Vacation Time Woes

David and I were supposed to leave on our June vacation Saturday morning but we are still in Toledo. There are lots of issues from a rainy forecast to a 911 call, or two.

The really rainy forecast means the natural light won’t be good for train photographs, there is a higher possibility minor league games would be rained out or delayed and my barometric body will ache more! That’s not such a matter because after a couple of failed attempts at getting in the shower last weekend. One of the EMTs was there for both the call where the transfer chair broke and I needed help transferring to my manual wheelchair Friday night and then on Sunday when I actually belly flopped in the hallway getting up that last step. He mentioned an Aunt with knee problems that mimic the hyperextension and foot drop I have and commented that our stairs and bathroom setup was dangerous. After Sunday he also suggested that we should give up the thought of me being upstairs at all. He’s right, but the shower is upstairs!

My dad started the plan to turn the extra room off our kitchen, that we use for mostly storage now, into an accessible bathroom with a roll-in shower in March. That’s still a couplafew months in the future and it’s not my intention to wait that long for a shower!! We went to a local hotel with a good roll-in for a night and I got a good shower, but I really had to admit that the hotel bed lacked the back support for a decent night’s sleep and I dreaded the thought of folding into the car all week.

So here’s the deal: The bad weather means David got to go play in a couple of poker tournaments at the local casino. That’s something he’s wanted to do and he figured out that it was about even cost to traveling for a day (except that traveling doesn’t have a chance of winning the money back!) I’m staying home this trip and I moved my appointment at The Ability Center up. I hope they can steer me in the right direction for a hospital or nursing facility that will do an assisted shower on an appointment basis until our renovated bathroom is done. I’m also seeing about a home health aide to help me with some things while David is at work, including using that shower when it’s done. David will be going on at least the last half of our vacation because the time and place choice was to attend our niece’s high school graduation. Emma’s been legally my niece for 6-12 years but David’s niece her entire life! Even if I can't go, he needs to. I feel bad that I won’t be able to go. I’ve been to Tori’s and Rina’s ceremony in 2012 and Ben’s in 2013 and I was really looking forward to being at Emma’s too.

Looking ahead, we’ve stepped up looking at used vans for a second car. Something I can drive the power chair into the passenger’s side and not have to climb in the car to travel would help beyond telling! If the upgrades my therapist wants on my chair happen, combining it with a van will make traveling comfortable again. Keeping my fingers crossed!


When I haven’t been waiting for paramedics and crying in frustration in the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on my scrapping and reading goals. I’m close to finished with “Chasing The Scream” which is nonfiction about the war on drugs history and future. It’s a great book that really makes you think. I’ll be doing my book review soon as I’m close to the end of a fairly long book and I’ll give some of my thoughts in that review. After such a serious read, look for my next book to be a fiction thriller again.

Last month was a banner month for my page-a-day scrap goal! I’m ahead again this month too. I’ve been a little creativity-taxed the past couple days, so I used templates for three layouts Saturday and one Sunday morning.


I’ve done some more Art Journaling, my scrap poetry and therapy.

Credits: I’m Your Biggest Fan by Seatrout Scraps, 

Hope Floats by Pixelily Designs, inspired by the song Hero by Loma Vista

Credits: Twilight by Red Dog Designs, Distressed by Created by Jill Designs, 

Alpha from Secret Agent by Just For Fun Designs

Remember the therapy pages are to get the negativity OUT of me and into pixels! It’s not like I’m going to cut off my ear or anything.

And with that comment my mother is looking down at me and I can hear the heavenly echoes telling me Andy Warhol’s work is "an inspired stock boy." :) We always had a fun running argument about the quality of Van Gogh vs Warhol.


Here’s a recent one that’s not so dark! It was for the template challenge at Gotta Pixel:

Credits: Kitty Love by Kristmess Designs, challenge template by Lindsay Jane

And here are this year’s crocuses that I scrapped Sunday morning:

Credits: Signs of Spring Monthly Mix by Gingerbread Ladies, 

“Selfie” hop template by Dear Friends Designs

I didn’t use a template for this one a while back, but I ended up creating a template based on it!

Credits: I’m Your Biggest Fan by Seatrout Scraps, 

Template by Digitalegacies Designs

Of course, if I made a template, there is a freebie!

Click image to go to download

The End of an Era

Jonathan E. Camaro is no more. I haven’t driven in over a year and I haven’t driven the Camaro since March 2011. I knew I wanted to get the car out of our garage but I had no idea how to sell a car or get rid of it in any other way. I think maybe I didn’t want to either. But at the beginning of this year I decided it was time to let go.

