Photoblog Wednesday

Kaline Melted!

Guess the sunny spot really is warm!

A Little Bit of That – Spring 2011

I told ya I’d be back! It’s been a good baseball Mother’s day so far. So far is because the Braves are still playing, but they are ahead by 2 in the 9th. Philly still gets their last at-bat! In the day games, the Reds, Red Sox and Tigers all won,


Still Losing

In the healthy diet world, I’m just a couple pounds away from another goal-gift. I have finally started to see the scale move in the right direction again. Stress is a nasty critter for causing plateaus and even weight gain! I tried a few new things, because weight-loss counselors will tell you to first, stick with your diet even when you’re under stress or on a plateau. Second, they’ll tell you to mix things up a little, swap lunch and breakfast foods or just try something new. SO I’ve tried some somethings new!


I tried Blue Diamond’s Almond Breeze, almond milk. Oh my, that stuff I SO GOOD It’s low in fat and only 60 calories for as one-cup serving. I also don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything so good on cereal. It adds a great nutty flavor. Now, almond milk isn’t as high in protein as regular fat free milk, but almond milk is very high in Vitamin E. My neurologist told me to double my daily vitamin E, double that if I can. So, I take my Vitamin E supplement twice a day and also add almond milk, especially at breakfast on Fiber Plus cinnamon or Special K Cinnamon Pecan cereal. I need to see how it tastes on Honey Nut Cheerios! I keep track of my protein and fiber intake every day and even with switching out some of my milk with almond milk, I’m still a decent amount over the recommended minimum. I want to try the dark chocolate almond milk for an occasional treat too. It’s double the calories of plain almond milk, but it’s still less than regular chocolate milk and chocolate and almond, yum!

I’ll be getting the opportunity to check out new things in the store again now. I’m sad to say Flying Grocery, the local grocery delivery service I’ve been using, has gone out of business. As a former small business owner in a rough economy myself, I totally understand. A delivery service with current gas prices has to be difficult to maintain. The weekend of Easter, David and I went to Meijer to get some groceries. I like going to Meijer because they have a wheelchair with a shopping basket. You know, if I can’t do the walking, I at least want to exercise my arms. Well, Easter weekend when we went someone else had the wheelchair and I used one of those scooters. While I really don’t like those things, they make me feel lazy, it’s still a viable way to get the groceries bought. Accepting this means that I can shop at Kroger and Giant Eagle too and I won’t hurt so bad I can barely get the groceries in the house. Still, I’m going to miss seeing Leslie, the owner at Flying Grocery, and I know for me, my business was my baby and I was sad to have to close my doors.



Qwirkle


Last weekend, David and I went to SEMMantics, the Mensa event in Farmington Hills, Michigan, that’s responsible for us meeting. If he hadn’t been giving a talk there, he wouldn’t have asked me to come see his multimedia show and give him some professional thoughts. That email inviting me to his program is how we found out we both like trains, baseball and cats.

This year, David placed fourth in the Texas Hold Em tournament. David’s wife finished third! I SO seldom ever finish better than him at poker, I was tickled pink! We also discovered a new game! We played Qwirkle, which is a matching colors and patterns game. It’s a fantastic and addicting game! We promised ourselves we’d buy it after we got home.

There was one problem with the idea of buying Qwirkle after we got home. Why would we want another one? We bought ourselves a new game before Christmas that looked like fun, but since it was Christmastime, we put it away with the other games and well, forgot it was there. I was looking up Qwirkle to get an idea of the cost after we’d gotten home and then glanced over at our games shelves and there it was, still in its shrink wrap, the game we’d fallen in love with during the weekend. We’ve played a game of Qwirkle almost every night since discovering we already had it! Generally the games are kinda close, but I’ve only won twice. So, I need to practice! :)


Okay, time to wrap up today’s this and that. The Braves won that game while I was writing, YAY! All of my teams won today. It truly was a good baseball day!

