It's A New Day

Almost

We came within nine minutes of seeing a launch but we were pretty sure before the official "no go" that it wasn't going to happen. You see, our location was west of the launch pad and all those encroaching clouds the NASA officials kept talking about had already reached us. And we knew were were within that 20 nautical mile zone that needed to be clear. Despite the ending, the day was a great experience.

The launch wasn't the only thing we "almost" saw. I thought more than once we were going to see people come to blows. The park isn't very large and quite a crowd was there when we arrived around 1pm. Chairs filled the width of the park at the water's edge where the view would be unobscured. Needless to say, those people were not very happy when late-comers wanted to squeeze in and sit in front of them, dangling their feet off the seawall. And I'm not sure who was ruder...the street ministers who came with their podium to preach to a captive audience or those in the crowd who were vocal with their displeasure. I feel sure no souls were saved by those efforts though.

And apparently I was on television. A television crew was making the rounds interviewing people waiting for the launch and they were intrigued by the fact that we were from Florida but had never seen a launch. I don't think the reporter knew how far it is to Pensacola...we can't just run down to Kennedy Space Center in an hour or two. We've tried finding the video online but haven't had any success yet.

Getting this close only made Wayne more eager to see one through to the conclusion. Almost just wasn't close enough.

We're Ready

We arrived about 1pm and found the park without any problem. It's a happening place with lots of people and more arriving all the time. I can hear several foreign languages as I sit here. They have a PA system operating that is tuned to NASA TV so we're getting regular updates and things look good for a launch. The launch pad is straight across a large bay so we should have a great view. All systems are go.

On The Road Again

While we may not be actually singing it, that's definitely our theme song. We're in Jacksonville, our home away from home in our effort to  see the shuttle launch. Why Jacksonville? Well, it's a cool area to explore and it's not that far on down to the NASA facilities.

Wayne had been talking about getting tickets to the launch scheduled for August. It's a night launch which sounded awesome...until we found out night meant 4am. And since you need to be in place hours ahead of time, it just wasn't meant to be. So kind of at the last minute we decided to drive down to this one. We won't be able to get into the reserved area as those tickets are long gone, but Wayne's found a public viewing area only a little farther away. So that was where we planned to be until last night's thunderstorm caused them to delay the launch for 24 hours to be sure there was no lightning damage. We're committed to staying for another attempt, but if it doesn't go tomorrow night, we'll have to try for a different mission.

So how have we filled out time? When we arrived last night, We headed over to the University of North Florida to walk the Robert W. Loftin Nature Trails there. It's a series of linked trails through woods and around a small lake so it was shady and pleasant. We didn't see the alligators that apparently live in the lake but we saw the namesake tortoises on Gopher Tortoise Ridge. Like this one:

She might not have been dinner-plate size, but she was close. We're guessing the screened area is protection for eggs that haven't yet hatched. We saw other areas with the remnants of hatched eggs. And despite her size, she can move pretty quickly. Shortly after this photo was snapped, she disappeared into the hole on the right.

Today we wandered around Daytona Beach and St. Augustine.

The Castillo de San Marcos National Monument is an old Spanish fort that is well-kept and an interesting place to explore. From the upper level, you can see why it's situated where it is as there is  sweeping view, making it easy to see enemies approaching. Like much of Florida, control of it changed hands between the Spain and England during its history.

I was fascinated by the canons. While there were some of the big black ones mounted on wheels, these Spanish canons had a beautiful aged patina and intricate etching. If I were guessing, I'd say this one might be the coat of arms of the Spanish ruler at the time. The designs on all the canons of this type were different.

There's lots of beautiful architecture in old St. Augustine, ranging from a strong Spanish influence to Art Deco. It was just interesting to walk and look.

We finished the day by eating seafood at Jacksonville Beach then taking a sunset walk along the water's edge. The sand isn't as soft and white as what we have at Pensacola Beach but the coarser sand is easier to walk in, especially when it's wet.

With any luck the shuttle will head skyward tomorrow evening and we"ll be there to watch. And if it's delayed again, well...we'll be on the road again but heading home.

Some Blessings Shrink

It’s nice to celebrate your successes in life but sometimes it’s even better to celebrate someone else’s, especially when you know the effort they’ve made to get there. I’ve chosen just such an occurrence as my blessing this week.

My favorite guy has been hard at work shedding the pounds for several months now and it shows. No one told him he had to slim down or even that it would be a good idea; they didn’t have to. He’s smart enough to know all the benefits that come from managing his weight better…he just needed the self-motivation. His diet plan is simple…less food, more activity. And thanks to some good ol’ Arnall stubbornness he’s seeing the numbers on the scale go down substantially. Needless to say, I’m thrilled for him on many levels.

So I’m joining him in celebrating his successes thus far. But truth be told, I’m gaining in this too…not in terms of pounds but in benefits. While there’s less red meat on the menu, I’m getting fish for dinner more frequently. The fast food he’s been known to love may be out but those fresh fruits and vegetables I adore are in. There may be less on his plate but he’s got more energy for chores and fun escapes. And while there’s less of him to hug, good health will keep him around for more years for me to hug on him. That’s on my mind as we approach our 41st wedding anniversary next week, a blessing in itself.

Given all of that, Less Is More seemed the appropriate title for the layout I created to record this week’s blessing. Here’s the page:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Papers
Patterned Paper: Scenic Route Paper Co.
Stickers: Creative Imaginations
Pen: Staedtler
Font: Kravitz, Internet

This isn’t the color combination I had in mind when I started; in fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever created anything using these colors together. But when I was looking for another paper I found the one with the numbers and knew it was perfect…the right theme and the right colors to complement the photo yet give the design a masculine feel.

I should have been using my playtime this week to create the missing layout from the reunion several weeks ago but I was inspired to work on some journaling pages instead. Here’s the one from Week 21:

I wanted the two pages to form a full circle when opened together so I carried the same design elements over to the journaling page. I took advantage of the lines where the patterns change to create pockets to hold small tags on which I printed the journaling.

This page is similar in that the paper and arrows are a repeat of the design elements I already used. This helps unify the two pages. And since I was working on the back side of the journaling page above, I simply formatted the journaling into a half circle. I used the same technique I previously explained for the circle text but started with a large circle and positioned it so only half of it fit over the text box. A black fill and printing it on photo paper makes it a perfect fit for the transparency page it faces.

Speaking of the transparency, I wanted to be sure that the design elements on it stood out rather than competed with the items on the page that followed so I added an extra page to the album. I embossed a circle design on black cardstock to correspond with all the other circular elements without adding another color or print. A simple quote at the bottom makes it a meaningful addition, and my reunion layout will go on the reverse side.

It’s not often losing something merits celebration but in this case it does. Wayne’s dedicated to continuing to lose…his successes are a blessing to us both.

***Each Friday's post is part of my 52 Blessing project...an effort in 2009 to be more aware of and grateful for the blessings in my life.

A Photoshop Project

I've spent the evening doing a favor for my friend Bonnie. That's what friends do...jump in and help when they can. Bonnie's daughter's mother-in-law lost her battle against a rare neurodegenerative disease and the memorial service is scheduled for Saturday. The family wants to display a photo of their beloved wife and mother in part to personalize the service but also to help them remember this beautiful woman before a cruel disease affected her looks and her personality. They had a picture of her and her husband...could I work a little Photoshop magic and make one of her alone? While I'm hardly an expert, this looked like a doable task and I was glad to do my part to make this difficult time as little easier.

Here was my process:

The original photo was 8x10 but two people; the finished product was to be at least 8x10 and maybe 11x14 and only one person so I scanned the original photo in at 600 dpi. This would keep the image quality at a high level when the edited photo was cropped down to 300 dpi. I didn't include all of the man in the photo when I scanned but did allow some extra space on the right. You can see there's some damage to the photo on the left where it was creased in the frame and there's also white border on the left that was never cut off the original.

I used the marquee tool to copy sections of the backdrop taken from the upper left corner and paste them over the man. You can see the series of rectangles along the right where the colors and patterns don't quite match. It probably would have been more meaningful if I had saved a version before I used the eraser tool to eliminate the sections that covered the woman but I didn't. I erased until I could see a small black outline around the woman, turning the layers created by each pasted backdrop section off and on to see where the edges of her hair and clothing were.

After flattening all those layers, I used the rubber stamp tool to blend away the lines between the sections. It really helped that the backdrop was made up of irregular shapes and several shades of the same color as that made blending easier. I also stamped to fill in the backdrop right up to the edge of her clothing and hair. To me it's easier to erase extra and fill back in because you can see the edges where you're sort of guessing where they are when you're erasing. And that same rubber stamp tool worked to add more hair so the edges there weren't such a severe line. That's one of the hardest parts of deleting an object/person from a photo...getting the hair to look natural as there's always fly-aways that are hard to duplicate. 

Then I cropped the photo. There's a bit more space on the right than I'd really like but it needed to be a standard size for a frame and I'd already maximized the space on the left by fixing the crease mark and extending the photo into that small white strip. I did both of those repairs with the rubber stamp tool as well.

Finally, I toned down the blue and added a warm filter to make the colors more like the original. The scanner brightened up the photo quite a bit, and while I personally liked the look, I felt my task was to produce a photo that looked as much like the original as I could make it. I think it took me as long to get the color right as it did to isolate the woman.

The end result looks pretty good...a little softer maybe but still a nice image. Best of all, it's difficult to tell that it was once part of another photo. I hope seeing it will make the family remember happy times.

By The Numbers

Unlike some people I know, I don't have a lucky number. Maybe if I did, I'd have won the lottery by now. And I'm not particularly superstitious about numbers either...after all, Wayne and I got married on the 13th, much to his Grandmother Blaine's dismay. But I do think it's fascinating when there are unusual patterns in usual numbers.

Like Square Root Day. I forgot to point that out last March 03. If you multiplied the month times the day, you'd get the year...03-03-09. Unfortunately, Square Root Day doesn't roll around on the calendar again until April 4, 2016.

But if you don't want to wait until then to impress your friends and family. Call their attention to the fact that at just four seconds before 12:35 p.m. it will be 12:34:56 on 7/8/09. If you write the date differently, you can create a similar sequence on August 7...12:34:56 on 7 August 09. You have to make the mental leap to substitute the word August for the eight in the chain.

My friend Linda sent me a similar string for five minutes and six seconds past four today. That would make it 04:05:06 07/08/09. I actually like it better than the one above...it feels more rhythmic with all the zeroes in place. Maybe at that exact moment I'll stand on 01 foot and use my 02 hands to juggle 03 tennis balls just to complete the series. Mark your calendars now; we can enjoy this quirky line-up again at 05:06:07 08/09/10. It just doesn't have the same feel without that last zero though, does it.

