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Sunday, March 29, 2020

March Madness - 2020 - Song Lyric Sunday - Touch

Happy Song Lyric Sunday folks.  Jim's prompt is Touch/Feel.  Thought of this one during our time of social distancing:

Invisible Touch
Well I've been waiting, waiting here so long
But thinking nothing, nothing could go wrong, but now I know
She has a built in ability
To take everything she sees
And now it seems I'm falling, falling for her.
She seems to have an invisible touch yeah
She reaches in, grabs right hold of your heart
She seems to have an invisible touch yeah
It takes control and slowly tears you apart.
I don't really know her, I only know her name
But she crawls under your skin, you're never quite the same, and now I know
She's got something you just can't trust
It's something mysterious
And now it seems I'm falling, falling for her.
She seems to have an invisible touch yeah
She reaches in, grabs right hold of your heart
She seems to have an invisible touch yeah
It takes control and slowly tears you apart.
She don't like losing, to her it's still a game
Though she'll mess up your life, you'll want her just the same, now I know
She has a built in ability
To take everything she sees
And now it seems I've fallen, fallen for her.
She seems to have an invisible touch yeah
She reaches in, grabs right hold of your heart
She seems to have an invisible touch yeah
It takes control and slowly tears you apart.
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Anthony George Banks / Phillip David Charles Collins / Michael Rutherford
Invisible Touch lyrics © Concord Music Publishing LLC




I wrote about seeing Genesis for the A to Z in 2017.  It was a great show and I saw that they were going to tour again in Europe but that had to be cancelled of course.  Who knows when we'll be able to go to concerts anymore and Phil Collins wasn't in the best of health as it was.  Even more reason I am so happy I took so many pictures of the ones we did attend.  Stay safe out there people.





Tuesday, March 24, 2020

March Madness - 2020 - Escapist Coloring Club

Linda is so good about giving us things to do to occupy our time and helping us keep connected.  At the beginning of the month she hosts the Escapist Coloring Club and I know we've all had some time this month for coloring, right?  Here are my entries for the month.




My son got me a Magical Jungle coloring book for Christmas and these are from that book.  I have been coloring while I watch movies with my husband.  He says he can tell how much I like the movie by how much coloring I do.  LOL  What have you been coloring this month?




Sunday, March 22, 2020

March Madness - 2020 - Song Lyric Sunday - Promises

We lost Kenny Rogers this week.  He was 81 and had had some health issues for a while so it wasn't truly a surprise, but it is still sad.  He made some beautiful music.

Another artist who made some beautiful music was John Denver.  Tragically he passed away in 1997 when the plane he was flying crashed just down the highway from us near Monterey Bay.  Here is Poems, Prayers and Promises.

Poems, Prayers and Promises
I've been lately thinking
About my life's time
All the things I've done
And how it's been
And I can't help believing
In my own mind
I know I'm gonna hate to see it end
I've seen a lot of sunshine
Slept out in the rain
Spent a night or two all on my own
I've known my lady's pleasures
Had myself some friends
And spent a time or two in my own home
And I have to say it now
It's been a good life all in all
It's really fine
To have a chance to hang around
And lie there by the fire
And watch the evening tire
While all my friends and my old lady
Sit and pass the pipe around
And talk of poems and prayers and promises
And things that we believe in
How sweet it is to love someone
How right it is to care
How long it's been since yesterday
And what about tomorrow
And what about our dreams
And all the memories we share
The days they pass so quickly now
Nights are seldom long
And time around me whispers when it's cold
The changes somehow frighten me
Still I have to smile
It turns me on to think of growing old
For though my life's been good to me
There's still so much to do
So many things my mind has never known
I'd like to raise a family
I'd like to sail away
And dance across the mountains on the moon
I have to say it now
It's been a good life all in all
It's really fine
To have the chance to hang around
And lie there by the fire
And watch the evening tire
While all my friends and my old lady
Sit and pass the pipe around
And talk of poems and prayers and promises
And things that we believe in
How sweet it is to love someone
How right it is to care
How long it's been since yesterday
What about tomorrow
What about our dreams
And all the memories we share
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: John Denver
Poems, Prayers and Promises lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.





