The Fractured Anecdote

Gabrielle Giffords

2012-01-23T22:15:00.000-05:00

Representative Gabrielle Giffords is resigning from Congress. To me, this is a huge, but hopefully temporary, loss. We need people in congress who are bright, capable, determined, and never give up. We need people in congress who are willing to cross party lines and work together.

I was mortified when the shooting happened last year. It was a deranged and unthinkable act. I was angry that Gabby had been reduced to a state of having to relearn how to walk, talk, and otherwise function. I was very happy to see how far she had come in that Diane Sawyer interview last fall…and thrilled with the Gabby who made such a succinct announcement of her intention to resign until she feels recovered enough to continue her work for the people of this country. She has made an astounding recovery to date, and I am certain that with her determination and positive attitude, she will once again run for a congressional or senate seat a few short years down the road.

Here's to Gabrielle Giffords. The rest of congress needs to wake up and take a lesson in life, courage, and conviction from this remarkable woman.

Organization...not exactly my strong suit

2012-01-19T00:14:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, I am just not the most organized person in the world. I make lists and don’t get everything done. I keep moving those tasks from one day’s list to next and they remain undone. I identify the large black holes in my life into which my time disappears never to return, and I eliminate those things from my daily existence. But the small distractions, well, those are the things that add up.

I discovered a little tool that I am finding to be quite helpful, at least during my time at the computer. It’s called The Action Machine. It is simple, intuitive, and seems to keep me focused on the job at hand. I like its ease of use. It’s the foil to Parkinson’s law, the adage that states “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

The simple design allows you to determine how much time a task should take, then the clock starts running. It’s amazing how much I can get done when there is a time limit on completion.

At any rate, I’m having a wonderful time and accomplishing more than normal using The Action Machine as my personal motivator. If you think you might need a boost in your productivity, at work or at home, you might want to check into it.

I so want to write something positive...

2012-01-14T23:21:00.002-05:00

…but, I’m having some difficulty here. River Road in Perry pretty much got buried. We are somewhere between 28 and 36 inches deep in the white stuff. When last we checked it was still snowing at about an inch an hour, somewhat preferable to the previous 2 inches per hour from this morning and last night (a huge negative).

On the positive note, I made an excellent pork roast for dinner (positive). Tomorrow we will be having tuna noodle casserole (positive).

Although my broken wrist seems to be healed (a positive), I blew the tendons in my right knee out last Wednesday (a negative). There is a reason, as in no hip rotation. Sooooo it looks like a total hip replacement is on the horizon (negative, but eventually positive).

I have been ordered to walk with a cane to relieve stress on the hip (a positive and negative) and promptly managed to break my toe…by whacking it into the cane (a negative). I had to consciously stop myself from laughing at the absolute irony of breaking my toe on the cane meant to help, before my ribs started to ache.

I will end on a positive, though. I just wrote this blog while sipping a nice glass of my homemade Amarone. Wow, this wine is smooth!

I'm Listening to Amy Winehouse's...

2012-01-02T17:21:00.000-05:00

…grammy award-winning CD, Back to Black. The CD was a gift from my nephew Sean. Of course it starts with Rehab. Too bad poor Amy didn’t treat herself better..another musical talent lost to drug abuse and its related health detriments. I don’t think Winehouse is any Janice Joplin, but the music is good, if a bit on the depressing side. She would have had a singular music career had she gotten past her issues.

I wonder if she would have resisted rehab had she known that her eventual outcome would be early death.

Those who do not learn from past mistakes are doomed to repeat them.

New Year's Day - 2012

2012-01-01T23:22:00.001-05:00

I know I haven’t written anything in a while. Just smack me! I resolve to write a blog at least once a week in 2012, starting today. Now that Mom has made a significant recovery from her heart attack, the broken wrist debacle is almost over, and typing is back to a degree of comfort I can live with, things are looking up. I’ve made significant progress on “Finding Quincy Michigan” and hope to move forward quickly with the remainder of the story. I’m attempting to do at least 1000 words per day. This is not a resolution, just something I’m working toward.

Of course, I also need to make significant progress on the Mr. Whipple’s Woodchuck series AND come up with a business plan, website, and other business type stuff for the postcard book. I guess I’ve got my work cut out for me for the next several months. What I mean by that is that I have to make time to do these things in the next several months. I foresee a writing escape trip or two in my future.

I did make a resolution for the year...to learn how to use the camera I got for 20 years of service at work. I think I can accomplish that one small thing! I fail to understand how I can work my way all around a computer and all the software programs I use and yet become confounded by a new camera or a new phone.

All that aside, I bid a good welcome to 2012. May it be the best year ever.

Leftie on the fly...

2011-11-27T22:11:00.001-05:00

I am a “rightie” as are the majority (70-90%) of people on the planet. I eat, write, and wave with my right hand. I can’t think of anything I do well with my left hand, other than type, which requires dexterity in both hands. Then again, typing is a learned behavior.

When I broke my wrist, not quite two weeks ago, I never imagined how difficult doing ordinary things could be. I seem to be able to eat with the splint in place, but I can’t seem to butter a piece of bread. I can wash my face and hands (with the splint off), but the motion of brushing my teeth is too painful, thereby forcing me to brush left-handed.

I have finger freedom to type, but I have to remove the splint to sign a check or a credit card receipt…otherwise my signature looks as illegible as most doctors. I can pick up a bottle of pop, but not a gallon of milk. Forget peeling potatoes. The motion is excruciating and the left hand is out on that score…delegation is the most practical solution.

But the things that are most difficult for me are bathroom and hygiene duties. I urge everyone who reads this to start practicing ambidexterity now. Cleaning and wiping with the non-dominant hand are very difficult and stressful and take twice as long to accomplish than under normal circumstances.

Like the learned behavior of typing, practice makes perfect…so start switching up hands now while you have the chance. Don’t wait until fate befalls you, because being a leftie on the fly is most definitely for the birds!

Penn State and Joe Paterno

2011-11-13T22:50:00.000-05:00

Here are my thoughts on the matter. I don’t particularly care whether the state of Pennsylvania, or any state for that matter, doesn’t consider it a crime that you don’t report child abuse. For my money, if you see a crime being perpetrated on another human being, it is your moral duty to report it to the proper authorities, i.e., the police. Even if the terms of your employment state that you report it to your superiors, I would be making that call while on the way to the police station. If the employer tells you it will be handled internally, tell them that if they demand that you not report the crime, you will see to it that every newspaper in the country gets the story, and that they will be held complicit in the crime.

No decent human being should tolerate the covering up of such heinous behavior. Reporting to your superiors does not absolve you of moral responsibility. I think of that poor child, being raped in that Penn State locker room. He should have been immediately taken to the hospital for treatment, counseling, and collection of evidence. Instead, he has had to live with the mental anguish of that and other incidents perpetrated on him by Jerry Sandusky…for years! It will be a miracle if the boy is ever mentally “right” again. How many more boys were similarly abused because Sandusky was free to abuse. That would not have happened if he was in jail.

Everyone at Penn State that saw or was told must therefore be considered complicit. It is a shame that Joe Paterno was as reluctant to become involved as everyone else. They all deserve punishment, but no punishment will be as physically or mentally painful as the abuse those little boys endured.

Shame on all of you.

Elections: Don't be a Sheep. Educate Yourself before Voting!

2011-11-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

It is that time of year again. The kids tripped over all the election signs as they made their Halloween rounds. What the heck, kids are durable. So what is frustrating me…the endless phone calls from individuals, and agencies, and organizations all telling me how and why I need to vote for them or their issue.

I suppose this is a good way to sway those who otherwise just don’t give a damn, but I do give a damn. I read, I watch the news, I weigh the pros and cons, I make up my mind. I don’t vote the “party line” either. I vote for what makes sense to me.

Don’t just listen to one side. Go read about the issue. Each side has a vested interest in having it their way. You need to figure out which way is most beneficial to the community and then vote your conscience. Issue 1, Issue 2 and Issue 3 are incredibly important. Don’t take someone else’s word for what’s best. Go the Ballot Board website, read the issues and the arguments for and against. Then make up your own mind. Don't let some lobbyist or neighbor or acquaintance make it up for you.

I really do not want someone else’s ideas, or ideals, or beliefs shoved down my throat. Calling my home to tell me how to vote is quite akin to that. I can choose not to read, I can turn off the TV, I can toss those political ads and flyers in the trash, but turning off my phone in my own home denies me the right to receive those calls I actually wish to have invading my personal time and space.

It is too bad that we don't have an Issue 4, a constitutional amendment that forbids campaigning by phone in Ohio. Perhaps next election. Count me in for a “YES” vote on that one!

I tied with Jesus for 3rd Place!

2011-11-04T02:10:00.000-04:00

The annual Halloween bash “officially named Scary Okee” at Your Vine or Mine was held last Saturday. A grand time was had by all. Nothing unusual about that, mind you. The costumes were great! Joe and Linda (who won first place) came as a Zanesville cop and a lion with a monkey on her shoulder. It really was quite creative. Second place went to Jacky Gilbert for his “Bad Santa” outfit. Third place went to me and Jesus! I was wonderfully outfitted in full scrubs, including booties, gloves, mask and headgear, a stethoscope and a lovely jar with a partial “brain” called “Abby Normal,” all necessary for Dr. Betsy, the brain surgeon. I have to say I was truly honored to be recognized as the equal of Jesus, a giant of a man with full robes, hair and beard. I am quite sure that I'll never manage to be his equal again.

Will the real Alice Cooper please stand up?

2011-10-23T02:24:00.000-04:00

The very first concert I attended was at Blossom Music Center, the year it opened. I won tickets to Judy Collins, so my older sister drove us to Blossom. It was a terrific show. The second concert I attended was Alice Cooper at the Akron Rubber Bowl. My friend Patty called and asked if I would go with her. I told my parents we were going to see some singer named Alice. At the time, I had no clue that Alice Cooper was a bizarre rock band. Color me oh-so-amazed when the performance began!

Of course, my opinion of some idiot prancing around on stage looking like a Halloween freak and calling himself Alice put him in the same category as Tiny Tim. The music was just not my cup of tea.

So when I attended a charity event and had the opportunity to have my picture taken with “Alice Cooper” I quite naturally jumped at the chance. Anyone who has lasted as long as he has in the business can’t be all bad!

Then I decided I should do a little research on the real “Alice Cooper” since I knew little or nothing about the man himself. I discovered a number of truly interesting facts about this long playing musician.

His real name is Vincent Damon Furnier. He was born in 1948 in Detroit.
The band took on the name Alice Cooper in 1968.
He started performing as a solo Alice Cooper in 1975
He still pays royalties to the members of the original band for use of the name…enough so that they all live comfortably.
He had a run of acute alcoholism but has been rehabilitated and sober for years. He mentors and counsels other addicted musicians who need help.
He’s been married since 1976 to a ballerina instructor and choreographer named Sheryl Goddard with whom he has 3 children.
He tends to be non-political, but he is a born again Christian.
Outside of music, Alice Cooper is an actor, an accomplished golfer, a restaurateur, and a radio DJ.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
He hosts an annual charity golf event, the Alice Cooper Celebrity AM Golf Tournament, from which all proceeds go the Solid Rock Foundation, a Christian non-profit organization that helps troubled teens and children. It was formed by Alice Cooper and Chuck Savale in 1995.

And there you have it! The real Alice Cooper isn’t so bad after all. Guess I’ll keep the photo, and maybe even flaunt it a bit!

A week until Halloween...any costume ideas?

2011-10-22T00:16:00.000-04:00

It is that time of year again…the time when sanity hides in the closet while I try to figure out what I can wear to the annual Halloween party this time around. Some of my more memorable outfits I’d rather not don again. One year I went to a party dressed as a can of Pepsi. I won’t go into too many details, but it did involve a bed sheet tacked to my living room wall while I hand painted a Pepsi Logo.

In more recent years, I have gone to parties as a Geisha, a Jawa, and Maleficent (the wonderfully evil queen from Sleeping Beauty). This year I wanted to go as Medusa, but my size sold out quickly and now I actually have to use my imagination to come up with something suitable (and darn if that snake headpiece wasn’t a show stopper!)

Right now, I am open to suggestions. Just remember that in spite of the obvious differences in the aforementioned costumes, they all have one thing in common…body camouflage. I pass on anything sleeveless, backless or showing leg above the knee. This will be subject to change AFTER the circumferential body lift, wing removal, breast reduction, thigh-plasty and neck lift! All those buxom serving wench and French maid costumes will just have to wait until well after all the surgery!

A Tough Week for Wildlife…

2011-10-21T00:54:00.000-04:00

Staying within a 30-minute run for a cheetah from the animal compound in Zanesville gives one pause. I was happily ensconced in my rental for the night when the local news came on warning of the major exotic animal release. Law enforcement reacted quickly. It was necessary for them to do so. The farther afield these animals roamed from their habitat, the more danger existed for the public. It was very close to nightfall, and they needed to act before they were unable to see the animals. Tranquilizing was not an option, since animals often run for a bit before dropping, and if they happened to run into brush or woods, might have eluded the officials until the sedation was no longer effective.

I am not in favor of shooting animals, but in this case it was an absolute necessity. The entire blame for this exotic animal slaughter rests on the head of the man who released them. Did he really think that those animals would not be put down the minute the release was noticed? If he loved those animals as much as he claimed, he would have donated them to a zoo, where they could be cared for properly. If he had money issues, as was reported in today’s news, he could have sold them to pay his debts. But releasing dangerous animals on an unsuspecting public was definitely not in the animals’ best interests. I don’t rejoice in this man’s death, but it appears there is one less maniac for the world to tolerate.

Make that two. I certainly don’t rejoice in the death of any human being, but one can only hope that the world will be a better place without Moammar Gadhafi. I do think it is sickening to see video of the final moments, and the absolute celebration of his demise. I am grateful to live in a country where I hope to never see a level of repression so extreme as to incite my fellow Americans to celebrate the death of our former leaders, whether we personally liked or disliked them.

Vitamins are bad for me? Really?

2011-10-14T00:07:00.000-04:00

The latest and greatest in research studies, announced this week, is that multivitamins may be dangerous for women. This pronouncement is based on a study of approximately 39,000 women who, since 1989, have taken a multivitamin every day. This observational study found a slightly higher risk of death among women taking dietary supplements, including multivitamins, folic acid, iron and copper.

Let’s hang an overlooked fact out there. The average age of a participant at the beginning of this study was 60. Fast forward…20 years. The average life expectancy in the United States is between 78.5 and 80.2 years. I consider any person who makes it to 80 to be defying the odds. Now explain to me how a slightly elevated risk of death in a group of women whose average age at the end of the study was 80 can be blamed on the vitamins. Maybe we should be blaming advanced age?

I don’t know about you, but I will continue taking my vitamins!

I am an American....

2011-10-11T00:42:00.000-04:00

My heritage is Irish, but I was born here. My parents were born here. My grandparents were born here. I was also born and raised Catholic. I am now on the record.

When I vote, I do not vote for someone based on their heritage or their religious beliefs. As I watched the news today, I saw where some supposed Christian preacher called Mitt Romney’s religion a cult. This is obviously a political tactic designed to scare the good Christian voting public.

I am old enough to remember the naysayers loudly warning the public that if John F. Kennedy was elected, the United States would be ruled by the Pope. I have heard some say that if a woman is elected president, the country will be subjected to hormonal swings. I also heard people say that if Obama was elected, the government would be run by everyone from Louis Farrakhan and the NAACP to Islamic Jihadists.

I was too young to vote for Kennedy. Since then, I have voted for both Democrats and Republicans for president, depending on what I perceived as the intelligence and agenda of the candidate and with no thought of ethnicity, gender, or religion. When will people put aside their prejudices and try to take a wider, more objective view of the candidates, leaving religion and ethnicity out of the mix and basing their decisions on what makes sense, rather than on their prejudices?

In a related note, it seems that the Westboro Baptist Church planned to demonstrate at the funeral of Steve Jobs. Evidently they felt he was a horrible sinner because he had a “huge platform” but he “gave God no glory and taught sin” to those using his inventions…which of course he did not really invent, according to the Westboro leadership. Kudos to the Jobs family for having a small private service. I saw no news about a demonstration taking place.

Today on CNN, I watched as someone from Syria went on and on about Steve Jobs being Syrian. Yes his father was Syrian. His mother was American and of Swiss-German heritage. But Steve Jobs, like me, was born an American. It doesn’t matter what his heritage is. He was born here. His mother was born here. Millions of Apple computer users and owners of iPads, iPhones, and every other i-gadget on the market don’t care if his father was Syrian. Steve Jobs was an American in every sense of the word.

What I am wondering is, how many of those who don’t give a damn about Steve Jobs’ father being Syrian, still ascribe to the theory that President Obama is not an American because his father was Muslim and he spent some of his childhood in Indonesia? I say, get over it. The President is as American as you, I, or Steve Jobs. He was born here, his mother was born here.

To those who still hang on to that ridiculous theory, maybe you should be more worried about Steve Jobs’ parentage. It is quite possible that when all is said and done, Steve Jobs’ influence on America and the world may be more far-reaching than President Obama or any other American president in recent history.

Let that one sink in and swirl around for a while. I’m sure someone out there will be quick to theorize that our whole culture is going down the drain due to Steve’s inventions, and it is surely all part of a Syrian conspiracy!

Memories of 9-11…the unanswered phone

2011-09-10T00:25:00.000-04:00

I was running a few minutes late for work that fateful Tuesday morning, and I pulled into the parking lot just as the announcement came over the air that a passenger liner had stuck the first tower. I grabbed my purse, hurried into the building, and raced to my office. I announced to all who would listen that a plane had hit the Trade Center and everyone started searching the web for information…everyone but me. I was dialing my phone, desperate to reach my son. When the second tower was struck, I dialed faster. And so began the worst five hours of my life.

Chris was in New York City on job interviews. We had talked before he left, and he had told me that he was very excited to have an interview at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning in the World Trade Center. He thought it would be a neat place to work. But as we watched film of the towers collapsing, mortified at the thought of the massive loss of life, I tried to stay calm as Chris’ cell phone remained unanswered.

Soon the stories were coming in from the Pentagon and about the missing airliner that had come so close to Cleveland before heading toward the White House. I watched in horror, but I kept dialing. My husband got through to me around 11, wanting to know if I had spoken to Chris. By that time, I was on the verge of hysteria. Needless to say, no work was getting done in our office as we all took in the horror that was unfolding in our virtual backyard.

Around 2:30 in the afternoon, I dialed for the thousandth time, and he answered.

“Oh my God, Chris, where have you been? I’ve been calling you for five hours!”

“What’s up, Mom?”

“What’s up? The world is ending! Can’t you look out the windows in Newark and see the smoke?”

“I’m not in Newark.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m in Perry. What’s going on?”

“Then you don’t know? Terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center towers around 9 this morning. They both collapsed, killing thousands. The towers are gone. The Pentagon was hit, too. And a fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. I thought YOU were in one of those towers. You had a job interview this morning, didn’t you?”

There was long moment of silence.

“Yes, I did have an interview, but I finished my Monday interviews early, so I called the guy at the Trade Center and asked if I could come in Monday afternoon instead. He said yes. I interviewed early and headed back to Ohio. I got in around 2:30 a.m. and didn’t want to wake you or Dad, so I went to Brian’s and crashed there. I just woke up.”

Chris was profoundly affected by that massive tragedy, and I am sure that he still wonders about the twist of fate that kept him far away from that place where he was scheduled to be at that moment.

Though eternally grateful that my son was spared on that horrible day, I experienced five hours of the most intense fear I have ever known waiting for Chris to answer his phone. And I am haunted still by thoughts of the thousands of mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, and friends who spent hour after agonizing hour dialing phones that were never answered.

More important than ever...

2011-08-31T23:21:00.000-04:00

I know I made light of my bucket list in my last post. Let me amend that right now. My friend Gloria passed away today. A month ago, this was something no one saw coming. She was from a family where longevity reigned supreme. She was vivacious and gregarious and always involved, be it theater, community, work, or friends. Gloria had life...a lot of people just exist. I always envisioned her acting and directing and getting on with it until she was a cute little 90-year-old star.
But that was not to be. A nagging backache, at first ignored, then not immediately diagnosed, turned out to be a cancerous death sentence. Those who knew and loved her will have a large space in their lives that will be quite difficult to fill. Although Gloria led a full and rich life, I'm sure there were many things she still wanted to do, be they small or large, simple or unique. She was not one to be satisfied with the status quo.

And in that, we should all take heed. Don't stop learning; try new things; expand your mind and your life; because you never know when it might end. I know I will be taking my bucket list quite seriously from now on.

Jack Nicholson has nothing on me!

2011-08-04T21:31:00.000-04:00

When I turned 40, the FIRST time, I decided to make some major changes in my life. I took stock and realized that I was turning into my mother, so I made a bold decision not to go gently into that good night. My first project was to not get older, so I concocted the “Betsy McMillan Quantum Theory of Aging.” It goes something like this. When you turn 40, you automatically subtract 10 years. Then you only age 1 year for every two chronological years. It works like a charm, but eventually you get back to 40 for a second or even a third time, so you start the process all over again.

The second change was my health. I was severely obese, so I proceeded to do everything humanly possible to lose weight and keep it off. This actually included becoming a dual-certified personal trainer. Granted I don’t LOOK like a personal trainer, but I am pleased to say that today, I weigh 220 pounds less than I did when I was 40. I still have a little way to go.

Another thing I created during this process was the Betsy McMillan version of the Death March. I discovered that if I left the house with all good intentions and started walking, I was prone to stop short due to tiredness, rain, cold, wind, snow…you name it. But if I got in the car with my other half and had him drop me 2 miles from home, I was totally motivated to get back to the house. Neither rain, nor wind, nor snow, nor exhaustion prevented me from finishing the two miles because there was no other choice AND because I was walking toward home the whole way (a wonderfully positive psychological component for one as chronically lazy as myself).

