Meet Me Monday Night

Been a busy day for me and I spent it lazy in my jammas! Well, Jeans and nightshirt. Only kinda looks like in my jammas. I’m wearing my wedding gown!

And I am a typical woman in any excuse to pull out

one of the pictures from our wedding reception...

I haven’t worn the hat and veil since the day of our reception, but I really wanted to buck the rules of the Wedding Industrial Complex and find a suitable shirt to go with David’s Tuxedo shirt for the day we celebrated with our friends and family that I could wear again and again. What better way than an oversized t-shirt that I can use as a nightshirt?

Yeah, I’m still rebellious against “the establishment.” I said before that I eloped and didn’t “walk” after high school diploma or college degree was earned. I value prize over pageantry. I got a cool nightshirt and bonus; an awesome husband too!


After David got the heavies out of the future woman cave yesterday, I was able to move things around a bit and better organize my sorting. I actually got another good bit taken out of sorting boxes. And I now have an interesting vintage find that I’m really debating if it’s something that would be a fun laugh Vintage Thingie for Thursday or if it would be too risqué. Remember my grandfather was a sailor in World War 2! I have a few days to think about it.

While you’re here, if you haven’t already and have a moment, check out today’s Monday Mug Shot. It was an interesting little chill that day in June 1994!


Now, let’s tackle those Monday questions!

1. What is on your bedside table?
2. Hardback, Paperback or E-Reader?
3. What is your 'go to' drink of choice?
4. How do you like to spend your birthday?
5. Finish this sentence - I would never be caught dead in ...


1. What is on your bedside table? Lots of stuff and not very organized right now. My bedside table is actually an assemble-it-yourself round accent table, so it’s kinda small and just a table top, no drawers. It’s going to be replaced with this:

 

 Having a couple of drawers will really help unclutter things! On top will be my cellphone which is my alarm clock, my Kindle or whatever book I’m reading at any given time a candle and the kitty cat soap dish Rina gave me for Christmas when she was in second grade which I use as a trinket dish.


2. Hardback, Paperback or E-Reader? Usually my Kindle. It’s the only way I’ve ever been able to read a book like everyone else, no dyslexia! I LOVE my Kindle!! But I’ve read and still read any good or important book in whatever format is available at the time. I read the first two Harry Potter books in paperback and the rest of the series in hardcover. I have the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in paperback and on my Kindle.


3. What is your 'go to' drink of choice? In the morning, I gotta have my coffee. I’m a water gal the rest of the day with occasionally a Ron and Frank’s hot chocolate or a specialty hot beverage of my own creation for an afternoon treat.


4. How do you like to spend your birthday? I celebrate my birthday as a festival that runs from 5:00 the Friday before my birthday until midnight the Sunday night after it. If my birthday is on a weekend, it’s Friday the weekend before until Sunday the weekend after, for a 2-week festival. During my festival, I try to spend time with as many of my friends and family as I can. Sometimes it’s dutch, sometimes someone pays my way, sometimes I pay theirs. It’s not about presents, but presence!



5. Finish this sentence - I would never be caught dead in ... a coffin on display. I’ve always found that to be a morbid part of funerals. When I’m gone, I’m not in that body, I’m on to something better. Put up lots of photos of me alive and happy and celebrate me. If I’m not smiling it won’t look like me anyway. And I want the money that’s not used for a fancy coffin and grave to go to a plaque at a playscape and upkeep for the playscape. When people come to “visit” me, I want them to be surrounded by the sounds of happy, laughing children.



Join us for Meet Me on Monday every Monday, courtesy of Heather at Acting Balanced

Monday Mug Shot- Belle of Louisville

Belle of Louisville

Louisville, Kentucky

Mom and I went to Louisville in June of 1994. We took my brand spanking new Camaro for the trip. There is something liberated and classic about two women traveling in the early summer in a hot red muscle car. Okay, Mom was happy to let me drive in my newer-than-hers car and she knew I was just silly with the thrill of my new baby. Yes, as much as I don’t like driving, it was different in that car. That car is still in our garage and, though I can’t drive it anymore, the last time I did drive it, last March, it was still fun to drive that car!

