Nani At 50 (for a few more weeks)

I said I was going to expound on the Nani at 50 pages. When I turned 50 I decided to create a logo and during my 50th year, technically it's during my 51st year, but before I turn 51 I would do a few pages documenting what my world was like when I was 50 years old.

Here are few of the pages I've done.

The last page in this set, which I'll do later this month, we'll be “New things since turning 50.”

Don't Make My Donut Healthy!

I haven’t updated in a while but I’m not going to write a “bring the blog up to speed” post either. I haven’t written because it’s been a rough month and If I can’t say anything nice… Suffice to say things are getting better.

Today I want to talk about diet. Stay with me here, it’s probably not what you think; let’s talk about balance. Let’s talk about donuts.

Weight Watchers is all about accountability but the focus is on balance and portions, not sacrifice. I know when we have spaghetti it’s going to be 12 points for dinner plus a salad, which is 2 additional points for a serving of balsamic vinaigrette and croutons. I don’t make “light” spaghetti or tell myself I can’t have it, I just plan to have 14 points for dinner. I think my greatest weakness in sweets and pastries is donuts and the easiest guarantee an eating plan won’t work for me is to tell me I can’t ever have a donut again.

My first job was when I was 16. I worked at a deli/Italian store until I was 18. Senior coworker, Jill, and I opened the store on Sundays. Part of the early Sunday was that a large tray of donuts came in that was sold form the glass case on the front counter. That tray always included two white-frosted crème-filled long johns. The customers had no idea that we ever had white-frosted crème-filled long johns to sell because the truth is we didn’t. Those 2 donuts NEVER made it to the case where the donuts were displayed on Sundays. If I brought the tray in when it arrived I took them off. If Jill brought the tray in, she took them off. Once we had everything set up for the first morning rush after church, there was about a half hour before that rush started and Jill and I got a donut break. It was always the white-frosted crème-filled donuts. They were NOT custard. They were crème-filled; just sugar and fat, the way donuts are meant to be.

32 years later those are still one of my absolute favorite donuts. They were the donuts Grandma always made sure were in the Thanksgiving donut box because she knew that was my guilty pleasure and that is the donut I get from Kroger as my treat after grocery shopping. They are 9 Weight Watchers points and worth every one of them to me. It’s a beloved donut that I like and it makes me think if the special treats Grandma made sure I had Thanksgiving morning and it makes me remember Jill and that special treat we shared on Sunday mornings.

Every 2 weeks when I go to the grocery store I plan my trip to get the most of the allowed bags to bring back on the bus, the most of the money spent for my groceries and the most of the energy to do my shopping. I also plan the most of my breakfast points with a coffee and a donut reward for my careful planning when I get home. I’ve found that even at Kroger, where they have trays of those wonderful donuts that take me back, if I don’t go early, the white-frosted crème-filled long johns will be empty trays.

My other top donut is the even more chocolate donut that evolved from the chocolate honey dip that I saved allowance to buy all by myself the first time I went to the store alone; the double chocolate frosted. I love the Dunkin Donuts version best, but I have had others that were good too. I’ve also had some sad double chocolate frosted.

Now, truth be told, I usually consider Tim Horton’s donuts to be the best. I love their walnut crunch donuts and give me a box of Tim Bits in the wide variety of glazed cake donut holes and crullers and it needs to be a small box because there is a danger that no matter how big I’ll finish the whole thing. I did say I had a donut weakness. But the one Tim Horton’s donut I find disappointing is their double chocolate frosted. There is no glaze on the chocolate donut, just frosting. I’ve seen or had the double chocolate donuts that have no glaze on the donut, even one from a Dunkin Donuts franchise! WHAT is that all about? Is it supposed to represent a healthier donut because it cuts down on the sugar? Really? We’re talking about a donut, not a granola bar. What part of FRIED DOUGH are we trying to make healthy?

Not healthy; just a dried out donut under the frosting

I don’t know one person, not one, who has ever eaten a donut and called it part of a healthy food plan. A donut is a treat. It’s one of the important every now and then things that keeps other food decisions in a healthy balance. But a donut is sugar and fat with maybe another thing added with very pungent flavor, like a serious fudge frosting, a total nut coating or a strong cinnamon to complement the sweet but flavor-consuming base. Donuts are supposed to be sweet and fattening if overeaten and just yummy with no concessions made to the health nuts du jour. If you want a totally healthy sweet snack, have fruit but if you’re selling a double chocolate frosted donut, rest assured no one is looking for any calorie-cutting and glaze the thing before you frost it!

National Donut Day is Friday, June 5, 2015. What is your favorite donut?? Will you make a point of indulging that day?