A Little Bit of This – Spring 2011

Mom with Dave and me, Easter 1970

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Moms out there and to all of the Mom helpers. That photo is the one I have as my ID on Facebook right now. I saw a few people using their Mom’s photo as their profile photo for Mother's Day and I thought it was a neat idea for the holiday, so I used that one. It turns out that my photo was such a good idea that my brother snagged it for his profile photo. Now we look like twins, but as I posted on his page, we kinda look like twins in that photo! (But trust me, we really are 14 months apart!) It’s my Mom with my brother and me on Easter Sunday in 1970. I was almost 5 and Dave was 3-1/2. That’s a photo my Dad carried in his wallet for a long time. There is one that goes with it, Dad’s other wallet photo, of us with him on the same day. We were almost adults and we were still under 5 in Dad’s wallet. The staples in Mom’s wallet were a little more up-to-date. She always had the current school picture, then we got to be seniors forever, but the First Communion photos were always there too.

Today is the 8th Mother’s Day that I won’t be at a ball game with my Mom. “Take Mommy Out To The Ball Game” was our Mothers Day tradition. She loved carnations and that was one of the Mothers Day perks. Many ballparks give a carnation to every woman who comes to the game on Mother’s Day. Sometimes it was a Tigers game, sometimes a Minor League game. In 1996, the ball game was the day before when Heather and Tracy were with us in Philadelphia. We saw the Braves and Phillies after a rain delay the night before and the three of us treated Mom to lunch at Old Bookbinder’s before we left for the airport. When I wrote the tribute that was on her memorial website, I mentioned that she’d see Roberto Clemente, one of her heroes as a kid, play again at Heaven’s ballpark. For this year’s Mothers Day game, she’ll get to see Sparky Anderson manage one of the teams.


Speaking of Baseball…


A little tirade of questioning Dusty Baker - why, oh why, would he put Francisco Cordero in to pitch when they were only ONE run ahead in the ninth inning, I don’t care if they call him “closer," which by the way is the most OVERRATED position in baseball, Cordero is more accomplished at throwing a lead away when it really counts than he is at saving games. I listen to the commentators on Fox Sports talk about how closers seem to perform better with men on base. PLEASE! Any other reliever, we’d call that “not able to get the job done,” “Poor performance.” But for a closer, the ulcers for managers and fans are part of their, I don’t know, legend? YEESH! The first batter Cordero faced went yard and tied the game. Correct me if I’m wrong, but a tie does NOT close a game! Oh yeah, but he did close it in the ninth. The Cubs got another run in to beat, Cordero. It just sucks that the Reds and their fans have to take the hit for his inability to do his job. Yes, he has a bunch of saves, but when the game has been tough or the score has see-sawed or just if it’s not easy, Cordero is NOT the man you want on the mound in the ninth. I don’t care how much of a Reds ticket goes to pay his overpriced salary, I’d rather pay him to sit on the bench and record a win.

Okay, that rant ends. If you read it all, thank you for indulging me. It’s just that Cordero really irks me. Congratulations Cubbies on the victory, but we took it easy one you and gave you Cordero and his beach ball pitches in the ninth. You can thank us by not hitting today!

So after watching the sad ending to the Reds game, I tuned in to the Tigers game in the fourth inning. What better way to wipe my emotions clean of that nasty Cordero inning than Justin Verlander! He was phenomenal yesterday, the second no-hitter of his career and just inches shy of a perfect game! In the bottom of the eighth in Toronto, after facing and retiring 22 straight batters, he went to a full count and walked batter 23, then ended the eighth with a double play. So, he did only face 27 hitters, an almost perfect game!

Justin Verlander - 2nd career no-hitter yesterday!

It was very cool to watch the game. As David said when he got home yesterday, we usually only see the last batter or at most the last inning when a network games breaks into it as the no-hitter is completed. I loved watching the game and seeing the pitcher for one of my teams pitch the gem. Verlander is only the second Tiger in history to throw two no-nos and at 28 years old, he has time to do it again in his career. Can he do it? Could he throw five more and match Nolan Ryan’s record seven in his career? Yeah, no one can answer those questions yet, but it’s going to be exciting as a Tiger fan to find out!


School’s Out For Summer

Well, this semester was tough for me. Planning on the medical issues being much simpler, I took two classes. Even in the easier one, Web Imaging, which is basically Photoshop 5, I only got a B+. I say “only got a B” because it’s my first grade since returning to beef up my resume that wasn’t an A! I had some of straight-A semesters through high school, trade school and college, but I was never a 4.0 student when all was said and done. I am proud that my cumulative average has always been in the “A” range, but really, I’ve never been asked what my GPA in school was in a job interview, so in the greater scheme of things, a B, even if it was a C, doesn’t hurt anything but my ego, and even my ego is only slightly bruised.

