy of those immortal years and forced to accept the sobering reality of mortality. I think that especially stings in me because I love teenagers. I worked with them many years at Omnicom. I think they deserve a few years of careful immortality.
I’m still reading my cousin’s posts on Team Kendal. Part to share in the celebration of her life and part to make sure he is doing okay. Love and courage are two things that grow when they are shared. Kendal derived strength from her parents and brother and gave it too. In reading the memorials on Kendal’s Facebook page, she shared that with her friends too. The family and her friends, in time, will all be okay. Guardian Angel Kendal says so!
Of course, everything good and bad all happens at once! School started the week of the funerals. This semester is all online classes, but I added to my class load, so I’m juggling and sorting files to get myself focused correctly. My XML class is assignments due every week and my Imaging class is two weeks of work due every two weeks. I have things pretty well organized now. I have to be honest, the imaging class is a little boring right now. The beginning of the Photoshop CS5 book reads like it was written for someone who’d never even seen an Adobe interface before. If I had bought the software and the book to help me learn the new tricks since Photoshop CS, the most recent one I have on my Mac, I’d have skipped the first few chapters and gotten right in to the good stuff. ::sigh:: But as a student I have to read the chapters, know the vocabulary and do the exercises. My fellows scrapbookers will chuckle at the idea of reading in a book, “layers are a very powerful tool” The thing is that was peeking a couple chapters ahead. I just finished “how to open and save a file!” I need this class for the web design certificate. But I hope the first test is multiple choice so I don’t have to come up with words that don’t start off, “what worked in 1997 and still does today..." hehe
The XML class is pretty cool, all new stuff, well, newish, different code, but similar in many ways to HTML. I just like writing code and opening it a browser to see a cool page. It’s like unwrapping and unveiling a present.
I’m doing better and better in therapy, but sorer and sorer outside of therapy. I try, I really try, to NOT take the super-charged ibuprofen prescription I have, but it doesn’t do any good. I do the therapy stretching exercises at home, they actually can be hard to get started, but then they feel so good! Still, I can’t function well without the anti-inflammatory effect of the ibuprofen and forget about trying to sleep without it. I hate that, feeling like a junkie, gotta have my drugs! Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be going to the hospital for an MRI on my back. About time, huh? It’s really a toss-up with me whether I dislike drugs or health insurance companies more. We’ll see what happens after the MRI If the insurance company okays fixing me, the drugs are worse. The insurance company might even be deemed good if they okay surgery or whatever it takes to make me okay. I don’t know if one can get addicted to ibuprofen, but I’m fearing addiction because it’s something I’ve had to take every day for the last 6 weeks. Too much!
Okay, let’s finish this blog off on a happier note, shall we? I’ve been working hard on scrapbook pages, Lots of templates used, even one quick page. Yes, I do Darlene’s Clutter It challenge at The Studio every month and I have used a couple clutter-it kits, but this one was a freebie page:
Credits: QP by Pixiepics & Scraps, using Snow Princess by Rainamoon Scraps
Isn’t it cool? I seldom use quick pages and I always doctor them up. But this one just struck me as perfect for these photos and the only thing I added to the layout was journaling. I had originally done a layout for these photos at the Monday Night Chat with Ambowife at The Studio. It was the “paper-only” layout. I liked my layout from chat, but Pixiepics’ quick page was just better. It was there for me to find. Needed to find it!
I am getting a couple or three done a day. I’ll finish up Kelly’s visit in early October tonight. Then 7 more to finish the month. Yes, I know. Today is January 20. I hope to have all my Imaging homework done by tomorrow night. I’ll be huffing and puffing, but I still think I can get 2010 done by the end of the month.
Okay, now back to school. I’m learning how to find a file using the browse button!
Of course, there was the sad part, losing Kendal and then hearing about Tom on the same day. Well, you know I was a bit of a wreck. But, my faith is strong. I’ve had my personal periods of mourning, my alone time to meditate and accept. Kendal’s funeral was huge, as can be imagines for someone so young who fought so hard and inspired so many. I have experienced twice what I had long thought was the most gut-wrenching sight at a funeral, a pregnant woman crying. One carried the child of the man being laid to rest and was a good friend of mine, the other was Deanna just a few weeks before Tori and Rina were born at my Grandfather’s funeral. In both cases, my strength faded and the tears came freely. Greater than my own loss or feelings, was the pain of what the future would not have to hold.
