Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin

If I tell you to grab a cup of coffee for this read am I an enabler?

Welcome October…Welcomeish October. I have been SO COLD all day! The picture up top is my attempt to warm up. Yes the popcorn bag is a little scorched. I put it in for an extra 15 seconds to try to get more of the kernels to at least half pop. A few singed pieces are way better than rock hard kernels that never reach any point of their potential. And while I don’t like it burned, I actually kinda like popcorn that’s singed a little. My cup’s contents are courtesy of my last Gevalia K-Cup. That leads to two “let me tell yas.”

Let me tell ya about my cup! Back in 2012 I talked about the coffee mugs Kelly and I swap when we get together. I shared one of the mugs I’d found from 20 years prior in my storage and it was her obligation to find our mugs this time. She found the flowered mugs that hold about a Keurig cup and a half of coffee. She chose orange for hers and picked out my favorite shade of my favorite color for me!

Now as for the second thing, let me tell ya about the K-Cups and the pumpkin! I'm expecting a shipment from 11th Street Coffee tomorrow...afternoon. I'll be swimming is seasonal goodness, but I need morning coffee. So a desperate phone call to one of my favorite dealers brought a 12-pack of Signature Blend to get me by for tomorrow morning when David got in.

I totally blame Kelly for me losing control of my vices! I was only counting points for the first half of the days she was here before the cookies, candy and donuts…or habanero quarter pounder with Kelly’s preferred 5-gallon bin of fries, before the pumpkin bread, pumpkin seeds and pumpkin spice lattes. And did I mention donuts? Oh I did, but the pumpkin donuts are worth mentioning on their own. And I was up to a latte and 4 cups of coffee a day. I gained a little; thankfully I can’t balance on the scale so I don’t know how much I can just feel it in my shirts, and I’m still on cup number 3 today, but I’m not ashamed of that. I’ve circled the wagons and I’m slowly climbing back on because I can’t climb fast. Okay, I can probably figuratively climb faster, but I’m sticking with this story. She reasoned “We see each other every couple years.” I rationalized, “Yanno, you’re right. How much damage can I do in 3 weeks?”

So here I am back down to 3 cups a day and counting every point of that 10point popcorn and coffee snack. I had a 5-point salad for lunch in anticipation of microwave popcorn! Give a full week and 3 weeks of damage will be gone and I’ll have great memories of weeks I concentrated more on treasuring my friends than controlling my vices.

She’s Got Legs, But Don’t Know How To Use Them

Credits: Broken by Karen Diamond Designs

I've started art journaling when frustration is getting to me and it's doing a great job of getting the negativity out of me!  We'll call the art journals part of my "Blue Period" Nani Picasso! LOL

For the first week Kelly was here she was my caregiver while David was on a “vacation from Nani.” I talked about that before; it was my idea that David needed a vacation without worrying about me. The timing of Kelly’s visit was perfect for that! Kel did a great job filling in for David, well except the kiss before bed and keep me warm which is in his vows, but not her friend vows. In fact I don’t recall that we ever took friend vows out loud. Kel didn’t have his proficiency with the craft of leveraging my legs up the last step into the upper floor of our house. There’s angle and lifting that I don’t know because I’m worrying about my part of getting me up that step. That did result in a couple nights of me not going upstairs and sleeping in my chair and one 2-day stint upstairs after an attempt to get me up to the second floor resulted in EMTs putting me on the bed. Oh, I’m okay, so is Kelly and on the bed I where I wanted to be anyway.

The third week was the one that got my watching-what-I-eat the worst, but I’m really not complaining there! Rina came and spent 4 days with us. She’s my niece, not daughter, although I was there as a guardian-teacher often when she and her sister grew up, and maybe that makes it even more special that she chose to spend her time off with me. She helped Kelly help me and after we figured out what needed to be done they got me in and out of Rina’s van with relative ease so we could go on a couple trips to Michigan. We went to Pop’s house for a great day with him and Aunt Judy and enjoyed the meeting of the Italian lunchmeats and cheese we bought at Sofo with the sautéed greens and piada he made; wonderful Italian Soul Food! Then the next day we picked up Scotty and went to the apple orchard (many donuts.) Then we all met Sheri at Dunkin Donuts and headed to Olive Garden for dinner. Of course, there had been dinner at Ya Halla the first night Rina was in!

Rina, Kelly and me at Ya Halla

Don't Eat That!!

Happy Hump Day! Okay, really it’s gray and dreary hump day in Toledo today, but the key to making it through gray and dreary days is the inner sunshine, right? We had a nice challenge to start the day today, courtesy of our sweet Marco.

Marco turned 11 months old on May 1. It is our sincere hope that he’ll be a year old on June 1. This morning David took out his ONE pill he takes in the morning; yes I’m a little jealous of the “only one” part. He opened the bottle, took out a pill and set it on the couch arm while he closed the bottle. Even I can take a pill out and put the cap back on the bottle in less than a minute. In that brief period of time Marco jumped up on the couch and ate the pill! I was on the phone to the vet in pretty quick order.

The medication, Prilosec, is sometimes prescribed for cats and dogs but not in the amount for an adult human. The vet said we needed to ether give him a capful of hydrogen peroxide right down his throat to induce vomiting or bring him in to the hospital so they could induce vomiting. The medication wasn’t dangerous in a dosage right for his weight, but the pill he ate was about 4 or 5 times more than he’d be prescribed by his vet and we needed to get the medication out of him. (I do kinda wonder what a cat eats that gives them heartburn, but Marco will eat anything that he thinks might be edible.)

David fed him the peroxide and put him on the enclosed porch so we could monitor him and when he did throw up it would be someplace easier to clean and we’d be able to inspect to see if indeed he threw up the pill. It didn’t take long for him to throw up after swallowing the peroxide and he threw up his breakfast and green goo that was the partially dissolved pill.

