Category Archives: celebs

All American girl

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Dorothy
How many of you remember Dorothy Hamill from the 1976 Winter Olympics? I surely do and loved watching every second of her performances on ice-that ‘Hamill camel’, well if you were around then, you know all about that. I even got a wedge haircut during my senior year of high school. I was sad to read that she is now (at age 51) being treated for breast cancer. She plans to undergo treatment and then return to the ice show later this month. I wish her well! By the way, I had no idea she was a heavy smoker in those early skating days (info from the internet).

She has a new book too! Dorothy in ‘76

Dorothy and Alex her daughter

With her daughter Alex (now age 19)

“I wasn’t particularly athletic or gifted, but I loved it. I’d be at the skating rink all day long, just skating around and around. I could be all alone and nobody could get near me and I didn’t have to talk to anybody. I was in my fantasy world.”

Please remember to click the link to give ladies free mammograms.

Carolyn’s Oscar bash

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Fellow blogger Carolyn of Magpie Pixie is having an Oscar bash in honor of her birthday today!

Birthday banner

Hey, I feel better and decided to ‘go with gold’ as my color of choice-it matches the little statue:

Gold gown

Or maybe this vintage dress from 1930 (which according to the internet store, would fit me well). It needs a little vamping though.

Vintage gown

Either one of these fellas would be fine as an escort. I do like older men:

Sean and Harry

But my dream date, sorry Amy and Brian, our respective spouses:

Tim

I would surely share the little chocolate Oscars with my date!

Chocolate Oscar

And I just received Carolyn’s gift, a one-of-a-kind vintage ruby ring to match her gown! Enjoy!

 

Ruby

Another old lang syne

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My heart is very heavy tonight as I learned of the passing of one of my favorite singers Dan Fogelberg.

Rest in peace Dan

Dan had prostate cancer for about 3 years or so and this is what took him at the age of only 56. He left behind some beautiful music. Brian and I saw him at the Spectrum in Philly back in about 1983 or so and he was wonderful. Mom reminded me that we used Dan’s song ‘Longer’ when we got married. We’ve been hearing ‘ Another Old Lang Syne’  a lot  as it’s in the Christmas mix on the radio. I kept wondering how he was. My uncle is a prostate cancer survivor and in his early 80s. Dan’s website expresses how we need to get our men in for that ‘exam’. I really want Bri to get one now that he is 50.

Dan Fogelberg

I don’t know if I can listen to Dan anymore. That happened to me following the passing of Jim Croce and then John Denver. Right now it’s hard.

Still here!

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Yes I am! Just trying to get things tidied up and the way that looks best. I don’t know where to store some of my art supplies as I am using my living room, where the tree is, as my art studio! What would be ideal is a long, open up bench in front of my bay window to store all the goodies in. Maybe someday.

I did get my snowbabies in the above mentioned window and will photograph it for the 17th. I think I’ll be making a slide show for the Christmas house tour. : ) My family room isn’t finished yet though. I also want Bri to help me deep clean the berber in there as I can see soiled areas (this drives me batty).

My poor sinuses are bothering me from handling the dusty boxes and just stirring dust up in general. Yesterday morning I sat up in bed and had a coughing attack, not to pleasant. I used my BioAllers before bed last night (which made me have slight post nasal) and I am somewhat better today.

My poor mom is having all kinds of things start to break on her-the dishwasher won’t pump in water and two of her burners on the stove don’t work. I called my brother Ken last night to see if he could look at these and he asked why our mom didn’t call and I said she was afraid he’d get mad if she did! He’s the son for goodness sakes. I said Bri has his dad to worry about and doesn’t even get to his house that often, so it would be hard for him to help mom too. My brother lives minutes away from her house as it is. I know he gets frustrated when he goes in there as it’s so disorganized. But you’ve gotta do, what ya gotta do. I am crazy about Ken, my little brother. He can do anything, is funny and handsome all rolled into one package.