So there you go...an abundance of numerical trivia you can use to amaze and delight one and all.

Just A Ho-Hum Day

It's hard to have something witty or thought-provoking to write about when the day consisted of housework and laundry. Want to hear me ramble about sweaty socks and dirty toilets? I didn't think so.

No photos to share although I had planned to take some for today's post before the rain arrived and stayed. That's OK...the yard needed the moisture and the idea for the photos will still be there when the rain moves on. In a rare show of faith, we took the weatherman at his word and walked early to beat the storms.

The pages I worked on aren't done, and I already knew the photo effect Jessica taught in her first class so I can't write about either of those. Maybe I should have followed suit with most of the blogs I read...very few had new updates today. Perhaps it's summer vacation in blogland and I missed the memo.

So since I've got nothing else and the blog is in desparate need of something visual, here's my latest favorite commercial. I love the kids' faces at the end.

Victory Is Mine!

The final chapter has been written in the saga of the mouse war, and true to any good story, there's an expected twist.

We went for days without seeing any evidence of the little rodent. No droppings on the porch, no blurred movement streaking past the door, and no skinny little tail disappearing into the bushes. Nada. He seemed to have appeared so suddenly...could he have disappeared as quickly? What was he up to?

He went for a swim...only he couldn't. Well, he probably could swim for a while but without a way to get out of the pool, he drown. We had a real gully-washer and it's possible he was an unwilling swimmer but like the occasional lizard or tree frog, he ended up in the skimmer. Ewww! I was, however, glad to be rid of the little rascal. The Arnall household prevails!

So you can imagine my surprise to find a second dead mouse. I didn't know there was a second mouse. He met a similar fate, having jumped/fallen into a large bucket I keep on the back patio for mixing chemicals for the pool. I guess you could say he'd fallen and couldn't get up as the bucket is slick and deep. We win another mouse war we didn't even know we were fighting.

Ummmm...wait a minute. One plus one equals a pair. Could there be little orphan meeces on the premises? Maybe I need to retract that statement about the final chapter. Only time will tell.

Sign Me Up

I've been reading this evening. Saturday night television is the pits and it's even worse in the summer so I'm winding down by getting lost between the pages of a good book. Tonight's choice? An encyclopedia. Not just any encyclopedia...the Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. The author paints a verbal self-portrait by capturing moments, observations and emotions in her life, all arranged like entries in an encyclopedia.

With only a cursory glance inside when it arrived, this book has lived in my bookcase for some time. I bought it when it became clear my hopes of taking Cathy Zielske's album track at CKU would never be realized. The very clever Ms. Z had created an entire scrapbook built around this book and was leading a class to share her idea but then she retired from the world of teaching on the road before my schedule allowed me to attend. And while I had intentions of reading the book and coming up with my own album design, it just hasn't happened. It, along with a long list of other great album ideas, languished in the "someday when I have time" category.

But that's going to change. When I saw that Cathy will be teaching this album concept in a class called Me: The Abridged Version, I knew I wanted to sign up. I'm looking forward to the chance to tell my story in little snippets and pieces... me, A to Z. So I'm reading in preparation for the homework and for the class that begins in September. Surely life will be less hectic in September, right? I'm not even going to think twice about it...sign me up.

I Get A Bang Out Of "Shooting" Fireworks

When Brenda told me the local volunteer fire department was shooting fireworks this year, I knew where I would be. Budget issues prevented a show last year so it was a pleasant surprise. It was even better when friends wanted to go too. Because of other local displays the show took place on the 3rd of July. We even caught a break in the weather with beautiful clear skies and cooler temperatures than we have had lately.

  

As you look at a few of the 127 shots I took during the 15-minute display, I will offer a few tips that work for me.

 

These photos were taken with my Nikon D100 on a sturdy tripod.

 

Because you want to take long exposures you need a cable release or remote device.

 

Find an unobstructed location with a good view of the sky where the shells will explode.

 

Use a wide angle lens. These were shot with a 17-34mm zoom lens at 17mm.

 

Turn off auto-focus and set the focus at infinity.

Use shutter priority and set the shutter speed to 2-3 seconds. See why you need a tripod and cable release?

 

Use a low ISO to get the best saturation I used 200 which is the lowest on the D100. Set the white balance to "tungsten" (iridescent). Trust me!

 

Once you get the camera aimed at the sky the wide angle should catch all the action so you don't have to frame your pictures you can do that with the crop tool in post processing.

 

When you hear the shell launch, trip the shutter. It takes less than two seconds for the explosion in the sky and you should catch the action.

 

Take lots of shots! I took 127 in a fifteen-minute show. Remember...it is digital.

 

Post-processing is primarily cropping the photos.

 

I try to avoid sharpening as it seems to over-sharpen for my taste.

 

I hope you have a great holiday and get out and "shoot" some fireworks! W.

Long May This Blessing Wave

Fireworks, flags and freedom. Picnics, parades and patriotism. They all meld seamlessly into the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the founding of our country. And while I’ve made a conscious effort to look for the not-so-obvious blessings in past weeks, I don’t want to leave out blessings that are evident and important to me. On this the eve of our country’s birth, I’ve chosen the freedoms we enjoy in the USA as my blessing for the week.

I’m proud to put my hand over my heart as I recite the Pledge of Allegiance, I sing (not well but happily) the National Anthem, and I’m grateful for the sacrifices of my family members and everyone else wearing a uniform who have or are serving in the armed forces. Maybe it’s all those years of working with constitutions and seeing how simple phrases in the laws enacted at various levels of government impact us as individuals that helped shape my appreciation for our liberties but whatever it was, I try to be conscious of it at all times, not just on patriotic holidays.

The flag is a symbol of so many freedoms we enjoy, each as important as the other. And I marvel at the foresight of our founding fathers to create a framework of government that now serves a country far different than they ever imagined 233 years ago. Do I wish some aspects of it were different? Sure…but I don’t see one I like better. I’m grateful for the freedoms that come with being an American.

Here’s the page I created to celebrate this blessing:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned paper: My Mind’s Eye, Northern Spy
Punch: EK Success
Crepe paper ribbon: Jenni Bowlin Studio
Ribbon: Making Memories
Stars: Avery
Pen: Staedtler
Fonts: Amazone and Zurich, Bitstream

While I’ve clearly used a traditional red, white and blue color scheme, there’s a heavier emphasis on the white component so the photo of the flag doesn’t compete with a lot of strong hues. And I win the award for using the oldest patterned paper; that red paper with the stars is from 1998. I don’t use a lot of themed paper but this one fit my eye. Text can be a decorative element too, and here I formatted the words to the National Anthem into a narrow column to give the design a vertical line that balances the horizontal one created by the photo and its supporting decorative elements.

The Fourth of July brings to mind images of parades with crepe paper streamers and reviewing stands decorated with patriotic-colored bunting. I wanted to duplicate that look to reinforce the theme of my layout so I used some crepe paper ribbon from Jenni Bowlin that I pleated, and I like how it turned out.

Pleating paper and ribbon is a great way to add texture and dimension to your layout and it’s easy to do since pleats are just a series of folds. The length you need with will vary depending on how many pleats you make so start with a strip at least twice the desired finished length. If you’re working with paper, you can add a second strip of paper by adhering it to the top of the original one and hiding the seam in the fold in order to get a longer pleated strip.

If you want precise pleats, measure and mark your strip before starting. For the strip above, I put a mark at every inch and then a second mark 1/4” to the right of the first one. This produced pleats that were 1/2” wide. You may want to score your cardstock for crisper folds but that won’t be necessary for ribbon or crepe paper.

To pleat fold the left end of the strip to the front on the first mark. Line the top and bottom edges up to keep your pleated strip nice and straight then crease the fold. Next turn the fold to the back and crease the strip on the second mark, again lining up the top and bottom edges. In the photo above, you can see the “Z” shape created by these two folds. I usually apply a little glue in each fold to hold them in place. Sewing is a fun option for ribbon as not all glues will adhere well and you’ll get some added texture as well. Keep folding, first to the front and then to the back, until you have the length you need then it’s ready to add to your page. This crepe paper ribbon would be great for your first pleating experience as it’s thin so it folds easily and is very forgiving.

Patriotism takes all forms. I hope whatever yours is this Fourth of July that your holiday will be a safe and happy one.

***Each Friday's post is part of my 52 Blessing project...an effort in 2009 to be more aware of and grateful for the blessings in my life.

Evening Walks, Critters and A Dr. Dale Tidbit

It wouldn't be July if it wasn't hot and humid, and in an effort to escape a little of that, we've moved our walks to the evening hours. We were a little later than usual leaving the house tonight...almost 8pm, but it's amazing how delaying our walk just an hour or so brought us some new and different experiences.

Like the armadillo that waddled across the road right in front of us. We see evidence of them regularly...too often in our yard, and occasionally the headlights in the car will catch one if we come home after dark. This fellow wasn't waiting for full-on darkness; he had places to go and twilight was close enough for him to get there.

And dead snakes in the road. Well, we've actually been seeing them regularly for several days now. The weather is dry and the snakes are on the move, looking for water. But after hearing that the Collier's cute little dog died after being bitten by a snake while in a yard just a few doors down the street, we're more attuned to the guys with no shoulders. Dead snakes = good snakes in my book.

And foxes. We saw two tonight near their usual haunt next to No. 10 tee. If we walk up that direction almost any evening at dusk we usually see them. One scurried off into the woods as we approached but the other one lounged on the knoll, grooming his paws. He barely watched as we went by just 10' away. Rumor has it the homeowner's association is about to hire someone to trap and relocate them. They're beautiful animals so I hate to see them go but it's probably the safe thing to do as they've become a little too comfortable around people. 

What we didn't see was a lavender sunset...but I was looking for it. Russia's Sarychev Peak volcano erupted a few weeks ago, spewing ash and sulfur that is being carried over the North Pole and into the U.S. Blue light coming through these fine particles mixes with the red hues of a normal sunset to produce lavender skies. You can see a lovely photo, more explanation and a map of how far the debris has spread here. Makes me wish I was visiting up north just to experience it. The same website had a cool photo of a fox's eyes at dusk and an explanation of how they see so well in the dark but it's no longer there.

See, Dr. Dale...Wayne isn't the only one who can throw out interesting tidbits during a walk.

Better Luck Than Good Management

Cool new banner, huh? Wayne created it for me from some amazing photos of local fireworks that he took a few years ago...and there's a story behind them.

He had tried capturing the spectacular nighttime displays the year before and was less than satisfied with his results. They were blurry and not very colorful...not at all what he had hoped for. So in typical Wayne fashion, he'd done his homework before we headed for the ball fields to await darkness and what had been promised to be dazzling fireworks. And they were. With the camera on the tripod he clicked as the brightly colored explosions filled the black skies. It was pretty cool.

