Author Archives: Dianne

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About Dianne

Domestic goddess, wife, mom, gardener, paper and collage artist, geocacher, local traveler, cross stitcher, baker, crafter, Facebooker, blogger, decorator and photographer.
Apr14

‘Helis’ from Canada

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This is the name of the white Beluga whale hanging around the Delaware River. Seems he’s a Canadian dude who’s about 30 yrs old with a propeller blade wound (how he was recognized). They are worried about him being in fresh water instead of salt water. Apparently the fresh water isn’t good for his eyes. I’ll keep you posted about what happens to ‘Helis’.
From WPVI.com website….
“Helis is a very distinctive animal, so it was easy to identify this guy,” said Robert Michaud, scientific director of the Canadian group.

Photos showed a scar along the whale’s dorsal ridge and other blemishes. Helis, pronounced ay’-LEE, is derived from the French word helice, or propeller. Experts believe Helis’ scar was probably caused by a propeller when he was younger.

Helis was first sighted in the St. Lawrence Estuary and was seen regularly until 1994, Michaud said. But since then he had only been spotted twice – in 2000 and 2003 – until he turned up in the Delaware River.

Apr14

Bedtime routine…don’t get too excited…

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It takes longer and longer as the years go by. I swear by washing my face every night and have done that all my life. I am lucky to have Lancome products (thanks to gift cards) and I use the cleanser, toner and dry skin cream. Then it’s eye drops (just the wetting kind), chapstick, maybe Flonase or herbal nasal spray and cream for my dry tootsies. I’ve been using the udder cream as previously posted and my dry feet have improved tremendously. I have some herbal rub if I feel stuffy if I don’t use the medicine. I just started using cuticle cream again. Sometimes I put meds on my face. Of course tooth and hairbrushing are squeezed in there too.
Wasn’t that an interesting post? I know people in my own family who don’t wash their faces, and to me that is just nasty.

Apr13

Wayward Whale on the Delaware River

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As of yesterday (when he was first spotted), a 10-12 foot white Beluga whale has been swimming around in the Delaware River near Trenton. They say to get where he is, he had to swim by Wilmington and Philly. It’s a big deal around these parts and he made the news. They think he is headed south which would be good as he’s headed toward the ocean. If he doesn’t seem to be getting the idea about heading out to sea, guess he will get some help. Thanks to our local affiliate WPVI tv for the following map and photo of our new friend.

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On ‘The Daily Show’ (I watch the repeat from the night before the next morning), Jon Stewart mentioned that the Beluga was near his hometown of Trenton (I didn’t know this). He said the only reason anyone would go near Trenton is for condoms and cheap champagne-so you know what he said the whale was headed in that direction for-well… he said ‘a blow hole dance’.
I happened to watch the DVD of ‘Shark Tales’ last night. Talk about a tie-in to this current event! It was really a funny movie with Will Smith (another local boy) as the voice of Oscar the main ‘fish’ character.

Apr12

Lots to do

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We have to get serious about getting our summer clothes out and ready for our trip in 3 weeks. I have a few new pieces, but I need my old, kick around in stuff too. Sean is really excited about this trip and I pray things will run smoothly. I am feeling really guilty about leaving the cat here by himself for almost 4 days. I can’t count on anyone to watch him either. I have a food dispenser, so he won’t starve. He has a window perch which is nicely padded. I will turn on a battery radio for his listening pleasure. He will be lonely, but he isn’t lonely that often. He was an outdoor boy when we first adopted him, so he should be use to being independent.
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I was so thrilled my niece Tori, pictured below loved her gifts from me. She even got her own tv and chair from her mom and dad and was happy about them, but went right back to the dolls. I got her these mini-dolls called ‘Shorties‘ and she played with them the entire time I was there and ignored the other toys. I’m wondering if she is playing with them today? They reminded me of ‘Little Kiddles’ from my childhood and they were really popular. I also gave her the little fairy and bunny cross stitch I turned into my first quilt square. Everyone was impressed by it. The quilt part was so-so, at least it looks handmade.
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We stopped by my mom’s house first and it looked like clothes had exploded in her living room! My brother is helping her clean out some bedrooms and I think she is quickly moving clothes so he won’t toss them. I could not believe how many clothes one person had. Now I know where a lot of her moola went. I like clothes too, but I have donated tons of them to charity within the last few years.
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Not only did we see the fox the other day, but we saw some gorgeous swans on the way to Brian’s dad’s house on Sunday. I would love to have a huge pond with swans-they are so elegant.
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Brian and I celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary on Thursday. We can’t believe it’s been that long. Goes to show you how quickly the years pass by.

