Category Archives: holiday

Funky Memorial Day

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Ever have one of those days that just happen to be a ‘holiday’ and you don’t feel like ‘getting into at least part of the celebration? Sean did-in a way. He went up to the next town’s parade and took some photos. I stuck some flags around. Brian char-cooked and ruined the meat we had for dinner. And it was the second time he had cooked this cut of meat that way. Like we didn’t learn from the first time not to cook it on the grill. I actually wanted burgers but he had defrosted the meat and that was that. Before the grilling disaster, Sean and I ran down to the mall so he could get some dress pants. He needed a larger size then the ones he had and he picked out some nice navy blue ones. He is going to the Senior dinner dance on 6/3. We also had to get a battery for the cordless phone and my digital camera at good ol’ Radio Shack. The phone battery was the wrong one, so I have to take it back. I checked out this one department store’s outdoor plant area and nabbed some 4-packs of flowers for about 95¢ each. I needed some more portulaca (finally got that spelling correct) and I got some pretty salvia-a dark purple and burgundy. Sean used all my celosia, so I bought some more of that too.
On the way home we stopped in Walmart so Sean could apply for a job on their in store computer. He has no previous job experience so he just put in the volunteer work that he did for his graduation project. He had helped out at a nature center in Delaware last summer.
I really was in the mood to do some flower planting before it rained. It’s been like this for the last three days. It’s nice, it gets dark and cooler and then in the late afternoon it rains. I managed to repot my geraniums and pot up some planters for the front step. I used mainly fancy coleus, salvia and a few other trailing plants. The planters I used didn’t have drainage last year and the potting soil got muddy. Brian poked some holes in them this year. I don’t think the same thing will happen this year as they are planted very tightly with the new plants. I’ll post a photo soon.
The cat pooed on me this evening as the last straw for such a weird day. He jumped on me, I was snuggling with him and felt ‘wet’ on my t-shirt. There were little brown spots on me and it wasn’t vomit. Cossy was embarrassed. Tomorrow has just got to get better!

Interesting Easter

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It was the first time in many months that my two brothers, me and our families were together in one room. The blue eyes in that room were blinding! Out of 11 people, I have hazel eyes, Brian has green eyes and my brother Ken has brown eyes. So you see what the dominant gene is in this family.
Before we went to my brother’s house, we went to ‘brunch’ at a local restaurant that we had never eaten in. As soon as I walked in the door my throat became itchy and was that way the entire 45 minutes we were there. Seems the bar was open on Easter Sunday. That is tacky in my opinion. Along with a bar comes cigarette smoke. That was my problem. Brian and I thought we were going to a buffet.It clearly stated on the newspaper flyer that it was a ‘brunch’, so they had about 15 things on the menu. We all picked omelettes. When we got the food, I was a bit repelled by the smell of the onions in the overcooked red skin potatoes. There were mostly skins and I didn’t want to eat them. The omelettes had a ‘gas’ taste from the stove. It’s very hard to mess up a meal like this, but they did. No butter for the toast either. They won’t see us back and I feel like complaining about their lousy food.
We went to my younger brother’s house. It had been his son Kenny’s birthday on the 23rd and I had gifts for him and Easter things for him and his sister Tori. My older brother and his family stopped by too. My older brother has let his hair go almost completely white and I was a bit shocked when I saw him. Sean enjoyed hanging out with his cousins. I was always so happy that at least he saw them once in a while.
We dropped by my mom’s and Dave and his family came over there too. I threw Dave some ‘bait’ and he started teasing me like he has done all our lives. Like, saying ‘you can eat a hoagie in the rain’, etc. What really peeved me was him putting down Universal Studios saying it was a ‘glorified Great Adventure’ when he’s never been there. I think he is just jealous we are going to Florida. That’s a brother for you.

