Category Archives: Brian

Aug23

Amphibian adieu

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We’re all set. Bri finished up the lawn and found this little guy to show me. I got some cute photo ops as he sat on the edge of my waterlily garden.

Toadie pal
I have seen a ton of frogs and toads all over the yard. I hope they are helping with the bug population. I also saw a new colony of caterpillars on the milkweed today. Awesome.
My pond garden pump was a major pain today. It wouldn’t stay on when I immersed it in the water. I took it out of the water and let it run without water going through it for a while and that seemed to do the trick. We do have to unplug it tomorrow-rats!
I’m taking the camera, so be prepared to see some lovely PA countryside.

Aug23

So this is it…

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…Sean’s last day here until Thanksgiving! Wow! I remember when he was looking into dorms back in February and August seemed so far away. Sean got to see his grandmom, uncle, aunt and cousins yesterday. My mom got all weepy when we left which lead me to get weepy in the van. I usually have to be provoked into tears. I want to be cool up at the dorm when the actual separation occurs. Give we strength! Sean’s car is already almost jammed packed. He has a few more things to put in there and he needs to leave room for me. Bri will be following us on the 3+ hour trip. We’ll stay a night in a hotel about 12 miles further away and his move in is 12-8 on Saturday and Bri and I turn around to come home.

This had to be the week when the sun never came out and my sinuses have been awful. I’ve had congestion and post nasal drip. I can’t sneeze I’m so stuffed up! I did a Google search ‘how to sneeze’ and people had tips, even a little English boy on youtube.com who stuck a rolled up piece of tissue up his nose-I think so high it made him cough and then sneeze. I came close last night, but I just can’t sneeze. Today I’ll have to take Claritin or Sudafed which I try to hold off doing as long as possible. ~Update-as I proofread this post, I finally sneezed after 3 days! Yippee!!

Here’s a video about my hometown (my high school pal sent me the link) as a company entered them in a contest sponsored by Ikea which they are currently in 2nd place-they won’t announce the winner for a few weeks. You can see the old Media High School where I went one year to junior high and that my niece and nephew attend/attended as an elementary school. You’ll also see Media Theatre where we use to attend $1 movies.

I received some prints from my friend Karin’s wedding that I personally got to chose. I never had anyone offer to do that with their wedding photos, but she and Michael bought the proofs and set them up online at Kodak-a great idea. I bought a special album for them last night at JoAnn’s (plus a few other goodies). Keep Michael in your thoughts as he needs to get an injection in his back from pain that wakes him up several times a night.

My friend Terri had good news that her mom was still in remission after a bout with cancer and then her mom’s sister passed on a few days ago from a heart attack. The thing that bothered me is that the poor woman went to the ER for terrible indigestion, a red flag for women as it is sometimes means heart problems.

My other friend Joy lost her 51 yr old male cousin from a heart attack too. He had a special title, I’ll have to look up the email again, but he was working to preserve waterways if I remember correctly. The cousins set up a nice slideshow in memory of him on Flickr.

If I don’t post again, I’ll see you in a few days. I also have to tidy up as the parish priest is coming on Monday.

By the way, added some new videos and yes I know, two are James Taylor singing ‘Only a Dream in Rio’ one of my favorite JT songs.

Aug18

The last hoo-ha of the summer

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It’s nice to be home, but of course next Friday we’ll be in central Penna. to help Sean with his move in at PSU. Sean did most of the driving over the last three days. He said he needs to ‘get use to it’ since it’s about 160 miles one way to PSU.

Day 1-It was smooth sailing and we stopped off at the rest stop in Smyrna. This time I was looking for the freebie literature for my art projects. They had quite a few of them. The people working there were watching me, but didn’t say anything. I even got a neat NYC book. We got to Rehoboth Beach in a jiffy, but the traffic was backed up which we sat in for 20 minutes for so. We went to our favorite sandwich shop there called ‘The Arena’. It’s not like it’s name, a rather small hole in the wall with mile high sandwiches. I got chicken salad and actually took the second half apart to eat the filling out of it. Sean did the same with his tuna, but Bri ate his entire sandwich. I swear when that man is on vacation, he eats to his heart’s content. I wanted to go in a cute gift shop and sent them to the bookstore. I got a cute journal with a leaf cover and little handmade sandals as a cover decoration. I went to the bookstore and no guys! Here they had gone to the bookstore way up near the boardwalk. I had to get a bathing suit cover up and found a long sleeveless t-shirt style and got a freebie decal for the front. It was hot walking around and we had a 5 minute walk to the van, which is a long walk for R. Beach.

