Blogitis. Is it a disease? Do I have it?
Well, no matter. There is another new blog in the making. This one is quite different from the others as you will see. Go take a peek and let me know what you think. http://creativelycapirani.blogspot.com is the link. This one is something I have been wanting to try for a long time. Although I hadn't thought of doing it in a blog until recently. It's an experiment. I expect feedback, so don't be afraid to give it. I could do this privately on my computer and hide it all on a cd. So give me your opinions. And if you want to have a challenge, follow my lead and use the writing prompt I am using to be creative on your own end. Maybe even create your own blog to do your creative writing.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Indoor Gardening
Just a few pictures of my new indoor garden. I am not sure anymore of the names of some of the plants and the pictures are a bit blurred. I am going to try to get these descriptions connected with the right pictures.
I am not sure what this green/yellow one below is called.
These purple/green ones are two types of coleus I think.
Begonias are some of my favorite houseplants...I think because there are so many varieties. I got two different kinds...one with dark greenish red leaves and this one with the light green leaves. There are six little plants in this pot as well as the other pot of begonias coming up later.
Here are the little geranium cuttings in water in a peanut butter jar. These cuttings are all that is left from the big geranium Daughter gave me for Mother's Day two years ago. I am actually amazed any of it survived while I was sick because I pretty much neglected it. I did have other cuttings, but after several months, they finally dried up from not getting watered the way they should have been.
I am not sure what this last ivy is. I call it flat leaf ivy for now until I find out what it is. As you can tell I have some research to do online on these plants.
Here is the dark leaf begonia.
I am not sure what this green/yellow one below is called.
These purple/green ones are two types of coleus I think.
I don't know what these two rounded green/cream plants are below.
The smaller one is over a year old and I had kept it in it's original pot from the store. Are both plants the same kind? I don't know.
This one I just call a twisty ivy. I am not sure of it's correct name.
These are three geranium plants I got...two the same and one different.
Begonias are some of my favorite houseplants...I think because there are so many varieties. I got two different kinds...one with dark greenish red leaves and this one with the light green leaves. There are six little plants in this pot as well as the other pot of begonias coming up later.
This in the blue pot is part of the big ivy I think of as grapevine or English ivy. I couldn't get all of this ivy into the picture the way I wanted to. I have not generally been good with ivy. We will see how well all these ivy plants I got progress.
Here are the little geranium cuttings in water in a peanut butter jar. These cuttings are all that is left from the big geranium Daughter gave me for Mother's Day two years ago. I am actually amazed any of it survived while I was sick because I pretty much neglected it. I did have other cuttings, but after several months, they finally dried up from not getting watered the way they should have been.
I am not sure what this last ivy is. I call it flat leaf ivy for now until I find out what it is. As you can tell I have some research to do online on these plants.
Here is the dark leaf begonia.
Finally, the big asparagus fern. This pot has two ferns planted in it. The camera picked up more yellow tones than you can actually see when looking at the plant. This one is the one I would expect to show the most transplant shock. But I don't expect any serious damage. This is the biggest pot I planted the other day and this one is sitting on the floor hiding wires from the grandkids. There are still other wires they could get at, but generally they don't bother with them.
Oh, and the a-fib didn't last long, thankfully. I felt better once I checked back on my calendar and found out that the last episode was almost four weeks ago.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Memorial Day Weekend
Along with my regular weekend off, I also had today off. I had a really good weekend with the activities I planned. I didn't get them all accomplished, but I got a lot more done than I had been doing. Needless to say, tonight I am whipped! After you see the pictures coming up, you will know why.
Saturday, Son's girlfriend and I went garage saling together. All in all we spent close to four hours together with just one of the five kids with us. The baby was really good and seemed to enjoy being out in the car for the ride as the entire trip she didn't even make a fuss other than once after she had a nap she woke up wanting her bottle. I was really wondering how I was going to handle going to garage sales since I have such a problem with walking and standing for any length of time or distance. I wanted to check out just a few things for myself but mainly I wanted to look for things for the grandkids. Well, having Son's girlfriend along really helped out. She did all the looking around and I stayed in the car enjoying the weather. It wasn't hot out and the sun was shining so it was really nice out. It would be nice if all year long had days like that day was. She was able to find things that the kids could actually use and I paid for part of her finds so it was like it came from me anyway. She was a little worried that I wasn't having any fun because I couldn't do much of the looking. But I was happy just being out of the house enjoying the sunshine. At one sale, the owner walked close enough to where I was parked that I could talk to her and ask about some big flowerpots she had in the yard. She had 18 of them in all and after a bit of dealing, I got the whole kit and kaboodle, plus a rubber tub to carry part of them in for $3. So I was happy. Son's girlfriend and I got to spend time together and talk and get to know each other better as well. It was a good day.
