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Sue Spitulnik

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Sue Spitulnik

I am a retired grandmother that grew up in western New York State, left for 25 years, and am now back in the area. I happily live with my husband and two cats. I am pro-military, writing, food, family, and quilting. I am con-exercise, insulting commercials, and lack of common sense. I have met some great friends through this website.

Cheese Please

It’s National Cheese Lover’s Day. The information for this day says there are over 1400 different types of cheese. Wow! I would have never guessed that. Maybe I should pay closer attention the next time I walk through the cheese section at the grocery store. (Wegman’s, here in western New York state! Lucky me!)

My taste buds were imagining a Swiss and mushroom omelet for breakfast,  the American toasted cheese sandwich for lunch (with tomato soup), and the baked Brie and raspberry jam that the neighbor serves when we play cards. I use blue cheese,  Asiago, or 5 year aged extra sharp cheddar each morning when I make my husband’s salad that he takes to work for lunch. Cheese can enhance any meal, any time of day.

Next time you get to peruse a salad bar, check out the number of cheeses, and don’t forget the cottage cheese that is sometimes in with the desserts. So many cheeses, so little time. I think I need a snack.

 

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Popcorn!

Popcorn started becoming popular in the United States in the middle 1800s. It wasn’t until Charles Cretors, a candy-store owner, developed a machine for popping corn with steam that the tasty treat became more abundantly poppable. By 1900 he had horse-drawn popcorn wagons going through the streets of Chicago.

About the same time, Louise Ruckheim added peanuts and molasses to popcorn to bring Cracker Jack to the world.  The national anthem of baseball was born in 1908 when Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer wrote Take Me out to the Ballgame. From that point onward, popcorn, specifically Cracker Jack, became forever married to the game.

I included the above from the National Day of Calendar because I didn’t know popcorn had such a history or how long Cracker Jacks have been popular. I can’t imagine popcorn being sold out of horse-drawn wagons. I mean I can see it, but it seems the popcorn would be stale. Perhaps I am wrong.

I love popcorn. Whenever my husband isn’t home for supper, that is what I usually have. I watch a movie I know he wouldn’t care for, and eat a big bowl of popcorn. It makes the evening all my own. The cat even has to have a piece to lick the salt off of.

Years back my son had a yellow lab and a French Mastiff. He and his girl would babysit for two Bull Mastiffs. When there was a bowl of popcorn made, the dogs would sit in a line, like dutiful students, and wait their turn for one piece of popcorn as it was thrown to them. The dogs were as big as his girlfriend, so it was comical to see them be so well-behaved and patient. We all wanted a turn at being the thrower.

A string of popcorn used to be an adornment for our Christmas tree when I was little. When we took all the other decorations off, the popcorn stayed. We would then stand the tree up in the back yard and the birds would eat the popcorn. They never seemed to mind if it was stale.

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Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore too!

Winnie the Pooh has figured prominently in my life. I remember reading the stories when I was young, and watching the movies when they first came out in the ’60’s.

When my children were young, I read Winnie the Pooh stories to them, characterizing all the voices. It was one time they actually sat still and listened. Once during a church social, I sat in a side room reading aloud to little ones so they had something to do while the adults did their thing. When I finished, I had more adults listening than little ones. I heard one man say, “No one ever read to me like that.”

I mention my grandson on a regular basis. At the baby shower in anticipation of his arrival, his Daddy, who has quite the personality, dressed up in a Tigger costume to greet the guests and deliver the cake. It is a touching memory. The personalized baby quilt I made has a life-size lounging Pooh and Tigger done in applique. A project I remember like it was yesterday. I saw the quilt this week. It is well-loved. That pleases me.

Recently, my granddaughter handed me a Winnie the Pooh book. I hadn’t done the voices in years, but my adult children asked me to do so. Jaycey sat and stared at me while I read, especially when the deep slow voice of Eeyore spoke. I wish I could read to her every day.

Whatever memories of Winnie the Pooh you have, share them with your family. Any day is a good day to think about bees, balloons and honey.

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No Incision Please

NATIONAL WITHOUT A SCALPEL DAY

No surgery, no stitches, no scars…

We observe National Without a Scalpel Day each year on January 16. The first angioplasty, a ground-breaking procedure to open a blocked blood vessel, was performed on this day in 1964 in Portland, Oregon, by pioneer physician Charles Dotter. This angioplasty allowed the patient to avoid leg amputation surgery. She left the hospital days later with only a Band-Aid.