The 1994 hot red Camaro was my third car and my first brand spanking new car. My 1987 Camaro had gotten to the point where I was essentially making a car payment for repairs almost every month. It was time for a new car. Since I was at the dealer, again, for repairs I went into the showroom and spoke to a salesman. I was just looking. I asked him to tell me about the new Camaros.

They really were new cars too. 1994 was the first year for this model of car. I had seen the new Camaro sitting in the hallway at Cobo Hall in Detroit on the way to Rockers indoor soccer games a few times at the end of 1993 and loved the car. A test drive later and I asked Larry, my salesman, to tell the repair shop to hold my repair order this time.

I asked my dad, barterer extraordinaire, to come in with me, see the pretty car, meet Larry, and make that beautiful car one I could afford. I told Pop the absolute highest car payment I could make each month and that I was willing to pay five years to finish but I wanted that car. There were some safety features that he wanted to be sure were on the car and that included the car alarm. After a little talking he was happy because all of the safety features he wanted would be on the car, Larry was happy because he was making a sale and I was ecstatic because I was getting a new car!

There were a few awesome things about that car. The first was that the loan was in my name and my name alone; no cosigner. I made every payment and the car was 100% mine. It was a fun car to drive. Because the model was so brand spanking new it was a guy magnet too! For the first couple of years that I owned that car I made sure that I was dressed well, full make up and nice hair every time I drove it. Well, you know… I never got a date because of the car but boy I enjoyed lots of fun flirting.

The weekend after I got the new Jonathan I went to visit Grandma and Papa. I went into the house and announced “I took Jonathan in for repairs and you should see what they did to him.” Papa stood up, put down his paper and said “Come on Mom, let’s go see her new car.” Nobody called ahead to spoil my surprise, Papa just knew.

The stuffed cherry in the picture was a gift from Papa that weekend. He called my new car’s color “fast, cherry-ass red” and warned me to watch my speed because the police would be looking for me. (Yes the car was fast but the truth is the two speeding tickets I’ve gotten were when I borrowed my dad’s sport-utility vehicle.)

Now the vignette you see above is all that remains of that first major purchase that was completely in my name; my first real adult contract. I’m not physically capable of driving a car or even cleaning one out and David did all the work. I’m so lucky that he still “gets me.” Cherry and Rudy, the teddy bear I bought while Christmas shopping in 1987 lived in that Camaro and moved to the new Camaro in 1994, were very important to me. He also came home when the car was being towed to go to auction. I donated the value of the car at auction to the MS Society. David did one last check to be sure nothing was left in the car of personal value, especially making sure that he had taken Cherry and Rudy out for me already. He knew it would be important to keep them. This morning he also brought in the hubcap that had fallen off and was left in the garage; one last memento.

I didn’t take a picture as they were towing the car out of the driveway. I don’t want to remember Jonathan that way. I never really liked driving but that car made it bearable because it was a fun car to drive. I’ve read that letting go of things you can’t do because of MS is important in accepting your new reality. I guess I can say that I’ve accepted it now since I had made the decision to donate the car at the beginning of the year and didn’t shed any tears as I watched it leave the driveway. I was prepared to bawl my eyes out but I didn’t cry. It didn’t feel like mine anymore. I just said goodbye to that part of my past. I’m finally ready to move on.

Smashing Defined…Sorta

I’ve been getting lots of comments asking and guessing about Smashing/Smash Books.  I am NOT an authority here, but I’m glad to explain my use of the idea!

First a little background. My first acquaintance with Smash books was the video promoting the Smash Book line by K&Company on a blog back in early 2011.  The SMASH line was first released by K&Company in the spring of 2011. That’s the video I saw on my blog post I Want To Get Smashed from the end of last month. I loved the idea from the video, but since I’m a digital scrapbooker, it was an idea I put away in the back of my brain in case I ever wanted to use it.

Both of my Grandmothers had books done in a similar way. Noni’s photo albums included newspaper clippings, invitations and prayer cards mixed in with her photos and they weren’t in the strict chronological order mine are. There were lots of comments and dates and it was obvious what eras the items belonged to. Grandma had a serious smash book of the 1940s with pictures and words cut out of magazines; pictures of things she liked or wanted and inspiring, happy words. They weren’t arranged as elegant pages, just happy pages; things she wanted to see and think about. I didn’t keep that book and now I’m really wishing I had! It’s really not any different than my great-grandmother’s Bible that has passages underlined and photos, cards and clipping in between the pages. All of them are personal books that bring peace and smiles. This past spring, Tori made a similar style book for a friend to the one Grandma had made. It was a remembrance for a friend who was going to a different college.