We got to the Atlantic Coastal Inn which sits in front of the old Fenwick Island lighthouse. This was taken from outside our room.

Fenwick Island lighthouse

Fenwick Island lighthouse at night

Directly near the lighthouse are trailers, a little tacky to have near this historic place. The only downfall was that we had to cross over the wide and highly traveled highway to get to the beach. The place last year was on that side of the road. We went to the beach for about an hour as the wind was like 25-30 mph, so you felt like you were going to get blown away.

Bri and Di on the beach

Sean on the beach

The water was nice after you got use to it. I don’t go swimming, but Bri and Sean do. We went to an Italian place for dinner and had to wait a while. We decided on pizza because of the big lunch. Afterwards, we went to the Country Store where I got a variety of fudge and jams. Sean wanted to drive all the way down to the inlet area of Ocean City (140 blocks) and cross the bridge to an outlet area (HA-I used inlet and outlet in the same sentence!) We had to wait about 20 minutes for the bridge to close. The outlets were a bust-the bookstore was gone and we got there too late to really look in any stores. Sean was happy to get ‘Dippin’ Dots’ ice cream. He’s still a kid in that respect.

The next day we went the same place where we went to breakfast last year and sat at the same table (without telling the hostess even). Later we went to the beach again. Still a bit windy, but hot. It got overcast and started to rain. I haven’t been on the beach for years when we got rained on. When I was little we got caught in a torrential downpour down in Wildwood, NJ and that scared me. We left and hung out a bit in our room. It was too humid to really do anything. We went out to ‘our big dinner’ at Harpoon Hannah’s. It was right down the road and thank goodness we got there fairly early. Sean and I had lobster tails (3 each!)

My dinner

and Bri had swordfish. It was pretty good. After dinner the guys went to find a car museum place and couldn’t and decided to play miniature golf. I got some down time and read up on Lewes, DE. a little town down the road that I hadn’t been to for a while. I wanted to see the actual town, not where you get on the ferry to go to Cape May, NJ, across the bay. We did that when I was a kid and I was seasick for like 3 hours when we got home.

On the last day we went to breakfast again and headed for the Shipwreck Museum. The bottom is a store that sells hermit crabs and lots of souvenirs. They do a great job with the free museum. I asked the woman there if I could take photos and she said yes. I’ll make a slideshow of the photos from there, but here’s a sneak peek:

Boat model with real gold coins, etc.

We checked out and headed for the Rehoboth Beach outlets. Sean wanted to go to Old Navy. It was crowded and the clothes weren’t that great. We didn’t stay long and headed for Lewes. We drove down to the beach area. It’s not huge, but you can see down the shoreline and we saw a few lighthouses in the distance. We headed to where a lightship was and got out and took a few photos. We found the Zwaanendael Museum,

Zwaanenael Museum

erected in 1931 to commemorate the founding of the town by the Dutch back in 1631, it’s 300th anniversary. It’s an unusual building. All the parking was taken, so Sean sat in the van while I went around and took some photos. I did manage to get one of a cross stitch sampler inside.

Dutch Sampler 1976

I really like Lewes. It’s a Victorian town and on the water! There are some retirement places there too. Hmmm! We headed to Dover, DE where my favorite bookstore is located-Atlantic warehouse. I tried to be chosey and concentrated on scrapbooking books and gift items. We headed home after an hour and stopped off at Wendy’s for an early dinner. Cos was glad to see us.

Off to eat lunch and then pick a ton of ripe tomatoes. It’s a gorgeous day here, a little cool and no humidty. I’ve already been outside for over an hour, most of that time with the cat.

I got my Cafepress.com rose t-shirt and it’s pretty. I’ll have Sean take a photo of me in it soon.

