Janet's Smiles

E is for Explore, Errands, Exercise

Posted on April 6, 2022 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

For my A to Z this year I’m EXPLORING the different things you can do on a date. As I’ve said, next month my husband and I will be married 38 years and I don’t think that being married that long is a reason to give up on dating.

Case in point, a couple of years ago we went to Oregon to visit hubby’s mother and while we have been there many times, we usually just stay around the house. His mom is 96, doesn’t go out anymore and takes naps during the day so this time I said, “Let’s go do something different while we’re here,” We found the Lava Butte in the Deschutes National Forest. It was very interesting to see the remnants of the volcano. We walked all the way up to the top where there is a fire lookout. The weather was gorgeous and the view spectacular. Even if you are familiar with an area, it is fun to go exploring new things.

Exercise is another thing that you can do together, even if it something as simple as taking a walk around the block. I will admit that exercise is not something that I enjoy doing but taking a walk around the block isn’t bad. This was before we had our dog, Benny. As you can see above, the path around the cinder cone and the ramp we had to climb to get to the lookout at the top of the Butte got us some exercise as well!

And lastly there are errands. You may not think that’s a fun date but I’ll tell you it certainly is nice to have his company when I go to the grocery store or Costco. Most of the time it is more expensive because he always seems to find things to add to the cart but it’s still nice that he’s there. We’ve had some pretty deep discussions as we go from place to place. Just the other day we went looking for material to put a fence around the front yard so we can let Benny go outside and play without worrying he’ll run into the street.

So what do you think, am I covering some good date ideas? Can I make it through the rest of the alphabet? Would you consider running errands a date?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to z 2022, errands, exercise, explore, Lava Butte | 39 Comments

D is for Dinner, Drive-In, Dancing

Posted on April 5, 2022 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Going out to dinner is a typical thing to do on a date, right? We have a favorite restaurant that we go to sometimes 3 times a year, once for my birthday, once for hubby’s birthday and once for our anniversary. It is Benihana and it is kind of expensive so we’ve cut down a bit. It is one of those restaurants where they cook the food right at your table. The chef usually does some fancy tricks as he is cooking, like making smiley faces with the eggs and a heart shape with the rice. We’ve been so often that we usually know what’s going to happen in advance but if there are kids at the table it is fun to see their reaction.

For the longest time they would take a picture of you for your birthday. The last couple times we went was after the pandemic and I didn’t see them do it anymore. We are going again on Thursday because Bill’s birthday is this week and we got a $30.00 coupon to use during his birthday month!

One fun date that I don’t have any personal pictures for is the Drive-in. We used to have a few around us but like the bowling alleys, they are mostly gone. The closest one is about 45 minutes or an hour away. Still, if you do have one nearby, it is a fun date. I know there were a couple of pop-up ones in vacant lots during the pandemic but we didn’t go. Now you can listen to the audio through your car radio instead of having the speakers that come through the window. Nothing worse than getting all settled and then finding out the speakers don’t work!

And then there’s dancing. While I love to dance, my hubby has to be in the right mood and it has to be the right song. Needless to say, that is not one of the things we do very often anymore. These are from some company Christmas parties we went to when he was still working for Sara Lee Coffee and Tea. There is an Arthur Murray Dance Studio located very close to us and I had considered signing us up for some lessons. We are going to a wedding at the end of the month and maybe I’ll get him to dance one or two with me then.

Not too many pictures this time but at least I’m still in the game. See you tomorrow with E.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to z 2022, Benihana, dancing, dinner, drive-in | 34 Comments

C is for Concerts, Costumes, Cards

Posted on April 4, 2022 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

I’ve written many times about the concerts we go to. I even did two A to Zs about the scrapbook pages I have done to remember them, first in 2017 and the second time in 2020. Our most recent concert was last Thursday when we saw Journey and Toto at Chase Center. I had not intended to get tickets even though we love Journey because the tickets were expensive and we don’t like to sit too far away. At the last minute we heard that our friends were going so I thought I’d take a look to see what tickets were left. It was the day before show and I guess there were some tickets that didn’t sell and I managed to get seats in the 5th row on the floor! They were less expensive than some seats shown farther away.

We met our friends on their boat (named Journey!) for cocktails and snacks and then walked to the venue, our first time at Chase since it opened a couple years ago. We had to shoo the seals off the walkway to get by. It looked like they were on a date too! Actually it looked like it was mating season for the seals because there were a bunch of them prancing around in the water. Maybe they were on the way to the concert as well.

