Category Archives: Brian

Jan14

Ho hum

Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 by Dianne

Just got on to take a quick look at a few blogs. Am not up to par, but I think it’s an allergy problem. We ate at a few restaurants over the weekend, the one last night we had a gift card for and it starts with ‘A’. Now we don’t eat there that often and I heard a lot of their food arrives to them frozen, I’m sure that’s the case in lots of restaurants these days. But I ate their boneless ‘mild’ chicken wings-they were a bright reddish orange and were spicy (not a good combo for me). Brian just shook his head. He was suppose to eat most of them. They have a deal-appetizer, main course and dessert for one price. The guy who waited on me gave me the incorrect dessert and I couldn’t eat it all and had to pay for it separate from the dinner (I told him and he ignored me)! Brian wouldn’t eat it (he was a fun dinner companion, but he’s still not well). So I paid the price today as my tummy is off. I am better, but I have postnasal drip still, but usually do all winter and summer….you know me, I live with it. I am doing laundry and still packing away decorations. I had my chicken soup and ginger ale too.

We didn’t get any snow, just a bit of rain. I forgot to ask Sean if he had gotten any up in the middle of the state. Sean had his first day of classes today and he said they are ok. He’s just thrilled to be in classes again. The reason for the sofa photo down below, that’s where he was parked for 3 weeks, most of the time watching tv and on his laptop. He’s lucky (knock wood) he didn’t get that sinus cold.

My friend Karin received her collage book and really liked it a bunch. : )

Have a great rest of the day.

Jan13

Look-alike meter

Posted on Sunday, January 13, 2008 by Dianne

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MyHeritage: Family trees – Genealogy – Celebs – Collage – Morph

Jan7

Balmy January

Posted on Monday, January 7, 2008 by Dianne

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Right now it’s in the high 50s! I should get outside and get some fresh air and try to knock the rest of this congestion out of me. Brian is at the coughing stage. I did go out to BJs Wholesale with Sean yesterday and we both got goodies. I got a bunch of the Curves and other breakfast bars as this past month I’ve eaten to many ‘no nos’. Haven’t we all? : )

We also ate at Chili’s restaurant and I was nice and saved half my dinner for my ailing husband-6 oz of NY strip steak. I figured we won’t be eating out that much in the next few months as the bill came in for my procedure and all together we have to pay over 1K out of pocket. I’m going to see if the hospital will let me pay so much a month as they did when I had an ultrasound.

Sean will be packing up to leave on Saturday. He seems to have either gotten a light dose of the bug or avoided it all together. I guess he has a good immune system! He just got back from the dentist and his wisdom teeth seem to be coming in straight.

The new mayor of Philadephia just got swore in. For some reason the major stations think we all wanted to watch it from 10 am and on. In suburban Philly, we don’t elect their mayor. I hope he does something to get guns off the street.

And I did take more cough medicine but only dreamed about going to the doctor’s house (Sean is a friend of her son’s). I hope that wasn’t telling me anything!

Jan3

Home remedy anyone?

Posted on Thursday, January 3, 2008 by Dianne

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Now I’m into my 5th day of this virus and Brian got it last night and couldn’t go to work today. Mine is mostly in my throat now (my head feels better), when you get that terrible tickle and almost hack up a lung-for nothing! Sean said he’d go get me the daytime cough medicine as I just took the Dm kind, which is all we had. That helped a bit, but I think the Altoids is shocking it a bit. Anyone have any good home remedies for coughing? And I tried salt water gargle and it ended up all over the mirror in the bathroom. And I’ve taken a few doses of honey too, which is soothing. The Nighttime Tylenol must be drying me out too much as I feel the worst after I’ve been up 1/2 hour or so with the coughing, etc.

Sean is doomed, I feel bad. He is still ok, though. Crossing fingers.

Update~-

Thanks for all your comments. We really appreciate them. I had Sean get a few things at the store from DayQuil to popsicles. My throat was getting sore. Seems I had the bad cough after I ate, so I’m thinking it was a bit reflux. I only did that a few hours after I got up. It seems to be moving down into my chest more. I am feeling a little something rattling around.

Brian’s going to try and get to work tomorrow. He’s at the pounding head stage. He also can’t taste anything. I was so happy that the hair on top of my head and some of my capped teeth didn’t hurt today! No kidding!