I Am Defined

Happy Sunday everyone! Unless you’re reading this tomorrow or on any day that’s not today or some multiple of seven from today, then happy whatever of the six other days this happens to be.

I have finally been defined with a definition I agree with. For years and years I’ve taken forms of the Meyers-Briggs tests, including the all out test that I took for a job interview many years back, and the results always start with E, calling me an extrovert. I’m actually consistently an ENTJ; Extrovert, Intuitive, Thinking, Judgmental, and the description of an ENTJ fits me pretty well except that I am not that outgoing. I’m outgoing when I need to be, when I have to, but I treasure my alone time too. As a rule, extroverts can’t stand being alone. I took a test online that tells what kind of introvert or extrovert a person is, because I love taking personality tests no matter how corny they are although this one is less corny than others I’ve taken, and it doesn’t call me an extrovert. According to my results I am an outgoing introvert. Which if you look at this description; 8 signs you may be an outgoing introvert, it fits me perfectly. And I love the fact that it doesn’t call me an extrovert.

I’m in the midst of a reading dilemma. Remember I said I was going to have an upstarts book and an ereader book going at the same time? Well, I did that. If you look at my Good Reads widget on the right, there are 2 current books listed. One is a hard cover that I got in a book swap and one is an e-book, young adult fiction. I read the Harry Potter series, and the Trylle series in the beginning of 2013; don’t judge! ;) But my current problem is that I’m just not really into either one. They’re both okay, but nor riveting at all. I have a Baldacci paperback in waiting and thanks to Christmas gift cards for both Barnes and Noble for the Nook app and Amazon for the Kindle app, both on my iPad, I have a couple lists of loaded and ready to read books on the tablet. I have a goal of averaging 2 books a month and I’m not even half way through either book with only a week of January left! January and February are usually good reading months for me. I have to come up with a plan to get myself some reading time so I can catch up and start some bocks I’m more likely to MAKE time to read.

I was talking to a friend from our MS support group about the things that make MS easier to live with today than it would have been years ago, say in the 1940s when it was first diagnosed and recognized as an actual disease. Without MRIs, there was no apparent scarring of the myelin to see on the brain or spine images and while it wasn’t a death sentence for sure, it did affect life expectancy just because they knew so little about it. So much about diagnosing and understanding the disease has improved in the many years since then.

The first disease modifying medication was approved for use and became available in 1993 and more medications became available after that; all injectable. The first oral medication was approved in 2010. That was my first choice in 2011, anything to avoid needles. There are 10 medications an MS patient and their neurologist can try, depending on what side effects you want to chance. But just think;25 years ago there were NO options. You were diagnosed, treated the symptoms as best you could and you knew the disease was going to progress with no way of slowing it down.

Back in that day, just prior to a drug for the disease, it wasn’t considered a disability. In fact the ADA was a baby in 1990 with members of congress that still didn’t want it to pass. We MSers were still destined to end up in wheelchairs and there were still people fighting tooth and nail not to have to widen a door for those chairs or anyone else with a wheelchair, walker, cane or just limited mobility or allowed mobility for breathing or heart conditions. We have advocates and are encouraged to be self-advocates in the fight to continue living instead of just existing as helpless invalids; we became legally valid!

But we really acknowledged the internet, tablet, smart phones. The internet means we aren’t hopeless and lonely when we are at home. The incredible ability to reach out to others like us and be cyber support is fantastic. I couldn’t live without my iPad. With the numbness in my hands that has me dropping things all the time and unable to write having my planner and several reading apps in one device, with a padded cover and replacement insurance on it, is such a blessing It also has a notepad, radio and MP3 storage, camera and my social media apps. And it has speech-to-text for every app I’d type in, a godsend for the times when my “fumblehands” just aren’t up to hitting the right keys. This is not an ad for the iPad. It’s an acknowledgement of how technology makes disabilities less disabling. There have been many times in the past year that speech-to-text software,, like Dragon on my PC, has written this blog!

It’s just amazing and wonderful. How many times did I watched Star Trek episodes where someone was carrying around a tablet with information essential for their job on it? I’m just waiting now for the hypo spray that will zap my MS all together? THAT’S something I’d take to our support group for “share and tell!”

My final note today is for everyone in the areas where the current storm is headed BE CAREFUL! The nasty winter storm the Weather channel is calling Juno is supposed to dump a TON of snow and nastiness on the east! We have relatives and friends that are expected to get in excess of a foot of snow. My friend Edna of Miss Edna’s Place will be seeing it in her part of New England as well, what she describes as feet of inches predicted on TV. If you are in the areas getting snow and hurricane winds, stay as safe and warm as possible and the rest of us please send good thoughts and prayers for them. We’ll get a few inches in Toledo and I’ll complain as I see it falling but then I’ll remember that I don’t have it so bad and check Edna’s blog or ask David if he talked to any of his brothers.