The third change was that I wanted to travel. I had literally never been anywhere. Once I made that decision, I called my friend Bonnie and talked her into running away from home for several days. We headed out for parts unknown, namely Savannah GA, and had a fabulous time. It didn’t matter that we were staying at Motel 6 and Tom Bodett had the light on for us…it wasn’t Ohio. Six months later, we headed for Vermont for a week. Six months after that, New Smyrna Beach - Orlando FL was our destination. After that I began braving the travel by myself. My solo destinations include Vermont, Seattle and Bellingham WA, Las Vegas, Chattanooga and Nashville TN, Huntsville AL, Greensboro NC, Detroit MI, St. Louis MO area and on and on. I love to travel.

I also began writing books. Since my “first” 40th birthday, I have managed to get multiple non-fiction books on the market. I knew I would have to make appearances, and since I was nervous about speaking in public, I began singing with a guitar player (the incredible Forest Ratliff in a duo gig that lasted 9 years), and I joined Toastmasters International to hone my skills. I have since used those skills in radio and TV interviews, no less.

I’ve ridden in a hot air balloon. I drove to NJ with my future (now actual) son-in-law and tried out for the X-Factor Auditions. I sang the National Anthem solo at the Captain’s stadium before a game.

So what comes next? I am compiling a bucket list of sorts…things I want to achieve before I hit 40 for the “second” time. The list includes many things, from losing the balance of the weight to get to my original goal, eating healthier, completing three novels that are already well on their way, putting a series of kiddie books on Kindle and Nook for download (already in the works), and finding a way to get that niggling postcard book, now renamed “Secret Angel” out to the appropriate audience. The “list” has been on my mind for several days now, and I keep adding to it as new and more wonderful things occur to me. I am open to any and all suggestions. I am completely convinced that when I am really old (when I hit 40 for the “third” time), I will be able to write one hell of memoir of my after-40 adventures!

Orchard House...not your typical B&B

2011-07-31T02:39:00.001-04:00

On my way back from the excursion to Chattanooga, I had occasion to stay at a very different B & B.

I mean that in the absolute best of ways. Orchard House is a wonderful retreat from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The rooms were charming, clean, and tastefully decorated. I tend to avoid B & B stays because I find that most have overwhelming Victorian décor…much too busy for my tastes, and Orchard House was just what the décor doctor ordered. I chose the Whitman room for my stay, which I found to be incredibly comfortable. The bed wrapped it’s arms around me like a cloud. The linens were soft yet crisp. The bathroom was immaculately clean and modern, complete with Gilchrist and Soames products.

Interesting conversation was at the top of the order during wine and cheese hour with the wonderful proprietors, Don and Andrew. And talk about a fabulous breakfast? Try hot corn cakes served with hot pure maple syrup, perfectly done brown sugar bacon, a heaping bowl of fresh strawberries, cold fresh orange juice and hot coffee. The food is heavy on natural locally and on-site grown products, and the quality shows. Andrew also makes some killer jams in his kitchen, and I managed to take away a jar of what is sure to be a blue ribbon winner at the Ohio State Fair this year…Carrot Cake Jam. My elderly mother has managed to down the whole jar…she thinks it is just this side of heaven!

Orchard House is located on a working farm, with everything from chickens and rabbits to pigs and llamas. So you can take a walk through the farmland, meet all the animals, even gather eggs if you so desire. Don and Andrew will be happy to show you around and answer your questions.

My only regret was that I had to check out early when a possible appointment in Columbus became a reality and I had to quickly pack and be on my way. You can be assured that I will be visiting Don and Andrew at Orchard House again.

I have been lax, I must admit it...

2011-07-20T23:46:00.000-04:00

It has been an entire month since I posted. That is bad even for me. Admittedly, I spent two and a half of those weeks transporting my daughter back and forth to work daily and to the grocery store while her van was temporarily “out of commission.” Since this was on top of my own work schedule and daily commutes, and since Jim wasn’t available to help, I got little else done. Transportation runs ended last Tuesday night.

This was followed by the push to get everything packed and ready for the annual trip to Chattanooga, or more correctly East Ridge, for Liberty Con 24. For those of you that are uninformed about such doings, Liberty Con is a sci-fi convention. Yes, I said sci-fi convention. No, I don’t put on Klingon makeup or masks. No, I don’t dress up like Princess Leia or Obi-Wan Kenobi. No, I don’t adorn myself with pounds of chain maille or wear tight skimpy items of clothing, or tape, or Saran Wrap designed to shock the observer.

I am what is known as a mundane to those who do dress up for the occasion. Truth be told, I have a group of friends, also “mundanes” who love sci-fi books and attend several conventions each year. I’d like to say we get actively involved in the scheduled activities, but other than attending an occasional panel discussion with authors we like, we tend to spend our time visit with each other in a venue most people have never experienced.

One of the highlights of the convention is the Baen Publishing slide show. Toni Weisskopf, the head of Baen Publishing, gathers the minions and we all sit around as she does a power point presentation of all the cover art for the upcoming book releases. Cover art is quite popular with sci-fi fans, and there are some truly talented artists producing work for Baen books.

This year, we were particularly bold in that we ventured out to a restaurant we had previously avoided due to the somewhat shabby appearance. Turns out, the restaurant is owned by the sister of a restaurant owner down Atlanta way that some of my mundane friends frequent. So we bravely entered the doors of Portofino. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. They served both Greek and Italian. I had a really tasty lasagna. We will definitely make a return appearance next year…if the con is held there.

Seems there are a few difficulties with the hotel and upcoming renovations. When we left the convention, no contract had been signed for next year. Normally we have our rooms reserved before we leave. I guess we’ll have to keep an eye on the Liberty Con site to see if any information is forthcoming.

All things considered, we had a great time!

More Undie Woes!

2011-06-22T00:49:00.002-04:00

Is it all underwear in general, or just mine, that doesn’t seem to make it to its destination? Every time I order some, it seems to go astray.

First it was the great Spanx debacle. Fed Ex lost my undies and I had to go lumpy to my daughter’s wedding. To make matters worse, since the lovely black Spanx did not arrive, I wore what I had, which happened to be white. I didn’t think it would show through the black dress, but in every photo where the sun was bright or the flash was right I look like I have two blazing headlights! Today, a month after the fact, I get a call from Fed Ex wanting to know if my package ever arrived and if my issues had been resolved. You really don’t want to know how I responded to that question.

Not yet having my fill of delivery woes, I ordered a couple shirts and bras a week ago. They shipped UPS on the 16th. When I got the e-mail notification of shipping, I checked the UPS tracking for the package. It stated that the destination was closed when they attempted to deliver on Friday. So I just thought it was because no one was home, but didn’t quite understand why they didn’t leave the package on the front porch as usual. After all, it was shirts and bras, not gold bars. I was also surprised that they didn’t leave an info-note…telling me to expect another attempt.

I had Mom keep an eye out on Monday, but there was no delivery activity. When I got home, I checked the tracking. It said a second attempt was made, but was unsuccessful. Now I was really concerned. So I called UPS. I was told that the sender had specified that the package be delivered to the post office for delivery. Evidently, they are saving money by making a single post office drop for an area or some such thing. I asked for a USPS tracking number, and they gave me one.

Unfortunately, the USPS website could not find any such number. Likely because they didn’t yet have the package. So on Tuesday morning, I headed to the post office to see if they could locate my stuff. Well, they said. In the infinite wisdom of the US Postal Service, the Perry office has been downgraded to a service station with minimum staff and no mail carriers. All the mail is being shipped in from Cleveland, drives past Perry, gets dropped at Madison, sorted, and then the carriers deliver it back to Perry from there. Because they have no carriers, as of two weeks ago, they can’t accept packages from UPS because there is no one to deliver them. Therefore, they refused the package, once on Friday the 17th, and again on Monday the 20th. In all fairness, they informed the driver of the situation and told him he had to go to the Madison Post Office, both times.

I called UPS back and explained to the nice but not so bright woman who answered the phone that my package had been refused by the post office and why. She said that I should not worry because it would be delivered to my post office. The shipper had said to deliver to my local post office and if the truck got there and they told him to go to another post office he would. I reminded her that they had done that and yet UPS attempted to deliver the package to the Perry P.O. a second time. I was told not to worry, that the driver would take it to the correct P.O. I asked where the package was right now, and was told it was on the truck for delivery to the P.O. I asked which one and she gave me the address of the Perry P.O. So I said, “You make four attempts and then return the package to sender, right? Well when the truck gets to that address, they will be making a third attempt at the same place they refused the package the first two times!” I asked if they could hold the package in Austinburg at the hub and was told no, that she had no way of doing that.

My next call was to Congressman LaTourette’s office to register a complaint that his office had done nothing to prevent this situation with our local post office in spite of a serious phone and e-mail campaign by the residents to stop it from happening. As I told the nice young man who answered the phone, I could understand downsizing a rural post office like Thompson where it is mostly farmland and sparsely populated. But every time I go into the Perry P.O. I have to stand in line and wait. It is a populated and growing area and a constantly used P.O.

When I got home tonight I once again checked the UPS tracking. It stated that my package had been delivered to the P.O. It neglected to inform me which one. USPS tracking confirms that the package is now in Madison. If I am lucky, I will get it tomorrow. If the Perry P.O. had not been downgraded, I would have had it last Saturday.

In all the on-line purchasing I’ve done over the years, these two incidences are the only ones where there have been issues with delivery, and both orders included underwear. I get the feeling God is trying to tell me something. I don’t quite know what it is, but I am pretty darn sure he is not telling me to stop wearing underwear!

R.I.P. Jesse Blount, Friend and Agent

2011-06-13T23:00:00.000-04:00

Around the beginning of May, just as the ticking time bomb of wedding preparations was threatening to cause a meltdown, I learned, quite by accident, that my literary agent had died in the middle of March and no one had informed me. I had sent him an e-mail and when he didn’t respond in a week or two, I called. Rather than hearing his booming James Earl Jones voice telling me to leave a message, I was connected to a female voice informing me that the number was no longer in service.

Knowing that Jesse had been suffering some serious health issues in the previous year, I typed his name and “obituary” into Google and was horrified when his obituary popped up on the list.

Talk about rocking a writer’s world. Jesse was a really great guy. We had many long conversations over the two years that he represented my work. He was a deep thinker and a true writer’s agent with a phenomenal grasp of vocabulary and nuance. He also had a terrific sense of humor. He lived in California, but he was a native of Cleveland and often threatened to make the trip home so that I could escort him on a tour of the Northeast Ohio wineries. I miss his keen wit and his illuminating correspondence.

But his passing has left me with unanswered questions and much uncertainty. Jesse was an independent agent, not with an agency. There is no one, not even a secretary, to pick up the standard and carry on. Coupled with the fact that he was gone for six weeks before I found out about it, and two more weeks before I was able to track down and contact his son, too much time and many of his records have been lost.

I was given the name of one of his friends who is mining his computer for information, and we talked several weeks back, but he has yet to get back to me with any information of any kind.

I do not know:
1.) What publishers are in possession of the current manscript
2.) What publishers responded with rejections
3.) Who Jesse was in contact with regarding the manuscript
4.) If Jesse was in negotiations with anyone

It is a bit hard to pick up where he left off or to let another agent know what avenues he was working when I have no information to impart.

The only think I am absolutely certain of is that our contract became void at the time of his death.

I have decisions to make, and I will be making them in a most uninformed fashion, because I need to get the book out there for it to do any good for anyone.

I am loathe to spend another 2-3 years sending queries to agents, hoping to snag one, and then wait for them to send even more years of queries to publishers on my behalf (Jesse had not succeeded in getting a bite in two years, that I know of).

I am also loathe to spend 2-3 years sending my own queries to the limited number of publishers presently accepting unagented material. The state of the industry is such that it seems a particular waste of my time.

I could e-publish on Nook and Kindle but marketing is still a huge issue. The fact is that this book is not going to appeal to the masses. It has to strike a chord with the reader.

I could self-publish, but funds are lacking.

I could forget the whole thing.

I was toying with the idea of commercial publishing…using space in the book to advertise certain products that would be of interest to those buying the book, but I was advised by a very wise businessman that large corporations take almost as long if not longer to make a decision about something like this than the long road to traditional publishing.

A lot of heavy-duty pondering and out-of-the-box thinking is now being done in an effort to decide how to proceed. In the meantime, I am doing some minor rewrites and edits and getting the manuscript polished up for whatever its fate may be.

Darn it, Jesse...I miss you!

Spanx Pranks!

2011-05-28T01:57:00.001-04:00

AKA The Great Underwear Debacle

We all know how important it is for the M.O.B. to look svelte and decked out for the big occasion. Since I was unsuccessful at my weight loss attempt (stress-eating will derail you in a heartbeat). I decided that the best alternative was a product called Spanx.

It would not be the first time I had donned what I refer to as “a squeezer” in an attempt to achieve a svelte look. But “foundations” have come a long way, even since my son was married only about 8 years ago. Spanx have many items to help women look thinner and smoother. There were two products that interested me, a one-piece with long thigh-covering legs and a super slimming slip, and after researching them online, I went out shopping. Dillard’s had both items, but neither in a size sufficient to cover my physique.

Then I went to Catherines’s. They had plenty of Spanx in my size, but had neither of the items I was interested in purchasing. Frustrated, I went back home, got on line, and ordered one of each in my size. That was on May 10th and I had them shipped with 3-day delivery.

Things got so busy with the wedding preparations that I forgot about the order for over a week. Then I realized it hadn’t arrived. On Wednesday before the wedding, I went on line and tracked the shipment. It had been picked up by FedEx on May 11 in Danville, VA.

It went to Indianapolis, then to Cleveland, then to Bedford (where it should have been placed on a truck for delivery). Unfortunately, it then went back to Indianapolis. It had been scanned in at Cleveland a second time on May 15, but there was nothing after that. I spent some time finding a phone number and called FedEx, registering my complaint and letting the poor man know, in no uncertain terms, that I had to have the package before 10 a.m. on Saturday morning.

“You have to understand,” I said. “This is the underwear I’m wearing under my dress for my daughter’s wedding. It should have been delivered last week.” The FedEx guy stammered and apologized. He took my number and said someone would call. A few hours later, I got the first of two calls from FedEx. They wanted more information, which really was all the information I had already given them. A couple hours later, I got a second call. No, they hadn’t found my underwear, yes they would keep looking and get back to me.

I began to check the front porch like a paranoid, waiting for the package to miraculously appear. Mom suggested that I go out and find some other undergarment to wear, but by that time we were down to the day before the wedding. I told her I had already spent 150 bucks on the missing underwear and I wasn’t going to spend another dime. I went back on line and checked the tracking. Nothing had changed. I called FedEx again and got a very non-sympathetic woman who said “Sorry, we can’t find it. Don’t know what else to tell you.”

I went to the computer again, this time getting a number and calling the Spanx Company. I got a very nice young man who listened to my underwear woes. “I ordered these items specifically for my daughter’s wedding. That will occur tomorrow and I am upset and panic stricken. I have called FedEx repeatedly and the package has not been found. Is it possible to ship me something in my size overnight?” He informed me that they could not get me what I needed before 10 a.m., and most likely it would not arrive before Monday. “So what you are telling me is that I have to go to my daughter’s wedding lumpy?”

He issued an immediate credit for the full price to my credit card.

I have religiously checked the front porch, I even continue to check FedEx tracking. FedEx never called me again.

I went to the wedding lumpy…what else can I say? The Spanx have still not arrived, and I can’t help but think I could have walked them from Virginia faster.

Flash: M.O.B.!

2011-05-27T00:10:00.000-04:00

Breathe, Betsy, breathe! The wedding is over. The gorilla I have been carrying on my back for eight months in now gone. It is time for some carburetor cleaner so I can start firing on all eight cylinders again! Now that it is all over, I think we should put this baby to rest!

Anyone who has ever been an M.O.B. (mother of the bride) can probably relate. To say that this was a wedding on a tight budget is to put it mildly. We started the hunt last fall for available reception space that might not bankrupt us. We found a gem with Stanton Park in Madison. Formerly a CYO camp (in ancient times, as in when I was in school), Camp Isaac Jogues offered a chapel and a hall as well as other assets, such as being right on the shores of beautiful Lake Erie.

The chapel was perfect, very rustic, but with seating for 150. Across the parking lot was the dining hall, very clean and airy with a seating capacity of 160. The price was right…but it did require that I talk the bride down from 250 guests (200 of which were her nearest and dearest friends and about 50 immediate relatives between the two families) to a total of 150.

After the Christmas holidays were behind us, we set the dates for the shower, the wedding, and the rehearsal and began the search for a caterer and supplies. In February, we discovered that the Flower Factory in Solon was going out of business and managed to acquire all the silk flowers for the bridal party and supplies for the centerpieces for less than $150.

After pricing caterers, the bride and groom decided that it would be more budget friendly to have the M.O.B. (yours truly) do all the cooking. In spite of my sweat equity, I have to believe that it would have cost less to just have it catered, but that is another story. They settled on a mid-afternoon ceremony with immediate reception of appetizers and pastries.

Since I am not a caterer by profession, and since the guest list was a potential 150 hungry bodies, I obtained a 21-cubic-foot upright freezer and began to cook. The pastries came first. I made massive quantities of kolachies and cream wafers with a little help from my mother, the bride, and a friend. This was followed by a marathon baking day to turn out 225 cupcakes that I froze unfrosted. Every weekend in March and half of April was filled with baking and cooking. Thirty pounds of meatballs became pans of sweet and sour delights and 30# of chicken became barbequed chicken chunks and joined the pastries in the freezer. Then, in April, the wedding shower was suddenly looming.

We held the shower at Your Vine or Mine in Painesville. There was no way I could accommodate the number of guests Meredith wanted to invite at my house. The Vine worked out well. Penny provided the Sangria and soda, Diane provided the coffee, and I made five, 10-inch chicken quiche, a huge bowl of fresh fruit and a mocha torte.

A few weeks later, the wedding week was upon us. Since Gary does not have much family locally, we held the rehearsal dinner at my house. This involved precooking and shredding an 11-pound pork tenderloin to make a massive amount of pulled pork with potato salad, baked beans and the rest of the picnic fixings. Fortunately, there was no rain the day of the rehearsal. Otherwise we would have been eating the rehearsal dinner on the ark Jim is building in the back yard.

The day before the wedding, I frosted 200 cupcakes and made the actual wedding cake, plus six serving pans of tortellini tossed in olive oil, butter, and fresh garlic. I had also obtained some mini quiche, mini eggrolls, and mini stuffed potato skins, as well as shrimp, and those little cream puffs and éclairs they sell at GFS and Sam’s Club.

At 8:30 on Saturday morning, my wonderful friend David came to the house and fixed my hair for the wedding. When he was done, my friend Sue and my cousin Diane came to the house and, with a little male help, we loaded three vehicles with food, flowers, table ware, and everything else that we would need for the reception. I grabbed my dress for the wedding and we were off, leaving the bride’s hairdo and makeup in David’s capable hands.

After we hauled all the food stuff inside the hall, I realized that the tables were all folded up and leaning against the walls. We procrastinated for a bit, assembling the centerpieces in the kitchen, while we waited for able-bodied groomsmen to arrive and put up tables. Eventually, we set up a few serving tables so that we could get started. Once the groomsmen set up the furniture, my sister and nephew arrived and began to pitch in as well. Soon the tables were topped with black tablecloths covered with white lace, the chairs were set up, the centerpieces were on the tables filled with my lovingly frosted cupcakes, and the chafing dishes were set up on the serving tables. Trays of cookies and fruit filled the desert table, while Sue and Diane used the portable bar to stage the liquid refreshments…coffee, wine coolers, and punch.

Around 1 p.m., I carried the wedding cake out and set it in the center of the head table. I assembled the tiers, finished off the decoration, added the cake topper and stood back and admired my first ever wedding cake. Not too bad if I do say so myself!

In addition to the cupcakes that were serving as centerpieces, I had also purchased small cupcake boxes with little inserts to keep the cupcakes from falling over. My friend Terry, my mother, and I assembled all the boxes on Friday afternoon, and later, Mom, Sean, Ann, and I boxed 100 cupcakes that we presented on the take-one-home table. We also set up a table for gifts/signing the register, and a table with place cards so people would know what table they should occupy for the reception.

At 1:15, I raced into the bathroom, changed into the fancy dress, and left the heating of the food in Sue and Diane’s capable hands. I hopped into my car, which contained the runner, the ring pillow, all the flowers and the basket for the petals and drove over to the chapel. I carried the stuff in with an assist from the limo driver, and proceeded to make sure everyone had their bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, pillow, or basket of flowers. The runner was given to the groomsmen to roll out at the appropriate time. Meredith looked beautiful. Her hair was gorgeous and her dress was simply elegant!

Judge Karen Lawson arrived to perform the ceremony. The groom made an emergency run back to his house for the marriage license that had been forgotten in the melee, but by a few minutes after 2 p.m., everyone was ready, and the ceremony began. After the groom and company placed themselves appropriately, Gary’s son walked me up the aisle. The groomsmen laid the runner. I stood up and sang Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” a cappella as the girls marched forward, ending just as Meredith reached the point where her father handed her over. I could not have timed it better if I had planned it.

In a few minutes, the deed was done. The guests made their way to the hall while the bridal party took photos.

After the toasts and other speeches, the bridal party graced the serving tables and the feasting proceeded in a happy, albeit orderly, fashion. The DJ played dinner music, everyone ate and drank, and if anyone left hungry it was not for lack of available food! The dancing and revelry lasted a couple hours, and then it was all over but the clean-up.

A have to give a huge thank you to Sue and Diane, without whom the reception would have been a dismal failure. And thanks to Ann, Sean, Joe, Flo, Chris, all the groomsmen and everyone else who stayed to help with the clean-up and tear down. It went much quicker than I anticipated, and by 8 p.m., we were home with most everything stashed back in the freezer. There was still a lot to clean-up at home, but the wedding was finished.

