Category Archives: birthdays

Jun22

Rust affecting the Shasta Daisies

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Rust affecting the Shasta Daisies, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Here’s what I was talking about in my previous post. See the spots? I did take many of them off by hand. Not sure if that will help or not.

My 50 gallon in ground pond was in ‘distress’. I have never seen it so full of algae, mud, you name it. It reminded me of my cousin’s big pond behind their farmhouse that we use to swim in. Icky mucky! I have no trouble sticking my hand in algae-it’s like long green threads. I use to make a mean mud pie as a kid. : ) So I decided to bail it out. Bri came out and did a few, but my back is going to feel it tomorrow. I even pulled out the two meshed encased waterlilies and peeled the algae off of them. I was fascinated that one was the home to earthworms as I didn’t know they lived under water. I’ll see how it looks tomorrow and if more bailing needs to be done.

The guys went over to the patriarch’s again as tomorrow he turns 85. I helped Bri pick out a food basket and a cake. I also suggested they take over a gourmet pizza from our new favorite pizza joint. Sean almost begged to go out to eat, even to Friendly’s but pop declined. He does get out of the house to ride the bus to Atlantic City though. I feel when he knows I am coming, he needs to clean, etc. Plus I can’t eat their usual choice of take-out. I use to take food over there all the time. It was so much work. And he use to take us out to restaurants too. We would have paid today. The people he wants are there IMHO.

The weatherman got it wrong about thunderstorms, so I was watering things yesterday and today. Bri trimmed our front hedges that run along the house and didn’t cover my impatiens on one side, etc so that was a mess to clean up. And I am so discouraged as deer have eaten all my sunflowers, leaves on my Hollyhock, leaves on my Dinner Plate Hibiscus and about a dozen buds off of one of my roses. I am happy that my tomato tepees are holding up so far. Those plastic clips that Martha Stewart suggested are great. Instead of using string or panty hose, these little circular clip with a latch do the trick.

Stay cool!

Jun12

Happy 85th Uncle Don!

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I’m squeezing this in rather late as Sean and I had a full day, but not near a computer.

Here are a few shots of my mom’s only sibling and who she chose to name her second son after:

Mom’s wedding day-Oct. 17, 1953

Mom’s marriage may not have lasted, but bond between siblings has. Uncle Don is 7 years older than mom.

This was about 5 years ago and his great nephew wanted to help him open his boom box. : )

A lot has happened since the above shot. My Aunt there has been in a nursing home for a few years and Uncle lives by himself, though he was in assisted living for a while. He had a few operations, the last being hip surgery. My mom has had her share of things too.

I hope we can get over to see him soon. His neighbors brought him a huge hoagie and a cake. I promised him an ice cream cake, but I think he’d love a dozen Dunkin’ Donuts just as well.

Sean had an interview for his internship in my hometown. The office was terrible to find and he felt interrogated -his weaknesses and strengths-took him my surprise. The last thing the woman said to him after 1/2 hour of questioning  was-‘we don’t usually hire outside of the county’. (??) When he got home, he had a phone call from the school district about landscape maintenance which brightened his spirits.

We took my mom food shopping as she hasn’t been to the store for 2 weeks (no car). It took a while, but we were glad to help out. I was with her until after 9pm as Sean was at his night class late.

Jun1

Never hit your elbow into a brick wall

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Like I did last night! I’m a leftie and why I sat at the table in Perkins next to the wall is beyond me. Well my ‘funny bone’ went right into the brick and the pain was terrible. I put my head on the table a few times. I then felt a bit queasy (empty tummy) and then I had to get up because I broke into a cold sweat! I have ‘experienced’ hurting myself  like this at home a few times, but never in a crowded restaurant! Thank goodness the ladies’ restroom had the air blasting and it revived me. Needless to say, I ruined dinner. The above happened over the course of say 5-8 minutes. So watch your precious, bony elbows!

