It's A Chocolatey Morning

So much fun reading comments yesterday.  The Almond M&Ms caused quite the stir!!  When I was a kid, it was all about the peanut M&Ms!  The Milk Chocolate, we knew them then as plain, were okay, but the ultimate M&M was Peanut.  Keep in mind that when I was a child, as was true for many of us, M&Ms only came in plain and peanut!

For me, peanut was an easy choice for 2 reasons.  First, it had peanuts!  I’ve mentioned before that working on a healthy diet for me was the sobering reality of a serving size for nuts.  I love nuts!  You are what you eat, right?  Well nuts are all fat, good and healthy fat, but all fat.  Which makes Nani good and healthy to be around and….  (sigh)  So, I am careful now.  I measure and count nuts when I want them. 

Olives fall into that category too! I’ve loved olives since I was a kid.  There are three olives in a serving, three!  There are five fingers per hand.  The math doesn’t work.  Come on, how many of us did the pitted olives on our fingers as a kid?  I’ve even seen cans of pitted olives with a drawing of a kids hand with an olive on each finger.  I think we let kids play with olives at holiday dinners because we used to do it and it brings back happy memories.  I know I have a picture of Tori with olive fingertips at Thanksgiving!

But let’s get back to the topic at hand.  (Accidental pun alert.)  M&Ms.

The other thing that made choosing peanut easy was the chocolate.  Plain M&Ms were candy-covered Mars chocolate.  I have always preferred Hershey's for regular candy store chocolate.  Really, I’m a fan of Hershey’s in general, but even with my preferred chocolate, my favorite candy bar is Mr. Goodbar and I’ve always preferred Hershey’s Almond over a plain Milk Chocolate Bar, hover, I still love the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars!

When M&Ms started to expand and bring us new varieties of M&Ms, that was pretty cool!  They added the Almond to the M&M staples and honestly, the almond bumped the peanut out as my favorite M&M.  Then they added the Mint M&Ms for Christmas.  I like the mint ones for a change up, but they don’t mix in a big bowl of assorted M&Ms as well.  I’ve tried and loved the M&Ms in peanut butter, coconut, cherry, dark chocolate and peanut dark chocolate.  I tried and did not like the Crispy M&Ms.  Not a fan of Hershey’s Crackle bars.  I’m just not a big rice fan.  For a while if you asked what my favorite M&Ms were, I’d tell you Almond or Dark Chocolate Peanut, easy.  The Dark Chocolate Peanuts just amazed my taste buds the first time I tried them.  I’m usually more of a milk chocolate fan, but I think I just prefer Mars’ dark to their milk.

 Then, they did it.  They made an M&M for ME!  Pretzel M&Ms!!  How perfect a Nani-candy can they make?  Okay, as already stated, Hershey’s chocolate over pretzels with a candy shell would be perfect-er, but that’s not going to be happening soon.  My, without question, favorite M&M is the Pretzel M&Ms!  I have 2 bags of Easter candy left, they qualify as the best of the best to me; Pretzel M&Ms and Hershey’s Candy Covered Milk Chocolate Eggs.

 

The Candy Covered Eggs are essentially solid Hershey eggs with a candy shell.  Easter candy lasts a while because, even though the jar I keep it in is right next to where my computer is, I count them out and record my points for them, so the jar lasts longer.  Right now David filled the jar with his Cadbury Eggs.  That’s helping me control my chocolating too.  Not that I don’t like the Cadbury Mini Eggs, I do, but they’re David’s eggs and I don’t want to deprive him of his favorites!  But after the Cadbury Eggs are gone and it’s time to refill the jar, I have to make the tough decision of which of my two faves will be the last bag.  I’m thinking I’ll have the Hershey’s for last since, although not in pastel colors, Pretzel M&Ms will still be here.  The candy covered Hershey’s is gone after Easter.  Maybe I’ll find a half-off case of them after Easter Sunday….

Okay, time for breakfast.  Shall I have chocolate cereal or make a chocolate breakfast cake?

Trusted Provider

Posted by Gaylord Campbell

I am always surprised by how many people who own their own business don’t put any thought in to their service providers. Many of the fellow business owners who I know simply sign up for the first company they find that can offer a service they need, and then end up being disappointed in the level of service they receive. It seems like kind of a no-brainer to me—you put some research in on the front end and you get a partner who providers stellar service and is dependable. One particular partner I’ve been impressed with is my phone and internet provider. After doing a lot of research on T1 Long Island, I chose a company I felt confident would provide me both speed and reliability for my internet and phone, and I am so happy with my decision. I obviously have a lot of responsibilities, and I don’t need to worry about things like whether or not my phones are going to be clear, or whether my internet service will work when I need it to. Save yourself some frustration and do your research in the beginning!

My Friday Fix

Almond Easter M&Ms!

I love doing the memes I do where there are questions to answer. It’s sort of a chance to “lazy blog.” The questions are your topics and you blog from there. It appeals to my Leo personality; all of the me and half the work! I’ve been on the questioning part before and I know how much easier it is to answer than come up with the questions, so I really do appreciate Heather , Suzanne, Joyce , Hilary and Mama M for coming up with the questions and Mrs. 4444 for giving the forum to share the little fragments that are left at the end of the week.

Let’s get this Friday started with some Fill-Ins!





Every Friday Hilary at Feeling Beachie gives us 4 statements to complete. I love seeing how others answer the same statements. Sometimes the answers are similar to mine and sometimes we all interpret the statements so differently!

Here are this week’s statements:


1. I loved ____as a kid and still do.
2. I drive____
3. I am currently reading _______________
4. I wish I could instantly have a body just like ____________

And here are my answers:

1. I loved bubbles as a kid and still do. Heck my screen saver is bubbles. We had bubbles at our wedding reception and I was known to sit outside at lunch and blow bubbles at a former job.

2. I drive as little as possible.

3. I am currently reading Dead Wood by Dani Amore

4. I wish I could instantly have a body just like anyone who doesn’t have MS. (Sorry it’s not a sexy answer, but it’s honest!)



Now… 5 Questions from Mama M






1. What giveaway would you like to do on your blog?

You mean a giveaway that’s not just for scrapbookers? I do those from time to time. And feel free to snag any of my freebies to use on you blogs too.

I guess if I had more resources I’d do an occasional giveaway, maybe an Amazon card or a bag of coffee. But I don’t have those kinds of resources!

2. If you had to choose between natural artistic ability and natural athletic ability, which would it be?

Easy! I think I have some natural artistic ability. If I’d had natural athletic ability I would likely emotionally be way different than I am now.


3. Do you ditch the coat the minute it becomes "spring" or are you a holdout for more cool temps?

I am in the house and wearing a sweater right now. I don’t let the calendar or even the thermometer tell me if I’m warm or cold. Given the choice I’d rather be too hot than too cold.




4. What would you do if you won the mega millions lotto of 1/2 billion dollars?

Pay off all our bills, buy our layout with a house over it with a cool coffee room with pegs for all of my mugs, pay for all 7 years of college for Tori and Rina, buy David a seat at The World Series of Poker, get my power chair and a new van to carry it in with hand controls, add a chunk to my investments and call Walt Jocketty and see what the Reds need to keep Joey Votto in Cincinnati until he retires.