After we relaxed for an hour or so, Chris, Paula, and I jumped in the car and drove to Bumpers to join the after party for a while. In typical Bumpers’ fashion, there was karaoke and flowing alcohol. I only sang one song before we bid everyone a farewell and headed home to really crash.

We are still dealing with the wedding aftermath, but the stress is gone. I’ve received two requests for my catering services, one to make a wedding cake, and one to sing at a wedding. That would be definitely no, I’ll think about it, and sure, tell me where to sing and I’m yours!

Endeavor Launch Enlightenment

2011-05-17T00:00:00.005-04:00

I managed to get to work early today and realized, when I opened my breaking-news e-mail, that the space shuttle Endeavor would be launching live. I have always been a bit of a space-flight buff, watching every lift-off I could in my early days. For me, the moon shot was life-changing, and the shuttle launches were exciting, even though they became more routine over the years.

Like many people, I have a special interest in Endeavor, commanded by Mark Kelly, the husband of the critically wounded Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, so I pulled up a small, live-launch screen on my computer, plugged in a set of ear buds, and got busy on my latest work assignment, knowing I would hear the countdown and could pop the little screen up just in time for lift-off.

What I did not anticipate was my own intense response. When the rockets lit up, I was overwhelmed with sudden fear and absolute trepidation. My hands balled up in fists so tight that I had indentations in my palms from my fingernails. I was sweating and nauseated. I found myself praying with all my might that nothing would go wrong.

I was momentarily confused over my reaction…until it occurred to me that I had not seen a single launch since the day of the Challenger explosion, 25 long years ago.

Everyone that could find a television was watching on that day, too. We all wanted to see the first non-astronaut woman blast off into space. We never expected that it would end in a devastating explosion that would take the lives of Christa McAuliffe and the dedicated Challenger crew. I was just about to leave for work as I watched Challenger lift off. I stood there, numb with shock and disbelief, as the world watched with me…in horror.

A quarter century has passed, but it was only this morning, as I watched the final lift-off of the shuttle that was built to replace Challenger, that comprehension finally dawned. Somewhere in the back of my brain I had not wanted to witness another mass tragedy, on live television. Without a single conscious thought about it, I had quit watching the launches, and never even noticed.

I am continually amazed at the power of the human psyche to protect us from the things that upset us. It makes me wonder what other things my brain has shut out of my memory in an effort to keep me from suffering from my own thoughts.

But even as I wondered about my own reaction to the Endeavor launch, I felt pain for the families and friends of Christa McAuliffe and the crew of Challenger. I wondered about the extent to which Christa McAuliffe’s students, all sitting there watching the launch on TV, were psychologically damaged by the event. I wonder how many of them ever watched another launch.

In spite of the fact that the last launch in the shuttle program is impending, I am not sure I can voluntarily watch it.

The Power of Pinot

2011-05-05T23:18:00.002-04:00

I wrote this little article for a neat webzine called Zocalo Public Square. It was posted for 7 days. Their editor took some liberties, but the exposure factor for The Vine was worth letting it go! Enjoy

My relationship to wine falls somewhere between wine snob and wino. No boxed Rosé for me, please, but I have no need for that $150 Burgundy, either. Wine is my simple pleasure, the best way to wind down at the end of a workday or celebrate a special occasion with friends.

An outsider might think I live in exactly the wrong place to satisfy this love: Perry, Ohio has just 1,500 people and sits in the farmland along Lake Erie, about 35 miles east of Cleveland. But, like so many of the misconceptions about my oft-maligned state, the notion of rural Ohio as a backwater a world away from the tasting rooms of Napa is dead wrong. In fact, Northeast Ohio has an aquifer similar to that of the wine-growing regions of France, so we have bottles at least as good as that $150 Burgundy, at probably a tenth of the price. And entrepreneurs have caught on: today, there are probably 30 wineries within 30 miles of my home.

But living in the best wine region for thousands of miles isn’t all good. Even reasonably priced wines cost something, so a couple of years ago I noticed I was becoming wine poor. Markups on wine by the glass make it much more economical to buy whole bottles, which penalizes a writer who spends much of her time alone. And until recently, it was illegal in Ohio to recork a bottle and bring it home. Drinking less wine wasn’t much of an option, so I was on the lookout for a cheaper way to indulge.

Then I stumbled on my first micro-winery, a small wine producer that doesn’t have its own vineyard and doesn’t make everything by the bottle, keeping costs low. The one I visited had no ambience and the wine was truly awful, making me skeptical of the whole concept. Then I found the one that would quite literally change my life.

I was driving down Main Street in Painesville, just five minutes from home, and saw that a new micro-winery called Your Vine or Mine? was almost ready to open. Burned by the first one, I nearly didn’t bother, but I found myself keeping an eye on the place as the opening date neared. That first day, I walked in and sat at the bar. The décor and feel of the little shop were warm and welcoming. There was nothing that felt commercial about the place, with its beautifully accented walls and ceilings, original hardwood floors, antique chairs and wood tables resting on bases made from antique cast iron sewing machines.

With some trepidation, I ordered a glass of blueberry Pinot Noir. A flavored wine probably wouldn’t appeal to a wine snob no matter how good it tastes, but take my word for it: this one was excellent. The berries and grapes danced on my palate. One sip in, and I realized I’d found my spot.

Since then, Your Vine or Mine? has become my home away from home, or perhaps I have become one of the fixtures. I stop almost every afternoon, sipping a glass of Riesling, Amarone or that blueberry Pinot to smooth the transition from my day job to the responsibilities waiting at home. It’s one of the rare places that feels welcoming to people coming in alone; I’m never treated as an incomplete party and I don’t glance enviously at couples, wishing my husband was there. On Thursdays, I bring my laptop along, setting myself up in a corner to work on my latest book or article and enjoying the solitude of my work.

But paradoxically, while the shop has led me to embrace solitude, it’s also given me community. The owners who created this warm atmosphere, Penny and Alex Schebal, have become two of my closest friends. And I don’t get much work done on Thursday evenings anymore because a constant stream of other friends comes through the door. I stash my laptop in favor of catching up on town news and the gossip du jour. We all raise a glass and pass around some appetizers. As a writer, it’s not in my nature to make friends easily or be a social butterfly, but “The Vine,” as we call it, has transformed me. It’s made me a friendlier, more outgoing version of myself. I find myself participating in social events that are miles outside my old comfort zone: donning a Halloween costume, singing bad karaoke, participating in cooking competitions, dressing up for a murder mystery night on New Year’s Eve.

I also make my own wine at The Vine at least twice a year – 300 bottles total. I started with the blueberry Pinot Noir, of course, moving on to the peach-apricot Chardonnay, white cranberry Pinot Grigio, pomegranate Zinfandel and, most recently, blackberry Cabernet and Amarone. People are always very impressed to receive a bottle with my custom label displayed, and I’m always proud to present it as a gift. But it’s funny: although every batch has been excellent, I rarely open a bottle at home. Somehow the grapes just taste better when shared with friends.

X-Factor Auditions...Day 2!

2011-04-14T20:59:00.006-04:00

Another very early arrival at the Prudential Center (5:30 a.m.) prefaced the onset of "activities" that started at 8:00 a.m. and included everyone waving, screaming, and performing in front of every available camera (60 in all). We are talking helicopter skycams, stationary cameras to the right, left, front, and back of the enormous crowds, news cameras from every local station and a Cam Car, with a boom camera that kept driving up and down the line for an hour while the people paid to stir up the excitement did their best to incite a frenzy of dancing, jumping, and screaming in the crowd of 20,000 auditioners. The kids did lots of jumping. The older folks were just trying to stay warm for the second cold morning in a row.

They finally let us inside at 9. It took about an hour to get everyone in and seated. On the main floor, there were 36 booths set up, 12 lines of three. At 10 a.m., they began to audition, section by section. They started in the red section, # 21, then # 20 and on around in a clockwise motion. Six and a half hours later, they got to me in section 10. Gary was in section 9, so I waited for him before heading down, mostly because they were cutting off the wristbands and making everyone exit the building immediately after auditioning, unless you got the Golden Ticket, where you had to register for the next round and THEN exit the building at the opposite end of the arena.

In hindsight, I probably should not have waited. The outcome might have been different. But as it was, we both ended up with the same judge, about 25, spiked hair, skin tight pants...most definitely an EMO fan. He took one look at me and "Oh God, not another old woman" was so clearly written on his face, that I knew I would not get the ticket. I sang beautifully. But even had I danced naked and sung Mariah Carey, I would not have passed. His mind was made up before I opened my mouth. We were told before going in that the judges would ask our name and some personal questions and then tell us to start singing. He asked my name, told me to sing, didn't let me finish, and said, "Sorry, it's a no" and in less than 30 seconds I was gone.

He let Gary finish his song, but I think it was because he was so busy staring at Gary's lower half that he forgot himself. Poor Gary said it was totally disconcerting to have some guy staring at his crotch while he was singing. In the end, he told Gary that "he was good, but sorry, no" and 5 minutes later, Gary joined me outside.

That was 5 p.m. and they still had sections 2-8 on the lower level and ALL the sections of the upper level not blacked out in the picture yet to audition! I can't imagine how long it took to finish up. I wonder if they really did audition everyone or if they cut it off and left people spinning in the wind. I was really glad our experience was only 10 hours long for the day!

Overall, I was glad I made the effort to go. I did what I planned to do, go through the process. We had fun, even though we endured cold, wind, rain, sore feet and legs, and exhaustion. I won't ever regret the experience, though there is little doubt that I won't repeat it. I met many interesting characters on this little journey, even made a few contacts that could help with my books. I had the chance to visit my son, which is rare for me. And I had quite the bonding experience with my future son-in-law...we didn't kill each other, the wedding is still on, and I made him into a Clive Cussler convert.

All in all, it was a few days of vacation well spent!

X-Factor Audition...yes I am that adventurous!

2011-04-13T13:13:00.005-04:00

After a long and uneventful drive from Ohio to New Jersey, we (my future son-in-law, Gary and myself) arrived at my son's house without killing each other or cancelling the upcoming nuptuals. We ate a lovely dinner, talked, and crashed early in anticipation of getting to the Prudential Center at 5:30 a.m. All information indicated that no one would be allowed to camp or gather before the 6:00 a.m. line-up. Right! People evidently started showing up at 10:00 p.m. Monday night! When we arrived, 3-5 thousand people were already in line. We stood and waited from 5:30 until 9:30 in rain, wind, and 43 degree temps, until we finally got inside. An additional 4-5 thousand were still waiting behind us as we left. Then we hiked 1.7 miles back to Chris's house. We're both still moving, though a bit more slowly. If we both don't get pneumonia or laryngitis from the wristband experience, it will be a miracle. On the other hand, perhaps the harsh conditions will weed out the less hardy stock and reduce the number of competitors. Plenty of people abandoned their spots in line prior to getting anywhere near the venue. Can't blame them. I wanted to leave too. But I drove 8 hours to take the opportunity, so I am determined to stick it out. Hopefully tomorrow will go better, albeit less painfully! More to come!

And the cooking continues, but now for a good cause!

2011-03-24T20:46:00.004-04:00

The funerals ended with 6. I suppose that actually is bad things by three's, just twice. Now I'm cooking for my daughter's wedding. It's cookie time! The count so far is 906 kolachies (red raspberry, blackberry, apricot, and cream cheese filled) and 568 cream wafers (which of course required the rolling, cutting, and baking of 1136 cookie rounds sandwiched together with creamy buttercream centers).

The cupcakes (225) and the wedding cake come next, followed by marathon appetizer preparations. Of course, I'm only doing things that can be frozen ahead and sucessfully thawed and served. Hopefully my feet and legs will hold out long enough to get it all done in time!

Oh, and then there's the shower in two weeks! I'm making quiche, a huge fresh fruit bowl, and a mocha torte. I refused to attempt to host it at home, so we are taking over Your Vine or Mine? in downtown Painesville. I just don't have the facility for ~40 people. So I will cook and bring the food and everyone can have coffee, soda, or Vine-provided sangria. I think it will be a rather fun little event.

I will have a surprise announcement in April! Stay tuned!

Bad Stuff Happens in Three's?

2011-03-08T07:47:00.003-05:00

I've been doing my "cooking for mourning families" thing for the last three weeks. It started mid February when my Uncle Art passed away. He was my Dad's youngest brother and the last surviving sibling of the group of 8. I made enough pasta, sauce, and meatballs to feed an army, as his family consists of 6 daughters, their spouses, their kids and spouses, and their grandkids...more than 40 in total.

Two days after that funeral, I took my Mom to the calling hours of one of her flower club friends. The woman passed at 101.

A few days later, I was making food for the neighbors, who were handling the family luncheon following the funeral of their niece, Betheny Mehall, who had been tragically killed in a shooting in Harpersfield.

This past weekend was marathon cooking. One casserole for a friend whose mother had passed away; the other for old family friends who had lost one parent in a house explosion in Eastlake a couple of years ago, and whose surviving parent passed just before the weekend.

That's five in three weeks! I was always told that bad things happen in three's, so this run of unhappy events seems to be a bit extreme. I'm hoping the run is over!

While I'm on the topic of food...

2011-02-23T00:30:00.001-05:00

I made the decision several weeks ago that I would cook my heart out on the weekends and just do the heat and serve thing during the work week. I figure doing so would accomplish a number of things.

1) I wouldn’t have to think about what to cook every day,

2) I wouldn’t have to worry about whether I actually had the required ingredients on that particular day,

3) I wouldn’t be spending an hour after work preparing a meal, and

4) Simple nuke and serve eliminates all those pots, pans, and prep tools that would have to be cleaned up after dinner.

So far, it’s worked out pretty well. I’ve made large batches of a number of dishes including tuna noodle casserole, chili, black bean soup, lentil soup, navy bean and ham soup, stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls, hunter’s delight, beef stew, chicken parisienne, etc. It’s been great. So what’s the problem? I’m running out of ideas.

If you have any suggestions, I will readily accept them!

Just Blame it on the Baked Beans!

2011-02-19T23:01:00.003-05:00

As the self-proclaimed queen of multi-tasking, I’m often running around like a chicken with its head lopped off while burning a candle at both ends AND in the middle. Today was one of those days, in typical Saturday fashion, as I tried to get a week’s worth of errands stuffed into the one hour I had to run while Mom was at the beauty shop getting her weekly hair-do.

First stop was Sam’s Club, where I stocked up on some essentials to the tune of $120. I was in a bit of a hurry to get in and out, until I ran into the new guy at work, only two weeks here from France, wandering about the place like a lost puppy. His English is not particularly good, but after about 10 minutes, I had explained to him that he had to pay to join Sam’s and the prices were good if you wanted to buy in bulk. I told him smaller quantities were more affordable at Marc’s. Then I realized what he was really looking for was someplace to take his laptop that had been invaded by a virus. I drew him a map from Sam’s to Staples, where they have people who fix those sorts of issues.

I raced out of there, packed the haul in the hatchback, stopped at BP to fill my tank, and then made a quick stop at McDonald’s, not because I was hungry, but because my diuretic kicked in and I was nowhere near anyplace else I could stop. This was followed by a run to the local health food store to see if my order of Yogi Tea had arrived…no such luck.

Then I delayed picking up Mom so that I could stop at Marc’s and get the few items I hadn’t gotten at Sam’s. This was a mistake. I grabbed a cart and raced up one aisle and down the next, only hitting the ones containing items I needed. I found an empty check-out line and started loading the conveyor belt with my purchases, when a 40-ounce can of Bush’s Vegetarian Baked Beans slid out of the cart and landed on my right foot. In spite of the fact that I had on heavy leather shoes, the darn thing broke my little toe.

Now, I’m limping around on a very sensitive foot with a toe that is swollen, bruised, and unable to bend at all without excruciating pain. All because of a can of baked beans! Whoever came up with the saying “Cool Beans” never had a 40-ounce can fall on their foot!

Worse is the fact that they can’t do anything for it. Other than taping it to the next toe for support, you just have to let it alone. Why I continue to break bones that can’t be “fixed” or “casted” is beyond me, but since I have to blame something, Bush’s Beans takes the hit!

Mubarak's Billions...Yet we keep supporting these despots?

2011-02-13T00:16:00.004-05:00

Someone was arguing with me the other day about how we need to keep Mubarak in power because he is our friend. I think that when the populace of a nation rises up against its leader, heads usually roll; and in this case, justifiably so. Elections should be held in Egypt as planned and should be monitored, but even in our country, those who shout loudest often get their way as the silent majority stays silent.

When our helping a foreign country involves providing them with money, weapons, and tourism and the result is that a small percentage of those in power reap the benefit while the majority of the population suffers from physical and financial deprivation, it is only reasonable to assume that majority will see the U.S. as the same type of oppressor as their own government. We have been guilty of this behavior time and again; Egypt is not the first non-democratic government we have supported in this fashion, only to have things blow up in our face. We have repeatedly made greedy, evil despots rich and powerful when they have agreed to represent our interests in their regions.

This has been borne out once again with the disclosure of Mubarak’s billions. He has amassed a huge fortune with our help, whether witting or unwitting, while the populace of his country became progressively more impoverished and desperate. The people are not stupid. They are acutely aware of their conditions while they watch a small group of government leaders live lavishly, buy extravagant homes, and travel in luxury with impunity. Because we backed Mubarak’s regime, we will have little or no influence in ensuring that a “friendly” government takes over that country. I have to admit, if I was Egyptian, I wouldn’t trust the U.S. any farther than I could toss Mubarak.

Someone said to me, “Only the angry people are demonstrating there. Millions more are sitting at home quietly supporting us.” I wonder at the stupidity of that statement. Complacency is common until people are personally affected by events. Unfortunately, they then follow whoever shouts the loudest or makes the boldest promises, and they do it without verifying the facts, doing any research, or questioning the integrity or experience of the person or persons they decide to back. We are easy to blame because in many instances they are correct about the results of our questionable involvement. We cannot control the corruption in other governments, so when we try to help, the people in those countries see us as corrupt government supporters. The Egyptian people will need someone to blame, so don’t be surprised when they follow anyone shouting "down with America." The complacent, silent majority tends to follow blindly, and history is filled with the disasters that resulted when populations did just that. Remember Hitler? If you don’t, go read your history books.

As hard as it may seem, whether here, or in Egypt, or in any other country, we need to remove ourselves from the rhetoric, put aside our anger and our disagreements, and work together toward solutions that will return us to peace and sanity. I know this is not always possible. If we, as a country, are attacked, we need to respond in kind. But until that happens again, we need to be the voice of reason and re-assess our position in the global reality we are confronted with as a nation. The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Since the strategies of the past are not achieving the results we want, we need to rethink our foreign policies until we find ones that work. And we need to rethink those policies with NO influence from special interest groups.

Palin on Obama and the situation in Egypt...

2011-02-10T19:27:00.004-05:00

This past weekend, Lisa Ling commented on Sarah Palin’s attack on President Obama’s stance on the wholesale unrest in Egypt by asking on Facebook, “Sarah, do you know where Egypt is?” This was followed by many opinions both for and against Sarah Palin. I listened to her interview, which in typical Palin fashion was mostly unintelligible.

This is a transcript, provided by the network, of Ms. Palin’s response to Mr. Brody’s question about how she believes the president has handled the situation in Egypt:

“And nobody yet has, nobody yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak and no, not, not real enthused about what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from D.C. in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt. And, in these areas that are so volatile right now, because obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too where we are seeing uprisings, we know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House. We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with. And, we do not have all that information yet.”

I proceeded to join the conversation by posting the following:

“Frankly, I do not believe that the success or failure of our country to pull itself out of our present situation depends on what type of government comes to power in Egypt. As a global leader, we will have to deal with whatever entity takes over in that country, and diplomacy is the name of the game. It is also a word that is not in Palin's vocabulary. Obviously, Sarah Palin has the same right to free speech as the rest of us. The thing that makes her version of free speech dangerous is that there are people out there that actually buy into anything she spouts. She is like a charismatic leader of a cult, feeding her followers the rhetoric they seem to live on. I find it frightening that such a huge number of people seem to think she's brilliant. She has not only never had an original idea, she can't string together an intelligible sentence! She has yet to fulfill a term of office to which she has been elected. When was the last time the governor of any state left office for a reason less serious than illness or a scandal that made it impossible for them to govern? Every time she quits an elected post, she violates the trust of the public that voted her into office. I think her followers should wake up and smell the coffee!

A rabid Palin supporter immediately went into attack mode. This included such gems as:

“Yes of course, you can say what you want that was my point. Even the dumb asses here have a right to respond so immaturely!” and

"But to constantly berate a strong willed woman, who leads, wants to do something for this country and could do a better job than most, not all. Still the fact that anyone would even want to take the challenge on."

"Seriously, she can't string together a intelligent sentence? My GOD your statements are completely ignorant!" and

"Issues! not childish junior high name calling" as well as:

“On the other hand Chris Rock was right. Early in the 2012 campaign, before Palin was in the picture, he joked that Hillary would never be elected president. Nor would any white woman be elected which was sad since white women are the majority in this nation - 52% right? But as Chris pointed out 'Who hates a white woman more than another white woman?' Sad, but that is exactly how you woman take on the issue of Sarah Palin - exactly - you make HER the issue and instead ignore the real solutions and the real issues.” Then there’s:

“If she REALLY WAS stupid, a clown, etc...etc... then she would have faded away by now. The fact is that she had more women rallying for her than any other candidate. She is a REAL mother and career woman.”

I responded to this claptrap with a restatement of my original post, including lengthy explanations of each point, backing the validity of my statements. After a few more exchanges, I posted the following:

"You write that the U.S. stands for freedom and has interests in many parts of the world as though the very idea of it was sprung from Ms. Palin's loins. I have to tell you, that statement or something quite similar has been made by every political figure in this country since WW1. Just because she has stated the obvious, and it is something that every in this country agrees with, doesn't make it a reason for me to consider her to be qualified to be in the political spotlight or to hold national office."

