Black Belt Living

The Most Wonderful Time Of the Year

It's been a long time since our man Carson Palmer got his knee torn apart in the playoffs last year, but as we all saw last night....HE'S BACK and he's BETTER THAN EVER!

It's shaping up to be a really good season of football parties if last night's Monday Night Football game was any indication. We were hoping that the Bengals would rack up "half-a-hundy" against the Green Bay Packers and for a while it looked like we'd do just that. But it is pre-season and you have to let the scrubs play too, so we settled for scoring a mere 48 points.

Remembering the years where we'd be lucky to gain 48 yards, 48 points is JUST FINE.

Welcome back to the Jungle, Carson!

Photos from ESPN.com

Fun With Photoshop

I've been doing some scrapping today, trying to stay ahead of my assignments to save my sanity and got to playing around with PS actions again.

What do you think? I finally figured out how to make Alabaster Portrait work. This is my friend Alison. Isn't she gorgeous? Frame by my other gorgeous pal, Anna.

Digital photography is so much fun!

Blur!

Blur!

That's what this entire summer has been! School starts for Shannon on Wednesday and while we're equipped and ready to go (okay, we're still waiting for THE backpack to arrive in the mail), I can't believe that it's that time of year again.

I didn't get any scrapping done this weekend. Lots of family things going on behind the scenes these days that are keeping all of us running here, there and everywhere. My father in law had his surgery on Friday and is doing as well as can be expected. He might even be released from the hospital as early as today, which is pretty remarkable. Tomorrow is more likely, however.

Anybody else need some rain? We sure do. Our back yard has turned into a dust bowl. Typical for August.

Not much to report today, so I leave you with some silly kid photos that I've taken over the last week or so.

And the Game Ball Goes To...

The guys, especially the OLD ones, from Kohnen and Patton!

Two years ago everybody was all excited when after almost twenty years, the smart nerdy guys from Kohnen and Patton clawed their way to the championship of the Cincinnati Bar Association softball league tournament, only to be handed a cruel and lopsided defeat at the hands of The Bears.

We were still proud. This is a league where some of the teams have a lawyer or two and the rest are filled with guys who make softball a profession. I'm sure you know the type. Big jocks with nothing else to do, as opposed to our team, full of guys with a lot more brainpower than brawn. You know, the skinny nerdy guys who weren't always picked first to be on the all star teams.

Well last night was revenge as K&P once again found themselves in the championship game, this time facing the not-so-nasty, but still really good, Shamrocks.

K&P managed to hold a slim lead into the bottom of the seventh inning (seven is a complete game) when the Shamrocks dug deep and scored three runs to tie it up and send the titanic struggle into extra innings. Our guys managed to dig a little deeper, however, cranking out three runs in the top of the eighth and holding the Shamrocks scoreless in the bottom of the inning to take the victory and the championship.

And yes, there was a party! Congratulations to all of the guys and their families. This is a long overdue and very well deserved title and we're all so proud of you!

Sometimes nerds DO rule, even in sports!

Oh "I" Oh!

Oh happy day!

IKEA is coming and it's going to be right near my office! I'm just dancing in my soon to be better-organized-in-a-Sweedish-kind-of-way boots.

Crate and Barrel is coming too. I think I'll hold off on buying those new dishes that I've been wanting.....

Cancer Sucks

What else can you say about it? It's unexpected, unfair, and undeniable. Cancer doesn't care if you're rich or poor, old or young, religious or not. It's an equal opportunity offender.

This is my Uncle Don. A year ago, he was diagnosed with malignant myeloma. It's a blood cancer that attacks the plasma cells. Since his diagnosis, he's had two stem cell transplants and so much chemo that we've lost count. He's had a miserable year to say the least, but he's in remission now, thank God.

We lost his brother, my Uncle Slick, to leukemia several years ago. My neighbor, Chris, is dying of leukemia. He's at MD Anderson in Houston right now doing an experimental program as a last resort to save his life. He's got two little children under age 4.

My other neighbor, Moe, is recovering from treatment for colon cancer, as is our friend Mitch.

