Sean wanted to go up to Lancaster County to go to the different outlets stores off of Route 30. We live about 22 miles from here. We got a late start-we left around 2:00. The stores are opened until 9 anyway. I think he wanted to try out his car on a longer trip. He was looking for new sneakers and has had good luck at the Adidas store there, but not today. He did get some Penn State Nittany colored blue and white Nikes for a little more money.
I hit Tuesday Morning to look for a few birthday gifts. It was freezing in the store and thus took some enjoyment out of my browsing. I got my sis-in-law the cutest piggie bank dressed in his swim trucks with removable sunglasses.
We went up to another center as we had 20% off coupons for things at various stores not on sale. I hit Liz Claiborne (I love Liz) and got these pretty mocha slacks with no elastic around the waist! I have to turn them up, but they will be great for the fall. And I got 20% off. We went to Gap and tried to use a coupon but the girl wouldn’t let us saying the shirt was already marked down. We got a lot of stuff for $58, so we left, but I complained about them at the book store. The bookstore gave me 20% off.
We realize that they send you the coupons to get you up there, but we managed to use 3 of the 4 and saved maybe $10 or so, not too bad.
We ate at the Texas Roadhouse and enjoyed that. Sean enjoyed the waitress who looked like a dark haired Bo Derek.
Sean went back to get the Nikes and then he dropped me off at a book sale. That’s when the weariness hit me. I managed to sniff out 2 gardening books and a cross stitch book. The last place we went to was the Pepperidge Farm outlet store for some bread and goodies.
I noticed they are building up Route 30. There was a new miniature golf course with a big pirate ship as one of the holes across from the Steamboat hotel (it looks like a steamboat with it’s big wheel on the side). I want to eat at the Waffle House one of these days which is across from the Rockvale outlets. It use to be a Dairy Queen which was in the movie ‘Witness’.
I have to tell you that on the way up there I was checking out house gardens because it’s such a green and fertile area. I was disappointed not to see more going on. The ones I saw looked like they were tended to with love, much like the ones my gardening blog pals and I tend to. It’s a shame not more people find joy in such a simple and easy hobby. I mean, you have to weed and feed, but it’s a hobby you develop to your own taste over the years.
We saw a few buggies on the way home around 8 pm. I thought all the Amish went to bed at 8!
Here’s a good joke I heard from a guy named Vic on Comedy Central last night- ‘When the other countries heard that Bush and the USA were going to war, they stared at him like Amish in a Circuit City.’
PS-Good luck to Dana Reeve who announced she had lung cancer at age 44. Hasn’t that poor woman been through enough? I heard she didn’t smoke. Scary thing.

Peter Jennings was a class act. His voice was so dignified and you enjoyed hearing him read the news. If you are about my age, you remember him from when you were in your 20s or younger.
It’s hard to realize that he’s gone at only the age of 67. His last appearance on the news was quite shocking and touching back in April. His wonderful news reading voice was all raspy. He said he had lung cancer, though he had stopped smoking 20 yrs earlier. I couldn’t help but get teary-eyed when ABC dedicated their entire broadcast to him. He would have liked it. It showed him as a down-to-earth person even doing a segment in his boxers and getting caught in the act!
My mom always said that Peter reminded her of her dad as he had a high forehead and quick wit. My pop-pop only lived to be 58 and cigarettes were his curse.
I also really appreciate how much he cared about kids and how he had specials for them to hear about their concerns and interests.
Sorry to hear about his passing in only 4 months after diagnosis.

Thanks to Karin for this great forward:
MSNBC.com
ICE could save your life ‘In Case of Emergency’ initiative turns cell phones into lifelines
By Dawn Fratangelo
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 7:36 p.m. ET July 28, 2005