January 29, 2014…

badge created with Peppermint Mocha by A-Manda Creation

I’m wishing me a Happy Half-Birthday today! I’m officially 47-1/2 years old. As I was telling a cousin this morning my birthday is in July; I’ve never been cold on my birthday and I’ve seldom even seen rain. 6 months later it’s not the comfy day I love! This year in Toledo it is bright and sunny, wonderful to look out and see, but that sunny comes at a price! It’s noon and 14 degrees! That’s what happens when there are no clouds to hold any tiny bits of heat close to the earth; we get bright sun and bitter cold! It’s over a month since the beauty and festivity of the holidays and it’s still over 2 months before Opening Day! It’s cold and there is snow and ice everywhere. I celebrate my half-birthday to make me smile at a time of year that is unquestionably void of cheer and Nani-happiness! Do please, find a smile with me today thinking about July and that it was just 6 months ago that I asked you to have some ice cream to celebrate with me and know that on a warm day just 6 months from now, I’ll encourage you to do the same! But for the half-birthday, join me in a cup of hot cocoa!

I’ve seen photos and read news stories about the devastation this insane winter has brought to the south! It’s so sad to see the craziness and the traffic tie-ups yesterday and now. I saw photos of people sleeping on the floor at CVS using maxi pad packages for pillows because they just couldn’t get home last night! In their defense to any of us up north who say they “should have known better,” how? For many of them, including city and state officials, this is possibly the most snow they’ve ever seen at once and they’ve certainly never seen that much snow and ice on their homes and workplaces. In a discussion about the 4” in Atlanta this morning I brought up and imagined what I’d be like driving in bumper to bumper traffic after being evaluated for a hurricane. I’d be scared, confused and making bad choices because I’d simply never been in anything like it before. I’d have known ahead of time, but I wouldn’t be able to fathom how bad it could really be until I was faced with fleeing from my home. The difference in places like Atlanta is that they are trying to flee TO their homes and can’t. As one who has always lived in areas that get several inches of snow and below freezing temperatures in the winter I cut them a little slack. This isn’t just another half foot on top of the half foot they usually get or below zero instead of the 20s. It’s 8 times the snow they get every few years all at once in a part of the country that’s seldom cold enough for the snow to stick when it does flurry. It’s a totally different experience; it’s got to be pretty surreal.

To everyone dealing with the crazy weather, bless you and be safe!

Cool Change

Good freaky-cold morning! Okay, it was freaky-cold, -2, for a wake up temperature when I started writing this. It might be late afternoon when you’re reading. That’s okay since I started with telling you it’s morning. (smile)

A note about Global Climate Change. In my opinion it’s not all our fault. I think we have managed to speed the process up, a lot, but the changing climate is normal. Just as you and I change as we age, so does the earth. Of course we last somewhere within a century, if we’re lucky, and the earth has aged over a few billion years, so the planet's changes are slower.

We, that is the inhabitants of earth, have been through a global climate change before. There was a time, about 20,000 years ago, when the room I’m sitting in was in the end portion of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. I’m combining what I remember from science classes with what I confirm with internet pages and Ice Age maps. I think it’s all pretty fascinating stuff. The ice sheet retreated and now ends somewhere near Greenland, much farther north. Why did the ice sheet retreat? There weren’t greenhouse gasses 20,000 years ago. So I think the Climate Change is a natural occurrence, pushed on a little faster by the earth’s greatest parasite; man.

What made the glaciers begin to retreat? Lots of evidence and theories about that. It wasn’t aerosol deodorant. It was natural. If it’s moving in that direction again, or perhaps still, and it’s moving faster, man may have something to with the faster part. I think it’s a sensible idea to take care of our earth. If we can slow Global Climate change even half as much as we’ve sped it up, it’ll help. And no matter what your belief system, it’s the most wonderfully unselfish gift you can pay forward to people you’ll never know; a place to call “home” for more generations.


Retreat Chronology of the Laurentide Ice Sheet

Ice Age maps
 
Time-Lapse maps of the ice sheet retreat (Video)

I’ve Been Tagged!

I have been tagged by Glo at Glo Sews. Her blog is filled with so many craft and sewing ideas that range from quick and simple to detailed and inspiring and lots of fun reading in between!

This is a long meme, but maybe it might be a good way to keep your mind off food, cigarettes, Pepsi or anything you want to keep your mind and hands off this resolution season!

The Tagged Rules are as follows:

1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things yourself.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them that you've tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this.’ Blah blah blah, you legitimately have to tag 11 peeps!


11 random things about me:

1. I’m a mature control-freak. I control by strategic delegation now.

2. I’m an advertising fan, not just the antique paper ads, which I truly love, but Twitter is my favorite social networking site because I get to interact with my favorite products' marketing departments.