5. You are at a hotel by yourself...what do you do?

Relax! I’ve been in hotels by myself when traveling a number of times and I’ll tell ya, it’s fantastic! There is no more perfect alone time. I’ve never lived alone, with the exception of the last year in Michigan when Pop was working on the other side of the state and he wasn’t home much. Still not the same as the whole space is mine. When I’ve spent the night alone in a hotel, all the space is mine. No one puts anything anywhere that is out of place to me. I can get a bag of microwave popcorn and a coffee and watch whatever movie I want or scrapbook or read. Maybe if I’d lived alone being alone in a hotel wouldn’t have always been such a liberating treat, but I always loved it.

But I will admit now, that with the mobility issues, I’d probably be a little less relaxed and a little nervous, maybe.


And now, it’s defrag time, hosted by Mrs. 4444!

*** I’m looking forward to a sponsor bonus! Miracle-Gro is sending me a small sample bag of the Expand ‘n Gro I wrote about on Sunday! I’ve been anxiously waiting for the mail every day since they told me I was getting the sample. It’s a two-way street. I’m sure to write about the success if what I plant in it grows well at no extra charge.

I’m planting celery! Suzanne at Coloradolady blogged about it last week and a commenter left a link for full details about re-growing celery.  It sounded so simple and like something I’d want to try. Well, when the next day I got the chance to write about the dirt that grows and found out I was getting a sample of it, I knew I was going to try the celery!

Monday at lunch, I cut the whole end off of my celery that I bought Sunday. I usually cut the ends off one rib at a time when I eat them. I put the end in a bowl with some water in it and there is a little growth in the center already! Look!

When the dirt gets here, I’ll plant it and I’ll keep you posted on the (hopeful) progress.


*** May 31 is the day that Tori and Rina will be celebrated for having made it through 12 years of grade school! Thursday is a lousy night for commencement ceremonies if you want out of town family there. I’m likely hitching a ride with Pop because I want to be there for their graduation. Yeah, it’s weird and don’t think it hasn’t made me wonder. I didn’t go to commencements for high school or college and don’t regret not going, but seeing the girls do it is a big deal to me. I think it’s a big deal to me because it’s a big deal to them. But, I don’t want to miss it.


*** The last couple of nights have been rough for my throat. I’m not sure if it’s spring allergies getting me or dust from the future woman cave right now. I take a Benadryl at night and I’m fine in the morning, but by late afternoon I’m sore throat and stuffy again. Bleh.


***  Less than a week until Opening Day!!!

Wednesday Hodge Podge

Happy Hump Day!  It's Wednesday and I'm joining Joyce at From This Side of the Pond for the Wednesday Hodge Podge.

1. What's the last job you did that required elbow grease?

Scrubbing the walls in the bathroom on Monday. (But it sure looks good!)



2. March Madness, aka the men's Division I basketball championship, is nearing an end. What sort of 'madness' has your house seen this month?

If you read Tell Me Tuesday, you know that my bathroom is a Zen Garden. There is no madness in our home, everything is Zen.



3. What's your favorite shop for browsing?

I like to browse online for things I need for the finish of the White Tornado. Amazon and IKEA are hot places. I have everything “stored” on my White Tornado list on Pinterest.

I’ve never ever enjoyed shopping to browse. If I need something, I buy it. Once in a great while through the years I’ve gone into stores and just looked at stuff, but that’s been when I’m shopping with someone else.

Yes, I do have breasts, but when it comes to shopping and shoes, I’m notsomuch a typical girl.  ;)



4. Is there ever a time when giving up makes sense?

Sure, when it’s not a big deal or a great loss to give up…like when you’re playing Qwirkle with your husband.



5. What's a song you love that contains the name of a city, state or country in its title?

Georgia On My Mind happened to be on the radio as I crossed the state line into Tennessee on my solo trip to Atlanta back in 1990. It made me tear up a little. (I really wanted to stay!)



6. When did you first begin using a computer?

Aside from the one that blew up on me when I entered my name at the mall, Christmas 1983, 1990 in trade school.  It was a Chyron that you entered the code and had yo render to get the graphics.



7. Did you buy girl scout cookies this year? What's your favorite?

WAH! No! David didn’t order them at work this year. No Samoas for Nani this year. I was a Girl Scout when the Samoas were new and I love them! Does anyone have a box of Samoas they’ll send me? Any thoughts on where I can get a box?



8. Insert your own random thought here.

For my project 366 this year, I’m not taking pictures, I’m journaling. I have kept it up, a few lines or a couple paragraphs every day about what’s going on in Naniland. I found trying to take a photo every day was taxing and some days there just wasn’t anything to photograph. My scrapbook layouts for the project were often heavily dependent on journaling to make them interesting anyway, so this year I’m journaling a little every day and adding photos where they add to the journaling on my pages.

Photoblog Wednesday

Yesterday morning I snapped this before I even got out of bed.  

We like to call Grammy's quilt and my teddy bears "Kaline's Bedroom" becasue she likes to go up there to sleep, not too far from Mommy and Daddy, but her own space.

Tell Me Tuesday

On Tuesdays I join Suzanne at The Coloradolady for some brain exercise with thought provoking prompts for Tell Me Tuesday. Here is today’s prompt:

What should you avoid to improve your life?

I think my White Tornado project is all about avoiding clutter, which neither David nor I do well. I have a gazillion reasons to avoid clutter, the most obvious is that with clutter comes crowding and running things over with the walker or just plain tripping and falling. In a very tangible way, clutter should be a number one enemy to me. But clutter is a friend and foe from way back.


“If you kept things neater, I wouldn’t have to throw the baseball cards away in the winter. You’ll get more next year.” She even threw my Pete Rose and Al Kaline cards away and those ones were in my jewelry box. The clutter is hereditary. Mom got it from Grandma, but Grandma didn’t collect baseball cards as a kid. Mom threw away Mark Fidrych’s rookie card but Grandma threw away Al Kaline’s rookie card! It’s a cycle of abuse I say!

I paid $8 as an adult to replace one of the Pete Rose cards I’d had as a kid. The same time I bought the Pete Rose, Mom bid on an Al Kaline card that was on an auction style board at the card shop. At the end of the week, she paid $25 to replace that childhood hero. I’d have bid on the Kaline too, but I wasn’t going to bid against my own mother and I could not have swallowed the eventual sticker on it! Today those two cards flank the top of my chest of drawers in the bedroom in thick Lucite protectors.

But you see? Clutter cost me $8 as an adult for something that was one in a pack of 20 for 15 cents when I had it originally. Those cards won’t be for sale again until my estate sale.

As a kid, I saw a movie where someone woke up under a blanket and a pile of papers to answer the phone. His home was total clutter and he was renowned for his success in the movie. I thought that would be me when I grew up. No one would ever tell me to clean my room or throw away my baseball cards because I was successful. But that was a movie and I didn’t grow up to be a movie.

As a teenager, my room was often incredibly cluttered. It was also often neat organized and pristine. I found that a little clutter was good for creativity, but when my room got too cluttered, my mind got cluttered. When the clutter was too much for my usually very organized brain, I’d stop and clean. I pulled all-nighters organizing my room and moving furniture. I think it was subconscious Feng Shui. The point is cleaning the room cleared my mind, moving furniture inspired new ideas.