His response to that was:

“She is more qualified than most of us simply because of all the heat she has taken over the past 2 years. The job dictates that.”

I finished off with:

I think that shouldering bad publicity does not qualify anyone for a run for president. Criticism comes with the territory, but having experience with criticism does not automatically qualify a person to make life and death decisions for 300 million Americans."

Then I gave up and went downstairs to watch the Super Bowl. At least there was a clear winner and a clear loser in that argument!

Reprise of the Malinchak Contest Blog

2011-02-09T00:50:00.002-05:00

As promised, and for those who didn't zip over to the contest site to read it, the blog entry is below. I didn't win, but the contest was more about who had the largest network to vote for them, not who wrote the best blog. But it was fun to compete!

What's the biggest difference between a truly dynamic and memorable speaker and one who is, well, not? From my seat in the 22nd row, I would say that it is the speaker's ability to engage the audience. The most interesting topic in the world can put you to sleep if the speaker does not engage you in his or her presentation.

Think of the typical conversations you have on any given day. How much of a conversation do you remember when the person you are speaking with is talking at you, rather than engaging you in discourse? We would all prefer having someone talk with us, not at us. Engaging speakers have learned how to speak with their audience. They pull you into their topic, often asking rhetorical questions designed to make you feel that you're a part of a conversation. Even though the question is not answered by you directly, you begin think about what your answer would be, instantly involving you in the presentation.

What other methods can you use to engage your audience? Visual aids are sometimes effective, but you should try large, colorful types of aids and refrain from using boring power point presentations. If you've ever been lulled into la-la-land by a speaker who read from his text-filled power point, you already know why that's not the way to go. Try doing or saying something startling or unexpected. It doesn't have to be loud, but it should be abrupt. I once began singing in the middle of speech, which really inspired the audience to pay attention to what I was saying. Demonstrations are also attention getting, especially if you choose someone from the audience to help you. Humor is a great way to jump start interest in your speech, but you should practice the funny stories or punch lines. Nothing kills your speech faster than a poorly delivered or distasteful joke.

There are numerous ways to encourage your audience to become involved in what you're presenting. For more ideas, watch recorded speeches and pay close attention to the methods those speakers use to keep your attention. If you have a fear of speaking in public, join a speaking group, like Toastmasters International, where you can practice until speaking to a group becomes less frightening. Remember that the ability to present your ideas and products to an audience can be your number one marketing tool. Don't you think it's worth the time and effort to improve your speaking skills and techniques?

Super Bowl hosts horrid rendition of the National Anthem...

2011-02-07T00:58:00.003-05:00

I saw an article the other day about the "10 Worst Renditions of the National Anthem" and was surprised that Macy Gray didn't make the list. Not only was her performance at the Hall of Fame game lousy, but she actually did not know the words! A similar event occurred tonight at the Super Bowl, where Christina Aguilera made it up as she went along. I can only say I'm sorry that the dome wasn't open so that the fly over could have drowned out her sour notes, over-affected style, and lack of the correct lyrics.

And before anyone says "Well, Betsy, singing the anthem is difficult and doing it in a stadium just isn't the same as singing it in your car," I will say that I haven't sung it in the Super Dome, but I have sung it at a stadium. If I can do it, then someone who makes millions singing should be able to do it. And they should darn well know the lyrics. It is disgraceful to get out there and sing our National Anthem incorrectly.

While we're on the subject of the Super Bowl, I give my most hearty congratulations to the Green Bay Packers. You've just become one of my favorite teams. I may be a Browns fan, but I will root my heart out for anyone who can stick it to the Steelers! You gave me a few minutes of worry there at the end, but you prevailed and that is what counts. Way to go, Packers!

Not Ominously Quiet...

2011-02-05T00:30:00.002-05:00

I just have not had much to say for the last few weeks! I know how hard that is to believe, but it is true. I was watching House Hunters International, where this beleaguered family of 6 was desperate to buy a vacation home in Fiji so they could have a place to relax. It ranks right up there with the hog farmer from Minnesota and his accountant wife who needed to get away to a vacation home in coastal Ecuador that cost a cool half mil! I’m definitely in the wrong line of work, but I just can’t see myself as a hog farmer! What can I say? How about “buy my kindle books”. It won’t get me a half-mil house in a tropical paradise, but it might help pay the mortgage.

Current events have people talking. The unrest in Egypt is quite disturbing. Hopefully it will not precipitate complete chaos in every country in the Middle East. The shooting of Gabby Giffords and the other victims of that tragic event was equally disturbing to me. The shooter was an obvious mental case, but hopefully that will not prevent the courts from putting him away for life as he is an obvious danger to himself and others. I think it is nice that Gabby’s husband is commanding the shuttle flight. He seems to be handling her rehab and the unwanted publicity with a huge amount of common sense. If I went up in the shuttle, I would want him flying it!

On other fronts, like everyone in the Eastern half of the U.S., I’m ready for spring, but there is so much to do. With a wedding shower in April and the wedding in May, I’m sure the time will go much faster than I would like. Once again, I am faced with a weight loss deadline. It’s either that or accept that I will once again look like Shamu in sequins in the wedding photos. Only time will tell.

The amarone and the blackberry cabernet are cooking in the back room at The Vine. Although I’ll be bottling both vintages in mid-March, the amarone won’t be drinkable until at least October, and I may resist opening the first bottle until Thanksgiving. The blackberry cab will be drinkable at bottling time. I am anxious to see what it tastes like.

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the blog contest. I didn’t win, but it was a fun column to write. I will reproduce the column here in a few days.

...And Sometimes Reality Bites!

2011-01-09T12:06:00.002-05:00

New Year’s Eve came and went, but when it came, it was accompanied by a flaming sore throat and the croup. When it went, the sore throat and croup stayed behind. Carrie Crooner-Capone did more croaking than crooning for the evening’s event, and all the wine in the world wasn’t going to fix the voice! Of course, as I was to be the “distracting” force to keep everyone’s eyes away from the scene of the first murder, my truly ”interesting” rendition of “Dream a Little Dream of Me” while sounding like Kermit on hormones managed did do the trick! In spite of my deteriorating condition, the Murder Mystery Night was a complete success.

It was pretty much downhill from there for the weekend. By Monday morning, I was in such bad shape that I got up early and arrived at the doctor’s office with no appointment, asking for help. The rest of the week was a bit of a blur as I started a Z-pack on Wednesday night and finished it off a few minutes ago.

The voice has still not recovered, though I did manage to clean out and organize the kitchen pantry, two cupboards, and the freezer above my fridge, so this weekend has not been an entire loss. I will now attempt, once again, to make some progress on cleaning my office. Quite frankly, I think the clutter breeds while I’m sleeping or at work. I can’t possibly create this much junk in a few weeks, can I?

I’m going to try the technique of starting in one corner and working my way around the room. I just have to pick a corner in which to start! I know that in order to succeed at doing the things I wish to accomplish in the next few months, I need to be “uber” organized at home. For me, there is nothing worse than attempting to get something done in a space that is stacked with papers and “stuff” that doesn’t belong.

Spring cleaning comes early to my domain!

There are Good Intentions...Then There's Reality

2010-12-30T11:17:00.001-05:00

What exactly was I thinking? I went out yesterday and bought almost 10 yards of silky black fringe to make an old dress into flapper garb for the upcoming Murder Mystery at Your Vine or Mine’s New Year’s Eve Party. My assigned character is Carrie Crooner Capone, jazz singing headliner at the Four Deuces Club. How I thought I was going to manage that massive of a sewing project with only one evening to devote to its completion is beyond me.

Reality set in quite quickly and plan B was put into action. I won’t reveal the costuming particulars, but never let it be said that I don’t know how to wear a feather boa and a slinky ‘20s headband with signature plumage! Needless to say, I’m returning the bolt of fringe to the fabric store later this afternoon. Thank goodness that sanity found its way back into my life before I started cutting and pinning.

On another tangent, I purchased a large skein of yarn and a new crochet hook while I was looking for the aforementioned plumage. I haven’t crocheted in years, but Meredith wants to learn, so I figured I should bone up on my stitch work and pass on what my Grandma Boyle taught me a lifetime ago. I bought some of that gorgeous, soft, fuzzy yarn to make a scarf. I discovered quite quickly that I can barely see the stitches for all the fancy fuzz. I told Meredith to buy soft but not fuzzy. She needs to see what she is doing to learn it correctly.

Back to work!

AHHHHHHH – The Post-Christmas Sigh of Relief

2010-12-26T13:09:00.003-05:00

All things considered, I am not getting as big a sigh as usual, but only because I was a bit ahead of the game going in!

Christmas Eve was relegated to making pies and stuffing and attending Midnight Mass. I had the honor of starting that service by singing seven verses of The Holly and the Ivy, a cappella, so I made sure to have a little wine earlier in the evening to lube the pipes (thank you Diane, the Guffey’s Peach Apricot Chardonnay was superb).

Christmas Day started with prep and stuffing of the bird and getting it on to cook by 8:30, a fully stuffed 20+ pounder with 5½ to 6 hours of cooking time. Should have been done by 2:30 with all arriving and scheduled to eat by 3. Then Mom, Jim and I sat down to nuked frozen breakfast bagels (thank you Mike Savides for another successful school fund-raising purchase), after which we opened our gifts, then cleared our mess from the living room and got busy transforming the place into a sit-down dinner space for 16 people.

It went quickly and efficiently. We were pretty much ready by noon with even the potatoes peeled and cooking. At 1 p.m., when I opened the roaster lid to baste the turkey, I was flabbergasted to see that the pop-up thermometer on the turkey had already popped…and hour and a half early! I even double checked it with a regular meat thermometer to make sure it wasn’t just defective. What to do?

So I let it sit for 30 minutes, then carved the entire bird into thick, juicy pieces, placed them into a heavy pottery dish, doused them with hot turkey drippings, covered them and set them on the back of the stove to keep warm. I put the mashed potatoes into a crock pot to keep them hot. As soon as everyone arrived, I reheated the huge dish full of turkey in the oven just before we sat down to eat around 3:20, and everything turned out great!

My sister-in-law, Flo, made an excellent sweet-potato and apple dish with marshmallows and Meredith brought a broccoli-cheese casserole that was practically wiped out in the first round, leaving all those wanting “seconds” disappointed. No one left the table hungry. After the round of family present opening, we managed to clean up two trays of cookies and pizzelles and two of the four pies I made.

After everyone left, we cleaned up, and pretty much everything, including all the furniture, was back in place by 9 p.m. I will spend today, finishing the cleaning and organizing of my office so that I can start the new year right. I will also be giving Mom instructions on the use of her new Kindle Reader.

Mom loves to read, but her eyes are not what they used to be and everything on those book pages seems to go yellow when she tries to sit and read. With the Kindle, I can download whatever she wants to read and increase the font to a comfortable reading level. I also got her the cover with the light so she can have it nicely lit if she desires. Who says the old folks can’t embrace technology?

And tomorrow, when it comes, it’s back to the grind!

Palin, Obama, and the Food Fight Polarizing the Country? Puleeeeze!

2010-12-22T10:21:00.005-05:00

People argue and fight over the most stupid of things, but this one takes the cake. Sarah has gone after Michelle Obama whose goal is to encourage us to give our kids healthier lives. Hmmm.

When I see an overweight or obese child, my heart breaks for them in the way it only can for someone who has been there. I was a chubby kid who never “grew out of” the supposed baby fat. I went from being a fat kid to being a fat teen to being a fat adult. I can tell you from personal experience that it wasn’t because I wanted to be fat. For me it went from baby fat to a life-long struggle that seems to have no end.

By the time President Kennedy was in office and started his “fitness” initiatives, I was already a fat preteen and well set in my ways and in my habits. I also, evidently, inherited the propensity for weight gain. Some kids are naturally thin. I wasn’t.

“Get out there and exercise,” they said. Who wants to cover their obvious obesity in a funky little gym suit and shake and parade in front of other people? Bad enough as an adult; much worse as a child or a teenager when all you want to do is hide, or be “sick” on gym day.

Considering how many obese kids are living in the U.S. at present, it is obvious that there are parents out there who don't feed their children in the wisest of ways or who can't afford appropriate nutrition for their kids. Those parents need education, support and help to learn to make appropriate choices for their kids. After all, most parents aren't taught how to parent, they just fall into the job.

Michelle Obama is doing a service for the American public by shedding light on what it takes to help kids become healthier without demoralizing them. She has never said they can’t have dessert, just that they need to eat healthier, be taught how to make informed choices, and to move more. Those aren’t exactly “fightin’ words” unless you’re Sarah Palin.

I find it disgusting that Palin, who obviously wants to be the next President, seems to get pleasure at picking such things to pounce on. As far as I can tell in my research, she’s never had an original political thought or idea that I can find. If you’re going to pick an issue, Mrs. Palin, perhaps you should find one of your own you can back up rather than pouncing on other’s attempts at good just to keep your name in the news.

And as far as weight issues, obviously those S’mores have done their damage for Bristol, who after months of dancing still couldn’t shed her excess weight. Now that she’s not dancing anymore, the poor kid will have to starve herself to death to keep from gaining more pounds.

I know. I’ve been there.

One Stop Plus...

2010-12-17T14:26:00.002-05:00

Thank goodness for on-line shopping! Those items that I did not find in the excursion to Walmart, I managed to order on-line with guaranteed arrival before Christmas. This is a good thing because I really hate to shop! I would much rather be making those cookies I’ve been slaving over than brave the stores and the crowds. Wrapping will be at a minimum and I can now stop fretting over the gift issue.

After last week’s Christmas caroling at the local IGA (while ringing the bell at the kettle), the choir members are planning to sing with St. Mary’s choir at Emeritus Senior Living in Mentor on Saturday. This will be followed by a dinner at Damon’s, and then a drive to Chagrin Falls to see my coworker Matt Mortensen in a production of “Annie” at Chagrin Valley Little Theater. Hopefully I won’t get “Tomorrow” stuck in my head and spend the next week trying to shake it loose. With the chill in the air, I’m keeping my throat in turtlenecks and scarves or I’ll be sounding like Kermit by the time I have to sing for Christmas services. Warm climates are sounding rather appealing right now!

One last stop will be at Home Depot. Twice in the last several months, I have lost my balance in the dark in the bathroom at night and reached out to find the towel bar, which bent in the middle the first time, but now is broken almost through on one end. Time to get replacements. I tried Walmart, but their towel rod selection only went to 24 inches and of course, this one is 30. To keep from having to patch the wall, I think I’ll stick to the same size. And it would be good to fix it before Christmas.

Dinner looks like it will be 16 for sit down. I will be on the turkey hunt today as well. I think I’ll try to get about a 20 lb Tom Turkey. The last one we had was the best turkey I’ve ever eaten. And to think all these years we always bought hen turkeys! I was so busy after Thanksgiving, I don’t think I had a single bite of the left-over turkey and it is my favorite thing about the holidays.

Time to head out!

I may be late, but I still manage to get there

2010-12-17T02:19:00.003-05:00

With Christmas a mere week away, I will begin to shop. Begin you say? In this crazy economy, I am limiting my gifts for the adults on my list to a bottle of my latest vintage. No one turns down a bottle of vino, and I have to admit, my White Cranberry Pinot Grigio has gotten plenty of good reviews.

I started making Christmas wine for the 2008 holiday season. That year it was a single batch of Blueberry Pinot Noir. It was a huge hit, but after giving out all my gifts, there was nothing left for me. So I made a batch of Peach-Apricot Chardonnay the following spring. There were only a few bottles of that batch left by the time the 2009 holidays came around. I then discovered White Cranberry Pinot Grigio. Not wanting a repeat of having a bare cupboard (or wine rack, as the case may be), I made a double batch. Spring of 2010 brought a single batch of Pomegranate Zinfandel. I opened the last of both of those batches in November.

This year, I made a triple batch of the White Cranberry Pinot Grigio. My gift list has grown, but I still want some for us to serve throughout the year. It’s been bottled and waiting for Christmas distribution since October.

With the adults taken care of, my shopping is limited to the kids: Walmart cards for the nephews and niece in Arizona, toys for Meredith’s new crew, shirts for the nephews coming for Christmas dinner, and a few extraneous items. It could be one-stop shopping!

I did start my baking a bit ahead. So far I have Molasses Sugar Cookies, English Raspberry Bars, Hungarian Apricot Pastry, Butterscotch Sticks, Raisin Cookies, five flavors of pizzelles (raspberry, cinnamon, French vanilla, almond and lemon-poppy seed), New England Bishop’s Bread, and a double batch of Mom’s rolls. Why I am subjecting myself to the holiday baking angst, I just don’t know. I guess it’s because everyone will be here for dinner and it’s expected? But I had to get those made early so all I have to bake on Christmas Eve are the pies! (Obviously because everything that is already made isn’t enough decadence.)

Don’t forget to download Fractured Anecdotes 1 on that new Kindle or Nook you’ll be getting from Santa. So far, Kindle editions are outselling Nook editions at the rate of 4 to 3. Nook is giving Kindle a run for its money! I didn't expect that!

Granville Restaurant Review

2010-12-03T01:37:00.002-05:00

For anyone passing through Granville, Ohio, I have three recommendations.

If you are looking for a great homemade soup, The Soup Loft on Broadway, right in the middle of downtown Granville, was quite good. They had a regular menu of soups with three or four additional soups available each day on a rotating basis. I had a bowl of the chicken with acini, but the tomato bisque with goat cheese, the black bean with red rice, and the turkey chili sounded good and smelled terrific.

For a light dinner, The Junta Club has a nice variety of wines and will custom build your Panini sandwich. They price the sandwich on the number of ounces of meat you order, then you have lists of additional items that you choose to add. Sandwiches can be ordered cold or Panini pressed.

For a lovely dinner, try The Short Story Brasserie. It seems to serve an eclectic French cuisine. I ordered a crusty baked macaroni and cheese with black Italian truffles and lobster (though I had them hold the lobster). I finished off the meal with a chocolate soufflé with a heavy cream poured in the center. It was delicious!

On my next trip down I will try The Granville Inn for dinner (which looks extremely overpriced) and Nona’s Italian Ristorante for lunch.

Kindle vs. Nook Update

2010-11-30T15:51:00.001-05:00

At one month since its e-book launch, purchasers of the Kindle version of Fractured Anecdotes 1 are outpacing purchasers of the Nook version of Fractured Anecdotes 1 at the rate of 2 Kindles to every 1 Nook.

A Brand New Venue for Handel's Messiah!

2010-11-29T16:48:00.003-05:00

I have been remiss.

I should have written something about the 62nd performance of Handel’s Messiah by the Messiah Chorus of Lake County before it actually happened. I will try to make up for that right now. Have you ever attended a performance of this classic piece, here or anywhere else? If not, you are missing something fantastic. This is more than just the “Hallelujah” chorus that most people have heard at one time or another. This fabulous music was written by George Frederick Handel in a little over three weeks, was scored for four soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), four chorus voices, a variety of symphony orchestra instruments, and takes 2½ to 3 hours to perform.

Anyone who has listened to this cannot help but wonder how one man could construct such a piece of music that perfectly blends so many voices and instruments without spending years on the endeavor. One has to conclude that it was divinely inspired. There is no other explanation that makes sense.

But I digress.

I have been involved in the Messiah Chorus of Lake County for 30 years. Yesterday was my 27th performance. Things happen, such as late term pregnancy with my daughter, committing to be a confirmation sponsor on a day that conflicted with a performance…oh and then there was that one year where I had the unheard of opportunity to spend a week with friends in Hilton Head. Other than those times, I have been a faithful participant.

When I started, Cyril Chinn was the conductor. We performed the piece at Morley Music Building on the campus of Lake Erie College. I was fascinated by the place, even though it was in sore need of renovation. The acoustics were beautiful, the pipe organ was a work of art, but the building itself was inconvenient. There were two restrooms, one for men, one for women. You had to climb a monstrous number of stairs to get into the place and then had to go clear to the lowest building level to use the two restrooms. There was no handicapped accessibility and there were no elevators, except for the orchestra pit. There was woefully inadequate parking, forcing many to park across the street at Zion Lutheran Church and brave the Route 20 traffic, generally in the dark. And there was no room for the chorus to gather prior to the performance, so we all stood in a downstairs hallway to run through a few practice verses before climbing several levels of stairs to get to the stage.

One year, Cy was ill and the original choral conductor, Hilbert Collins, returned from retirement to lead the group. He insisted that we perform at the United Methodist Church on the square in downtown Painesville, the original home of the chorus. This posed several new problems. The first was that the choir itself had grown to close to 200 voices and the sanctuary of the church was nowhere near large enough to house us. There was inadequate parking in the square area. The person that played the organ for the performance that year kept hitting one of the middle registers with his arm, emitting a bleating sound at intervals throughout the piece. I came out of the performance ready to quit.

The following year, Cy was back and we were back in Morley. The pipe organ had fallen into disrepair and we began renting an organ for the event, adding to our costs. The building was divided to house offices on the basement level, so the hall where the choir had gathered to warm up was no longer available, which forced us to meet in another building and walk to Morley in all kinds of weather to get to the stage. Eventually, Cy just wasn’t up to conducting any longer. Ken Nash took over as conductor, and we continued to perform at Morley. The building was renovated, the organ was refurbished, and the price of renting the place for the performance rose.

The steering committee began seeking alternative venues. Don Densmore, the head of the steering committee and the force behind the running of the chorus for decades, decided to pass the torch. It was the perfect time to find a new venue in which to perform this masterful work. Kevin Donahue, choir director at St. Gabriel’s Church, graciously took on the position of steering committee head and offered St. Gabe’s Church as a new venue for the performance…free. This was met with some limited resistance, if for no other reason than there are some people who just dislike change. But for the majority of the choir members, the change was readily accepted when the perks of the new venue became apparent.