Saturday night I was up much later than usual...well actually about 2 hours or so later. I was watching some good movies on tv and didn't want to go to bed. So, Sunday I slept in late, then got up and watched my church programs on tv for a few hours. I relaxed the rest of the day and ordered pizza delivered for supper. I still have pizza left over for tonight. It was going to go into the freezer, or to Daughter today, but Daughter forgot to take it home with her. After my activities today, I think it will make a good supper for tonight. Think I will eat it cold....too worn out and sore to mess with heating it up. But the soreness is well worth it!
Today, after another semi-late night playing chess on Yahoo, I slept in a little. Daughter came over and we went to our WalMart store. This time we didn't do the grocery shopping. This time was to accomplish two of the other things I wanted to get done this weekend. One was to get fishing pole, tackle box and some basic tackle, and the other was to get some good top soil and houseplants to put in at least some of those big pots I got at the garage sale. All I have to do now is go out and get my fishing license which I should hopefully be able to do at some bait shop near the lake where I will fish...or I can go back to WalMart and get it at a later time. Going fishing was the only thing I had on my list of things to do this weekend that I didn't get done...well, that and taking some landscape/lake/nature photos which I would have done while fishing.
In this picture below, on the left you can see the bottle of rose water I will be using when Daughter and I finally make our gulab jamuns. Also you can see a jar of something yellowish. That is either moong or toor dahl. I didn't look closely at it since I took the picture to be sure which it is. It is a type of split bean or split pea used in Indian cooking.
Why am I so worn out and sore tonight? All three of those bags of top soil are now empty! Oh how good the dirt smelled and felt while I broke up the clods in the tightly packed bags. Each bag said it was .75 cubic feet of top soil. There are still a couple of plants that don't have pots to put them in or the dirt to fill the pots. All the pots I got at the garage sale were big ones so there are no small ones for the two plants I have left. I will have to leave them until the next shopping trip. They will be okay for awhile.
Now, that last picture didn't have anything to do with gardening, fishing, garage sales, or anything else that was part of the goals of the weekend. That was just the "icing on the cake" so to speak. Daughter and I had lunch at Bob Evans and both of us decided to indulge a little. We justified it this way....had we baked the actual chocolate cake at home, we would have eaten a whole lot more! For me anyway, this should hold me over for a good 6 months or more for craving chocolate cake! That was really really rich!
Saturday, Son's girlfriend and I went garage saling together. All in all we spent close to four hours together with just one of the five kids with us. The baby was really good and seemed to enjoy being out in the car for the ride as the entire trip she didn't even make a fuss other than once after she had a nap she woke up wanting her bottle. I was really wondering how I was going to handle going to garage sales since I have such a problem with walking and standing for any length of time or distance. I wanted to check out just a few things for myself but mainly I wanted to look for things for the grandkids. Well, having Son's girlfriend along really helped out. She did all the looking around and I stayed in the car enjoying the weather. It wasn't hot out and the sun was shining so it was really nice out. It would be nice if all year long had days like that day was. She was able to find things that the kids could actually use and I paid for part of her finds so it was like it came from me anyway. She was a little worried that I wasn't having any fun because I couldn't do much of the looking. But I was happy just being out of the house enjoying the sunshine. At one sale, the owner walked close enough to where I was parked that I could talk to her and ask about some big flowerpots she had in the yard. She had 18 of them in all and after a bit of dealing, I got the whole kit and kaboodle, plus a rubber tub to carry part of them in for $3. So I was happy. Son's girlfriend and I got to spend time together and talk and get to know each other better as well. It was a good day.
Saturday night I was up much later than usual...well actually about 2 hours or so later. I was watching some good movies on tv and didn't want to go to bed. So, Sunday I slept in late, then got up and watched my church programs on tv for a few hours. I relaxed the rest of the day and ordered pizza delivered for supper. I still have pizza left over for tonight. It was going to go into the freezer, or to Daughter today, but Daughter forgot to take it home with her. After my activities today, I think it will make a good supper for tonight. Think I will eat it cold....too worn out and sore to mess with heating it up. But the soreness is well worth it!