But when he got back home he was more than a little concerned. In changing film speeds in the dark he had accidentally changed the white balance too, and he was quite sure none of the pictures would turn out given the wrong setting. He fretted for nothing, however. Not only did they turn out, they were beautiful. Rich colors and amazing details for as high up in the sky as the fireworks were.

 

The moral to the story is good preparations are important but sometimes you have to have a little luck on your side. 

This site has some pretty good suggestions to help you capture some great images if you want to give it a try this year or you can do what I did and just Google tips for photographing fireworks. Oh....and good luck!

Need A Recipe?

If you do, I know a whole bunch of new ones. Why, you ask? I tuned into The Food Network while I ironed. And ironed. And ironed. Two weeks' worth of ironing, including extra clothes for reunions and the like. Lots of ironing = lots of time for mindless TV.

I watched a game show or two and a true crime docu-drama, but it was The Food Network that garnered most of my viewing attention. Want to make a yummy dessert for the family picnic this weekend? Ina's Carrot and Pineapple Cake looked really good but I'd much rather experiment with Guy Fieri's Mexican Rhubarb Chocolate Chunk Brownies. I'm intrigued by the combination of rhubarb, chocolate and New Mexico smoked chile powder. We're into dining adventures and trying new things, you know.

One thing I won't be trying was a grilled pizza made with kale or swiss chard and spiced with curry powder a guest made on Bobby Flay's Grill It show. While I loved the idea of pizza cooked out on the grill and would try some of the other recipes they made, this combination just didn't make my taste buds sing. If it appeals to you, however, you'll find the recipe here.

I left Rachel Ray with fifteen minutes still on her clock...the ironing was finally done and it was time to start dinner of my own. Baked chicken and vegetables done in the wok. Let me know if you need the recipes.

Reconnecting Revisited

It would be easy to devote the reunion recap to my good friends, two Connies and two Lindas, as they are incredible women. For the most part, our bonds were formed in elementary school and over the years, I've come to appreciate them more and more. They're smart and funny and resilient.

They've faced so many challenges in the years since we graduated...breast cancer, disabled spouses, paralyzing injuries...and emerged stronger than ever with their sense of humor intact. Little did we know what life had in store for us as we headed off to college and marriage.

And I marvel every time we are all together (which doesn't happen often enough) how we're able to pick back up as if hours or days has past since we last hung out together rather than months or years that occurred in reality. We have a history together and a comfortable one at that. They would be the real reason I return for reunions.

But I could say all those things about them on every occasion we reunite. It's only every five years we share our reunion with our graduating class. And like the last several class reunions, we had a blast. There was so much laughter and reminiscing and catching up, among the five of us and with the others who attended.

More than once we huddled together, eyeing a new arrival we felt we should know but couldn't put a name to and usually someone came up with the answer. Or one of us offered a first name and someone else added the last. When you see people only once every five or ten years, their names are harder to recall...especially when graduation was so long ago. We finally decided the women now look like their mothers did when we were young, and the men look like their fathers. We spent a lot of time looking at old school photos and yearbooks, too...more remembering and more laughter.

But the story I really want to tell...the one most representative of how time erases those lines that existed in high school between the various groups...occurred almost at the end. I marched at graduation right in front of Gary, shown above studying the photo, as that's how our last names fell alphabetically. He was part of the "in" crowd and while I'm not sure what label to assign to my crowd, it definitely wasn't "in." I doubt he said three sentences to me during high school. But Saturday night he sat across the table from me and talked at length about his daughter who lives in a group home with other adults born with Downs syndrome. He's devoted to her and almost didn't attend the reunion because it conflicted with his routine to spend every weekend with her. Gone was the cool aloofness of high school; he was warm and eager to share. And when it came time to leave, he reminded me that his e-mail address was in the book and invited me to drop him a note. Time is a great equalizer on many levels.

The reunion activities were so much fun, maybe even the golf played in a downpour. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Picture America

It's no secret that we love to travel. And when we travel, we love to take photographs. Throw in my love for USA Today and you have the makings of an incredible travel photo contest.

The newspaper posed the question "Can a single image capture the essence of America?" and more than 1,000 readers submitted their best photo in the hopes of having the answer. It was an effort to represent in pictures the vast diversity that is the United States and ultimately use those photos in tourist promotions to bring foreign visitors to the USA. What were the most popular subjects in those photos? The St. Louis Gateway Arch, Mount Rushmore and various landmarks in Washington, D.C. It was interesting to see what people submitted...you can see the entries here (click the Gallery tab).

A panel of judges chose ten finalists and the winners were selected by public voting. You can see the winners and other finalists here. Unfortunately, you have to tolerate a short commercial before you can see them. The winning photo is pretty awesome but I'm not sure I wouldn't have voted for one of the others...the kites at the beach really appealed to me but I suppose it probably doesn't say Americaquite like horses. I liked the fact that in the commentary the newspaper told us which photos the judges would have chosen for second and third places, different ones than the public chose. I liked the public's choices better...lol; shows what I know about photography.

I didn't go through all 1,035 entries but I enjoyed flipping through a number of them, seeing if I knew where they were taken and appreciating the pride of those who took and submitted them. There are so many beautiful places in this country...makes me want to travel and take pictures. But then, that was the thinking behind the contest. Guess it worked.

This Blessing Rocks

Looking back over the recent blog posts, there’s a common theme running through them…music. I didn’t really intend it that way; music just plays a significant role in our lives. I don’t think I realized just how significant it was until we spent the day being entertained by a genre we’ve seldom heard. Live or recorded, home or away…music touches us every day.

Music was a major part of life growing up. My grandparents, mother and brothers all played in bands of one kind or another, turning a rewarding hobby into a part-time or full-time profession. Me…I learned enough to play for my own amusement but I’m a dedicated listener. Whether it’s a concert of the 1812 Overture or the mellow sounds of smooth jazz floating out of the XM radio next to the computer, I’m never far from a melody.

There’s an amazing power in music. Just a few notes of a familiar tune can trigger a flood of memories and suddenly you’re transported back to the places and people you associate with that song. Actually, you don’t even have to hear them…just the mention of Turkey in the Straw or Waltzing Matildastarts a movie reel in my mind where I’m sitting in Grandpa Hedrick’s living room and he’s playing those songs on his fiddle. There are so many more instances just like that, and those are movies I enjoy “seeing” over and over again. While I love how music can influence your mood, I love even more how it can instantly bring back so many memories.

Music makes my life richer in so many ways, making it an obvious blessing…this week and every week. Here’s the layout I created:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned paper: Chatterbox, Scenic Route Paper
Punches: EK Success and Fiskars
Brads: Queen & Co.
Rub-ons: American Crafts
Chipboard letters: Maya Road
Paint: Making Memories
Pen: Staedtler
Font: Zurich BT, Bitstream
Other: Sheet music

Green, black and white is one of my favorite color combinations but I gave it a different twist on this page with just a little turquoise. The curved edge on the page and circular accents soften all the lines that appear in the grid background paper, the sheet music and even the keys of the piano in the photo.

The design is basically four quadrants with a center “waist.” I was standing in one of the scrapbook stores in Memphis looking at some Creative Imagination’s trim when it occurred to me I could probably create something similar from cardstock and the Fiskars Threading Waters punch. Here how I did it.

I cut my cardstock about 7/8” wide and punched one side the same as you would if you wanted the decorative border on the edge of the paper.

Then I turned the strip around to punch the other edge. Rather than butting the edge of the paper against the "backstop" on the punch, I lined up the holes with the marks on the punch. I held it in place with my left hand and punched with the right.

Move down the second edge of the strip matching the holes and punching the edge until you’re done. Maybe with practice I could punch a full 12” but I liked seeing the holes on both sides of the punch to be sure things were lined up right so there are unpunched areas at both ends. I didn't need the full length for this layout anyway. It’s just another way to get a different design out of your punch.

Whether it's rock and roll, show tunes or smooth jazz, music is important to me. I can’t imagine my life without it.

***Each Friday's post is part of my 52 Blessing project...an effort in 2009 to be more aware of and grateful for the blessings in my life.

Well, I Never Felt More Like Singing The Blues

We put Memphis in the rearview mirror this morning, turning Tillie south towards home. It was an easy drive, really...a rather lightly-traveled interstate we've been on before but not regularly to Jackson, Mississippi, and then a stretch of road we know like the back of our hands.

No audio books to help pass the miles...somehow life was to busy for a trip to the library before we left town. But we did have a source of entertainment...the blues station on the XM radio. You can't hang out in Memphis for any length of time without being exposed to the blues so we'd turned the dial over to listen to more blues music after enjoying what we heard on Beale Street yesterday. It was a nice change of pace, and you can really see and hear the roots of rock and roll.

But it was entertaining, too, as neither of us are too familiar with blues music or the artists who perform it. Sure, we knew B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Etta James but I'd never heard of Little Esther, Freddie King or a host of other vocalists whose names flashed across the screen as the miles rolled by. I saw a few of those names, like Memphis Minnie, on notes embedded in the sidewalk on Beale Street but didn't know who they were until today. And it was surprising when artists that were known, such as the Rolling Stones, showed up playing blues songs we'd never heard before. 

Better still was the effort to understand the lyrics. The words to the song would float out of the speakers and Wayne and I would glance at one another and say what did she just say? Then we'd listen more closely and hear We gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long. You know you want to hear that song...you'll find it here. And we never could figure out Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeterby Joe Bonnamassa...I finally resorted to the Internet via the iphone to sort those words out.

I imagine the dial will find it's way back to the smooth jazz station soon but today we enjoyed singing the blues.

Elvis Has Left The Building

Want to hear my plan for the day? That was the question posed to me as we headed downstairs for breakfast. And since I knew he'd been out scouring the Internet while I was getting ready, I was all ears.

We'd head for the nature trail first with the idea of walking a mile, maybe more depending on the heat. The forecast was for a scorcher so we were thinking we might break the walk up into smaller segments. Jump ahead to late afternoon and we'd bring the day to a close at a concert on the river. It seemed Three Dog Night was performing...throw in food on site, a fly-over with some antique aircraft beforehand and fireworks after, it would make for a full day. We'd need something to sit on so a trip to Wal-Mart was added to the day's schedule, and since Wal-Mart was right next to another scrapbook store, we could take it in, too. And while we were waiting for the fly-over/concert/fireworks, we could check out some of the places downtown we wanted to see. Sounded like a great plan to me so off we went.

We walked. We shopped. We lunched. Then we headed down to the river to find where to park and get the lay of the land. We found the riverfront without a problem but there was no parking set up where the website said there would be. No stage and no food vendors either. Hmmmm.

