These Are Some More of My Favorite Things

I told everyone I was following Marti’s lead at Marvi Marti on the “Things I Love” and yesterday she did list 2, “10 Websites I Love.” My lists are in no particular order. There might be a website I love more than one of activities I love that I listed a couple weeks ago.  So, in NO particular order, here are 10 websites I love!

10 Websites I Love

1. Digital Scrapbooking Studio
This is the Digital Scrapbooking site I call “home.” I’m not as challengey as usual right now because the project I’m working on doesn’t so much lend itself to challenges. It IS the challenge and it would take too much of my work on it time to t4y to squeeze it into a challenge mold. I figure I’ll be back to challenges and Creative Team duties by the end of next month.

2. Playlist
Thanks to Edna of Miss Edna’s Place for directing me to this site. It’s the source of the playlist at the bottom of The Chronicles of Nani and also I site I’ve often gone to when I want some music while I’m cooking. They have some great featured playlists, including pretty much whatever genre my mood calls for be it dance music, hip hop, country or classical, and yes, the mood will strike me for any of those. I even favorited a Frank Sinatra list for myself!

3. Amazon
I LOVE Amazon! It’s not just Home of my personal collection of Kindle books, but I pretty much always get my textbooks for school there too, always a little to a LOT cheaper than the bookstore at school. I also got my first year as an Amazon Prime member free because I’m a student. Now I still get half off as a student and even at full price it’s worth every penny! How can you beat free 2-day shipping on pretty much everything! There are other sellers who post through Amazon, so if Amazon doesn’t actually carry it, they can hook you up with someone who does. I’ve also gotten MP3 credits when I order text books and, oh yeah, Amazon is where I spend 45 minutes a day, sometimes twice, to watch episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer for free as a Prime member. Most of my gift shopping is through Amazon. My fuzzy red slippers were from Amazon and most recently, my feather duster set got here just in time for the ceiling dusting!

4. IKEA
This one is recent. IKEA is key in a lot of the shelving and organizing items I’m using for the white tornado project. It’s also where I found the kit for the chest of drawers and night stand I’ve needed to replace for a while.

5. Site Meter
I’m a stats junkie! Site Meter is where I see how many people visit the Chronicles of Nani and from where they come when they visit. It lets me know what posts get the most hits so I can “serve the drinks everyone in my Cyber Coffee Shop likes the best!”

6. Pinterest
This is new for me, thanks to Marti for the invite! I read a pinned quote on Pinterest that “Pinterest is like Fantasy Football for women.” I think that’s fairly accurate! It’s a great place to share ideas. I’ve repinned and pinned some great recipes and craft ideas. It’s where the Stuffed Pepper Soup recipe came from and an organizational craft project I’m working onto. I also pin things that I want to think about purchasing. Cool thing there is it links to where the photos come from so Pinterest itself organizes and keeps recipes, craft directions, my White Tornado plans.

If you’d like to see what I’m in to or follow me, I’m Nani_Noted on Pinterest.


7. Craft Crave
I check out Craft Crave every couple days to see what’s new in the scrapbook freebies. Sometimes I’ll see one element that finishes a layout to my satisfaction or a word art that inspires an entire layout. It‘s also a great place to see kits from possibly up and coming designers!


8. Good Search
I try to remember to use Good Search whenever I need to search for anything on the web. I’m signed up so that when I use Good Search it credits a few cents per click to our local chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. If you’re looking for something simple to do to “give back” and you’re looking for an organization to help out, try Good Search and use National MS Society Northwestern - Ohio Chapter as your charity of choice! I’d really appreciate that, but there are so many organizations that would benefit from a few cents per click, every click, every time and spread the word. It adds up!

9. Toledo Blade
I read my national news through assorted links from iGoogle, but the Toledo Blade is my local newspaper! I get my city and state information here!

10. Patients Like Me
I stop at patients like me at least once a day to check in and fill in the “Instant Me” feature. Remember, love analyzing stats here. I allows me to record how I’m feeling by time of day, day of week. I also communicate with others dealing with MS, even people taking the same medications as me!

100 Things I Love

It’s not an original idea of mine. I’m riding coattails! Marvi Marti posted the first ten things on her list today. She initially got the prompt from Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online. The list is done in tens, Marti did her first ten today, so now I am too.


Okay, let’s get this love-fest started!

10 Activities I Love

1.  Baseball Games - I love baseball and I don’t really think there was a time I didn’t.. I’ve told the story about Mom dancing with me when the Tigers won the 1968 World Series and how much I loved following the Tigers and Reds as a kid. I saw a game in the 1984 World Series and watched the final game in an all ages club on the big screen with my parents. I was allowed to TRY to watch the Reds World Series games in the 70s, but my single-digit aged self couldn’t make it.

Last year, David and I tied my season high of 21 games seen, finishing it with a Division Series Tigers game. Would have broken the record if the Tigers had made it to the World Series. We had tickets.

My current dream is to be in Cincinnati on Opening Day


2. Train Chasing - It’s funny. When I finished trade school, I had firmly decided I was moving to Atlanta. My first interview was with Green Frog Productions, a railroad video company in Marietta, Georgia. I loved trains and the entire thought of chasing trains and videotaping them was just an incredible idea to me. Alas, I didn’t get the job and while my Mom went with me to museums and on tourist trains, she wasn’t going to go chase freight trains so I could photograph them and there wasn’t anyone else who would even go to the museums with me.

14 years later I replied to an email inviting me to a presentation at a Mensa event. I had no idea who the man was that was inviting me, but the presentation was trains he’d photographed, his hobby. This man did that I had wanted to do so many years ago. When I emailed back and said, “Trains, I’ll definitely be there,” it led to a few emails exchanged, an invitation to a baseball game for a first date and, well, we’ve been married 3 years now. We still love to chase trains together!


