Wednesday Hodgepodge

I'm joining Joyce at From This Side of The Pond for the Wednesday Hodgepodge!

1. Are you more task oriented or people oriented? Elaborate

As a former producer/project manager, I can't say I favor one over the other because both are equally important to get things done. I'm personally an outgoing introvert, which says "both" too; when I'm alone I concentrate on tasks I want finished, but I try to be very conscious of others, where they do their best, and by that enjoy what they're doing the most, when I'm working with a group. I've found that both personally and professionally making sure everybody is doing something they really love and do well make anything work better for everyone involved and is better quality in the end. So I guess that makes me a little more people oriented. I place great importance on the people who are doing the tasks and I believe that anything is better with a devoted group than it is alone.


2. December 15 is National Wear Your Pearls Day...do you own/wear pearls? If you're a man answering the question, does your sweetheart own or wear pearls? Everyone share a 'pearl of wisdom' with us here today.

I don't have, nor have I ever had, real pearls. I'm a shiny stones person. I have worn plastic pearls in the past.

"Pearl of wisdom?" A good psychologist will not solve all of your problems for you. A GOOD psychologist listens to you and asks you the questions you need to answer to solve your problems yourself. Any kind of real change or repair has to come from you. But don't ever be afraid to let a professional help you find the answers that you have inside.


3. Speaking of pearls...oysters? Are you a fan or not a fan? If you answered yes, tell us your favorite way to eat oysters? If you said no, be honest-have you ever tried one or does just the idea of eating an oyster make you gag a little?

I'm not an oyster fan. Honestly I don't remember if I've tried them, but I probably have at some point during my life. As a first generation American I tried a lot of weird stuff as a child. LOL I'm told I was a huge fan of calamari when I was little. I know what they taste like and there's no way I'd eat them now. So it's probable that I did try oysters at some time but the thought of eating an oyster now is kind of gross so I don't want to try them, probably again, to see if I like them. There are so many things that I enjoy that I see no need to try to add oysters to that list.

I do know that I have tried in recent years and don't like eggplant, Portabella mushrooms, sushi, tapioca putting, salmon or tilapia.


4. Time Magazine has named President-elect Donald Trump Person of the Year. Let's take presidents and presidential candidates out of the mix for a minute. If a political figure had not been chosen who would you name Man or Woman of the Year for 2016?

Time's Man of the Year in 1938 was Adolph Hitler. Hmm...

Nani Magazine's Person of the Year 2016 is Simone Biles. Incredibly talented, 4 Gold Medals and I was blown away with how tall she looks when performing.


5. The Pantone Color of the Year for 2017 has been announced, and it's a vibrant green aptly named-greenery. Your thoughts? Is this a color currently in your home or wardrobe? Will you add something in this shade for the new year? Click here to see the color.

Woo-hoo, Greenery! It's a great color and one I can say that I have a lot of in my house and in my wardrobe. I think going forward into 2017 with greenery as the color of the the year rekindles some of my hope that, at least the color copy of, the year will look good!


6. Today I've had too much SNOW!

There was a reported measurement of 9 inches at the airport Sunday afternoon into Monday early morning. There is still snow all over the yard every time I look out the window and it's COLD. So there's the winter. I'm good with that. Bring on the warm weather and bring the spring flowers. I've had enough of winter now.


7. Share a favorite lyric from a favorite Christmas carol.

I chuckled at this one because just last night I wrote down my top 10 Christmas songs for 2016 to put in my weekly journal.

Here is that list:

Unto You This Night, Garth Brooks *
Old Toy Trains, Joe Nichols
Let It Be Christmas, Alan Jackson
Candlelight Carol, Neil Diamond *
Away In A Manger, John Berry *
Ave Maria, Luciano Pavarotti
Hallelujah (Christmas lyrics), The Osmonds
Oh Holy Night, Jo Dee Messina
Mary Did You Know, Kenny Rogers & Wynona Judd
This Christmas, Dru Hill *

* songs that have been my favorite versions of my favorite songs for a very long time and are in the top 50 or so all time. The top 10 for the year is a combination of those all-time songs that really strike me in a given year and the new songs that I'm kind of obsessed about this year.

The Osmonds version of Hallelujah is with the lyrics rewritten to tell the story of the first Christmas. I think Hallelujah is a beautiful song but the original lyrics are about a relationship ending and questioning faith. I think the Osmonds version is much more appropriate for Christmas.

I heard Old Toy Trains for the first time last year and I absolutely love the song, the Joe Nichols version being, in my opinion, the best. That's the lyric I'm sharing today.

Old toy trains, little toy tracks
Little boy toys, comin' from a sack
Carried by a man dressed in white and red
Little boy don't you think it?s time you where in bed?

Close your eyes, listen to the skies
All is calm, all is well
Soon you'll hear Kris Kringle and the jingle bells

Bringin' old toy trains, little toy tracks
Little boy toys, comin' form a sack
Carried by a man dressed in white and red
Little boy don't you think it?s time you where in bed?


8.  Insert your own random thought here.

I've always loved this time of year. Personally I decorate for and share Christmas with my relatives and many members of my family. For me it's a celebration of spirituality, family/community and of children. I honor those as three separate holidays for church, national and a Hallmark holiday for the kid in all of us. As a Unitarian Universalist I also respect and enjoy the many other holidays celebrated at this time of year. I've been one of those dreaded "Happy Holidays" people since I bowled with Jewish kids when I was about 7 or 8 years old.

I'd love it if everyone could embrace saying "happy holidays" in public/with people they don't know and share the joy they feel from their holiday with everyone in a non-judgmental way. But I also like the idea of just not correcting anybody when they say a greeting whether it's "Merry Christmas," "Happy Hanukkah," "Merry Yule," or even " Happy Holidays." They are all greetings that say "I feel blessed and like celebrating and I want to share that good feeling with you." The best way to share the loving spirit of what you celebrate is to simply smile and say "thank you, you too.” Doesn't that capture the"peace" part of all of the holidays?

Happy Black Cat Holiday!

Happy Friday the 13th to all the kitties and the humans brave enough to embrace rather than fear black acts and the number 13! It makes me sad that black cats are hard to place shelter cats. They say it’s because people think they’re “bad luck.” Really? In 2015? It’s just amazing that will all the very real bad things in our world people still fall for unsubstantiated superstitions with archaic roots and take out their gullible fear-attitudes on innocent animals. We celebrate Friday the 13th as a cat-holiday and have adopted the American St Patrick’s Day attitude for it – “Pet me, I’m a black cat” and every cat is a black cat on Friday the 13th!

Please feel free to right click and save the graphic I made for the holiday and share it on your blog or social media sites too. Make Friday the 13th a fun day; catnip for everyone! (and something with milk, like chocolate or ice cream if you don’t do nip.)


Now I’m joining Heather at Feeling Beachie for Follow Friday Four Fill In Blog Hop. This is a meme I haven’t done in a while, but I really enjoy! Stop over to Feeling Beachie to join the fun!

The statements:
1. The worst ____________ is _______________
2. I would rather____________________ than _____________
3. I can ________ but I wish I could ________
4. The song ________________ evokes memories of _______________

My Answers:
1. The worst thing about autumn is winter is the next season.
2. I would rather sit at a ballpark in a rain delay than watch a parade in the snow.
3. I can spin in circles at the mall in my power chair like a tilt-a-whirl but I wish I could still climb into a real Tilt-A-Whirl at a carnival. (That one was too easy, huh?)
4. The song Mess Is Mine by Vance Joy, my current favorite, evokes memories of how wonderful David is and how lucky I am.