St. Gabriel’s had many advantages. The sanctuary is on the ground floor. There are a few stairs to climb to enter the church, but there are also handicapped ramps if you cannot manage those few stairs. There is a room in the church basement large enough to house the chorus for warm-ups prior to the performance, so the choir members don’t have to trudge through the weather to get to the hall. Those choir members who can not negotiate the stairs have use of an elevator. There are more-than-adequate restroom facilities on both floors. All the parking is on-site, eliminating the dangerous hike across Route 20. It does not have the booming pipe organ of Morley, but since St. Gabe’s offered the space for free, some of the money normally spent on the building rental was used to hire a professional string section. All told, we had strings, piano, harpsichord, organ, and trumpet.

It sounded incredible! It is amazing to hear this piece with the instruments of the day. Everyone in the audience that I polled after the concert said it was beautiful, and several mentioned that they thought it sounded better than Morley. Many commented that the venue was much more convenient. And St. Gabe’s even served punch and cookies to anyone who wanted a little something as they were leaving the concert. Kevin Donahue, Tony Noll, Father Fred, and the staff at St. Gabe’s were wonderful and gracious to open their doors to the community and went out of their way to make all who attended feel welcome.

I, for one, would like to thank them for making this a memorable event. I look forward to the 63rd performance of Handel’s Messiah, next December!

Turkeys and Paninis and Pies, Oh My!

2010-11-20T02:20:00.002-05:00

It’s been a week to 10 days of activity as we hurtle toward the holidays. It started the day of the dreaded colonoscopy. After coming home and crashing for several hours, Jim woke me and I proceeded to make the stuffing for the upcoming turkey cookout. On Friday, after Jim left for scout camp, I took Mom to the Vine for soup and panini sandwiches. Wow! Good stuff on the new menu! Mom had Cheddar-Cheddar Broccoli Soup and I had Aztec Chicken Tortilla. We split a number 2, turkey-cheese-basil pesto on a croissant…excellent! Of course we topped it off with Blueberry Pinot Noir and the melodious sounds of Larry Smith.

Saturday, after the weekly trip to the beauty shop for Mom and errands for me, we paid a visit to the Craft Show and Bake Sale at St. Cyprian’s Church. We picked up my daughter on the way to the show and made it a 3-generation outing. This was followed by a six-inch chop job on Meredith’s hair…call it an evening exercise as most of the old layers are now gone. This was done so that her hair grows out nicely for the wedding in May.

Saturday evening was spent at Camp Stigwandish. The annual turkey cookout is an amazing thing. They cooked five 22-lb turkeys outside at the same time and it only took 6 ½ hours or so! They make a huge outdoor convection oven with the turkeys hanging from a pole held up by two tripods. The area is then ringed with tall chicken-wire tubes filled with charcoal. The whole thing is then wrapped in yards of aluminum foil, which acts to reflect all the heat toward the turkeys. The scouts also make mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, sweet potatoes, my stuffing of course, rolls, cranberry sauce…pretty much the whole 9 yards. All the scouts and their families are invited to share the Thanksgiving meal. This year there were 90-100 participants. A wonderful time and good food was had by all.

A major project at work kept me tied up for more than half the week. But Friday has come again, and I am relieved. Tomorrow, we’ll be attending a fund raiser for the brother of one of our friends, and Sunday is the last regular rehearsal for Messiah. Suddenly it will be Thanksgiving week and there is stuffing to make, pumpkin and apple pies to bake, and cleaning to be done. Chris will be coming home for the first time in many months. I’m looking forward to a laid back holiday, punctuated by hair appointments, dress rehearsal, and the actual Messiah concert. I will definitely need a break after that!

On another note, Kindle is outselling Nook 3 to 1! Don’t forget to download your copy of Fractured Anecdotes I and have a really good laugh!

Rumors of my demise are exaggerated

2010-11-10T23:46:00.003-05:00

I lived.

This comes as no surprise to most anyone who has endured the dreaded colonoscopy, but might be to those who have never had one. I can say with firm resolve that the actual procedure was nothing compared to the preparation involved. And also, I will say this.

Go have it done! Although this is a literal pain in the hiney, the benefit of making sure nothing is in there silently planning to end your life is preferable to not knowing there is a problem.

An ounce of prevention really is worth the pound of cure. A gallon of vile clean out solution is preferable to chemo and other treatments for something you could have avoided by just biting the bullet and getting it done!

Colorectal cancer is preventable. Don’t become a statistic. Get checked out as recommended by the medical professionals (starting at age 50, both men and women should have a colonoscopy every 10 years). Do it for yourself, and do it for those you will leave behind if you don’t.

Down to the Wire

2010-11-10T07:20:00.002-05:00

Well, it’s coming down to the wire. In an effort to keep my mind off things, like food, I left work early and went to Sam’s Club where four incredibly expensive tires were waiting to be mounted on my car. (How can they charge so much for simple rubber?)

“It will be several hours,” he said.

“Do it anyway,” I replied.

I shopped for a while, actually picking up a set of soft wooly pajamas as a Christmas gift and some yogurt (Activia for Mom, Chobani for me). I wanted to break a few of the yogurts open and down them in one sitting, but my metal and resolve to get the testing over with tomorrow stopped me from taking such a path. I’m even thinking I might actually have a little will power hidden in here somewhere. It was 2½ hours before they finally finished mounting the tires. I burned off 240 calories, ingested in the form of a Sprite, walking the aisles.

10 p.m.: I’ve had nothing to eat for 22 hours and it will be many more before anything solid crosses these lips.

Always the optimist and attempting to put a positive spin on this, I was thinking it might make a good jump-start for my preholiday diet…you know, the one where you proactively lose weight so that when you gain it back eating turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, you (hopefully) end up where you started.

I do have another rather nefarious strategy. I call it The Reverse Diet. You bake goodies for your friends and keep them coming in a steady stream. They scarf them down, compliment your cooking, and gain weight. The more they gain, the smaller you appear!

7 a.m.: I got up with the chickens (5 a.m.) so that I could down the second half gallon of the clean-out juice. I flavored it with sugar-free Arizona Lemonade stix, so the taste wasn’t bad. But there is something about the consistency of this stuff that just makes me want to gag and heave!

I propose a Nobel Prize in science to the person who figures out a better, more convenient, and less disgusting way to accomplish this goal. At least the drinking part of this is over. I will post again this afternoon if I survive part II.

I hear the theme from "Jaws"

2010-11-07T11:36:00.006-05:00

It is now Sunday. Knowing full well that I will not be able to eat anything for 36 to 40 hours starting at midnight tomorrow, I have to control my urge to "stock up" for the duration. I'm not hungry, mind you. I just know the depths of despair one can experience when they are not allowed to eat prior to a procedure.

This is made worse knowing that I have to ingest a full gallon of some of the most vile cleansing product known to man. As the time approaches, the theme from "Jaws" keeps playing in my head. It is silly, I know. Thousands of people undergo this procedure every day. But I don't care to spend any time under anesthetic if I can possibly avoid it, and knowing how undignified this procedure makes people feel isn't helping.

I normally cook on Sunday for the week, but since I can't eat for the better part of two days, knowing it's all sitting there makes that path not quite a wise move. And I have this bag of apples in the garage screaming to be transformed into an apple pie. It too will have to wait.

In an effort to stop thinking about food and the upcoming procedure, I have started work on Fractured Anecdotes II, the obvious sequel to Fractured Anecdotes I. I've also started work on a book of song lyrics, all political in nature (no one will be spared, my contribution to bipartisan politics). Each one can be sung to the music of a familiar tune...perfect for your political rally! It will be available in time for the run-up to the 2012 presidential campaigns.

Hoping to be able to post an update on Postcard Rx sometime in the coming week. Stay tuned!

Bread and Muffin Day

2010-11-03T00:52:00.006-04:00

I got to work this morning to find an e-mail from the biggest instigator of food events announcing November 9th as bread and muffin day. We were all to bring in bread and muffins and have a bit of an informal competition. All the submitted entries would be available in the Report Writer's office (where I reside all day).

I picked up the phone and placed the call.

"Can we move bread and muffin day to November 11th?" I asked.

"I just sent the announcement."

"We are not having bread and muffins in my office on the 9th," I said.

"Why not?"

"Because I am having the dreaded colonoscopy on the 10th and I cannot eat anything all day on the 9th. Putting all those goodies in my office will happen over my dead body. So what do you say we do it on the 11th?"

An e-mail with the new date for bread and muffin day was issued forthwith!

The Battle Rages! Kindle 1, Nook 1

2010-10-31T21:25:00.003-04:00

At the end of one week, Kindle and Nook are running neck and neck...if you can call one to one a race. I guess it takes any virus a while to start moving, so let's call this week 1 of the incubation period!

I did get a missive from one of the two purchasers who said, "Got your Fractured Anecdotes l the other day. Read them in one sitting and laughed until I cried. Will be watching for more."

Reviews don't get much better than that! I'll take it!

Now...I will take any and all suggestions as to how to get this virus to major outbreak status. I can't think of anything people need right now more than an outbreak of humor, can you?

Have you been Nooked?

2010-10-28T07:27:00.003-04:00

As of last night, the viral experiment has gone live on Barnes and Noble, with an e-book version now available for Nook owners. It can be found at Fractured Anecdotes I on B&N.

Now the question is, will it sell more copies on Amazon than it does on Barnes & Noble? Rest assured I will be revisting sales numbers every month or so, and we shall see if an author can actually make a few bucks by this method of sales!

Want to Participate in a Viral Experiment?

2010-10-26T19:14:00.002-04:00

While waiting patiently for the literary agent to sell the book that is making the rounds of the publishing houses, I decided to conduct a little experiment and leap into the fray with an e-book for Kindle and Nook.

I've called the book, drum roll, "Fractured Anecdotes I" and it is a compilation of very funny and/or strange true stories from my extensive arsenal of "it can only happen to Betsy" events. You might find a couple of these in this blog if you dig back far enough, but why bother when, with the click of the mouse button, you can download the best of the best directly to your computer or reader?

Is it possible for a singular little e-book to go viral? I am guessing that it is possible, but only if everyone passes the link on to everyone they know.

So feel free to join me in my viral experiment. Wouldn't it be something to see a small locally written piece of work go global from little old Lake County?

Give it a shot! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0048EL64I

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dead of night...

2010-10-13T00:48:00.002-04:00

During the Middle Bass Island weekend (Oct 2-3), one of the writing exercises we participated in was writing a postcard as a way to jump start the creative process. I addressed mine to myself. Steve drove to the Middle Bass Post Office as we were leaving the island on Sunday and dropped them in the mail.

The postcard finally arrived. Today.

I have great respect for our postal service, but realistically, I could have walked the postcard from Middle Bass to Perry faster. It took eight days from the time of postmarking until it arrived. I wonder if it was only my postcard or if everyone at the retreat received their postcards at the snail’s pace.

Wedding plans are moving forward. The “Save the Date” cards will be going out before the end of the month. The Christmas wine also will be bottled by the end of the month. I think that other than the wine and the usual holiday dinner, I’m restricting my gift-buying to the little kids. There are just too many expenses coming up quickly to allow myself to get into any additional debt, and none of the adults really needs anything. Although I suppose I could get everyone their traditional holiday socks.

Another weekend, another world...

2010-10-10T12:51:00.002-04:00

The bone-jarring cold of the weekend past is naught but a memory, replaced by the warm, fuzzy thoughts of the benefits received; much as the pain of childbirth is forgotten once the child is in your arms for the first time. And in the same way, I am more than willing to repeat that weekend, cold and all.

The gain from a weekend writing retreat is usually worth whatever effort or discomfort is involved. Sometimes I think we learn more in that uncomfortable place…new surroundings, new people, new ideas…than we do wallowing in our familiar zones of complacency. I’ve always been a proponent of the idea that personal change is good. It promotes growth and stimulates creativity. The more changes you make in your personal world, the better. Change at work can be good too, as long as it is done to make things more efficient, more profitable, and more effective and is not being done just for the sake of change or by personal whim.

Getting out of the comfort zone is a real necessity for writers. Move to the front porch with the laptop, go to a coffee shop (it’s not as distracting as you might imagine), go sit on the beach. The sound and the sight of water always bring out a creative mood in me, but only if I’m well rested. If I’m sleep deprived, the water sights and sounds send me off to la-la-land. Just make sure that it’s someplace where you’re not looking at the house that needs cleaning, the laundry that needs doing, and the bills that need paying. It’s also best to move as far away as possible from anyone for whom you feel responsible, be it spouse, child, sibling or parent. Just their presence can be a flow-stopping distraction.

With the weekend weather as nice as it is today…take a walk and just enjoy. When you get back, set up your laptop on the porch or sit in a lawn chair and soak up the sun’s warmth as you let your mind take you where the writing wants to go!

Oh Wa Ta Goo Siam...

2010-10-07T02:13:00.004-04:00

And oh what a few weeks I’ve had. On Friday, Sept 24, I sat waiting for Chinese takeout when I got a call from the other half, saying he was rescuing our daughter because her car died. It turned out that she blew the engine on her ’98 Corolla. And so began the week of getting up at far too early of an hour so that I could leave work early to take my daughter to work, while we attempted to figure out her transportation issue.

On Saturday, a good friend’s husband died in a tragic accident and I went into grief support mode. For me, this means cooking, and cooking, and cooking. Comfort foods seem to be most helpful. Grief support mode was interrupted by the search and discovery of a used minivan for my daughter and trips to the credit union to arrange financing. I took half a day of vacation time mid-week to attend and sing at the funeral service and to lend what support I could.

This was followed on Thursday by an early morning doctor’s appointment and on Friday by last minute laundry and packing for the Writer’s Retreat I had been waiting for months to attend on Middle Bass Island.

I left home about 7:45 Saturday, Oct 2, and headed West. I arrived at Miller Ferry on Catawba Point, parked in the free lot and left the warmth of my car. I can truthfully say it was the last time I was warm until Sunday night, an hour into the drive home. That being said, I had a great weekend! I took the ferry to Middle Bass, and our host, Steve, picked me up at the dock along with two other writers.

An additional two writers missed the ferry and took one to South Bass instead and then rented a water taxi over. The last writer missed the ferry and waited for the next one, but that wasn’t until 5 in the afternoon.

We stayed at The President’s Cottage, formerly the vacation home for President Howard Taft and his family. Cottage doesn’t quite describe this house. There were twelve- and fourteen-foot ceilings, massive four-foot wide entrance door, two bedrooms on the first, five bedrooms on the second, and two not yet renovated bedrooms on the third floor. Unfortunately, the place was built as a summer home and there is no heat, central or otherwise. The fireplace was workable but not used because the age and condition make it an extreme fire hazard.

So we have a house with no heat and seven writers all gathered to spend the weekend, which should have been temperate, but had turned cold and rainy with 40 mph winds coming out of the east-southeast. We sat around dressed in layers and wrapped in blankets, talking, discussing, eating hot food, and drinking wine. We did exercises to help relieve writer’s block, critiqued each other’s work, and discussed many of the aspects of writing and publishing. Steve was a terrific host and I will most definitely get on the list to visit the island again should he be willing to host another retreat!

Reunion Results and Residency Requests

2010-09-19T17:06:00.002-04:00

Once again, I have gone far too long with no entry in the blog. My apologies! To catch you up with the happenings, I did not lose ANY weight in time for the Class reunion. I actually gained 5 lbs and managed to take them back off in time, equaling a net loss of zero pounds. The best laid plans of mice and men and frustrated dieters everywhere!

The Class Reunion was great. We had a mixer on Friday night at Geneva-on-the-Lake at the Swiss Chalet. Most of the class had been there in their youth. I, however, never frequented the area, which my father considered a den of iniquity and the place where the wild kids hung out, ergo, off limits. We all had a blast trying to figure out who everyone was. Some people look very similar to their high school days, some you would never have guessed. The band playing was partially comprised of other St. John alumni.

We had not realized at the time this was scheduled, that it was the weekend for the annual Thunder on the Strip…completely overrun with bikers and biker babes! Serene quiet was not on the menu!
Saturday’s main event was held at Laurello’s Winery in the newly renovated banquet facility in the huge old barn. The atmosphere was wonderful. Everyone seemed to really enjoy being there. I was surprised at the amount of talking and mingling that went on…no evidence of old high school cliques. Everyone was truly happy to see everyone else. Kim Laurello and her staff provided wonderful food and excellent wine. They did a terrific job setting the place up. We had music playing from our high school days, but only loud enough to hear and enjoy without killing conversations. There were no lengthy speeches, no formal events, just everyone having a laid back, relaxed, good time. We had people come from as far away as California and Oregon. All in all, I would call the reunion a great success.

Work has been of bit of insane, and time is flying into the innards of fall. In a few weeks I’ll be leaving work and home and heading to a writer’s retreat on Middle Bass Island. Jim and Mom will hold down the fort while I’m gone for the weekend. I’m looking forward to this little time a way with great anticipation. Normally, when I run away for a writing weekend, I hole up in a hotel room somewhere and write. This time I will be one of seven writers getting together to work and share. It should be fun. We’ll all be staying at a house that used to be President Taft’s vacation cottage. Interestingly, the “cottage” appears to have seven bedrooms! I’ll definitely let you know how that weekend pans out.

I’m also looking into several options for 1 or 2-week residencies in writing for next summer. I sent my first application off on Saturday. I have novels to finish, and the occasional weekend doesn’t seem to quite cut it for fiction. So, I am determined to spend two weeks of solid time on writing next summer to see if I can’t finish up a novel or two. If a residency comes through, I’ll be reporting it here!

Eat, Pray, Love

2010-09-03T23:04:00.004-04:00

It’s been a busy week since last I posted. Sorry for the lag. I don’t know if I’ve talked about this before. I’m a writer, but I pretty much stopped reading books about the time I decided to write them. The reasons for this were three-fold. First and foremost, I didn’t want to inadvertently write in someone else’s voice or style, nor did I want to have someone else’s words floating around in my head where they might find their way into my writing. Second, I was too busy writing to spend time reading. Third, when I read it is like an addiction. I start a book and I don’t put it down until I’m done. The only thing I can’t do while reading is drive. So for probably 15 years, I refrained from reading any other fiction.

Then I suddenly discovered the absolute joy of books on CD. This has been a mental date with Nirvana for me. I was missing the reading of books desperately, and I was completely out of touch with what was out there for a decade and a half. For the last five years or so, I’ve kept a constant flow of “spoken” books in my car. I actually hate to have someone in the car with me because I can’t listen to them and the books at the same time. I also keep a book on my MP3 player at all times so that I can listen while walking or biking. I don’t seem to have any problem listening to two different stories at the same time. I have “listened” to everything from Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” to three different series by Clive Cussler, most of James Patterson, everything I can find by Kathy Reichs, Janet Evanovich, Jeffery Deaver, and on and on.

Prior to the last week, everything I’ve listened to has been fiction. With the release of the movie “Eat, Pray, Love,” I decided to get a copy at the library and listen to it. I have not seen the movie, but I can’t begin to imagine that the movie could do it justice. The author has verbalized in this one beautifully written and beautifully read text almost every question I have ever asked myself. Then she went out and found the answers to her questions, unlike most of us who are still asking and struggling.

So far I have listened to her through four months in Italy, and about three months in an ashram in India. Personally, I would love to visit Italy for a few months, but I cannot even imagine I would want to spend months in an ashram in India. The author is seeking God and enlightenment, while fighting what is necessary to find those things…the practice of looking into one’s self. It is fascinating to follow her progress as she discovers that God isn’t on some holy mountain, but within each of us to be called on as needed. If you haven’t yet had the chance to read “Eat, Pray, Love,” I would highly recommend that you do, whether visually or audibly on CD.

You might find that you are inspired by her search and her discoveries.

Time goes incredibly fast...

2010-08-19T23:41:00.002-04:00

Having completely blown the first two weeks of the six-week plan, even to the point of gaining a couple pounds, I am now working in earnest. The Death March started Tuesday and has continued uninterrupted. My hips are creaking like an old rickety rocking chair and I’m feeling a bit like one, too. I’ve been applying Icy Hot to my shins before walking and before bed as preventative measures. Guess I should do the same for my hips.

I have noticed that, in general, I am slower and have many more aches than I did several years ago when the Death March was a part of my daily routine. I did finish the march quicker today than yesterday…at this point, I’ll take any improvement.

Tonight I try the kettle bell workout again. Considering my track record with falls and broken bones the last few months, I’m hoping I don’t drop it on my head or whack myself in the shin or knee. Tomorrow I may break out the walking poles to see if I can increase the calorie burn on the Death March. Three more weeks and counting until the reunion…275 days until the wedding. This will be the ultimate test of my resolve to not have more Shamu wedding pics!

Fitness equipment and other inane topics…

2010-08-12T18:19:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I mentioned my obsession with fitness devises. Presently, I own or have custody of:

a Bowflex
a Tony Little Gazelle
a Health Rider
an exercise bike
a street bike
a treadmill
a weight bench with requisite iron
a kettle bell
an exercise ball
a rebounder (mini trampoline)
a pair of walking poles
Exercise bands
Two exercise bars for aerobic breathing workouts

I have owned at least an equal number of other devices that have been long since sold off at garage sale prices.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that the purchase of these products does not correlate with weight loss. You actually have to use them to achieve a weight-loss outcome. In my house, they take up space, gather dust, and occasionally serve as drying racks or clothing trees, but they do nothing for me. I have to use them to achieve anything. I am beginning to wonder if my inability to develop the discipline to use these devices on a regular basis is greater than my desire to be thin.

Even as I write this, my quads are screaming in agony from my latest purchase. Yesterday morning’s workout of forty squats with a 10-lb kettle bell almost did me in. Hopefully the Tylenol and slathering of Icy Hot will tame the flaming quad pain enough so that I can get up and do it again tomorrow. I know, I know…I’m just a glutton for punishment. Sorry to say, I think the death marches also have to resume if I have any hope of dropping a few pounds before that reunion in September.

Unfortunately, the “Quest to Impress” doesn’t end with the reunion. My daughter has announced her intention of marrying in May of 2011, so my weight loss efforts will continue for months.

