Mama Mia! Toss a Pizza

Tonight we had homemade pizza. Cal put on quite the show tossing the dough. I almost forgot the pepperoni so it ended on top of the tomatoes. Note the egg in the center. That was to remember Betty's pizzeria in Milan where it was a feature of the pizza. Tonight's pizza included tomato paste, mozarella, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, green peppers, pepperoni and an egg. I think it may have needed a little more spice but have to say that it was good and not greasy with a very nice crust.
A cooking experiment for us. Cal likes to be creative in the kitchen while my creativity is behind the camera or on paper or the web.

Sometimes Life is Overwhelming

I used to think I scrapbooked to relax. Now, I know I need to be relaxed to do it. It's been a hard week. I had surgery which should have been tough but has actually been OK. I instantly knew that my knee was fixed. Now my right knee is back to being my bad one. I have some post op discomfort but I would not call it pain. No big deal. I'm being cautious and trying not to overdo because I don't want to screw anything up. It's good. I think I was pretty stressed before the surgery. To make things worse I needed to take my son to the ER in the early am of the day before my surgery. He's in the hospital and I see a little improvement. The hard part is wondering how he'll do once he is released. Maybe Monday? Tough. I'd really like to know. Oh, well. It is the weekend. I know I'll hear Monday, maybe someone will speak to me tomorrow.
My Mom is better after her pulmonary embolus. Tough lady! She is anxious to leave her assisted living and move to a spot in Victoria. I cannot blame her. As pretty as the Okanogan is, it is isolated. The flowers I send her never seem to arrive. It's hell to get there by plane. It's a pretty long drive and thee are the mountains to deal with. At least there is more family in Victoria and it's way easier for me to get there.
I don't feel like photography or scrapbooking. I've been writing a bit and thinking of making stuff. A shout out to May Flaum who always gets those creative play gears churning in my brain!
I was happy to see Joe got to do some arts and crafts today and did some nice creative collage of happier places and times. I hope we can help him get well soon.
So, dear blog readers, no great creativity here this week. Life goes on and have some crop times planned ahead. These escapes always get the juices flowing. It will happen.
Hope everyone is having a pleasant summer!

Weekend in San Francisco

Lyn and Rod were here on vacation from Australia. Cal and I had a great night out with them at Beach Blanket Babylon and then Pantarei restaurant.
The huge head dresses the performers wear are always a treat in this fast paced show. Fabulous talent, very funny!
The drive from Sacramento to San Francisco was not great fun. That trip is getting worse. Too bad there were not good train connections for when we wanted to go. That would have made it a better trip.
The time in the city was splendid though and the drive back not too bad.
This has been our year for musical theater! Season almost over for the Music Circus here in Sacramento. This past Sunday evening was a very good production of Annie Get Your Gun. Our favorite show, so far this year, has been Anything Goes. Vicki Lewis was splendid as Reno.
Getting my knee arthroscopy later this week so may not be doing much blogging for a few days. I'm looking forward to being able to walk faster than a snail and further than 2 aisles of a grocery store!

Yes, more classes, more pages

I'm taking a writing class, too. I'm sorta keeping up with assignments but my first drafts are coming out too personal and painful for the blog. I need to look at these again and see what I really was trying to say in my essays. I don't feel down. A little stressed, yes. Scrapbooking is a good hobby to decrease my stress.

Journal entries on scrapbook pages

You'd think that a blogger would generally have scrapbook pages with a lot of stories on them. Nope, not me. However the classes I'm taking at BPC: http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/ are all about writing this week. Write Now! with Amy and The Mother LOAD with Lain are two of my current classes. Elizabeth's Design Challenges helped inspire the following layout. I owe Alison Davis' class for the page LO design though it just barely has anything to do with her sketch. It's what Alson calls an 'extreme' interpretation. Scraplifters usually say "making it my own".

Journal block reads:

I was puzzling over a scrapbook challenge class at BPC taught by Elizabeth Dillow. One challenge was to use symbols on a page to tell our story. I thought of the Adinkra symbols I was introduced to in Ghana. So, I went to my computer and began to review my photos of Ghana. While doing that, I saw this other symbol – the skull and crossbones over a door. This photo said ”Tell this story.” Adinkra symbols are for another day, another page.

 There were actually a lot of stories that were very meaningful from my visit to Ghana. The stories about the slave trade were the most heart wrenching. Ghana’s history  includes the nations that were the early explorers of the seas coming for the gold. Later, powerful countries came to use Ghana as a base for the slave trade.

Many of the early Europeans  built beautiful castle-like fortresses. It’s strange the emotions one has when you see these buildings. They exist in a setting of sea, sand, palm trees, colorful houses and fishing boats. This sharply contrasts with the towering walls, barred and  grated windows and doors, and prison cells. Some of these places have, even in the not so distant past, been used as prisons for political prisoners. In slave trade days, dozens of human beings were crammed together in the cells before being loaded in chains into ships. You hear stories of the atrocities committed against these people and tears well up.

The terror these hundreds of thousands of enslaved individuals must have felt as they passed through this “door of no return” at Elmina Castle (now a museum) is beyond my imagining.  Going through this door meant they’d never see their homes or their family again and would spend what remained of their lives in miserable subjugation. 

A New Month - a new blog post

I'm an off again on again blogger, though I am determined to blog at least twice a month. Sometimes, I even post a few days in a row.
Right now, I am doing a lot of scrapbooking. It's my escape.
(Family stress, health matters including a surgery date to "fix" my knee this month are reasons for the need to escape.)
Did two DPLO's this weekend

Lots of fun! I'm still finishing up other projects from the Color Connections class at Green Tangerines. Friend Gina and I attended and sat at same table. Loads of fun!

Hmmm, yes, lots yet to finish and three LO's for the BPC challenge class to finish. Oh, well. A little bit here and there and it's done.

Wrestled with Quicken and finally got it working properly. Sigh! I'm bad enough at doing the bills without struggling with my computer program. Was on the phone with Wells Fargo for a while before he finally said -it's a software problem. Found my answer in Quicken support. Thank goodness! Still, some checks going out late.

Participated in Ali Edward's Week In The Life class at Big Picture Classes. This meant lots of picture taking, though the number diminished by the end of the week. 

It wasn't a too crazy week, thank goodness. Now, I have photos, some ephemera and may never get these into an album. Maybe? Fun to participate though.

Naturally, a busy weekend means a painful start to a new week. It was worth it though. Had fun! 

Ate at the Melting Pot restaurant with good friends Joann and Bill before the Music Circus production of Anything Goes. The fondue was good though Cal's comment was that it was the most cooking he'd ever witnessed by me in all 22 years of marriage. Probably too true, LOL! Enjoyed the show a lot. Thanks for coming with us J&B. Have had fun going to the shows with different friends and family members each week. Good summer series!