I leave you with my signature for Ginger Snaps this month. The challenge was lots of green in your siggie. I got that, but NO green shamrocks! My green eyes and summer freckles are courtesy of the orange part of the flag! My mom used to tell me that it irritated my great grandfather when she wore green to school on St. Patrick ’s Day because her Irish heritage was orange not green. So while I do wear green too, I’ve always made sure to rock a little orange on that Irish holiday in memory of Dad-dad.

Credits: Break Time by Colie’s Corner, Lucky Me by Aprilisa Designs, 

Crocuses from Vintage Rose Blossom by Carena Designs

My First Friends

This will kinda be a replacement/reprise of the Monday Mug Shots that I haven’t done in a while. Where appropriate I might show a mug or photo. Retired Not Tired hosts the new Memory Monday meme. It’s recording our memoirs a week at a time with a new prompt each Monday. This week’s prompt is:

My First Friend

I don’t remember my first friends but I remember my Mom telling me about them. In the late spring before I was even a year old we’d spend afternoons in our fenced-in yard in front of our Detroit home. Fenced was good because I was crawling and Mom was pregnant with my brother so she could let me play in the grass and sit in a lawn chair to watch me. There were a couple of girls that stopped by the fence every day on their way home from school and gushed over the baby. Mom told me they always made me smile and laugh and they enjoyed their visits with me too.

Sadly, that was the spring of 1967. During the summer there was a 5-day riot in Detroit that ended with 43 dead and over 1000 injured in the city. When fall came I was sad because my friends walked right by and didn’t stop anymore. After that summer young black girls didn’t stop to play with little white girls in Detroit. The girls knew the tension and that they had to walk by without stopping and my mom knew she couldn’t try to ask them to, but I was just over a year old and didn’t understand.

I’d like to think that I did get a little of a life-lesson from it at that young age. Maybe it was the first time I knew how silly the color of someone’s skin meaning anything about them as a person was. It was definitely the first time I was involved in grownups doing something stupid that ultimately hurt kids. Maybe that’s why I’ve always understood that every choice I make can affect other people in a good or bad way. People being stupid hurt the whole city and I’m not so sure Detroit has recovered from that riot yet.

And We Danced

Cluster created with I Love by Miss Edna and Suruha-Freespirit

Welcome to the first February A Chocolate Bouquet Blog-Hop. February’s topic is All Things Love! I promised yesterday that I’d turn back the clock to 2006 and tell you about how it came to be that I’m the arranger of the Valentine’s dinner with the story of our first Valentine’s Day dinner together.

For our first Valentine’s Day together I wanted to have a nice romantic dinner. I told David I’d cook and asked for the key so I could have dinner ready when he got home from work. I set the table and decorated with candles, scattered red heart doilies. I set my CD player up in the room to play the CD I’d made for dinner. I put the wine in the refrigerator to chill while I did the prep for dinner. We had Old Bookbinder’s lobster bisque and I made shrimp scampi. There was white wine and chocolate fondue for dessert. Yeah, it was sorta textbook romance which I’m usually not crazy about, but every now and then from the book is quite nice!

When David got in he brought a dozen roses! It was the first time anyone had ever given me roses and I just melted! We enjoyed dinner which I was so pleased turned out perfectly; I always have a little bit of trepidation when I cook seafood because it's so easy to overcook it. We enjoyed another glass of wine with dessert while we listened to the CD from dinner again and David asked me if he could play me a song. He got out the CD as I was clearing the plates from the table and told me it was his favorite love song. It was Your Own Special Way by Genesis and he came to me by the sink and asked if I’d ever heard it. I hadn’t and we listened and while we listened we began to dance in the kitchen.


I remember being overcome with emotion and in my mind saying “this will be the song we dance to at the wedding.” It was the first time ever that I'd truly thought about myself being married. I was definitely past the point of no return with this man.  Next week will be the 8th Valentine's Day dinner I've orchestrated for the two of us; the seafood becomes more succulent, the chocolate sweeter, the flowers more beautiful and the love even more real every year.  I wouldn't change it for anything!

Please join us at A Chocolate Bouquet with your post about love of any kind!

Not Inspired

Cluster made with On My Knees elements by Darlene Haughin

I’m joining Josanne at A Chocolate Bouquet again today for the last week of Motivational posts in her blog hop. Next week, as we move into February, A Chocolate Bouquet blog hop switches gears to “All Things Love.” For those reading who haven’t decided to try this hop because you just don’t feel like a motivational writer, everyone has thoughts on love! Consider joining in next week to talk about the emotion, where to find it, how to be romantic or even just your take on the people and things you love. The January theme was pretty open and I expect that the February one will be as well. You don’t have to blog about Valentine’s Day…But ya could!

But back to today; it’s still January and we’re still talking motivational, how do your stay on track with your goals and why that’s important to you. How do you inspire and motivate yourself and others. There’s my challenge right now.

How Do You Inspire If You’re Not Feeling Inspired?

I didn’t post anything motivational last week because I’m just low on steam in that area right now. I know, right? Me, uninspired and unmotivated? I’m always “up” and ready to share all the positivity I can muster, and I can muster a lot of positive vibes! But that’s been a challenge this month. I’m not good with negative starts. It’s not just the hospital stay to start the year; the whole month has had a bit of a dark cloud for me. Maybe that is exactly how I inspire right now.

As you know, I’ve been called inspiring because of my refusal to let my issues with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis stop me. Oh, they slow me down, sometimes a lot, but the one thing they don’t get to even touch is my spirit. I have my rough patches, but deep down inside, I won’t allow it to change who I am. Who I am includes that when I’m depressed I’m more embarrassed than actually depressed. I think that’s ego.

The thing is, that’s how I continue to inspire, even when I’m not inspired, when I'm feeling challenged. Even the happiest and most tenacious people have bad days. If you’re having a bad day, even a bad week, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost that spark that keeps you a positive person. You just need a break to regroup. Know that you’ll be fine tomorrow and can pick up then.

You don’t have to be battling an ailment to inspire. You don’t even have to be happy and perky all the time. I offer this; every one of us inspires someone in a positive way. Parents inspire children, teachers inspire students. Members of the clergy and volunteers in social groups inspire. We all set examples for others by just being who we are. The talents we have the things we work hard for, every kindness we extend; they all have power when witnessed by others. Of course we can also inspire others to not be like us. Whether it’s “I want that, but not like he got it,” or “I want her work ethic, but without being as cruel as she is to her employees,” we’ve still set the example and others are influenced by us. When we have a bad day, or feel unmotivated, we also let the people we influence know that they can still attain their goals if they have a bad day too, because tomorrow we’ll be back to that forward moving direction. We can inspire even when we don’t feel very inspirational.

Okay, personally I want to be the good example. When I’m having a tough time I want to show that it’s not the end of the world and I still want people to think I’m worth a hug for encouragement.

Never, Never Quit

I’m joining Josanne at A Chocolate Bouquet for another Thursday motivational blog hop.

Yesterday Sheri posted on Facebook that it was her anniversary; 2 years smoke-free! It’s definitely something to be proud of and, heck yeah, announce it to the world! I think the key is to be proud of your own accomplishment but don’t preach to smokers to “be like me!” It’s something you have to do on your own terms and anyone drilling you is going to have the opposite effect. I quit smoking 22-1/2 years ago. They say that it takes seven years to clean out your lungs after quitting. For me, it was about that time that I developed an allergy to cigarette smoke. Fortunately, most of my friends who smoked have quit now and that’s not such an issue anymore, but there was a time that Benadryl was my social friend; I’d rather drug up for a few days than give up my friends. There’s no one you want LESS at a gathering than a self-righteous former anything! But being an agreeable former smoker I was able to be a quiet example without alienating my friends.

