In search of a "Starbucks"

My goodness, the hassle we can get into when we get an idea into our heads and won’t give up until we get it. It is my fourth day of vacation and I decided that I wanted to go to Starbucks for a coffee (yes, you heard correctly … coffee) and to work on my blog. So I decided that I didn’t want to go to the Starbucks close to me, because it is also close to work and I am on vacation. So I wanted a Starbucks further away and in a different neighborhood. Well, I have to return some library books, so I decide to go to the Starbucks near the library, closer to Columbus. In my very regimented mind, I think that I have to get there between 9 and 10 to get past the morning coffee rush, but before the rest of the morning is lost as well. I hate getting in and out of the hot car in the afternoons, running errands and have a few to get done today. So I get up, jump in the shower and get out of the house as soon as I can, leaving things that I am going to get done this afternoon. The question is: will I???. Now anyone, who knows me, knows that I am simply not a morning person. As I grow older, I wish more and more that I were, because I would certainly get more accomplished. The problem is that I am no longer a night person either. That leaves very little time to get anything done at all. I envy those people who wake up at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning. If I would let myself, I would still be snoozing at 10:00. This morning, though, I managed to crawl out of the sack at 8:00 a.m. (the best so far, this week, by the way!).

So I am in the car heading down 23 to the Starbucks that I remember just past the library. Lo and behold, it is closed! How dare they close it, when I have a vacation day and want to spend it at Starbucks, working on my computer. Undaunted, I continue on, remembering that there is a Starbucks on every other corner these days. So I drive and I drive and I drive. Trying to be cautious to remember to stop at stoplights while checking out every corner for a Starbucks, I make my way through Worthington and Clintonville. All the while I am saying to myself “ I need to turn around… I am wasting gas…. I am going to end up next door to Leons work in the arena district. ….. I probably just didn’t see it…..Maybe they closed all of them…. And on and on!!!!! Finally common sense takes over and I decide to head back north and go the to Starbucks by work. I get over to the right hand lane and turn into a Krogers lot to get back to the stoplight and get turned around. My disappointment is huge.!!!! …my dreams shattered… my vision of the vacationing “writer” slowly being melted away… my fantasy of sitting there with my latte and my computer dashed. Darn it all, anyway! So I pull up to the stoplight to turn back North onto 23 and across from me is a beacon in the urban jungle , a fulfillment of my fantasy, a Starbucks!!! Naturally I pulled in, got my computer out of the trunk and here I sit.

The other thing that I decided was that I wanted to get a coffee. Again, I am not a coffee drinker, but have lately been sort of enjoying some coffee flavored items. I have tried some coffee flavored chocolates at work and a coffee flavored hot chocolate, among other things. So if ever the time was right to try a great coffee, it was now. I decided that since I am not a connoisseur, I should ask for a suggestion. I told the guy that I was not much of a coffee drinker, but wanted a bit of coffee, with other sweetness and flavors. He fixed me up with a cinnamon dolce latte and I am absolutely in heaven. They should have had these things when I was 18, at college pulling overnighters and gagging down bitter coffee, in order to fit in with the coffee drinkers of my day. Never did acquire the taste. But this is good! I may move on to a stronger more potent coffee eventually.

So I have a really full day and I have accomplished my first goal of having a coffee at Starbucks. What so many people do every day and is so commonplace, but I have done for the first time. No more Starbucks hot chocolate or tea for me. I am getting a latte from now on!! Well, I may get a frappucino from time to time.

Now I have to go home and see how many WW points are in a latte – many, I am sure.

The rest of my day involves returning books, going to Costco, running to the bank and finishing the cushions on my rocking chair. Mundane.... but this too, is part of my vacation.

Must be my lucky day!!

It is the second day of my vacation. My big outings planned for today include Panera, where I am currently sitting writing this and the library, along with some boring errand-type stops. I planned yesterday to bring my computer to Panera and enjoy some time blogging amongst the rest of humanity and enjoy my 'everything' bagel and hot Earl Gray tea. It seems so cozy to sit among the chatter around me with my tea and just have nowhere else I have to be. Guess what ....It is pretty cozy. It gets me out of the house and allows me to carry my blog with me... Anyhow, I get up to the counter at Panera to order my 'regular' order of an everything bagel with low fat cream cheese, sliced and toasted, and hot tea. When the girl brings my order, she has an extra half a bagel on the tray. She says that she dropped half of the one she was doing, which she threw away and started a new one; but gave me the extra half that she didn't drop. I told her I probably shouldn't eat it, but probably would anyhow. Must be my lucky day!!