Today, after another semi-late night playing chess on Yahoo, I slept in a little. Daughter came over and we went to our WalMart store. This time we didn't do the grocery shopping. This time was to accomplish two of the other things I wanted to get done this weekend. One was to get fishing pole, tackle box and some basic tackle, and the other was to get some good top soil and houseplants to put in at least some of those big pots I got at the garage sale. All I have to do now is go out and get my fishing license which I should hopefully be able to do at some bait shop near the lake where I will fish...or I can go back to WalMart and get it at a later time. Going fishing was the only thing I had on my list of things to do this weekend that I didn't get done...well, that and taking some landscape/lake/nature photos which I would have done while fishing.
I have been wanting to fill my home with houseplants ever since before I moved here. It was one of those things that got put off while I was sick. Now it is time to get it done. Today made a HUGE start in that project. I think I may need a little help moving all the now filled big flowerpots off my dining table. They are heavy with all that dirt in them.
Enjoy the pictures...they finish out the story of this weekend.
In this picture below, on the left you can see the bottle of rose water I will be using when Daughter and I finally make our gulab jamuns. Also you can see a jar of something yellowish. That is either moong or toor dahl. I didn't look closely at it since I took the picture to be sure which it is. It is a type of split bean or split pea used in Indian cooking.
Why am I so worn out and sore tonight? All three of those bags of top soil are now empty! Oh how good the dirt smelled and felt while I broke up the clods in the tightly packed bags. Each bag said it was .75 cubic feet of top soil. There are still a couple of plants that don't have pots to put them in or the dirt to fill the pots. All the pots I got at the garage sale were big ones so there are no small ones for the two plants I have left. I will have to leave them until the next shopping trip. They will be okay for awhile.
Now, that last picture didn't have anything to do with gardening, fishing, garage sales, or anything else that was part of the goals of the weekend. That was just the "icing on the cake" so to speak. Daughter and I had lunch at Bob Evans and both of us decided to indulge a little. We justified it this way....had we baked the actual chocolate cake at home, we would have eaten a whole lot more! For me anyway, this should hold me over for a good 6 months or more for craving chocolate cake! That was really really rich!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Look Alike Meter at My Heritage
Have you ever seen this website called My Heritage at http://www.myheritage.com ? It is a fun place to play around with pictures. You can also do your family tree there, but I haven't used it for that since I have Family Tree Maker on my computer. Anyway, at My Heritage, you can upload your picture and find out if you look like any celebrities or famous people. Remember it is just for fun...especially if you are female and it thinks you look like some famous men...or vice versa...
You can also upload pictures of your kids and you and your spouse and see which one of you your kids look more like. Or...you can do what I just did a few minutes ago. I have always been told I look just like my mother. Of course most of those who said that don't know what my dad looked like and neither did I for the longest time. Finally I have uploaded pictures of both my mom and dad to my computer and put them on My Heritage along with mine. I have always thought I have more facial features of my dad's side of the family than of my mom's. Sooooo, now I have this look alike meter to tell me the truth. Finally. Well, what do you think?
You can also upload pictures of your kids and you and your spouse and see which one of you your kids look more like. Or...you can do what I just did a few minutes ago. I have always been told I look just like my mother. Of course most of those who said that don't know what my dad looked like and neither did I for the longest time. Finally I have uploaded pictures of both my mom and dad to my computer and put them on My Heritage along with mine. I have always thought I have more facial features of my dad's side of the family than of my mom's. Sooooo, now I have this look alike meter to tell me the truth. Finally. Well, what do you think?
MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Vintage pictures - Family history
And just for more fun, here are my celebrity look alikes. For this one I have tried a couple different photos. That's the fun part of this. The people change with the different pictures you upload. Pose has a lot to do with the results I think.
See what I mean??? out of all of these pictures, I look like 5 men and 3 women??? And I look like Yoko Ono??? Oh come on now!!!
Let's try this again...
Okay, is it getting worse or what??? LOL
One last try. This one has got to be better! Hmmmm Robert Redford and Patrick Swayze, huh? I did this a few months ago with a different picture and it said I looked like Joey Fatone. Well, what do you think? Who do you think I look like? Forget that. Just go to http://www.myheritage.com and click on face recognition and have fun with your own photos!!!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Frustrated
I'm getting better. At least the part of me that made me feel sick is getting better. That would be the heart--the atrial fibrillation. Now that my heart muscle has had this time to rest, (this is my theory anyway) I am feeling better. So why am I so frustrated? The rest of my muscles, while my heart muscle was resting, have lost tone and strength. The arthritis seems to be continually growing worse and my knees really hurt when I am up walking or standing very much. At the same time, my body is refusing to allow my mind any peace. It wants to get up and move! That is wonderful! My mind and my body are in sinc at least some of the time and I am finding myself doing more all the time. Not just that....but I am wanting to and that is an important thing to. When you are sick, you just don't want to do much of anything and you end up not caring about a lot of things. You just don't have any energy to care.