I wish there was some way to get him to relate unpleasant experiences with eating things that aren’t food. He spent some time at the vet a while back and had to be given medicine and a laxative he didn’t like because he found, and ate, a piece of Styrofoam.


In the word of more pleasant news, last weekend was SEMMantics, the regional Mensa gathering that was responsible for David and me getting together in the first place! This year David was the Carnelli, a word association game, champion and I won the first place award for the cribbage tournament. I play cribbage once a year and always have to relearn the game, but having learned it before I guess I relearn well! On Sunday after nine years of meaning to but never doing it we made it for Mimosas this year. David hadn’t had a mimosa before but I recalled the first time I’d had one. It was in Toronto and I was at Sunday brunch with my parents at the CN Tower’s revolving restaurant. The waitress asked if I’d like a Mimosa when drink orders were being taken. I was 20 years old and we were in Canada; heck yeah I wanted champagne with my orange juice! Alcohol to drink with breakfast is not a common thing for me, but it’s a neat once in a while pretentious start to the day.

Since we were back in my ”old stomping grounds” we met Scotty for lunch and David indulged me with a stop at the Dunkin Donuts where I met all 3 of my closest friends to get a cup of coffee for the road and a couple donuts for us Monday morning.

Monday we had a late lunch/early dinner at Pop’s. I hadn’t seen my dad since Christmas so I was really looking forward to seeing him and Aunt Judy. Pop grilled marinated chicken and pork with zucchini, tomatoes and peppers, some with and some without Italian breadcrumb stuffing. David and I stopped at Sofo on the way out of Toledo to bring Pop a couple of his favorite baguettes and he roasted garlic on the grill to spread on it; SO GOOD!

After dinner we drove to Lansing, because Pop lives so close, and caught our first baseball game of the season. The Lansing Lugnuts beat the Fort Wayne Tin Caps 4-2 in a fairly quick game for David, me and 5 other people. There were more than 7 people in attendance, but on a chilly Monday night in the beginning of the second month of the season it was far from a packed house.

Yesterday was rest and recuperate time for me. The good news about that is as achy as I was by the time Monday night came around after spending three days in my less comfortable and less support manual chair I was less tired and achy than usual! I guess the stretching exercises and once a week therapy is doing more good than it seems like it should. Add to that back on the diet wagon and eating better again and I recover better.

Nani’s Avatar & Siggie at Gotta Pixel

Credits: Defining Me by Aprilisa Designs, coffee mugs from I Love You A Latte by 

Double Dutch Designs, signature challenge template by Aprilisa Designs

I scrapped for the first time since May1. I did my avatar and signature for May at Gotta Pixel, which is where I do most of my challenges during the month and put the squares in place for last week’s Random 2014. The folder on my desktop says “2014: That’s So Random.” It’s essentially a scrapbook diary.

Week 16

Credits: What Happened Today- 2014 by Kitten Scraps, A Work In Progress by Inspired Designs, Cat’s Love by Friendly Scrap, Beautiful On The Inside by Aprilisa Designs, I Love Donuts by Aprilisa Designs, Afternoon Tea by Booklady Designs, Everybody Talks by Wendy Tunison Designs, My Tunes by Simple Girl, word art by TLC Creations, Jelly Beans by Harper Finch, Easter Freebie by cajoline-Scrap designs,

When the year is done and I’m ready to make a cover, I’ll decide what the random title will be!

Now I need to catch up my book reviews with the book I finished while Joey was visiting the Geek Squad and get my cheer-voice ready for the game tonight. Sorry to my Red Sox fan readers, but you know there are two teams you can’t depend on me to give support on your side when Boston faces them; GO REDS!

I Love

Welcome to Day 14 of 30 Day Blog Challenge, hosted by Katie at So, Funny Story… Today is another photo day! I’ll try to be a little less photo than last time.

A picture you love.

I’ve got two; just two.

This is me and my brothers and sister that you saw on Sunday. Acting goofy by request of the photographer, my Mom which makes it double special.

This is David and me with Grandma and Tori. It’s at Spago Ristorante in Windsor, Ontario (Canada) celebrating my 39th birthday. David left work and came directly to Canada for my dinner. This was the night I gave up trying not to fall in love with him.  I put up a valiant fight. (Of course I wouldn’t have the guts to tell him know that for a few weeks,)

Friendly Photos

Today is a take it easy day for blogging in the 30 Day Blog Challenge. It’s a Photoblog!

Share a photo of your friends

I don’t think I have just one photo with all of my friends. This one has most of them:

My 40th birthday

July 29, 2006

This one from a week later has the rest of them in it but not everyone from that first photo.

Cracker Barrel after The Reds game and my big birthday surprise with friends from 3 states.

I have three friends who are like brothers and a sister to me

This is me with John at my wedding reception in 2009. We lost John in October of that year. He and I had been friends for almost 27 years and his sister asked me to speak first at his memorial.

This is Scotty and me in 2006. We’ve been friends for 30 years this summer.

Kelly and me; my biggest surprise for my 40th birthday was when she walked in to the section where we were sitting for the ballgame! She is the one who knows when I need a push and isn’t afraid to give it to me, square in the butt if need be! We’ve been each other’s instigators and confessors since early 1989.

Kelly, Scotty and me at Sizzling Sticks in Northville, Michigan, 2010. This was the day we did a balloon release in John’s Memory.

This was Scotty’s Big 25 (50th Birthday) party just last year.

Tracy, Me and Heather 1999

I met Tracy in 1993 at work and we hit it off immediately.  It was pretty much a given that we'd be friends long after we weren't working together anymore.  Tracy shakes me and makes me think when I'm emotionally going nuts.