This post is not about smoking. Well, it kinda is. It’s about not giving up on yourself. One comment Sheri made, that I can totally relate to is “I just wish losing weight was as easy as quitting smoking was.” Me too. It would be awesome to celebrate 2 years at my idea weight. But I fall off the wagon, like the second half of last year when I gained instead of losing. I’m an emotional eater and I was having some serious warding off depression problems. But I’m happy to say that this week I’ve lost a half pound; slow and steady and healthy. And I will keep working on it until I can announce the anniversary of being at my ideal weight. And Sheri will too. We both quit smoking successfully, so we know, given time and perseverance, we will also win the “battle of the bulge.”

So there’s my motivational tip for this week: When you are feeling like reaching your goal is a losing battle, even if it’s a goal you haven’t obtained yet years later, think about a goal you have met and realize that you have the power to conquer any demon and to meet any goal. Remember that the goals that take the longest to achieve are the ones that have the most gratifying rewards. Don’t ever give up on you.

Reaction To Challenge

I’m working on a rewrite of my goals post. When I used to do my annual goals in my planner, I used to include inspirational quotes with my various categories of goals and I want to do a little more organizing with my goals and projects for this year. That should have been my Hodge Podge answer #1 for yesterday; by the end of 2013, I want to have my organized goals and projects ready to post at the Chronicles of Nani before 11:59PM December 31. For now my most immediate goal related to that is that I want my goals for 2013 organized and ready to post my 11:59PM January 13. That’s Sunday Of course, 11:59PM because midnight is the first gasp of the next day!

While blog hopping the Hodge Podge yesterday, I visited a new-to-me blog; Joanne’s A Chocolate Bouquet. Joanne and I have man things in common aside from my obvious attraction to her blog name, A Chocolate Bouquet; the woman speaks to my heart. Well, okay, chocolate isn’t speaking to my heart, my taste buds, maybe, but hey they are important to me. I do, after all, call them my buds! Yes, I swiped that from a Sonic commercial, but I loved the idea of “I should call them my ‘taste bros.’” The chocolate is for my taste bros! Or maybe taste sisses? I’ll have to work on that one. But I digress. Joanne and I also share the need for coffee and supplies if there is nothing else in the cupboard and we both seem to like to inspire and motivate where we can.

So Joanne started A Chocolate Bouquet Blog Hop on Thursdays where anyone can join by linking to their motivational posts. Here is what she said on her blog about the types of posts in the hop:

Share with us:

How you stay motivated

What made you decide to make a life changing goal, and why you are sticking with it

Why making goals is important to you

or any other post that will be encouraging to others who would appreciate the extra boost!

So without further ado, here is my motivational thought for the week:


Reaction To Challenge

My quote “I cannot control things that happen to me, but I'm the only one that controls how I react to things that happen to me.” It's really my motto for life, especially post MS diagnosis. My own husband calls strong as I gimp around the house with cane and walker and he pushes me around with the wheelchair when we go out because he says I handle things better than he would. Keep in mind that David has seen me at my lowest too, but the smiling moments far outweigh the frustrated tears. That’s because they HAVE to. I don’t have a choice about the MS but I’m the only one that chooses how I react to it and I’m not giving up that power. It’s a simple choice, really. I can let the frustration overpower me and wallow in the negativity or I can adapt and do as many of the things I’ve always enjoyed as I can with those adaptations. No effort miserable, effort happy. Well, duh! I choose happy!

I know people who seem to choose sad or frustrated or defeated and really, their facing problems that are much more beatable than MS. It’s easy to dwell on the challenge facing you than it is to face it or to find a solution around it. It’s easy to blame someone else for your problems than it is to fix them yourself, but is there any satisfaction in knowing who’s at fault? You still don’t have what makes you happy. So, take a tip from she who doesn’t walk; adapt!

Adapting can be as simple as writing down the pros and cons of a situation and choosing to focus on the pros. It can be as complicated as shoring up your resume and seeking a new job. The important point is that in any situation that doesn’t work for you, you have to decide what you can do and focus on that. The solution to any problem has to start with being optimistic that you can succeed in finding that solution. That optimism has to start within you; you have to know what you can do and you have to do it. Choose to make yourself be happy.

A Fragmented Mind With Blanks To Fill In

So this is the one day that tells the retail chains if they will make a profit this year. I’ve read in a few places that Black Friday’s name comes from the fact that the day after Thanksgiving is the pivotal point where stores can forecast the rest of the year’s sales. Considering that most corporate fiscal years start November 1, that’s pretty impressive. I’m not saying I doubt any of it; marketing has become quite a science.

  
Since I have a few of them, we’ll call that tidbit that I believe to be true, my first fragment this week. I’ll add that the “I believe to be true” is because I think I remember reading it on the Internet and you can’t trust things you read on the web abut Black Friday because it might be a Cyber Monday shopper just trying to make the crazy Friday shoppers look silly. Of course, carpal tunnel and camping out on your own porch might be considered cra….

………………………………………………

I’m back. Sorry, doorbell; I had to go get a package off the porch.


Where was I? Oh yes, Fragments! So here’s some more!

*  A Facebook friend did some questioning of employees at Target about working on Thanksgiving. At Target, working on Thanksgiving was volunteer only, they were paid time and a half and got a $100 bonus for taking the shift. I’m actually kind of glad for that because I usually find a thing or two at Target and I like their novelty Christmas candy selection. I’ll again consider them a store I’ll shop at this holiday season.


*  This is mostly a photo-fragment: Last week when David was working nights and there was some sun, enough sun, because Norfolk Sothern’s Southern Heritage Unit was in the area! (I’m wearing my Southern t-shirt as I type this) Isn’t she beautiful?

*  As 2012 draws to a close, there is a little somethin-somethin I for me. I bought my first real Smash book!

I know, I know, why would I want to buy a Smash brand book, when I’ve already put my “smashables” from all the years up through 2011 in binders with repurposed scrapbook paper? Well, first off the stock of scrapbook paper won’t last forever and the price of decent weight 2-sided paper pus a binder and glue starts to get near the price of a Smash Book, but not bound quite as solidly.

There’s also what I call the “London Fog Effect.” My Joey Votto jersey has the London Fog Effect too. I am really not a champagne taste kind of gal. I like nice restaurant now and then, but going out for dinner at Cracker Barrel is a fine treat to me. Kelly made me that beautiful Pandora-styled bracelet and I love it. I love looking at Pandora, but if I’m buying beads and a bracelet, Pugster is a lot less expensive and I have no gnawing desire for an actual Pandora. (Although I often still use Pandora wallpapers on my computer) But London Fog was one of those things for me. I had a few okay raincoats over the years, but in the back of my mind I wanted a nice real London For dress raincoat for work/interviews. When Mom and I saw a London Fog tent sale at an outlet mall we went to, we stopped to look and there was a beautiful taupe double-breasted trench with a button-in lining for winter. It was my size and Mom told me to try it on just to see how it looked. It looked great, it felt luxurious! Tent-sale prices, Mom is the one who told me it looked good and very professional and I ought to have it. She made it a gift. That coat still makes me feel like a million bucks when I wear it.

The authentic Joey Votto jersey with his name and number and all of the official Reds accents has the same effect. You can just feel that it’s the real deal. So I wanted a Smash Book for the same reason. Yes, I bought into the branding. The pages are thicker than the ones in my books, more durable, especially for thicker or heavier items I put in it and the way it’s put together is sturdy, quality. Of course, it feels special with nothing in it. Time will tell if that feeling stays as I use it if it truly is in the class of my London Fog coat or Joey Votto jersey. I have a folder full of 2012 smashables to help me find out!