That’s what I need right now, the White Tornado. This is the first time it’s had a name, but not the first time it’s come to my world! At 46 and physically challenged, I can’t do it as fast as I could at 16, but it has the same effect. While working in the woman cave today, I took a couple short breaks and just sat in front of the bathroom vanity.  It was like a Zen garden.

My life will improve when I get rid of and avoid too much return of clutter. Right now, I need to avoid living in my bathroom!

My Zen Garden

(The souvenir popcorn helmets are just placeholders until I get the proper baskets.)

Meet Me On Monday

Break time, lunch time…turkey soup time! Pop brought me the carcass of the turkey they’d cooked in two packages last time he visited. While I was scrapping Saturday, one of those packages became broth! I have 4 containers of broth that I need to skim so I can freeze three of them. The day after grocery day is so rough. Decisions, decisions, I bought turkey pepperoni so a pizza is tempting too.

For breakfast this morning I tried the new Kellogg’s Krave cereal. I got the double chocolate; chocolate whole grain with a chocolate cream center. YUM! Points like most breakfast cereal and 3 grams of fiber, so it’s healthy and filling too. With almond milk, it’s breakfast ambrosia!


Now that I’m amply appetized, I’ll post my Meet Me On Monday so I can get on that turkey soup!

1. What movie or movies do you have to watch when they are on TV? (submitted by @rndmcrftyGAgrl)

If Gone With The Wind is on or any of the Harry Potter movies, I’ll stop surfing the TV and watch. Same is true for Field of Dreams or anything with Cary Grant or Ginger Rogers.


2. When you have out of town visitors, what fun places do you take them to in your town? (Or where do you play tourist in your own town?) 

Depends on the time of year and their taste in food. During baseball season the first place I’d take out of town guests is to a Mud Hens game. In fact we had out of town guests for our wedding reception which was at a Mud Hens game.

If it’s anyone who even slightly likes Middle Eastern food or would like to try it, I’d take them to Ya Halla. When Tori or Rina visit that’s a “must eat there” destination

3. What was the first album, CD, Download you ever bought?

The very first? Golly, I really don’t remember. I know saving up for Triumph’s Allied Forces was a big deal early in my record buying days. Replacing all of my Night Ranger vinyl was the first thing when I got my first CD player, but it was a Christmas gift and many friends knew so I didn’t have a lot of Night Ranger left to buy after Christmas.

As far as an MP3 goes, when I first had iTunes, I loaded a bunch of stuff from CDs, so the first song I bought was Kokomo by the Beach Boys. I used a piece of it for the Musical Photobook presentation I made for my dad’s 60th birthday party.


4. Do you speak more than one language and which ones? If not, what language would you like to know?

Je parle un peu français, mais seulement un peu.

I speak enough French to order in a restaurant, ask for directions and say “please speak slowly, French isn’t my native language.” I used to be able to read a French newspaper. I could probably still figure most of it out.

I speak and understand much less Italian, but I could still order in a restaurant, I just couldn’t answer any questions! LOL I can follow what my relatives are talking about by recognizing words and getting the gist of the context. When they break into English to ask me a question pertaining to the discussion, I have always been pleased that I actually did understand! I can read letters in Italian. I get occasional letters from the government in San Marino but I always bring them when I visit Pop to make sure I understood correctly.


5. What is your dream job?

My first dream job was to be an advertising creative, like Darrin on Bewitched. As an adult, my dream job would be stadium operations manager for a professional baseball team.

Monday Mug Shot – Big Mac

It’s a chilly but sunny day today! It’s our Sunday but David is out railfanning with Mike. I was invited too, but I’d taken a scrap day on Saturday and got four pages done followed by groceries yesterday morning before David and I went out and did some local railfanning that included getting the Seneca County Bicentennial Barn. So, I’d pretty much had a traditional weekend and 2 days away from the White Tornado project. We’re considering a possible vacation and Kelly and Dave are coming back in June, so I have, at least in my own mind, a deadline. I don’t want to go out of town or have guests over until at least the organizing part of the project is done. I have 2 months and there will still be normal life happening. I need to step up the progress!

So how about a cup of coffee? How about a coffee cup?

Monday Mug Shot

Mackinac Bridge

Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, Michigan

I figure since I’m from Michigan it shouldn’t be a great shock that I’ve been to and over the bridge that connects the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of the state. When my brother and I were very young and my parents were just starting out as a family, we were avid campers. Camping was a fun vacation, a good learning experience and affordable for a couple just starting out with very young children. We very often went to a number of Upper Michigan State Parks; Indian Lake was a family favorite. We’d leave either Friday night or Saturday morning and be gone for the week, sometimes a long weekend.

When we got to the Mackinac Bridge, even if it was at night and we were sleeping, our parents would wake us up so we could see the bridge. I know they did that, but honestly don’t really remember it. I still appreciated that they did it. That’s what gave me the idea of quelling Tori and Rina whining about going to bed when they stayed with us when they were little. I remembered that I didn’t want to miss anything when I whined about going to bed too. I also remembered how much I appreciated being awakened for the bridge, even if I fell back asleep and didn’t remember it. So after an especially rough night trying to get them to bed, I woke them up at midnight to see a cartoon debut on Cartoon Network. They thanked me but went back to sleep. They didn’t remember any of it in the morning when we talked about it, but never gave me any trouble again about going to bed because they knew I’d wake them up if there was something really cool. Maybe that was my parents’ thinking with waking us up to cross the bridge?

The amazing thing about crossing the bridge during the day is Simon and Garfunkel’s Cecilia was always, and I mean always, on the radio when we crossed. Truly amazing! Mom and Pop liked the song and Dave and I liked the song and it didn’t matter how amazing a coincidence it was. We just sang and enjoyed crossing the bridge. Years later Mom confessed that she had a very old school battery-operated cassette player in the car when we camped.

Pop worked in construction, so our camping trips were usually in the spring or fall, when the workday was shorter and the workload was either still building for the season or waning. Cool thing was, especially during the week, we were usually one of only a few campsites that were full. This is how I fell in love with squirrels. At five or six years old, when there was no one else in the campground, I was allowed to walk all the way 2 campsites away with my bag of peanuts in the shell to sit at a picnic table and feed the squirrels. I was told to never touch the squirrels, throw the peanuts out for them on the ground. That worked at first, but as I got older, I started putting the peanuts on the table. The squirrels were slightly tamed by fall with a campground full of humans leaving them scraps all summer. One time I bravely put the peanut in my open hand and the squirrel on the table with me took it from my hand and cracked it open on the table to eat it. Most of the time, they took the peanuts to store away for winter. To this day, I love squirrels and they remind me of that moment when I was a child that I felt very special because the squirrel trusted me.


I love how sometimes writing takes on a my mind of its own. When I started writing today’s Mug Shot I thought I was going to write about the first time I drove on the Big Mac, as the Mackinac Bridge is known. Maybe next week I can repost the mug with a different story. So many of my mugs are reminders of multiple stories.

I’ll be back at my next break with Meet Me On Monday!

Good Dirt

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

The opportunity to talk about Miracle-Gro Expand ‘n Gro™ is really very exciting to me!  After all my griping about the weather and my dissatisfaction with my flowers this year I need some hope!  Expand ‘n Gro is the hope I’m looking for!
Expand ‘n Gro is a concentrated planting mix.  It’s just add water dirt!  I don’t mean mud, I mean gradually add equal parts water to the concentrated mix and it becomes a full pot of soil for planting.  Add an inch of Expand ‘n Gro to your garden and mix it in to the native soil and it becomes lighter and more fertile.  Plants can grow up to three times their size with Expand ‘n Gro compared to the size potential with native soil alone.