I was hoping to get to mom’s today, not sure if she is up to company, but I think today would be better than tomorrow.

By the way, Mark Wahlberg and Susan Sarandon were shooting scenes for their upcoming movie ‘The Lovely Bones’ in a Delaware County mall near where I worked in a daycare center. I thought that was pretty interesting and would love to be nosy to see, but they aren’t mingling with the public.
From My Big Fat, Friggin Head:

There is a major motion picture being filmed in my hometown of Glenolden this week. And the set that they are using is the Mac Dade Mall, which is the shopping mall that my mother managed for nearly 30 years. It is quite literally the mall that I grew up in.

Today, the mall is practically abandoned, the victim of much bigger area malls and the local Walmart which drove most of the remaining business away. But this made it perfect for a movie set. They remodeled the empty stores inside to look like a mall from the 70’s. It’s quite beautiful. I saw the inside last week. First time in my life I ever got to walk around a movie set as they were building it. I did not get pics of the inside, but others did and they are floating around on the web.

My local stitcher pal Mindy got to meet Michael Nutter the newly elected mayor of Philly a few days ago. Awesome!

Have a great weekend and make some ‘me’ time for yourself.

Just a few retro Christmas shots

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Of some celebrities-these can be found on Corbis.com

1929-Buddy Rogers (married to Mary Pickford) and Mary Brian, well known in the 30s-40s. I love her gown!

Buddy Rogers and Mary Brian

The Dionne Quints from the 193os

The Dionne Quints

One of my mom’s favorites, Robert Sterling and his wife Anne Jeffries. Mom learned that he passed on a few years ago from shingles complications. She had shingles, so she knew somewhat of how it would bother an elderly man.

Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffries

The tree decorations are up! I used ornaments I haven’t used for a few years. I also got my feather tree up and have mostly handmade ornaments on it. Still not ready for photos yet and I’ll probably go shopping tomorrow. I will probably participant in Boo Mama’s web house tour on the 17th. I can do a lot in a week!

Takin’ it easy

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After waking up at 5:30 and barely getting back to sleep before I got up at 7 for my pre-admissions, I am pretty tired. Why you have to get in there so early when you haven’t fasted is beyond me. Poor Bri looks so tired too. I wrote about it in ‘me stuff’ tab above.

So does anyone watch ‘Dancing with the Stars’? I only started watching the past few years. I wanted to see how Marie Osmond, who is my age did. She’s in the top 3! If she had a huge flow of fans call in last night, then she will probably win. I think it’s going to be the race car driver Helio Castroneves and Julianna, but I like Mel B.-The Spice Girls and Maks myself. That Maks is a ‘twinkle toes’! : )

I’m going to take an early shower, get all snuggly and enjoy the finale tonight. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow, you’ll know why, but I’ll try to get online later in the day.

Take care!

Cyber shopping Monday…

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…starts in a few minutes, but I’m off to bed in a few too. I’m really tired from grocery shopping. Bri came along because I am trying not to do too much lifting this week. I got a few frozen things to make cooking easier, well for both of us, at the end of the week.

Speaking of shopping-I have no idea what anyone wants for Christmas. I just can’t wrap my head around it right now. The only thing I saw I want is the Reynolds vacuum sealer-saw that in the grocery store this afternoon. And maybe the movie that Todd from my class wrote and directed ‘Lonely Hearts’. I believe I own one of his other movies ‘White Squall’ which was really good! I love that Todd’s little sister Traci works along with him in many of his projects. She was a really sweetie in high school.  My friend suggested I send Todd two photos (shown in post below) and have him autograph and return one. I also have clippings through the years that were in the local newspapers about his different milestones, probably added by his mom Ronnie. I told him I’d send them to him and he didn’t say no. I didn’t know I would have his Malibu, CA address right in our contact spread sheet at the end of our ‘what are you doing’ booklet. I just think it’s so neat, my miniature brush with a celebrity (my mom’s was with Governor Rendell!). But you know, both Todd and Denice (an actress out of Nashville) from my class are real ‘people’ persons. They know how to get close to you and make you comfortable. I felt that way immediately with them. I remember Todd being quiet on the school bus and always writing something. I had forgotten that the family didn’t spend most of their growing up years in Media, I read they were from the Long Island, NY area. But here he is, a famous guy, coming back to his 30th reunion.