I’m going to take a fragments break to visit Hilary’s Friday Fill-in.

This week’s statements:
1. I put ___ on a hot dog
2. when it___ I ____
3. If my house____then I would be able to___
4. If I was getting married tomorrow I would _______________ differently so we could ________________differently now.


My Answers:

1. I put mustard and nothing but mustard on a hot dog unless I’m having a Coney, then it’s chili with onions and mustard. I usually add yellow mustard when I have chili to enjoy it as a “dogless Coney” too.

2. When it snows I am happy to stay indoors with a big mug of mocha.

3. If my house was self-cleaning then I would be able to get more accomplished in a day!

4. If I was getting married tomorrow I would approach the photos differently so we could enjoy the scrapped pages differently now. My only regret is that I didn’t go a professional photographer or at least a dedicated photographer with a list of shots to get for our reception weekend. I would have loved to have 2-shots or 3-shots with each of our guests and a few of the balloon release we did. I would not have done anything else differently. :)


*  Windows 8 is Windows moving toward the smart phone, tablet and computer all working the same. There are touch-screen laptops out now and Windows 8 really is made for those! There are things I really like about it and one thing I really hate. I can’t stand the fact that if I move a window too close to the edge it instantly becomes full screen. I also don’t like the way windows will snap to either side for 2-window viewing that fills the screen. I know that’s supposed to be a “cool” new feature, but I’ve always used three to five windows open, sized and spaced so I would see the contents of all of them to select elements for scrapbook pages. That takes having windows in the corners, but if I get them too close, snap they go and I have a full screen of one of them instead of five. It messes with my organization. I’m slowly getting used to it, not dragging things too close to the edge and when I do, I curse under my breath and pull it away to snap it back to where I wanted it. That’s a pain, but for the most part, Windows 8 is pretty user-friendly.

David will give you quite a different opinion!


*  I have been too lax on tweeting and scrapbook gallery commenting! That’s a project I’m going to work on! I find I use Twitter a lot more during baseball season because a lot of my tweeps are fellow Reds or Tigers fans and I follow a lot of baseball players, who also tweet less in the off season. We’ll see if I get to tweeting more.

I know I‘ll be sure to be leaving more gallery comments at Ginger Scraps because I was invited to join the praise team there, essentially the cheerleaders who make sure every layout gets some love. There are perks in the form of scrapbook kits for meeting comment goals. Yeah, that sounds like copping out and using the freebies to encourage myself to do the polite thing I wanted to do anyway, but it does mean I’ll be commenting even more than the minimum I’d set for myself, so I consider it a win-win.


*  Finally, I’d like to take some suggestions for Friday memes. I kinda like doing three smaller memes but sometimes I can’t really answer the 5 Question Friday questions in any serious way because the questions assume I am a mom. And I am a cat-mom and was sort of a fill-in mom when my nieces were growing up, buy I really can’t answer questions about being with human kids every day, so I’d like to do one or two others too and choose the ones that have the questions I’m best capable in answering on any given Friday. Does anyone host a trains meme?? :) Just if you have a suggestion, I’d love a link!


And so I’m ready to post on this day after Thanksgiving. In the Nani-David household It’s not Black Friday, but dark gray Friday for sure; lots of serious wind and some rain. I’m glad to just be inside blogging, smashing and scrapbooking…oh, and I guess a little laundry too.

Monday (Night) Quiz About Me

Nah, I didn’t take me all day to answer questions about me. I stared the day at 5:30 this morning. I finished the book I was reading on the Kindle and had a couple cookies before I left for the hospital. I scheduled the brain MRI early so I could do my running earlier in the day when I have more energy. I’m not usually dragging at the end of the day, but I am stronger in the morning.

I meditate when I’m in the MRI. What can you really do for a half hour to an hour in a tube with your head braced in a cage and you aren’t allowed to move? The earplugs and padding around the head brace make it loud but not painful to the ears loud and eventually I can tune it out and it’s actually pretty peaceful. I doze off a little and it’s very relaxing. Yes, I’m weird that way, but it’s a nice way to kick off the day. Then while I was waiting for my copies of the images on CD, I had a latte and a banana nut muffin at Caffeini’s, the hospital’s coffee shop that’s right outside of radiology, where they do the MRIs.

Aside from going to the hospital to relax and spoil myself, which qualifies me for jumped the optimism shark, it ended up being a pretty long morning with some glitches with the CD burner that had to be fixed and started over. That’s why this is a late-night quiz!

 This week’s Questions:

1. Finish this sentence - The best thing about this past weekend was...


Purchases! I had some finances free up so I could get my medical copays caught up. I also got a couple of Nani treats. This bracelet:

Bracelet from Mecical ID Marketplace

If medical ID bracelets looked this good when I was first diagnosed as allergic to penicillin I would have always worn one like the doctor advised. Ah, but I was a teenager and well, bracelet… Why wear it if it doesn’t look pretty?? This one identifies my allergies and medical condition and it looks so good!

I also made my decision on the e-reader and ordered my Nook. I have software that changes the Kindle books to epub books so they’ll work in my Nook. Can’t wait to try it out!



2. When company drops by unexpectedly what do you serve?

Glendale Garden Café. But I really don’t do drop-bys. Call first. I don’t feel obligated to answer the door if I don’t feel like it.



3. How old were you when you got your first cell phone?

I was 17. My Dad bought it for me for Christmas. Actually, he wanted me to have it and my Mom did the shopping. It wasn’t called a cell phone then, it was a car phone. A big box of a thing that plugged in to the lighter. My friends didn’t have the number because it was for outgoing calls. It was an arm, a leg and the obedience school tuition for every cat I’d ever own to actually make a call on it, but Pop slept better knowing it was in my car just in case!

Christmas when I was 17 was 1983!



4. Where do you blog?

 I blog sitting at the dining room table on my laptop.



And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!

We all now know that I go get an MRI to relax. Where do you go to get away for a little bit and just relax?

Truthfully, I like to go to Starbucks or Cracker Barrel with a good book. I used to go to the park and walk.

Friday Fun

Follow Friday Four Fill-In Fun










This week’s statements:
1. I never ___ when I ___
2. I used to __but I stopped
3. My favorite picture of all time is of _______________
4. When it gets dark I think about _______________

My Answers:

1. I never have music on when I write.

2. I used to chew my nails all through high school but I stopped. Now I just break them with the wheelchair! :P

3. My favorite picture of all time is of Tori and Rina in Holland in 2000. This was their classic photo that was framed in every family member’s house.

4. When it gets dark I think about lights.



5 Question Friday




(I’m answering the parent questions from when Tori and Rina stayed with me when they were little)

1. Do you make your kids finish all the food on their plates?

When the girls were really little, I remember having to
barter to get them to finish the meat, especially Tori, which is strange enough because Rina is the one who was a vegetarian for a few years. When they were about 6, I started having them help put together the menu for lunch and dinner, making the right balanced choices. They picked out the veggies and starch to go with the meat we all agreed on. They also picked out dessert. TQM for kids – when they were helping make the decisions, it wasn’t so hard to get them to eat anymore.