Aug9

Big box heaven

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I never saw a guy get so excited about big boxes of food like Sean was in BJs Wholesale Club today! He loves that place. ☺

Since we have a small family, we don’t shop there that often. He was looking for snacks and meals he could have in his dorm room. He got lots of soup-the noodle kind and Healthy Choice, Chex mix, dried milk, lots of little boxes of cereal, Starbursts(!) and a few other things. He also got a ‘safe’ made especially for his laptop with a combination lock on it and a wire that loops around something for added security. He also got a Penn State folding chair. His room has a microwave/frig combo. He’s been using a lot of his work pay this summer to buy the things he needed. He helped today with BJs too.

I did buy myself a few things. Two scrapbooking books-called Instant Memories-Travel and Love editions. They have vintage images on nice card stock, but you also get a CD with all the images in the book. I saw them on Amazon with a bunch of other editions for under $6 each (used and new), half of what I paid. I also bought a faux scrapbook by Cicely Mary Barker, the flower fairy illustrator. It has little envelopes you can open up, one of which may have what is suppose to be a butterfly wing. That is also a good price at Amazon.

So Sean is all set!

We went to Bertucci’s, a brick oven pizza/Italian food restaurant. Mom had fettucini with asparagus and shrimp while Sean and I shared a Shrimp Bella Venezia pizza. Best pizza I have tasted for a while.

Going to my mom’s still makes me anxious as there is a lot going on there, mostly things that need cleaning. Her yard needs attention around the house. I guess the first cooler day I’ll have to go weed wack down there. And the inside is crazy. She tries to go through too many boxes at once. Plus instead of going to the department stores, she is now going shopping at the Goodwill! She bought a nice glider rocker that was new (Sean loved it) and a small wing back chair with a saggy seat. She thinks it is comfortable and more so then a leather chair I bought for her many years ago at a nice department store. I’m thinking about bringing the white leather chair home. I like it. It has big arms and you can curl up in it and read or stitch. We have a recliner that is a good make (Lane), but I have never liked it and it’s Bri’s chair. He said he’ll have to check out the leather chair.

We had to drive home tonight in the pouring rain and had to get the stuff in between raindrops. Bri is complaining about his new job already. Says that when he drove around a lot, it helped with his salary. He’s not driving that much, but he has more ads. We’ll have to see how it works out.

For Zoey, are you watching ‘The Parker’ about the Palm Springs hotel on Bravo? Just wondering.

Guess I’ll play with my new books tomorrow.

Aug8

Squashed it is!

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The green beans, my little zinnias, mini sunflowers and most of my squash are gone. : (

However, I did pick 6 more squash, so the count is still growing. I will check again in a few days, but there are so many fallen apples, I’m a bit afraid that the stinging critters will go after them. Mr. Groundhog should be in hog heaven if he ventures out to that part of the yard. When I retrieved the squash, I had to walk on the big, thick stems of those plants. It breaks my heart to see it that way. I wonder if I could replant and get an early fall harvest? We have nice weather until the end of September or beginning of October a lot of times. That of course would mean doing a big clean up and we are going to the beach next week for a few days and the following week is the drive to PSU.

Both guys went out to cut more branches down after a spaghetti dinner, so they were pretty full. When they came in, they got a banana/pineapple/guava smoothie in a new smoothie maker! Sean gets 20% off at work, so he picked one up for us.

I’m in a cleaning mood still (gasp) and did half the family room before doing a few baskets of laundry. I seem to put off the book end of this room all the time. I just start sorting out my books and end up reading them.

Hopefully we can see my mom tomorrow and maybe go to BJs so Sean can get a few large items he needs for college. The time is growing so near now.

Aug7

Crash!

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It’s so darn muggy! When I got up it was 80 degrees outside already. I wanted to mail off a birthday card to a pal in Ireland and was filling it out when the UPS guy brought my new flip phone! It’s pretty cool and Sean has one almost just like it. With a rebate of $50 it will be a freebie. It pays to call up your provider and see if they have any specials. They would not have accepted the rebate if I had bought the phone at Wally World and some other places. Yes, it’s magenta!