Heather and I met when she was hired as the associate producer to my producer position in 1994.  We got along well and worked together fantastically.  Heather will drop everything for a friend in need and has always been one of the first ones to say "I'm in" when I have a crazy idea, even if it seems too crazy.

Rich and me, New Yer's Eve 2004 into 05

Rich was my first sports intern in 1993.  He is an awesome worker and totally the man you want as a great employee, but for all that awesomeness professionally, he's an even better friend.  I've said before that the truest test of friendship is when you find out who will still be there to push your wheelchair.  Well, Rich took charge and delegated duties to carry the chair up a couple of steps to get me in to a party!

Sheri and me, Christmas 2004

Sheri and I were friends in high school. but lost touch after graduation.  We reconnected around the turn of the millennium and after a few hours of catch-up coffee we got right back into the groove we had so many years ago.  Sheri's is generous to a fault and one of the most loyal and loving friends I could ask for.


Honestly I love all these people and I’d roll in front of a bus to push any of them out of harm’s way. I went several photos over the “a” picture in the prompt, but my people are worth so much more than one photo to me.

Long Time So Brief

Some of you may be thinking I’ve been away from the blog world for so long, but to me the past week just flew by! Kelly got here last Saturday and she stayed until Friday afternoon. I’ve been trying to take it easy this weekend. One; to be safe because until late tonight, I’m writing on Sunday evening, I’m home alone. David was in West Virginia last I talked to him. He called about UTZ product at Sheetz; he’s bringing me home a small bag of Maryland Crab seasoned chips and a bag of pumpernickel pretzels! The other reason is to recover. I only have to clear and wipe the desk and my office/craft room; the Woman Cave will be a functional room! By the end of the week Kelly and I were both exhausted with aches on top of aches. For me, walking and even typing on my right side is very weak and stiff. I’d quit the med that was supposed to make movement easier for me because I didn’t think it was really working and it was the highest copay of all my meds. I think I’m, going to start it again because I can feel that I’m not taking it.

I called Scotty Wednesday morning to see if he would meet us for lunch on Thursday. He couldn’t he’s in the hospital! I didn’t gripe at him for not calling me this time. You don’t get any time to let people know you’re going to be in the hospital when you get the call he did Monday night; we have a donor! Scotty was in surgery early Tuesday morning and when I called on Wednesday he was bonding with his new kidney and pancreas! He’s been doing well, but Jill, his sister, one of the biological ones, says the doctors have him on antibiotics because they fear he may have an infection, so it set his original release date of Sunday back a few days. If everyone could please utter a prayer or good thought for my big brother, I’d be eternally grateful! I want the rest of his recovery to be textbook.

Kelly and I made all of our plans for our “Friendship Smash Books.” I have my binder and selected the first two papers and some of the items I want to use. The binder I have right now is my book. Kelly will start her book. What we’ll do is smash the title page and the first two actual pages. Then the books have to be in the mail by December 8. Kelly will get my book with the first two pages done and I’ll get hers. Then we do the next two pages in each other’s books with a January 8 deadline for mailing them back. We’re going to mail them back and forth doing 2 pages a month for a year. When the books are done we’ll both have a book that we half did ourselves and half done by our best friend. We’re going to add a little to the covers as we go and those will be done at the end of the year too. This will truly be a special and fun project.

Before I get on to the Monday Quiz About Me, I want to share this trip's mug. You’ll recall that last week I mentioned that Kelly and I have a mug tradition when we get together. This was a shoestring budget trip. Neither of us had the cash for a nice dinner out and even the coffee cup tradition was threatened. Except for the box I brought home from the storage!

I have no memory of when I bought this mug. But it was on s closeout sale, probably about 20 years ago according to the other items in the box. I showed it to Kelly and she loved it! Guess what? On this low funds weekend, the coffee mug from 20 years ago was not alone! There were two boxes with the identical mug! I’d already given Kelly the box with the other mug and saucer but I suggested we’d make that our mug for this trip. Her job now is to find two identical mugs that are older than half of our friendship to be the mugs for next time. This sounds like a fun thrift store challenge!


This afternoon I did this scrapbook layout:

Pumpkin Enabler

Credits: We Are Thankful by Colie’s Corner, word art by Digitalegacies

I love word art like that one. I have a few cups with word art like that, including the several types of coffee and several fonts on that 20-year old mug and saucer set! I decided that it was time I custom created my word art in that style and that’s the source of the Pumpkin Spice word art!

Of course, how could I not share??

 

Click on the preview to go to download.

As usual, I’d love to see any scrapbook or craft project you do with it!


Okay, NOW we move on the The Monday Quiz About Me, hosted by Heather at Acting Balanced and Wayne at Touristic.

1. How often do you shop for groceries? Do you shop in one place or many?

David picks up things that need to be fresh; meat, apples and bananas, salad, carrots, ice cream, in between trips, but we do our big shopping trip about once a month.

We usually shop at the Kroger a little over a block away, but we also shop at Meijer, because he likes their steak better and I like their hummus selection and Giant Eagle for special items.


2. How old were you when you had your first taste of alcohol?

LOL… 2.

Mom, Dad, Grandma and Papa each had a different mixed drink and were talking in the living room at Grandma and Papa’s house. I was quietly “making the rounds” taking a small sip out of the glass…each glass. Two years old and a sip of scotch, a sip of bourbon, a sip of rum and a sip of Seagram’s Seven. Of course I don’t remember this, but each of the adults involved enjoyed telling me the story when I was older. I was walking a little strange and acting a little zoned. Each one in turn said, “She only took a little taste of my drink.” Times four! They watched me closer after that and “little Daynonna wasn’t allowed to taste the grownup drinks anymore.”