"How long it's been since yesterday and what about tomorrow?"  Here's to the promise that we will have some more evenings to sit around the fire with friends.  Stay healthy. 

From Jim's prompt of promise/vow/oath. 















 

Saturday, March 21, 2020

March Madness - 2020 - #SoCS Welcome - PSA

Linda's Stream of Consciousness today is "Welcome."  Who knew when I started blogging this month that March Madness would be so apropos?

Since we all seem to be forced to be at home for a while, what about taking an online course?  Can't say you have no time (or you can but we know you'd be fibbing).  I am an affiliate with CreativeLive and they have a lot of different classes to try, some even for free.  It is not all about creating either, some have to do with finances and even health and wellness.

CreativeLive.com


Click the link to see what there is that you might like.  I've taken a few of the classes and they have been helpful for me. 

You're welcome :)

Monday, March 16, 2020

A to Z Challenge - 2020 - Theme Reveal


Theme Reveal #AtoZChallenge 2020 badge
In bloglandia it is almost time for the great A to Z Challenge of 2020.  For those of you unfamiliar with that, a group (sometimes very large group) get together and use the month of April to highlight the letters of the alphabet.  It seemed to me that last year was a bit smaller than past years, even though it was the 10 year anniversary.  I still had fun and am planning to join in again this year, my 5th.

In 2016 my theme was music.  Here's the link to that recap post where all the letters are listed.  In 2017 I did a music theme again but this time I incorporated my concert scrapbook album and showcased all the bands we had actually seen.  In 2018 I got away from the music and did an A to Z tour of a Michaels Arts and Crafts store where I happened to be working at the time.  Last year I used crafting again and the theme was all the different kinds of cards and mini-albums I make.   

I've decided that for this year's challenge I'm going back to the theme I used in 2017 and work on my concert album.  I figured out I can do another whole A to Z without duplicating any of the bands I used the last time!  Do you realize that means we've been to at least 52 different concerts?  Actually I know we've been to over 100 because I counted them.  If we include comedians and plays like Rock of Ages and Jersey Boys it is about 116!  There are some bands like Journey, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar and Fleetwood Mac that we've seen three or four times each.  As in 2017 I may take the liberty of using a song title instead of the group name but you know there are a couple tricky letters we have to deal with. 

As far as the scrapbooking part, I definitely have enough supplies to use.


Binder full of embellishments.
Stamps and stickers, papers.


And more papers and tidbits.



I'm looking forward to using a lot of different types of tools too. 

Punches

My Slice machine
I have a specific Music and Dance design cartridge that should come in handy.




Also, some templates to help me add a lot of pictures in fun ways.



I already have one whole album finished that goes from 1982 to 2009.  We didn't see that many concerts until around 2006 when we started going to multiple shows a year.


The first page looks like this:


It's pretty full, although in the beginning my pictures weren't that good and some shows I didn't even get pictures for, so just the information and ticket stubs are there.  




These are albums in progress if you will.  When we see a concert, I take the ticket stubs and any other bits of information like a review of the show or the set list and put them in a plastic sleeve as a place holder.  All of these are filled with those sleeves.  Some have completed pages from the 2017 A to Z and I am really looking forward to filling some more this year.

If blogging through the alphabet sounds like a fun idea, feel free to come on along!  The more the merrier.  I have learned so many interesting things from the different blog themes.  The sign up link is here.  Even if you don't want to do your own posts, I hope you follow along with me! 

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

March Madness - One Liner Wednesday - Drive Quote


                                

"Always focus on the front windshield and not the rearview mirror."  Colin Powell.

Easy to say but sometimes hard to do, hindsight being 20/20 and all.  I've been reflecting a bit about how I lived my life for the last 65 years.  A birthday can make you do that.  The bad news is, I can see some mistakes. 