2. Do you give an allowance?

When we traveled or went to an event or something that had a gift shop, they had an allowance for souvenirs. We often were doing a planned activity when they were with me, so they didn’t have a weekly allowance per se. When we went to The Big Pig Gig, fiberglass pigs street art in Cincinnati when they were 6, I made them their allowance in “pig dollars,” which they paid for their things with. Shop owners had no trouble accepting their pig dollars and selling them back to me at the souvenir shops. That was unexpected, but cool. I had planned that the girls would give me the pig dollars and I’d make the purchase, but they wanted to make their own purchases. The people in the stores were mostly quite awesome!


3. Do you actually park your car in the garage?

Right now the Camaro is in the garage and the 2 cars that go places are in the driveway. I'm going to get it ready to sell in the next few weeks. Once it’s sold, I don’t now who’ll be in the garage, except that is I’m still not working, it’ll be David in the winter. 

4. What is one food you will NEVER cook?

If I was single it would be lima beans, but David likes them so I’ll boil frozen mixed veggies for him with lima beans in them, but I won’t eat them.


5. Do you have anything exciting planned for the summer?

Well, baseball and more of the Heritage Units! (And anything else, I’ll tell you about when we get back!



Friday Fragments

***  Heather at Acting Balanced posted pictures her young son had taken last Sunday and it made me smile remembering photos Rina and Tori had taken some 14 or so years ago.

When my nieces were about 4, I gave them disposable cameras at the Renaissance Festival. I got them developed and I was worried because they were so excited to see their pictures and I had looked at them, photos of people’s legs and the counters, backs of people’s heads. I was worried they’d be disappointed. Was I wrong! They shared each others pictures and identified every show that was going on behind the back of someone’s head and remembered what was being sold at the booth above every wooden wall and identified every one of us by our pants!

It was amazing through a child’s eyes; imperfect photos were still perfect memories.

***  Depending on when you read this, David and I might be out chasing the Norfolk Southern Lehigh Valley Heritage unit! NS is painting 19 engines to celebrate the original railroads that eventually became the majority of the NS system. Lehigh Valley was the 8th one out of the shop. 9 Heritage Unties have been completed so far.

We chased the Pennsylvania Railroad tribute engine Sunday. It was cold, windy and cloudy, but the engine was all the shine that was needed!

Okay, I didn’t go out with David on Monday when he got sun and Mike, who started the day with us Sunday, went back out in the afternoon and got it in sun, but I don’t NEED a sunny shot. (And the grapes are out of season right now so OF COURSE they’re sour)

***  Mr. Celery has been doing well! Here he is after another week:

I got a jar of salsa that’s just staring him down waiting for a dip!

Monday Again?

Credit: Some Like It Hot by Connie Prince

It’s my Sunday, y’all’s Monday. Hmm…Not even close to any semblance of grammatically correct. What spills out of my fingers on the keyboard… hehe

A little bit of silly is always a nice thing to start any day with, especially Monday, the start of the week which sets the tone for the whole week! Silly weeks are better than grumpy weeks!

I could so have a grumpy week too. It would be a transfer of extra grump from last week, but I’ve chosen to channel my grumpy into creative endeavors. Have you noticed the coffee clusters to start recent posts? If I start the day without my Keurig Maker, I cluster coffee! Remember in the Friday Fragments I’d mentioned that David hadn’t moved it back yet. I’m not clustering coffee because I’m going through withdrawal from coffee. I cluster coffee because I have lots of excess energy now! LOL

David’s not in the dog house and I‘m not really that jittery, but I have been on a kick to improve my scrapbook clustering and I scrap coffee a lot because to me coffee is a social experience, not just a drink. So how is my clustering coming along?



Monday Mug Shot

I started this morning with a St. Louis Mug and ended up writing about Atlanta. So I did a little organizing and asked myself a question I heard often in last year’s Cincinnati USA ad campaign; “But wait, how did we get here?” I will even mention Cincinnati in the 6-piece set of mugs that explain how the Olympic Games eventually brought me to be threatened with being kicked out of Missouri! I’d follow me if you didn’t want to miss any of the pieces!

Bid Logo

Atlanta 96 Olympic Committee

This was the “bid logo” for Atlanta when they were hoping to become the host city for the 1996 Olympic Games. Atlanta was announced as the host city in 1990 and almost as soon as it was announced there was merchandising everywhere! Since I was totally in the thralls of plans to move to Atlanta at the time, I think I was almost as giddy as a local, except that I didn’t become jaded by the time The Games started because I was indeed NOT a local yet.

I was planning on adopting the Braves as my new home team, so I stopped to buy some essentials from home at The Braves Clubhouse Store when I was at CNN Center. It was at a Kiosk near the Braves Clubhouse store where I first saw this logo on my solo trip in 1990. I really had hoped to come home with a job and move after that trip and the thought of Atlanta getting the Olympics was really exciting. I was only 24 and had taken part time college courses and had a very small adverting consulting business. Looking back, I had young and sometimes unrealistic expectations at the time. When I saw a full Olympics kiosk at Underground Atlanta, and there was a mug, it was time to make a purchase!! It was my hope for something big for my future home!


Be sure to come back next week for the second mug in this set of Mug Shots!

1. Finish this sentence - I am glad it's Monday because...

Well, I really don’t have much in the way of a Monday anymore, at least right now. I’m not working, well except in the house, right now, so my week is David’s week. I sort of have a quiet Saturday, followed by Saturday, the one everyone call’s Sunday, and then today, Smunday. Tomorrow feels like a Tuesday, so I kinda live without a Monday right now.

But in the actual world of Mondays, I like them because it’s the start of the week and errands I have to do can be done during normal hours instead of everyplace opening late and/or closing early like they do on the weekend. Ever try to stop someplace for dinner in the summer after sundown on a Sunday? Ugh!


2. Where did you spend your last vacation?

Our last vacation was in upstate New York being bullied by the hurricane as to which way we could go. It was still a cool vacation, just not in all the places we’d planned.


3. Who is your favorite author?

Easy one! Alan Jacobson. Ever since I read The Seventh Victim as a free Kindle download, I’ve been hooked. Free e-reads are a great place to discover new authors! I’ve purchased the rest of the books I’ve read by him and I have one more on my wish list at Amazon!


4. What other Memes do you participate in during the week?

I do the Wednesday Hodge Podge at From This of the Pond and on Fridays I do the Friday Follow Four Fill-In Fun from Feeling Beachie, Five Question Friday from My Little Life and Friday Fragments with Half Past Kissin' Time

I also do, in less crazy weeks, Tell Me Tuesdays and Vintage Thingie Thursday with Coloradolady  and Barn Charm at Bluff Area Daily when I have an interesting new barn photo.



And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!

5. What do you enjoy more in blogs you read; lots of pictures, interesting stories, lots of pictures with captions telling the pictures story or interesting stories with some pictures to support the story?

Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz

It’s been a slow week in Naniland. Yes, allergies are slowing me down a little. The trees pollenate within a couple of weeks, so I really only have to deal with it for a little while and like I’ve said before, they don’t hit me nearly as bad as they do some people, for that, I’m grateful. Still I have to reprimand myself often for acting like a baby for a couple of weeks in the spring. Breathing is more difficult, but I can still breathe. I can even still smell! Really a couple days without coffee is harder on me than allergies.

Allergies and the general more planning for things to go on soon than anything going on now has kept me from blogging as much this week. But I am here full-on for Friday Memeing!









1. Groceries are high right now what is easiest way you have found to cut back?

Groceries and gasoline are two places where I don’t cut back.

Living an hour away from the closest member of my family to whom I’m not married, I may plan a visit where I see a few people instead of just one and we try to fit a baseball game and some trains in when we go to Cleveland for medical visits, but no matter what the price per gallon, you have to suck it up.