As we drove around looking to see if it was nearby, we were talking about the event. Are you sure you had the right date? I asked. Today's the 23rd, right? Wayne said. Some quick checking revealed the concert was May 23, not June 23. In his excitement at finding such a potentially fun-filled event right here in Memphis, he'd misread the date.

We didn't get the fly-over or the fireworks but we did spend time on Beale Street listening to some great blues in two different locations. Elvis isn't the only one who left the building...Three Dog Night did, too.

The Bare Facts

up at 7:00
breakfast with Moe and Marsha
yogurt, OJ and granola
finish packing
load the car
taking the backroads
seeing new things
wheat fields ready to harvest
really cold Diet Cokes
Oklahoma
checking golf scores on the iphone
sunshine and blue skies
fresh fruit, cheese and crackers for lunch
Wayne singing "Proud to be an Okie from Muskogee"
miles rolling by
cat naps
Arkansas
rice fields
Tillie keeping us on track
Interstate 40
97 degrees
lots and lots of trucks
Memphis
phone call from a friend
Archivers
pretty papers in my basket
motel found
sun low in the sky
park with a walking trail
eek! a snake
3.7 miles
salmon and veggies for a late dinner 
back to room at 10:30
exploring on tap for tomorrow
tired and ready for bed
a good day and good night

Just For Giggles

Busy, busy, busy! The reunion has been a blast...much to share later on that. Father's Day was great, too. I'll fill in the details soon. For now though this quickie will have to do.

As we walked out of the motel this morning, Wayne noticed something leaning against the driver's door. At first he thought it was someone's luggage...he could only see the handle. But as we got closer, we could see it was a snow shovel. We felt sure we knew the source of this seasonal gift...Wayne's brother Maurice who was staying here, too. We definitely needed it last March when the snow and ice of a late storm held us hostage, but snow would be a welcome break from the near-record heat here now. Needless to say, we all got a chuckle out of his joke.

We're back on the road tomorrow, and hopefully we'll arrive early enough to catch up the blog on our weekend activities then.

Strike Up The Band

It isn’t often our visits to Kansas coincide with the summer band schedule, but we’re always happy when they do. So it was a pleasure to spend last evening being entertained by the city band.

  

Like many cities, El Dorado has a municipal band that gives concerts in the park in the summer months. Growing up, most Thursday evenings were spent at Forest Park listening to a mix of marches, show tunes and a few pop tunes thrown in for good measure. And happily, last night was much the same. The one difference, however, was that my brother John was conducting the band.

 

I suspect John’s been involved in City Band since high school except for the few years he taught in Western Kansas. And having been the band director at the high school and taught band at all the El Dorado schools over the years, he’s helped recruit numerous other members to the City Band. It’s nice to see such a wide mixture of people playing together, from high school students to music teachers to community members who just like to play.

 

My sister-in-law Barbara plays, too. The flute section was featured in one of the pieces last night so there she is front and center. She’s just left of John, facing the camera.

 

The old band shell looks much the same as it did when we attended concerts years ago. Built as a WPA project in the 1930s, it’s served the city well. There’s still swings and playground equipment behind the benches to keep the little ones entertained, and a mixture of laughter and water splashing from the nearby municipal pool filters over now and then. And just like years ago, the lightning bugs make their appearance as the last songs are played.

 

 

We had unexpected company for the last part of the band concert…John’s oldest son and family must have heard a trip to the ice cream shop was on tap after the concert. Wayne clearly had the magic touch when it came to Miss Alyson…not long after I snapped this picture she was fast asleep.

 

An evening in the park, music floating in the pleasant breezes and time with family…a nice start to our time in El Dorado. 

Reconnecting With Gratitude

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the primary reason for this trip home is my high school class reunion. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were standing at the back of the high school auditorium all dressed in our caps and gowns as Helen Case bellowed orders to the Class of 1964. How all those years went by so quickly I don't know but here we are, celebrating our 45th reunion.

We're an unusual class, judging from my conversations with family and friends. Contrary to their experiences, everyone in our class had such a great time after the 25th, and we voted to hold them every five years rather than the traditional ten. Had the subject come up after the 10th reunion, the result probably would not have been the same. Ten years isn't enough time to break down the barriers and lingering hurtful memories...the prejudices that go with them are still too strong.

But as the view of days spent at EHS grows smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror of life,  perspectives change. You realize there was no need to envy the head cheerleader...taking her own life demonstrated things weren't as perfect for her as it may have seemed. And the wild girl your mother never let you talk to in high school for fear she'd lead you astray is really funny and has a great heart now that you get to know her. And there's irony in the fact that one of the biggest troublemakers in class has had a long career as a high school principal. And that former jocks can not only carry on a meaningful conversation with nerds they never gave the time of day to in school but that they can actually look forward to seeing them every five years.

Our class was the perfect size...small enough you knew everyone in it but large enough that you didn't know everything about them and their business. I love how each time we return, the greetings are warmer and the interest in what has happened in each other's lives is more sincere. And in between these gatherings, there are class-wide e-mails to share news, although lately that news has more often than not been of losses. In some ways we're closer now as a class than we were 45 years ago. Not everyone but certainly a large core of the class.

So this week I'm grateful for the chance to reconnect...with old friends and classmates, with memories that are tempered by life experiences, and with a different perspective. I wouldn't want to return to my high school days but I'm more than happy to be here to celebrate that time in my life.

My layout for this blessing will have to wait; after all, the actual reunion activities don't start until tomorrow night. But I'll be taking photos, hopefully to share here and to incorporate into my gratitude project. I'll catch up and post the page after we get back home. In the meantime, I'm going to sing the school song, try to put the right name with faces I seldom see, and bask in the glory days of the Class of '64. It should be fun.

***Each Friday's post is part of my 52 Blessing project...an effort in 2009 to be more aware of and grateful for the blessings in my life.

Road Trip

Coming to you live from Big D tonight...the regular stop on our route from Florida to Kansas. My high school class reunion is this weekend, and I'm looking forward to it. And it's Father's Day, too...we have a little family get-together planned for Sunday. All good reasons to make a trip home.

It was an easy drive today...good weather, only a little delay for road construction and smooth sailing through the big cities. We arrived in Dallas about 6pm, in time to grab a quick bite before a nice walk. That's one advantage of traveling the same route...we tend to stay at the same place and are familiar with the area. We knew there's a park with a really nice walking trail not far from the hotel, and after being in the car all day, it felt good to get out and move. It was still hot when we started walking, but there was a nice breeze and we noticed the lower humidity compared to home.

Lots on tap for our time in El Dorado; it should be fun...but then road trips usually are.

Whew!

The day started early with a walk. That's right...I crawled out of my comfy bed significantly ahead of my usual time just to exercise. But we're having some hotter-than-normal weather right now so walking early made sense. Besides, the day's agenda was full so getting the walk out of the way let us turn our attention to those chores. If you're interested in how our Walk Across America is coming, I'm updating the map and mileage on Mondays in the link on the left.

 

Then we drove to Walnut Hill, a little Mennonite community about 40 minutes northwest of here and bought corn...a gunny sack full, to be exact. We could find fresh corn closer, I suppose, but we've bought from this same family farm for several years now and it's been really good so we keep returning. It's nice to be able to support the little guy. Bags of corn were stacked waist-high in the barn and there was a line waiting to make their purchase so we're not the only ones who feel this way. We shucked and cleaned and bagged and filled the freezer, saving out a couple of ears for dinner, of course. It was yummy.

Then I started laundry and cleaned the house and did my pool maintenance and cooked dinner and cleaned the fridge and went to Lowes and rigged up a timed sprinkler for the flower bed to supplement the lawn irrigation and ironed...

And then I collapsed. Busy, busy Monday. And now I'm going to bed 'cause after all that, I'm tired.

Need More Inspiration?

The television is off tonight...I'll not be sucked in to another black hole that poses as entertainment. I can't even tell you the name of the movie I watched as I missed the actual start but it was on one of the channels on the upper end of the dial. Somewhere I seldom venture. The story was actually pretty good; it was the ending that left me feeling frustrated...like they couldn't figure out how to tie everything back together and just sort of stopped. That'll teach me to settle too comfortably into my corner of the couch.

So...on to more stimulating things. Like more places for creative excitement...they just seem to be sprouting up everywhere.

 

How about a free class? The incredible Jessica Sprague is offering one on using special effects on your photos...two weeks worth of learning about brushes, blending modes and lots of other things you've heard of but didn't know how they worked. And there's no one better than Jessica at breaking these seemingly-complicated things down to simple steps you can follow and understand. Sign up next week for the two-week class that starts July 6. There's more about it here on her blog.

What's better than a free class? Two free classes...and you don't have to wait for this one to start. Jen McGuire will be posting her first of 27 video lessons Monday on this Two Peas message board and the rest will follow every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for nine weeks. Each lesson will show you three or four techniques involving stamping, inking and painting. Jen was talented in these areas to begin with but she just attended Ranger U, an intense weekend of instruction led by Tim Holtz where she learned all kinds of things to do with Ranger products. Holy inspiration, Batman...this should be awesome!

While you're on the Two Peas Education Board, click on some of the other links. There are free classes for mini albums and photo editing there as well as ideas for seasonal pages, cards and sketches. If idea drought has struck, there's lots to get the creative juices flowing again on that page.

And what could be better than two free classes? Well, how about a new class every day for a week. That's the promise at CK's Summer Camp...along with fun challenges, cool tips and prizes. Not to worry...you have time for all of this as camp doesn't start until July 13. You'll find more about the camp and the link to register on the CK Blog. Just scroll down to the entry dated June 1 for the details.

Whew...that's a lot of inspiration and I'm going to have to do it all! It's going to be a busy summer.

Hrrrmphf!

If you foolishly become invested in a movie that keeps you up way too late, at least you should be rewarded with a satisfactory ending. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen.

12on12 June

It's the twelfth day of the month and in its honor, here are twelve pictures to record the day:

We walked at 8am to try to beat the heat. It was a short turn-around as we walked after dinner last night, finishing about 8pm. And since we did the hilliest route in the neighborhood, my muscles were telling me hey, we just did this!

 

Summer's here...and that means extra showers and time in the pool. It seems there are always towels in the basket ready to be washed.

The view out to the No. 4 green changed this week and for all the other greens, too. They did some major aeration and heavy sanding to half of each one. It looks funny seeing all that white where it was green just a few days ago but it's getting greener every day.

We made a run to the produce market this morning and tomatoes were on the shopping list. Wayne eats one every day for lunch. Hopefully, we'll start to find local ones soon.

I'm sooo far behind in my e-mails. With any luck I can make a dent in them this weekend...at least I hope so.