The good news is, I can see some mistakes.  I can't take them away but I can try to be more aware of things I do now and try to stop them before they happen, or acknowledge them and ask for patience.

And I can focus on the windshield and not the rearview mirror.  This is what I saw out the windshield last night.  Isn't the sky gorgeous?       




#OLW brought to you by the lovely Linda.   Come play along. 

Sunday, March 8, 2020

March Madness - #SLS - Which Direction Will You Take?

Jim has given us North/South/East/West for our musical prompts today. 

I'm going with Sade, "Smooth Operator."  We saw her once and while the show itself was terrific, we were disappointed in the fact that because she started so late we couldn't stay to see the encore or we would miss our train home. 


Smooth Operator
Sade
Diamond life, lover boy
He move in space with minimum waste and maximum joy
City lights and business nights
When you require streetcar desire for higher heights
No place for beginners or sensitive hearts
When sentiment is left to chance
No place to be ending but somewhere to start
No need to ask, he's a smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator
Coast to coast, LA to Chicago, western male
Across the north and south, to Key Largo, love for sale
Face to face, each classic case
We shadow box and double cross
Yet need the chase
A license to love, insurance to hold
Melts all your memories and change into gold
His eyes are like angels but his heart is cold
No need to ask, he's a smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator
Coast to coast, LA to Chicago, western male
Across the north and south, to Key Largo, love for sale
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Raymond William St John / Sade Adu
Smooth Operator lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

And the video:



I also want to take a moment to share the latest Sketchbook I made which is now in the Brooklyn Art Library.  It has traveled 2800 miles as it went on a cross country road trip!  It has 280 online views.  I was not sharing it because when they first scanned it, they left out a couple of the pages.  It is now complete.  It is called "Let the Adventure Begin" and the theme is City Streets.  I think it covers the North, South, East and West prompt.

https://www.sketchbookproject.com/library/23203
https://www.sketchbookproject.com/library/23203



Have a wonderful Sunday!


























Saturday, March 7, 2020

March Madness - #SoCS - Go Figure

Well, Linda has given us the prompt of "Figure" and told us to use it any way we like and have fun.  There are lots of figures in my world these days.  Tuesday will be my birthday and the figure I'll see is 65!  That's right.  Medicare eligible!  In fact, I used Medicare for the first time yesterday when I had some blood tests done.  My last set of blood tests were done in September and since then I was able to stop taking my diabetes medicine completely.  I have also lost another 20 pounds and the figures reflect that.  My Hemoglobin A1C, which is the test for diabetes, is the same at 5.8 - in 2015 it was 8.1.  Normal is less than 5.6.  A year ago it was 7.3.

The figures I was wondering about were the cholesterol and triglyceride numbers because when eating keto-centered meals you are allowed to have fats and since Weight Watchers and Hungry Girl are all about low fat foods I was concerned that those figures would be higher.  Interestingly, this is what I saw:

 

This tells me that my cholesterols (good and bad) were normal when I started "Keto" and around September when I had lost almost 40 pounds, the levels were still normal but higher.  At that time I decided to try and modify the plan to limit the fat intake, my weight reduction speed has been slower but my blood levels have gotten better.  I'm okay with that. 


Speaking of figures, mine has changed a bit since last March:

March 2019 to March 2020

 Looks like I cleaned the mirror since last year too - LOL.

March 2019 to March 2020

I still have some hips and arms to deal with, but I have another 20 pounds to lose so I figure while I'm doing that I'll do some strengthening exercises.  My son is letting me borrow some 5 pound weights that I'm using at night for the arms and I'm doing some leg lifts too.  Maybe I'll get some ankle weights for when I walk Benny.  Do you figure that will help? 

This post was not exactly "stream of consciousness" because I did some research and planning but at least I used the prompt, right?  Have a most wonderful weekend all.  Gearing up for the A to Z - sign ups are happening - I'm #22 on the list which was over 100 the last time I checked.  Come play along this year!