SMASH Stick is felt tip pen on one end and glue stick on the other

Today’s SMASH Book by K&Company is pretty much the same thing. All right, no, it’s not a Bible, but you can write or paste in Bible verses if that is a part of what makes you feel good. You could make your smash book a bold and full personal devotional book. What a smash book is, is totally custom to the person making it; there is no set way, there are no rules. The book itself can be a theme, for instance there is a wedding themed smash book which can hold planning notes, cards, photos, favors, receipts, personal thoughts jotted down with the SMASH stick; all of your wedding mementos. Or just use your smash book to hold random thoughts, a funny cartoon or drawing, inspirational quotes and some things you’d like to buy in the next year. Google Smash Book and look at the images; endless ideas!

But you don’t have to buy the official SMASH books to Smash. As I said, Noni “smashed” in her old black paper photo album and Grandma “smashed” on very nice writing paper. Mums “smashed” in her most used and treasured Bible. 

Smashing used as a craft verb is something I’ve read on several blogs where people have talked about Smash Books. It’s like one scraps when putting together a scrapbook, one smashes when putting things in a smash book. The actual difference between scrapbooking and smash booking is organization. Scrapbook pages are carefully planned out. They utilize matching papers and embellishments with photos and sometimes ephemera to create the page as a work of art in and of itself bringing a memory to life through the photos and journaling. A smash book relies on the tactile items as they connect to memories with some or a lot of journaling and elements. The pages don’t have to be laid out artistically, as they say “just smash it in.”

Now, most of the visitors at The Chronicles of Nani are the creative types. I think that’s where smash and scrap blur a little. We just can’t glue something into a book without something that makes it unique, artsy. Back to the “no rules” clause. Anything you do with a smash book is right. To me, especially after seeing books that Noni and Grandma kept, in the USA and Italy 50+ years ago, Smash books are “back to basics.” It’s the culmination of scrapbooks, art journals, devotionals and trinket boxes all in one and with the concept of the original scrapbooks long before they were an art form. They’re a great way for someone who is busy to keep their memories, a wonderful book of the most special things and a central place for all the little mementos that are too small for a major presentation but too sweet to dispose of and forget. In a way, smash books are like the Blog Friday Fragments many of us do each week with Half Past Kissin Time!

So Nani and smash books. You’ll remember in that original post I did about smashing, 181 baseball ticket stubs. I’m not throwing out my baseball ticket stubs! But in cleaning through things to unearth my craft room, the woman cave, I realized there were other things, I have concert tickets, jokes I printed, inspirational quotes, cards and little bits of personal ephemera from things I’ve done and places I’ve been. When I dropped that envelope with all my baseball ticket stubs and had to put them back in order, the memory of the smash books hit me. I also had a ton of paper scrapbooking supplies that I’m not using anymore, so it all kind of fell together.


I’d like to share some of the Smash Archive book. It goes to the end of ish2004. I say “ish2004” because while 2004 is the stopping point of this book, the beginning isn’t so defined.  I started in 1966, but I have some photos and mementos from my grandparents. They are things that a part of me and make me smile, even if I couldn’t possibly have been there for them!

For the cover, I used a three-ring binder that I had in a retro-looking aqua. I titled it with some stickers I had in my scrapbooking stash. I think I’m going to use a plastic dust cover on it or replace those stickers with ones that stick better. The cover is a work in progress.

 

I made a “smash band” for holding the book closed, thereby protecting the pages, by using an extra-long rubber band with a smiley clip from my office supplies.

You see from the first page that I’m not dwelling on layout as much as placement. I want to make sure things fit on the page, its okay if they overlap a little, it’s okay if they don’t. Things don’t have to be related but I have to be able to read and see the pictures. I did add the Best Friends sticker to the picture of me with John, Kelly and Scotty. That written piece in the corner is my personal mission statement from many years ago and my signature. I have a few things I’d handwritten because I want to remember how legible my handwriting and printing used to be now that MS has robbed me of my penmanship

As you can see, it’s a blocked page of special little things; a bookmark, top of an M&M box, photo of Mom, a Cracker Jack prize baseball card, ticket from World Of Coke in Atlanta and a printed on paper photo of Eric Karros in Dodger Blue, purrrr! ;) That photo was from about a decade before I met my husband!