But the ego bruising fades with some very glowing remarks and the full 250 points for my final project in Photoshop! For the final project, we were to create two original pieces using the tools and methods we’d learned in class. I created the first one to be an in-store promotional poster for home and garden departments in the fall for spring perennial bulbs planting. I used photos of my own flowers and the labels from the bulbs with one of Darlene Haughin’s papers from the Everyday Life collab.


For the second one, I used a paper from Darlene’s portion of On My Knees, we had to secure permission to use anything we didn’t create or photograph ourselves, and photos of my own cane and walker. Remember that I got the walker when I was in aquatic therapy because it took me a little to get my land legs back after getting out of the pool. I positioned this as a motivational poster and one that could be used in a co-op ad or public service ad for a nonprofit like Paralyzed Veterans of America or Special Olympics.


As I mentioned already, I currently have an Incomplete in my XML class, with three chapters and the final to catch up by the beginning of August, I want to redo some of the chapters before that so I have the language down moving forward. As I said before, my instructor is awesome, very compassionate and understanding. I want to excel on the portion of the class that’s left, not just for me, but as a way of saying thanks to him too!


Flowers!

The entire length of the house next to our drive is in bloom!

I’m having so much fun watching the flowers Kelly and I planted in October come up! That photo was taken May 4. The tulips are up now and the colors along the side of our house are just beautiful! But, after the tulips are done, that’s it! I planted spring flowers. I’m still new to this flowers thing! I’ve been doing some looking for summer blooming perennials and next I’ll look for fall blooming ones. I’d love to be able to have continuous blooming plants through to fall on the side.

Here are three I found that are right for the growing zone we’re in and I just think would be beautiful in the summer.

Gladiolas

We’ve had glads in the side bed all along, but they were dug up when our basement waterproofing was done and we didn’t get them back in the ground soon enough. I want to get some to plant now because I know they’ll grow there and David picked a Glad branch for me a couple times, when rain or wind knocked them down, and I had a glad branch on my desk at work. So, they have sentimental value too.

gaillardias

clematis

These two are one I found that I just think are so pretty! I want to get some each of the gaillardias and clematis. I love the colors and the sunburst of the gaillardias is just SO summer! Kelly did the planting while I was at school in October, but I know how she did it and I figure I can set out the bulbs in the driveway and just move a chair down to each section to do the planting. David said he’d help too. I’ll see about choosing fall flowers and maybe planting them all at the same time.


Okay, I’ll be back with more later!

So, The News

I’ve been a little swamped with life lately. School just ended for the semester and I’m taking the summer off. I was going to take one class, but I have some catch up work for the XML class and was granted another term to complete the class. My instructor for XML was VERY cool! This semester wasn’t what I’d planned at all, because the medical stuff didn’t go as I’d planned at all!

I haven’t blogged about it yet because I’ve been going over in my mind how I’d tell the tale. Then Kelly posted a travel query on Facebook and both Jeff and Jeanne extended the invitation to come to Atlanta. That meant it was time to tell everyone what’s going on with me. Well, that means I’ve found the words I needed. Anyway, I buckled down and really looked for them, and there they were!

Okay, first off, what I’m most concerned about is that the written word doesn’t have the inflection the spoken word does. I am not gloomy, sad or depressed. I hope the normal Nani optimism and smiles are clear in my writing. This is the main body of the letter I sent to friends on Facebook:

The plan at the beginning of the year was that I was getting an MRI of the lower back and then probably surgery. Rehab and all, I’d be good as new by Christmas. Well, the neurosurgeon had me do some tricks which I couldn’t do, like standing with my feet together. It was his opinion that, bad as my lower back is, it isn’t the problem. The lower back doesn’t screw up balance. I had an MRI on the upper spine and neck, looking for a pinched nerve. No pinched nerve. Then a CT Scan, looking for a benign, and the neurosurgeon specified benign, brain tumor. That was the worst for me. Benign or not, brain surgery was a scary thought. I even refrained from coloring my hair while going through testing, if you can imagine me giving up that vanity! I figured if they did have to do bran surgery, why pay to color it and then have it shaved off? Well, good news, it’s auburn again now. No tumor.