3. Scrapbooking – My scrapbooking is both the pictorial record of my life and an art, my self-expression. It’s evolved from photo albums from high school, most of the photos with no names or places, to photos with captions, hand-written, raped on paper strips. Then it became pages with ephemeris and typed and cut out captions and title on magnetic pages, followed by actual paper scrap pages and after a short while of printing the photos from my first digital camera, I started digital scrapping. That was 2007 and I was scrapping 2005. It was a couple years of “can’t afford to print the photos,” that put me behind. I’m catching up now.


4. Baking – I love kitchen stuff in general, I come from a long line of great cooks and I grew up with the kitchen gadgets in several drawers and a utensil pot next to the stove. That’s why the obsession with my future kitchen. I designed it in my mind and my storage is full of boxes of peach and greed gadgets, dishes and calicos. I have a green calico kitchen cat and a kitchen pig wand. The pig want removes the calories when you wave it over the food. :)

I’ve made my own recipes for many things from scratch or by doctoring up ready-made things, but I love baking the most of all the kitchen-crafts. Baking allows my culinary gifts to really shine and while a good meal makes people feel satisfied and they enjoy it, something baked and sweet always make everyone smile!



5. Board Games – I love games night with friends, I love just playing Yahtzee or Qwirkle at home with David. Games give your brain some good exercise and they aren’t like concerts or other activities you do outside someone’s home because it’s quieter. It allows for conversation and quality time with the other people of your choice.


6. Having Coffee – Coffee is not just a drink. To me “Having Coffee” is being with a friend of two for conversation. The act of having coffee with someone is much more intimate than just a beverage. I used to have coffee with my great grandmother every Tuesday once I started driving, I had coffee with Grandma on the phone on Mondays and I make a point of having coffee with friends in Michigan at least once or twice a month.



7. Aunting – Kids just get cooler and cooler as they get older! I truly enjoyed the time spent with Tori and Rina when they were little, helping them learn and learning from them too. As they got older and could learn at a higher level, it was fun watching them figure things out and then form their own opinions about things. Now they drive when they are over and we share many things we have in common and can debate, in a civilized way, they things we see differently. I mean, last mouth I had a political discussion with the baby I comforted when she had a tummy ache. How cool is that?


8. Reading – Since getting my Kindle, the old one with the grey background and black writing, I’m enjoying reading with a new vigor. You see that darker background has solved whatever conditions cause my dyslexia and I read much more comfortably and faster. I LOVE my murder mysteries!


9. Coin Collecting – this is something I started doing with Grandma, who did it with her uncle. My biggest passion in coins is pennies. I collect both American and Canadian pennies. My oldest Canadians are 1920 something and the oldest American ones are Indian heads!


10. Cleaning and Organizing – I think I would have to say I love this in the same way any addict loves getting their fix. Once I got started cleaning and organizing in the annex, I found myself in that addict spot. I can not pick up something when I’m near it. It’s a healthy obsession!



Whew! Okay, I see why it needs to be broken up into segments! Net ten will be…soon!

Links

Marvi Marti

Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online.

2012 Projects and Goals

It’s that time of year again. After a 2011 that saw many goals not obtained and many projects wanting for a slot in 2012, I’m really looking forward to the New Year and the opportunity to get back on track.

Now, in all fairness to 2011, it started with the MS symptoms getting worse and worse and me having no idea that my troubles were anything worse than needing to tweak my diet to improve the fatigue and probable back surgery to fix my mobility. My projects list centered on changing my food balance, recovery from surgery and more exercise. I had no idea that in May I still wouldn’t know what was wrong. I expected to be in recovery by then! As it worked out, the classes I’d planned to do in rehab were taken during the worst of the stress with all of this. I earned my first B and an incomplete that is now a D! It was not at all a time to try to learn a new computer language! I’ll be able to fix the D when I retake XML. It kinda sucks to not be on the Dean’s List for the first time since 1984!

All the medical and school stress had an adverse effect on my weight loss too. I lost 40 pounds in 2010 and felt ambitious about at least that much more in 2011. Humph. Did you know stress causes enzymes in your body to do weird things that actually hold on to fat? Imagine, the stress causes weight to fluctuate and even makes you gain despite a balanced, reduced calorie diet and exercise! Yeah and that causes more stress, which make weight loss even harder and you find yourself thinking seriously about a whole pint of Ben and Jerry’s with hot fudge and whipped cream but no cherry on top because you’ve decided that fruits and vegetables are mocking you.

No. I did NOT do that! But, maybe I thought about it once or twice this year!

The point is that while I was totally brain-muddled in a class I thought would be much easier for me, being shoved in an MRI tube three different times and tested for a possible brain tumor, my weight loss goals were not progressing. I lost 6 pounds in 2011, as of mid-December. I’ve probably gained that much back in the last 2 weeks of festiveness, but as is usually true with Januaries, I’ll shed that by the end of the month and start again, this year without the stress of the unknown or even school as I’ve taken the semester off.

So now, after getting myself organized with what’s wrong with me, what medications I need, a good diet and my physical therapy exercises. I’m ready to move forward…starting with looking back. I have some things from last year that were unfinished or left with alterations I have to put in place.


Updates from 2011 Projects and Goals

Medical Project

Last year the medical project was all about getting an MRI, surgery if needed, repairing myself physically. I wanted to get back to aquatic therapy!

Well, we know it wasn’t at all that simple! This year, now that I’m on a medication, checkup pending, that seems to really work for me, I’m medically concentrating on my therapy exercises, learning to use the AFO and shoring up some key places in our home with devices that will assist me. I’m specifically thinking of the hand shower David and I are installing in the shower in January, a wheeled cart for moving things around in the kitchen and boy, I’d love something secure to grab on at the top of the stairs. I know grabbing the window sill on the top stairs and the doorknob on the bottom ones is not really good for those pieces of hardware that aren’t made for lifting a person and if they give out that’s really unsafe for me.