3. Degrassi is my favorite non-sports TV show. I’m part of that secondary invisible market for the teen soap – I’m not the only mom-aged regular, not by a long shot!

4. I have a Spotted Elephant bobble head, misfit toy from Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer that sits on our games shelf all year long. I have no idea why anyone would ever turn down a pink and red stuffed spotted elephant. He’s always been my favorite Misfit Toy!

5. I wanted to move to Atlanta in the 1990s. I thought I was going to adopt the Braves as my baseball team, bought gear and everything, until the Braves and Reds faced each other in the 1995 NLCS. Expecting it to be easy to cheer for my “new” team and hard as I tried, I couldn’t cheer against the team I’d loved since I hoped for Al Kaline and Pete Rose when I bought baseball cards as a kid. My teams have always been and I know will always be the Tigers and Reds.

6. I don’t care where we celebrate on December 31, 2019, I MUST have the Number glasses – I want 20/20 vision!

7. Rina’s been here for a week and I wish I could figure out a way to keep her. Kids just get cooler and cooler every year and I love teenagers!

8. Je parle un peu de francais (seulement un peu!)

9. As much as I love Marketing, I kind defy it. There is quite a lot of rap that I like. I can even ignore some of the language because I love the music and the rhythm. Favorites include Ludacris and Drake.

10. My favorite composers are Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Rimsky-Korsakov, and yes, I listen to them often too.

11. I don’t care for Progresso soup. I think it tastes too canned and refer to it a “Progrosso.”



My questions from Glo:

1. Do you know how to sew? Yep! I sewed most of my wardrobe in the 80s. Didn’t have time to sew when I married my career. Now I don’t have a machine, but I can repair things and replace buttons.

2. Do you go to the movies or wait for the DVD? I go to movies once a year, maybe, but I really don’t watch them a lot. Also if I hear a book is great and being made into a movie, I prefer to see the movie first. I’d rather not say “The movie was a disappointment because the book was better.” I’d much rather say, “The movie was great and the book was even better!”

3. What was your favorite gift you received this Holiday Season? My new Keurig brewer and all the wonderful coffees!

4. If someone was going to prepare your favorite meal, what would it be? Just one? I cook and enjoy cooking, so I’ll say that my favorite meal that I don’t cook myself with ancestral secrets is Middle Eastern. I love mjadras and chicken galaba

5. How many brothers and/or sisters do you have? I have one brother by blood relation and 3 best friends that are like siblings to me, a sister, Kelly and 2 brothers Scotty and John. John passed in 2009.

6. Do you live in a small or large city and do you like it? I live in the most awesome city! Toledo is just large enough to have an arena, sports teams, although minor league baseball and hockey but it’s small enough that traffic isn’t terrible and things on the other side of town are not an hour drive away.

7. What is your fondest childhood memory? I have lots of good memories, but the ones I cherish the most are of my paternal grandfather. I was the oldest of his grandkids and the only one who remembers him. I was 6 when he died.

8. What is your first childhood memory? The oldest memory I have is a flavor and a sensation. No images and no language. The texture is sand and the flavor is lime. I had a bad habit of dipping lollipops in the sand. My mother told me the memory was probably at about a year old. I have a few episodic memories from my very early life.

9. Do you cook breakfast or just east something quick like cereal? It depends on the day and what the schedules are. Most often, I do cereal, fruit and yogurt and of course, coffee.

10. What, if any, resolutions have you made for the New Year? (See Projects and Goals post) I don’t do resolutions. I do goals and projects.

11. If you were going to write a book about your life, what would the title be? The Chronicles of Nani



Questions for those I have tagged:

1. How many times a week do you eat fast food?
2. How many pets do you have?
3. What is one expensive food that you enjoy?
4. Liquid indulgence – What’s your favorite alcoholic or caffeinated drink?
5. What did you do on New Year’s Eve this year?
6. What are 2 fruits that you always buy at the grocery store?
7. How many house plants do you have?
8. Dinner at home – at the table or in front of the TV?
9. What beverage do you drink the most in an average day?
10. How often do you play board games?
11. How many regular memes do you participate in on your blog?


My tags are:

I’m breaking the rules here. It took me 2 days of breaks to complete this. I know most of my readers here have jobs in or out of their homes and don’t require frequent breaks during cleaning or organizing to list and answer 22 things and think up 11 more. But if you have the time or if you are looking for a distraction to facilitate one of those types of resolutions I mentioned earlier in this post, I’d love to read yours! Leave a comment that you did it and I’ll visit your blog. If you want the short version, you can leave the answers to my questions in comments instead!

Links

Glo Sews

2012 Projects and Goals