Category Archives: local interest

Aug23

Emotions

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Sad-Sean left at 9 am. I prayed I wouldn’t blubber, but I still do. He’s such a nice guy with us-takes me places, is patient, watches sporting events with Bri and they both have snickering attacks (it must be a guy thing). Stuff like that I’ll miss. Man, is his car jam packed with stuff! We were suppose to follow him up and see the apartment and town, but that will have to be in a few weeks. Bri’s dad needs his attention. I can’t wait to see how Sean does in his ‘bachelor pad’. He left me with a hamper of laundry and his room is a little messy. My entire living room was that way for a week or so. Now I can finish getting my craft stuff organized.

Happy-That Obama picked seasoned politician and all around nice guy Joe Biden as his running mate. I wasn’t sure where Biden resided, but here it’s down my road and make a right, about 10 miles away in Greenville. If you aren’t familiar with Greenville, it’s in Delaware and one of the most expensive places to live in the country. Greenville is Bri’s territory for the newspaper, but he doesn’t go down there that often.

Excited-to work on some projects again now that things are somewhat settled down. I squished some flower blossoms last night and was pleased with the results. I am using the paper as background for a few cards.
Flower squishing
Joyful-That a hummingbird or two found the little feeder I just bought from the store in NJ. We have the zoom lens on the camera, but we think we have to move the hanging basket the feeder is stuck in closer to the house. Here are a few photos taken with the zoom lens:

Bri’s photo-cropped

Also entered a contest to be in the pit crew for Patrick Dempsey at a race in Millville, NJ next weekend. Heck, I’d like to be the one who fluffs his hair when he takes off his helmet! It would be so funny to win!

Aug20

Atlantic City & attractions 2008

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Atlantic City & attractions 2008, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Here’s a mosaic from our trip-view the large one at the above link or go to the slideshow of the set here. Unfortunately, some of the photos were cut off a bit. Sunday-we basically just stayed around the hotel and went to the mall for dinner. Monday we went to the beach after having the hotel’s breakfast buffet. While we were on the beach, we heard the roar of planes coming very close, almost like one was going to crash in the ocean! Here is was the USAF Thunderbirds flying team practicing for their show today. It was neat at first, but after 45 minutes, it was a bit loud. That night we went to the outlet shops near by and bought a few clothes items (that’s basically all there was). Sean bought me a candle as he was getting a bit short with me about things. I couldn’t help it if ‘Aunt Flo’ decided to visit me during the trip. To prove that I could do it, I climbed the Absecon lighthouse as described below-ouch! The front of my thighs are complaining! After we left there, we headed to Margate where Lucy the Elephant is located. It’s over 100 years and a mascot for the area. You can go up in her, but I just couldn’t do the climbing again. We found a excellent deli (Downbeach) and we all loved what we had-mom said it was the best pastrami she has had for a long time. We decided to stop at Smithville, a quaint little shopping area on the way home. We hadn’t been there for a while, and it doesn’t change much. I bought a tiny hummingbird feeder from a store that sold all bird related things (that’s what they basically were-all Ireland, all angels, etc). to put in the window where my craft table is.

I haven’t felt that tired for a long time when we got home and it took me a few hours to fall asleep, but I stayed asleep for a solid 4-5 hours which is good for me. Mom or I haven’t done that kind of walking for ages. I’m really happy that she did so well in that aspect. Sleeping there was another story.

Oh, and Cosmo was glad to see us and not too stand-offish. He seems really tired, I guess he was pining after me!

Aug19

Very tired

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Here’s why (did it just today)-

Don’t know if you can see where it says ‘228 steps-one amazing journey’. I was totally zonked. But look at this neat photo of the lens at the top:

And my red van looked so small from 169 feet up:

I had my almost 22 yr old son prompting me to keep going, felt like a lady in labor! There were six landings to rest on-how ingenious. My legs were like noodles near the top and at the bottom and I was totally sweating and my heart was beating like crazy. Guess I can cross another one off the list on things I wanted to do!

The doorway to ‘heaven’. The stairs looked like that the entire way up.

But what a view! That’s Brigantine from the top of the lighthouse. You stand in a cage. I felt a little funny up that high.

We had a good time, had some great food, nice beach time and weather and saw some neat things! Will tell you more tomorrow. It’s good to be home!

Aug9

Photo Hunt-Dark

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This reminds me of the Olympic opening ceremony last night-all the gorgeous colors in the dark!

Hmmm….most of my dark photos deal with Christmastime. This is one of my favorite nighttime photos of the fountain and light show at Longwood Gardens (it has saved me in the hunt more than you know, though I may have used this one before-I forget). The stars were hanging from the trees and I was actually behind where the people were sitting to view the show. Christmas music was playing too.

It’s going to be a pleasant day today. Sean is going to the beach for a daytrip with some pals. I hope he has a great time!

Aug2

Photo Hunt-Clouds

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Sunset at Longwood with topiaries, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This was taken in early January, 06 at my favorite photo spot, Longwood Gardens. I don’t take that many sky or cloud photos, but I think this turned out pretty good. The silhouettes are topiaries.