Before you become too skeptical, it’s science not flashy promotion that holds the promise of better soil with Miracle-Gro Expand ‘n Gro™.  Expand ‘n Gro is a unique blend of plant food and coconut coir fiber extracted from the coconut husk.  The coir expands with water and keeps 50% more water closer to your plants.  Additionally, coir is free of bacteria and has a helpful fungus that protects plants from damaging fungi.  The plant food feeds the soil for up to six months and the mix improves the soil for year.  Science says this stuff works and I’m excited to try it.

Where to use it first??  I’d definitely like to add it to my flower beds.  Scotty is going to give me a hand putting in some summer blooming plants this year, so when we put those in might be a good time to introduce some Expand ‘n Gro to the mix.  I think I’m also going to do that potted tomato plant that I’ve wanted this year. Medical issues behind me and a new soil product I’m dying to try seem like a promising start to fabulous salads this summer!

Expand ‘n Gro is easy to use and what a great idea for all of our summer gardens in the US part of the blog world!  I’m definitely going to try Miracle-Gro Expand ‘n Gro and I’ll update as there is news.  Try it out – What will be the first thing you plant?

Friday Fun

Hilary at Feeling Beachie hosts the weekly Follow Friday Four Fill-In in which I have participated for a while. She always welcomes suggestions for statements to fill in as her co-host for the week. This week, the co-host is me! I wrote the final 2 statements.

So, of course, I’m really encouraging everyone to join in!

The statements are:
1. I love ___ when I need a pick me up
2. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t ___
3. _______ makes me feel all warm and fuzzy
4. I can't resist a sale on ________.

1. I love a cup of good coffee when I need a pick me up.
2. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t reach the soup in the back of the top shelf.
3. Kaline makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when she’s in the mood to cuddle.
4. I can't resist a sale on K-Cups!

Mama M at My Little Life hosts 5 questions every Friday. I’m joining in again this week!


1. If you were free to just hop in the car and drive, where would you go? Or, if you could hop a plane and go anywhere, where?

If I was able to drive anywhere, I’d go to Indianapolis and see Tori and Rina. Haven’t seen them since December and I miss them a ton!


2. What's your most recently read favorite book? 

This one is easy! False Accusations by Alan Jacobson. A phenomenal finish to a great read!




3. What's your favorite Spring Break memory?

I never did much for Spring Break when I was in school, so it’s have to be when David and I went to Florida in 2010. It was actually the week after Spring Break for me, but as an online student, I just continued school through Spring Break and took my break the week after. Gotta love e-classes for that!



4. What do you put in your child's Easter basket? Or, for those w/o kids, what was put in your childhood basket?

When my nieces were little I always did a chocolate bunny, Jelly Bellies and chocolate eggs, some toys, always bubbles and an outfit.

When I was a kid, I always got a big chocolate bunny, chocolate eggs and jelly beans, bubbles and a yo-yo every year. The bunnies were always solid chocolate and decent chocolate, Hershey’s or Sanders.

I was told, I don’t remember this, but when I was 3 years old, I got a one-pound chocolate bunny in my basket. I disappeared for a while and Mom and Dad noticed my bunny was missing. They found me in my closet and I’d eaten most of the bunny. Needless to say I was pretty sick later. Also needless to say, they never left the bunny in the basket after everything was opened again.

I remembered that on Easter day Mom always took the bunnies right away and cut them up into chunks. Dave and I each got one piece of our bunny and the rest was put away. Mom told me when I was an adult that the incident when I was 3 was the reason.



5. Do you get a summer haircut? 

 I get a spring haircut and then I don’t cut it until fall. I wear ponytails or my hair pulled through the back of an adjustable baseball cap in the summer.

Do you have ideas for blogging that really aren’t enough for a whole blog post but you want to mention them during the week? Friday Fragments is a great way to put all those thoughts together and defrag your blog for a fresh start next week!

Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissin Time is our host for Friday Fragments!


** It’s not just me with the weather and the flowers. The tulips in Holland, Michigan are faring so poorly this year that the annual tulip festival may be cancelled for 2012!


** Score for the White Tornado this week! The kitchen is done!


** Last night was the last MS Jobs Teleconference. Might have been the best one. I got lots of info on agencies that can help me rehabilitate my resume and the product it’s selling. That includes helping me access what assistance I might need to get back to work and help getting the things I need. It includes transportation and mobility products. The price left for me to pay for a power chair, a lift to transport that chair and hand controls for my car will be in the multiple thousands of dollars. I have the info for the state agencies that can help. YAY! (I hope!)


** Had to replace the batteries in my scale this week. How did I know it was time? Well, when the batteries are too week to process the result, it gives a readout to let you know; OVR LOD. Excuse me? The scale’s max weight is 500 pounds. When the batteries are low it says OVERLOAD?? Most people who use scales are looking for that number to go down or stay the same, a few seek it to go up, but most home scales are for those who are trying to lose. When the power is low, overload? Really?? Why not LO BTRY? You know, as in it’s not the person on the scale overloading anything. Yeesh! Overload INDEED!


Okay, now that my blogging brain is defragged, I feel much better!

A New Award!

So cool to be given the Tell Me About Yourself award by Marti, Marvi Marti!  I'm honored to receive this award!  I'm a pretty open person and this acknowledgement means, well it means I'm not open but boring!  Now, you know if Marti gave the award, it's because she won it, deservedly so.  Definitely check out her blog if you don't read it already!

The rules for accepting this award are that you must thank the person giving it. Thank you Marti! :) Then share 7 things you think people might find interesting about you and select 7 fellow bloggers to give the award to!

1. I wrote and copyrighted four songs between the ages of 15 and 17.

2. I worked game day scoreboard graphics for the Detroit Tigers as an assistant in 1996 and as the actually paid graphics person in 1997.

3. I started collecting coffee mugs in 1989.

4. I started intentionally collecting M&Ms stuff in 1999 when I realized I had already been collecting toppers and dispensers. I was thinking about what I already had after the completely brilliant Super Bowl commercial when they appointed themselves the “Official Spokescandy of the New Millennium – MM."

5. As a kid, most of my allowance in the summer was spent on baseball cards and any candy or snacks that had baseballs on them. (BB Bats, Home Run gumballs, Sunflower seeds…) I want to get a box of Justin Verlander Fastball Flakes. Guess I haven’t outgrown that!

6. My first personal victory in 2012 was that I made it through January without a black eye! I didn’t manage that in 2010 or 2011.

7. Both of our cats are named after Hall of Fame baseball players. Kaline is named after Al Kaline and Carla after Carl Yastrzemski.