Same thing with groceries. We could spend less buying cheaper food, canned instead of fresh vegetables, fattier meats, ramen noodles instead of whole grains, but the money saved would disintegrate quickly when we're both on more prescriptions because of what we’ve done to ourselves with the poor food choices.

I make my economical cuts in other areas. I have cut out a couple of the vitamins the doctors suggested because while the prescriptions have a relatively small copay, the price on OTC vitamins is outrageous. My 2010 scrapbooks are ready to print, have been for over a year, but they are still just digital files. I’ve needed new bras since last summer and haven’t bought them. (I’m 46, handicapped and married; no one should really care if I could look “perkier.”)




2. What are the top 3 things on your "bucket list"?

Well, number one is Immortality, so that gives me time to think of other things. I think the term “bucket list” is morbid and I refuse to put that expiration label on myself.


3. Would you rather give up AC or heat?

This one’s easy! Sorry David, they can completely disassemble and take away the air conditioner, just don’t take my heat! I am always cold in the house. In the winter it’s the draftiness in places of an old house, my feet get so cold! In the summer, it’s just that David and I have a real different opinion of a comfortable temperature! I always have socks and slippers with a sweater in the house. I’ll go outside for a couple of minutes to warm up. I find stores, grocery to dollar, to be too cold in the summer too.

I’m really only comfortable at home in the late spring and early fall.



4. What's your favorite cocktail??

I love Mai Tais! I usually order Kahlua and Cream in a restaurant if I have a cocktail because restaurants that have Mai Tais are less common, but if a Mai Tai is available, that’s my choice. A while back I found a sugar free, with Splenda, Mai Tai mix at Meijer. It was kinda pricey, but I wanted to try it for a treat. It was definitely a treat. I drank it alcohol-free, just me, and the 32-ounce bottle lasted 2 days. Good thing I didn’t add the rum, huh?


5. What was your first job & how old were you?

I was 16. My Dad was going to buy me a car once I found a job because while he would pay for the car and insurance, gas and maintenance were up to me and he wouldn’t buy me a car I couldn’t drive.

Pop was also responsible for the lead that got me that first job, at the Italian bakery-deli he frequented! That was my part-time job until I was 18. When I started my advertising consulting business just after high school, Maria, the owner, was my first client. I also still worked there as a deli clerk and supervisor on Sundays for another year.










This week's statements:
1. I always forget___
2. I never __without___
3. Recently I started to _____, and it has helped tremendously!
4. If I had to find a date, the last place I would look for one is _______.


1. I always forget to take pills in the middle of the day. I have one that I have to take as close to 12 hours apart twice a day and an antibiotic I’m taking twice a day right now. I have alarms set on my phone to remind me to take them. I’m pretty good with the morning and bedtime pills I have in a pill-sorter in the bathroom, but the ones in the middle of the day will sit untaken without my alarms!

2. I never pull the door closed when I’m leaving without having my house key in my hand so I'm SURE I have it. I think I was locked out of the house after school too many times before I was driving. We had great neighbors that let us stay at their house until Mom got home from work, but it was still embarrassing.

3. Recently I started to buy the 100-calorie pack almonds and it has helped tremendously! It’s a day’s worth of healthy fats, all nice and portion-controlled!

4. If I had to find a date, the last place I would look for one is anyplace my husband would find out.   :) I’m a married-lady. I have a built-in date for any reason I need a date.

***  Look at Mr. Celery!

I decided that it was okay to name him after my favorite Wilmington Blue Rocks mascot since the celery is a phoenix; after you pick it, cut off the bottom and it grows back, which is totally cool. I’d call him Fawkes, after Dumbledore’s phoenix, but since he’s celery, he got the name Mr. Celery. He’s growing faster than a kitten!

Because I’m looking at Mr. Celery as a phoenix, I’ll also NOT be looking for a t-shirt when the next incarnation of this celery starts to grow that says “Ask me about my grand-plant!”


***  After a few blissful months of no doctor visits, I feel like I’m touring medical facilities again. –sigh—

Next month, I return to Cleveland Clinic for my post starting Gilenya check-up. They have all the tests I did in March and haven’t called to ask me to come in sooner, so I feel like those turned out okay. But, they’ll probably have me get another MRI.

Two days later, I get my baby-spider-ectomy. It’s just a cyst, but it needs to be removed. It’s minor out-patient surgery, but I have to stop taking Ibuprofen for a week before. That is the scary part to me! My doc is impressed that as messed up as my back is, all I take for it is ibuprofen. I’m worried about what the pain will be like for a week without it. I’m planning on using the walker and going in on my own for the surgery and I’d like it not to be painful just getting there!.


***  I’m at a stopping point in the White Tornado this week. I need some boxes and heavier things moved before I can continue upstairs and David and I are finishing up a big editing project this week, so I have sort of a vacation. I think he’s trying to uber-caffinate me as part of the vacation. He moved the Keurig maker the other night and won’t put it back!

I can’t lift it to do it myself, so I moved the lighter regular maker in. Now I’ve gone from 2 cups to 5 a day! Bigger pot and if you only make a couple of cups, it takes pretty much the same amount of grounds, so it’s a waste to make that little. I’d kinda forgotten how good a mild coffee buzz feels!


Going for a refill now. Everyone have a great weekend!  :)

Happy Monday!

Yes, I know that for many, Monday and Happy do not and should never appear in the same sentence. But I’ve always liked Mondays; the clean slate and fresh beginning to the week. For this particular Monday, you can’t get cleaner than rain washing everything or fresher than the gale winds purifying the air!

Okay, I exaggerate the weather a little It’s not raining right now, there’s even some sun coming through the clouds and it’s windy, but the windows aren’t trembling, but I do need to make my own sunshine today and with my allergies acting up, I need the exaggeration!

We celebrated Orthodox Easter this year. That is we did Easter Dinner with Pop and Aunt Judy the week after Easter Sunday, which happened to be Orthodox Easter Sunday. I “helped” by making the cream cheese stuffed celery. I’m the only one that eats it. That celery really never had a chance to make it to the table. The stuffed celery has been a holiday favorite of mine as long as I can remember. It’s going to be my mincemeat pie. Every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas Mom bought mincemeat pies. Mums was the only one who liked them, but Mom always made sure there was a mincemeat pie so she could have some. When I’m 80 years old, there will be a plate of cream cheese stuffed celery for me that no one else eats. Except that if I start being in the same place as Rina for Thanksgiving again at some time in the future, she eats the stuffed celery.

What I don’t do is Deviled Eggs. I’ll eat cake with him, but Lucifer needs to share his eggs with someone else! Ah, but yesterday, Pop tried a new recipe instead of the traditional deviled eggs. The recipe included spinach dip with the yolks and it was a savory filling rather than the usual sweeter filling that I don’t care for. Wow! It was good! We also had tasty ham that wasn’t Honey Baked and vinaigrette-based potato salad. Totally tasty unorthodox Easter fare on Orthodox Easter!

Continued as the Mug Shot begins…

Monday Mug Shot

 

The Jell-O Gallery

LeRoy New York

We sat at the table over and after Easter dessert and talked, reminisced a bit. The topic of discussion was the upcoming summer vacation plans and the things we all enjoy on vacation. Pop talked about the stop we made in Sutton, West Virginia some 10 years or so ago. Sutton is a small town, but it’s no accident that we were there, it was a planned visit. My great-grandfather’s last name was Sutton and out family roots trace back to the Original Suttons who founded the Braxton County Seat!