Rather than going out, we're having the gang over for dinner tonight and the table is ready by mid-afternoon. All of us are heading off in different directions at the same time next week and we thought it would be nice to eliminate the restaurant noise and enjoy a quieter dinner at home.

My pepper plants Dr. Dale bequeathed to me are doing well. The little one is still in the peat pot but I've transplanted this one into a container that sits in the flower bed. No signs of peppers yet but it's growing lots of leaves.

It's hot and dry with no rain this week so before cleaning up for dinner, I stole a few minutes to give all the flowers a good soaking. I wish Mother Nature would join the effort but there doesn't seem to be any moisture in the forecast.

Here's my "sisters"...Bonnie and Charlotte. Bonnie will fuss when she sees this photo as I've caught her while she was talking but that's not hard to do. While the guys were cooking outside, we were inside where it was cool.

Wayne did the bulk of the cooking...chicken on the grill and vegetables on the wok. He has those vegetables down pat now and even did most of the chopping to get them ready. Dinner was both good and good for you.

Even meat-and-potatoes Hiram seemed to enjoy the healthy eating...or maybe he was just being a polite guest and tolerating it without complaints. We were one short of the expected number as Michael wasn't feeling well and stayed home.

It's been a busy day but then they all seem that way of late. It was nice to prop my feet up and wind down with the paper as the local news played on the television.

Gratitude Is Cool

When I started my layout for this week, we were without an air conditioner. It figures…the first stretch of days when the temperature consistently breaks 90 and the AC lays down. Thankfully, it didn’t last long…the repair people were here the next day and the fix wasn’t major as those kind of things go. Needless to say, I was grateful for the return of cool air pumping into every corner of my abode and made it my blessing for the week.

The experience left me thinking about how modern conveniences have spoiled us and what was once a luxury we now think of as a necessity. I didn’t grow up in an air-conditioned house and managed just fine. Sure, we’d come in all hot and sweaty from playing outdoors and stand in front of the water cooler in the living room window and it seemed heavenly at the time. Such a system wouldn’t work in the South…our unit pulls moisture out of the air to make us feel cooler rather than adding it to the atmosphere. Turned off at night, that water cooler was the norm for the time; now I suspect there isn’t a house built without central air except perhaps in climates where summers are really mild. We’ve grown accustomed to the ability to easily control the temperature of our environment and don’t appreciate that until the control is out of our hands.

As I went looking for something to photograph to represent my renewed appreciation for air conditioning, I thought of the new fan we bought for the patio, both as a visual and as a blessing. This week it’s a two-fer as that little fan has allowed us to continue enjoying the patio despite the warmer temperatures. It’s surprising how pleasant it is there with the breeze the fan generates moving across us. We read last Sunday’s paper on the patio, against a backdrop of the cool blue water of the pool and the sounds of birds singing. And we’ve eaten our evening meals out there almost every night this week…something we’d abandoned due to the temperatures before the fan provided us with cooler air circulating around us.

Summer is here, and while I can’t control the heat, I can be grateful for the conveniences that put cool air at my disposal. After being without the primary one for a day and night, I’ll not be taking them for granted any time soon.

Here’s this week’s layout:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned Paper: Cloud 9 Design, Making Memories, Paper Loft
Punch: EK Success
Pens: EK Success and Staedtler Pigment Linder
Ink: ColorBox, Clearsnap
Font: Futura, Linotype

There’s a strong repetition of circles in the design that helps unite all the elements. Adding a solid color behind the photo keeps it from getting lost in all the patterns, and to tie that solid circle to the rest of the layout, I added the dotted border. If you cut a second, slightly smaller circle out of scrap paper and center it over the cardstock circle, you can use it as a guide to keep your dotted border even. I measured out the spacing for my dots because I’m obsessive like that but you could just eyeball it if you wanted.

As I’ve found time (which hasn’t been often enough), I’ve been adding filler pages of the blog entries. Here’s one I did for a blessing a few weeks back:

The journaling is in a little booklet that looks like this when it’s open:

To make the booklet, create two text boxes the same size. Format>Align>View Gridlines will add a grid overlay to your document that you can use to position these boxes so they align at the top, leaving about 1/2” between them. Repeat this process to create two more text boxes the same size as the first ones and aligned at the top. You’ll want to position these directly below the first two, leaving about 2” between the first and second rows. Starting in the upper left box, type your journaling, moving to the box in top right then lower left and finally the lower right. I only had enough to fill three boxes so I left the first one vacant, making my text start on a right-hand page like a book would. Print your page on regular computer paper. You could do it on cardstock but it’s more work getting it lined up.

Use a centering ruler to find the center of the space between the two horizontal boxes then score and fold on this line. Cut the two rows apart in roughly the center of the space between them. You don’t have to be precise but you don’t want to be real close to the text in one row and have lots of space on the other one. We’ll even it all out at the end. Since my fold wasn’t in the exact middle of the page, I cut away the excess on one side too but that’s optional.

 

Think of our two folded pieces as Row 1, Text Box A and B, and Row 2, Text Box A and B. We’re going to glue the back of Row 1 Box B to the back of Row 2 Box A. The only trick is we want our text to start and stop at the same place on both folded pieces, but that should be easy as we made the boxes all the same size. I usually just hold the two pieces up to the light to line them up…chances are one piece will have a little extra paper at the top and the other will have extra at the bottom since we didn’t measure before cutting the two rows apart. Using the light, I mark where I need to trim and cut them so both pieces are the same size and the text is aligned.

 

Glue them together, making sure the folds are match on both pieces so the book will lay open properly. Now you can trim the other three sides down to the size you want for your finished book.

 

Add a cover and any other decorative elements you want on the front of your booklet. This one Is small enough it stays closed on its own, but you could add a tied ribbon, string wound around two buttons or the thin BasicGrey magnets to hold it closed if you wanted. The book can be as large as you want by simply adding more rows of text boxes glued in the same manner.

This week just proves gratitude is cool…in more ways than one.

***Each Friday's post is part of my 52 Blessing project...an effort in 2009 to be more aware of and grateful for the blessings in my life.

Pitchers, Short And Stout...And Otherwise, Too

We walked another section of the Blackwater Heritage Trail this evening...a much more rural section this time. Instead of homes and municipal buildings, the trail was lined with acred lots and farm animals. Like goats, pea fowl and horses.

And in between the farms there were boggy areas full of black water and pitcher plants. We didn't have a camera with us, but Wayne took these photos some time back at a location not far from where we walked and we saw the same varieties.

 

We might have missed them had it not been for Wayne's sharp eyes. The dappled pattern just blends right in with the sunlight filtering through the trees overhead.

The lacy beauty belies the fact that these are carnivorous plants.

The cup is filled with a sweet liquid to attract insects that fall in and can't climb the slippery surface back out. This wasp, however, wouldn't have to worry; he can escape by flying out.

There are six species of pitcher plants in Florida, each with its own unique range. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation, the area around Pensacola has the world's greatest concentration of pitcher plant species, all of which are protected by State law.

Needless to say, our walk was interrupted more than once to stop and admire these unusual plants.

At 3:11am

While I've become something of a night owl, I'm not usually up until three in the morning. One, and occasionally two, is pretty common but seldom three. Sunday night/Monday morning, however, found me wandering through the dark house at 3:11am. A cranky shoulder had woke me from a sound sleep and I was in search of some Advil to quiet my complaining joint.

As I rounded the corner into the kitchen, my eyes were immediately drawn out the doors to the golf course beyond. It was as bright as day, thanks to a full moon, and I actually thought to myself it was light enough you could see to play.

Then I noticed the shadows. They were straight behind the house on the golf course but not far from the end of our yard. There were two dark shapes and I knew they didn't belong there. What were they? I made my way to the sliding glass door in the family room for a better look...and the shadows moved. Now there were three.

It wasn't until they moved again that I could see they were deer. Five of them for sure, maybe six. They had been clustered together when I first saw them, blending into one big black blob, but as they moved they turned and separated and I could make out the individual animals. Something spooked them once, and they all sprinted about ten yards east with their ears up and long legs flying, but whatever it was passed and they were soon working their way west again, grazing peacefully on Hiram's well-maintained rough. The largest one spent most of the time looking around, ready to sound the alarm should anything threaten, while the others ate. Three of them were noticeably smaller, probably this year's young. 

I watched them for about five or six minutes, expecting them to graze their way right into our backyard as they leave their calling cards there regularly, but they slowly worked their way over one of the mounds and out of sight. I stood there for a while waiting to see if they would reappear and when they didn't, I found my Advil and returned to bed.

A few minutes earlier or later and I would have missed seeing them, but at 3:11am on a moonlit night, I enjoyed my few minutes of deer-watching.

Juan Sebastián de Elcano

Brenda titled yesterday's blog "I'm Walking" and this post should have been titled "We're Standing." I convinced my bride that we should go see the pride of the Spanish Navy, the sailing vessel the Juan Sebastián de Elcano. My theory was this was the last day of a several day layover and a work day to boot, so how long could the lines be? The short answer is long -- over three hours of shuffling along at a snail's pace.

Was it worth it? For me it was but you'll have to check with Brenda to know for sure her thoughts.

 

I'll not bore you with the details of how poor crowd control was but it left a lot to be desired. This first picture was taken through a chain link fence as we snaked our way slowly closer. The ship is the third tallest sailing ship in the world and even though it was built in 1927, it still is in use by the Spanish Navy as a training vessel.

 

As we boarded the ship the Spanish flag flapped in the sea breeze.

 

The wooden block-and-tackles are used to raise and lower the massive sails on the huge masts. In the picture below you can see how precisely the the thousands of yards of ropes are stored when not in use.

  

Brenda was a good enough sport to pose for a picture or maybe it felt good to sit a spell.

 

After the tour we walked around the pier to get a better view of the ship in the setting sun.

 

It truly is a beautiful ship and I wish I could see it with all the sails deployed, but I'd better not press my luck! I did find a picture of her in full sail on the Internet so I will just enjoy that.

 

There was a bit of good news -- we were so late that I took her out to eat instead of cooking tonight. I'm not sure it completely made up for it but I tried. Maybe I should consider it payback for all those hours I've spent outside of scrapbook stores -- you think that might work?  W.

I'm Walking...Yes, Indeed

And Wayne's walking with me on this virtual trek across the good ol' U.S. of A. Yay for company! He also put together the really cool adaptation of the official trail map shown above, adding in the cute little hiker and the ability to make the trail change colors as we complete it. You can just see the white to the right of the little man representing where we've been.