Having taught the lesson, this never happened with my brother and he drinks a lot more than I do now. Hmmm…


3. How much TV do you watch?

Well, the picture quality on FOX is so poor I’m not even watching he baseball game tonight, watching the pitch by pitch on mlb.com. So, I last had the TV on Friday night when I decided that the bad picture and all the political ads were more than I wanted to deal with. It’ll probably be on again if David turns it on when he gets home or in the morning. I don’t watch a lot.


4. How do you relieve stress?

I write in my personal journal or meditate myself into a relaxing nap.



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


5. What is your favorite food to snack on while you’re reading/writing blogs?

Usually popcorn, air popped and hot with nothing on it or carrots. But…I also keep a candy jar filed if I’m in the mood for something sweet. I’m usually pretty good about the candy, keeping count and behaving, but tonight I’m a little lonely as I reach the end of the days between Kelly leaving and David getting home, so it’s just me and the Pumpkin Spice or Air kisses.

Will The REAL Monday Please Blog-Up?

As common everyday goes, last week was just weird! The Fourth of July midweek throws everything off. Once I got over the fact that Friday was indeed Friday and not Monday, it was suddenly the weekend! The fact that in order to get the train-time off and to help out with vacation times, David worked straight through the weekend and is working odd hours all week this week just adds to my confusion.

Yesterday I met Heather and Tracy for lunch in Monroe. It’s always a great day when we get together! After a leisurely lunch at Cracker Barrel, we went to the porch and continued our conversations. It was sunny, mid 80s and a mild occasional breeze; a gorgeous day! It ended up being a 5-hour lunch.

Monday Mug Shot

Wright Brothers National Memorial

Kill Devil Hills, NC

I guess I’m a little warped. I got my photo of the Kill Devil Hills water tower and with a wicked giggle and a raspy voice said “Kill Devil; Kill! Kill!” It just struck me as a horror movie name and it brought out my inner-imp!

The Wright Brothers museum and monument are pretty cool. We invited anyone else in the house that wanted to go to join us, but it ended up being just David and me. I know a lot of people like to just go to the beach or sit in their rented house and look out the windows when they’re on vacation, but I just couldn’t do that in an area with so much to see and do!

It was gray, rainy and muggy when we went to the museum, so it was busier because all of the beach bums settled for history to hide from the rain. That’s more of an observation than anything because there were a lot of people there and many left when the rain stopped!

It was fascinating watching the step-by-step of how the first airplane was tested and eventually constructed. Orville Wright was the brother who piloted the actual first flight. Wilbur piloted the second of the four fights they did on December 17, 1903. It was the fourth flight, by Wilbur, when they actually had established full control of the Wright Flyer. There was no “seating” in the Wright Flyer. The one-person airplane was piloted lying on your belly with your legs back while controlling the plane with your hands. Can you imagine flying like that today? But if the Wrights had never flown that way, the advancements that put seats in planes never would have come about!

After our time in the museum, David went up to the top of the hill, where the monument to that first flight that took off from that hill was. I stayed at the base of the hill with the car. It’s not at all that the monument wasn’t accessible, just steeper than I wanted to climb or make my husband push!

Wright Brothers Memorial

Our original plan after the Wright Brothers museum was to find a nice seafood restaurant and have our lavish meal of the trip for lunch. But the sun came out and there were lighthouses calling. No really, “David…Nani…have a late lunch. We’re waiting…” If there’s sunlight, they will come and all, we passed on immediate lunch and headed south!


Stay tuned for more Carolina mugs!

Read more about the Wright Brothers and the first flight!





Monday Quiz About Me

This is how I knew Friday wasn’t Monday; no quiz at Acting Balanced! Even while on vacation and enjoying the summer, Heather has been keeping this fun meme up. It’s a great way to wake up your brain for the new week! It’s not question-overload and the last question that you present readers adds just a bit of entertainment for them and it also makes commenting easy! (More fun to read than “yeah, what you said” too!) Won’t you think about joining in?

1. What are two must haves when you go on a road trip?

My camera and a notebook. We often keep track of license plates when we travel and I write down the ones we see. We saw Alaska three times on our vacation this year! I also take scrapbook notes to go with the photos I take.


2. What is your favorite amusement park ride?

I don’t do amusement parks so much anymore. I did them and carnivals often when I was a teenager/early 20s, but got bored with them. I’m not a huge thrill seeker, but when I seek thrills, I actually prefer a little more real risk. I thought the areas of the Blue Ridge Parkway that didn’t have guard rails when I drove on that were more fun than any amusement park ride I’d been on.

When I did go to amusement park/carnivals, I liked the Tilt-A-Whirl because, with my friends there with me, we could make it spin faster ourselves.


3. Post favorite picture from the last six months?

Well, my favorite, most meaningful, photo of the past 6 months I already put in my blog. That would be the one of me with Tori and Rina grasping their honors cords on their graduation night, so I’m representing that photo with the shots of them individually with me.

Nana and Tori

Rina and Nana

And here is another big favorite of mine, the group shot from Scotty’s BIG 25 Party:

4. What do you (did you) call your grandparents? If you are a grandparent what do your grandchildren call you?

My grandparents were Grandma and Papa on Mom’s side and Noni and Nono on Pop’s side. I don’t have kids, but Tori and Rina call me Nana, formed from the attempts at “Aunt Nani” when they were little. I suppose if they have kids I might be “Grandnana” or I may just stay Nana. The oldest kids are always the ones who ultimately decide what grandparents (or grand-aunts) will be called.

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

5. Do you have a cup or glass that is you favorite for your morning beverage?

I have a couple hundred mugs in my collection, but I still drink my morning coffee in my “good morning mug.”

And A Week Later She Returns

Sorry to drop off the face of Cyberspace like that! My coffee shop was still open for reading and a cup of coffee, of course feel free to download a slice of black forest cake too, but the owner was not in the building to add new reading material! I apologize to my faithful regulars who missed me!