That was a fun trip. That trip was also part of Pop’s big reason that he really didn’t have any desire to see more of Europe. Occasionally visiting family in San Marino, about once a decade, is fine for him because he prefers staying in his “home country.” “There is so much of America I have to see.” He loves the small towns and little tributes and museums to the local heroes. As much as he griped about a dry county, he enjoyed seeing the first Kentucky Fried Chicken in Corbin and the Harlan Sanders museum. Travel by car and stop often is his idea of an ideal vacation. I’m very much the same way. Although David prefers to rush after trains by day, on the less favorable for photos days, he enjoys most of my choices for the kitschy small town attractions.

On our end of summer vacation last year, the one where the weather was insane and Hurricane Irene dictated how much time we spent in Western New York and Canada instead of further east, we visited a few small towns, wineries and the Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. The Skylon is a pretty major attraction. I totally loved our stop at the Jell-O Gallery in LeRoy, New York. LeRoy is the birthplace of Jell-O! The gallery is not large in size but it’s huge in information and things to see.

We learned about the first Jell-O dessert idea and how it failed in the American market, even in the local market. The product idea and company changed hands several times and Jell-O’s success finally started when it became popular as a dessert at formal dinners. Can you imagine being served a bowl of Jell-O after a formal dinner today? Of course there was a time that sorbet was only something they served between courses of a fine dinner too, but Jell-O, that stuff we had as kids and was in cafeterias and hospitals got its real marketable start as an upper class food! The tour of the gallery is guided with just tons of facts I never knew.

And the visuals! We saw antique packaging and advertising (don’t think I wasn’t in HEAVEN!) and a roster of flavors that did or didn’t work. Coffee Jell-O did work for while in limited markets. But honestly, I like Jell-O, love my coffee, but I don’t find the idea of mixing the two so appealing in 2012. Even so, I admit a certain mild intrigue with the modern recipes for it.

At the end of our tour, which begins and ends in the gift shop, I was so tempted to buy some of the antique Jell-O molds! But for my souvenirs, I got a t-shirt, Lime Jell-O earrings and my mug.



And now for Monday Meme time! After some thought about what time I have available, I decided I really can’t do both the old and new Monday question memes. Having given some serious consideration, I’ve decided to stick with the Monday meme at Acting Balanced, the new and improved Monday questions, my words, not Heather’s.

1. Finish this sentence - I dream of....

An empty beach and one of these:

Beach Wheelchair

Isn’t that cool? If I’d have been a generation older and diagnosed with MS, I’d be living in a nursing home with David visiting me once a week. Now I can dream about beaches!



2. If you could choose your last meal, what would it be?

Chocolate, a huge plate of cake-cookie-ice-cream with hot fudge and chocolate chunks with Godiva Raspberry cordials for dessert.

Why do I know this is my last meal? (If I’m on Death Row, I probably don’t deserve chocolate!)



3. What was your favorite toy as a child?

I loved my Drowsy Doll! I took her everywhere with me!

I think this is where the love of polka dots started for me!



4. What color looks best on you?

Golly, I hope it’s green. I would say that’s the prevailing color in my non-baseball wardrobe. It does make my green eyes glowy!



And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!


On the subject of my polka dot roots, I have lots of dots, my Kindle cover is polka dots, I have many notebooks with polka dot covers, I have to make sure I don’t overdo the dots on my scrapbook pages, I have a scrapbook supplies file called “dots!”

Maybe you have a favorite pattern too. Lots of stripes in your wardrobe? Are all of your throw-pillows floral? Can you not resist Christmas plaid giftwrap? Maybe you like dots, like me… What’s your favorite pattern?

Happy Cat-Holiday!

Everycat is a Black Cat on Friday the 13th!

And now for some lunchtime meme fun!


Five Question Friday

 1. Who mows your grass?

Cat TV summer star, Lawnmower Man!

Template and kit by Beckie Wallace Designs (retired)

2. Do you have a picture wall or picture gallery in your house (show us! <--- my addition to the question)?

No. We have a few pictures here and there, but no gallery per se. I want to put up a pair of pictures I have framed of both sets of my grandparents in the 40s and my parent’s wedding picture that I want to put up by the French Doors in our dining room, but not until we’ve selected similar heritage photos of David’s family.



3. What book has influenced your thinking the most? Or, what blog? (I want to read what gets people thinking!)

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey



4. Do you have allergies? If so, how do you handle it this time of year?

I have allergies, mostly to tree pollen but compared to the way I’ve seen other suffer, mine are too mild to be too concerned. When I get really stuffy and burning eyes, I take Benadryl and I’m okay.




5. What's your go to meal to cook in a hurry?

If I’m alone, ham steak, but David’s not as insane about ham as I am. (I could eat ham in one of my meals every day!) When we’re both home for dinner shake-n-bake chicken breasts.



Follow Friday Four Fill-in Fun

This week’s statements:


1. When I am __ I always ___

2. ___ is my __ of ___

3. The ______ the ____

4. If only I _______ then ______ and everyone would be _______.


1. When I am baking I always hum or sing. Baking makes me happy.

2. Writing in my personal journal is my way of channeling negativity away.

3. The more copays I have the more I wish we had at least partial socialized medicine.

4. If only I could put trains tracks running by every ballpark. Then we could get there an hour before game time and David could photograph trains right up until the first pitch and everyone (us) would be happy and satisfied!


Friday Fragments

***  Bananas remind me of grade school. I know there has always been comforting feeling that goes with the smell of a ripe banana, but it hit me this morning where that feeling comes from. Mom used to pack bananas as our fruit with lunch in grade school and the pungent scent of a ripe banana stayed in the lunch box a few days even when lunch didn’t have a banana in it. So the smell of ripe bananas gives me the comfort of those days when Mom made our lunches for school.

***  I just finished Deadwood by Dani Amore. It’s the second of her books I’ve read and I’m really glad I read it. I wasn’t overly impressed with Killing League and Deadwood had a start that was unquestionably the same author, but where Killing League was many different killers in competition, Deadwood was many possibilities and some twists. Much better book! Death By Sarcasm will be the next of her books I read – I just like the title!

***  I’m so happy with the Tigers being on pace to go 161-1 this year! :D I’m troubled by the start of the Reds season. On paper they should be offensively really performing. And in MY script, the Cardinals are as much hype as talent this year and the Reds should be able to easily beat them. Gotta break through the psychological wall.


I'll be surfing and commenting this evening and tomorrow morning!

A New(ish) Meme

Okay, I’ll be honest here. As I’ve said before, with me as a Donna Reed-type, the house lives according to David’s schedule, which means our weekend is Sunday-Monday. So, today is a typical Sunday. It’s a cloudy Sunday after a cheerfully sunny Saturday. That means we were out photographing trains until late last night. Today, since there are clouds, David is home and working on getting to know the nuances of his new digi-toys. That means that the Monday Mug Shot I was planning to do this morning has been delayed.

We had to do some customer service communicating, a chat and a phone call, to get the licensing straight for his copy of Photoshop. I got the licensing for 2 computers. I discovered that since a copy of Photoshop was made in my backup on my extended hard drive, their files show it as 2 HDs - 2 copies! The rep I spoke with fixed that so I can have 2 used copies and an unused copy in my backup.