In addition to the assistive devices and keeping up with my medications and vitamins, I want to do some research on other herbal and homeopathic things I can incorporate, like the turmeric and lemon tea, the taste of which I’ve really grown quite fond.



Weight Loss & Exercise Goal

My weight loss goal is pretty much the same as last year, but this year I WILL do it. I don’t blame myself for 2011 not being as successful as planned. I didn’t gain, I just didn’t lose much. Actually that’s okay. Remember I’d accepted that my face would hollow out and I’d look sick for a couple years. Well, losing as little as I did this year, my face has tightened back up from where it had been and I look better. (Score one for seeing the rainbow, not the rain there!)

So, I’m recommitting to my healthy diet after the holidays, just as last year, but knowing what challenges are before me and knowing what stress does helps me a ton! I’m going to incorporate meditation and relaxation time into my day, just a few minutes a day, but I’m going to reclaim essential mental balance. A lot of people will laugh at that because I work really hard to be mentally balanced, have since my early 20s! But the uncertainty prior to diagnosis was a fierce emotional toxin!

Exercise will be my therapy exercises and my stationary bike. It would be nice to think by late spring I’ll be able to either work on my upper body with the wheelchair or strong enough to walk short distance with the walker and AFO at the park. I’m going to let my physical therapist help me decide if and when that’s realistic.



Scrapbook Goals

Okay the goal last year was to keep up 2011 while finishing 2008 and keeping up on the project I was working on. The due date for the 2008 books was December 31, the 2011 books January 31 and I want that project done by February 29. 2008 is now the catch up goal for 2012. I got a good chunk of 2008 done, but only about half. I’m in June 2011. It’s not out of the question that I’ll finish by the end of January with a couple scrapping weekends, but I may realistically move that date back to the end of February. We’ll see where I am in a few weeks. The project is a gift and that is now the number one priority. I really can’t extend the finish date because it needs to be proofread and edited before it can be printed. Full disclosure and details on this MAJOR project will come after it’s given!

So 2012 scrapbook goals:

Priority Project complete and ready for proofreading February 29, 2012
2011 books completed with a flexible deadline of January 31, 2012
2008 books complete and ready to print December 31, 2012
2012 books completed January 31, 2013


House Uncluttered Project

This was an ambitious project to juggle in with classes and probable back surgery for just 2 rooms this year. It also ended up being an epic fail as a 2011 plan. The plan for 2012 is even bigger!

Knowing my limitations and requirements now, I’m a little more capable. That is lots of chairs, walkers and a telescoping feather duster will allow me to do more. Taking the semester off from school is Multigoaling! I’m going to start with the atrium off the kitchen where many of my boxes from Grandma's house are still stacked. I have a vision of at least one shelving unit for easy access of the modern kitchen appliances that were never that abundant in the 1950s. David and I were also discussing baskets for the K-Cups instead of stacked open boxes on top of the bread box.

From that room I’ll move out to finish the main level of the house, including some handicap access updates. I’m hoping that can be completed by the end of February. Remember I can’t do a physical 8 hours a day and anything that includes moving big things or heavy boxes will wait until David comes home.

It’s a lot, yet I don’t think I’m setting up any unrealistic ideas for myself. And for the physical work, the psychological rewards will be huge on many levels!


New Goals for 2012

Blog Goals

The big goal for the Chronicles of Nani has already started. I wanted to commit more to my regular blog features and add a few. I wanted to commit some time every day I post a blog to reading blogs and commenting. Call it corporate citizenship. I want to really appreciate those who stop by my cyber coffee shop. I’ve been doing well at keeping The Chronicles up and I’ve really been enjoying making friends and being a bigger part of the cyber community. I guess my blog goal is to continue what I’ve been doing, try to offer at least one digital scrapbook freebie a month and encourage everyone to get me those Friday By Request ideas!


Employment Goal

This is a biggie! I need to get back to work, but it’s still an awful job market and now I am officially physically disabled. It’s without a doubt scary. The New York chapter of the National MS Society is hosting a series of teleconferences in the beginning of 2012 about looking for work and having MS. I’ve registered for all 6 teleconferences/webinars.

I hope to be newly resume-ed and ready to get back to applying by fall. But I truly have a lot to learn. For instance, and this is the scariest question for me, when do I disclose my disability? Should I be upfront about needing assistance or do I walk in “Surprise!” for an interview with the walker when they can’t legally throw me out and try to impress them to the point of forgetting about it? I will attend the conferences with my questions in hand!


So there are my personal projects and goals for 2012. As always, this or something better. Ambitious? Sure, but if I made it through 2011 and I can still smile, I can do ANYTHING!

The Tuesday Editions

Yesterday was a very busy. Remember I said some time last week that that was the busy week and I’d be able to take it a bit easier this week? Yeah, right who am I kidding?

Part of it is my own greatness. Hehehe… This has been just a bumper-crop year at the Davinities cookie farm! When the cookie trays came out Saturday they went fast! I had to refill from the trays of extras in the kitchen! And I have to agree that the cookies did turn out really tasty this year. I had made “favors,” cookie bags to take home, for everyone and they were all were quite eager to make sure they grabbed their bag before they left. That makes me so happy!

I was a little shy on my normal amount of fine chocolates for the party this year, but the cookies actually went in more abundance. After restocking the party trays, it leaves me a little shy for Christmas, so I’m fortifying my resources! The Chewy Black Forest was a large batch, so I don’t need to make more of those, same with the Almond Sugar Cookies, but the Mr. Goodcookies and especially the Chocolate Chunk Hazelnut and Gingerbread are completely gone.

Now I will make a point of making sure it’s known that David ate the last Chocolate Chunk Hazelnut and I ate the last Gingerbread cookie yesterday. So, I did NOT run out of anything at the party. My Noni would be sitting next to me with that tilted hand accenting every word, half in Italian. It would not be a friendly Heavenly visit! A host running out of something their guests are enjoying is a mortal sin!