It’s been a crazy week and honestly, it’s probably going to remain crazy for a while. Lots going on! This coming Sunday is The BIG 25; our party to celebrate Scotty’s second 25th birthday. Let me explain. When Scotty turned 25, he said he was done with going up in years. He announced that he wqas going to remain between 21 and 25 the rest of his days. Sure enough, the next year, he insisted he was 24. The number went down for the next three years, when he was 21 again. Then the number kept going up until 25 and so on. When I put together his 40th birthday party, I called it “The BIG 21.” This year, although according to his formula he’s 24 in Scott-years, we’re calling the party “The BIG 25.” I’ve got a decade to figure out what we’ll call 60!

In the midst of party planning, David had a couple days in a row for his weekend on Thursday and Friday with work starting at noon on Saturday and gorgeous weather expected in Pennsylvania! Summer railfan days start early and end late, so even though I brought my laptop, I was too tired to blog at the end of the day! So there’s why there wasn’t anything at the end of the week.

So coming up in the next few weeks is Scotty’s party and Rina and Tori will be accepting their high school diplomas! There’s the last of the gift prep and a party coming up for that too. Then it’s pretty much time for David’s birthday and the festivities planned for that. So you see where I might not have as much cyber-time?

I’ll have some photos and maybe even a scrapbook freebie this week. I’m way overdue for a scrapbook freebie, but by the end of June I’ll reveal the big project that has been eating up so much of my digital creative time. For now, let’s just join the memmers at Acting Balanced for this week’s Monday Quiz About Me.

1. Finish this sentence - The last book I read and enjoyed was....

Collateral Damage by Austin Camacho; got it as a freebie and planning to read more Hannibal Jones Mysteries!



2. Do you have special Victoria Day (Canadian) or Memorial Day (US) traditions? If you don't live in Canada or the US, what is the next holiday that you are celebrating where you are?

I worked on Memorial Day weekend for many years and the first year that I didn’t I looked forward to being part of the traditional family celebration. They threw together a barbecue because I wanted to do something for the holiday. Came to find out that I had more festive summer holidays when I worked them! LOL David doesn’t really do much for the summer holidays either and we often go to Canada on Memorial Day and Labor Day because it isn’t a holiday there and the trains are running regular schedules on weekdays that we usually can’t be there to photograph them.


3. If you could invent something to make your life simpler, what would it be?

 Wow. I have a ton of ideas I’m working on! In an age where soda bottles are getting thinner and the caps are getting smaller I need them to go back to the old school sturdy bottles and easier to grab caps. Working on that,



4. What is your favorite recent blog post?

I’ve been off blogging for a few days so recent is a relative thing… I really enjoyed thinking about and writing about “the best part of being me,” for Tell Me Tuesday a few weeks back. Tell Me Tuesday is such a cool meme, hosted by Suzanne, The Coloradolady.  You should definitely check it out!


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

Breakfast when we’re on the road is always tough. Things are starting to change and offer both, but usually where you get great donuts, there aren’t really good savory breakfasts offered and where you can get a good sandwich, you can’t get anything sweet. Even when I did the Nutrisystem thing there were always people complaining about all the sweet breakfasts and so little savory and at McDonald’s there are lots of sandwiches with breakfast meats and eggs, but the few sweet offerings are either expensive or low quality, or both.

So my question for you:

Do you prefer sweet or savory breakfast foods?

I am a sweet in the morning person; give me cereal, a breakfast cake, a scone and sometimes a donut with fruit. I occasionally wake up in the mood for savory; an omelet or eggs and sausage. And I have a strange taste for McDonald’s sausage burritos. Even then, I was in my glory when they started offering oatmeal!

Angel and Devil Break

Another fun week in Blogland is drawing to a close. I’ve gotten pretty good with checking in, even just for a meme and a moment, daily. I wanted to do that for a while and I hope I can keep it up when my house project is done. We won’t have to worry about that for a while. But scrapping and blogging do a great job of getting me a good rest when I need it during the day and keeping me away from food! The exception being that the fruit basket and my laptop share space in the dining room. But the fruit is a good thing! Better than overdosing on M&Ms!

Right now I’m taking a rest between jobs for the day and the big bag of pretzel M&Ms and my last Ambrosia apple are fighting for my attention. The M&Ms are on my right and the apple is on my left which is totally skewed from the classic devil/angel scenario. I didn’t have milk stuff at breakfast because I cooked hot breakfast, eggs and sausage. I should probably have yogurt. I don’t have enough shoulders!

I decided last night that since I’m just stronger and more coordinated in the beginning of the day, I’d assemble the bookshelf during the day. It’s never going to be upright before it’s finished (I assembled the other one just like it upstairs a few years ago) I could sit on the floor and assemble it. That’s what I’m doing next. David said to assemble what I can and he’ll finish it when he gets home tonight. I hope all he’ll have to do is upright it and put it in the annex. We’ll see how much I can finish before another break-time!

Before I get working on the bookshelf, I want to do this week’s Friday Fill-Ins.


Follow Friday Four Fill-Ins




Every Friday, Hilary at Feeling Beachie posts four fill-in statements. It’s fun to read everyone’s answers and see how different they all are! I copy the statements and answer before I read Hilary’s. It’s not a meme that requires lots of time to participate and it’s fun! Stop on over and join in!

This week’s statements:
1. Nothing is better than.____
2. I ___my ___ in ___but never ____
3. Those _____ that are always _____ make me want to ___________
4. My favorite _________________ is when __________________________.

1.. Nothing is better than the feeling of accomplishment when a project is complete.


 2. I love my furry slippers in the morning but never find they’re quite warm enough at night. :(

 

3. Those Humane Society commercials that are always so sad make me want to adopt about 6 more cats! Scotty already refers to David and me as “That couple with the cats” because we had four at one time. We had all four cats for a while at each of our houses, but never as a permanent residence. Three has been, and is planned on being again, the highest number actually living with us.