Kinda blue as a bunch of pals and I were planning a get-together and decided on a southern state next year where one lady lives as she doesn’t travel well. We were all getting excited until we looked at the flight schedules. For me to fly from Philly down to our proposed meeting area would be a 9 hour day with a couple of layovers and finally flying into a dinky airport. That completely soured me on it. Then another friend said if we went to a major city and tourist attraction, it would be a direct flight (3 hours for me!) We threw this pass the one lady and she got completely insulted as she thought we were more interested in sightseeing than being with her for 4 days. Now we had planned to rent a car and overnight in her town and spend at least 1.5 days with her. We were doing all the running around. She dropped out of our group over the above. Dropped like a hot potato! Her profile said she was ‘calm’ today. I haven’t been calm because I feel like I lost a friend. Hope she goes from mad to glad again soon.

Anyway, I am hoping to get out west to see 3 other friends in 2010 in celebration of the big ‘5-0’. Never been there. I have roots in Oregon. Bri suggested this. I hope we could stay for a while, heading from San Fran up to Oregon. We’ll see.

Not much going on today. It’s nice out though!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my pal Barbara over at Mainly Stitching and my friend Carol’s friend Steve! (so what if I’m 5 months older than Steve-lo)

May24

Happy Birthday Patrick!

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Patrick, there on the right with his older brother Dave and my brother Dave (and Mickey) turned 19 today! Hard to believe the curly-haired tyke is now a sophomore at PSU now. We don’t see the family that often and are always glad when we do! Pat drives about a ’65 Galaxy that his dad and his uncle fixed up for him.
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Did some gardening with Bri today. I planted some tomatoes and he planted green peppers and a rose bush (named Dolly Parton, so I’m expecting some spectacular blooms!)
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~SHOES~

These are tiny brass slippers, about 4″ long. I believe they were meant to be used as ash trays because of the indentation in the back. I guess i found these on a white elephant table-boy, they are green inside!
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This is part of the fairy/gnome garden that I just mulched a few days ago. I call it ‘gnomeland’. I dug up a hydrangea and moved it, so I had more room for plants and gnomes! When the plants fill in, it really looks cute seeing those little people ‘hiding’ amongst them. Some of the paint on these to be touched up a bit. Another thing for me to do. : )

My pretty pinkish-orange (not quite salmon) nemesia. I think it’s going to need repotting soon.

Apr11

Happy 9th birthday sweet niece!

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ditori1000
Nine years ago, you came into our world, the only other girl in the family since me! We share a common bond that way and how much we love your daddy. You are a smart and pretty girl too. You play softball and soccer too-the most athletic one in the bunch of us!

I saw her yesterday and after she opened gifts from me, she got right down to her division homework. When I heard she was wearing glasses, I wasn’t surprised. Now she looks even more like me.

niece and me 12/24

Mar25

Dinner review

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Brian and I went out to dinner to a new place and weren’t really impressed by what we ate. We weren’t satisfied like we usually are after eating at The Olive Garden. I had a steak dinner called Bistecca Franceshe-it was NY strip covered with a mild pesto (I couldn’t really taste it) and accompanied by stringy broccoli rabe and cannelloni beans. Beforehand, we had a salad-it was just a large pile of mixed spring lettuces with ‘one’ sliced cherry tomato and served with vinegar and oil.  We also had crusty bread served with a bowl of plain olive oil for dipping. Brian had a Salmon dish and they were nice enough to substitute asparagus for the mushrooms it is usually served with. He had a small pile of spinach too. I gave him almost half of my dinner as I could tell he hadn’t had enough of his own. That left room for me to get the Chocolate flan-which was like a thin brownie with warm chocolate inside served on top of vanilla custard. The presentation of the food was really nice and I told our server I wish I had brought a camera. She was a nice girl, but you couldn’t help to notice that she has a pierced tongue as you saw a turquoise ball there everytime she spoke.

I don’t think we’d go here again. It has a fancy Italian name and we were thinking The Olive Garden on a grandeur scale and it wasn’t.

When we got home, Brian ripped through his gifts in about 5 minutes. He got mainly clothing. His one non-clothes item from me didn’t arrive yet. He had a quiet birthday, but it was nice to send some alone time together-the restaurant was very low key with some interesting belly dancing type music in the background. There were other patrons, but they were very quiet.