I thought that was the most poignant example of human pain I’d ever witness until the night I was at Kendal’s viewing. At the end of the evening, a large group of her friends came two or three at a time and gathered by the casket, holding each other, heads bowed, some tears, some just holding on so tight. THAT was both beautiful and painful to watch. That show of love for Kendal and support for each other by her friends. The way it happened spontaneously. Teens are in their invincible years. When a disease can attack one of them, take her from her family and her own future, take her from her friends’ future, they are all robbed of the joy of those immortal years and forced to accept the sobering reality of mortality. I think that especially stings in me because I love teenagers. I worked with them many years at Omnicom. I think they deserve a few years of careful immortality.
I’m still reading my cousin’s posts on Team Kendal. Part to share in the celebration of her life and part to make sure he is doing okay. Love and courage are two things that grow when they are shared. Kendal derived strength from her parents and brother and gave it too. In reading the memorials on Kendal’s Facebook page, she shared that with her friends too. The family and her friends, in time, will all be okay. Guardian Angel Kendal says so!
Of course, everything good and bad all happens at once! School started the week of the funerals. This semester is all online classes, but I added to my class load, so I’m juggling and sorting files to get myself focused correctly. My XML class is assignments due every week and my Imaging class is two weeks of work due every two weeks. I have things pretty well organized now. I have to be honest, the imaging class is a little boring right now. The beginning of the Photoshop CS5 book reads like it was written for someone who’d never even seen an Adobe interface before. If I had bought the software and the book to help me learn the new tricks since Photoshop CS, the most recent one I have on my Mac, I’d have skipped the first few chapters and gotten right in to the good stuff. ::sigh:: But as a student I have to read the chapters, know the vocabulary and do the exercises. My fellows scrapbookers will chuckle at the idea of reading in a book, “layers are a very powerful tool” The thing is that was peeking a couple chapters ahead. I just finished “how to open and save a file!” I need this class for the web design certificate. But I hope the first test is multiple choice so I don’t have to come up with words that don’t start off, “what worked in 1997 and still does today..." hehe
The XML class is pretty cool, all new stuff, well, newish, different code, but similar in many ways to HTML. I just like writing code and opening it a browser to see a cool page. It’s like unwrapping and unveiling a present.
I’m doing better and better in therapy, but sorer and sorer outside of therapy. I try, I really try, to NOT take the super-charged ibuprofen prescription I have, but it doesn’t do any good. I do the therapy stretching exercises at home, they actually can be hard to get started, but then they feel so good! Still, I can’t function well without the anti-inflammatory effect of the ibuprofen and forget about trying to sleep without it. I hate that, feeling like a junkie, gotta have my drugs! Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be going to the hospital for an MRI on my back. About time, huh? It’s really a toss-up with me whether I dislike drugs or health insurance companies more. We’ll see what happens after the MRI If the insurance company okays fixing me, the drugs are worse. The insurance company might even be deemed good if they okay surgery or whatever it takes to make me okay. I don’t know if one can get addicted to ibuprofen, but I’m fearing addiction because it’s something I’ve had to take every day for the last 6 weeks. Too much!
Okay, let’s finish this blog off on a happier note, shall we? I’ve been working hard on scrapbook pages, Lots of templates used, even one quick page. Yes, I do Darlene’s Clutter It challenge at The Studio every month and I have used a couple clutter-it kits, but this one was a freebie page:
Credits: QP by Pixiepics & Scraps, using Snow Princess by Rainamoon Scraps(Click name in credits to go to blog for QP)
Isn’t it cool? I seldom use quick pages and I always doctor them up. But this one just struck me as perfect for these photos and the only thing I added to the layout was journaling. I had originally done a layout for these photos at the Monday Night Chat with Ambowife at The Studio. It was the “paper-only” layout. I liked my layout from chat, but Pixiepics’ quick page was just better. It was there for me to find. Needed to find it!
I am getting a couple or three done a day. I’ll finish up Kelly’s visit in early October tonight. Then 7 more to finish the month. Yes, I know. Today is January 20. I hope to have all my Imaging homework done by tomorrow night. I’ll be huffing and puffing, but I still think I can get 2010 done by the end of the month.