I have my face turned to the side in the photo because I tripped over the cable cover on the way to our seats and ended up with a cut lip. Turned into a nice fat bruise the next day. No pictures of that!

Toto was great and my husband even got the attention of Steve Lukather because he (my hubby) brought his book, The Gospel According to Luke, and waved it in the air. I mean he (Steve), looked in our direction and nodded so I’m gonna say we got his attention – LOL.

Journey was great too. They did 19 of their hits including my favorite Journey song, Faithfully.

I wish I could have been this close when Steve Perry was with the group. Still, it was a great night and we were even interviewed on our way in by a reporter from the Chronicle but I guess our comments weren’t newsworthy enough to make it into the article. Anyway, I guess you could say concerts are our number one date nights.

Dressing up in costume is another fun thing to do on a date. We went to a Halloween party early in our relationship. He was a pirate and I was his wench. I made my costume. Old time western style photos are my favorite. It’s been a while since we’ve done one of those so maybe I can talk him into doing another one. I know that photo booths are a big hit at weddings as well. Something about becoming another person for a while is exciting. My blog is rated PG or I might talk about some other types of costumes too…

And last but not least is cards. I mentioned putting baseball cards in order but we also played with a regular deck of cards. We used to play canasta for hours. That’s really a cheap date, right?

Have I given you any new ideas for date nights so far? Let’s see what I can come up with for D. See you tomorrow.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to z 2022, cards, concerts, costumes, Journey | 24 Comments

B is for Bowling, Baseball, Beach

Posted on April 2, 2022 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Bowling has always been a fun thing for us to do. We were on a few leagues together and I even managed to win a couple trophies. I was actually on a league and bowling during my eighth month of pregnancy with our first. My husband is the better bowler and even bowled a perfect 300 game once. Sadly I wasn’t there to see it because I was home with the kids. I laugh because he wears his 300 ring when we go out but not his wedding ring, which doesn’t fit. We did go bowling in 2020 for my birthday, right before things were shut down because of Covid. My form is not so hot but I did get a strike!

I couldn’t leave baseball out of the dating game. We have tickets in the 415 section again this year so we’re looking forward to that. But, in our younger days I had fun watching my hubby play on his leagues. He was a pitcher and a pretty good one too. (I think that’s why he was able to win those stuffed animals I talked about yesterday.) I would sit in the stands and cheer him on. “Go hun!” I would yell. Pretty soon the other guys on the team were calling him “hun” too.

But another thing we used to do when we were dating was collect baseball cards and organize them. Hours and hours would be spent putting them in numerical order. We still have them too, and have added to the collection through the years. Now he organizes them with our son. He even has his own baseball card!

And last but not least is the beach. We are so fortunate to live close enough to get to the beach whenever we want, but don’t take advantage of it too often. I love to watch the waves crashing in and smell the salt water. We’ll have to start taking Benny there more.

Okay, made it through “B.” Good thing we have a day off tomorrow. I want to say up front that I am going to try and get to visit some new folks on Sundays because I probably can’t do it during the week.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to z 2022, baseball, beach, bowling | 40 Comments

A is for Aquarium, Arcade, Amusement Park

Posted on April 1, 2022 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Next month my husband and I will be married for 38 years. We have been together for 40. When we were discussing marriage and having kids, one of the things I said was that it was important to me that we continue to have date nights. I felt it was necessary for us to keep our relationship with each other strong, especially after having the kids because eventually they would move on and have their own lives. Let’s face it, being together for 40 years is a long time and things definitely can get routine and mundane. Lots of outside pressures, financial, health, jobs, etc., can get to be overwhelming and without some release it would be easy to put the relationship on auto-pilot and take each other for granted.

While we haven’t actually set a “routine” for date nights and there were many years when dates were few and far between, I think we’ve done a pretty good job. We go to many concerts, baseball games and out to dinner or lunch at least monthly. In searching for something to write about for the A to Z, I came across a few lists for different activities that you could do on a date. Some of them we have already done, some I hope to do in the future and some we probably won’t do but I thought I’d include them anyway because you might like to do them. Are you ready?