NEW YORK – At Montefiore Medical Center, New York City’s busiest emergency room, information is vital, and sometimes hard to come by — like when a woman in cardiac arrest is brought in alone and unconscious.
“We were resuscitating this woman with no information,” says Dr. Robert Meyer, “and only two hours later did someone show up.”
News that she’d had chest pains for weeks came too late, but she was carrying a potential lifeline: a cell phone.
That sort of situation is just what Robert Stimpson, the acting police chief in Madison, Conn., is thinking. Now he’s launching a campaign that’s catching on: asking cell phone users to create a specific entry called ICE, or “In Case of Emergency.”
It couldn’t be easier. Enter the number of your emergency contact into your cell phone’s address book. Label it as ICE and store it. Paramedics or doctors can then access that number if you’re in an accident.
“A program like ICE,” says Stimpson, “would make our job much easier, save a lot of time, help the emergency provider, and ultimately, help the person in need.”
Most of the 193 million cell phone users in the United States probably already have an “in case of emergency number.” It just may be under something like “mom.” Programming it again under “ICE” only takes moments.
There are some concerns, especially that the emergency contact be up to date about medical history.
The idea caught on after the bombings in Great Britain, where a paramedic conceived it. Word spread, and a grass-roots movement was under way — from the Internet to hospitals worldwide.
“It’s a no-brainer,” says Meyer, “It’s a wonderful idea. It’s cost-free.”
It’s three simple letters that could help save lives.
© 2005 MSNBC Interactive
© 2005 MSNBC.com
URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8744626/

Well, I mostly bought mums for under $2 each at Wally World. I also bought some pretty pinkish and ruffly coleus (I really like them this year) that I will but in a display with some ornament grass I just purchased. Got a container of Black-eyed Susans and one of Nicotiana in three shades-one is lime, my favorite. Bought some Asian lilies for my mom’s future lily garden for $1 each and in all colors, minus the flowers. I will also give mom a few mums. All the above plants were around $25, so a bargain indeed. We don’t get our first frost for a while, so I can enjoy the plants for about 2 more months.
I found a couple of pumpkins growing today in the patch! Woo-hoo! Now I think I better protect them from the beasties. Maybe I should get fine wire mesh to surround them in? LOL
Mom felt good enough to tidy up her room a bit today. I am still after her to take the herbal supplements. She said she would try them. I get misty-eyed when I think about her and me wanting to do things around her house to make her happy. I couldn’t find the sprayer thing at Walmart, so I guess I better go to the home & garden center. I have to make that green stuff on the shingles history!

I was down at my mom’s again yesterday to get her vacuum running. I knew it needed a belt. I rummaged around a drawer at her house and found one. I have the same vacuum (I helped her buy it), so I know how it works. It usually is a wonderful 12 amp (Bissell Powerglide) that gets all the crud out of your rugs. Well, after I reassembled the roller and belt, I tried it out. I’m doing all this tinkering in an room that isn’t air conditioned and the sweat was running down my face. The new belt broke within minutes! I took the assembly apart (again) and went to look for a belt in the drawer. Thank goodness there was an unopened package of the correct belts that I hadn’t seen before! Yeah! So I repeated the above and got it running, but the hose part had no suction. Uh-oh! I started to tap it on the floor and out popped all these little furry gremlins! The dog’s long blonde fur had clogged up the entire hose part. It must have been this way for a long time because as I vacuumed, I had to do the tapping and shooting of fur balls about 10 times. It’s noisy, but it’s working.
Sean and I had to take mom to the CVS to get her pills. She did really well walking around in there. It had been since the 11th of July that she was out of her house! This morning she called and said she was in terrible pain. I wish she would try the herbal supplements. I got them out for her and she defiantly said ‘not yet’! I told her I take herbs everyday of my life and they don’t bother me. I don’t know why she is afraid to take a capsule that has rosemary and other herbs in it.
I applied bleach to the green on my mom’s house shingles and it looks like it is fading it. I need one of those applicators that people use for Miracle-gro. I can’t reach the second floor area without a ladder. I figured I could put bleach where the fertilizer goes and shoot from ground level. I also plan to add topsoil to the side of the house under her dining room window and plant all kinds of daylilies (mom’s favorite flower) there. I am hoping to win an eBay auction for 20 daylily fans-10 varieties.
Sean and I went to the mall and had salad and pizza at a place called Carrabba’s. It was pretty good. We wanted to do some damage with our Macy’s gift cards. I got an Anne Klein watch for 40% off. It’s pretty with a two tone chain bracelet and mother of pearl face (with a diamond chip). I got a few pairs of earrings, 2 skirts, a poncho type thingie in aqua, tops for mom and me, and some shirts for Brian and his dad. His dad gets us the g.c.s at Caesars in Atlantic City.
I am trying to get my act together to go to a book sale down the road. I don’t need them, but I love to look.