4. My favorite coffee time is when I meet friends for coffee and we have no plans for after.

Monday Mug Shot

Stolen from Dunkin' Donuts, Novi, Michigan

No, that’s not a joke! It really is a stolen mug. I’m the one who stole it. The Statute of Limitations for petty theft in Michigan is 6 years. So I’m safe admitting it on my blog. I stole the mug in 1986 while I was employed by the Dunkin Donuts in Novi, Michigan. I’m not confessing. Well, I guess I actually just did confess, but that’s not the point. I’ve had employees steal things like this form before and I’d have stolen this mug for a customer had they asked too.

At the time we had a friend who went by “Denny” and often had dinner at Denny’s, his restaurant. (Wink, wink) We had schemed to steal just one place setting of the Denny’s logo flatware. Never did quite do that. We inquired about how much it would cost to buy a place setting for Denny, but were told they couldn’t sell it. Our waitress wrapped a setting in a napkin and presented it to him with an apology for “stealing his silverware” and “returned it to him." Because the reusable and breakable items are replaced often, restaurants usually had a certain amount that was expected to be lost and its good advertising if someone is using your logo at home

The sensible precedent had been set. As counter staff, I’d have given a cup to a customer who asked to buy one. It really was good advertising. We didn’t get requests much because my coworker and I worked the midnight shift and there were usually on-duty cops from the Michigan State Police precinct in Northville and the Novi officers. It would still have been okay, like I said, good advertising! Now almost any restaurant had items for sale with their logo. People will pay Dunkin Donuts to advertise for them now!

This was not a cup for sale when I was 19 and worked midnights. It was one of the cups we used to serve counter and booth customers. My Dunkin has changed there. If you go to the same D&D today, which is under new owners since I worked there, it’s been completely remodeled, is half Baskin Robbins ice cream and sells Dunkin Donuts coffee in “to go” cups for everyone. There are tables instead of a counter now and you’re welcome to have your coffee, donuts, sandwiches or ice cream there, but food and drink is served in nothing breakable or reusable n0owl.

Ah the old days at Dunkin. That Novi Dunkin Donuts is where Mom and I went for coffee after she took me to the mall to practice driving after hours. It’s also where I may John, who worked counters on the midnight shift. John was the first of my three best friends I met when I was only 15. He was 22 and he, Mom and I got to know each other well chatting after my lessons. John became a big brother to me and was one of my very best friends until he passed away in 2009. His sister asked me to be the first one to speak at his funeral to say something about our friendship and get the room warmed up a bit so others would feel comfortable. I could have talked a long time about what a great friend he was, but I only spoke a couple minutes until I couldn’t hold back the tears. How do you say goodbye to your oldest friend? After the luncheon, a group of us went to Dunkin Donuts in Novi to offer a coffee toast in his honor.

Scotty was with us that night we toasted John. I met Scotty there a couple years after I’d met John. Scotty became one of our group, the Zoo as my Mom called us. I was 17, he was 21. My closest friend in high school i0ntroduced us. She’d met Scott at the arcade where we all went on summer evenings. Scotty was and still is a rugged country boy with a sometimes intimidating exterior and the ultimate gentleman with a heart of gold. I think that’s one of the most endearing things about him when we met. Our misfit bunch was all not quite what we seemed.

Through Scotty, I met Kelly, a friend of his girlfriend at the time, in early 1988. Kelly just fit in with our group so well. She was recovering from a terrible accident, all scarred and stitched up, yet able to smile and she just blended in so well. I felt a connection with her. I admired her for meeting a group of strangers, her friend’s boyfriend’s friends, hobbling in with crutches and battle scars. She was beaten on the outside and warm and whole on the inside, a shell that was an illusion, like the rest of us. She and I became quick friends and to this day, I consider her my platonic soul mate.


I met my three best friends at that same Dunkin Donuts and we all drank from those very same cups like the one I brought home. Do I feel guilt in taking it so many years ago? Nah. Look at all the warm and fuzzy promoting it still does for Dunkin’!

Photoblog Wednesday

Stars of Leaf Terminator on Cat TV

If you've read Kaline's latest post at Behind Orange Eyes, you know all about the Movie her Daddy and Uncle were in! It took Scotty and David a couple hours to get all the leaves in our yard to the street for pickup. The leaves extended the length of our house and the pile is half-way up David. He's 6'5"!

The guys from the city spent a couple of hours on our street Tuesday and the leaves are gone.

Sunday Shorts

Well, I’m definitely not talking about the shorts you wear. It’s cold here in Toledo, but I have many friends and family who are snowed in in the east! Edna posted a little later than usual today. I thought she might be without power. I know she already had snow in her yard, and on her flowers, Friday morning and she is in that area for which The Weather Channel coined “snowtober.” She has power at home, but no power at work. She got some great photos of downed trees and the morning sky on her way home this morning. Visit her blog to see them! (Miss Edna’s Place)

David called his brother’s house last night. Their power was still on. He offered the idea that they should make a snow-pumpkin, similar to Frosty Cottontail that we did when we got snowed out from Grandma’s house for Easter a few years ago. Ellen, our SIL, thought it was a fabulous idea and figures JP will love it. I hope they send us pictures!

As for here, it’s 50 degrees, going down to 40, still chilly, I don’t like it to get below 60. Whichever angel was in charge of installing the internal heating element in souls that were going to the Midwest didn’t install mine. I’ve always been cold. I feel bad for the child born in Florida who got my heating element. We can’t just trade now. I married a properly equipped Northeastern boy. He doesn’t like hot weather.

Hugging myself in my fleece jacket and putting my plush slippers back on…brrr!!