My new phone

So what’s the title up there about? I happen to look in the direction of the vegetable garden and the fairly good size apple tree there had fallen over directly in the green beans and yellow squash part of the garden, the area I take care of! Bri may have a hard time cleaning it all up, but maybe we’ll be able to save the garden. I don’t know if my ‘count the squash’ contest is still on as it literally got squashed last night! The tomatoes are fine. The tomatoes are visible in the foreground and the my part of the garden is under the tree. We only have a chicken wire mesh fence. I kinda know why it fell over. This and the two pear trees next to it are suppose to be dwarf trees and were not kept trimmed back correctly. It’s not like I didn’t remind ‘someone’. The pears are hardly producing anymore and he won’t cut them down.

Fallen down

Another angle of the apple tree

My uncle needs someone to put his a/c units back in the windows of his house. If he can’t find anyone, Bri and Sean will have to go over and help him. I’m hoping someone will do it today.

Update late Tuesday-Bri and Sean went out after dinner to clear away some of the tree. Sean couldn’t stand the horrible humidity and Bri wouldn’t give the trimming up until over an hour later! He came in looking like he had been in a downpour-he was drenched to the bone from perspiration. The veggies are pretty well squashed. I reached in and got 1 MORE SQUASH! ; ) I think one in the far corner didn’t get ruined. I came in and made strawberry smoothies. Thanks again to Carole for the idea of freezing the berries on a tray first. It took a while with ice and strawberries (live and learn-like put a few in at a time instead of dumping them all and making the motor run weird). I think I need a new smoothie maker as the one we have is letting off an electrical burn smell. Sean can pick me up one at Big Lots.

We watched a movie called Disturbia. It was really scary at the end! One of the characters was played by David Morse, a resident of Penna. I still think he was the best in St. Elsewhere (doctor show from the 80s).

The lady who came to help my uncle today put in the a/c units (they are small ones) for him and cleaned like crazy too!  I hope she comes several times a week.

Please check out my new link to a cool art e-zine. I’ve been visiting there a lot lately!

Watch out for spammers who use your old blog entries to comment. I wrote to word press about it and finally just ended up taking off this particular entry they were using all the time. I deleted about 10 comments today and some were a bit obscene. I just removed my archives from this blog to see if that helps.

Jul19

Scenes from a wedding

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My bride pal Karin sent me links to her wedding photos which are terrific! I can’t show you the proofs, but I can show you a few taken by Michael’s family …

Before the wedding

Talking with the bride

Raising glasses
Those are Michael’s co-workers and pals from North Carolina.

Yeah I look all giddy, but I was so tired! I had like 2 hours of sleep that night.

When I get my copy of the wedding photos, then I will share them with you.

Jul13

New job!

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Yeah! Congrats to Bri for getting the job today in the next town!  He had started in that area about 8.5 years ago and they moved him first to the Maryland office and then to the Lancaster office (not near here at all!). Miles are piling up on his car plus we’ve had some added expenses with my teeth, getting a new heater and having the air conditioner repaired. I’ll say the lady who left had excellent territory (‘big bucks’ areas) and he should do well getting ads for the papers. So synched!!! Congrats dear hubby!

Jul9

A Walk in the Woods

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My latest cross stitch finish-boy are my eyes tired! I think I started this in April-2005 (I checked my blog!). I actually had enough room (with about 1/4″ to spare) to add that second border. I have no idea what the crown represents. It’s 11″ x 15″. I will probably get this professionally framed. Does any craft store ever offer specials on framing (that you know of?)

A Walk in the Woods

I waited until 6 pm to do a quick watering job. I almost couldn’t stand it for more than 15 minutes. Cos wanted to go out and by that time, I really needed to come in and cool off, so he had a few nibbles of grass and we came in 5 minutes later.

Bri may have a job opportunity in the next town over! He started there over 8 years ago before they moved him first to Maryland and then to Lancaster county. Apparently a lady who does a similar job resigned today without notice. Weird. I think she probably wanted a raise and they said no. Crossing fingers!

I found a pedometer while tidying up my bedroom and put it on about 2 pm. It’s 8:45 and I’ve walked almost 2 miles in that time! (5,000 steps=2 miles). Good motivator for moving my fanny!