Okay, now back to school. I’m learning how to find a file using the browse button!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Christmas Hangover
Detroit’s Eastern MarketIt’s been a fun and busy time since I last blogged! On Christmas Eve David and I stopped at McDonald’s in Romulus, Michigan and had a quick hot breakfast before Dave and the gang met us. I had the fruit and maple McOatmeal. Never had McOatmeal before but it was GOOD! When we’re railfanning, that may step in as my go-to breakfast! The Indy fam and Pop picked up McBreakfast to go and I switched into their van for our trip to the Eastern Market. David had some other errands, which I think included the last of my stocking stuffers. He commented about the selection of lip balms at Claire’s at the Mall in Ann Arbor.
Eastern Market this year was a bit of a dissappointment. Some of the shops were open, but the main vendor area and Rocky Peanut Company were closed! There were signs telling of the big Christmas day there being the 23rd this year. That was a bit of a disappointment, but we still did some meat shopping and I got a chunk of imported parmesan cheese, which was grated onto Christmas Day pasta at home and a small bag of Chocolate Cherries that were my selfish sin of the day! In years past, when I used to go with my Mom and Dad, we went on the Saturday before Christmas, which was of course only Christmas Eve when Christmas was on a Sunday. They’d gone last year and found many of the holiday vendors selling wreaths and centerpieces and the shops open, but no produce vendors were out. That was my bad. I‘d remembered the produce vendors on the Saturdays and had actually not done my produce market shopping for the week, planning on stocking up at the farmer’s market stands. So, the veggie for Christmas ended up being salad this year, but we had good pasta and sauce and some excellent wine leftover from our anniversary dinner.
By the way, that anniversary dinner was outstanding! We got to Ciao after David got off work Thursday and were seated pretty much immediately, a sweet table for two right by the fireplace. The baked Asiago that I was looking forward to for an appetizer was a little less than my brain was geared up for, but oh the basil tomato soup was so much more! I had the mahi-mahi dinner, which I decided was a manly enough fish to stand up to the red Tuscan wine we ordered. That was a good choice. The wine was excellent! For dessert, David had a molten chocolate cake and I had tiramisu. It was a wonderful evening! My pocket-size party camera died about month ago, so I didn’t get any photos. I think I need to replace the little party camera.
Back to Christmas Eve, we all gathered at my cousin, Lisa’s, house for Christmas Eve dinner. The long-standing tradition in our family has been a huge fish dinner on Christmas Eve. I’ve heard that’s a common Italian tradition. I’ve never liked the meal because it was always fried. In more recent years they’ve added some not fried fish, usually salmon or tilapia, neither of which I care for, and at least one plate of shrimp that’s boiled or done scampi-style. I don’t go for the food. I go for the people! I usually get a snack before dinner. This year it was a big McLatte, lots of milk – filling and healthier than the fried stuff too, although I wasn’t thinking heavily about healthy for Christmas.
AS and Tori may not have matched their own twins,but they complemented each other perfectly!
After dinner was sweets, cookies and cakes and such and some photo time around my aunt’s story time with the kids, including the story of the first Christmas, and presents time for the kids. One of the fun photos was Tori and AS. The girls are both twins and while they didn’t dress matching their own twin, they had matching color choices for their dresses. They made a cute pair! (I also got a nice shot of me with the girls.
Nana and the NieciiAfter the party at Lisa’s, we went to Pop and Aunt Judy’s place for gift exchanges ad a little Pop-time. Then, with thankfully the bad weather taking a pass on us this year, we made our way south, back to Ohio and our kitty-kids to have a quiet just-us Christmas Day.
I’ll expound a little more later. On Sunday, we met the Indy gang for breakfast and brought Rina and Tori home with us for UNO and the Fabulous Deseret Bar Sunday night and a few days with us. We’ll make our way back into Michigan this afternoon, after my therapy, to stay with Pop for New Year’s Eve festivities in Frankenmuth. I love when they are here and I kinda mss them already!
More to come…
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Crunch Time
Can you believe Christmas Day is a week from today? So much yet to do!