So today’s original schedule, which was one Loaded Loaf and finish the wrapping, is now a Loaded Loaf and Gingerbread cookies and finish wrapping. The Chocolate Chunk Hazelnuts are added to Crostadas tomorrow. I still have about 8 Mr. Goodcookies left and I’ll use half on the tray for home and the rest on the tray I take to Pop’s Christmas Eve. I’m still trying to not have any baking left on Thursday. We’ll see what happens there. David is working Friday night, our anniversary, so we’re doing dinner the night before. No gripes about him working that night. He worked the night shift the day we got married too, so it’s kinda romantic that he’s working!


Meet Me On Monday on Tuesday

Yesterday's busy was just enough that I didn’t get all my regular Monday blogging stuff done. It happens sometimes and by the time I got groceries and couple more little stocking things done and, well, I was beat! David and I went out and got our ham for Christmas last night and the scooters at the Andersons were all charging. I know from shopping earlier that yesterday was a busy grocery day. So we took out the wheelchair and used that. Even with David pushing a good part of the time, my arms were in the “falling off” mode!

But, a day late and a candy cane short (because I ate it) here’s Meet Me On Monday!

Every Monday Java at Never Growing Old gives us 5 questions to get to know each other better. Well, since the next two Mondays will not have MMOM questions because of the holidays the next 2 Sundays, we have 15 questions, to fill in for those weeks. The theme is Christmas Prep!

This Week’s Questions:

1.Wrapping paper or gift bags? I like gift bags, but I usually don’t have tissue paper, so most of the time I wrap.

2. Real or artificial tree? Artificial.

3. When do you put your tree up? I used to do all my decorating the day after Thanksgiving or the day after I got home when we started going to Grandma’s. Now it's when David and I can coordinate schedules.

4. When do you take your tree down? After Epiphany, January 6. David and I were both raised recognizing when the Wise Men got there. My Mom set up her Nativity with the Wise Men far away from the stable and after Christmas Day began to move them a little closer every day

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes I do and so does Rina, so I made sure to get some when I did the groceries yesterday.

6. Do you have a nativity scene?
I got the stable and holy family in my Nativity when I was 21. It’s Fontanini and I love the Old Italian look. I’ve collected other pieces bit by bit. In addition to Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, I have the animals, Wise Men, several shepherds and shepherdesses with sheep and a sheep dog, villagers, musicians and barn cats. A certain orange house cat has gotten much better about staying out of the Nativity.

Baby Kaline just wanted to nap with Baby Jesus?

7. Favorite Christmas Movie? Early in the season, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, and near or on Christmas, It’s A Wonderful Life

8. Favorite Christmas cookie? This year, all of them! (very proud!) But I most pleased with having found and tweaked the perfect gingerbread recipe for which I’ve been searching about ten years! I’ve always bought gingerbread because mine just wasn’t good enough. This year, I’m making more gingerbread!

9. Where will you eat Christmas dinner? David, Rina and I will have Honey Baked Ham in Toledo. Our big family dinner is Christmas Eve at my cousin’s. It’s a traditional fish dinner, mostly fried. I’ll enjoy the family at that meal, the food at home on Christmas.

10. Angel, bow or star on top of your tree? Angel. I bought that angel when I bought the first Fontanini pieces.

11. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? That fried fish dinner?

12. Do you like Fruitcake? Traditional fruit cake, no. I have tried some variations that have been good and I loved the Celebration Generation fruit cake cookies! I have the recipe for those too!

13. What are you most excited about the holidays? This year, I’m totally geeked that Rina will be with us on Christmas Day. David is fine with some of the traditions that I keep, but Rina "gets" them because she grew up with them too.

14. Do you open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning? Christmas morning. As a kid it was always after church, which meant the first place Dave and I went after midnight mass was to see if Santa had stopped while we were in church. He never did. We figured maybe he went in alphabetical order and Southgate was pretty far down on the list.

15. Will you still be wrapping presents on Christmas Eve? I want to say “I hope not,” but if something jumps out at me and says, “Just one more, I’d be a great stocking topper,” I’ll end up wrapping Christmas Eve.


See more Meet Me On Mondays and maybe even join in on the fun!




Barn Charm

In honor of the Christmas holiday, which will be past us by the next Barn Charm, I’m going a little off the strict interpretation of a barn because when I saw this I loved it!

These guys were hard at work on top of the entertainment center last weekend at a friend’s Christmas party.

The party was hosted by a friend of David’s, the host for train operating sessions with the group of guys he does model railroading with in Michigan. It was my first time meeting Mike, the host, and the rest of the guys. I was not the only wife there, but I may very well be the only wife who drooled over the CTC system he has in a control room upstairs. It's a vintage real deal that he has wired for his layout in the basement. The operating sessions are SO authentic. I told David I want one for our layout with a mug rack over it. Dispatching is a perfect job for someone who can’t do the standing. But I’d want less authentic video so I can see the trains too


For the barn purists, I also offer this one that we shot on the way to hockey last weekend in Connecticut:

There are lots of barns in the neighborhoods near Ben’s place. Some have been converted to garages or out buildings of that type, but a lot of the barns are kept up and are part of the beautiful antique homes.


See more barns this week at Tricia’s Barn Charm at Bluff Area Daily.

Friday By Request

This week’s request is from Seamhead Gypsy who sent this challenge:

Where or how does one know specific train schedules?


For about 2 years now I've been gathering ideas and trying to teach myself some of the nuances of model railroading. Thus far my only accomplishment was two years ago when I made a temporary setup under and around one of our Christmas trees. For me the fun was using the glue other materials to make the scenery where my little winter town was set. I tried (wanted) to do a polar express theme last year but never could find enough info to be authentic enough.


FBR is for me to continue to do research. I want to see the trains so I can be sure that I have the right details.


There are actually a few questions in there, but I’ll try to help!