Then I had to show David how to use the Bridge to view his pictures he shot in RAW, because none of the basic Windows applications will show them. I’m still so thrilled that my Honey has joined the digital age that I’ll put the Mug Shot on a delayed schedule to help out! Once he got comfy with the Photoshop Bridge he was happily organizing photos from yesterday and I got to slip away for a shower! ;)

So, a flip, again. I usually like to do my own regular feature first and then join my Monday meme, but…

There are some Monday meme changes again. The original host of Meet Me On Monday, Java, has returned from her blogging hiatus and will resume MMOM next week. That means that Heather at Acting Balanced has changed her format a little and the meme has become the Monday Quiz About Me. The format is similar to MMOM, but instead of 5 questions there are four with the suggestion of you adding the fifth question as one you ask your blog readers to encourage a comment that’s more than, “nice answers.” I love that idea because sometimes answers that I read on other people’s blogs in a meme are similar to my own and I really have nothing to add. Sometimes they are so different my initial thoughts might be offensive, and I don’t feel I have any right to leave an offensive remark in someone else’s blog. That would be like lighting up a cigarette in a non-smoker’s home. If it’s never occurred to you how someone would react to that, my own father borrowed my car once and smoked a cigarette in it. He hasn’t borrowed a car from me since! Asking a question and inviting readers to give a thought keeps that awkward, “what do I say?” out of being friendly and leaving a comment.

And now I’d like to introduce you to the new Monday meme!

This Week’s Questions:

1. Which three words would describe you best?

Well, I did this layout with 5 words last month:

Credits: Moments In The Sun by Connie Prince

The top three would obviously be in that list since those are the top 5, right? First off, without a doubt, optimistic. I think optimism is the most valuable character trait I have for me and to share. I think numbers 2 & would be resourceful and smart. I think resourceful works better if you’re smart too. LOL


2. Describe your favorite place in the whole world.

A Minor League Baseball park. Fenway and Wrigley fields are the only Major League parks that fit with Minor League parks and even the newer Minor League parks do fit. Those 2 ML parks and the MiL parks have the ambiance that catches the romance of baseball. It’s the essence of a warm summer afternoon, happy families, a friendly, casual atmosphere and a classic American game surrounded by more love for the game than money. And yes, I prefer day games. (but that’s never stopped me from going to a night game!)


3. Sunsets, Sunrises or Full Moons?

All are nice, but nothing compares to watching the sun rise, especially over a body of water!


4. If you were to get reincarnated what or who would you want to come back as?

In my next life I want to be a doctor. No, it’s not because of all the money I’ve been paying doctors. It’s because I’ve met some wonderful doctors who are really involved in fighting my disease and making life better for everyone dealing with it. I’d love to have the mental and tangible resources to give like that.

But I don’t want to be a doctor NOW. I want to be born to not be squeamish and then be a doctor!




And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!

And now my question for you, and feel free to share in comments even if you aren’t part of the Monday Quiz About Me.

What is your fondest memory of your first pet?

Leave a comment and tell me about your kitty or pooch or gerbil or rock. Then for more interesting people and interesting questions for you, check out the NEW Monday Quiz About Me at Acting Balanced!

My Friday Fix

Almond Easter M&Ms!

I love doing the memes I do where there are questions to answer. It’s sort of a chance to “lazy blog.” The questions are your topics and you blog from there. It appeals to my Leo personality; all of the me and half the work! I’ve been on the questioning part before and I know how much easier it is to answer than come up with the questions, so I really do appreciate Heather , Suzanne, Joyce , Hilary and Mama M for coming up with the questions and Mrs. 4444 for giving the forum to share the little fragments that are left at the end of the week.

Let’s get this Friday started with some Fill-Ins!





Every Friday Hilary at Feeling Beachie gives us 4 statements to complete. I love seeing how others answer the same statements. Sometimes the answers are similar to mine and sometimes we all interpret the statements so differently!

Here are this week’s statements:


1. I loved ____as a kid and still do.
2. I drive____
3. I am currently reading _______________
4. I wish I could instantly have a body just like ____________

And here are my answers:

1. I loved bubbles as a kid and still do. Heck my screen saver is bubbles. We had bubbles at our wedding reception and I was known to sit outside at lunch and blow bubbles at a former job.

2. I drive as little as possible.

3. I am currently reading Dead Wood by Dani Amore

4. I wish I could instantly have a body just like anyone who doesn’t have MS. (Sorry it’s not a sexy answer, but it’s honest!)



Now… 5 Questions from Mama M






1. What giveaway would you like to do on your blog?

You mean a giveaway that’s not just for scrapbookers? I do those from time to time. And feel free to snag any of my freebies to use on you blogs too.

I guess if I had more resources I’d do an occasional giveaway, maybe an Amazon card or a bag of coffee. But I don’t have those kinds of resources!

2. If you had to choose between natural artistic ability and natural athletic ability, which would it be?

Easy! I think I have some natural artistic ability. If I’d had natural athletic ability I would likely emotionally be way different than I am now.


3. Do you ditch the coat the minute it becomes "spring" or are you a holdout for more cool temps?

I am in the house and wearing a sweater right now. I don’t let the calendar or even the thermometer tell me if I’m warm or cold. Given the choice I’d rather be too hot than too cold.




4. What would you do if you won the mega millions lotto of 1/2 billion dollars?

Pay off all our bills, buy our layout with a house over it with a cool coffee room with pegs for all of my mugs, pay for all 7 years of college for Tori and Rina, buy David a seat at The World Series of Poker, get my power chair and a new van to carry it in with hand controls, add a chunk to my investments and call Walt Jocketty and see what the Reds need to keep Joey Votto in Cincinnati until he retires.



5. You are at a hotel by yourself...what do you do?

Relax! I’ve been in hotels by myself when traveling a number of times and I’ll tell ya, it’s fantastic! There is no more perfect alone time. I’ve never lived alone, with the exception of the last year in Michigan when Pop was working on the other side of the state and he wasn’t home much. Still not the same as the whole space is mine. When I’ve spent the night alone in a hotel, all the space is mine. No one puts anything anywhere that is out of place to me. I can get a bag of microwave popcorn and a coffee and watch whatever movie I want or scrapbook or read. Maybe if I’d lived alone being alone in a hotel wouldn’t have always been such a liberating treat, but I always loved it.

But I will admit now, that with the mobility issues, I’d probably be a little less relaxed and a little nervous, maybe.


And now, it’s defrag time, hosted by Mrs. 4444!

*** I’m looking forward to a sponsor bonus! Miracle-Gro is sending me a small sample bag of the Expand ‘n Gro I wrote about on Sunday! I’ve been anxiously waiting for the mail every day since they told me I was getting the sample. It’s a two-way street. I’m sure to write about the success if what I plant in it grows well at no extra charge.

I’m planting celery! Suzanne at Coloradolady blogged about it last week and a commenter left a link for full details about re-growing celery.  It sounded so simple and like something I’d want to try. Well, when the next day I got the chance to write about the dirt that grows and found out I was getting a sample of it, I knew I was going to try the celery!

Monday at lunch, I cut the whole end off of my celery that I bought Sunday. I usually cut the ends off one rib at a time when I eat them. I put the end in a bowl with some water in it and there is a little growth in the center already! Look!

When the dirt gets here, I’ll plant it and I’ll keep you posted on the (hopeful) progress.


*** May 31 is the day that Tori and Rina will be celebrated for having made it through 12 years of grade school! Thursday is a lousy night for commencement ceremonies if you want out of town family there. I’m likely hitching a ride with Pop because I want to be there for their graduation. Yeah, it’s weird and don’t think it hasn’t made me wonder. I didn’t go to commencements for high school or college and don’t regret not going, but seeing the girls do it is a big deal to me. I think it’s a big deal to me because it’s a big deal to them. But, I don’t want to miss it.


*** The last couple of nights have been rough for my throat. I’m not sure if it’s spring allergies getting me or dust from the future woman cave right now. I take a Benadryl at night and I’m fine in the morning, but by late afternoon I’m sore throat and stuffy again. Bleh.


***  Less than a week until Opening Day!!!