Remember the whole inspiration was the baseball ticket stubs:

SO much better than scattered on the floor!

And this one is M&Ms. I collect M&Ms and bought all kinds of M&Ms scrapbook stuff, but I never had any reason to scrap using M&Ms stuff. Now it doesn’t matter; I can smash the M&Ms in anywhere!

So there’s the peek at what and how I’ve smashed so far. I know me and can already see the desire to do some different things, so I’m sure my style here will change and grow which is why I wanted to smash the older items first, so they are represented by my older smashing style. It’s just like with my scrapbooks; I won’t go back and redo my older digital pages, although my skill level is much better now because the skill level where I started is part of a memory too.

My New Ride

Pride Mobility Stylus LS

That’s my new baseball seat! Okay, it’s for more than just baseball, but baseball is the most important thing the wheelchair will do. This one is mine, not borrowed and not reusing a “retired” chair, it is brand new and only mine.

I knew I needed a chair now for sporting events, concerts, festivals, conferences, anything that requires more walking than I can stagger with a walker for. When I talked to my regular doctor about it and told him what I wanted and what type, he agreed it was a good idea and wrote me a prescription for a manual, not power, wheelchair.

After using the one that David’s Mom had used for the Rush concert and for SEMMantics this year, I definitely realized that it was a good thing to have. The chair that was my Mother-in-law’s was well-used and, while I am SO glad we had it, there are a few things that needed fixing, worn brakes and the tendency to roll to the left when I was moving the wheels straight. Add to that, Kay was much thinner than me and I don’t know what the weight range on that chair is. On my own chair, I know that I won’t fall through the frame! I also know that this time last year I would have needed a weight range up from this chair. Yay me!

It was like car-shopping, really it was! There are so many types of chairs! It’s not just manual or motorized. There are folding and standard, light ones and heavy ones, “sport” ones that are great for basketball or racing and don’t have the handles in the back for someone else to push, ones that recline, ones with padded leg supports that extend up or down. There are extras like pockets and organizers, different firmnesses of padded seats even cane, purse or cup holders! I was really drawn to the colored ones! There are chairs that have all the metal parts in red, purple, green, blue or even black chrome. In my mind I wanted a red chrome, folding ultra light, one I could leverage out of the car myself if I wanted to use it someplace I was going solo, but with the handles, so if someone is with me and wants to push they can, or if I need a shove uphill, I can ask for help.

You probably noticed that picture shows silver chrome parts on my chair. That picture is from the owner’s manual. No, it doesn’t have a glove box, but yes, it’s all the information you’d read in a car owner’s manual, tire pressure stats, maintenance, safety. It can be kept in a file at home or a pouch on the chair if that accessory is ordered. My wheelchair is silver. Like the photo. This model is like the Model-T cars were, any color you like as long as it’s silver chrome. Do you know what the difference is between the models that come in silver only and the ones that come in all those colored chrome colors? About $400 that insurance doesn’t cover between the top of the line one-colors and the bottom multi-colors! What insurance does cover for a manual chair is pretty much a coupon as is unless you want the Yugo equivalent wheelchair. The Yugo equivalent is a heavy standard chair. I wanted a folding wheelchair that I could lift. This one isn’t too heavy and if I unlock the wheels, I can use them to leverage it and roll it in or out of my backseat if I’m solo. I use the wheels on the walker that way and it works great. For quick errands, I still use the walker. Important things my chair has that aren’t in the owner’s manual picture are the gel and foam seat pad, the backpack and the cup holder!

Coming out of the box, it smells like a new car! A new car must have a maiden voyage to truly enjoy it. Plans are to do a test run to a Mud Hens game this weekend with the new wheelchair for its maiden voyage. You know, to make sure it works!

Puljos and Cordero Hate Cats!

Albert Puljos hits two homeruns tonight against the Braves after Francisco Cordero blew another game for the Reds earlier today. Nani goes to the bonus treat bag and the poor little kitties get none. How mean are those guys?

I actually like Puljos. I think he has whiny teammates that won’t let a future Hall-of-Famer have his due accolades. Puljos hit his two homers with no one on base. Left to Albert, as it should have been, the Braves would have won. Albert cares about the Reds fans. He’s a decent man.