The first thing I did was to ask my railfan guru, David, a few questions to make sure I have my facts right. (Always check your facts, then if you’re wrong, you can blame someone else!)


I sense that you want more the opportunity to see the detail on the trains for modeling as much as how they run, so I have some suggestions.

First off to see the trains in action, I’ll suggest find some local railfans and ask to hang out and observe when they chase trains. It worked for me. No, falling in love with them is NOT a requirement, especially if you are a married dude and most of them are married dudes. The whole romance of the rails thing works best if there are 2 single people who are mutually attracted anyway. But seriously, look for guys hanging out near the railroad crossing, the extra antenna on the car lets you know there’s a good chance it’s a railfan. Let them know you’re an aspiring model railroader and you are looking to learn.

If you don’t want to be so bold, try learning about signals. Get familiar with the railroad and get a feel for when the trains come by. There are great books and online resources for learning what the different signals mean. I’m still working on that. It’s not easy, but it’s easier than figuring out baseball signals!


When David and I got out, we use those things. He’s also on the phone all the time with other railfans, some who work for the railroad or for a shipper who works with the railroad. When a dispatcher has a minute and calls a friend to tell him where the train is, it’s NOT insider trading! The big companion when we chase trains is the scanner. The same way a scanner tuned to police radio can hear what’s going on, a railfan listening to railroad communication can figure out what crossing the train will be at next. Understanding the jargon can be challenging sometimes too!


If you are looking to see some trains up close to really see the detail, I recommend a train zoo! A train zoo is what I call a train museum. Rina started to enjoy trains seeing them up-close at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. There’s SO much to see there, including a few antique locomotives you can walk right up to and take photos. There are some train zoos that also have a train that runs, a tourist train. I know in Ohio there is the Ohio Railway Museum just north of Columbus in Worthington. They have a train that runs there for a reasonable admission, great for getting kids into the trains too! There are lots of train zoos in the US. Google “Railroad Museum” and the state where you’re looking to find one. There’s a good chance you might not have even known there was one near you.

The last thing I’ll suggest is seek out a local model railroad club or train hobby shop. Ask questions. Most railroad club members are passionate about their hobby and won’t take much prying to get them talking about it. I’ve always found that the best thing is, to humble yourself a little. If I say up front that I’m a novice who wants help, I find more often than not, I get help.

I hope that’s some decent information to get you moving in the right direction, Seamhead Gypsy. If you seek more, you can always drop me an email!


Next?

If you’d like to give me the next Friday By Request, send me an email! I’ll write about, photograph, scrap or do poetry or song lyrics. Think the idea is just too crazy? Send it to me. I might still be able to do something for you! The first person to send an email as of now will be next week’s Requester. You get to challenge me and a link to your blog if you want it. I hope you’ll join in!

Links
Ohio Railway Museum

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

My List

Nani's Nukable Cocoa-Espresso Breakfast Cake (sugar free!)

Good Saturday morning!

It was a sleepy start to the day for me. Okay, by some people’s standards waking up just after 8 on a Saturday morning is NOT sleeping in, but I’m usually up and about between 6 and 7. After a couple of days of lots of sitting and fewer breaks than usual because I was a woman on a mission, finishing up my XML exam, my legs, even my feet were sore. Yeah, that’s odd, but connected with my multiple messed up disks. If I sit straight up, as I do when writing code, it’s just such a position that messes with the leg circulation, a little in the left and a lot in the right. As soon as I stand up things start getting better and if I stretch, the pain almost instantly goes away and even my cold toes warm up. As a result of that tunnel vision that makes me not notice the problem while I’m “in the zone,” I had one of those days yesterday where my leg muscles were sore and spasming hit and miss. That means I took a bed-time muscle relaxant last night. That always makes me oversleep. That cocoa-espresso cake and a cup of Autumn Harvest coffee is a wonderful wake-up breakfast!

So, with a slow wake-up and lots of stiffness, I started thinking about my one-year plan. I have 5-year and 10, 25, etcetera plans, but the biggie for right now is that one-year and my list. The List is NOT and never will be what people refer to as a “Bucket List.” I HATE that term! “Things you want to do before you ‘kick the bucket’” Sends chills down my spine to hear of it. I would never make such a list, one that would put an expiration date on me. I guess I could put “live forever” as the first item, but well, I thought the point was to put grand achievable things on that list. If you put just a few things, you are ready to “go” once they are done, an expiration date. If you put to many, you won’t achieve them all, a recipe for failure. I don’t want to have anything to do with either one of them! I want to do everything and not stop until it's time to stop. No timeline, no regrets. My glass has always been half-full and there has always been room for more! I intend to always enjoy the half I have and always add more every chance I get. A "Bucket List" is either too limiting or it sets up for a fall. I just fall to much as is to have a bucket list!

My “list,” the one I refer to now when I say “it’s on my list,” is a list of the things I want to do again. It’s the list of what I’m taking back once whatever needs done to my back is done. In recovery I’ll start to work on my list, so right now, is time to add to the list, to complete it. The very first thing on my list is cleaning cat boxes. Who would have thought I’d miss that? Truth is I don’t miss the chore, but I miss being able to do it. David and I have three cats. I should be cleaning one and half cats worth of litter box. I owe him quite a few 3 three-cat box days already! I want to get whatever procedures are necessary done, come home from recovery and clean the cat boxes first thing. Somewhere down the line, I want to work up to buying a bicycle so I can go to the park and ride a real bike again.

As for today’s list, a simple “to do” list, I’ll start off with the dishes in the kitchen and getting a start on laundry. Then, as I hear the poker and computer game music in the other room already, it’s going to be some scrap-time. I’ll be working on my Imaging class assignment this week, which is an opportunity to scrap at lunch since Photoshop is already open, but it’s also lots of class work that is NOT scrapping (but makes me want to scrap!) SO for today, Photoshop is not school software, but hobby software. I think it’ll work out well. It’s still cold, snow-covered and a bit cloudy, so I’ll scrap until my legs are feeling the need to stretch, which will be about change laundry load time, when I’ll get that stretching done. It’s going to be a great day!