Ahhh…some quiet time here…for a while

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Well the guys went looking for a computer desk and it’s ‘me’ time right now. No cookie baking, cleaning, etc. My time to surf the web and do a little blogging. I am dying to hit a few after Christmas sales, and I may….afterwards.
Christmas Eve and Christmas were nice. Not really hectic. We didn’t have to go out on the 24th until 4 pm. We then went to my mom’s and I basically had to redo the lights on her tree. My hair totally fell out and I had spent like an hour with the steam rollers! Mom’s house was a disaster. She can’t seem to allot time for cleaning much. She only gets moving around 11 or 12 every day. We told her not to worry about gifts and she got me like 6 tops that I really didn’t need. We went out to our favorite local restaurant which is conveniently up the road from my mom’s house. Her boarder and friend Jim came and somehow I got stuck sitting next to him and not my son or husband. He gets really tight wadded and pointed to the children’s hamburger and wanted to order it! Craphead. I think this will be the last year he will come along. His room is a mess and the rest of the place is starting to look bad.
We went over to my brother’s house to see them which was nice. Their house looks beautiful as they did a reversal making the dining room the living room (now the eating area is closer to the kitchen where he knocked down a doorway). My little brother amazes me with his talents. He does tend to get overwhelmed at times and takes it out on my mom, etc. Next he wants to redo his kitchen-just what I want to do next in my house. Bet he beats us to it!
That night we got home at 10:30 and decided to find a midnight mass service to attend. We went to a church in nearby Delaware and it was a nice change. We got to lounge around the next morning instead of running out the door to our church. Christmas was still a bit hectic for me as I made a big roast beef dinner. We gave each other thoughtful gifts, my favorite was an amethyst crucifix from Brian and Elton John’s 4 set DVD from Sean.
Sean and I went over to see my ailing uncle and his wife yesterday. Mom, Ken and his family went too. It was a nice visit and the kids opened their gifts from us over there. Tori went ga ga over a Barbie Swan Lake musicbox I gave her! I love when that happens. I got it for half nothing at a Kohl’s sale last year.
Well, that’s the last few days in a nutshell. Glad it’s over, but miss it already.

Jesus was born on April 17th, 6 A.D.

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I was watching ‘The Mummy Detective’ on TLC tonight-http://tlc.discovery.com/schedule/episode.jsp?episode=1&cpi=54712&gid=13084 and the discussion was about the three magi who came from
the east to find the new king. First, the man who invented the calendar way back when, messed it up. We are five years off. He was going by the rein of the emperors and was off 4 yrs there. They he went from the year 1 B.C. to 1 A.D., he forgot the year ‘0’. We should have celebrated the millennium in 1995! So, then they figured Jesus was born in Aries, from the way the planets were aligned.
The star the kings saw was actually Jupiter the planet. The magi- or ‘kings’
were from Persia and there was an old one, a middle-aged one and a young one. A photo of their skulls was examined by Bob the host (they are in a church). There were drawings depicting that the kings were 3 different ages. And forget the ‘no room at the inn’, they didn’t exist back then. Jesus was born in a cellar type area where the families animals were kept.
December 25th was chosen as it was during the winter solstice, a quiet time on the Christian calendar. The three kings actually made it to see Jesus when he was about 8 months old on Dec. 19th, 6 A.D.

Shopping maniacs…not me!

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Black Friday-forget it! I went out one year to Target and it was crazy, so I vowed never to venture out on that day again. Is it just getting really insane or what? People out at 3 am waiting in line for hours to get gifts their kids don’t even probably need or really want. It’s not like when I was a kid-that sounds cliched, I know. I was one of 4 and the only girl. When we got toys for Christmas, we played with them until they wore out!
Having an 18 yr old, I really don’t need to face the crowds anymore. I’ve been just as happy parking my butt in front of the computer and buying from favorite onlines stores like Amazon and Spilsbury. I plan to check Overstock.com and a few others this year too. I have a little niece and nephew, but I have gotten gifts for them already. I use to go overboard and their mom and dad got steamed. I have older nephews, but Circuit City or Best Buy gift cards will be fine for them.
I think we are forgetting the true meaning of Christmas with all this hustle and bustle. Personally, I prefer handmade gifts because the giver put time in the gift just for me.