Andy's secretary, Stephanie, is undergoing chemo for breast cancer. If the chemo and the cancer weren't bad enough, her lung collapsed this week while she was getting her chemo. She can't seem to get out of the hospital. My friend Sylvia is going through treatment as well.

My friend Kelly's dad is in treatment for prostate cancer along with Andy's Uncle Bill and one of the partners in his law firm.

Karen, a college friend of mine, died of ovarian cancer about a year ago. She never had children, her cancer was found when she went through infertility treatments.

My freind David's mom died of lung cancer while we were in college. It was horrible. I'll never forget those days. My friend Bill's mom has lung cancer as well. Ginger's dad died of lung cancer.

My friend Diane is a survivor, she beat uterine cancer, also found through infertility treatments. Her sister in law beat leukemia. I know several women who beat breast cancer. Rock on! There are more and more survivors beating this nightmare every day.

Yesterday we got another call. My father in law has lung cancer. What can you say?

Don't smoke and if you do, try to quit. Your life isn't worth it.

Take care of yourself.

Pray.

Cancer sucks.

Adventures of Snack Mom

All this week, I've been helping out at our annual children's religious education camp. It's great! The kids go to camp every day for two weeks and consequently get to skip the traditional weekly Catholic religioius education (catechism) classes. A lot of the kids hate it, but mine really loves it and gets a lot out of it.

Yesterday my role was "snack mom". Lucky snack moms get to stand outside in the parking lot where it's scortchingly hot and sunny and pass out lemonade and junk food to all of the children in shifts. I never look forward to it.

But yesterday was kind of fun. It was cloudy and not quite so hot, so that was better than usual. And I got a great partner ~ one of my former paint clients that I hadn't seen in quite a while. It was a lot of fun catching up with her between shifts.

And then there was David. Kids always say funny things and David cracked me up. We didn't have enough rice krispie treats for the kids to get seconds, but David kept trying. He was hanging around the snack table trying to find an angle. Finally he said "I eat candy and sweets all of the time. In fact, I don't eat real food. My family is poor, so all we ever eat are the lollypops that they give out at the drive through window at the bank!". I nearly fell over laughing, because this kid is FAR from poor. Nice try, however. He didn't get another rice krispie treat.

CZ Rocks!

When I was in Atlanta for CKU two weeks ago, I bought three new idea books. I got Big Picture, Elsie's Book, and Cathy's new sequel to Clean & Simple.

I'm pretty wishy-washy when it comes to scrapbooking idea books. I usually flip through them, then turn around and sell them on eBay.

Except.

For.

Cathy's.

Books.

When I read her first Clean and Simple, it rocked my writing. It really spoke to me. Maybe because her mind works a lot like mine does when it comes to scrapbooking. She thinks like I think (I'm older, that's why she thinks like me instead of vice-versa!). Anyhow, after reading that book, I cranked out some of the best layouts of my life with journaling that really meant something to me. I even stepped out of my comfort zone and emailed her some reallly personal journaling that her book had inspired me to write...a story that most likely would have never made it out of my head without the inspiration and courage that I found in her book. Graciously, she answered my email, having read my journaling and I'll never forget her kindness in her response. Thanks Cathy!

So anyhow, I bought her new book two weeks ago and I hesitated to open it, because I knew that reading THAT book would rock me to the core again and open those flood gates of emotion and inspiration. I'm on vacation this week and found myself with some available time to kill yesterday so I cracked it open. Yeppers ~ wow, wow, WOW! I haven't finished it yet, but it's a good thing that I'm on vacation because I'll probably be up all night writing and scrapping.

Ironically, there was one thing in there that I read that really stuck with me. She suggested "take a photo that you've been wanting to scrap and just do it". Well I know which photo that is. It's my favorite photo of my husband and I. We were in Rotorua, New Zealand in 2005 at the Maori Culture Center posing with some native Maori people. I LOVE that photo. Sadly, it used to be in a frame and now that frame has gone missing. I MISS that photo. I have no idea where it went or disappeared to. I wish it would reappear. The irony is that in reading Cathy's blog yesterday, she posted photos from that very same place ~ the Maori Cultural Center in New Zealand. What an odd coincidence, but really cool!