2010, Week 1

Well, it’s a week into the second decade of the third millennium AD…

That’s the key to happiness – make every day an event. Think about it, there has never been a January 7, 2010 before and there never will be one again. In your lifetime, you will meet people who weren’t here for this day. They’ll only know about it by your memory of it. This days belongs to US.

Today was the first day of the semester for me. I earned my first 10 points for the class by posting my introduction in the discussion forum. The forums are how you earn your class participation in online classes. I also now have 50 pages to read between tonight and tomorrow so I can get working on the assignments. So now all of my New Year goals are in process!

I did my catch-up layout for today this morning, picking up the notes for the speed scrap at Designs in Digital. The speed scraps there are due by 5 the next day, to give all time zones the opportunity to join in. I got it done in just over an hour while I had breakfast!

Credits: Kit is Aidan Again by Retrodiva Designs

Today’s “scrapping in the now” layout is the first week of Java 365!

Credits: January Recycle Bin by Mrs JayBob,

Template is modified from Project 52, Week 1 by Dogs Day Designs

After blogging tonight, I owe me one more catch-up LO. I didn’t do one yesterday because I was in the Motherland for most of the day. I went to visit Grandma first. That’s become a visit that’s a little draining for me, but still one I’m glad I do. Her confusion is increasing, but there is so much she still fights to remember and understand. It’s the moments of fire in her eyes, that glance of happiness that I’m there that make every bit of difficulty and every mile of the drive worth it.

Then I stopped at Cracker Barrel in Belleville to meet Tracy and Heather for dinner. My plan really was to leave for home by 8:00 and NOT close the place like we always end up doing. Well, the guy who locks down the rocking chairs on the porch at close held the door open for us when we were leaving. I frustrate myself, but I don’t take it to heart. I know how lucky I am that I have dear friends that I can just get so wrapped up in being with that we all lose track of time. And they are friends that make the same effort I do to be together, it’s that important to us. I got into the house 45 minutes after I left the restaurant, just as I was getting the “I’m home” text from Heather. I texted back “Me too,” and sent an “I’m home” to Tracy who sent back “Okay, me too now,” just a few minutes later. So, now I need to finish up another catch-up layout to keep on track. A small price to pay for such awesome people in my family!


Friend of Wife 1500

I found an awesome diet tool online! LiveStrong.com has some great food and fitness tools. You can choose to use them in your account privately or publicly in the online community. I choose to use the tools privately. I know that a lot of people do well with steady support or by making a detailed public affirmation, actually writing about this on my blog is my affirmation, I just don’t do well with a “diet stage” where strangers encourage you to change. Even if I want to make changes in my life, I don’t want a stranger agreeing with me! Some people like to post a picture of themselves at their physical worst where they can see it all the time to keep them from “cheating.” I think looking at a picture of myself that looks as bad as I can is putting way to much importance on appearance and fostering a negative self image. I prefer to get a really cute blouse that doesn’t fit…yet and have my reward as a goal!

I have my food, water and exercise diary at livestong. They have a fantastic food database for counting the calories and nutrition stats. I even found Bauli Panettone, Mac Snack Wraps and Cracker Barrel sides there! They also have the stats for all of my Trader Joe’s favorite items! So far this week, I’ve hit between 1000 and 1500 calories every day, which is my goal range. That total is low enough to reduce me, but high enough not to lower my metabolism. That was my problem with the South Beach diet when I tried it. I have elevated cholesterol and have had for a while. I have to keep the fat content of what I eat in check. Low carb diets are made for people with high blood sugar and no problems with cholesterol. I knew the recipes in South Beach were a fat content that was essentially heart attack on a plate for me, so I cut the fat out. I was consuming 500-600 calories a day. I felt sick and lost three pounds the first week – then I gained 4 the next week.

At livestrong.com, I get to analyze the stats at the end of the day, and I LOVE analyzing stats! My averages for this week have been at about 100% or less of the RDA carbohydrates and sodium, very low in fat and cholesterol and high in sugar. That doesn’t really surprise me because I’m really conscious of the fat and cholesterol intake. I’ve never had issues with blood pressure and my blood work has consistently been perfect in the area of blood sugar levels. So, if the balance is a little high in sugars but low in fats, I’m okay with that. What I love, is that I now have a calculator that will measure all of the other levels for me so I can concentrate on the calories and just make sure I keep the other levels in check. So, “My Plate” at livestong is my Wife 1500 best friend!


Tomorrow is going to be our undecorating day. The tree stays up and lit until epiphany, which was yesterday. It’s always a sad day for me when the tree comes down. I love the lights and our tree is very personal, all the bits of David and me, from the crystal ballerina Mom gave me in recognition of my dancing as a child to the glass poker chip stacks recognizing David’s evening hobby. The cats, the coffee cups, the baseball and train ornaments and all of our dated ornaments, one for every year we’ve been together, our tree is a beautiful celebration of the holiday and the hearts that make ours a home. Oh the love and smiles will always live here, but the magic that is the holidays will go back in the boxes to sprinkle it’s glitter again in another 11 months!

Okay, now I’m going to celebrate what’s left of my one and only January 7, 2010, ever. I hope you all enjoyed yours!


Links - livestrong.com

Long Time No Blog!

It’s been, for me, a long time since I posted a blog! Life has been busy and hectic. That’s a drag because one of the reasons I blog is to relax and not blogging means less relaxing too!