And now, I award the Tell Me About Yourself recognition to:

1 Edna at Miss Edna’s Place

2 Jennifer at Just Another Day

3 Amanda at Life According to Amanda

4 Debby at Just Breathe

5 Ronalyn at The Adventures of Esa and Zed

6 Tere at {Welcome to} Tere's (never quite "normal") World

7 Carla at Here in Texas

--

Photoblog Wednesday

Aurora Trainealis

March 9, 2012

This was taken when we were hunting for the Northern Lights. We didn’t find the lights, but as our backup plan we looked for them sitting near train tracks so we'd at leas see a few trains! This one is just a neat artsy shot of the crossing gates and a train that was obviously faster than the camera!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Happy hump day! Not a ton of detail this morning. I want to have the kitchen done at the end of the day, which means I need to have everything for David to move out ready when he gets home. Words can’t express how cool it feels to have one of my 9 targeted rooms, including both bathrooms, almost finished!

Now, on with the Wednesday Hodge Podge, courtesy of Joyce at From This Side of The Pond.

1. The first day of spring is here...do you enjoy working in the yard? Weeding, raking, mowing, planting-your favorite springtime garden chore? How about your least favorite?

I enjoy planting flowers. I enjoy it because it’s necessary for watching them grow! My physical problems keep me from doing a lot of lawn work. David and I are not home and garden enthusiasts at all. We keep the lawn treated and mowed and landscape, well we landscape enough that our neighbors next door and across the street, who are lawn and garden hobbyists with beautiful lawns, don’t throw things in our yard! ;)  My least favorite is pulling weeds. The only thing I like less than pulling them is looking at them in my flower bed.


2. What puts a spring in your step?

Sunshine. Feeling it warm on my skin just makes me happier than usual.


3. Describe a time when you had to spring into action?

I sprang into navigation action on a stormy evening in Atlanta in 2000, after I flew in that morning for a job interview. In the waiting area for the plane, we saw lighting hit the tarmac and the entire airport’s lights flashed off then on. Our plane with several others was still in the air and did not land. The airport was a mess for the whole weekend and I couldn’t get a flight until the next morning. I was going to have to sleep in the airport because I didn’t bring enough cash for a hotel room and they were filling up fast anyway. A woman scheduled on the same flight I was asked me if I knew the area well enough to get to a hotel if she got a room. We talked a bit and she offered that we could share a room if I could navigate the subway. It was a business expense for her. It worked well. She wasn’t searching all over for a hotel she couldn’t find and I didn’t have to sleep on the airport floor!


4. We're having carrots for dinner...would you prefer yours raw or cooked?

I’d definitely prefer raw and organic. The organic ones are just like candy!


5. Do you take the shampoos and other sundries from your hotel room when its time to check out?

Yes! I use them to travel with in case we’re in a hotel that doesn’t offer them, some of the small4r or cheaper places don’t. Also, everyone should take the shampoos and such. Did you know that shelters are always looking for little shampoos and soaps? If someone seeks shelter after an emergency or in the case of abuse, they usually have not packed toiletries.


6. What's the most enjoyable team or club you've belonged to and what was it that made it so?

My hockey team when I was 9 years old. It was enjoyable because we were girls playing ice hockey in the 70s. We were special!


7. Is cloning a sign of progress?

Depends what you’re cloning. Cloning athletes to make an unbeatable team, no. If they could clone healthy myelin cells from me and replace the spots where my nerves are bare, then it’s awesome progress, bring it on!


8. Insert your own random thought here.

I’m getting pretty good at this coupon thing. We’re averaging about $20 saved when we do the big shopping trips. That helps to make up for organic carrots and almond milk being more expensive than regular carrots and milk. We have a big grocery trip coming up soon and it’ll be Eater candy time! I’ve always regarded Easter as the candy holiday. Halloween is the pumpkin spice holiday! Gimme jelly beans, gimme chocolate bunnies! I got coupons for them!

Happy Spring 1st

Good morning Cyberpals! Happy Spring!

The high temperature yesterday was 81 degrees here, blowing the old record away by 3 degrees. We’re forecasted for two more days in the low to mid 80s…in MARCH! I’m over the flower sadness now and ready to just enjoy the warmth! Mid 80’s is the temperature in my fantasy paradise.


Global Climate Change. Hmm… I’m still not sold on cars and aerosol cans being to blame for the weather, not yet. Climate goes in cycles and just 2 years of bizarre weather doesn’t mean a permanent change. Even if warmer weather and more violent storms become the norm, I’m not so sure it’s all our fault. True that we haven’t done much to slow it down and we really need to be more ecologically conscious, but we weren’t here with our pollutants during the time of the great glaciers. Where I’m sitting right now used to be a solid piece of ice all year round. The climate does naturally change in big ways, always has. I suppose it would have been an alarming thing to be sitting happily on my glacier and suddenly the cable goes out because there is water in my modem from the glacier melting. I’m just sayin’. It could be the process of major global climate change that’s happened before. Still, like I said, we haven’t helped it slow down the process and conservation is a great idea. Major climate change is slow. The glaciers didn’t melt overnight and I doubt any of us will be fried to a crisp. But we need to do what we can to slow the process so there will be more future generations before they all have to swelter in parkas on an average Ohio 110 degree day in January because the hole in the ozone has made sunscreen ineffective.

Just suggesting to use reusable shopping bags and save the water in a jug while it’s heating up to make spaghetti in the kitchen, water the house plants or make coffee. We love our eco-ghetti! And recycle, recycle, recycle!

I have a really cool barn to share with you and liking to Tricia’s Barn Charm at Bluff Area Daily.

I saw this farm when David and I took a day trip last Sunday, March 11. It’s a beautiful farm, even with the dry remains of the corn field and look at the barn!

It’s on Ohio 423 between Marion and Waldo. I love the unusual color and the fact that the barn and house match!

This week’s prompt from Suzanne at The Coloradolady for Tell Me Tuesday at first glance should be easy for me.

What is the best part of your average day?

As an optimist, “the best” should be easy!

But, as an optimist the first thing I thought when I contemplated the question was, “just one?”

I could say “waking up,” and the best part of waking up is that Folders is NOT in my cup. And then I guess I could say the best part of any day is when I can paraphrase advertising and slam Folders in one sentence!

The thing is that right now I don’t have average days. I mean, I’m not employed. I clean and organize, write a sponsored post when there is one available. That’s my working day. The best parts are when I discover treasures in my boxes form relatives’ estates or when I rediscover something we thought we’d lost. There have been a couple of those.

I could also say the best part is lunchtime when I relax, read a few blogs and usually experiment with something in the kitchen, whether it’s the meal or a new drink concoction.


Then there’s later in the afternoon when Kaline visits me wherever in the house I am just for some attention. It's even better just before David comes home when they both visit me although that’s in part because it's “Fresh Kibble” time.

But I think truly the best time of the average day for me is when David comes home. It’s the “Honey I’m home” kiss I starting missing as soon as the warmth of the “goodbye” kiss fades. I like my alone time during my breaks during the day and Heaven knows that it’s hard to accomplish any cleaning or organizing if there’s anyone else with me, but it’s when my partner in life is home again and I can share what I’ve accomplished during the day with him that I can really say it’s been a good day.

Wow…I’ve been totally consumed by Donna Reedishness, huh? I wonder what Donna Reed would have blogged about?

Putting my apron back on…


Join us for Tell Me Tuesday for a prompt that makes you think a little. You might surprise yourself!

Meet Me in Marietta Monday with a Mug

Oops… It’s PM not AM and I’m finally posting Monday. It’s been a busy day, lots of phone calls, errands and White Tornado stuff. I’m working on the kitchen right now. That’s the toughest one to have done because it’s one of the rooms we use all the time, but the pantry cupboards are becoming wild confusion for the places I can’t reach. So, I’m recruiting my tall hubby to help organize those cupboards to have the less everyday things out of reach and the total everyday things, like soup, closer. I’m ready for lots of “shorty” jokes!