Next exciting thing... I don't know why I have been hesitating to put this on my blog, but I have; and I am really pretty excited about it. Leon bought a keyboard (that would be a musical piano-type keyboard). He bought this for himself, but I plan to take full advantage of it. I guess the reason I am hesitant is that I am a little embarrassed when we spend money. Granted, he got it on sale and we are beginning to rebuild our lives after the closing and general mess of the business, but there is a part of me that is really sort of guilty feeling about spending money. It really was not all that expensive (less than $100), but here I am carrying on about it. I don't know where it comes from; and as much as I feel guilty, Leon is the opposite extreme and feels no guilt. Which is worse, maybe both. Okay, enough of that !! The fact of the matter is that I absolutely love it and plan to really practice. My little bit of piano playing came back pretty quickly, although I will never be as good as my sister. Talk about talent, if you have never heard her play, you will get an opportunity at the wedding. She really is so very good!! But as I sat down, I became aware of a more mature understanding of the music and how easily it all goes together. I used to be in awe of my sisters ability to play by ear and I still am, but understand it a little more and can somewhat do a bit of it myself. I am looking forward to getting into it. It probably would have been a smarter choice for me than the violin. I will view it as therapy... how's that for a rationalization!?!?

The other thing I wanted to talk about was writing. I have been doing this blog for about 8 months now. I also do some business analytical writing at work. I really would love to write something of my very own, but still am very unsure about it. I feel unable to do fiction, because I think my creativity is limited. Maybe it is just a matter of getting started, I don't know. I considered a life story (boy, would that be something, right Sandi?). But I really think I would be best at documentary writing where I have a subject to write about. The only problem with that, is who writes documentaries for fun? Seems more like a job than a hobby. It is something that I want to explore over the next year or so. Boy, do vacations get the creative juices going? Just think how creative we would all be if we didn't have to work for a living. My manager has offered to mentor me to see how I want to finish out my working life. I may actually take her up on it. She has great insight into finding your passion. I guess I need to tap into that.

Panera is getting busy, so I am going to wrap it up for today. I may do the same thing tomorrow. I have a gift card at Starbucks, so may do it there. I have enjoyed this much more than blogging at home.. it may be a new habit. Off to the library ....bye!!!

My first yoyo!

It is my first official day of vacation and I have gotten a thing or two accomplished. I am keeping a list for everyday. Today, so far, I tested a recipe for the shower, ran some errands and worked on my sewing machine making the arm pads for my rocking chair. Those are all things that I needed to get done. Tomorrow is library day and Wednesday is lunch with a friend.

I also made a yoyo, for the first time. This I did for me. I had seem some cute ideas of uses for yoyos. One blog that I saw showed a yoyo making disc. So while I was out doing errands, I picked one up. Now, I realize that women have been making yoyos for years, without the benefit of a yoyo disc, however I work full time and this is simply for my enjoyment, so I refuse to feel guilty. It is much more fun, when it goes quickly. Now the discs are a bit pricey ($5.50 for this smallest one- about a nickel's worth of plastic), but come on, it is my vacation!!! and look how much money I am saving by staying home!?! This is the smallest one and there are several more in graduated sizes - even a heart shaped one. Fun times!!! Actually, it takes very little to entertain me.

I sewed a tiny heart shaped button on it and will be putting it on a hair tie for my Abby. Actually I might make one for my little neice, Carol, although she is getting a bit older, so I'm not sure if it is "cool" enough. I also thought I could use them to decorate the purses/bags that I am going to make once I get everything else done.

Cool new site

I have discovered a new site for readers. I love to read and I am always up for suggestions. Well this link is called Goodreads and it is a place to keep track of what you have read, what you want to read and how you rated your book. It also has online groups to join and has reviews on any book that you can imagine. You can invite friends to join or just enjoy the resources already there. It is really pretty cool. It is like Ravelry, but for readers. I am currently trying to get in everything that I have already read and then plan to put in everything that I want to read. I haven't totally explored the entire site yet, but wanted to give you all a chance to check it out.