A is for Aquarium. I mentioned the Aquarium of the Bay last year in my A to Z of San Francisco under the P for Pier 39, because that’s where it is. There is also the Steinhart Aquarium in the Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park. We have been to that one many times on field trips with the kids. If you want to travel a bit further, there is the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We’ve been to that one too and I was going to try and find the pictures but time got away from me.

Why is an aquarium a good thing to do on a date? Well, it is a good place to show off your knowledge of and/or love for animals. There are interesting things going on underwater sometimes too.

Another fun place for a date is an arcade. We haven’t been to the Musee Mecanique yet but there is an arcade area in Circus Circus casino in Reno. My husband loves to show off his skills tossing the ball into the milk carton and last time we were there he won this huge stuffed dog for me. Of course I was the one who had to carry it around for the rest of the day but before we left he found a little child and asked the parents if it was okay for him to give the dog to them. Thank goodness because I don’t really need a big stuffed dog.

Rounding off our A adventure is Amusement Park. We used to go to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and to Great America but haven’t been in a long time. Honestly there was a point where I was so overweight I was afraid I wouldn’t fit on the rides. Then hubby’s back injury happened and now I don’t want to go for fear he’ll hurt his back on a roller coaster. We went to Disneyland for our honeymoon and while you might not consider that a date, it was pretty romantic. Bill had never been there before so it was fun for me to see his reaction.

So there we have the A complete! I may or may not get more detailed as the letters go on. I tentatively have 3 examples for each letter planned but who knows what will happen!

And in order to save space on my site I’m only posting the A to Z badge once, in honor of Jeremy who was the graphics guru for so many years. Your turn. Any A ideas for great dates that I missed? Please make sure to visit others participating in this fun challenge!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to z 2022, Amusement Park, Aquarium | 36 Comments

Muddling Through March – 2022 Lesson Learned

Posted on March 28, 2022 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

So we learned something new today about the meaning of “unattached” media files. I was going through my photos on WP trying to save some space by using previously uploaded pictures in my upcoming A to Z draft posts. I noticed there were occasionally some duplicate photos and since I just had to pay for more space, I thought that if I deleted some of the duplicates it would help. But how to know which ones are actually duplicates and which ones are attached to a post?

Well, there’s a drop down menu that says,”unattached” so I thought, great. I’ll delete the unattached ones. Sadly, according to WP, unattached doesn’t necessarily mean they are not attached to a post, it means they were uploaded directly to the post not through the media file :(. Which means that some of my posts now don’t have pictures in them anymore. Fortunately, most of them were from 2020 and earlier so I’ll just have to be careful if I am linking to a prior post that I double check it to make sure it is complete. Uggg. Anybody else learn a valuable lesson today?

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments

Muddling Through March – 2022 – Ready?

Posted on March 27, 2022 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

The A to Z is set to start next week and I am not even close to being ready. I have my topic and some vague ideas of what I’m going to talk about but usually by this time I at least have the drafts for each letter and a few pictures uploaded. This year…nada. I’ve decided that today I’m going to at least get all 26 drafts started and hopefully A and B done.

What’s the holdup this year? I’m not 100% sure. Perhaps I’m over complicating the theme. I mean, thinking of activities to do on dates should be easy, right? I even have a list of ideas I was going to choose from. Maybe it’s because I wanted my husband and I to actually go on these dates so I’d have pictures and I know that’s not happening with the time we have left. Maybe it’s that I wanted to do more research. Maybe it’s because I’ve been busy with actual typing work and making money takes priority over playing on the internet. I even gave a half-second thought to changing the theme but a) I don’t know what to change it to unless I do more of my concert album and that requires A LOT of time and b) I got a lot of positive responses from my faithful followers that they were looking forward to my take on the subject and I hate to disappoint. So, today is draft day. Maybe once I get them started I’ll be more inspired.

Speaking of inspiration, let me leave with a few of the things I’ve been working on for the Etsy Shop. Truthfully, these were done before the last show I did and I just didn’t have time to put them up until the other day.

Can you tell I really love the exploding boxes? I have some papers picked out for a couple of Mother’s Day ones. I also love working with the Creative Memories card kits. Being a consultant helps with that.