Wayne didn't intend to make this his adventure too but after four or five days of logging the miles with me, he decided he'd join in the fun. Being the helpful guy that he is, he was walking with me to record the distances of various routes I walk around the neighborhood. I've been using a pedometer but it's been less than reliable, and Wayne has a hand-held GPS we use when we hike that will track the miles. We were measuring and recording so I could dispense with the pedometer. After about the fifth day, Wayne felt invested in the project too, and I'm happy he'll be hoofing it along with me. We can keep each other on track.

We logged 24.4 miles this week...most of them on the streets around our house and most in increments of just over three miles each day. One day, however, we drove to Milton and walked five miles on the Blackwater Heritage State Trail. It was interesting because I saw parts of Milton I'd never seen. Not that I needed to know them...like where the City Hall and Library are, but it was interesting nonetheless. The trail is paved and generally flat, and even though it goes right through Milton, you're sheltered from the city by the trees and shrubs that line the path.We're hoping to return and do another section this week.

I don't plan to devote a post to walking every week...that's what the Walk Across America link on the left is for. You'll find more information about the route there, too. But since it's the first week and since my favorite guy is joining me on the trail, I'm outlining our progress here, too. Twenty-four miles...that's pretty good. At this rate I wonder how long my shoes will hold up?

Step. Step. Snap.

Or will it be snap, snap, step? I'm not really sure what to expect in terms of the ratio of steps to snaps but I'm excited to find out. You see, we're going on a photo walk with over 10,000 of our new best friends. Well, only 50 of them will actually be walking with us in Pensacola but the other 9,950 will be doing the same thing in cities near where they live.

We're all participating in Scott Kelby's Second Annual World-Wide Photo Walk on July 18. It's a chance to see the downtown area through new eyes, take some photos, meet some new people, and maybe win a prize or two. And it's all free...and you can come, too.

Our first and only experience on a photo walk was a good one...we signed up for one on our trip to Yosemite several years ago. On that occasion it was a cluster of steps, a stop to listen to an explanation about lighting or exposure or some other photography issue, and then a lot of snaps as we tried to put our newfound knowledge to use. I'm not sure how much instruction the leaders in this walk will provide but it should be fun anyway.

There's a list of the cities participating on the above website and new ones are still being added. If you don't see your city, rally the troops to join the fun. Contact your local camera store, college or photography club to find a leader and others who might be interested in participating. Or save your steps and enjoy the snaps of those all over the world who walked and uploaded their photos to the Flickr site. That's an optional step...you don't have to post the pictures you take if you don't want to.

It's always interesting to see what catches another photographer's eye and how he composes the resulting shot. The ratio of steps to snaps really doesn't matter...this sounds like a great adventure.

Cease Fire

I know you've been losing sleep wondering if we're still being terrorized by the little rodent with big ears. It's time for an update and the revealing of my friend Sharon's super-secret, sure-fire, mouse-catching tip.

We've declared a cease fire in the mouse wars, saving the trap and all the sage advice you've generously shared for future battles, should they become necessary. We haven't seen Mr. Mouse in days...coincidentally, since we saw the big snake. Perhaps he ran away in fear, either of our semi-brave albeit clumsy efforts to clomp a bucket over him or because of the aforesaid big snake. Of course, he may well have been the main course for said snake, too. In any event, there's no signs of mouse activity at our house right now.

But I'm prepared with the top secret technique for catching him should he return. Microwave popcorn. It's a two-fer...(1) you pop the bag of microwave popcorn and enjoy the contents then (2) you place the baited trap inside the empty bag and set it where you've seen evidence of the mouse. Apparently the smell of popcorn is as irresistible to mice as it is to humans and once he's in the trap, you have a handy way to dispose of the little critter, too. Sharon swears it worked for them every time.

As much as I'd like to put this theory to the test, I like the idea that the mouse is gone even better. I don't think of it as having lost the battle...more a temporary cease fire.

The Goal is Gratitude

If a few weeks ago you had asked me to list the goals I’m currently working on, the list would have been quite short. Stay ahead of the weeds in the flower beds. Keep up my weekly gratitude pages. Study my high school yearbook before the reunion in a few weeks in hopes I might remember my classmates. You get the idea. I’m retired…I don’t need many goals.

But Life keeps sending little messages my way about goals and the role they play in happiness and mental well-being. The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.These words of wisdom from Benjamin Mays arrived in my inbox from one of the weekly quote sites I’ve subscribed to. And a columnists in our local paper wrote about his goal to overcome the fear of water he’d had since childhood and learn to swim, outlining why it was important to set goals and be accountable for the result. If I’ve learned anything, I’ve learned that when Life repeatedly sends you messages, you should listen.

So I’ve been setting goals. They’re not the same goals I set when I was younger…graduating from college, achieving professional certification or even getting my golf handicap to a “magic” number. They are, however, worthwhile goals to work toward at this stage of my life. And it feels good.

Setting goals gives us energy. We’re motivated and feel purposeful as we work toward the desired end. And when we get there, we feel good about the accomplishment. The goals themselves don’t make us happy but the personal growth we experience as we overcome obstacles to reach our goals and who we become in the process that gives us that deep and long-lasting sense of fulfillment. Personal growth. A sense of fulfillment. Those clearly sound like blessings to me.

This week I’m grateful for new goals, like my virtual Walk Across America, and the renewed sense of purpose that comes with them. I’m listening Life and I’m thankful for your messages. Here’s this week’s layout:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned Paper: BasicGrey, Luxe Designs, October Afternoon
Transparency: Hambly Screenprints
Stickers: Creative Imaginations and Making Memories
Circle Punches: EK Success
Ribbon: May Arts
Font: Arial, Microsoft

I was inspired by my friend Sharon who is about to start her first acrylic album. We’ve been brainstorming ideas for see-through pages so I decided to build this week’s layout on a transparency. Total fun! I took advantage of the circle pattern printed on the transparency and used it as my design scheme. Let’s face it…a snapshot of my walking shoes isn’t very exciting but a “bleach” Photoshop action gave the photo a funky look and things went from there.

The arrows seemed a good fit for a layout about goals…a visual message of progress. These were cut from a journaling tag, and since they’re a strong design on this small page, I wanted to keep everything rather simple. A circle filled with text about my walking helps balance the page without competing with the arrows. Here’s how I created it in Word:

Use Insert>Shape and select the circle from the Basic Shapes. It looks more like an oval in the graphic but we’ll set the dimensions to make it round. Touch the cursor to the document and drag it diagonally to create a circle. The Format/Drawing Tool toolbar should appear at the top of the screen, and you can set the height and width in the box at the far right. I wanted to use a 2” circle punch so I set mine at 1.9”. This will serve as the margins for our text.

On that same toolbar near the center, you’ll see Shape Fill. Click on the arrow next to it and select No Fill. To your right on the toolbar, you’ll see the Arrange options. Click on the arrow next to Send to Back and select Send Behind Text. Now the text will appear on top of the shape and you’re ready to type.

I set the type to center and typed a few words then moved my circle over where the text was displayed. Using the outline of the circle as a guide, I simply hit the enter key when the words reached the line. It took a little trial and error to get the spacing exactly as I wanted but it wasn’t difficult. You can eliminate the circle outline before you print by going back to Format>Shape Outline>No Outline.

If you want to fill the text box with color as I did, return to the Shape Fill command and set your color. I also increased the size of my circle up to 2.1” so I’d have color clear to the edges. When you do that, you’ll need to move the circle to re-center it behind your text.

It’s a clear page so I’ve added elements to the back as well. It’s similar to the front to hide adhesives and the back sides of the papers used. Here’s how it looks:

 

A goal is a dream with a deadline said Napoleon Hill. I’m grateful to have new dreams.

***Each Friday's post is part of my 52 Blessing project...an effort in 2009 to be more aware of and grateful for the blessings in my life.

Need Inspiration?

There seems to be plenty of scrapbooking inspiration happening on the world wide web these days.

Like a whole month's worth of color-related articles, projects and more over at Shimelle Laine's place. While Shimelle's style is quite different from mine, I love her ability to use color and she has a great teaching style...plenty of information presented in an easy-to-understand way. And she lives in London...I start thinking with a British accent when I read her blog. So pop over and have a look-see. With tutorials and the chance to win prizes, what's not to like.

They're jazzing up June on Jessica Sprague's website, too. How about a daily layout challenge to get you going? The beauty of it is you don't have to be digital to be inspired as you can take the subject or technique and do it with paper. You'll find the Create-A-Day challenges on the main message board. And Jessica will be offering another free class later in the month to celebrate the second anniversary of her website.

I'm impressed with what I've seen so far at Write. Click. Scrapbook., the new website put together by former Simple Scrapbooks team members. Lots of creativity in the people involved there who are hoping to spread the Simple philosophy even though the magazine has ceased publication. Be sure to click on the gallery to see the layouts these talented people have been creating.

And what could be more inspiring than Ali Edwards featuring video tutorials on her blog...especially when the first one is by Jennifer McGuire. I loved that she showed so many different techniques in just a few minutes, all of which were doable.

Let's face it...we have no excuses. There's inspiration all over the place.

He Rocks The Wok!

When we decided to fix gumbo for our company last Christmas, we were faced with a dilemma. All but adding the seafood would be done ahead of time so we'd need something really big to put it in to finish it when it came time to eat it. The pot part was easy...we have a huge one with the fish cooker; but the burner/stand it would sit on was pretty sad. It's been around for a long time and the rust caused by Florida's humidity had taken its toll. But hey...it's Christmas. We'll just get a new one and call it Wayne's present.

So we went shopping. We're not big on that surprise thing, and I'd rather have his input on what he wanted since he'd be the one cooking on it. That turned out to be a good plan because he picked out this one.

It wasn't the wok that sold him...that was incidental.  He liked the adjustable legs and the fact that he could cook on it at a more comfortable level. So home it came, and the wok sat in the garage gathering dust.

Until yesterday.

As we got in the car for our weekly grocery run, Wayne announced we'd be planning one meal to cook on the wok. Fine by me...I love vegetables. And after we got home from the store, he watched the DVD that came with the wok then cleaned and seasoned it as instructed.

Here's the fresh ingredients all chopped and ready for cooking tonight. It makes me think of Dr. Ken, my family doctor before he decided to return to the military. His theory on being healthy was to eat colors...avoid white and brown and eat lots of every other color. There's something to be said for that.

Here's the head chef hard at work. Actually, cooking in the wok isn't hard work at all once everything is chopped and ready to go. A good hot pan and a little stirring and things cook in no time.

Looks delicious, doesn't it? And this was before the spinach, green onions and a little stir-fry sauce went it. Let me tell you...it tasted as good as it looks. Wayne rocks the wok!

The wok may have sat unused for the first five months at our house but I see a regular role for it in Wayne's cooking future.