Mar23

Birthday boys and Easter

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Nephew and Brian 12/24, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This was taken in late December, but my nephew turns 12 today and Brian has a birthday on Monday!

Here’s the cake I made for Brian, it’s devil’s food with vanilla icing and I think a festive Easter look. : ) I used colored sugars (they sell them in a little set) and malted milk eggs.

Brian’s birthday cake

We went to church last night for their 2 hour vigil mass with candles, darkness, let their be light, baptism and confirmation! I needed some ice cream afterwards.

Off in a few to my uncle’s house. I am making scalloped potatoes and a pineapple/bread side my late mother-in-law use to make. I never made it before, but found the recipe on the internet.

Happy Easter to all!

Mar14

Watch this space

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I hope by the end of today to get the zebras finished and posted-AMEN! What a chore they were, and I so dislike XS to be talked about in those terms. If I had just thought to do the darkest color first in the bodies, I would have saved myself much grief. The grass wasn’t easy either. I think they will be a nice addition to the quilt(s) for the twin boys. I can’t wait to do a few Christmas ornaments soon.

Yippee! Finished!!

Sean and I enjoyed our afternoon shopping, though both of us have been ‘off’ in the tummy dept. Wonder what that was? We did go to Fridays for dinner as my friend Karin had given me a gift card for that restaurant. We are sitting there and a large group of people sit behind us. One guy said, ‘Save a place for Mike D!’ That’s Karin’s husband’s name! What a coincidence!

We got some nice things for Brian (can’t say what as I see him looking here) as his birthday is on the 24th. Need to look for one more thing.

I treated myself to a few things at Michael’s crafts and Kohls as I haven’t been to these stores for a while. Shopping is fun!

Update-no stitching today-yet. I decided since it was near 60 degrees I wanted to rake out a few more areas/gardens. I created about 6 huge piles and Sean helped me pick them up. I was so happy to get his help!

Then I was trying to do the Photo Hunt for tomorrow (I finally picked a few I will use) and took some extra photos for your viewing.

I took off the netting that was over the pond and thought this leaf looked interesting:

Leaf on screen

Part of my neighbor’s huge wood pile. Notice the older wood next to the newer.
Logs
These are wings from an angel lawn ornament that I was trying to take an interesting photo of. This is next to the pond and I photoshopped it. Notice the reflection of the barren trees in the water:
Wings

Mar12

How sweet it is

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…to be 60 years old! Congrats James Taylor, my favorite singer. I was around on the internet when JT turned 50 and emailed the webmaster of his unofficial site some old photos I had. One or two got used in a card that was made for James! This year, I made my own. I use both Paint Shop Pro 7 and Adobe-switch back and forth. The photo of him playing a banjo was on his sister Kate’s website. (the bigger version is in flickr).

JT 60th

I bought my 1st JT lp when I was about 13 when my mom let my brother and me pick out what we wanted in JC Penneys. I believe it was ‘Sweet Baby James’ and Don picked out either Carol King or Joni Mitchell. I’ve been a fan ever since. I’ve seen him 4 times over the years. I know people who have seen him dozens of times. Garth Brooks named his daughter Taylor after him and Melina Kanakaredes is a fan too. I admire his kids and his family too. What’s my favorite JT song-I really love the sound of ‘Only A Dream in Rio’. I like ‘Line ’em up’ and ‘October Road’ too. And the oldies. What can I say?

JT special achievements:

Grammy Awards

Kenny Loggins just turned 60 too!

Mar1

Photo Hunt-Party/Wooden

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This is my mom’s birthday last year and my youngest brother is giving her the cupcakes that I made to blow out the candles. I like the way he is looking at her here.

My brother is a master mechanic and has permanently stained arms, not really dirty ones. ; )

and for the 23rds hunt Wooden (I am late, didn’t feel much like doing it as I heard my estranged father had passed on).
Sean’s clipboard

This is my son’s clipboard with beautiful inlaid wood that he doesn’t use. I was looking through papers in his room and came across this a few weeks ago. He had received it as a gift.