I am also on vacation this week, which I am so ready for. I am just staying home, doing some things for the shower next weekend and generally doing things I want to do. As before, I am going to try and blog every day while I am on vacation. It gives me a chance to catch up and maybe do some blogs I might not ordinarily do. Maybe some "loditorials"!?!?!?

One last thing I wanted to share is what I made for Leon and I for dinner tonight. I had read that one way to incorporate veggies into our diet is to put chopped spinach into our hamburgers as a filler. That actually sounded pretty good, and if you will remember from my "lists" blog, spinach is one of those foods that keep us young. Anyhow, I went one better and put spinach into our turkey burgers, along with an egg and some seasoned salt. One thing that I have a hard time giving up is a good hamburger, but this was really pretty good. Try it.. you'll like it!!! Here is a picture.

The power is back on

Pshew.!!! What a weekend!! Ike made his presence know on Sunday. The winds were unbelievable. I don't believe that I have ever seen that much wind from a hurricane this far north. We lost power, of course, as did many many other people in the area. Schools are still shut down tomorrow, which is Wednesday. We were lucky enough to get power back after 24 hours. It was on when I got home from work yesterday and what a relief! I can remember when the girls were young, the power going off was a sort of an adventure. We would light candles and play games. Luckily, we never had to endure long term outages. Now, it is no adventure.. I really hate it. But we survived and didn't have any losses from food spoilage. We just never opened the freezer or refrigerator and everything pretty much made it all that time.

We had a couple of shingles on the roof that flapped around some, but damage was really pretty much non-existent for us. Not so with many other people. There was siding blown off, shingles blown off and all kinds of debris blown around. I feel so bad for all of them and yet so grateful that we made it through okay.

I have been wanting to knit lately, but can't seem to get going, so I sat down last night (with the lights and TV on, mind you!!) and made this flower from a YouTube demo. I love YouTube- If you want to do something, it is probably on there. My next thing that I want to do is watch "The Last Lecture" by Pausch. Apparently it is on You Tube. I will blog about it when I see it. Anyhow, I really think this flower is neat. I think it would be great on a a cute hat!

Divided loyalties

Well, it is football season and thus the frenzy begins. It is much more obvious here in Ohio, although we were definitely very aware of football season in Indiana. There was much hype about Notre Dame and we watched them every season and still do today. The girls grew up on Notre Dame football. In fact, the "fighting irish" just won their second game of the season today against Michigan. They have had a couple of rough years, but we are hoping that this season will be much better. Charlie Weis was injured when he was rolled by one of the players during a play today. We probably will not hear how he is since we live here, but we will always be Notre Dame fans. Go Irish!!!!

However, we have also become OSU fans and pretty much watch them regularly as well. They are a very good team and we haven't seen them lose very often. The hype is much stronger here. On the Friday of every game weekend, my workplace becomes totally buckeye decorated. Everyone wears scarlet and gray. There are buckeye necklaces and jerseys everywhere. It really is something to see, and yes, I do have a buckeye jersey, that I wear once in a while. Tonight however they are playing the number 1 team, so they may have some trouble. We'll see, well off to watch the game. Go Bucks!!!!

A fun new Internet toy - word cloud

I have found a really neat internet toy. Let me start again. Lissy has found me a really neat toy. This site makes word clouds. I am still working on how to get it onto my blog, but wanted to share it right away. My two are in the gallery under Lodie and Serenity Prayer. I will post them as soon as I am able. Give it a try - it is really cool.

A morning with the animals

A big turtle - I am sure Abby is thinking she could ride it!

The sun was shining. The morning was wonderfully cool, as opposed to the past week of 90's+ temperatures; and the animals were so happy with the cool weather. Leon, Carrie, Abby and I visited the Indianapolis Zoo on Saturday morning and were treated to a show by the animals. Carrie and Abby visit the zoo on a regular basis, since they have a membership. Abby loves the animals. Carrie said the animals were especially active this Saturday and we surmised that the cool weather was the reason. I am including pictures which really tell the story, but a few comments as to my impressions, as well.