Feeling better started gradually around December/January. It was then that I was able to start thinking about the baby steps I would be taking to work my way back. At this point I don't think I am going to get back everything I was before all of this, but I am not going to allow myself to give up. Eventually maybe I will get a knee replacement or two. But that is not in the foreseeable near future.
Another reason for the frustration is that with this nice spring weather I want to be outside enjoying it. The thing is, I don't know how to anymore. I don't know how to do anything other than go to WalMart where I can drive around and around in the motorized cart, or stay in my car when I go anywhere else. I want to get to the parks, to the lakes, to the rivers, and other places where I can photograph nature in its glory. So for the past few days I have been trying to figure out how to do that. For example, I want to go fishing. Instead of just thinking about what I need to buy and pack for a day trip, I am thinking of additional things such as where can I park so I don't have to walk more than a few feet to the shoreline? Where is the nearest facility for those little necessary trips that interrupt a day spent in the sunshine and breeze, and how far would I have to walk to get there? Or, better yet, can I find a place to park and fish, take pictures, and picnic if I want to, and still be within close driving range to those facilities? These are the kinds of things that are occupying my mind these days.
Soon, like the first part of next month, there will be all kinds of activities going on here in this area, including concerts in the park. I used to go to those every week and really enjoyed them. But at that time, I didn't have to worry about how far away I parked. Even the closest parking places now are too far for me to walk. I don't have a wheelchair and I don't want one unless that would become absolutely necessary. A motorized scooter would be nice but at this point in time, that is way out of my budget. Besides, I am not sure about how easy they are to get in and out of my van.
I really admire those who are able to continue on with their lives and be active even though they are disabled in one way or another. This is a new challenge for me and I hope to conquer it soon. By that I mean, learn how to not let it keep me down or hold me back. I have learned how to manage inside my home by doing things in a different way. Now it is time to learn how to do them on the outside. Of course one obstacle here includes pride. I have issues with feeling embarrassed by my situation and that doesn't help me to push forward. One of the things that bother me about this is that I feel I have to do this by myself because other than my children and a few close friends, the rest of the people I thought of as my friends turned their backs on me for the most part when I got sick. They offered their prayers, from a great distance, leaving only one or two to be the contacts. So, all the activities I used to enjoy with them I will be doing alone now until I find some new friends as I get out and about more. And I am not going to turn my backs on them if they choose to return now that I am feeling better. But I don't expect that to happen.
So, even though I am frustrated right now...even though I want to get out and be as fully active as I was more than two years ago...I am not going to let all these obstacles stop me from moving forward, however slowly I will have to do that. I know for sure if I want to continue putting photos on my photography blog I am going to have to get out there and take some more. In fact, I have tentative plans for this weekend, weather permitting.
Speaking of photos, I am hoping to get out to Daughter's house in the next few weeks and get some pictures of the puppies. By then they should be up and waddling all over her kitchen. One of them died so there are only 8 instead of 9. She said all of them but one are girls. Son-in-law wanted to keep one of the boys, so it looks like that choice is very limited.
Feeling better started gradually around December/January. It was then that I was able to start thinking about the baby steps I would be taking to work my way back. At this point I don't think I am going to get back everything I was before all of this, but I am not going to allow myself to give up. Eventually maybe I will get a knee replacement or two. But that is not in the foreseeable near future.
Another reason for the frustration is that with this nice spring weather I want to be outside enjoying it. The thing is, I don't know how to anymore. I don't know how to do anything other than go to WalMart where I can drive around and around in the motorized cart, or stay in my car when I go anywhere else. I want to get to the parks, to the lakes, to the rivers, and other places where I can photograph nature in its glory. So for the past few days I have been trying to figure out how to do that. For example, I want to go fishing. Instead of just thinking about what I need to buy and pack for a day trip, I am thinking of additional things such as where can I park so I don't have to walk more than a few feet to the shoreline? Where is the nearest facility for those little necessary trips that interrupt a day spent in the sunshine and breeze, and how far would I have to walk to get there? Or, better yet, can I find a place to park and fish, take pictures, and picnic if I want to, and still be within close driving range to those facilities? These are the kinds of things that are occupying my mind these days.
Soon, like the first part of next month, there will be all kinds of activities going on here in this area, including concerts in the park. I used to go to those every week and really enjoyed them. But at that time, I didn't have to worry about how far away I parked. Even the closest parking places now are too far for me to walk. I don't have a wheelchair and I don't want one unless that would become absolutely necessary. A motorized scooter would be nice but at this point in time, that is way out of my budget. Besides, I am not sure about how easy they are to get in and out of my van.