Jewelry

When I first embarked on my weight loss journey, I was going to reward myself with a Pandora bracelet. They are gorgeous bracelets and so perfectly Nani. Bracelets are, my opinion, the absolute best piece of jewelry. I love my necklaces and earrings, but I don’t really feel like I’m wearing jewelry, I don’t feel pretty, without a bracelet. This has everything to do with why my favorite earrings are the dangly ones with at least a couple pieces in the dangle that clang together. I can hear them every time I move my head. Without noisy earrings, I don’t see them. Other people do, but I can’t enjoy them unless I look in a mirror. A bracelet, I see all the time.

I’d love to see this every time I see my wrist:



Or this:




Ah, but the Pandora bracelet is not the reward for my weight-loss milestones I hoped it would be. With the price of a Pandora bracelet, rewarding myself with technology is cheaper! But I still get trapped looking at bracelets and all the pretty beads to build something beautiful and original just for me. Last year, when David asked me what I liked from the Rogers and Holland catalog, for his reference, I discovered they carry a different version of the Pandora-style bracelet called Tuscani and I’ve since discovered a definitely cheaper online source, Pugster that sells base chains and beads that fit all the Pandora style bracelets. That’s something I’ve definitely bookmarked for future reference! I wish I could afford to give them to all my girls as gifts. Okay that’s me projecting me, I want everyone to feel as pretty as I do with a nice bracelet!

I AM going to get my Pandora styled bracelet, I don’t know that its beads are interchangeable, but look what I found!

Hope Paige Medical does a huge assortment of practical to stylish medical alert jewelry. That’s a medical alert bracelet! I’ve been diagnosed allergic to Penicillin since I was 15, but I never wore my bracelet because it was the generic one that wasn’t pretty and screamed, “Hey look! Something’s wrong with her!” Yeah, that darned Leo ego. I was thinking that I do enough running around town or driving up to Michigan alone, that I should at least have something that would direct medical pros to find my prescription list in my wallet if there was an emergency. And the one thing this medical ID bracelet has going for it that the old one did not, I LOVE the way it looks! There are a few beaded bracelets in the Pandora style. I could get three and put a different warning on each one so I can wear them together! Okay, maybe not, but it is a lovely medical ID bracelet! When I can get a Pandora style bracelet, it will combine with it just fine!


Halloween Prep


I love Halloween! I finished packing up the “candy bombs” yesterday. There are 150 bags, each with five pieces of candy, one tier one; mini candy bars, the larger Tootsie Rolls and mini boxes of Dots, one tier two; Whopper, Peppermint Patties, big Sweet Tarts packs and long, skinny tootsie rolls & Tootsie Pops and three tier three; Smarties, Tootsie Roll Midgies, Mary Janes, and mini packs of Sweet Tarts, Bottle Caps, Nerds and Laffy Taffy. The candy choices are a combination of large bags that have my favorites Mr. Goodbar and Tootsie Rolls and David’s favorites, Kit Kat, Heath, Smarties and Sweet Tarts in them. This year we don’t have Sprees for David or Bit-O-Honeys for me, but we do both like Bottle Caps. The belief here is when you don’t have a direct request, give a gift you would be happy to receive.

That’s what treats on Halloween are, gifts to kids we don’t know. I LOVE greeting the trick or treaters on Halloween. I remember how much fun it was when I was a kid to dress up and go trick or treating. People were usually nice to downright fun when you went to their houses. I always remembered to say “thank you” and when I got home with my pillowcase half full of candy there was always a moment of amazement. I don’t think I used the term “generous” at 6 years old, but I thought I lived in the best neighborhood because the people gave us kids so much. Like I said about Santa the other day, it’s a privilege to be an adult and get to give the treats now.

I love seeing the kids and costumes from the littlest in pumpkin suits that are falling asleep on Dad’s shoulder by the end of the street to the teens with their teen-age bravado begging for candy and sporting that same smile as the ten-year-olds when they get it. And I’m happy to say that they say “thank you” more often than not.

That’s a big reason why I love being in Toledo at this time of year. We had dwindled from about 20 kids the last year I trick or treated to none for about the last decade I lived in Novi. Our numbers have been growing here since 2007. Last year we had 147 kids! I lament that in this day, it’s not acceptable to even think of taking photos of the kids that visit. I’d love to scrap some of the cute costumes, but I do take photos of the decorations and candy and journal, journal, journal. This year David is working ion Halloween night and as long as the weather is okay, Scotty is coming down from Michigan to have early dinner with me and help me pass out candy. David worked last year too and I was really sore by 8:00. Scotty is going to make sure I don’t overdo the standing up and bending to put treats in bags. The kids won’t think it’s rude if I stay seated by the door to give candy.

Links:
Miss Edna's Place
Pandora
Pugster
Hope Paige Medical

Oowataweek

What a week it’s been! I just finished my school assignments for the week. They’re due on Sunday, but I prefer to have them turned in by Friday so I get the weekend for fun. This week, I made it! Okay, that had as much to do with David working the late shift Friday as me budgeting my time well, but ya use what you’ve got, right? This week I had a Friday night on my own.


Baseball Countdown

It’s been a little nerve racking in the baseball world. I went through some emotional trauma to get us tickets for the first game of the Division Series in Detroit. The first really good thing that happened was the Tigers clinched the Central Division, so there was USE for the tickets! The tickets came in this week, a pretty Division Series logo, Comerica Park and Game 1 on them with our seat numbers. The date, time and opponent TBD, to be determined.

As things stand right now, well, as they stand right now they need to keep standing that way. In the Nanicentric world, The Red Sox will be in town on Friday. The replay of our first date and no matter what the outcome, ONE of us will come home a winner. I’ll add that in the Nanicentric world, Game 1 is in Detroit on Friday so we’ll see Justin Verlander pitch.