In doing so, Dr. Dotter created the cutting-edge medical specialty called Interventional Radiology, where doctors treat disease through a tiny pinhole instead of open surgery. These doctors use x-rays and other medical imaging to see inside the body while they treat disease. These advances changed all of medicine.

Today, minimally invasive, image-guided procedures (MIIP) can treat a broad range of diseases throughout the body, in adults and children:• cancer• heart disease• stroke• aneurysms• life-threatening bleeding• infertility• fibroids• kidney stones• back pain• infections• blocked blood vessels• many other conditions

Even though trained specialists perform MIIP throughout the world, many people do not know about MIIP or if they could benefit from these life-changing treatments. The Interventional Initiative was established to raise awareness and educate the public about MIIP.

Yes, I know, it is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Do Nothing Day, Religious Freedom Day and Fig Newton Day. This was the day I had not heard of, but know many people who have benefitted from no scalpel use, so thought I would share the history of it. A big thank you to revolutionary doctors like Dr. Charles Dotter and our modern medicine.

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Stickers and/or Labels

It’s National Sticker Day. I immediately pictured my four-year old grand-daughter with a booklet of pretty stickers from the movie Frozen, peeling one off a page to place in the appointed spot on another page. I also thought of my grandson when he was about five, coming in the house and showing me his “tattoo”, not permanent, made with a purple sticker his Mom had put in water for a second or two.

When I read the history of sticker day, it was originated to recognize the use of any label, price tag, or information tag that was stuck on with glue. Now that takes us to a whole new vision. You know, that coffee mug you buy for a friend that has a tag glued on that says “made in China”. It’s interesting where something is made, but they should use a glue you can get off without using lighter fluid, or these days, Goo Gone! I was dusting yesterday and found glue residue on some of my bird figurines. I left it there.

We know only two other couples owned the house we live in before we bought it. According to the neighbor no children ever lived in it, yet, one of the bedroom doors has noticeable sticker shaped residue marks; big rectangles, bumper sticker size. There’s another thought. If you had a bumper sticker on your car, what would it say? Mine would announce to everyone that my car stops at all quilt shops.

So think a little about stickers today. Where does your visionary trip go? Maybe to the pharmacy for your own individual label on your medication, maybe to the meat market for the weight and cost of a roast, or back to your childhood days when we could peel and stick paper doll outfits on cardboard so they wouldn’t get ruined quickly.

So many different types of labels and stickers. One could make a list a mile long of all the different types. You know those stick on address labels we all get for donating money to certain organizations, meant for snail mail that isn’t used much anymore; my sister carries them with her to put on raffle tickets she buys. Gotta use them for something!

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Splashing is Fun

The National Day of Calendar doesn’t explain when Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day was started, by whom, or what for, but admit it, if you see a child splashing in a puddle it makes you smile. There is  something fun and freeing when you see or do it.

Way back when, my best girl chum was a classmate named Barb. We must have been seven or eight. She would come home on the school bus with me on occasion. Our favorite pastime was making “secret” mud holes in the defunct garden, so it must have been late October when we did it. Our goal was to have one of my older sisters step in it. I don’t remember that ever happening. One time we didn’t mark the booby trap and Barb stepped in it with her school sneakers on. My mother was not very happy with us and did her best to clean the sneaks. I am still laughing that it was one of us that stepped in the mud.

I picked my grandson up from school yesterday. There was sloppy snow near the exit door of the school. I can’t tell you how many fifth grade boys had to stomp in that slop. They looked at the student next to them to see if they had splashed them, then laughed if they were successful. I smiled inwardly.

When I first started dating my husband we were at a summer picnic. The weather was as warm as could be but it was pouring. We decided we might as well dance in the rain. Our friends thought we were acting like children. Oh well. It’s a great memory and we had fun doing it.

I’m sure most of you have seen the video of the toddler “walking” the dog. The one where the dog is standing there, the leash lies on the ground, and the child is stomping in puddles. It’s a good thing some parts of us never grow old no matter how many birthdays we celebrate.

It’s supposed to rain today in my neck of the woods in New York state. I’m glad there will be some puddles to splash in.

 

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