We drove through Indiana from Michigan to get to Kentucky this trip. It was a sunny Friday, the first day of our 4-day trip. As we crossed the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge on the I-65 into Kentucky Mom noticed a train on the train bridge next to it and mentioned it to me. I looked over quickly and acknowledged the train but didn’t get a good look since I was driving. Mom was not a train nut like me, but she used to love to watch the trains going over the Ohio River whenever we visited Cincinnati. She just thought a train floating over the water was cool. I had no problems sitting with her watching the trains cross the river because, well, they were trains! So she made mention of the train because it was definitely something we might enjoy finding a place to watch for more trains with a picnic style lunch after the boat ride.

When we got into Louisville, around noon, we parked in one of the downtown lots by the river. We had planned to ride on the sightseeing cruise on the Belle of Louisville riverboat when we first got into town since it was early to check in to the hotel. It was easy to find the boat landing because from the time we got off the interstate you could hear the calliope melodies echoing on the street by the riverfront. We went in to the office and got our tickets, then boarded the boat. The nice thing about cruising on a Friday is that it’s not as crowded as it is on the weekend and even after getting in to town just in time to get our tickets and board, there were still seats and rail space in the front of the boat.

The sightseeing tour was guided by a gentleman who used a microphone to be heard on all sides of the boat, but announced from the area where we were. He pointed out sights and gave some historical information about the boat, riverboats, the city of Louisville and Jeffersonville, Indiana on the other side of the river. By the way, Jeffersonville is where Louisville Slugger bats are actually produced now. They are packaged and shipped in Louisville.

As we approached the Big Four railroad bridge that runs parallel to the freeway Mom and I were looking to see if there was a park for lunch nearby where we could watch the bridge. Our tour guide asked over the speaker how many people had just come in to town. There was a decent number of people who acknowledged that they had, us included. There was a good number who also nodded when he asked if we came in on the interstate form Indiana. Then he asked how many of us saw the train today. Mom and I both had as well as about a dozen others in the area where we were in front of the boat. Then he asked, “Do you believe in ghosts? Because y’all just saw one.”

Then we cleared an area of trees on the Kentucky side of the river and this is what we saw:

The Big Four Bridge, named for the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St, Louis Railway, known as “The Big Four Railroad,” closed in 1969. It had become known as “The Bridge to Nowhere.” There was no way a train had crossed the bridge that day or any day for quite a while before then. The collective gasp was quite audible and there was lots of chatter afterwards. Was it an optical illusion, powerful suggestion or was there really a ghost train?

Me being haunted by a train makes sense, but my Mom, the boat nut? It would make more sense if she’d been haunted by a boat! Well, it was on a boat, that we learned the punch line of our supernatural joke!

It was a fun long weekend in Kentucky, but there was no more haunting!


** No more haunting – the Big Four Railroad bridge is being converted to a walking and bike trail between Louisville and Jeffersonville and the eerie sheer drops have been replaced with entrance ramps from street level.

Links

Belle of Louisville

Big Four Railroad Bridge

Sunday Sharing

We’re on break from the White Tornado now. David is helping me with some of the liftables that are more than I can handle and the David-specific stuff that I refuse to be the one who decides if it goes or stays. That and I want us both to know where his stuff goes!

David was at what I lovingly call a “grownups play date” yesterday, a model train operating session at a friend’s in Michigan, so he was gone all day. That gave me nothing but uninterrupted scrap time! I got the last three pages done for the major project I’ve been working on for over four years. Now starts the proofreading. That’s a David thing. He’s the pro and I’m, especially bad at seeing my own typos because I know what I meant to say and often, that’s what I see. Plus, I like having a second pair of eyes check out the layouts before I get them printed. Once the printing is done, it’s done. It’s just too expensive to do it twice. If David asks why I laid something out the way I did, or tells me it looks cluttered or not balanced, I can make adjustments. Still, editing is most to proofread my typos!

Part of scrapbooking, for me anyway, is that I often create templates of special elements in separate files to use in my layouts. Those separate file often end up being freebies. Since the project is a gift, I can’t show the page just yet, but I can show and share a word art I did for one of the pages.  This is a special book to me and sharing little pieces of my creative heart only make the whole project more special.  I’d like to share this word art with fellow digiscrappers and anyone who might enjoy the sentiment to enhance a photo or add to their blog!