David knows that Cordero is my least favorite Red. He’s the closer. Closers are my least favorite players period. That role is severely overrated and overpaid, even amongst the overpaid, they are overpaid. I’ll give a tip of the hat to Mariano Rivera, but I think half of his power comes from the hype. The image has successfully gotten into hitters’ heads. Cordero is NOT Rivera. Not in image, not in the ability to get three outs without loading the bases and/or killing the game.

Tomorrow is another day.

I’d like to see the Reds look into the crystal ball of the post season and imagine Aroldis Chapman as the playoff closer. The smoke he throws blows batters away in a manner that could possibly rival the Rivera mystique.

I didn’t deny the kids all their treats because it was a bad baseball day, either! They get two of the soft treats I call Stinky Treats at 10:30, like always. Just, for instance, last night they got a crunchy treat after the Cardinals lost and then another one when the Reds won. Today, no extras, except the standard morning or bedtime treats.

Vacation

Last week was vacation time for us! We left Indy after family brunch the day after the girls’ party and motored towards Iowa. We saw The Field of Dreams movie site, 3 baseball games, one rain-out and had some great chases with the gorgeous Iowa Interstate, especially on Saturday, when the Rock Island 513 was in the lead of a train around Iowa City.

Field of Dreams, Dyersville, Iowa

The highlight for me was visiting the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville. That was cool! I took lots of pictures and David got a couple looking at the field from inside the corn field. That was my biggest souvenir haul! I got a t-shirt, a sweatshirt and a mug that has a dark cornfield with ghost players that appear when hot liquid is in the cup!

Car Shopping

This weekend, Saturday was car shopping day for us. David had been debating whether or not he wanted to rent a car for our trip. The Escape was a year old and already had a lot of miles on it. Well, we drove it out west for our honeymoon last summer when it was new and then when we went to Florida in the spring.

The Sunday before we left for Iowa, I got one of those phone calls you never want. David’s voice was obviously shaken. “I need you to come get me. I was T-boned at a light downtown.”

I was glad it was David’s voice because if someone else was calling to tell me that my husband was “t-boned,” I’d have been a mess!

When I got there, the Escape was on the wrecker to be towed away already and David had collected some of his things in a pile on the sidewalk. We put them in my car as we watched the wrecker move off. I thought I could see how bad the damage was because the front of the passenger’s side was pretty crumpled.

But he was hit on the driver’s side!

We went to the ER to have his scraped up knees looked at. He also had some other bruising and scrapes. He went home with a note to stay home and rest for two days.

He recounted the accident to me, best as he could. There is a shock effect that you see it all in slow motion, but see none of it at all. The man who hit him ran a red light, hit him at speed in the front of the Escape. The damage I saw on the passenger’s side was from how hard he got hit. When we went to the impound lot to get the rest of David’s things during the week, this is what I saw:

I just looked at it and said, “Thank God.” I was a few feet away from becoming a long-term nurse or a widow! Thankfully, David recovered well. The aches and pains from the day after a serious accident rested away while he was home and the last of the scabbing from his poor scraped knees is wearing off now.

Saturday we found a new Escape with a manual transmission! He’d wanted a manual, but had to go with what was on the lot in the Cash for Clunkers deal. He did all the paperwork and it’s getting the one thing that the new car didn’t have that he fell in love with on the old Escape – a moon roof, installed before he picks it up.

We have been very fortunate for sure!

Checking In…

It’s been a rough so far week here. I’m in Michigan at Grandma’s to help out. Sunday we met with a home nurse who got all the paperwork done to have a nurse stop by three times a week to check her general medical stuff. Dad and I went to the grocery store and dropped a decent sum stocking her fridge with meat, veggies and a few key comfort foods. She’s just plain not eating enough. Sunday, I made us the same breakfast, one egg with an ounce of cheese and one slice of toast That’s 235 calories, served with coffee and hers with juice too, it makes a good start for a day that plans to include a couple of cookies on wife 1500. Unfortunately, it was still like pulling teeth to get her to eat it and she putzed around it ALL DAY! She did promise that “Monday, I’ll eat all of breakfast and whatever you cook.” I didn’t get to put that promise to the test.

Sunday night after Dad had left, she stated having disjointed speech, she was trying to talk, but the words couldn’t form correctly. I called the nurse, who told me to call 911. Grandma got her first ride ever in an ambulance! I locked up and followed in my car. She’s had an episode like this before. I recalled the same symptoms a few years ago at the orchard in Erie when we were peach-picking. At that time paramedics said it might have been a TIA, mini stroke, but she got over the episode and refused to be taken to the hospital. This time, three paramedics and I didn’t give her a choice!