The trouble here is so many things that are threatening to go wrong, not according to MY script. The Red Sox have been slumping and even after that phenomenal winning streak, the Tigers slowed way down with the first loss. The Orioles haven’t been much help with recent games against both of our American League teams either. We even found ourselves cheering on the Yankees when they played the Devil Rays. Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows, huh?


The Hook

One delivery box that came in this week was from Fox Sports. I needed new Tigers earrings for the playoffs. I have a couple of older pairs that are posts. Well, that’s one of the MS challenges I have to admit I have. Post earrings are next to impossible to put in! I’m right handed and I have a lot of lost sensation in my right hand and it definitely takes two hands for post earrings. I can wear French hooks. I have a couple pairs of French hook earrings that I got when we went to the Reds game last month and I just love them! I especially love the flat silver hoops with the reds logo floating in the middle. I’d love them no matter what kind of wire, but they are French hooks too! I wore those one a lot on vacation.



When I was looking for Tigers earrings online, I came across the very same earrings, but with floating Tigers logos. THOSE were MY earrings. I had to have them. The other cool thing about my favorite Reds earrings is that they only cost $8.50. The Tigers earrings? Same thing. $8.50 and about that much in shipping. So, in order to justify the shipping, which I hate paying but was going to pay anyway for those earrings, I picked out a shirt too. It was still under $30. Happy Nani!



Staying Away From the Studio

The last round of the layout competition started yesterday and I went to see who was advancing and what kit the finalists would be working with. I closed the browser window and, I’ll visit the Studio again in a couple weeks. If I’d made it to this week, I’d drop out. They will be working with a “Halloween” kit. ::shudder:: It’s a kit with spiders, huge spiders and tons of them. And they aren’t drawings of cartoon spiders. They are extractions of the creepiest and most hideous arachnids to be seen! EW! I am still getting chills writing about it because the image of the preview is just burned into my brain. BLECH!

Of course, the layouts done with that kit will be all over the gallery and I want NOTHING to do with them. Yeah, I kinda feel like there was some horrible plague there now. I’ll get over that. It’s the scrapbooking site I really love, just right now, I kinda feel chased out. Someone needs to make a Spider Spray scrapbook kit to fumigate the gallery!


Facebook, What A Mess!

That’s been big news in the last couple days. Facebook launched a new version that is the most invasive version yet. It pretty much turned off all the privacy settings and you can go back and reset them, if you can figure out how. There are no more current news feeds on the home page. There’s a little box that scrolls with current status updates, including every little action anyone on my friends list makes on their cyber farm, notifications I HAD turned off before, every time someone “likes” something and every comment they make on someone else’s page whether or not I now that person or have a clue what they are talking about. It feels creepy, like I’m eavesdropping on things I’m not supposed to part of.

But wait, there’s more! There isn’t news from my friends in chronological order of them posting, not even an option for that anymore. Instead, Facebook thinks it knows what the most important news to me is. Today, that would be my sister-in-law’s new hairdo. That’s SO much more important to me than the silly updates from Scotty’s sister, Jill, with doctor reports while Scott’s in the hospital. Right now, tests have shown nothing super wrong, but he has pneumonia. I’ve got an in-room number to give him a call this afternoon. The point is that Facebook thinks Laura’s hair is more important to me than one of my best friend’s health. They’re DEAD WRONG!

Jill and I have been keeping in touch in a private message, so I don’t miss any of her updates because I don’t live on facebook hanging on every song my teenage friends listen to, restaurant my cousin eats at or croissant my fiends serve in their play coffee shops.


So, instead of changing the settings on everything I look at, I just took some of my information off my profile and locked out all of my photos. I still have friends who use facebook instead of email, so I can’t close the account, but I don’t have to USE it for anything but private messages. I did start an account at Google+. I have a few friends that have accounts there already and it’s a much cleaner and more private interface.



Worldwide Photo Walk

This is sort of a segue from the Google+ talk. One of the people I follow on G+ is Scott Kelby, the chief orchestrator of Worldwide Photo Walk! He and Matt Kloskowski are on Google+. They are both great photographers, Photoshop artists and digital creative masters! Matt actually wrote one of the books I used in my Imaging class Spring Semester. It is totally cool to interact with them and with others in the posts about Worldwide Photo Walk

Worldwide Photo Walk is next weekend, October 1 & 2. Our group is very small. Right now, it’s just Sheri and me confirmed, but we’re waiting for a couple other responses. For the photo walk part, you select an area, scenic or trendy, to photograph, walk and photograph for 2 or 3 hours, then meet the Photo Walk group for coffee or lunch and compare photos. What a totally cool idea!

We’re going to Frankenmuth, Michigan, on Saturday. They have sculptures on Main Street this year from artists from the Midwest. Just in case Frankenmuth, Michigan's “Little Bavaria” isn’t cool enough! We’re going to go to the Bavarian Inn or Zhender’s for chicken dinner after we shoot photos. This is an unofficial Photo Walk. We didn’t have it solidified that we were doing it until just after the deadline to apply for an official Photo Walk, but I’m going to put up a page with details and open it up to anyone who’d like to meet us in Frankenmuth for photography and fun.



Cats

For anyone that read the blog Carla posted at Behind Orange Eyes, Kaline’s eye is doing much better! We still have to put ointment in it through Monday. Kaline doesn’t like the ointment and is now pretty much suspect and ready to flee whenever we get near her and she senses it not just to pet her. She’s not a dumb cat. She knows when it’s medicine time and she spends time with us, just not when it’s “that time” I’m kinda looking forward to Tuesday Morning – no more ointment!




Links:

Join me on Google+

Worldwide Photo Walk Information

Frankenmuth, Michigan

Frankenmuth Art Walk

Behind Orange Eyes