Click preview to download at 4-Shared.


We had brunch around 11:30, so in lieu of lunch, for our afternoon break we had cake! I was inspired by a blog I read yesterday morning. I don’t really remember how I got there, but I think I followed links from Pinterest. Of all things, recipes are the greatest thing I get out of Pinterest. Well, that and an organized place I can keep my White Tornado links, but I have been inspired by so many wonderful recipes! So I found myself in the archives at GFE, Gluten Free Easily, and a few different gluten free versions of Mug Cakes. I never realized how many types of Mug Cake recipes there were! So, as I was looking at the vast variety of recipes, I started wondering if there was a Weight Watchers friendly version. I found a couple “healthier” recipes, but they all ended in a whole regular egg and 3 tablespoons of oil. I got out my little points calculator and came up with 10-15 points for one mug cake. No thanks. The oil was way too abundant for my mind for just a mug of cake. So, on to recipe building.

I analyzed a total of 7 recipes from different places boasting benefits for different reasons. There are some things you swap out and some things you don’t. I wanted a cake that was fluffier than the gluten free recipe and lower in oil than, well, lower in oil than any of them. I came up with a combination of ingredients that seemed like it should be good and the total was only 6 points! YAY!! But the big question after all that – does it taste good? Because what is it worth if it’s within my dietary guidelines but it tastes bad, right?


So I combined it, nuked it and WOW! Warm and tasty chocolate cake!

Ugly, but tasty!

My rule for posting a recipe that I put together is that I have to have all the accurate measurements, and I have to recreate the recipe with the same results at least twice after the measurements are finalizes. Well, with this one, I wrote and used the exact measurements the first time. I just remade the recipe, plus the regular sugar variation and even my finicky Hubby says he’ll eat it again!

So here’s my version of the 3-minute Mug Cake:

Nani-style Mug Cake

¼ cup almond flour
6 packets Splenda
1 TBS cocoa
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ c milk
¼ c egg substitute
1 tsp. vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients in a coffee mug, microwave on high for 3 minutes.

Serve warm. It's not a pretty cake, but it's tasty!


(I made David’s substituting 2 tablespoons of sugar for the 6 packets of Splenda.)

Links

GFE - Gluten Free Easily

Doctor, Doctor, Meme, Meme

I’m getting into a new book this week. I took a couple days off from reading after I finished False Accusations. False Accusations was Alan Jacobson’s first published novel. I love his Karen Vail series. Vail is an FBI profiler chasing serial killers. Alan Jacobson spent years, years, researching with the FBI, making himself able to create very real cops, killers and situations. It makes his writing just riveting to read. I didn’t expect his first novel to compare to the Karen Vail stories. It was a good book, a really good book. The characters were developed so well and the story was very good too. But my opinion of the book changed on the very last page. What had been a good book became a GREAT book! That last page sent a chill down my spine that I hadn’t experienced since I read 1984. A week later and I still get a spine tingle thinking about it!

Earlier this week I started Lisa Turner’s A Little Death In Dixie. At about 20% through the book, the characters have been introduced and the mystery set. I don’t know if there’s been a murder yet, just a missing person. So far I like the main characters. Before I read False Accusations I’d read a couple books that left me not liking the main characters. It’s rough when you want them to fail and of course they don’t because they are main characters. I hope I’m back on a streak of winning books!

What the books have to do with Doctors is well, Doctors keep you waiting! I love my Kindle! I bought my coach bag because it was the perfect size for my necessities and my Kindle, and not any bigger! I’ve always carried small purses. If I was going somewhere that I needed more than a small purse, I pout things in a tote and put my purse in the tote, but errands and going out, a small purse is fine. It needs to hold my wallet, phone, small camera and lip balm. When I got the Kindle I needed a larger bag so it would hold the new essential.

I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday morning. I was a little late and called offering to reschedule. They said if I was only going to be 15-20 minutes, no problem. That told me the doctor was running at least that late! I do totally get how that happens. My doctor is awesome. He doesn’t rush patients through. He listens to what they have to say and offers his diagnosis and instructions in a strong but comforting way. Sometimes if it’s bad news, like, oh, “I think you might have MS” before a patient goes to a specialist, he spends whatever extra time the patient needs to grasp the situation. I have benefited from that compassion and I schedule my appointments with that in mind. I think the appointment where he told me that my symptoms seemed more and more like MS, was the last time I grumbled about how long I sat in the exam room waiting. I get it now and I appreciate it. So, I get into the exam room and out comes the Kindle. What was once a time of irritation has become my time to relax.