What the CT Scan did show was that my cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls motor function, is too small for my age. The neurosurgeon told me that there was no one in Toledo qualified to diagnose me and sent me to Cleveland Clinic. That’s the number four hospital, not in Ohio, but in the COUNTRY! Talk about a happy Leo ego! Best in the state, fourth best in the US, my brain is pretty important, huh? I met with a neurologist there who was awesome! He looked at my CT scan and MRIs with me and he pointed out exactly what I was seeing. Yep, my cerebellum is too small for the space it’s supposed to fill. He says the symptoms indicate a probable genetic condition and asked all kinds of questions about my family. Yanno, Mom had some balance issues and fell a few times, but she had the heart condition and diabetes so it fit together. Since the first of the year, I’ve been tested for just about everything, including a chest x-ray and EKG last week. My balance issues fit with nothing!

I also had a brain MRI last week. MRIs suck and I really am tired of those! I’ve also had more blood drawn in the last month…I look like a junkie with all the tracks! Anyway, I go back to Cleveland Clinic next month to follow up after the brain MRI and blood work. The doctor seems pretty positive that it’s genetic and he’s trying to narrow it down to exactly what it is, for me, what to call it. He has already brought up a special walker for neurological patients and use of the wheelchair. This is not life-shortening, but it is, unfortunately, life altering. Well, it’s way-of-life altering.

The cool part is that I can now blame my medical issues for being so long between jobs when I get back into the job hunt, plus I’ll have some new computer certifications. I’ll be fully qualified for a sit-down job, like telephone help desk or web design and my end of interview sale can be that they can meet a quota and I have the opportunity to make them know they made the best decision they could. Okay, the job hunt is probably going to be the beginning of 2013, when my diagnosis is official and my trips to Cleveland finished and when I'm finished with enough classes to take the certification tests.

Right now I’m working on getting used to things that won’t be changing and adjusting to them. I’m doing okay for the most part. But hey, go with me and we get good parking, guaranteed seats at most places and while that walking part of my brain appears to have shrunk, the thinking part is still working well for smiling, laughing, joking and in general the stuff I’ve always done. I may have to rent one of those scooters to go apple picking and I’ll have to learn how to dance in a wheelchair. :)

So, there is the current story in my world. It’s a new challenge, but it’s also a new opportunity to seize the rainbow behind the clouds that appears when I shine my sun on them. I’ll keep the Chronicles updated whenever it is that they can give my “thing” a name.

Don’t feel sorry for what I don’t have a choice about. Be inspired by what I am choosing to do about it.

From Storage to Style

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pier 1 for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I usually work on my computer in the dining room next to the French doors that I’m sure at one time went right outside to the patio. Eventually that patio in our cute 50s house was made into[ an enclosed porch. David and I have been talking for a couple years about making that porch, which is now a storage space, back into a usable area. A drive past Pier 1 ushered in some inspiration!

I checked out Pier 1 on line and WOW is there ever some great inspiration there. There is sweet wicker and rattan furniture that’s actually indoor/outdoor furniture. That means we could use it in the yard when it’s sunny but not too warm, maybe with a patio umbrella, also available at Pier 1. When it’s hotter, or at night after the mosquitoes come out, we could use the sake furniture on the enclosed porch with the ceiling fan on. There are so many reasonable priced choices! I had my eye on a wicker living set for that room, which includes a sweet coffee table, couch and chair, but they have patio dining sets too, great for games night outside! But then, I was caught by the papasan!

Papasan chairs, the big bowl chairs with the padded cushions, were introduced to the United States in the 1950s, when our house was built! What a great idea! Big comfy chairs with plush cushions in a more updated stele. What a perfect fit! The 2011 offering in the papasan line include an ottoman, double papasan couch, even a matching table. What a great way to give that enclosed patio a period look, yet with a modern pizzazz!

One last note I’ll mention is Pier 1 Tweetups. There were four spring Tweetups in Dallas, Atlanta, New York City and Orlando. At a Tweetup, Pier 1 reps, bloggers and customers gather at a local Pier 1 and have a meet and greet with gifts and prizes and an opportunity to see what Pier 1 has to offer and let them know what you like! If they have a Tweetup in the greater Toledo area I plan to be there and I hope if you’re in the area, you do too!

I’ve always love Pier1 for gifts, special things and for finding that one or two things that change the dull into the WOW! Now is a good time for some WOW!