I really admire those who are able to continue on with their lives and be active even though they are disabled in one way or another. This is a new challenge for me and I hope to conquer it soon. By that I mean, learn how to not let it keep me down or hold me back. I have learned how to manage inside my home by doing things in a different way. Now it is time to learn how to do them on the outside. Of course one obstacle here includes pride. I have issues with feeling embarrassed by my situation and that doesn't help me to push forward. One of the things that bother me about this is that I feel I have to do this by myself because other than my children and a few close friends, the rest of the people I thought of as my friends turned their backs on me for the most part when I got sick. They offered their prayers, from a great distance, leaving only one or two to be the contacts. So, all the activities I used to enjoy with them I will be doing alone now until I find some new friends as I get out and about more. And I am not going to turn my backs on them if they choose to return now that I am feeling better. But I don't expect that to happen.
So, even though I am frustrated right now...even though I want to get out and be as fully active as I was more than two years ago...I am not going to let all these obstacles stop me from moving forward, however slowly I will have to do that. I know for sure if I want to continue putting photos on my photography blog I am going to have to get out there and take some more. In fact, I have tentative plans for this weekend, weather permitting.
Speaking of photos, I am hoping to get out to Daughter's house in the next few weeks and get some pictures of the puppies. By then they should be up and waddling all over her kitchen. One of them died so there are only 8 instead of 9. She said all of them but one are girls. Son-in-law wanted to keep one of the boys, so it looks like that choice is very limited.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Leave It To YouTube!!!!
POPCORN by Hot Butter. I have wanted this song for years and have never been able to find it! Thanks YouTube!
Some other oldies but goodies that really take me back in time....this is a mix of different things...some funny ones you may have forgotten about along with some really good ones.
LOVE IS BLUE and others
MUSIC BOX DANCER
DEAD SKUNK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD Yep you read that right! It was really a hit way back in the 70's. I am not sure if this is the original group that made it a hit.
CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Arlo Guthrie
THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS by Johnny Horton
I'M GONNA BUY ME A DOG by The Monkees The Monkees tv series was the beginning of music videos.
LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE by The Monkees
CLOSE TO YOU by The Carpenters A real classic.
THE YO-YO MAN by The Smothers Brothers
A HORSE WITH NO NAME by America
THANK GOD I'M A COUNTRY BOY by John Denver along with narration by John Denver with Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, and Roger Miller accompanying. COUNTRY ROADS with Johnny Cash.
A FIFTH OF BEETHOVEN by Walter Murphy
ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN by The Electric Light Orchestra
Okay, any other classic and fun oldies you will have to find for yourself. I still am trying to think of one instrumental that is never played on the radio anymore. But back in the early 70's it was really popular, along with Popcorn and The Horse and other instrumentals of the era. If you can think of what it is, let me know. Like you can get into my mind and figure it out, right? Well, it was a really good song for driving, if you know what I mean. There are other songs I would like to find on YouTube, but my memory is not what it used to be I guess. Most of what I do find is more by accident than anything else. I hope you enjoyed this mix of memories.
Some other oldies but goodies that really take me back in time....this is a mix of different things...some funny ones you may have forgotten about along with some really good ones.
LOVE IS BLUE and others
MUSIC BOX DANCER
DEAD SKUNK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD Yep you read that right! It was really a hit way back in the 70's. I am not sure if this is the original group that made it a hit.
CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Arlo Guthrie
THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS by Johnny Horton
I'M GONNA BUY ME A DOG by The Monkees The Monkees tv series was the beginning of music videos.
LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE by The Monkees
CLOSE TO YOU by The Carpenters A real classic.
THE YO-YO MAN by The Smothers Brothers
A HORSE WITH NO NAME by America
THANK GOD I'M A COUNTRY BOY by John Denver along with narration by John Denver with Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, and Roger Miller accompanying. COUNTRY ROADS with Johnny Cash.
A FIFTH OF BEETHOVEN by Walter Murphy
ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN by The Electric Light Orchestra
Okay, any other classic and fun oldies you will have to find for yourself. I still am trying to think of one instrumental that is never played on the radio anymore. But back in the early 70's it was really popular, along with Popcorn and The Horse and other instrumentals of the era. If you can think of what it is, let me know. Like you can get into my mind and figure it out, right? Well, it was a really good song for driving, if you know what I mean. There are other songs I would like to find on YouTube, but my memory is not what it used to be I guess. Most of what I do find is more by accident than anything else. I hope you enjoyed this mix of memories.
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