When I went out this afternoon I swear it smelled like summer! In fact, the record for the warmest day in Toledo history for March 19 was 78 degrees in 1921. Today it was 79 degrees at 6:00 PM! I’m happy to say I’m again part of Toledo history, but sad too. This winter was so awful for my flowers! This is only their second spring and perennials need the cold and snow to “rest.” Just like people need sleep to be their best. The crocuses bloomed way too early after our practically snow-free and mostly too warm winter and they just weren’t pretty like last year, not robust at all. March isn’t even over and the crocuses are all gone.

Friday - March 16, 2012

(Notice the withered remains of a purple crocus?)

Last year I took photos of the very first blooms on March 28. My gorgeous purple stripe crocus and the daffodils were in bloom April 10 and the rest of the narcissus joined in after the crocuses were done April 22. The narcissuses are all bloomed after yesterday morning’s rain and they just look weak compared to the photos last year. This is web-published, so feel free to come back to it and link me up to myself if I complain next January, but I really hope it’s much colder with a lot, a real lot, more snow. They say that after the nuclear winter there will be robust growth and there were definitely beautiful flowers after Snowmageddon!

Okay, there’s my crying over spilled petals. There will be fewer flower scrapbooks pages this year and the photos won’t show as much of spring’s splendor. I’ll concentrate on the older daffodils that predate me living here. They are more established and are much stronger on short rest!

April 10, 2011

Meet Me On Monday

And now I join the bloggers who share with Heather at Acting Balanced for Meet Me On Monday...only mine is Meet Me On Monday Night!

1. How do you like your eggs?
I prefer Egg Beaters, omelet style or as the Quichettes I talked about Friday. Oh those are so yummy! When I do get the mood for a yolky regular egg, I like them over medium, better if they’re overdone than underdone if it’s in a restaurant.


2. Who is the last person you spoke to on the phone?

David. Even though it’s his Sunday, he’s been monitoring the temperature for work so they can report it.


3. Do you have a place you keep 'junk' in your home?

Yes, our home. *See White Tornado Project


4. What is on your 'spring cleaning' list?

See answer for #3.


5. What blog post have you written recently that you'd like more people to know about? (don't forget to link it up)

I’ve actually been pretty happy with the hits to my blog since I started blogging daily during the week. I’ve become a regular reader of more blogs too. I don’t always comment but I still read. Although right now I have a bookmarked file I need to catch up!

If there is a post I wish had more attention, it’s The Main Event, from January 2009. It’s not so much that it needs attention, but I’d love to share it with my newer blog friends. It’s the post where I revealed to my cyber coffee shop regulars that I’d eloped.




Monday Mug Shot

Marietta, Georgia

When I was bound and determined to end up in Atlanta, Marietta was where I hoped to live. The visitor’s center is the old train depot and freight trains still run past it when you visit. I got to see a Piggyback train th3e first time I was there with my Mom in 1989. It was double cool because the construction company I worked for at the time got shipments of upgrade lumber from Canada via piggyback; semi containers already on the trailer ready to go from the rail car and be attached to a waiting truck. Yes, that was a vacation, but I liked trains anyway and it was an opportunity to see the headache I wasn’t having at work; “Piggyback, and I don’t care where it’s going!” They are very cool cars to watch!

I stayed in Marietta when I went to Atlanta on my own in 1990. That was the trip where I sat with a Headline News writer at lunch and talked. His advice to me was to enroll at Specs Howard Broadcast School when I get home and come back. I took that advice and a year later I was back. John came with me that trip because I had an interview with a production company in Marietta that did train videos and he wanted a trip with lil sis because I was about to become a 12-hour drive away and he wouldn’t see me as often. We stayed in the same hotel I had in 1990.

On the day of my interview, I drove John to the bus lot. He was going to go to Six Flags since I wasn’t a big theme park fan and he was, and I’d drive back after my interview and shop at Underground Atlanta a little before we met and got dinner in the city before we took the bus back to my car.

I thought the interview went okay. It would be a dream job, videoing trains all over the country as an assistant producer for the small company. I also knew I was really inexperienced and the job was a bit over my head as my first interview after broadcast school. When John and I met back up downtown I was excited to tell him about how the interview went. He had enjoyed Six Flags and told me about th4 roller coasters he’d ridden. He was 32 years old and put him near roller coasters and the inner child just blossomed! Then he gave me a plaque, which hangs on the open wall in our closet area today. There was a booth where you could get personalized plaques done and he had my very unusual name in wood letters next to a carousel horse, which I had a modest collection of at the time. SO perfectly me. It was to hopefully be my congratulatory gift. John always had more faith in me that I had, but everyone needs friends that can lift you up that way.

I called the company on Friday, just before we were leaving. I didn’t not get the job. They had done some number crunching and decided that the new position for which I had interviewed was one they would have to put on hold. They gave very positive feedback about my interview and welcomed me to keep an eye out because when they did decide to hire it, they’d post in the same magazine I’d originally gotten their address from and welcomed me to apply for it. They could have not told me where they’d post it and not said to apply. I took it as a good interview. I got a week’s vacation with a dear friend and one more week in Marietta.

Blog Defragging

Digitalegacies Designs’ One Step At A Time was inspired by the Jordin Sparks song

Last night I started putting this post together with the intent of scheduling it to post at 6 AM, which is usually right before I wake up anyway, even though my alarm is set for 7:05. The last couple of days I’ve been waking up around 7:30! It’s more sleep than I usually need, but if the body says “hit the snooze,” I’m going to give the body what it needs if I don’t have a pressing reason to be up earlier.

Yesterday was a weather mess! There were tornadoes up in Michigan and flash flood warnings all over. We had "take your pick” lighting; gray clouds, but give it a minute, look, sun! Unseasonably warm and just as you opened the windows, rumble.4rumble,” says the sky. Seriously, I heard ominous rumbling that shook the house with bright sunlight washing our street! All that sound and fury was going on in the afternoon and it didn’t rain until almost 10:30PM! Last night was a weather mess. It rained like the dickens, lots of rain, thunder, lightning and a little hail. The day in our part of Toledo started and ended with hail. Hmmm.

So far today the radar is clear and there is a little glint of sun showing, but that is scheduled to change this afternoon and become cloudy. We’ll see. I’ve come to think of weather as a gamble based on science rather than an actual science!

Follow Friday Four Fill in Fun Blog Hop

Every week Hilary at Feeling Beachie hosts the Friday Fill-Ins. This week’s co-host is Boca Frau who added the last two fill-ins.

This week’s statements:
1. I get my best ideas_____
2. When I am ___ I ___
3. When I have a cold, I like to_____
4. Watching a ____ move, can be ______.


My finished statements:

1. I get my best ideas when I’m trying to get a great idea. Seriously, I’m what I call a linear rather than lyrical creative. My best stuff comes from needing a great idea. Even my best scrapbooking ideas come while I’m working on a page and I just can’t put a page together unless I have the photos and journaling done first.