They let me in to be with her in the emergency room. They did some preliminary tests and confirmed that this time, officially it was a TIA. Thank God I was there, but it really confirmed that she needs to NOT be living alone anymore. She was in the hospital a couple of days and released around 7PM last night. We stopped at McDonald’s, mostly because I hadn’t eaten since noon and was starving. I got a hamburger Happy Meal with apples instead of fries. She said that a hamburger sounded good, YAY, and I got her a hamburger Happy Meal too. Unfortunately, after being convinced all she got was fries and a “big guy” (mini beanie baby panda) until I found the burger under the toy, she ate one bite of the burger and about a half dozen fries.

On Saturday night, she’d told Dad and me that she knew she shouldn’t be alone and was ready to explore her options. Last night she moved up to telling her best friend that she would be moving to a senior apartment. Okay, she also included that David and I would move in with her here, but she didn’t want us to have to move. Her hearing aid isn’t working and she was getting “Dad, Dave and David” confused. What I said was that either Dad or I would stay with her until she had an apartment. I still gotta love the fact that she didn’t want to make us move!

The best thing that happened last night was Grandma proclaiming she was hungry! I served a bowl of melon to us both and she ate every piece, after I’d just watched her wolf down a bowl of watermelon in the hospital, then she said he was hungry for cold cereal. She poured about a serving and a half of Honey Nut Cheerios. I was worried I’d be throwing most of it out as she poured the milk, but she ate every bite of it. Vitamin-fortified and all, we might be eating Cheerios for three meals today!


So, now I’m caching up on other things in my world. As it turned out, I never did get my birthday ice creams before I left home. I gave my coupons to David. He’s not a big Cold Stone fan, so I asked him to get me the fat free cake batter with chocolate chips and cherries and put it in the freezer for when I get home if he gets a chance to stop. I told him to use my free Baskin Robbins scoop as the base of a sundae for him. I don’t think wasted coupons or free ice cream count as big on the penance list in the afterlife as spilled ice cream does, but just in case… Okay, I’d heard an old Irish saying that the difference between Heaven and hell was determined by being put head first in a barrel of all the alcohol you'd wasted in your lifetime. If thre is so little that you don’t drown, you go to Heaven. I modified that when Tori and Rina were little and we said you'd be put head first in a barrel of all the ice cream you wasted in your lifetime. Hey, that almost automatically starts with at least one cone from childhood for everyone!

Now, I don’t know if there will be ice cream waiting for me when I get home or not. David got a new car! We’d been talking about him retiring the old gas-guzzling Explorer in the Cash for Clunkers deal and I spent a few phone calls coaching him on Monday when he was test driving a Ford…I think it was a Ford Fusion. He commented on wanting to think about the Escape, a small SUV, too. I encouraged him to really consider the Escape because what he uses his car for, railfanning and such, lots of dirt roads, fields, etcetera, he’d really be happier with an SUV. He did some more calling, found the deal that was right for him and signed the paperwork on a 2009 Escape! It’s his first brand new car! I think he said it had 34 miles on it. That has me beat! The Camaro had 54 when I drove it off the lot. Our driveway finally has a car whose model year starts with a 2!! Next is me finishing school, starting a job and maybe a 2011 Spectra?


I needed to catch up on baseball stuff, I’ve really only been able to see the scores, weep at the Reds scores and move on. Now I found out why I’m weeping. Right at the deadline Scott Rolen became a Red. Okay, I remember that last year I was ready to trade Edwin Encarnacion, but that was in a deal that would move Joey Votto over to third and put Lance Berkman in a Reds uniform. The only thing positive I have to say about Rolen is he might be more tempting to Houston. The man is almost as overrated as Gary Sheffield. (That’s my opinion and this is m blog, so everyone is entitled to my opinion!) I’ve been thoroughly unimpressed with him since 1997, when he beat a much better qualified ROY candidate in Kevin Orie. Rolen had the home runs, Orie had everything else. This chick doesn’t dig the long-ball. Home runs are just PART of the game. This chick digs BASEBALL and I loathe how many players that can hit the ball far, just don’t hit it to them in the field, get built up so big. Give me a Mark Grace or Barry Larkin any day!

Okay, time for a coffee refill and to get ready for Grandma to wake up. Dad will be back later this morning, so I’ll get a little bit of break later. Maybe I’ll blog again; maybe I'll go out to the ice cream shop in Hale!