Last night I was making turkey meatloaf (I sub turkey a lot for hamburger) and decided to have fried eggplant as the side dish. There was also a green tomato sitting there and I thought, what the heck, I’ll fry that up too! Did you know that tomatoes turn red from the inside out? All I did was slice the veggies up, dip them in an egg wash, then Italian style bread crumbs. I salted and peppered them (and threw on a little garlic powder) while they sauteed in olive oil (another staple of mine). I thought they were very good. The fellas said ‘they were all right’. Guess they like zucchini fritters a little better.
It’s a steam bath already. I have a package to mail to Lititz, PA (I could drive there too) for eBay. I may walk around Big Lots for a change of scenery.
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Outside the petunias are gettting a little leggy and I will probably take scissors to them. I finally got the pump in the pond to sit upright by replacing the container it was in. The water is crystal clear! It should be as it’s been replaced about 5 times. I could see and remove all the stringy algae.
I have raising some hibisicus that when mature will give me blooms the size of dinner plates.
The little seedlings are only about 2 inches tall and under the shade of the umbrella today.
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Above are a couple of bookmarks I made for my niece and nephew. They are stitched on a vinyl type of product, so fractional stitches aren’t used except for half stitches. Kenny plays guitar, so that was perfect for him. I made up both verses. Tori’s says, “Nemo likes finding Tori with a book”. Kenny’s says “It’s so cool to strum a chord, now open this book and you won’t be bored”. I like making bookmarks as they only take a few evenings to complete.

View from my family room. Those are my many African Violets in the foreground. The point of this photo was seeing how big the butterfly bush is!  

It’s a rite of summer around here to ‘go down the shur’. I’ve been doing it all my life. I love the beach areas. We’ve been to: Wildwood, NJ, Cape May, NJ, Ocean City, NJ, Atlantic City, NJ, Seaside Heights, NJ, Rehoboth, Delaware and Ocean City, MD. One of my first posts last year was about our trip to Atlantic City. This year we are headed for one of the best beach resorts in the area, Ocean City, MD. Love the inlet area, the bay, the shopping, but mostly the beach as it’s never really crowded as there is so much of it.
I was thinking about all the trips to Wildwood growing up. You have to pause several times before you get to the edge of the water as the beach is so wide. We got caught in a downpour when I was little and were not able to get under the boards before becoming drenched to the bone.
We stayed on the third floor of a place and my mom and grandmom brought too much stuff (sequins to play bingo?).It rained most of the time we were there and Don and I played ‘Movie Moguls’ 30 times. I also got a wicked sunburn and remember suffering from it.
I also went down there with my pals from junior college when we graduated. Three of us tried to sleep in a double bed. I ended up on a blow-up raft. I ate turkey hoagies for every meal it seems. We were also stuck in the rain and ended up in this seedy bar. I was so tired from that trip, I slept for almost 2 days.
Wildwood is also where I fell for Brian. We have a polaroid to prove it.

Found this on ‘The Daily Bitch’ (on the sidebar there—>)
What you do is Google your name “Dianne is” and see what comes up. There are some cool Diannes out there!

Dianne is a seminar leader who has many success stories.

Dianne is slow going.

Dianne is damp. (only in the shower or caught in a rainstorm)

Dianne is acknowledged to be one of Australia’s leading teachers. (never been there, but I did call someone in Aussy on the phone a few years ago).

…as this is still a fairly new area that Dianne is exploring.

The Transitional Services are great, but Dianne is what makes it the BEST!”

Dianne is the spark plug for a group of supportive and motivational people. …

Dianne is a gifted author and educator who has used her skills to address the destructive nature of anger and the healing power of love…. (so true! LOL)

Dianne is FABULOUS!!! (thanks Dahling!!!)