2. When I am bored I watch TV. I don’t watch a lot of TV! :)

3. When I have a cold, I like to drink regular Coke heated up in the microwave. A cup of Coke zapped for 60 seconds makes it sweet and warm with a fine fizz that massages the throat. For me with a cold it’s the ultimate comfort drink.


4. Watching a windmill move, can be very calming. Even the less classic looking wind turbines have a soothing effect on me.


Join us! It takes a few minutes to do the fill-in and a couple more to read the other blogs and see who thinks like you and who reads the fill-ins way different! It’s fun!

Friday Fragments

Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissin’ Time hosts Friday Fragments, a chance to defrag your blog by emptying those short things from your “To Blog” folder. I can’t be the only one that has a To Blog on my desktop. It’s an opportunity to post those things that are worth blogging, but just not big enough for a whole post. If your blog could use some weekly defragging, why not join us?


** Grandma crocheted mini afghans for the family cats. I have a bunch of squares she crocheted that I need to put together to make one for Carla. Grandma didn’t meet Carla but she saw pictures and said, “Guess I need to make another kitty afghan.” So, it seems appropriate that I use her squares to make one for Carla


** I was treading Ronalyn’s blog, The Adventures of Esa and Zed, last week. Zed lost his collar, his Washington Capitals collar. It was a big deal because his Capitals collar had his tags on it. When Ronalyn found the collar, Zed had located it and was sniffing it as if to say, “Mom, over here!”

Before she got sick, Azzie wore a collar with a bell and even a bow at Christmastime. I took the collar off for good when she got her paw caught in it when she had a seizure. I worried that it could have broken her front leg. But Az loved her collar and even the bow.

Years before when I had gotten Ritchie, a black cat, his red collar with the rhinestones on it, he strutted around with his head up and showed it off to everyone. I think it was his badge of “I’m not an alleycat anymore; I’m a loved housecat now! When Ritchie died and Pop buried him, he took his collar off and gave it to me to remember him. It’s still in my box with memorial prayer cards and keepsakes.

When Kaline was a kitten, I got a less expensive collar without a bell in blue for her as a “training collar.” I planned to move to a nice navy blue collar, so with her orange coat she’d sport Detroit Tigers colors, with rhinestones and a bell when she was adult size. She hated the collar with a passion unknown to any cat before her. She unhooked the collar numerous times before it was finally lost for good. I think she hid it in the basement somewhere. She won. When we moved to Toledo and Chester and Baggle didn’t wear collars, I knew our sweet baby girl would never wear accessories. She’s 6-1/2 now and has never worn a collar since she was a kitten. And she really never wore that one either.


** We had an issue Sunday about warm vs. hot and iced vs. hot coffee. David got me an iced coffee because I “usually have iced coffee when it’s warm.” Huh? It was in the 60s Sunday. NOT iced coffee weather! I love that he remembered that I sometimes go iced in the summer, but I only have iced coffee for my first coffee of the day if wake-up temperature is near 80! I even have hot coffee with breakfast on days that hit the 90s if they start off at 75 or below. Any other coffee drinkers want to chime in? What time of day or time of year is iced coffee time?


** I’ve been in a bit of a cooking mood lately. Thursday dinner was Froot Loop Chicken. Moms, Grandmas, this is a simple recipe that is a good kid idea! I used chicken cutlets, but chicken strips work too. Dip them in egg or egg substitute, the coat them with Froot Loops that have been ground into crumbs in a food processor. I use my little 2-cup chopper. Bake for 20 minutes at 400. Tasty and fun!

Froot Loop Chicken -

(Don't be concerned, the salad and raw carrots had a separate plate!)

I got the idea from the fried Captain Crunch chicken strips at Planet Hollywood about 15 years ago. Froot Loops are similar in taste and just more fun!


** New music ot The Chronicles of Nani includes some more upbeat, springy stuff, including One Step At A Time by Jordin Sparks. No question that since hearing that one the first time it easily rates in my top songs of all-time list! I just love it from the lyrics to the feel of the melody to that incredible dress she wears in the video! It’s an all around total package of great music!


Okay, blog defragged for another week! :)

Thursday Thoughts

Good gloomy Thursday! All right, it’s gloomy in Toledo, but the sun always shines in Cyberspace, right? I guess it’s not so sunny if you have a cyber-nightclub, but in this cyber coffee shop, it’s always sunny.

I was awakened in the middle of the night by a flash of light and a breeze coming in the open window. It’s not a vivid memory, I sleep soundly, but I recalled it when I looked outside and saw wet pavement this morning. I remember hearing the rain start and saying to David that he should probably close the window. The window is on his side of the bed. Only, David wasn’t there. He’d gotten up for some reason and was coming back into the room and made a comment about “fat raindrops.” I said it sounded like hail. He looked out the window and studied the downpour. He confirmed it was hail and it was coming down hard, making a lot of noise on the metal roof on the enclosed porch off the bedroom. I asked him where Carla was because she gets scared from the sound of rain on the metal roof and the hail was very loud. He said she was downstairs…and that’s the last I remember. I suspect if there was any more conversation, I was talking in my sleep.

Remembering dreams from the middle of the night is much more interesting than remembering reality when the weather wakes me.


Yesterday was Pi Day, 3-14! To celebrate, for lunch I made a perfectly round, and perfectly fat-free, pizza Pi!

A full Pizza Fit ‘n Free is a perfect fit for my new 8” plates!

Pizza Fit ‘n Free  is fat free pizza that tastes just fabulous! The pizzas are shipped with very tasty sauce and the fat free cheese. I added a strip of turkey bacon and a couple spoons of sautéed onions and bell pepper. There is just a trace of fat in the toppings and it adds just enough to make the cheesy gooey. A plain cheese pizza if still great, but the cheese doesn’t get so gooey without the trace of fat the sautéed veggies and turkey bacon added. It was fantastic and a whole pizza id s just 6 WW points!


Since I was going to be preparing the toppings for my pizza, I went ahead and chopped the whole onion and bell pepper, as well as cooking three more slices of turkey bacon to make Quichettes. They turned out great!

Real simple recipe too!

Ingredients

3 strips of turkey bacon cooked medium crisp and cut into squares
1 diced bell pepper
1 diced medium onion
1 tsp. margarine
1 piece string cheese, diced.
1 cup Egg Beaters
2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

Sauté onion and pepper in margarine. Mix cooled bacon, onions and pepper with string cheese cubes and Egg Beaters. Add Parmesan cheese and stir until blended. Pour evenly into sprayed 12-cupcake tin. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes 12 Quichettes



Remember my mug cake recipe?  I made a very tasty variation. I omitted the cocoa and used 2 Tablespoons of raspberry jam in place of half the Splenda.

I admit it’s unquestionably uglier. I suspect the raspberry and almond flour combination is what made it turn grayish teal. But for the taste, I accept it as a yummy blue raspberry cake!  Next time I'll add a drop of blue food coloring so I can know I meant to do that!


Okay, so there’s the new “what’s cookin’” stuff. How about something old?


Here’s a neat little piece.

It’s a pin that looks like it was never taken off the paper it was displayed on. It says “souvenir of Newfoundland" and on the back of the British Flag the hand is holding has Great Britain engraved on the back.

detail

Newfoundland was originally part of Great Britain and became the tenth province to join Canada on March 31, 1949. So, this pin is at the very least that old. It was in the box with the trinkets Papa bought back from WW2 and Newfoundland was one of the places he was stationed for a while in the early 40s. I read several postcards he sent grandma in 1941 and 1942 which would have been when he was 18, shortly after he enlisted and when Grandma was still in high school. So my best guess is that it is from the very early 40s.