When my son got married, I begged him to wait a year. He didn’t. I bought a gorgeous black outfit for the wedding…well, it looked gorgeous on the hanger. I put it on and looked like Shamu in sequins. Although I weigh about 100 lbs less now than I did then, the thought of another album full of Shamu wedding shots has me cringing in my boots.

For years I’ve heard about women who search for the perfect “little black dress” to keep in their closets for that special occasion. I never had a “little black dress” with the emphasis on “little.” A while back, I was in Dillard’s and walked through the junior department (obviously on my way to shoes) and spotted my idea of the perfect “little black dress.” The original price was upwards of $120 but it was just hanging on this rack with an extremely discounted, end-of-season price tag of $18! It was an incredibly small size (5) and looked more like an overly long shirt than a dress, but I bought it anyway…inspiration, I told myself.

It’s been hanging in a clear plastic dress bag in my home office for two years now. All I need to do is lose another 70 lbs, followed by a circumferential body lift, upper arm and thigh lifts, breast reduction and lift. They might as well throw in a facelift for good measure…in for a penny in for a pound.

Barring those things happening, I guess I’ll just slit the dress up the back and put it away. I will wear that dress come hell or high water, even if it is one day artfully placed on my dead body in the casket.

Until that happens, we will be revisiting the kettle bell torture.

So Much for the 6-Week Plan....

2010-08-11T22:24:00.004-04:00

The first week of the weight-loss plan fizzled. I rode my bike for an hour last Monday, but in the process, I fell off the bike. Well, that isn't "quite" accurate. I wasn't actually moving at the time.

I had been riding for about 30 minutes when I stopped to have a drink of water and make some adjustments to my headphones. As I stood, straddling the bike, I removed my helmet and took a drink out of the water bottle. Then I tried to place the water bottle back in the holder, but I realized that I was in an awkward position to accomplish the task.

I attempted to back up a bit to access the bottle holder, but my shirt got stuck on the bike seat, throwing me off balance. Helpless to stop the impending disaster, I tipped to the left and landed on my side on the pavement. In the process, I broke the brand new rearview mirror off my handlebars. The bike was otherwise unscathed.

I, on the other hand, skinned the left elbow and bruised my left hip and my lower left rib, the location of which is marked by a ghastly dark purple bruise about six inches wide and two inches high.

Needless to say, I will be off the bike for a while longer. Miraculously, my newly healed tailbone never hurt a bit, even after an hour in the seat.

But I have not given up the quest to impress. I went to Dick's Sporting Goods and purchased a 10-lb kettle bell. (This is part of my obsession to own every weight-loss device known to man.) Now I'm just hoping that I can manage to do the kettle bell routine without dropping it on my head or breaking a shin! Time will tell.

The International Blogging Recognition Council is a SCAM!

2010-08-06T23:52:00.002-04:00

This week, I received an email telling me that the “The Fractured Anecdote” had been awarded a “Recognized Blog” status by the "International Blogging Recognition Council." The message read as follows:

During the month of July, the International Blogging Recognition Council (IBRC) had the pleasure of reviewing your blog The Fractured Anecdote. Your blog was referred to IBRC through our Refer-A-Blog program. "Reunion time of year" was the topic that the Council reviewed. Based on the review, the Council has recommended that your blog receive IBRC’s designation of “Recognized Blog”. IBRC reserves this honor to those blogs that effectively connects with the audience and promotes the sharing of ideas and experiences.

We invite you to visit our website at www.ibrcblog.org to learn more about IBRC and our “Recognized Blog” award. Congratulation on your accomplishment.

When I got home from work, I went to the website. There I discovered that in order to get the award logo to post on my blog, I had to register on the site…to the tune of a one-time $45 payment. Having never heard of this organization, and being the jaded and skeptical person I am, I immediately hit Google and started searching. I discovered the following information over the next couple days.

1) Having to pay $45.00 to be recognized has all the elements of a hit and run scam. Real awards programs don't require payments.

2) I was not alone in receiving this e-mail. Thrilled bloggers from all over were posting about this wonderful “award” they had received. This worried me because knowing how few writers out there get any recognition, many would immediately pay the $45 just so they could post their award logo.

3) The domain name, ibrcblog.org, was just recently purchased and it was done in a way that masks the identity of the owners.

4) The website was extremely vague.

5) There was no list of the organizations members, board of directors, management, or credentials.

6) There was no physical contact information…no state, no country.

7) There was no explanation as to how this award might benefit the blogger.

8) When I visited some of the other “awarded” blogs, I had to question just exactly why they had received an award. My only answer was that the IBRC wanted the $45 fee, because some of what I read was not what I would consider award worthy. I even left a comment on one or two, saying I thought it was a scam.

So to all my fellow bloggers out there I say “DON”T GET SUCKED INTO THIS ONE!”

6-Week Plan

2010-07-29T17:38:00.003-04:00

With only six weeks remaining until the class reunion, I have formulated a last ditch plan to drop a few pounds prior to the event. If you recall from my last post, I was the fat, brainy, egghead in high school. When I attended my reunion 10 years ago, I was still quite large. I guess I looked pretty much as people expected me to look.

A lot has changed in 10 years, and I am no longer as heavy as I was then...by at least 100 pounds. Mind you, I'm still no light weight, but in comparison to most people my age, I don't look too bad. Still, I'm vain enough to want to impress, so I'm pulling out all the stops.

To begin, I plan to go to bed a little earlier...at least before 1 a.m. This should facilitate getting up earlier so I can fit 30 minutes of aerobic exercise and an hour of writing in to my schedule before I go to work in the morning. I've been practically sedentary since I broke my tailbone in May. But that issue is, for the most part, "behind" me.

I'll be spending some time this weekend finding a decent book to download onto my mp3 player to listen to during the morning exercise session.

I'll also start riding my bike again. Barring rain, it will be pedaling to choir practice on Mondays, and hopefully, I can get out there at least a few more days a week for some shorter runs, like to the outdoor YMCA and back.

I've already concocted an eating plan for the next 6 weeks to maximize calorie bang for the buck. I'll be avoiding excessive fat-laden foods and anything with high sodium content. I'm still off the Diet Pepsi (almost 7 weeks now), so my water intake is good at the moment. Past experience has taught me that my metabolism is so slow that in order for me to actually lose weight, I have to burn off more calories on a daily basis than I ingest in food.

I'll try to report on my progress weekly. Tomorrow morning's weight will be my starting point. Now don't go rubbing your hands together in glee...I will not be divulging the actual starting poundage. I will, however, report on the number of pounds lost per week.

Stay tuned!

Reunions - Part 3, High School Melodrama

2010-07-28T07:36:00.004-04:00

Ahhh yes, the high school class reunion. Do we all hate this or do we love it? I have to admit that when I graduated, I had no love for my high school class. For me, high school was not that wonderful life experience people reminisce about and those four years certainly were not the best years of my life. I was the fat, brainy, egghead; not at all popular; and certainly not part of anything remotely considered the in crowd.

Ever the optimist, when graduation time came, I begged my parents to let me have a swim party. We lived in the country and had a 2 acre lake. So I bought hot dogs and buns, pop, snacks, and more for the entire class, and asked my dad to bring in tons of beach sand to create a beach along one side of the lake. We already had a floating dock with a high dive and a diving board. I sent out the invitations and was all excited about having such a cool, unique party for the class.

When the day of the party came, six or seven girls that I used to hang around with showed up. No one else came. I was incredibly hurt at first. I had gone to considerable effort and expense to throw a great party, but I wasn’t considered cool enough for the city kids to show up. Then I just got angry. I swore I would never attend anything having to do with the class ever again.

Fast forward 30 years. I got a call from the guy who used to sit in front of me in most of my classes. He had a story to tell me that I’ll pass on at some other time. But he asked me if I would please attend the 30th class reunion. I reluctantly agreed. Amazingly, I had a wonderful time. Everyone I saw there was warm and friendly and genuinely interested in talking to me. Seems we all grew up in the interceding years. I found I wasn’t really angry at anyone anymore. And I wondered why I had allowed myself to be angry for so long.

In September, I will be attending my 40th class reunion. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone, and I hope that we have a large turn-out. I’ve even been active on the reunion committee and working on the class web site; quite a turn around from the angry alumni I used to be. What saddens me is that there are a couple of my classmates who, for some reason or another, are so angry that they refuse to attend even though they live locally. Some have gone so far as to demand that no notifications be sent to them at all. Some of them were in the popular crowd. I can’t help but wonder what could possibly have happened to evoke such a response. I believe that if I can get over being snubbed by 95% of the class, they can get over whatever petty thing is holding them back.

The only way to find internal happiness is to forgive and move on. It worked for me. You might be surprised what it can do for you.

Reunions - Part Deux

2010-07-28T00:50:00.002-04:00

The reunion on my father’s side of the family is not nearly as orchestrated as the one I wrote about previously. Dad’s side has a reunion every year for one day only, usually a Saturday in July. It is normally unbearably hot, but we all keep showing up anyway. This year the reunion was pretty small, only about 40 or 50 people tops, though in the past we have had attendance of up to 150 family members. Although some of the regulars were conspicuously absent, we had a good time.

The food was excellent this year, and my cousin Paul, his wife Paula, and my late cousin Jack's wife Judy, who have hosted the event for many years now, should be commended for their hard work and hospitality. Actually, with so few people in attendance, relatively speaking, the reunion was more relaxed and laid back than in years past. I was able to sit and have more than a passing conversation with another person. When there are 150 people, it is hard to speak to everyone in a limited amount of time, and actual meaningful conversation seldom happens.

Before we left the fair city of New Castle to head home, the entire family attended a mass at St. Vincent de Paul Church. The mass was dedicated to deceased members of the Boyle family. It is a very pretty, new church that was built to replace St. Lucy’s Church, the old family parish. The music was done well and the place was blessedly air conditioned! All in all it was an enjoyable event.

Reunion time of year

2010-07-24T15:25:00.006-04:00

I was thinking about reunions today. Last year we had our week-long, once-every-5-years reunion with my mother’s family. It was a very interesting event. It was held at Camp Perry, a military base on the shores of Lake Erie between Sandusky and Toledo at the beginning of June. It is always enlightening to meet with family members you haven’t seen in years. Everyone looks older to you, even though you live with the delusion that you can’t possibly look nearly as old to them. It is never really the same as it was when you were kids and your cousins were like best friends to you. They change, you change, the world changes. Lives move on.

But it was a fine adventure. The place was swarming, quite literally, with Mayflies. They covered every outdoor surface. It was so bad that they crunched under your feet as you walked, and the base staff came by every morning and swept the beasties off the sidewalks, entrance ways, and the doors and windows of the rooms and cabins so you could enter and exit without letting a thousand of them inside.

We ate at interesting places and had two huge family dinners, one at Camp Perry and one at Put-in-Bay. There were family outings to Put-in-Bay of course and to Cedar Point. I have to admit that my immediate family skipped the Cedar Point trip. Having a daughter that worked there for four straight years, we had pretty much had our fill of amusement park fun. So we packed up in our cars and headed to Kelly’s Island.

We drove all over the place there, investigating the glacial grooves and a winery near the center of the island. We stopped at a famous eatery for lunch and had their famous Brandy Alexander by the pitcher. It was a really nice day with my own immediate family.

After four fun-filled days at Camp Perry, the majority of the attendees hopped on a bus and headed to Washington DC. Not wanting to subject Mom to the long bus ride and extend the trip home by having to return to Camp Perry to retrieve the car, I decided to brave the DC traffic and drive. We managed to get there in one piece. It was a relief to stay in a REAL hotel after four days in military housing. Our reason for being in DC was a little more somber than the family gathering. Two of my uncles were being interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Both served at officers during WWII. They were slightly older than Mom, and she needed to be there for the ceremony.

I have to say that I have never been more moved in my life than I was when I entered that cemetery. My heart cried. If you have never visited there, you really should go. If you see nothing else in DC, you need to see Arlington. The enormity of the sacrifice it represents is indescribable. Row, upon row, upon row of white crosses; flag-covered, horse-drawn caissons; and mournful resonant music bring tears to your eyes even if you’re not there to bury one of your own.

Home from the road!

2010-07-19T21:59:00.004-04:00

Here it is, a week after my return trip from Tennessee. Things have not let up for the multitasking me.

What can I say about the trip? It was hot, but it was fun. I got to spend time with good friends from Boston and Atlanta. We had marvelous food at Olive Garden (the 5-cheese ziti al forno was wonderful!), Chili’s (where I actually had chili), The Fox and Hound (where Joe and I split a pizza), and Cracker Barrel (for the traditional Sunday breakfast). We relaxed, attending a couple of filking events and the annual Baen Publishing slide show. One morning, as the most frequently killed character in Baen-published fiction, Joe Buckley (check out the literature link), and I were sitting in the hotel breakfast area, we had the pleasure of meeting Larry Correia, author of the Monster Hunters International series, and his lovely wife Bridget. As Larry and Joe discussed Joe’s possible future demise in Larry’s work, Bridget and I had a very nice chat. Many of the people we meet frequently at sci-fi conventions were in attendance. Our man Eric Flint was master of ceremonies. John Ringo was there as well. And of course the usual bar flies were there in abundance.

The drive home was long and hot. I was looking for a BP on my way through Kentucky and I was hungry. I stopped at one exit and picked up a McChicken sandwich and a small fry (both on the dollar menu). I got back on the road and pulled off at the next exit to fill up the car. A bedraggled homeless man was standing at the end of the exit ramp with a sign. I don't know what it said, but I gave him my chicken sandwich that was still untouched. I figured he needed it more than I did. Later, I sat in Covington, Kentucky for an hour waiting to cross the bridge into Cincinnati. It seems Ohio is not the only place where the construction starts in earnest right after evening rush hour!

It was a long, busy week after I returned. Work was carried out at a rather frantic pace. I came home early from my usual Thursday night outing due to an upset stomach. Friday after work, Jim and I raced over to my friend Laurie’s house to put up a 20 x 40 foot canopy in her back yard for a bridal shower on Saturday.

After taking mom to her normal Saturday morning excursion to the beauty shop, we hopped into the car and headed for New Castle, Pennsylvania for the annual Boyle Family reunion. We hit a huge traffic mess on I-80 that had cars backed up for miles in both directions. We arrived at about 12:15. By our normal standards, the reunion was a bit small this year…about 50 by my estimate. It has been as high as 150 in years past. But with such a small crowd, the pace was relaxed and everyone in attendance had a nice time. We attended the Boyle Family mass at St. Vincent de Paul church, formerly St. Lucy’s, and then headed back home.

It was 98 degrees when we left New Castle and only 84 when we got home, but the hours of heat while we were there took a toll. In order to avoid the traffic mess on the return trip, we got off at Route 7 and took it north to Route 82. Shortly thereafter, we found Route 11, so we jumped on and headed north toward Ashtabula. The return trip took an hour and 35 minutes, which wasn’t at all bad.

After getting everyone settled in at home, I went to the BP and filled up my tank. Then I stopped at Your Vine or Mine for a celebratory birthday glass of wine. Meredith joined me for $3.00 Sangria, the Painesville Party in the Park special. I did not go out and walk around the park. It was much too hot and I was drained from the heat all afternoon in New Castle.

Sunday was the wind-down day, at least it was after we took the canopy down in the morning. Joe, Flo and Joe Jr., my brother and his family, stopped by to tell us about their Mediterranean cruise, which sounded lovely. We drank wine and listened as they regaled us with stories of the beautiful coastline and the scenery, the mountains, cathedrals and artwork. It made me long to see Greece and Italy’s Amalfi Coast. Perhaps someday I will get the chance to see such things.

In the meantime, I'll just apply for my passport and hope for the best!

On the road again...

2010-07-11T02:16:00.003-04:00

Here I am, sitting in my hotel room in East Ridge, TN. I am on my annual solo road trip to the Chattanooga area to attend Liberty Con 23, a Sci-Fi convention that features authors, artists, gamers, filkers and more. Some of my friends and co-workers think I’m a bit on the crazy side for attending something like this, but as conventions go, Liberty Con, which I’ve been attending for years, it one of the most laid-back gatherings around. The attendees are friendly and personable, and the authors, artists and musicians are wonderfully warm and willing to meet with and talk to most everyone. There are panels of the various “celebrities” who impart their writing wisdom; sometimes there are instructional classes as well. There are events running from Friday until Sunday at 2:00. I even scored some free books that will go onto the library shelf at work on Tuesday, when I return to the real world. I have made many friends at Liberty Con over the years, and it’s always a pleasure and an interesting experience to come back again.

The trip down was a 10 and ½ hour drive, mostly due to torrential rainstorms in Kentucky and Northern Tennessee and the resulting accidents. The rain was so bad at times that I actually pulled off the freeway twice and used the time to fill my tank or to get something to eat while I waited for the torrents to subside. Here’s hoping the return trip is less eventful!

The Calm Before the Storm?

2010-07-01T08:01:00.003-04:00

The bum is well on its way to healing and the Diet Pepsi withdrawal dragon has been slain. I almost finished mulching the front garden last night, but we ran out of mulch…again. I need at least another three bags to finish the job properly. My office is only partially clean, and then only the area necessary to install a new wireless, color all-in-one. The office needs a major purge, and I do mean soon. The same goes for the attic, my bedroom and the linen closet. Like Laura Kessel, I’m having “hoarder” nightmares more and more frequently.

As the holiday weekend approaches, I’m beginning to write a few lists of the stuff I need to get and the stuff I have to do to make the most of the three days at home. That includes getting things in order here so I can make the solo drive to Chattanooga the following weekend without worrying about anything I left undone.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that the Your Vine or Mine? Swap “Meat” event for this year is gaining momentum. This week, I made Ancient Sweet red peppers stuffed with a savory meat and veggie mixture, topped with garlic mashed Yukon gold potatoes and Black Diamond White Cheddar cheese. There were some very nice offerings this week, including NY Strip Steaks, porch chops, stuffed Cornish hens, infused roasted turkey legs, spaghetti pie, Swiss steak over rice, and a penne pasta with sausage and homemade sauce. Everything looked wonderful (and the strip steaks were yummy). The Swap takes place every other Tuesday at Your Vine or Mine on Main St. in Painesville. Get out there and participate! Fun and tasty at the same time...to me, that's a definite no-brainer!

Diet Pepsi Withdrawal - Week 2

2010-06-23T00:13:00.003-04:00

The jitters are gone, but the headaches remain as I plunge into Week 2 of caffeine and aspartame withdrawal. Some helpful folks have suggested I drink coffee or tea, but if I do that, I might as well go back to drinking Diet Pepsi! After all, caffeine is caffeine.

There are some things I’ve noticed since I got off the “sauce.”
I’m definitely less hungry.
I’m satisfied with much less.
I’m not eating anything at night.
And, I’ve lost several pounds since I quit the Diet Pepsi.

I’m hoping the trend continues on that score. Considering I’ve been relatively sedate for 5 weeks (since I broke my tailbone), losing any weight is like a little miracle. Tomorrow morning, if I get up early enough, I’m going to attempt a little rebounding before work.

On the downside, the withdrawal headaches are putting a real stranglehold on my writing time. Having your head pounding tends to make thinking or concentrating almost impossible. Fortunately, I only seem to have the pounding in the evenings, so at least I’m able to work effectively at the day job.

More Flowers, Less Withdrawal

2010-06-17T23:25:00.004-04:00

On the flower front, I put out part of the mulch the other night, before the bugs and the sweat sent me running into the AC. We’ll try for the rest tonight before dark…if I get home before dark. The mulch I laid down the other night looks fabulous. When I’m done, I’ll take a picture or two and post them up.

On the Pepsi withdrawal front, the jitters have departed, but the headaches remain, even though they are somewhat less severe. The tailbone is improving, but it will be weeks before I get back to 100%. I can tell you from first-hand experience that spreading mulch, digging dirt, and planting lilies are no picnic with a broken bum!

Last night, I took Mom and met my cousins Betsi and Suzie at Bass Lake Tavern in Chardon for dinner. It was tasty fare! Betsi and Suzie had sea scallops with berry-rum sauce over a bed of rice. I had a pan-seared tilapia with asparagus and other veggies over rice. Mom opted for even lighter fare, a bowl of tomato basil soup and a side of butternut squash with maple butter. Betsi and Suzie split a decadent chocolate brownie desert with Bailey’s Irish Cream Ice Cream and Mom had a yummy bread pudding. I opted for liquid calories and by-passed the desert menu for a second glass of a tasty Piesporter Reisling.

All in all, not bad!

Sorely Tempted...

2010-06-15T00:14:00.003-04:00

"Betsy, oh Betsy." Can you hear the pure, unadulterated, undiluted, 24-oz bottles of Diet Pepsi calling my name? I can! Adding insult to injury, almost every ad in the Sunday paper practically screamed with sales on Pepsi products.

I now know why the sailors went mad and crushed their ships on the rocks when the Sirens sang their alluring songs - they all had pounding headaches from cold caffeine withdrawal.

You're probably wondering what would possess me to chose this time out of all possible times to attack my Pepsi addiction head-on. In my ever multitasking mode, it seemed expedient to make the Tylenol I'm downing for the broken tailbone serve dual duty. I knew that severe headaches would be a major symptom of withdrawal. It also seemed a prudent time to save the cash involved in constantly having a Pepsi at hand. You've probably heard of the "Latte Factor." I consider this to be the "Pepsi Factor."

Other than the blinding headaches, I've noticed I have considerable fidgeting, nervousness, and incredible thirst. I've downed about two gallons of water today alone. If I don't float away, I'll update you all on the great withdrawal later this week.

Flowers and Withdrawal!

2010-06-13T23:40:00.001-04:00

Much was accomplished on the “while the cat’s away” plan. Hanging pots are gracing my front porch, and I have some of the most beautiful Asiatic Lilies now planted in my front garden. The look is nicely dramatic with the row of bright yellow blooming day lilies now backed by deep blood red Asiatic lilies, backed by deep green holly bushes. The hanging pots are filled with small yellow flowers with red centers. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the mulch put out today. But I will attend to that over the course of the week.