First of all, the biggest road bock to celebrating this year has not only been taken down, but turned into a cause to cautiously celebrate. My cousin’s daughter, Kendal, has been in Minnesota, with her folks, getting some aggressive chemo for leukemia. That has been a scary and overwhelming story in our family this year. Kendal is only 16 and it’s her second time battling this damn disease. Yes, I said damn disease. Cancer took both of my grandparents on my Dad’s side, our Dads' side, so it’s a scary, haunting disease, I don’t know that John, my cousin, remembers Nono but he and Noni were very close. Kendal beat leukemia at 4 years olds and no one, especially a kid, should ever have to beat it twice. After a few very scary weeks, the word from John and wife, Heather, on their updates is that the cancer is in remission! It was a happy day yesterday. John’s title on his update post on the Team Kendal website yesterday was “Tears of Joy” and you can believe I was crying them with him as I read the optimistic news! Kendal is truly an amazing and strong young woman!
My cousin and his daughter, Kendal.
She's one of the srtrongest people I know.
I think the good news yesterday just charged my Christmas spirit. I had been going through the motions as far as cleanup and getting ready for the holiday. Yesterday I got some actual work done and put together my scheduling lists for baking. I usually have that ready weeks in advance!
David has a cold and when he came home from work, late as is often the case on Fridays, he was just beat. We were going to finish the living room cleanup and put up the tree last night, but that got postponed to hopefully a healthier David, or at least until I can rest up all the stuff that was pretty sore by the end of the day. My list includes baking two of my traditional threats, Krisp Kringles and Mr. Goodcookies, macaroons and a reduced calorie chocolate-peanut butter crisp candy for this year.
One of last year's crostadas.
First of all, the biggest road bock to celebrating this year has not only been taken down, but turned into a cause to cautiously celebrate. My cousin’s daughter, Kendal, has been in Minnesota, with her folks, getting some aggressive chemo for leukemia. That has been a scary and overwhelming story in our family this year. Kendal is only 16 and it’s her second time battling this damn disease. Yes, I said damn disease. Cancer took both of my grandparents on my Dad’s side, our Dads' side, so it’s a scary, haunting disease, I don’t know that John, my cousin, remembers Nono but he and Noni were very close. Kendal beat leukemia at 4 years olds and no one, especially a kid, should ever have to beat it twice. After a few very scary weeks, the word from John and wife, Heather, on their updates is that the cancer is in remission! It was a happy day yesterday. John’s title on his update post on the Team Kendal website yesterday was “Tears of Joy” and you can believe I was crying them with him as I read the optimistic news! Kendal is truly an amazing and strong young woman!
My cousin and his daughter, Kendal.She's one of the srtrongest people I know.
I think the good news yesterday just charged my Christmas spirit. I had been going through the motions as far as cleanup and getting ready for the holiday. Yesterday I got some actual work done and put together my scheduling lists for baking. I usually have that ready weeks in advance!
David has a cold and when he came home from work, late as is often the case on Fridays, he was just beat. We were going to finish the living room cleanup and put up the tree last night, but that got postponed to hopefully a healthier David, or at least until I can rest up all the stuff that was pretty sore by the end of the day. My list includes baking two of my traditional threats, Krisp Kringles and Mr. Goodcookies, macaroons and a reduced calorie chocolate-peanut butter crisp candy for this year.
One of last year's crostadas.Of course, I’ll be doing crostadas. One for my cousin, Lisa, who hosts the family party on Christmas Eve, one for Dad, 2 for Dave so he can take one to the family party on Christmas Day for Laura’s family and they can have one at home (apricot, which Tori says she’ll eat all of) and 2 that stay here for UNO and for David and me. I’m trying a couple “just fruit” spreads this year and a chocolate hazelnut one with Nutella spread.
Tori and Rina will be here for UNO this year! I’m happy about that and I know they’re excited too. I’m meeting Dave in Fort Wayne for breakfast on the 26th and bringing the girls home with me. Then the UNO party is at 5. They are excited to see friends they haven’t seen in a few years. Friends who have known them since they were babies who said, “What? Sixteen, not possible!” last year when I was taking about their birthday bash. I’m also planning some other fun stuff while they’re here before I take them up to Pop’s for their annual trek to Frankenmuth for New Years Eve
I slipped on my scrap page a day yesterday. I got the last pages for Summerail stared, so maybe if I finish the 2-pager tonight, I’ll have 2 done. I’m in August now, so I’m in decent shape to meet my end of January goal to have 2010 finished.