Sean rented a few DVDs, one of which was ‘Sicko’ the Michael Moore documentary about the state of the USA’s health insurance. Seems that Canadians and Brits don’t have to pay for anything health related (I guess a lot through taxes)! When Brits need medicine, they only have to pay around $10 for any size prescriptions 10 pills to 300 pills. If you can’t afford to pay, it’s free. No wonder I cried when I found out I didn’t need to have further treatment in December as the bill for the procedure I had was over 6K! We haven’t heard about how much the insurance will pay for most of it. To use the surgical suite for one hour was 4k alone. To be in recovery for less than an hour was $700. The small plastic bandage-$3 and the 2 shots of painkillers-$57 each.

Outrageous.

Jan2

Vegetating

Posted on Wednesday, January 2, 2008 by Dianne

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That’s my life for the last few days. That and hearing ‘I can’t believe you are sick and I hope you don’t make me sick.’ Bri says he has a sore throat, though I never had one, it just went right to my head. I went to bed 10 minutes after midnight on New Year’s Eve. Tylenol and Sudafed have been my pals. I haven’t been able to do much either. I did toss some finger foods in the oven on NYE for our dinner. Last night we did take-out. I do have a bit of a fever, not over 100.7 at least. The heater man came to put in a new thermostat at 10:45 on NYE! I think it’s running better. Someone turned it up to 72 last night and I was roasting in bed.

Not too much exciting around here. We’re happy there will be some new late night shows on tonight! I don’t think I’ll be taking any decorations down right away.

Take care everyone!

Dec31

Almost New Year’s!

Posted on Monday, December 31, 2007 by Dianne

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Not much going on, it’s chilly and dreary. We all have the munchies too much and have that feeling we are getting the sniffles. Bri was knocking out a wall in the basement (yep) bathroom on Saturday that was blocking a combination of about 12′ of shelves I need for my holiday decorations. He’s not finished yet.

Hmmm…resolutions…the same old thing-eat healthier, exercise, lose weight. With my hobbies, I don’t make lists like my stitchy pals, I just tell myself to work on UFOs, make some Christmas ornaments and do a few charity squares.

Sunday we went to church, then to a local home center (checking out what was left of their holiday decorations- got a few) , went to Wawa for hoagies and finally food shopping. I plan to have all finger foods tomorrow for dinner and snacking.

That’s all folks and here is ‘Happy New Year’ in several languages:

Happy New YearIn Many Languages

Chinese (Cantonese)
Gung hay fat choy (a New Year greeting meaning, “May you become prosperous.”)
Sun nien fai lok (meaning, “Happy new year”)
Chinese (Mandarin)
Xin nian yu kuai
Danish
Godt Nytår
Dutch
Gelukkig nieuwjaar
Farsi
Aide shoma mobarak
French
Bonne année
Gaelic
Aith-bhliain Fe Nhaise Dhuit
German
Gutes Neues Jahr
<!– Greek
Kali chronia–> Hawaiian
Hauoli Makahiki Hou
Hebrew
Shanah tovah
Hmong
Nyob zoo xyoo tshiab
Indonesian
elamat Tahun Baru

Italian
Buon Capo d’Anno
Japanese
Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu
Norwegian
Godt Nyttår
Pilipino (Tagalog)
Maligayang Bagong Taon
Polish
Szczesliwego Nowego roku
Portuguese
Feliz ano novo
Romanian
La Multi Ani
Russian
S Novym Godom
Spanish
Feliz Año Nuevo
Sudanese
Wilujeng Tahun Baru
Swedish
Gott Nytt År
Turkish
Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Welsh
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

Dec27

Crash and burn

Posted on Thursday, December 27, 2007 by Dianne

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We’ve all been sleeping in late over the last few days. Staying up until 1-2 is not good for the breadwinner of the family (he is off this week), and it kind of messes up his schedule.

Yesterday turned out to be a gloomy, rainy day. I did get dressed to go shopping and right after I put my boots on, the heavens opened up! Bri and I ran down to McDonald’s a little later to grab a quick dinner and the woman taking the order sounded so different than the usual people working there. Bri got in two orders and the woman said to ‘check the screen’ for the total and that was that. We got up to the pick-up window and the young man there said the woman was on a phone line taking orders for them from North Dakota! Is that weird or what? I think our McDs has so many people working there that use English as their second language, many of the orders are messed up-it’s happened to us a lot lately. We had to add to the order and then forgot a few things as it was.

It cleared up a bit and Bri took me to Peebles department store around 7:30 and I got a few things for 75% off-a Cardinal bird salt (that I wanted) and pepper set and a matching creamer and sugar. We went to Big Lots and their stuff was more picked over.

When I got home I finally watched James Taylor’s ‘One Man Band’ DVD-the show Bri and me saw him perform last October at the Tower Theater. It was up close and personal and a nice way to spend an evening.