Grandma is actually doing fairly well. I’m really uneasy about putting her back on all those m medications, but I’ll be talking to the nurse practitioner that has been seeing her tomorrow to discuss what the next steps might be. I visited her on Tuesday, what an awesome day for me! I don’t even know if anyone else got in to see her Tuesday, but we had a couple hours of talking. She had incredible clarity that day. It was almost like talking to her before she went into the hospital or on our regular Monday night calls, which were often hour-long phone calls. I told her the minutes on my phone were for her and Kelly because I don’t really talk on the phone for any more than I absolutely have to with anyone who is less than an hour away! I don’t like talking on the phone and I’d rather say, “meet me half way for coffee.” But Tuesday was a special day. She had almost full control and memory. I considered our time together that day a treasured gift! Dad said when he visited her Wednesday she was in good spirits, but without that same clarity and she didn’t remember me being there the day before. So it really was a special gift from Grandma, just for me.


Pumpkin Spice Season is Here!


I stopped at a gas station on the way to see Grandma, because I can’t get all the way there without a potty-stop, no matter how little I drink. I usually eat something salty before I go anywhere so I can cut down on the stops when I’m driving, but Grandma is just far enough away that I can’t avoid it. That was a good thing Tuesday, because the gas station I stopped at had PUMPKIN SPICE CHEAT-A-CCINO!! It was my second Pumpkin coffee treat this fall. Last weekend, David and I stopped to put gas in the car at our local Speedway. I told him that I’d pump if he’d go in and see if they had pumpkin spice yet. He came back out, empty handed and said that they had pumpkin spice creamers, was that okay? Hehe...creamers are even better! The wonderful man who complains about how much coffee I drink brought me 7 creamers and a 24-ounce coffee! I was set on coffee for the rest of the day (and then some) but oh it was GOOD coffee!

We also have a pumpkin spice pudding cake that I’ve been having little nibbles of the past few days. That was on sale at Kroger. The Pudding cake is great because it’s so moist that a half-ring can be nibbled for a week without getting dried out if you keep the cover on the package.



Dr. Frank’s

My bottle of Dr. Franks joint and muscle pain relief spray came in yesterday. I haven’t been happy with the results of therapy and if I can avoid drugs, I’ll do that. I ended up with an even weaker hip and pain in the hip and knee joints that was chronic! I’m taking glucosamine and condroitin every day and icing my hip do while I’m doing homework. I’m just now starting to have periods of time without pain and can comfortably shower standing up without fear of falling! The doctor said I could take as many as 4 Advil if the pain was really bad or he could prescribe something stronger.

Something stronger?? Than FOUR Advil???

Okay, I have to remember it’s a new doctor. I’ve been in to see him twice and apparently he doesn’t believe me when I tell him drugs are an absolute last resort. Yeah, I totally get that doctor and patient have to work together for things to work. I’ve done the month of therapy the insurance company requires for an MRI, I just have to have the doctor’s okay to get one. In the mean time, I’ll continue with the ice and glucosamine and try the Dr. Franks and we’ll see if things get any better.

All I’m going to say about healthcare reform is that making everyone have insurance is basically saying it’s even if we’re all tortured the same. Fixing a failing system by increasing the problem is not really a great solution, even in theory.


CONGRATULATIONS VEELANA!!


Veelana's Designs is one of the three new SAS-y Ladies! Vee is a pal of mine, so I’m VERY happy for her. In fact, look to see a few more layouts from me using her kits soon!


Retiring


What opens me up to do more layouts is that I am retiring from designing. Keeping up with the requirements is just a big commitment when I add it to school, and what I’m working towards in school will supply a much bigger paycheck!

Last month I was the assigned Designer of the Month for the store CT. Where there had been multiple pages of links to the layouts in previous months, the CT did the minimum required with my store and most of the layouts were with my templates but someone else’s kits. That kinda was a good indicator for me about why I don’t have much in the way of sales! I don’t think my stuff is awful. The pages I’ve done with my own kits have looked great, but my scrapbooks are digitally done but paper-style. The focus is still the photos and journaling. A page I create is not the work of art; the life my pages tell about is the work of art! Still, I make things for the pages I do in a style I can use. In a saturated market, simple is not really going to sell!

So now, I'm going to concentrate on doing pages for my scrapbooks and get caught up. I’ll still have the occasional freebie here and I suspect I’ll do templates more often. I seem to do those well!

I’ll find out soon what my last day at Scrap Bird will be and I expect there will be a “going out of business” sale. Then the items from the store will retire, I’ll enjoy less stress in getting my homework done and my scrapbooks might even think we’ve finally reached 2007 by Christmas!

A Better Fantasy

Football season is here again! Yes, I’m a baseball fan first and foremost, but there is a certain quality that football brings in. Welcoming football season is welcoming fall, apple picking, pumpkin spice coffee and tailgating. There’s also Fantasy Football leagues!

David was in a casual fantasy football league through GenX Mensa a few years ago. When he was on a railfan vacation, he called in changes he wanted to make to his team for me and I updated his stats before the weekend games. I have to admit, it was fun! Now he has a laptop and if he’s traveling, he can update from a hotel room. If I ever want to play again, I’ll need my own team.

That’s a scary thought. I’m a casual fan and I’m sure David, who follows football stats closer than I do would be subscribed to someplace for closer analysis before making his Fantasy Team choices! WaiverWire.com is a great place to get Fantasy football analysis that is up-to-date.

There are three levels of membership you can choose from. All three levels are slashed in price for what they call “2009 Season Stimulus Pricing,” including the basic package, which is completely free this year!

There are very involved Fantasy Leagues with cash prizes that are well worth the investment in the more expensive packages, but the free analysis, stimulus packages, would be a great complement for a free league. If you are thinking about a Fantasy Football team, or if you already have one, WaiverWire may be the place on the web where you can get all the info you need to make the most of your managing experience! Even if Fantasy Football isn't your thing, if the armchair quarterback in your life is actually an armchair head coach, why not steer them towards a comprehensive place to get all of the analysis they need to make the best of their fall hobby?