Okay, now I need coffee and to get this day started!
Tori and Rina will be here for UNO this year! I’m happy about that and I know they’re excited too. I’m meeting Dave in Fort Wayne for breakfast on the 26th and bringing the girls home with me. Then the UNO party is at 5. They are excited to see friends they haven’t seen in a few years. Friends who have known them since they were babies who said, “What? Sixteen, not possible!” last year when I was taking about their birthday bash. I’m also planning some other fun stuff while they’re here before I take them up to Pop’s for their annual trek to Frankenmuth for New Years Eve
I slipped on my scrap page a day yesterday. I got the last pages for Summerail stared, so maybe if I finish the 2-pager tonight, I’ll have 2 done. I’m in August now, so I’m in decent shape to meet my end of January goal to have 2010 finished.
Okay, now I need coffee and to get this day started!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Calling Upon the Ghouls and Goblins
I just love trick-or-treating! I loved dressing up in costumes as a kid and showing my costumes off to the neighbors, even the ones I didn’t know, and collecting a bag of candy! We lived in a big neighborhood, in a suburb not far from the city then. Just like I looked forward to being part of Santa’s network of giving when I became an adult, I looked forward to being the one opening the door, seeing the cute costumes and hearing the happy “trick or treat” before putting the year’s candy offering in the bags and plastic pumpkins.
This year's treat bags - 100 of them!
Today's art work (by David)
Tomorrow's decoration
Monday's Pie!
When we moved to the home I finished my childhood and spent my premarital adult years in, the first year of trick or treating was very cool! It was a small subdivision, but an upper middle class one. Everyone knew everyone and the treats were generous! Many homes had different treats for neighborhood kids that included homemade cookies and caramel apples. Those kinds of treats are safe to give to the kids you know. My Mom would never have let us eat a homemade caramel apple from a stranger! I trick or treated for only a couple of years there. My last time making the rounds was when I was 13. The cuteness factor ends around then, I think. That’s when I started tending to the door on Halloween night.
The first few weren’t too bad. Less than 15 kids, but we did treat bags with a full size candy bar and some smaller candies to go with it, so the kids were always big smiles and seldom left without a “thank you.” But as the years progressed and the neighborhood kids, like Dave and me, grew up. The median age of the neighborhood was getting older and there were fewer kids until the year came that we had our candy bags made up, but not one knock on the door.
How sad! I had always looked forward to spoiling kids the way I was spoiled as a kid. I loved the generosity of my neighbors and how much they all did to make Halloween fun for us kids and I really wanted to get to enjoy that from the other end. So, my evenings of giving to happy kids dried up.
This year's treat bags - 100 of them!This year I have done 100 candy bags. Each bag has a fun size chocolate bar, a fun size Skittles or Starburst, Smarties and a couple pieces from the Tootsie Roll/Mini Tootsie Pop bag. There is also a huge overstock bowl. David and I don’t have kids, no clothes to buy, school supplies, medical bills, clubs, sports or prom dresses. We can afford to do up the bags and give a little more on Halloween. If the number of guests is down because it’s a school night or if the weather is bad, David will take any leftover bags to the school they sponsor at work and the leftover overstock, after we select a few treats for ourselves, to work. I would much rather continue giving the day after than run out before 8:00, when trick or treating ends in Toledo.
Today's art work (by David)Tomorrow's decoration
Monday's Pie!
David drew the faces for the pumpkins which will sit on the table under our porch light. We did the drawn face last year and it turned out much better than my try at carving the year before. This year, we did 2 pie pumpkins instead of the jack-o-lantern pumpkin like last year. The jack made great pumpkin seeds, but not much when I tried to boil the flesh. I know the pie pumpkins make both great seeds and pie filling!
I really do want to be that house the kids make a point of coming to. For the last three Halloweens it’s been so much fun. Most of the kids remember to say “thank you,” even the shy ones who barely can bring themselves to say “trick or treat,” say “thank you,” quietly with a smile after I put the candy package in their bag. Not having those other bills, also means we don’t see kids on Christmas morning. It’s still special, just grown up. Halloween is when we get to see the smiling kids and get that warm feeling that goes with helping to make that happen.
I’m as nervous and excited on October 30 now as I was as a little kid. Tomorrow’s the big night! I can hardly wait!
Happy Halloween!
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