So I thank the fabulous Mrs. Z. for giving me so much...inspiration to write, much better graphic design and typography lessons than I got from my high school yearbook editor [grin], for enabling me to buy all things Apple, for getting me hooked on men with eyeliner, but mainly for being so kind and generous with her time and her spirit.

Photos from CKU-Atlanta. My friend and co-worker Laura is a big fan too ;-). Then there's Ali. She's certainly blog worthy as well!

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Hooray for photo-ops!

Yesterday we went to our annual St. John Fisher parish picnic. It's always fun, but it's always hot. Last year it was really hot, this year was no exception. YOu know, it's the kind of heat and humidity where you can just feel the sweat running down your back and in your bra. Yeeech!

But obviously, there must be some reason to get somebody like me out there in that blasting heat. The games are hilarious, the food is outrageously good, and the beer is cold and free. That gets the adults there. The kids just have a blast regardless.

One of the fun games is all of the married women line up with a raw egg and try to hit one of our lovely parishoners, Mr. Benken with it. He holds a frying pan in front of his face with a bull's eye on it. It sounds dorky, I know, but it's hilarious. These women mean BUSINESS, I tell you. The grand prize is a pound of Godiva chocolate, so you can imagine. I managed to hit the frying pan yesterday, but didn't hit the bullseye, so I didn't win. Maybe next year. I'm not a seasoned veteran of the egg throw like some of the other women in the parish.

This was the first time I ever took photos at the picnic. It was interesting. Walk around a parish event with a big camera and an even BIGGER lens and watch the men come flocking. It's not quite the same appeal as a big power tool, but it's a gadget and they loved it. Single women, take note....walk around with a nice camera and a big lens and you'll get some attention. Walk a dog with that same camera around your neck and you never know what might happen! Then again, you might get stuck in an endless conversation with an old gentleman who is insistant that there will never be any decent alternative to film...... Smile and nod, smile and nod.....

Some people did bring their dogs and the dogs loved it. Imagine gobs of little kids dropping hot dogs, cookies, and all sorts of picnic food all over the place.....

So here's a few more pics from the afternoon. Can you figure out which one is our priest (and no, it's not Mr. Benken with the frying pan!)?

Mom, the Cookies are on Fire!

A year or so ago, my friends just to tease me about being somebody who was a cross between Martha Stewart and Bree VandeKamp. Well, needless to say, those domestic goddess days are gone. I went and got myself a real J-O-B. Need I say more?

So now, between dodging the dog hair tumbleweeds in the hall and looking past the grunge everywhere, occasionally I make time to do something domestic with my daughter. Last night was one of those nights. Despite week one of South Beach diet, I agreed to bake cookies last night and let her do the majority of the work. It was fun, UNTIL.....

I'm sitting in my chair watching So You Think You Can Dance (can I just say how much I love this show? As far as I'm concerned, all the guys could have stayed and all the women last night could have gone...). Anyhow, I'm sitting in my chair and I hear a scream and a "MOM, THE COOKIES ARE ON FIRE!"

Now how on earth can chocolate cookie dough catch fire a minute after you put it into your 375 degree oven? So I stroll back out there only to look through the glass and see big sparks and yes, big FLAME! Oh yikes! I've lived through a kitchen fire in the past and it was scary. I turned off the oven, but the sparks and flame keep on going ~ it was the heating element. I called Andy in to the kitchen and here we are dragging a burning range out away from the cabinets so that we can pull the plug. After we got the plug out of the wall, the fire and sparks stopped. Maybe that box of baking soda that was still on the counter would have been a good idea...of course I didn't think of that until later when the fire was out.

So a hotter than blazes day here ended last night with a little too much excitement. I'm calling the repair dude out today because I do NOT want to have to buy a new range.

As for the cookies, I put them into the toaster over and proceeded to burn the snot out of them. Of course, there wasn't one left this morning. I don't know if the dog got them, or the rest of the family, but somebody liked them.