It’s All In The Perspective

I enjoy art in many forms, but sculptures and scale models are a particular passion. I’ve raved in this blog about the larger than life sculptures that I so love, the everyday things built to scale but so but they’d never be used except as a monument to everyday life as a celebration. I also love the scaled to very small. That’s everyday life as a treasure, a keepsake. My mooshy sentimental views aside,one site I really love to visit an browse is Zoolabees, makers of wonderful dollhouse miniatures, specializing in 1:12 and 1:24 scale.

I was looking at their bathroom miniatures. Maybe that’s because this morning I was looking at all the gray showing in my hair ad I’ll be stopping at Rite Aid for a new box of color, so I’ll be spending some time in that room today. Oh my goodness, Zoolabees has so many teeny tiny products to fill your mini medicine cabinet!

My little fantasy bathroom would definitely have the toothbrush and Colgate toothpaste set. It has a little cup to hold the toothbrush too. Hey, they even have a dentures set! I’m not ready to put that in mini-Nani world yet, but they have itty bitty rolls of toilet paper too! How cool!

I could set the mini brush and curling iron next to the scale box of tiny tissues on my white bathroom cabinet. That bathroom cabinet is too sweet. I wish we had room in our bathroom for the full-size version!

They have a plush white rug and robe and slippers. It almost makes me feel spa-relaxed just looking. Well, okay, mini-Nani feels very relaxed!

Dollhouses are kinda like a gazing globe. I bet that’s why so many adults love them and actively participate in the hobby. It lets you create a very personal fantasy setting to peer into an taker a little vacation. Yes, world in miniature is a mini-vacation too, but sometimes, that’s all you need. Meditation is great, but when you don’t have time to get all the wy to nirvana, your own little victorian spa is a nice place to rn to!

Art, sculpture, is all about stretching your mind and giving your emotional self a break from the mundane and reality. Whether I’m being humbled by the very large or seduced by the very small, I love scale sculpture. I’m wooed and captivated by the call of the world in a different perspective than my own. If you're thinking about creating your own little gazing place, your Zen House, Zooabees is a good place to get inspired!

Oh Dear!

Wild animals are so cool to watch in the woods or even in the backyard way in the back of a rural area, but one place you don’t want to see them is in your rural or even suburban garden sampling the veggies before they’re even fully ripe! Then, they become just like any other garden pest! But you don’t have to just deal with it to be humane. Take some time to learn about deer control

Havahart makes a product called Deer Off which you can get in a battery powered sprayer. You can target exactly where you want the deer repellent to keep Deer, rabbits and squirrels out of the garden. You’re also not going to end up with repetitive motion problems in your hand from a spray pump!

Now before you worry about any harm to the animals, you know I’m not going to suggest a product that is dangerous to animals , the environment and ultimately us. Deer Off is OMRI listed, safe for organic gardens and keeping them organic, it’s not going to give you toxic vegetables or toxic soil. Because it’s organic, it is also safe for the very animals it repels.

The formula is made from food products, the scent keeps animals away for up to 90 days and if the scent doesn’t do the trick, the peppery taste will keep any courageous critters from trying it again!

If you’re looking to dissuade the friendly 4-footed neighbors from helping themselves in the garden without being unneighborly, Deer Off is just what you’re looking for.

I Found Nemo!

When I was in my early teens, I had a fish tank. It was a ten-gallon tan with fresh water fish I named after rock stars. I remember on Saturdays after my guitar lesson, Mom would take me to the fish store in town. I’d get food and maintenance stuff for my tank and sometimes a new “toy” for it or a couple new fish for my little wet community. I loved my fish, but I always remember walking slowly and longingly by the bright tanks in the back. Those were the tanks where they kept the most beautiful of the fish in the store, the saltwater fish!

In my cyber travels, I found an online saltwater fish store! They offer Nano Cubes, great for beginners in the hobby to get started and a huge page of those beautiful salties that I remember ogling as a kid. They have a bright blue chromis, neon accented salt water angel, a hot yellow seahorse a damselfish in my school colors (blue and yellow) and today’s salt water aquarium must have a clown fish, the kids will name him “Nemo!”

So, there would be the start of MY aquarium! I’d especially HAVE to have that seahorse! It is just too cool! This site also sells the necessary temperature control devices and there is free shipping available and the fish have a 14-day live guarantee.

Now, I wouldn’t want my seahorse and his mates living in just saltwater with nowhere to play or rest. This site also has live rock and coral. I can buy coral to put in my tank! I think that bright yellow seahorse would look so cool in the tank with some green people eaters. Think bright yellow fish and green coral! Okay, and I like the name too!

Now that I have my dream aquarium built, I need to figure out where we’d put it. But I think first, I’m going to go look at the fish page again! If you check out this site, come back and leave a comment about which fish you liked best!

"A Chair For My Little Friend"

Blue floral upholstered chair at Zoolabees

I didn’t have a doll house when I was a little girl, well, unless you include a Barbie Townhouse. But I mean sweet little miniatures, like I used to marvel at when I watched “The Friendly Giant.” Honestly, I don’t remember a ton about the show, except that the Giant always set up dollhouse chairs for us, his little friends, when we came to visit. His miniature guest living room made a definite impression on Little Nani!

Zoolabees is such a cool site! They have all kinds of dollhouse miniatures. I thought the mini fireplace and all of its accessories were very cool and there’s a computer set up and nice desk chair for the office too. I think the office set and the fireplace would be must-haves for me if I started a dollhouse now.

Don’t laugh! There are actually more adults who enjoy collecting and arranging their own miniature kingdoms than children! The hobby especially appeals to those who enjoy interior decorating. The dollhouse world in miniature is the softer rendition of model railroading, only instead of carrying coal, it’s serving tea! Of course, if I was doing it, I’d have to have plenty of comfy chairs and a cappuccino bar, to greet my little friends too...and one really HUGE chair, just in case my old friend, the Friendly Giant stopped by! ;)