Anyway, there we are. How far are you with your A to Z progress? Shall we take bets to see if I can make it?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to z 2022, cards, Creative Memories, easter, exploding boxes | 17 Comments

Muddling Through March – 2022 – Tripping

Posted on March 12, 2022 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Well, Thursday was my birthday. I’m 67. I at first thought I was going to be 68 but when I realized I was only 67 I felt so much younger. Actually I feel pretty good. My weight has been plateaued for a couple months but it is down from last year by about 15 pounds so I’m okay with that. I still have another 25 or so to go. Because I’ve been eating healthier my blood tests are all normal, I don’t have to take meds for diabetes anymore and my blood pressure is in acceptable range.

About the only problem I have is my right knee. It has been off center since I had a tripping incident when the kids were younger and we were at a roller skating rink. A young person stopped short in front of me and in order to avoid rolling over them I did a quick pivot and my knee didn’t quite make the same movement. And then there was that time that I tripped down the back steps and actually broke my kneecap.

I can tell you it is no fun being in a leg brace, even one that is bendable. I am not really coordinated when it comes to crutches either. So my leg does occasionally ache but I think having 70 pounds less to carry around helps with that too.

I much prefer the kind of trip we made Thursday which was to Graton Casino. I was hoping that they would give some kind of bonus for it being my birthday but they said they stopped doing that when they reopened after the pandemic. I’d think they would have kept something like that to encourage people to make the trip there but what do I know?

I did have a short bit of excitement when I got this winner!

Pennies folks, these are pennies we’re betting.

Unfortunately, as exciting as that was, we didn’t win enough to allow me to retire – LOL. I may or may not have been doing some research for my upcoming A to Z theme of dating. I’ll let you be the judge of that. Which type of trip would you prefer? A trip to the ER after a fall or a trip to a casino where you could possibly win some money? Thanks to Linda for the prompt for today’s SoCS.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged gambling, graton casino, kneecap, SoCS, trip | 28 Comments

Muddling Through March – 2022 – A to Z Theme Reveal

Posted on March 7, 2022 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

It is time once again for the A to Z Blogging Challenge Theme Reveal! For those of you who haven’t traveled through the alphabet with me before, this is your chance. Beginning Friday April 1 and ending Saturday April 30 (with the exception of Sundays) I, along with hundreds of other bloggers, will be filling the universe (well internet) with our own takes on what the letters A to Z can mean.

This will be my 7th year and my themes so far have been music, scrapbooking concerts (twice), the A to Z of Michaels Arts and Crafts store, scrapbooking in general and last year I did the A to Z of San Francisco. I was struggling to come up with an idea for this year. While I love doing the scrapbooking of my concerts, I wasn’t sure I could get another alphabet’s worth of different artists and even if I could stretch it using song titles, I knew I didn’t have the time to scrapbook 26 more shows before April. I haven’t been driving to San Francisco routinely and I think I pretty much got all of the main sites last year anyway. I’m not working outside the house (yet) so I have no interesting stores to take you through. What’s a girl to do? Google it of course!

So I Googled “A to Z” and several possibilities came up but the one I settled on is “The A to Z of Dating.” Even though the hubby and I have been married for 37 years (38 in May), I still believe in date nights. When we first got married, before the kids came along, I told him that it was important to me that we not lose sight of why we got together in the first place. Of course with the kids and life circumstances (work, health issues, lack of funds, a pandemic – you get the idea) it was not always easy to get some time to ourselves and there were many years when dating just wasn’t happening.

But, with this A to Z challenge I’m going to try and show some things that you can do for a date night that don’t necessarily cost much money or take a lot of time. I’ll be going through our old photos to relive some of those early dates (which could be a date in itself!) and hopefully we can go on a couple of new experiences that I can write about during the month ahead. I’m looking forward to exploring this topic and hope that you’ll enjoy it too. Got any ideas for those tricky months like Q, X, Y, Z? Will you be doing the A to Z this year?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to z 2022, blog challenge, dating, theme reveal | 48 Comments

Muddling Through March – 2022

Posted on March 1, 2022 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

It’s my birthday month. I don’t usually celebrate it for the whole month but I know some people do. I made this as the cover in my yearbook…

I think it resembles me. I have no blogging challenges but I should really be getting ready for the A to Z next month. I think I have my theme? Not as 100% sold on it as I was last year but it might be too late to try and think of something else.

Just got notified that I’m accepted to the next step in the hiring process at the library. In-person interview and cart test (putting the books in order) next Tuesday. While I said in the last post that I was busy, I can’t predict how the whole year will go. Won’t hurt to do the interview. Happy March!