Apr9

Waterfall

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Brian and I am major achy tonight. We were bailing out water from our little 50 gallon pond today. It was really muddy. Three of my water plants lived, but two really need repotting as there are about 1 foot of roots coming from the mesh containers I bought them in last year. It’s nice to hear the waterfall from the open window. I have three solar lights out there near the pond, one of which is a big sunflower and the only bright one glowing tonight.
Did I say it was a picture perfect day with clear blue skies too? So nice to get some more cleaning up done as we raked leaves out of the flowerbeds. My roses look sad and I lost a few. I feel like giving up on roses all together as they are hard for me to grow.
Bri filled in the hole mentioned in the the post below with that expanding foam stuff. “How does a redneck fill in a hole-with expanding foam stuff!!!” LOL I’m wondering if it will work. I can just imagine all the flying bug eggs under this floor where the garage floor use to be. Ugh.
I am trying to get myself in gear for weeding next. Yard work seems like so much more work than ‘fun’ as the years go by. I ask myself too why I made so many themed gardens? Man I’m getting old.


Can you see the fox in this photo? We were busy outside cleaning up debris and saw this little fella lying in the sun. He got up, grabbed something (not sure if it was another animal) and took off because he heard Brian come out to take more photos of him. Posted by Hello

Apr7

The invasion of the nocturnal winged creatures…

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This happens every year when the first warm day of the year rolls around which was a few days ago. These flying ant like things come marching up through the vents (or some place) and start walking all over the walls, our heads, the cat’s tail, you name it. It took me two hours to fall asleep that night as I had the feeling like something was crawling all over me.
To put things into prospective this room use to be the attached garage. We had a number of people (family, friends, paid people) who helped turned it into a nice big family room we desperately needed 12 years ago. The driveway use to go all the way up to the house (of course), but Brian knocked a big block of it away-thus the problem with the bugs-he never really sealed the cracks under the broken driveway. I thought he did. I thought at least Bri looked at it. He didn’t really do anything all these years. I went out today and moved a rock and there was a fairly big hole. He’s gonna have to move his butt and get gravel and cement to seal that area up where the garage door use to be.
We even put screens over the vents in here and the bugs are still finding their way in. If something isn’t done, they will invade a few more times and I have to suck up all their little carcasses and they make my vacuum smell like citronella. Gross.

Apr7

One of my most embarassing moments…

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I just submitted this to the Ellen DeGeneres Show:
I decided to become a commuter student during my junior year at college. I had about a 20 minute trip in my rickety old Maverick, but hey, I was driving and could come and go as I pleased.
On the ‘first’ day of the semester I got up around 6 am for my 8 o’clock English class. I got my new notebooks all together with my packed lunch and was off for school. I was anxious to get started and see my friends again. When I got there I was amazed at how many commuter students chose not to have an 8 o’clock class as I had my choice of parking spaces! As I walked along the sidewalks to the building where my English class was, again I was so surprised that I hardly saw any students walking to 8 o’clock classes. It was about 7:45. Either I was really early or they were going to be late.
When I finally arrived at the building and went inside it was rather dimly lit and my classroom was dark too. Geez, what’s the matter? Was school cancelled on the first day? I happened upon a maintenance man and asked him about the first day. He said ‘Young lady, the first day of classes is tomorrow!’ I had no idea until that very moment. Did I get out of there fast and hoped I wouldn’t run into any one I knew. I even had a story in case I did. Luckily, I just went to my car and came home and did it all again the next day.

Apr4

Flooded Bucks County

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One of my favorite spots in Pennsylvania is getting flooded for the second time in 7 months. They showed the Bucks County playhouse half under water. Main street in New Hope was a river. I’m sure the quaint inn that Brian and I stayed in back in 1999 was damaged as it is right on the banks of the Delaware River. Brian said he thinks that housing developments are causing the flooding. That may be one reason and they showed a nice looking condo type place surrounded by moving water. Many of these people just cleaned up from Sept. 2004 and some haven’t even received their federal relief yet. They will probably declare it a disaster zone so they can get more relief.
This is where Terri Schaivo is suppose to be buried. Just wonder if it’s on higher ground away from the Delaware River.