Sean and I will probably head over to Longwood Gardens in the late afternoon. My pass expires today (I will probably renew it) and of course the Christmas display is still up. They also have a new children’s garden with special effects like steam and hopping streams of water, just to name a few things. I’ve been watching them build it all year.

Have a great rest of the day!

Dec25

Merry Christmas one and all!

Posted on Tuesday, December 25, 2007 by Dianne

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The big day is finally here-well half over. My pot roasts are in the oven and I decided to take a breather. I wanted to see if my friend Barbara was home from the hospital with her new baby, and she was briefly and had to go back again until his blood levels are normal. He’s a precious baby!

I also wanted to upload some Christmas Eve photos. My nephew was hamming it up last night for us all and most are silly shots. My niece had her hair cut shorter and now has Shirley Temple ringlets-so sweet!

We went out to dinner up the road from my mom first. We sat next to a loud table of about 20 which put a damper on our meal. We couldn’t hardly talk to each other and my mom has had hearing issues for a few years and I almost had to shout to her. I noticed one of the owners came and talked to them (like to see how everything was doing), I bet they were getting complaints. It was like a noisy cafeteria in there instead of a nice restaurant. Mom, Sean and I had lobster tail (mom and I had surf and turf) and Jim had chicken and Brian had flounder. The food is really good!

We headed over to my brother’s and visited for an hour. He really did himself proud with the decorations inside and out. Then we went back to mom’s and we opened gifts. She cried when she saw her HP digital camera and printer bundle. She really wanted something special and I am glad I could make her happy. She is suppose to come here today for dinner.

We went to a beautiful midnight mass service in Delaware. The alter and music were truly divine. We hit the sack about 2 am and I was up with the cat at 8:15 and remembered to do the guy’s stockings at 9 am. I am a bit bushed.

My main gift was an emerald necklace in it’s natural form! It’s cool. I’ll have to have Bri take a photo of it. He saw it in a magazine ad while he was waiting on me when I had my procedure done. He also got me a photo frame that is a slideshow of your digital photos. Neat! Sean got me a Celtic cross stitch book, the Sarah Brightman DVD of her Vegas show, and lovely postcards of Pennsylvania (in a book form).

Sean’s main gift was a HP digital camera and he was totally surprised! Yeah! Bri’s main gift was a West Bend coffee/ cappuccino/espresso ‘station’.

I hope you are having splendid days. OX

Christmas cookies:7 layer bars, chocolate chips, coconut cherry, orange macadamia, apricot walnut bars, fudge tarts, Rum raisin cheesecake bars, lemon bars, Russian teacakes and peanut caramel bars (that really didn’t turn out, but they are good).

Then: me and my girl

Sean, Tori and Mom

Ta-da! It’s Kenny and Bri!

WordPress is giving us the ‘snow’ effect for about a week. : )

Dec19

Guess who?

Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 by Dianne

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The early 1980s…

My Princess Diana look!

Gee, to be that thin again! I was looking through some old albums and these caught my eye. I was at Longwood Gardens in the second shot. Who knew I’d live so close a few years later?
I managed to wrap almost all the gifts-it took me about 2.5 hours Monday night and then about 1/2 hour Tuesday. I am missing some big gifts that haven’t arrived yet-hurry up! LOL I don’t add bows and ribbons until the last minute as they fall off or get flattened. I’ll show you the pretty papers when they are nicely arranged under the tree.
I had to return a gift to TJ Maxx that was too small for my niece. I should stay away from that store. I got a new rug for under the computer desk, a new pillow and a few more ornaments. Naughty. I’m naughty for staying up so late as I have a baking schedule to adhere to. I am pretty zonked. I went through about 80 blogs in the Christmas tour of homes. I’m trying to catch up!

Update-Since I have that coupon printer installed, I did a search and found a few places where you can print out coupons! One is coupon.com. I like it because you don’t have to sign up, but if you add your zip code, you get more to choose from. Some coupons even come with recipe ideas! You can’t beat that!

Not sure if I’m fighting a sore throat, but it hurts in just one spot. I’m going to bake this afternoon and take it easy tonight.

Both our parents are causing us worry lately. My mom has been having some dizzy spells. She thinks from lack of eating, well that makes sense. She is also borderline diabetic. I suggested she have a small glass of orange juice in the morning when she first gets up. Brian’s dad fell down getting gas (at night) and felt like he had something stuck in his throat. He was eating on the bus coming home from Atlantic City and has no beverage. He’s had this happen before. I believe he gets panicky which makes his throat tighten up more. I think we’ve all done that.