The giraffes were amazing. They were all up and moving and coming very close to the viewing area. I got some great shots, but can't put them all on, so picked the best ones. The first one is one where I caught three all at the same time. The second one is of one of their faces. They have the most beautiful faces and their eyes are absolutely enchanting. The pictures do not do them justice.

Another exhibit that was absolutely wonderful were the walruses. I really did not want to leave. I never realized how interactive these creatures are. They were behind glass as you can see and if you would put your hand on the glass they come right up and put their snout right against it. When you move your hand, they move their snout. It was beyond belief. The other thing that was amazing about them was their whiskers. I can't describe it and the picture really does not show it, but their whiskers seem to be alive on their own. They are amazing. All in all, I guess the emotion is "amazing"

The penguins were also really neat, but they moved so fast that I couldn't get a shot of them moving, although I tried many times.

A great morning at the zoo. We'll be back

New addition to my blog... other blogs

It's Sunday afternoon and we are home from Naptown, where we went to visit our Abby-girl. We went to the zoo and had a tea party and went to a party at their church and just had all kinds of fun. I will be blogging about that later on and have the most wonderful pictures to share. However, I first wanted to let you know about an additional item that I am adding to my blog. Starting today, I am starting a list of my favorite blogs. This list will grow somewhat slowly as I review all of the ones that I regularly visit. But I am christening this list with my first two favorite blogs, those of my two extremely talented and wonderful daughters, Carrie and Lissy. Now they are not nearly as 'technical' as I, and came a little late to the blogging world, so bear with them.


For those of you who really know the story, you know that this is a bunch of bunk, they are really and truly much more internet and computer savvy than me, although I did start blogging before them. But in all fairness, couldn't have done it without their help. I will start adding links to more of my favorite blogs. But for those of you who are friends and family, their blogs will help you keep up with our busy lives. So click on their sites on the side bar to the right of my blog posts under "Blogs I Love" and enjoy.

Anatomy of an "apple pie"

Well, fall must be coming, because Leon asked me to make him an apple pie. He loves apple pie and so I make him a sugar free variety. So when we were coming home from church on Sunday, I mentioned that I was sort of in the mood to cook something that day, but didn't know what to make. I guess I should explain that we don't necessarily cook every day. We just sort of put things together when we are hungry or cook every other day or so. But I like to fix something new or from a new recipe sometimes on the weekend. Well, needless to say, my comment that I didn't know what to make, did not go unnoticed by Leon. So while he and Lissy did some wedding errands, I got busy and made a sugar free apple pie. They are really very easy and I use Nutra Sweet as the sweetener. Okay, don't tell Leon, but I did sneak in just a tad of brown sugar for flavor!! The crust was not my usual recipe and so it was really really ugly, although I have done really well with my own crust lately. It kept tearing apart and crumbling like crazy. It was good, but ugly. I tended to avoid taking pictures of the crust, except for the last one of the last piece of pie.

Good news for Leon

*picture from Flickr

Well, this is an 'attaboy" blog for the Leon. He has been at his job for three months now, but that is not the good news. He has already posted for a new position there and been hired in that position. He was working in the copy/mail room and a little bit on the bored side, with not much to do. Well, it so happens that a position recently came up in the docketing area. Unsure as to whether they would even interview him for it, so soon after being hired, he began to make subtle inquiries. As he spoke with the manager of the area, who was actually the person he replaced when he was first hired, he was told that he could certainly apply and interview. So the jump from copy room to docketing (as demonstrated by the manager) is well precedented (maybe I should see if they need someone to help with their legalese, ha?!?!?). Anyhow, long story short, he interviewed and got the job. So my question was, "What will you be doing?".. I think some of that remains to be seen, but as best I can tell docketing has to do with records and court scheduling, for the attorneys. Now he will be a cube animal like the rest of us, but I think he is pretty happy about it and therefore, so am I. Again, we have much to be thankful for!!! Congratulations Leon... I am very proud of you!!!!

Happy Labor Day -New blog "digs"

It's labor day morning and a beautiful day. I am planning to have a great day getting some things done and just enjoying the day off. But first wanted to reassure you all that you are at the right place. Lissy helped me and yesterday I "redecorated" my blog. Isn't it cute???? Anyhow, it actually is very easy and so fun that I may do it again from time to time, just to keep things interesting. Have a great labor day!!!!!