See more unusual and common vintage pieces at Vintage Thingie Thursday, hosted by Suzanne at The Coloradolady.

Links

Pizza Fit N’ Free

The Coloradolady

Wednesday Hodge Podge

1. St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated this coming Saturday...what's a favorite article of clothing you own that contains a touch o' the green?

Wow, favorite article of green clothing? I’d say half of my wardrobe is green! If we’re talking the Kelly shade of green that is most associated with St, Patrick’s Day, then it narrows it WAY down; my Mr. Celery T-shirt from the Wilmington Blue Rock game last summer. It says “Got Celery?”

But all shades considered, this is probably my favorite of my greens:

Lunch at The CN Tower in Toronto 

David's Birthday weekend 2011

2. What's a favorite 'green space' in the town, state, or province where you live?

I’m not sure if this is asking for my bank, the recycling center or the park down the street!  :)

I used to love Maybury State Park when I was in Michigan. I could probably still draw a map of all the hiking trails and tell you where the mosquitoes were the worst!


3. Do you wish you were taller, shorter, or think you're just about right in the height department?

David thinks I need to be taller. I think I’m just fine at 5’7”, but considering that tall-guy puts my soup on the top shelf, I guess I could stand to be a little taller…Like a foot taller.


4. What's the surest way for someone to pick a fight with you?

Insist that their religion should run my government.


5. Broccoli-Spinach-String Beans-Peas...of the four, your favorite green veg? (Or the one you dislike the least if that first option's too hard. I just know there's some veggie haters out there.)

Green beans and zucchini are my absolute favorite vegetables, okay carrots too and I love California blend with broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, oh, and in the summer a fresh farmers market salad is divine, but, although I like all the ones listed, as long as the peas are snap peas, I guess I'd have to say the string beans.
 
Craving a salad now.


6. March is National Women's History Month...besides friends, neighbors and the women you're related to, who's a woman in history you admire and why?

I admire all the women who took part in earning the right to vote, to have a voice, who demanded equality and who still do. If not for every one of those women in the past 235+ years who sacrificed so much for this country and had to fight to be finally recognized and respected for their work and sacrifice, we wouldn’t have the near equality we have today.


7. Keep Calm and ____________on. You fill in the blank.

Keep calm and press on.


8. Insert your own random thought here.

I need an outdoor walker. David says that we’ll have daffodil blooms soon. I need to get out and get some pictures of the crocuses. They got a little wind beaten in the storms yesterday morning, well, overnight into early yesterday morning, but they pop back up as long as the blooms don't get knocked off, which they didn’t. My biggest problem is that unless I ask to have my car moved back by the house, I can’t get much of anywhere outside. I need something to grab on to if I’m moving anywhere with the cane. An “outdoor walker,” something that I didn’t have to get down the stairs and could lean on to photo and mess with the flowers would be a great help. I wonder if they even make something like that. Hmm… Maybe Pop could make one out of PVC when he’s creating my shoe cubbies?


The weekly Hodge Podge is hosted by Joyce at From This Side of the Pond. Thanks, Joyce!!

Photoblog Wednesday

Near New London Ohio

March 11, 2012

My favorite light of the day is that warm glow just before sundown.

Tell Me Tuesday Evening

Posting late today because I’ve been non-computer busy!

What a gorgeous, sunny day it’s been! After rain that knocked out power for a while last night, it was brilliantly sunny and warm. David says warm. I say warmer. 67 is very nice, but it doesn’t get to "warm" before 75!


I started working on the table in our dining room where the radio/CD player and all the CDs are. Some serious need of a White Tornado there. For audio news in the house, I just turn on the TV and I usually get my news reading the local paper online and the various news sources that Google links to. I listen to my playlist online and seldom use that radio except to listen to the Christmas station during the holidays. I also found out last November that the CD player in it no longer works. So the radio and a few stacks of CDs and old phone books were sitting on the table where the radio goes, all covered in dust and cat hair. (Cough, cough)

I want to get the CDs from all over the house collected to match boxes and really to decide which ones can go the a used CD retailer for cash or trade. What we really need is a couple of MP3 players. That radio in the dining room has a connection for an auxiliary input. So a little MP3 player can sit right on top of the CD compartment and take up a lot less room than all the CDs on the bottom shelf of the table where they hide and push out the phone books. I put a 2009 phone book in the recycle box this afternoon! The girls loved me cleaning out the area where the radio is because their carpeted play house is there too and I found so many mousies! One thing the White Tornado project is doing for them is turning the place into a giant cat toy box.

So now, I feel a little bit accomplished for the day, but not enough. I have a couple dining room things for which I need David’s superior strength. But I’m a little gravelly-throated from dusting. Also, how dumb is someone who showers, dresses in dark pants and then does the dusting? I now have dusty brown leggings.

Well, now it’s time for Dusty’s, I mean Nani’s, Tuesday stuff

Here is this week’s prompt for Tell Me Tuesday:

What is the one lie you keep telling yourself each and every day??

I’m really not a good liar, even to myself. When I lie, even exaggerate, to myself I will say, out loud, “Who are you kidding?”

I guess the one lie I’ve used is that profanity helps dispel pain, or at least that it releases negative energy so you can refocus. I read it online somewhere and I decided I’d try it. I don’t try things on other people and I don’t try things that might be dangerous, but if it won’t harm anyone, I’ll try things that sound like a “could be.”

Now, profanity therapy was a totally new idea for me. As a rule I don’t use profanity and although I know the words and their meanings, I didn’t really know where to put them in a sentence, still don’t. So one frustrated day I experienced some pain in my lower pack while trying to move something and I tried it. I was home alone so I screeched the expletives loud. They didn’t make sense because all I did was say a bunch of them. I felt good for having gotten the energy out, but ashamed for sounding so stupid. I’ve always considered, and my nieces were raised knowing, that profanity was for people who couldn’t use English. I did include the exception that when people are in pain or scared they sometimes get temporarily stupid, but using profanity all the time in relaxed speech was just plain dumb. But they were in no way to accept the definition from anyone who called it “grownup words.” That was the dumbest thing I’d ever herd said to a child. (“Boy I can’t wait until I’m BIG so I can say…” come on!)

What I did find was it’s not the profanity that dispels the negative energy, it’s the yell. Much like a weightlifter grunts when he or she lifts the barbell. So I’ve mostly replaced the profanity with grunts and growls. I sound like a cave-woman, but it helps get the job done. David is really the only other soul who’s heard my attempt at profanity therapy. By nature I just don’t use those words around other people. I couldn’t help but think it was fair if they judged me for it.

There is a little humor in what David has heard.  I use it very awkwardly and well, my personality and inflection, I sound like an unhappy cheerleader yelling the cheers that are banned. “Beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep-beep” begged to be followed by “score for the other team sucks, sucks, sucks!” It's not really a good career choice for me. Banned cheers and a short skirt in a wheelchair? Yeah, they wouldn’t even let me in the stadium. I’ll stick to grunts and growls

And with that confession, the lie to myself will never fly again! Thank you!

Join Suzanne for Tell Me Tuesdays at The Coloradolady.