My two biggest hurdles have been the broken tailbone and my deliberate lack of Pepsi. Yes folks, I’m attempting to get the Pepsi monkey off my back. The last pure unadulterated bottle was Friday night. I did get a slight charge by drinking an ice-filled diluted fountain Pepsi that I left half filled on the table when we left Panini’s. Since then it has been water, water, and more water followed by Tylenol for the withdrawal headaches. Hopefully I will make it through the caffeine withdrawal. I will update the blog with my progress.

You can have Summer Camp...

2010-06-09T22:37:00.003-04:00

I’ll take Manhattan. Well I would take Manhattan if I had the time. The Boy Scout Troop is heading off for their annual week of summer camp, this year to be held at Camp Davey Crockett in Tennessee. Because of the long commute to and from old Davey Crockett, I have two extra days to accomplish the things I have added to my “plan” for the week. It is amazing what I can manage to do while the other half is away.

Once again, my main focus will be the front garden. Last year I tilled it up, dug out and repositioned 9 holly bushes, put in a front border of bright yellow daylilies, planted the in-between space with a variety of perennials, and mulched everything into a lovely landscaped look. The daylilies and holly bushes are thriving, but the in-between perennials didn’t fare quite as well. So I will, dig out the dead stuff and replant the in-between area with new, colorful flowers. Then I will weed, rake, and refresh the mulch with the bags left over from last year’s efforts.

I’ll likely purchase some nice hanging pots for the front porch as well. I seriously thought about staining and sealing the front porch, but with the broken tailbone, that may be a little too much for me to handle as a solo job.

If I can finish the gardening on Saturday and Sunday, I will have the rest of the week to sew-up the baby project. I may even have time to blow up the quilt pattern for that king-sized bed topper.

The other two projects for the week are 1) cleaning out my closet, putting away the winter clothes, and seeing if I have anything that still fits for the summer and 2) cleaning and purging the stuff in my office.

I actually frustrated myself looking for something last night to the point that I almost did a desk-clearing sweep of the arm…like they always do in dramatic movie scenes! If I had a super powerful fan, I would just blow all the clutter away…it would be gone with the wind. You will not, however, find me at the bottom of the staircase, swooning, sobbing, and saying “I know what to do…I’ll go back to Tara!” I’m far less dramatic than that!

Only Six Good Hours Left...

2010-06-06T17:44:00.003-04:00

...then it’s back to the 5-day work week! Time has passed in a bit of a blur since I posted on Wednesday night. Thursday was work, the farmers market in Painesville where I bought two loaves of Alex Bevan’s brick-oven-baked bread and a jar of his Skinny Pickles Bread and Butter slices. They taste exactly like Mom’s! Then I had a meeting and a run to my aunt’s house to pick up my mother, who had been visiting her for a couple days, followed by the trip home to do laundry and other mundane household tasks before dragging the busted bum to bed.

Friday was another blur of work, dinner, errands and a brief stop at the Vine to listen to the marvelous Larry Smith crooning the oldies, followed by cranking out a thousand words on the new novel. The normal Saturday morning activities were followed by a fast run out to Ashtabula for a meeting of the committee organizing my class reunion (thanks, Tim, for the lunch and the hospitality). Saturday night was much less hectic as I indulged in liquid anesthetic (while cranking out another thousand plus words on the novel).

I would like to enthusiastically thank and compliment Colleen and Regis; it is incredible Amarone! And to think that I was an Amarone virgin until yesterday…what a waste! I’m not generally fond of dry reds, but this was fabulous. I only hope the bottles of my White Cranberry Pinot Grigio and Pomegranate Zinfandel I traded for your two Amarone taste as good to you as this one did to me. I’m saving the second bottle for an occasion.

Today the choir sang two services, one at 9 a.m. (during which Laurie and I performed an á cappella duet of the Anima Christi) and a second at 11 a.m., followed by a rather lengthy procession around the outside of the church for the feast of Corpus Christi. Each service was followed by a donut social, and by the time I get home I was throat sore, foot tired, and it was almost 2 p.m.

Since then I have read a magazine article on the Eat-Clean Diet, updated the class reunion website with some additions, unintentionally reorganized the chest freezer looking for a non-existent whole chicken, and ended up starting a rump roast for dinner in its stead. After this blog goes to post, I’ll be running two more loads of laundry, attempting to make headway in my office reorganization and purging, and cranking out another thousand words or two for the novel.

I have set a very doable minimum of writing a thousand words per day. In a perfect world, this novel will be ready for copy edit in 81 more days! For those who think that’s a lot, most people can type around 40 or 50 words per minute. A thousand words translates into 20 minutes of typing at 50 w.p.m.

Off to start the laundry. Hope you all get off to a great start this week!

Poodle-fied!

2010-06-02T21:02:00.003-04:00

I bit the bullet and had my hair permed yesterday. It desperately needed help. The lovely Lori Cooper of In-Style at the Cottage in Painesville does a great job, especially considering how thin my hair has become (succumbing over the years to various medications, past surgical anesthetics and old health conditions).

I’ve never been one to do much fussing about my appearance. What you see is generally what you get. I simply don’t have time for those things I consider mundane and unnecessary, though I will splash on a bit of lip stick and mascara for an occasion or event (weddings, funerals, corporate functions). I have been told that I clean up nicely! Unfortunately, I know quite a few women who do the hair and make-up thing every morning, touch-up in the afternoon and look fabulous, but catch them “au natural” and they can be downright scary!

I remember as kids, my sister and I getting Toni Home Perms at the hands of my mother. We looked like escapees from “The Little Rascals” television show with big puffy plastic bonnets covering our heads full of perm rods. Of course, nothing could stem the malodorous sulfur stench of the perm chemicals! Later, when my father snapped photos of our new “coifs” we looked like the cherubic, round-faced Campbell Soup Kids that used to adorn their advertisements back in the old days!

The smell of the perm brings back those memories, because, quite frankly, the smell hasn’t improved much over the years. Lori lit a lovely cinnamon candle to help mask it, which did help and made the time under the stench seem a bit more pleasant.

In the hope that the perm would last a while, I insisted that she roll it “small, tight, and to the scalp,” and she complied. The perm worked like a charm. Although I know in a week or two it will relax to a softer, more natural style, right now I’m not sure whether I look more like Fifi the poodle or Bert the wire-haired terrier!

I am only sure of one thing…it will grow out – eventually!

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

2010-06-01T23:39:00.004-04:00

It's still the first day of the work week, nomenclature not withstanding!

The hour a day I've sworn to devote to actual writing (this blog not included) appears to have produced a new project. I'm delving into it feet first, having penned about two thousand words so far and creating the two main characters for my newest novel. I hope to have the lion's share written and ready for review before I head up to Middle Bass in October for that writer's retreat I impulsively signed up to attend. Perhaps the soothing Lake Erie breezes and comforting sounds of water rolling into the shore will inspire a big finish for the story.

On a completely different topic, I spent a couple hours this evening at Jim Snively's open mic at Rider's Inn on Route 20 in Painesville. If you haven't stopped by on a Tuesday night for this event, it is always new, fresh and endlessly entertaining. Jim is wonderful host and a talented songwriter and singer. I was equally delighted by the appearance and participation of the venerable Charlie Brown. Inn owner Elaine Crane provides tasty snacks for those in attendance. Tonight was a spicy jambalaya. Don't tell me you have something better to do on a Tuesday night...just remember it starts at 8 p.m.

Random Thoughts for Friday

2010-05-28T21:09:00.003-04:00

As I moved toward the holiday weekend, I noticed that the time was really dragging. Each time I looked at the clock, I surprised myself by how little time had elapsed since my last furtive glance at the wall. I began thinking random odd thoughts which continued on and off throughout the day.

The first was, “The faster you want time to pass, the slower it goes.” Conversely, “The more you want to savor and enjoy time, the quicker it flies.”

There are so many little mysteries in life, such as “Why does soft bread get hard when placed in a jar with hard brown sugar while the sugar gets soft?” We all know it is a simple matter of transfer of moisture, but why? Is it indeed water seeking the lowest point?

And what of the Buttered Cat Theory? It is said that if you drop a cat it will always land on its feet. It is also said that if you drop buttered bread, it always lands butter side down. If both of these are indeed absolutes, and you tie buttered bread, butter side up, to the back of a cat and drop it, does it just spin in mid air?

Enough esoteric thought!

The weekend is upon us and everyone needs to make the most of it, because it will soon be over. Make a plan, have a picnic, get together with family and/or friends, attend a Memorial Day parade or function; otherwise the time will fritter away and you’ll be back at the grind on Tuesday morning, wondering what happened to your three-day weekend.

Remember Our Fallen Heroes

2010-05-28T07:51:00.002-04:00

Memorial Day is upon us! It’s the official beginning of summer for many, but more importantly, it is a national day of remembrance of those who have fought and have given their lives to protect our country and to help us feel secure. If you have never celebrated Memorial Day in honor of our fallen heroes, then perhaps it is time. You might be surprised at how much you enjoy being part of it.

Take your basic portable outdoor amenities (lawn chairs and a cooler of pop) and find a place to set up along the Memorial Day parade route in Painesville. It’s free and fun. The parade launches around 10 a.m. from Riverside Cemetery (385 Riverside Drive) and winds up at 501 E. Main St, Evergreen Cemetery. Afterward, head to the square in Painesville for an hour-long concert featuring Tom Todd in a Salute to America.

Bring a blanket, your lunch, a bunch of family, and friends. And bring some colors to wave as well. It’s all free. What have you got to lose?

Six Hours in the Driver's Seat...Now Back to Reality

2010-05-26T22:43:00.004-04:00

“Oh my God! You’re driving to Columbus and back on a busted tailbone?” I must have gotten that question a dozen times before I left yesterday for my little excursion down South. I have to admit, I did have a certain level of trepidation about 3 hours in the car…each way. I actually called my doctor and asked if there was anything (not anti-inflammatory and non-narcotic) that I could take to lessen the non-stop pain I’ve been having, whether sitting, standing, walking, or lying down.

I told the womderful ladies in the doctor’s office that I would be stopping on my way out of town, and that I was willing to take whatever he recommended. When I arrived, I was asked if I had a few minutes to wait. Next thing I knew I was getting multiple shots in the rear, around the tailbone area. I’m not sure what heavenly homeopathic preparation was in those shots, but I made it to Columbus with nary a twinge! It wore off many hours later, but the intensity of the pain has lessened considerably.

I am told the effects will wear off and I will need to have the procedure done again. I can handle that. Anything that will give relief to this incessant pain is welcome. The last time I broke my tailbone, it took about 4 months before I was able to sit down without worry that I would accidently reinjure the delicate area. I’m hoping this new treatment will help shorten the time to no-pain nirvana! Perhaps the 3-day weekend will be of benefit.

As the World Watches Lost...

2010-05-23T22:23:00.004-04:00

I have to admit, I too was fascinated with Lost, at least during Season 1. I watched during Season 2, but only half-heartedly, and only about half the time. After that, I have no clue, and I’m not particularly interested in knowing what happened or how it ends. I’m not a fan of tying myself to the television so I can watch a show. It reminds me of women I used to know who just couldn’t miss their soaps. I actually know some who record the soaps every day, because heaven knows it might kill them to miss an episode.

I’m here to say that any addiction is incapacitating, whether it’s crack, alcohol, food, sex, soap operas, or prime time shows. If you HAVE to do it, you’ve got a problem.

We all have our little addictions, whether we want to admit it or not. My worst food addiction is Craisins. Yup, Craisins. I admit freely that I can’t stop eating Ocean Spray dried cranberries. If they are in my house, I will eat them until they are gone. If I manage to pass by the section of the grocery store where the Craisin’s are displayed and manage to get out of the store with no Craisins in my shopping cart, I congratulate myself heartily.

Worse than Craisins is my Diet Pepsi addiction. I actually panic if I don’t think I have enough in the house to last until I can get to a store. But unlike Craisins, the Pepsi is physically addictive because of the caffeine it contains. If you’ve never suffered caffeine withdrawal, trust me when I say it’s not pleasant!

I consider both of these addictions to be personally unacceptable. I regularly make attempts at defeating them. But neither of them interferes with my use of my time. TV addiction prevents you from living your life while you’re glued to some fantasy on the tube. It stops being an entertaining interlude and becomes centric to your life. You don’t have to think, or move. You just sit there and let a form of broadcasting permeate your brain with bizarre thoughts, violence, and anything else it throws at you.

I’m not saying that it’s bad to be exposed to those things, or to other ideas and unknowns. Exposure to new and different things generally causes growth, fosters creativity and encourages us to question what we know and what is good. What I’m saying is that addiction “saturates” the brain with that stuff, the same way brainwashing techniques imbue someone’s psyche with information they would otherwise not believe or would at least think about or question.

The platitude “All things in moderation” seems most appropriate, doesn’t it? Don't you wonder how many Lost fans will be absolutely lost without their weekly fix?

A Literal Pain in the Rear

2010-05-22T00:47:00.005-04:00

In the never-ending quest to be thin and beautiful, I went walking with a coworker on Wednesday during lunch. Unfortunately, I neglected to switch from my slipper-comfortable flat Cobbie Cuddlers into a decent pair of running shoes. I paid the price for that oversight when I was awakened from a sound sleep that very night with excruciating pain up the fronts of both shins.

In an effort to relieve the pain, I jumped out of bed and promptly fell, breaking my tailbone and wrenching my neck in the process. To say that I'm a "hurtin' unit" is to put it mildly. Of course, life goes on. It was work as usual on Thursday and today...though I have to admit that getting my butt into the driver's seat was extremely painful. Tonight, I only managed to make it home, eat dinner, watch an hour of TV and then head up to bed because the neck was hurting as much as the rear end.

Not one to sleep for hours, I woke up a little after 11 p.m. and I'm sitting here in the quiet of the house, typing away and wishing I had a bottle of my pomegranate zin in the fridge! Unable to take any of the anti-inflammatory medications on the market, I'm limited to Tylenol, so wine is looking pretty good from an anesthetic point of view! It is the weekend, after all. And it will pretty much go on as scheduled.

This weekend's offerings include a trip to the beauty salon for Mom, the usual Saturday errands (bank, post office, groceries), a scheduled stop at a friend's house (bearing comfort food and libation), laundry, the mother-daughter breakfast at church, as well as another Eagle Scout Court of Honor. Somewhere in there I have to fit a stop at K-Mart or Wal-Mart to pick up a new watchband (something else that was broken in the fall) and a stop at the fabric store to pick up the material for the baby gift project.

And so, life rolls on!

Popcorn and Chicken Feet

2010-05-18T21:21:00.002-04:00

Someone burned a bag of microwave popcorn at work today. The acrid smell of charred popcorn kernels filled the air, giving me an almost instant headache. On the positive side, it reminded me of an incident that took place when I was in school. My older sister was doing a science project that involved dissecting a chicken, identifying all the internal organs, and reconstructing the actual skeleton of the chicken to display along side the labeled jars of “innards” for the class.

She laboriously cooked the chicken in a large stock pot and meticulously removed all the meat, fat, skin, and ligaments. Then she ran string through the bones to reconstruct the skeleton. It was a thing of beauty, except it had no feet. Chicken feet are covered in a thick cartilage. Removing the cartilage is not an easy task, and requires an extremely lengthy cooking time to loosen. Since we had to be in school all day, Mom agreed to cook the chicken feet while we were away.

The main entrance to the house was a large foyer that housed, behind a tall divider, the laundry and a small stove used for canning. The foyer sat between the dining room in the old section of the house and the living room that was in the newer addition my father had built. Not wanting to take up kitchen stove space she needed to prepare dinner, Mom put the chicken feet in the stock pot, filled it with water, put the pot on the canning stove in the foyer, and then went about her daily chores.

Unfortunately, her chores took her upstairs for several hours and she just plain forgot about the simmering chicken feet. Needless to say, after hours of boiling, the water evaporated and the chicken feet began to burn. By the time she realized what was happening, the smoke and smell from the burned chicken feet filled the lower area of the house. Frantically, she raced downstairs and took the burned pot of chicken feet outside to smolder, then opened all the windows and doors to evacuate the smoke and odor.

The smoke soon dissipated, but the odor of burned chicken feet lingered for days! To add insult to injury, we had to get a second chicken and go through the cooking process again to get unburned chicken feet my sister could use in her skeletal reconstruction

It wasn’t particularly easy to live with the smell at the time, but the thought of that incident makes me roar with laughter.

So the next time you burn the popcorn in the microwave, just remember that it could have been chicken feet, which I can truthfully say smell much, much worse!

From Gewurztraminer to Septic Systems

2010-05-18T01:15:00.002-04:00

Another weekend is now just a memory. I sat at the laptop last night, writing this blog and sipping a glass of Brandborg Gewurztraminer 2005 (a very good year I might add). I discovered this Umpqua Valley, Oregon winery in my dealings with the old Sawyer House in Mentor many years back. When they closed, I was heartbroken that no one around seemed to carry it. This gewürztraminer is slightly above dry with a faint pear taste…and it is excellent. I finally found that Reider’s in Concord sometimes has a bottle or two on the shelf. Normally, I’m not one to drink at home alone, but I had opened and shared this bottle earlier in the week, and I didn’t want that last glass to turn to vinegar. Besides, it was a stress-relieving way to end yet another busy weekend.

The back-up printer now appears to be working fine. I’m not quite sure what I did to fix the problem, but you won’t hear me complaining. I managed to get all my postcards printed without incident so we’re back on track.

Unfortunately, an even bigger problem arose over the weekend. The compressor on the septic system burned out, as did the circuit board in the control box…to the tune of almost 400 bucks just in parts! But, it’s one of those things you have to fix now. Having absolutely no choice, we called in the service guy from the original installer and it is now running properly again. The old style septic that was on this property originally never had a problem in all the years we lived here prior to the new system (28 years give or take). Considering the atrocious amount we shelled out for this system just 8 years ago, I anticipated it would last a wee bit longer. Fooled me!

Mousie, Mousie, who's got the Mousie?

2010-05-16T14:54:00.005-04:00

It’s been a frustrating day so far. I’ve been having minor computer issues, which, to the power user in me, are most annoying. For weeks now I have been double-, triple-, quadruple- (and more) clicking my mouse button trying to select anything. I'm using a laptop, and I would use the mouse pad, but I really hate it. I was raised on the mousie itself, so-to-speak, and I find changing that basic hard to manage.

One of my errands after dropping Mom at the beauty shop yesterday was a fast stop at Staples to replace the errant mouse with something that actually worked. Out went my OffSpring optical mini-mouse, replaced by a Targus optical mini-mouse. I’m not yet ready to go wireless with the mouse, but the mini is on a retractable cord, which eliminates tangled messes in the laptop case. Now the mousie problem is no more. The Targus works great!

But even as the mouse issue was resolved, another popped its ugly head up from my most needed office equipment. My old workhorse printer, the Konica-Minolta PagePro Laser (black only) that spews out 21 ppm, is not only incompatible with my laptop (no USB connection capability), but it has a cracked drum that needs to be replaced. Fortunately I have my not-quite-as-old color laser backup (Samsung) that spits out 17 ppm in black and white and 4 ppm in color…when it’s working.

And therein lies the rub! For some reason, I was unable to print anything last night, and had continuing issues this morning. I hate to think I may have to sink money into a new laser printer right now. But if I do, it will definitely be wireless!

So I’m struggling with basic jobs than need doing, most importantly, I need to print off postcards for the project. I’ll just keep fighting with it until I have a month’s worth for both recipients. I did manage after several tries to print off some new business cards, but we won’t discuss how many I had to toss in the round file after jamming the printer yet again.

When I refer to myself as a power user, think keyboards. I had to replace my desktop keyboard because I had used it so much that I not only wore off the Braille bumps on the F and J keys, I completely wore the letters off of the W, E, R, T, A, S, D, B, F, J and M keys as well. I got to the point that if I looked down at the keyboard, I would panic wondering if I had my hands in the right place.

For now, I am not off to see if I can cajole this printer into doing these postcards for me. Time will tell the tale.

Writing without Guilt?

2010-05-16T01:49:00.004-04:00

The weekend is half over. Several projects are moving forward. I have changed the baby quilt plan to making a huge plush zoo critter. At least I know the creation won’t clash with the décor. I’ve decided on the ideal centerpiece for the king-sized bed quilt. I found a pattern for a stained glass window that will work beautifully as the focal point of the quilt. I hope to have the entire pattern of the quilt laid out on graph paper before I head back to work on Monday.

Then I have to take my sewing machine to the shop for service and repair work. The poor thing is at least 30 years old and really needs an overhaul, if they still make parts for it. Hopefully it won’t need to be replaced. I’ll purchase the requisite materials, threads and batting soon. I may even have all the parts cut and ready by the time the machine is ready for me.

Mindful of the fact that I can’t just let my writing and associated book projects go while thinking about other things (like quilts), I will be dedicating at least an hour a day strictly to book projects. I need to get the Postcard Rx website up and running. I need to redesign my business cards, and I have a novel to finish writing.

I hope to get several hours of undistracted writing done while on an out-of-town overnight next week. It is amazing how much more focused I become when I leave the family at home and go someplace where the dishes, the laundry, the bills, and the ordinary demands of daily life don’t exist. When I’m at home, just being around those things has me putting my writing on the back burner.

It’s guilt pure and simple. Logically I know that I shouldn’t feel guilty about spending time writing, but life doesn’t always let us make decisions about how we’re spending our time and guarantee that we won’t get those little niggling doubts. The only way to remove those feelings of guilt is to remove one’s self from the atmosphere that creates them.

I have actually been so desperate to write that, in the days before laptops, I disassembled my desktop computer, packed it in my car and reassembled it in Vermont, three times. My sister was part owner of a ski house and let me stay there for a week at a time in off season so I could get away. The place was ideal. It sat halfway up Sugar Bush on the East face. The unmarked driveway to the house was almost impossible to find, and once there, no people or vehicles were seen or heard…day or night.