The visit yesterday was just an update on my meds and general stuff. I have prescriptions for tests for my 3-month checkup after starting my MS medication and I figured there’d be more tests required in general with my regular doc, so I scheduled it so I could go in to get all my tests at once. Today is the blood-letting day. I ate a Greek yogurt at 10:30 last night and it will be my last food or non-water drink until around noon; fasting blood work. There is an eye test and some others too, so there will be waiting as I go from department to department at the hospital. The good news is that after the fasting, there is a cappuccino bar at the hospital! Maybe I’ll stop for a roll and my first coffee of the day!


That’s the “Doctor, Doctor” part. Here is the “Meme, Meme!”






Hilary at Feeling Beachie hosts the Follow Friday Four Fill-in. If you’re looking for a quick post that lets you meet new bloggers and drives more traffic to your blog, this is a quick and fun way to do it!

This week’s statements:


1. If I could meet one person living or dead, I would want to meet ___
2. I find it hard to ___
3. The last time _______ and _______ then _______
4. Where are the ________________ when the ______________ are here?


1. If I could meet one person living or dead, I would want to meet Joey Votto so I can BEG him to stay in Cincinnati!
2. I find it hard to get everything done that I want to get done in a day.
3. The last time Kaline was sitting in the future woman cave with me to supervise and I heard her hacking a hairball up, I screeched. Then she ran out of the room leaving a streak of hairball in the hall. :( (EW!)
4. Where are the Cops when the loud summer midnight motorcycles are here?







The Friday 5 Questions is brought to us by Mama M at My Little Life


1. Where is your favorite vacation spot and why?

Anyplace with sunny skies, baseball games, trains and David


2. What is your biggest guilty pleasure?

Ice Cream, Degrassi

3. What is your favorite fashion trend right now? Or, in the past?

In the 80s, I loved the layers of bracelets up both arms! Okay, easy because it’s my favorite accessory in any era. Current fashion I love, really love is Pandora. I have a different Pandora bracelet in every dream!


4. What are your spring break plans?

We have no kids, so Spring Break isn’t such a huge deal. Occasionally Tori and/or Rina are here or at my Dad’s place and they visit. But next year Spring Break will be freshman year at college. I just can’t imagine their destinations will be Ohio or Michigan!


5. What baby names do you hate?

I love unusual names. I have an unusual name and have always loved my name. But what I don’t like is when someone dooms a child to grow up with a common name spelled in a way you’d never imagine. They are doomed to a life of a misspelled name while never getting the complements that go with an unusual name.

Vintage Mug Shots

I hope you all enjoy this as a treat as much as I did putting it together!

First off, I didn’t have any pictures of Grammy scanned when I talked about the women in my family last weekend, so I want to share a couple photos of my great-great-grandmother.

This one is my great-great-grandparents. Grammy was born in 1885, so the photo was probably taken in the early 1900s.

Wonda Pugh

This one is Grammy in the mid to late 60s

And here is Grammy with me in 1966:

Here is my last vintage family photo, the four generations of women before me that were alive at the time of my birth:

Circa 1949

Top to bottom: Grammy, Mums, Grandma and Mom

Now the photos are definitely vintage, but they are not my Vintage Thingie Thursday piece . This is my Thingie for the week:

Monogrammed cups for Wonda and Opal Pugh.

I wanted these cups when we cleaned up Mums’ house, but Grandma trumped me. “You’ll eventually have them, but for now, they’re mine!”

As I’ve said before, Mums was only Opal Pugh until 1922, so they have to be older than that. If they were etched after 1910, there’s probably another one in the family for my great grandmother’s sister, Garnet.

Family Lore: the girls were both named for gems. Had there been another sister, she would have been Ruby.

There you have it, a couple of my most treasured heirlooms and certainly the best “mugs” in my collection!

See more vintage treasures at The Coloradolady, Vintage Thingy Thursday.