Lost

This isn't a post about my favorite television show. I've made a concerted effort not to go on and on about how exciting the season was or to speculate on all the unanswered questions I have after the finale. On one hand, I can't wait for next year so I can find out what happens; on the other, I'll be so disappointed to see it come to an end as the shows wraps up after next season.

And I'm not lost already on my Walk Across America although I have logged my first leg. Wayne's been working on the trail map and thinks he has a system to add it to the blog so my progress will be recorded here. One thing about announcing a goal like that...now I'm accountable for it.

No, the lost I'm talking about is my nightly routine. After more years than I care to count, that routine didn't include The Tonight Show. All those years finishing the day with first Johnny Carson and then Jay Leno have come to an end and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself and my post-news TV time.

Tonight it was a little bit of everything. The Food Network, A&E, TLC...heck, I even watched The Weather Channel. And as I wandered around the dial, it became clear...I'm lost. Maybe I'll just turn off the darn thing and read.

Walk Across America

Here's where I was at 4:35pm after walking 3.4 miles...and it felt pretty good. My threshold is usually is usually 80 degrees for the water temperature and our pool hasn't gotten there yet, thanks mostly to several days of clouds and rain last week. Wayne's been in a couple of times but I'm a wimp; I want warmer water. But a little extra distance plus an afternoon high that topped 90 made for a warm walk and I was looking for a quick cool-down...and I got it. I had to ease in ever so slowly but once I got used to it, it was wonderfully refreshing.

I'm trying to be diligent and walk every day. Most days it's like today...I take to the neighborhood streets in the late afternoon, but with the longer days, I've walked some after dinner, too, and Wayne will occasionally join me then. With Dale and Carol are gone, I may have to get up early now as that's his preferred walking time and it only seems fair to trade around a bit.

Goals are always a good motivator and since we're rolling over to a new month, I think I'll set one for my walking. I'm going to walk across America...virtually, of course. My brother John did something similar when he headed a team that included my sister-in-law Barbara in the Walk Kansaschallenge. The team's total miles were charted on a map of the state and then the teams were ranked accordingly. The concept of charting actual miles on a computer map is called webwalking.

It's 5,048 miles across America following the American Discovery Trail spanning the middle of the country. I'd get discouraged before my total got that high, but there are several other ways to take this challenge. You can count minutes: 60 minutes of walking equates to 60 miles on the map. You can count steps: you'll walk 5,048 steps and chart each one as a mile. Or you can keep track of miles, walking either 504.8 miles or 5,048 miles. I'm choosing the miles at the compressed rate.

Like any trip, I'm looking forward to learning about the places I'll be traveling through. This page contains links to descriptions of the trail segments...you'll probably want to go run out and wave at me as I go by. Virtually, of course.

This should put a new spin on my daily exercise and I'm excited about it. I'll be walking anyway; might as well have a destination in mind. I'm doing around three miles each day and if I keep up that rate, I should reach California before the end of the year. If these feet are going to cover 504.8 miles, they're going to be cooling off in the pool on a regular basis this summer.

A Bad Rep

When I was growing up, having a bad reputation was a shameful thing any proper young lady should strive to avoid. Don't call boys on the phone (as opposed to letting them call you) or you'll get a bad reputation. Don't wear your skirts too short or you'll get a bad reputation. Don't stay out past your curfew or you'll get a bad reputation. You get the idea.

But despite all these warnings, I have a bad reputation...just not the one my mother had in mind with her cautionary advice. Such is the burden I bear as being the only one in our circle of friends who doesn't hop out of bed at the crack of dawn.

I was up early this morning, however. It was Dale and Carol's last day here before heading north for the summer, and I intended to join Wayne and them on their morning walk at 7am. You'd have thought I wore a short skirt while calling a boy after curfew for all the fuss that created. Dale clutched his chest in a feigned heart attack upon seeing me. Carol claimed surprise and Bonnie wanted to know if I was sleepwalking. Hiram rushed for the camera, intent on taking a photo of all of us with the date and time displayed...proof that I could indeed be upright and sociable (mostly) at an early hour. This group cuts no slack.

It's a once-a-year thing, reserved for the last day before Dr. Dale and Miss Carol make their get-away...and since I did it last year, too, I suppose it's become a tradition. It wouldn't be nearly so meaningful if I walked with them at that time of day on a regular basis; we'll reserve it for the send-off.

So we walked and then sat to talk together for a few extra minutes before hugging our goodbyes and setting off in separate directions. We'll miss them. Somehow I think they'll let me come visit...even though I have something of a bad reputation. And one day of conforming to the group norm isn't going to go very far to change it either.

A Rewarding Blessing

This week I’m celebrating the rewards of hard work. The flower garden next to the pool is in full bloom and I love seeing it out the sliding glass door as I make my way around the house. The Angelina and blue daze are just beginning to flower while the Stokes asters and African iris are near the end of their cycle but everywhere I look there is color…and that makes me happy. It was a lot of work to get it to this point, work that doesn’t end now if it’s going to stay colorful and attractive, but I’m making a conscious effort to pause and enjoy the rewards of my labor.

Why? Because it’s too easy to get caught up in the circle of finishing one chore and rushing to the next without appreciating what I’ve accomplished. And where’s the satisfaction in that? Needless to say, there is none. My cup is refilled by looking at a completed task and saying to myself I did that and it’s good…not in a boastful or bragging way, but simply acknowledging that I’ve contributed. In this case it happens to be to the beauty of our surroundings but the same holds true for any number of tasks. And I’m not alone…we all need to find satisfaction within ourselves for the things we do. It’s a key element of self-worth and personal happiness.

Gratitude is about appreciating today. Yesterday’s chores are done and there will be new tasks in their place tomorrow but today I am appreciating the rewards of that hard work. I’ve stopped to smell the roses…literally and figuratively, and in that found my blessing for this week.

Here’s the layout I’ve created:

 

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned Paper: Autumn Leaves
Decorative tape, trim and letter stickers: Making Memories
Paper trim: Doodlebug Designs
Rub-ons: BasicGrey
Dimensional finish: Glossy Accents, Ranger Gems: Heidi Swapp for Advantus
Font: Garamond, Adobe
Other: Embroidery floss

I’m working on the back side of last week’s page so the shape is already determined, but filling the bottom portion of the page with the photo keeps it from looking like a repeat of last week’s design. With a busy pattern in the decorative tape and no strong focal point in the photo, I kept the other design elements to a minimum, relying on the paper and fabric trims for interest and dimension.

The primary decorative element on the page comes from the custom butterfly. OK…let’s be real here. I wanted a butterfly on the layout and couldn’t find one in my stash that would match so I was forced to get creative. Necessity is the mother of invention, so they say. I simply found a butterfly image I could resize to use as a pattern and cut it out of my background paper.

To kick the butterfly up a notch I added some flourish rub-ons in white. The rub-ons were larger than the butterfly so I simply cut them where they extended past the edge of the wings then rotated the design to cover another area. Two coats of Glossy Accents gives the element some shine, and an unexpected bonus was that the paper curled in the process, making it look more life-like. Add a couple of gems for a body and some embroidery floss for antennae and voila! a cool looking flutter-by.

One helpful hint: It really helps to have a non-stick craft mat like this one to apply the Glossy Accents. You want to spread it right to the edge and that sometimes means it runs off. Since Glossy Accents can also be used as an adhesive, you’ll adhere your embellishment to whatever you’re using to protect your work surface unless it’s non-stick. With the non-stick surface, you can easily remove the decorated image and use your scissors to trim away the dried overflow.

Teddy Roosevelt said that the best prize life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. And if it's worth doing, it's worth appreciating the end result.

***Each Friday's post is part of my 52 Blessing project...an effort in 2009 to be more aware of and grateful for the blessings in my life.

Daredevil Dining

We're doing a lot of reading around the old homestead these days. It's not library books this time, however; it's food nutrition labels...you know, those black boxes on the side of all the groceries you buy. Wayne's doing a great job in his effort to shed some pounds and I'm trying to increase the amount of calcium I consume through food so it's important we know what we're eating. And it's amazing what you learn reading those labels.

And we're trying new foods, too...like fresh asparagus cooked on the grill. I have my sister-in-law Marsha to thank for that. When we were in Kansas in March, she mentioned she never liked asparagus until they put it on the grill. Hmmm, I thought, I don't like asparagus either...wonder if I'd like it if it was on the grill. The answer is a definite yes. Brushed with a little EVOO (as Rachel Ray would say) and seasoned with some cracked black pepper, it was a hit; enough so that we've done it several times now.

The Brussels sprouts were a dud though. In fact, I'd put them in the yuck category. My mother-in-law subscribes to the theory that your taste buds change every seven years and it had been much longer than that since I'd tried any so I was game. Besides, everyone kept saying if you liked cooked cabbage, you'd like Brussels sprouts. They were wrong. I don't think there are enough years left in my life for my taste buds to reach the point they'll like this particular vegetable.

We grilled salmon on Sunday as well. Technically that's not a new food at our house as Wayne loves salmon and has grilled it before. It's me that turns my nose up at this healthy fish. But this time I agreed to give it a try and it was...OK. It wasn't the chef; the fish was grilled to perfection and for salmon it was delicious. I can and will eat it again but it won't be replacing grouper as my fish of choice.

Asparagus, Brussels sprouts, salmon...who knows what culinary adventure we may tackle next. 

Read And Return

I took my three books back to the library today, all read from cover to cover. They were, for the most part, quick reads...nothing too deep and serious, perfect for summer. I'm hardly a book critic (my registration at Good Reads has probably been revoked for lack of activity) but here are my thoughts on them.

The Borrowed and Blue Murders was the first one I read and my least favorite. It had a promising start...a dead body on the patio of the heroine just days before her wedding followed the next day by an attempt to run her down as she walked along the sidewalk. The list of potential suspects includes the groom's eccentric brothers, a client recently released from a mental institution, an obsessive babysitter, drug dealers and terrorists, and that's where the plot bogged down for me. I suppose the book was intended to be sort of madcap and funny but it just seemed chaotic...more like the author threw in the kitchen sink rather than develop a cohesive storyline. It was just OK.

While My Sister Sleeps was much better. It's the story of the family dynamics that occur when the oldest daughter, a world-class runner, suffers a heart attack and remains in a coma. Despite the slow start, the plot has several unexpected twists and turns, making it a good read. In fact, this is the book I stayed up late to finish. I liked seeing the changes in the characters as the story developed, and it was easy to put yourself in the shoes of the family members and wonder how you would react if you were faced with a similar situation. I'd recommend this one.