Unfortunately, she sold her interest in the house when they moved from the East Coast to the Midwest. My biggest regret is that I didn’t ask to start using it much earlier than I did.

Quilts and Torch Singing

2010-05-13T18:18:00.003-04:00

As luck would have it, my plan for the beach scene baby quilt went right down the tubes when I learned that the color/design scheme for the baby’s room is zoo critters. Old Robbie Burns was correct about the best laid plans of mice and men…

Gone is the need for the beautiful bright blues, reds and yellows I purchased. Lions and tigers (and bears, oh my!) require more earth tones. Now I need to rethink, redesign, and acquire new, appropriate materials for the project. Or I may have to change to a venue other than a quilt. The wheels are churning.

Just in case I find myself lacking for something else to do with my time, I am seriously considering making a king-sized, quilted bed cover as a gift for some dear friends. I’ve already begun researching stained glass window patterns that I might be able to adapt for the center design block. The remainder of the quilt would be built around it. It has to be a spectacular focal point with materials surrounding it that complement and enhance the design without clashing. The wheels are churning on this project as well.

On another topic, I was distressed at the passing of vocal diva Lena Horne. No one lives forever and intellectually I know this to be true. But the world will be a lesser place without Lena. The woman had looks and a voice that could stop traffic. She was an outspoken activist for civil and human rights, was instrumental in breaking racial barriers, and she was active until her passing at the age of 92. I am fairly certain she is singing with the angels as of this writing. I think of her as the ultimate in torch singers. I always wanted to try my hand at it, but I was so short and heavy that the weight of the sequins on the signature full-length gown was prohibitive!

TGIM?

2010-05-11T08:13:00.003-04:00

Yes, that is what it means. Thank goodness it’s Monday! Right now, I need a weekend to recover from the weekend. It was two days of not-stop “doing.” I dropped Mom at the beauty shop for her weekly “do” and raced off to the grocery store. It’s amazing how much faster you move and how few unnecessary items find their way into your grocery cart when you only have an hour to accomplish the task (including round trip travel time).

Mom emerged from the shop with a shiny new “do” covered in a protective plastic rain bonnet to protect it from the rain and gale-force winds we were experiencing. The winds were truly brutal, and since the beauticians secure the hair by the application of “prom spray” (think super glue) that turns the hair into a solid white helmet, a really big gust could have ripped her hair out by the roots and sent it sailing.

We stopped for a quick breakfast at Yvonne’s Sweet Shop on North St. Clair near the intersection of Main St. in downtown Painesville. It was a first for both of us. Mom had a very good stuffed French toast, which I knew would be 2-3 times what I could manage to ingest. She downed about half and took the rest home. I had a side of homemade hash browns and a couple pieces of bacon. I rarely eat either one, so it was a treat. Everything was reasonably priced.

Soon, we were back home, where I unloaded the groceries and stowed them away. Next I checked my bank balances and wrote checks for the bills. Then came the mad dash to the post office, which I made minutes before closing. I stopped to check on my daughter, who was suffering from an abscessed tooth before heading to the library to replenish my stock of books on CD that I listen to obsessively while driving.

Back home again, I sorted laundry, then packed everyone into the car to attend church services. After mass, we headed home again to nuke frozen lasagna for dinner. A quick clean-up later, we headed back to Painesville to attend a wake. It was an incredibly sad gathering for the 24-year-old son of friends. I can’t begin to imagine what those parents are going through. The lines were long and filled with family, friends, co-workers, school chums, scout leaders, and teachers. We stood in that sad, slowly moving procession for more than an hour, but sore feet and all, I wouldn’t have been anywhere else. We left solemn and exhausted, and headed for bed shortly after pulling into the garage.

Sunday was Mother’s Day, and I spent half the day being the good mother and half the day being the good daughter. After doing some groggy, early morning research, I found a place that could perform emergency oral surgery on my daughter, who is unemployed, uninsured, and broke. Since the good Mom had to foot the bill, I was pleased that I was able to find something reasonable. American Dental Centers in Severance Mall was the only option and we spent half the morning and a couple afternoon hours taking care of business. The trip home from Cleveland included a stop at Wal-Mart for pain killers, antibiotics, and protein shakes for a little liquid nutrition.

Next it was making a quick dinner before the evening’s festivities. Mom and I got cleaned up, dressed and into the car. We stopped in Mentor to pick up my sister-in-law and the three of us headed to Cleveland to attend the KSU Centennial Celebration Concert. My nephew was singing in the men’s chorus, and we were treated to Barber”s Second Essay for Orchestra, Janson’s Visions of the Omega, and Mozart’s Requiem. The concert was wonderful. It was a nice way to wind down from the weekend activities. Severance Hall is an incredible concert venue to have right here in our own backyard.

All in all, I was thankful the weekend was over!

Life on Your Own Terms!

2010-05-07T00:09:00.003-04:00

I happened to catch part of an interview on the news the other night. They were talking to country music star Chely Wright. She was discussing finally coming out of the closet regarding her sexual preferences. There is an obvious worry about her career and her future in country music, where conservatism and family values reign.

I admire her courage and the strength required to make that decision. I believe we all have to live our lives on our own terms. Those who live by the courage of their convictions rather than according to the expectations of others are happier people. We could certainly benefit from being surrounded by happier people, could we not?

This is not a declaration in the battle of pro-gay versus anti-gay. Sexuality is not the issue. I’m just pro-people. It has been my experience that when people are not true to themselves, when they pretend to be something or someone they are not, they hurt not only themselves but those around them as well.

Flash back to Betsy’s Life Archives! I graduated from high school a totally naïve Catholic school girl. I had never dated or had a boyfriend. The topic of sex was NEVER discussed in our house. I will never live down the humiliation of not going to see “Romeo and Juliet” with my senior English class because my parents wouldn’t sign the permission slip. (The movie had nudity, according to my parents. It was a 15-second camera shot of Romeo’s bare behind…truly scandalous!)

When I got to college, I started dating a cute guy named Chuck. We went out for 6 or 8 weeks. Then he disappeared from school without a word, not even a phone call. When I finally contacted his roomie, I was told that Chuck had admitted himself to the University’s psych ward with thoughts of suicide because he was gay and couldn’t reconcile his feelings for me. I was totally confused. Why would Chuck bother asking me out if he knew he was gay?

The other guy I dated in college was Don. Our relationship lasted the rest of the school year and into the summer. I was “in love” and blind to any reality. I would have walked on fire for that boy. Then, out of the blue, he broke it off. He confessed that he was gay and told me that he just couldn’t keep up the façade any longer.

I was devastated. I never saw it coming, and it hit me like a 10-ton garbage truck at full speed. I was a mental and emotional wreck for months afterward. I worried that only gay men would find me appealing. I wondered what I had done to “send them” over to the “other” side (remember, I was totally clueless at the time). I scared many legitimate suitors away by asking them outright if they were gay and pretending.

Worst of all, decisions I made during that time of extreme emotional upheaval have had long-term repercussions that haunt me to this day.

All of that heartache and heartbreak was the result of two young men hiding their true selves and trying to be what other people expected them to be. When I consider the pain, anguish, and bad decisions that resulted from those encounters, theirs as well as mine, I know that the only way to live life it to be true to who you are on the inside, regardless of what others may think.

And so I applaud all the Chely Wrights of this world. It’s not always easy to be yourself, but it is certainly a better way to live your life.

There's Cinco de Mayo, then there's The Death March

2010-05-05T09:49:00.001-04:00

For those of you who tend to be forgetful (like me), just a reminder that Your Vine or Mine? is having a Cinco de Mayo celebration today. All you can eat tacos for $7.50, Sangria at $3.00 a pop. Alex Anthony will be hosting karaoke. The event runs from 4 – 10 p.m., but the karaoke doesn’t officially start until 7. Of course if you want to get up there and sing earlier, no one will stop you! I will definitely be stopping in, but probably not until 8 or so. I hope to see all of you there!

In the area of being a glutton for punishment, I haven’t stopped with biking. I just returned from “The Death March.” Let me explain. I hate exercise. When I decided several years ago that I really needed to lose weight for my health, even the possibility of medical issues did not seem to motivate me to move. Oh, I had fabulous intentions. I would get up in the morning, get dressed, put on running shoes, and head out the door. But I discovered something about myself. Without a huge amount of motivation, I found excuses to cut the workout short.

“It’s raining, I’ll head back now.”

“It’s really cold, I’ll head back now.”

“It’s dark. I’m tired. There might be a mean dog. That nasty sun is shining in my eyes. The moon is setting in the West. I forgot to tie my shoes.”

You name it and I used it as an excuse. I came to realize that I needed a “foolproof” method that would guarantee that I would finish what I started every time. That’s when I came up with the idea for The Death March. I had seen a mention of the Bataan Death March during WWII, where the prisoners were forced to march for days until they reached their destination. They had to keep walking no matter what. How could I use that historical event to fuel my exercise routine?

Then it hit me. It had to be a one-way trip. But the destination had to be home. So I got up one morning, put on my running shoes, and got into my husband’s car. I asked him to drop me off as he headed for work at a place two miles from my house. He thought I was nuts. But when you are stuck, two miles from home, with no transportation, no buses or taxis, and you have to get home in time to get ready for work, you walk until you get there. From a psychological standpoint, you are heading home, so there is no turning around 5 minutes into the walk. You do it because once you are dropped you have no choice but to get back on your own foot power. It no longer matters if it’s raining, or you’re cold, or you’re tired.

I lost a huge amount of weight by doing this on a regular basis. At one point I was doing it twice a day. But I’ve been lax for much too long, so I will start slowly. One Death March per day for right now. Give it a try. It really does work!

There's Got To Be A Morning After...

2010-05-04T22:12:00.003-04:00

…and blessedly, the pain is minimal! However, I have come to several conclusions regarding bike riding and me. Don’t worry though, like most problems, they only take money to fix.

1) I definitely need street wheels. Mountain bike tires make every slight upgrade feel like slogging through heavy mud.

2) I need to invest in biking shorts – though I have been told that the chafing protection only works if you don’t wear underwear. (I’m not sure how bike shorts with no underwear would fly at choir practice!) If I can't afford the gel-chamois shorts (or can't get them in a size big enough to cover my rear) then I'll have to pick up a gel-chamois seat cover.

3) I should invest in toe clips, or the shoes with automatic toe clips, which I was informed increase the efficiency of every pedal stroke.

4) I really need to learn how to use the gears. I never had a bike when I was growing up. Only rich people’s kids had bikes with gears and hand brakes. The bike I learned to ride on belonged to a friend. It had one speed and back-pedal brakes.

5) I need to raise my handle bars. It seems that I lean forward while riding, leaning on my hands and putting pressure on the carpal nerves. A mile or two into the ride, both hands start getting painfully numb.

6) I need a water bottle holder and some other type of contrivance to hold necessities.

7) Last but not least, I need a chain and lock. Normally I ride to a destination where there is not much worry about the bike disappearing, but that will not always be the case.

By my calculations, it will cost about $200 to resolve my biking dilemnas. Guess I better get a part time job to pay for the new vice. In the meantime, it's more sore glutes and slogging up inclines!

Be Careful What You Wish For...

2010-05-03T23:18:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I complained last week about the weather preventing me from riding my bike to choir practice. Since the weather today was absolutely gorgeous, I made up for it by taking an even longer route to the church and I do believe I will live to regret it! It took me about 50 minutes to make the 8-mile ride, and just when I was in site of my destination, I got cramps in the arches of both feet and in my right calf. To say it was painful would be a gross understatement.

As I’m sitting here typing this, my office is stinking to high heaven from the massive amounts of Badger Sore Muscle Rub I have slathered over my extremities! Not only did my legs and feet get the treatment, but my arms as well…oh, did I forget to mention that when I got home, I worked out on the Bowflex with my current client? Just call me a glutton for punishment! Now if only my body would reflect that punishment by lowering the number on my scale, I would be a much happier camper.

I have now drawn the preliminary design for that baby quilt. Next I will transfer the image to graph paper and figure out if I purchased enough material on Saturday when I lost my mind and went to the quilt shop! The actual templates come next. Stay tuned. I will definitely post a picture of the finished product…after I give it to the proud Mommy!

For those who are still awake (11:00 pm on Monday night) and want to entertain yourself with a decent movie…try tuning in to AMC for “The Bone Collector” with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. It is the first in a series by Jeffery Deaver. If you haven’t read the books, give them a try. If you’re a mystery/thriller junkie like me, you won’t be disappointed. I really want to stay up and watch it for the umpteenth time, but I have a 7:00 a.m. committee meeting at United Way. Enjoy the movie!

Now I've gone and done it!

2010-05-01T21:28:00.002-04:00

I bought material today. I have this drive to make a quilt. I've made a number of them over the past 20 years, but not recently because of the time crunch I seem to find myself living in constantly. I told myself, as I headed into the quilt shop, that a baby quilt won't take too long to make. My time limit is mid July...the person for whom I'm making said baby quilt is due a few weeks later.

I have a notion to make a beach scene, with a sail boat, sun, clouds, sand bucket...something youthful, but boyish enough that it won't be tossed aside when the kid turns 5. Buying more material was a bit of overkill. I already have an industrial-size, rolling storage bin in the attic filled with material. In case you have difficulty imagining the actual size of that bin, suffice it to say I've always been a proponent of the adage "she who dies with the most material wins."

Now the question is, will I have the time to design, template the parts, assemble the quilt top, and get all the actual quilting done within my time limit, given the other stuff I'm doing at present? I will accept all suggestions for time-saving shortcuts to getting this project completed in time. While waiting for those suggestions, I guess I'll get started on drawing up that design!

Coming Soon…Cinco de Mayo at The Vine!

2010-04-29T19:46:00.004-04:00

Come one, come all. It’s almost time to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) at Your Vine or Mine? in downtown Painesville! If you have never been to The Vine, or if you have been avoiding downtown Painesville simply because it’s “Painesville,” then you are missing a real treat! Your Vine or Mine? is the best-kept secret in the county! Put those preconceived notions aside and take a chance.

Your Vine or Mine? is a lovely little micro-winery. Housed in an old bank building on Main St., you will find the décor and the general atmosphere to be charming. On a normal day, you can settle in at the bar or at a table and enjoy a wonderful glass of wine, a fabulous appetizer, and superb company. Or better still, you can make an appointment to make your own wine (which I have done four times since they opened in September of 2008).

The tasty selections include reds, whites, and a blush…sweet, less sweet, and dry. Appetizers range from tasty hot French bread and oil, to cheese and crackers, yummy Brie, Tuscan dip, and French bread pizzas. You won’t leave hungry.

But back to Cinco de Mayo, or Singo de Mayo, or Singo de Wino (my variation). The Vine will be offering for this auspicious occasion an All-You-Can-Eat Taco Bar for $7.50, $3.00 Sangria, and you can take your shot at Karaoke from 4 to 10 p.m (hosted by Alex Anthony of WKKY…who, with his lovely wife Penny, owns and operates The Vine). A good time will be had by all the attendees!

The Cinco de Mayo celebration is only one of a myriad of fabulous events hosted at The Vine throughout the year. Come on out! You won’t regret it!

Holmes on Homes

2010-04-29T18:30:00.003-04:00

Speaking of Holmes on Homes…are you a fan? I love this guy! He and his crew go into peoples’ homes and fix what incompetent or nefarious contractors have screwed up or left unfinished. I am amazed at the shoddy workmanship that goes on, not to mention the fact that these shyster companies want to be paid even though the job is not finished or is so poorly done as to be disgraceful. Even more unbelievable are the ones that take the money, make a mess and leave…with no forwarding address.

Mike Holmes reminds me of my father. “If you’re going to do the job, if you’re going to charge for the job, do it right.” My father was the most forthright, honest, hardworking man I’ve ever met. He didn’t suffer fools and he didn’t tolerate not doing your very best.

Mike Holmes is a craftsman, just like my father. Measure twice, cut once. Making it right the first time out is so much easier that fixing someone else’s mistakes. If you haven’t watched Holmes on Homes on HGTV, make the effort to do so. You won’t be sorry.

I think this should be required viewing for any high school kid, if for no other reason than to demonstrate the value of doing it right the first time and showing how devastating it can be to end up on the receiving end of shoddy work and criminal intent. It’s a visual lesson in ethics…something our kids could definitely use!

Getting it all done!

2010-04-29T07:57:00.005-04:00

When I was a bit younger, I remembered everything I needed to do with no issues, no hints, and never wrote anything down. Now I find myself writing list after list, hoping to get through one day where I cross off all the tasks and don’t move any of them to the next day’s list. The ironic thing about multitasking is that the more you multitask, the more things you find to do. There is some truth to the adage, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.”

This was demonstrated to me while talking to a friend in Connecticut. She had been tasked with writing a paper/speech about her deceased mother, a famous novelist, and how her mother had turned her feelings of isolation and poor self esteem into a brilliant writing career. I knew my friend had been struggling over this particular paper for a while, so when she asked if I could give it a read and edit a couple weeks back, I agreed.

I received the paper in e-mail and read it through. Then I gave my friend a call, and we discussed the paper and my immediate impressions. The next day, I started at the beginning and did a thorough line edit. When I was satisfied, I returned the paper to her in e-mail. The process took about 2 days. I would have done it quicker, but I do have to go to work every day.

The next time I talked to her, she told me that she had sent the same paper to another friend a week or two earlier for a read and edit. The friend is retired, and should have had no difficulty finding the time to comply with the request, but as of a week after I sent back my marked-up copy, the other friend had not yet completed the task. This was a 10-page paper, not a novel-length work, and my friend seemed genuinely surprised that she had yet to get any response from her retired cohort.

As I sit here, pounding on the keys, I am running a second load of laundry, folding my jeans, running the dishwasher, and watching Holmes on Homes. This is typical of my weeknight evenings, and if I gave exclusive time to each of the above, as in one task at a time, I would never have time to sleep.

My goal for this week is to cross everything off my list before I start worrying about next week. Feel free to send me your hints for efficient multitasking…I can use all I can get!

The Weather, The Bike, The Good Intentions...

2010-04-27T23:02:00.002-04:00

I am more than just a little miffed at the weather. I know we need the rain, but when I actually make the effort to get more exercise and I really want to ride my bike, an evening of rain and cold, followed by an evening of more cold, simply spoil my multitasking plans.

Monday is choir night, and I have discovered I can trek the 6 to 8 miles between home and the church (depending on the route I take) in less than 40 minutes. This is ideal for a number of reasons.

1) I get in a quick burst of exercise, then I sing my lungs out.

2) I don’t waste too much time riding the bike because it only takes marginally longer to get there on two wheels.

3) Psychologically speaking, I have a destination…it’s not simply heading out to take a joy ride.

I’ve never been an exercise buff, so riding for the sake of riding isn’t something that comes naturally. Riding with a destination is your basic two birds, one stone scenario…a no-brainer for an inveterate multitasker.

By the time practice is over, it’s too dark to ride home, so I schedule a pick-up in the old mini-van. This arrangement is even more convenient because heading home is mostly up hill, and it has been many, many months since I’ve been in the saddle. Last Monday was my first trek out this season and resulted in two numb hands and various other parts not accustomed to the “abuse” of a long ride. But I will get used to it soon enough.

Here’s hoping next Monday’s weather is better!

14th Annual One-Act Festival

2010-04-24T23:12:00.005-04:00

Last night, some friends and I got together at the School of Fine Arts in Willoughby to attend the 14th Annual One-Act Festival, Hot from the Oven - Original Recipes. Twelve, original, one-act plays were presented. The actors and actresses were awesome, and I thought the plays were well written and artfully directed. I would be remiss if I didn't give particular kudos to Matt Mortensen. I admit I have a bit of bias where Matt is concerned, but this is the third production in which I have seen him perform, and he just keeps getting better! There are only 3 opportunities left to see this terrific show, April 29 and 30 and May 1. Where else can you get twelve, original plays for the price of one? Check out Hot from the Oven - Original Recipes at the Corning Auditorium at the School of Fine Arts while you still have a chance.

A Chance to Stray from the Beaten Path

2010-04-23T00:55:00.002-04:00

The Fractured Anecdote will soon be a member of the News Herald's blogging community, connected to the news organization via RSS feed. Of course this means no more slacking, even if it's late at night, like now. So stay tuned, because this could be a wild ride!

Just Another Manic Sunday

2010-04-19T01:17:00.007-04:00

After a very late night, unable to sleep, I finally nodded off around 3:30 a.m. I slept until 9:30 or so, and then my daughter arrived for her weekly weigh-in and measuring. (I am training her three evenings a week, and although she has only lost a few pounds, her fat loss and lean muscle gain have resulted in over 19 inches gone so far.) After a quick breakfast, I cleaned up and headed to church to join the choir singing for the annual confirmation service.

From there I headed to the Eagle Scout Court of Honor for young Matt Vendeville. Matt is one of four scouts in Troop 71 who have made the rank of Eagle Scout this year. It was a really nice ceremony, with a plethora of speakers, officials and political dignitaries. Matt's Eagle Project was to build an osprey platform in the Mentor Marsh preserve. The complexity of this project was very high.

The boyscout is required to submit a project proposal to the Scout hierarchy. Once the project is approved, that scout is responsible for arranging all the financing of the project, obtaining all required materials, and finding enough volunteer labor to take that project from plan to completion. The scout is in charge of the project, working with the volunteers and dealing with all the problems that arise during the actual work on the project. Matt did all of these things to achieve the construction of the osprey platform, including solving issues such as how to get the footer to sufficient depth as the marsh water kept filling the footer while they were digging.

Congratulations, Matt, on a job well done!

I know there are those parties out in the world that would condemn all of scouting because of a minority of pedophile adults who seem to manage to get themselves entrenched in any activity involving children, but on the whole and for the vast majority, scouting is a worthwhile activity, with moral, ethical leaders who are concerned with the education and welfare of their charges.