Sean gave me a nice Art trading card book focusing on rubber stamping. It’s great and I am getting ideas. I packed away my paper things for a while, though I have a perpetual Christmas calendar I started and really want to finish before the 1st of December. I need to add numbers to the cards and some velcro dots to adhere them to the poster board.

I started a cross stitch gift tonight while watching ‘The Amazing Race’ and ‘Brothers and Sisters’ (both good episodes with Chevy Chase being Sally Field’s love interest on B&S-ha!). I already tore out half of what I added. Focus, sister, focus.

We are expecting a wet day today. Have fun cyber shopping if you do so!

Rats-The Food Network-Iron Chef is having a dessert battle-should I stay up for it?

Andrew Wyeth honored

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Andrew WyethArtist and local Chadds Ford, PA resident Andrew Wyeth received a national medal of honor from President George W. Bush today. He is 90 yrs old. I found some trivia about him on Wikipedia:
* Wyeth was often referenced by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (a longtime admirer) in the comic strip Peanuts. In one strip the character Snoopy was presented with a bill for “psychiatic help” 20 cents and states “I refuse to sell my Andrew Wyeth”. In another strip, Snoopy’s prized Van Gogh painting is burned in a fire, and he replaces it with an Andrew Wyeth.

* Tom Duffield, the production designer for the American remake of The Ring, drew inspiration from Wyeth’s paintings for the look of the film.

* M. Night Shyamalan based his movie The Village on paintings by Andrew Wyeth. The Village was filmed in Chadds Ford not far from Wyeth’s studio.

* Director Philip Ridley has stated that his 1990 film The Reflecting Skin is heavily inspired by the paintings of Andrew Wyeth in its visual style.

Ed McMahon visits my hometown

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Ed McMahon, a Veteran from both WWII and Korean, was chosen as Grand Marshall of my hometown’s Veteran’s Day parade (video in link and you get to see the streets I roamed). Ed also lived in the same apartment complex (in the ’50s) that Bri and I lived in as newlyweds (Dick Clark too). My mom didn’t go see him and of course I couldn’t go today. Last week I missed Rachael Ray, but she was over in NJ.

Wuss Report-2

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Bri likes to flip the channels and PBS had a show on about Carol Burnett’s career. I think she’s wonderful! She had a rough beginning with parents who were alcoholics and she was mainly raised by her Nanny. I was raised by my mom and grandmom, so I understand what it is like to have a senior citizen around the house all the time. I believe Carol’s first play was ‘Once Upon A Mattress’ which really made her a star. Her tv show was on for 11 years after that and personally, I don’t think any of us missed an episode. If you remember the scene of Carol ‘dressed’ like Scarlett O’Hara in the curtain dress with the rod still through it, I’m sure you are laughing right now.

Here’s the skit from Youtube:

My brother Don was in our high school production of ‘Once Upon A Mattress’. My mom wrote to Carol and Don got back an autographed picture of her! That was pretty neat. In the show last night, they had a question and answer session and a girl said she had played Winifred in OUAM and if Carol could sign a few bars of ‘Shy’ with her. Carol asked the young lady to come on stage and they sang together.

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By the way, here’s my dinner from a few nights ago, my 3rd entree from the Everyday Foo, Nov. 07 issue-Penne in a pumpkin sauce. It was good, but I think it needed a pinch of nutmeg or even some roasted pine nuts.
Penne with pumpkin sauce

Think about me about 11:00 at my consultation tomorrow with Dr. R.