The last book I picked up on a lark...Bliss to You: Trixie's Guide to a Happy Life. Author Dean Koonz is behind this little book written from the point of view of his dog, Trixie, and it's both charming and meaningful at the same time. The eight steps to bliss all have some humor tied to them...like that you should overcome thinking like a cat and shed the idea that life is about you first. Maybe I liked it because one of the steps is gratitude. It's really short...you can read it in an hour...and while the advice might not be new, it's presented in a cute way.

I didn't check out anything new this trip; reading time has been hard to come by lately. But we'll be traveling in a few weeks and I'll make another visit to the library then. I get some of my best reading time on the road.

Let Me Tell A Story

So...which story do you want to hear? What we did on Memorial Day? Where we stand in the mouse wars? The other excitement of the weekend? Okay, okay...I'll tell all three.

Memorial Day was lovely. The first part of the day was filled with regular Monday chores...we could have postponed them but we're retired so every day is a holiday of sorts. Besides, it was raining outside so we might as well get the laundry and house cleaning out of the way.

We had a big gathering at Hiram and Bonnie's house for dinner. Sixteen of us enjoyed hamburgers, grilled chicken and a host of tasty accompaniments. Everybody brought something in terms of food which is always fun. Lots of laughter and good conversation made our time together fly by.

On the mouse front the furry fellow is still at large but that doesn't mean there haven't been developments. We decided to leave the traps baited with peanut butter out for another day or two then re-bait them using some of the tips from the comments. We'd check them but nothing was happening...until this morning. The trap was literally in pieces. The bait plate was over here, the base over there, and the metal pieces in between. We're not sure what happened but if I see a fox with a swollen nose or Mighty Mouse, I'm heading for cover! I'm not sure whether I should credit the mouse with more points but we're ready to unveil the super-secret, never-fail mouse-catching trick. I'll let you know if it works.

And personally, I'm blaming the mouse for the most excitement of the weekend. We killed a snake. A big snake. A bad snake...a moccasin, to be exact. It was a fluke that I saw him through the sliding glass door as he slithered along the outside of the pool enclosure, but when I did, I knew exactly what it was. I ran to the garage, hollering to Wayne I need a snake-killer! He took off with the hoe and I followed with a shovel which I manned from the safety of the porch above the snake. He didn't go down without a fight, including rearing his head and showing us his fangs as he was being held down and hacked but he's a goner now. Maybe we haven't caught the mouse because the snake already ate him and was on a return trip for a second course.

Needless to say, I've been on high alert every time I've stepped outside since our encounter with the guy with no shoulders. It probably took me twice as long as it should have to trim the azaleas in front...I had to keep looking around for movement. And it will only get worse now that Michael told me the neighbors three doors down killed a moccasin in their yard over the weekend too.

So there you have it...the stories from the weekend.

Red Poppies

When I was a kid, Memorial Day (called Decoration Day back then) meant a lot of different things...the school year was over, the swimming pool was open, chances were good there'd be a cookout, and Daddy would come home wearing a poppy. He was a smart man...he always had two or more of them as both my brother and I would want one, and soon it was poked through a buttonhole or wrapped around a button in our shirts. 

I feel sure we didn't understand the significance of that flower but Daddy did. A veteran of WWII and a member of the VFW he knew the sacrifices the men and women of the armed services make to protect our country. And he knew the hardships those wounded in action and the families of those killed in battle would face. The poppy was just a symbol for a contribution he would willingly make anyway.

I can't remember the last time I saw someone collecting donations and passing out poppies but I did this weekend. And just like years ago I was happy to come home with the red paper flower. If you don't know the story behind the "Buddy Poppy," you'll find it here.

Our Monday plans include some of those same activities that Memorial Day has always meant, but they'll also include time to remember those died in service to their country. And I'll be wearing my poppy too.

Welcome Back Old Friend

Brenda and I have a long-standing joke about our marriage and a certain old wind chime. It goes something along the line that as long as the wind chime sings, the marriage is in good standing. I’m pretty sure it got started because we purchased it in Colorado on the first vacation after we got married. That would be nearly forty-one years ago.

 

It has serenaded us at each of the four homes we have owned. It has survived hurricanes with names like Frederic, Elena, Juan, Alberto, Erin, Opal, Danny, Helene, Hanna, Ivan, Arlene and Dennis. Some were devastating to the area others a slight inconvenience. Most of the time we rescued the chime ahead of the storm to prevent it from becoming an airborne missile.

Over the years, like many of us, started to show some wear. My dad helped replace the “flapper” on one of his trips to Florida several years back. But rust finally won out and the chain gave way ending the joyful sounds that lulled me to sleep on many windy nights.

 

We stored it away vowing to fix it as soon as we had a chance. As with so many things in life, it never seemed to make it to the top of the job jar. It never strayed too far from my mind as we have a couple of other wind chimes that would remind me at night that I needed to fix our favorite one. By the next morning other things seemed more pressing and way too much time has gone by.

 

This week the rainy weather called for inside tasks so the wind chime project got priority. I wanted to recreate the aspen leaf shaped “flapper” to match the original one which has long been gone. A quick search of the Internet found this picture that I liked and enlarge to make a a pattern.

 

 

Next came a trip to Hall’s Hardware (a real old fashion hardware store that has what you need) to find a piece of sheet metal to make the new part. I traced and cut out the leaf shape and added some texture to the metal surface with a ball peen hammer. While it’s a bit crude I think it has a lot of character.

 

 

I removed all the rusty chains and gave the outside a good scrubbing with steel wool to remove some of the loose rust. It was now time to reassemble the pieces and give it a test run.

 

We have adjusted it a couple of times to see if we can produce the right level of sounds. It may still require some tweaking but I’m happy to say it has returned to its rightful place hanging in the pool enclosure. I’m sure glad to have our friend back.

 

 

I don’t think our marriage was in any danger during the absence but why take chances. W-

If You Give A Mouse Some Peanut Butter

It's Round 3 in the mouse war, and the score is now Mouse 3 Arnalls 0. Yep, that's right...the mouse wins again.

We baited the traps with peanut butter and put them out two nights ago. One went right next to the grill, in case Mr. Mouse thought the long cover gave him a safe place to hang out. The first night produced nothing...the traps were still set and the peanut butter appeared undisturbed. Perhaps the furry little fellow was so traumatized after being temporarily cornered by us the other night that he moved on we thought but we left the traps in place.

When Wayne checked them this evening, however, the trap next to the grill was flipped over from the force of being sprung...but it was empty. The mouse had evaded capture again. He's a wily little critter, that mouse. And to add insult to injury there was a pile of mouse poop next to the trap. I don't know whether the close call scared it out of him or if it was an editorial comment on our efforts to eliminate him. Either way, I wasn't amused.

So this battle has become personal now. I'll not be swayed by those cute big ears...it's Game On, Mouse! We may have lost this battle but the war goes on.

This Blessing Has Taste

We make a good team! Wayne and I say that to each other a lot, and it’s true. We’re both tend to be logical and organized (as long as you don’t look at our desks) so we approach things from the same perspective…always a plus. And our strengths and weaknesses compliment one another. Maybe most importantly, we’ve learned when we need to get out of the other’s way for the team to succeed. All that combined is probably why we’re sneaking up on 41 years together.

But the element of teamwork I’ve chosen for this week’s blessing is Wayne’s ever-growing share of the meal preparations. I’m all for this gratitude!

In fairness, he has always cooked to some extent. There’s just something about a grill that makes men willing chefs and Wayne was no exception. Steaks, ribs, chicken…the usual grill food. But long days at work relegated his cooking chores to the weekend. Enter retirement where every day is a weekend and he’s broadened his horizons. Fish, roasts, vegetables…lots of happy experiments that have become a regular part of our life now. While he can cook on the stove too, he’s much happier in front of his grilling machine. And I’m happy for him to be there too because he’s pretty darn good at it.

Over the years we’ve fallen into a pattern at the end of our meals. He clears the table while I load the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen and when he’s done, he always thanks me for cooking for him. And I thank him for cooking for me. Always. You’d think after a time it would begin to lose its meaning…almost an automatic recitation without much sincerity but it hasn’t. It’s amazing how meaningful that simple little gesture has become…a blessing in itself.

So I’m grateful tonight…for the chicken and the bowl of perfectly cooked vegetables (too many different ones to name) we had for dinner and for the teammate who prepared them. My life is blessed.

Here’s the layout I created to celebrate this week’s blessing:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned Paper: American Crafts and KI Memories
Tags: Collage Press and KI Memories
Chipboard arrow: Deluxe Designs
Ribbon: May Arts
Font: Kravitz, Internet

It was a fun creative exercise to create this design on a semi-circle. I’ve deliberately chosen to use odd shapes, stray products and scraps in this project to challenge my creative thinking, and while sometimes I think it might be faster if I went with the tried and true, more often it’s stimulating. I’ve reinforced the curved edge with lots of curves in the layout too, throwing in a few rectangles for a sense of order.

Have you missed the journaling these last few pages? There’s a reason why the layouts haven’t included any. Once I made the decision to use rings to bind the book, I decided to incorporate the Friday blog entries with each layout. I want it all together…not pages in a book and words on the computer. So as I find time, I’m working on adding pages. Here’s one that’s completed:

The journaling pages will coordinate with the blessing layout but will be pretty simple. Some will be almost completely filled with text like the one above, adding only a little patterned paper or embellishment to tie it to the companion page, and some will be pockets or something similar that will hold tags containing the journaling like this one:

Just like the layout pages, the journaling pages will have content on the front and back, and I expect to mix the shapes and types for additional interest. It’s going to make a bigger book, but that’s OK. When I look at it, it will serve as a reminder of just how full my life is.

Perhaps it’s only fitting that I chose Wayne’s prowess at the grill for my blessing this week; it is, after all, Memorial Day weekend and the start of a summer filled with cook-outs. I’m blessed, however, that my griller-extraordinaire willingly cooks all year long.

***Each Friday's post is part of my 52 Blessing project...an effort in 2009 to be more aware of and grateful for the blessings in my life.

$5 Footlongs

Most nights around 9pm Wayne heads for the bedroom to "watch TV." We both laugh when he says that...we know that while the TV may be on, the "watching" part won't last long. He'll drift off shortly after he goes horizontal and the television will play on.

I used to turn it off when I went to bed but of late, he's been waking on his own and doing it. And what is it that causes him to rouse from dreamland? The latest Subway commercials. You know, the ones where the people are doing the crazy singing of the "$5 Footlongs" tagline. I'm not sure if it's the volume or the warbling but the marketing wizards behind it have clearly created something that draws your attention...even if you were dead asleep when it came on.

So tonight my couch was exceptionally comfortable as I was watching Jay Leno. I was curled up in the corner and my eyelids grew heavy until I drifted off as the guests were rattling on. I'm sure you can guess what woke me up. Five dollar....five dollar....five dollar footlongs.