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Jul31

Strasberg, PA 7-30-08

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Strasberg, PA 7-30-08, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Sean and I went on a daytrip up to Lancaster yesterday and did some power shopping at the outlets and got many good buys. On the way home, we got off the beaten path of Route 30 and went down Rt. 741 which runs through the quaint town of Strasberg. It was getting dark, but we parked in this gravel lot of a Lutheran Church and walked around a bit. Sean got some ice cream too. It’s known for the railroad station there, and we’ve done that, many years ago. I like doing some things on a whim.

The haul: A pretty tank with green background and blue flowers that look like a photograph; a sleeveless navy blue dress with white butterflies (like a potato print kind) and cute teardrop cubic zirconia earrings-Liz Claiborne outlet. Did I mention we had 20% off coupons for this one outlet center? I bought the dress to wear in our portrait for the church directory, so you’ll see it when I show the photo-probably Sept-Oct.

I finally got a microplane grater-used the 20% off at Le Gourmet Chef.

The Gap-really cute t-shirts-red with a flock of birds and green with flowers, plus a peach t. Used a coupon! Sean got some nice shorts there-coupon.

A place called Steve & Barry’s opened up-it is partly owned by actress Sarah Jessica Parker. Everything in the store is $8.98-even blue jeans! They must have a 100 or more t-shirt styles. I got Brian a Ford one and navy blue shorts plus some brown dress pants for me (I need to lose a few for these to feel comfy). The quality of the clothes was on the most part good-reminded me of The Gap.

Borders books-two paper crafts books and a gift for mom.

Tuesday Morning-they expanded their craft area-yeah-so I got this set of rubber stamps-little crowns, wings, flourishes for $2.50. The neat thing is they are magnetic and stick to their container. I need to see if I can get any more of them at the local TM for resale and gifts. Also got this big box of decoupage stuff-you are suppose to decorate the box-but bought it for all the papers included.

We ate at a new Olive Garden. Some older lady pushed by me to get ahead of me to get on the waiting list. She probably didn’t ask for first available, so we got seated before her and her husband, near the bar, but that was fine. Before we got called, she had the nerve to pull out her nail clippers and start clipping her nails (we were outside, thank goodness, but I saw the pieces flying). Ugh!

I am by no means skinny, never was, but there were so many heavy people, mostly women going into the restaurant. We sat where we could watch and I swear, every third one was big-like over 225! I mention this as it was a wake up call for me too. I am scared for how big so many Americans are getting. I try to serve more turkey over red meat, but we love our pizza too (only once a week). I do pasta, but I guess I should do more whole wheat pasta. Since Sean’s been home, he actually lost weight and gained muscle (he works out), so that goes to show what he is eating isn’t all that bad. I tend to snack at night. I’m not super hungry during the day and about 9:30-10 pm I have to eat something or I won’t be able to sleep. I had rice cakes the other night. It think I’m one of those people that needs to eat every 3-4 hours. My metabolism is terrible. You’ve got to try as hard as you can-but I think to get moving is a big thing. I have a few books that didn’t sell for me on eBay-Curves and the Biggest Loser-so I guess they are mine and I’ll be reading them. : )

Oh! Wish me luck-Sean took my van for my brother to look at today. Since Sean works in my hometown and my brother lives there, it worked out better for me. I hope the air doesn’t have a leak in it.

Jul27

Take me out to the ballgame!

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Brian and Sean went to their first ever Phillies game together at the Citizen’s Bank Park. I watched from home as usually events like that aren’t my cup of tea. I have been to a few Phillies games, a long, long time ago. They were interesting, I will say that, but it was after they had won the World Series back in 1981 or so. I really knew the players well, and a few lived in my hometown at the time (Mike Schimdt and Tug McGraw).

The game yesterday was against the Atlanta Braves and the Phillies won 10-9. The Phillies scored 7 runs in the 5th with a homerun hit by Greg Dobbs, the pitch hitter. Needless, to say, they were happy about that.

They brought me home a little Phillies bear with crooked eyes with the pitcher Hamels name on the back-ahhh.

Here are a few of Sean’s snaps:

Inside Citizen’s Bank Park

Bri giving the thumb’s up outside the park

Opps-forgot to save Sean’s photo!

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On the home front, I laid low still doing some cleaning and sorting. The dust really gets to me. Bri showed me the filter from the heater he replaced and it was filthy. I think it should be changed every few months instead of waiting for 3 months. The dust has been especially bad this year for some reason, maybe it was the filter!

Here’s a bulb plant that I am waiting to bloom, it’s some kind of crocosmia. I thought it was suppose to be orange, but these look red.

And look at this cute Leopard frog who lives in the pond. There seems to be a few of them here:

The zinnias are having a bad year, but here’s a lime one grown from a saved seed from last year:

I’m still waiting on my brother to give me the thumb’s up for getting my air in the van repaired. It’s quite uncomfortable to drive in it and my two vent windows won’t open either. I may have to take it somewhere, but I trust my brother with my van the most.

I may be starting a new sewing project this week using my recent cross stitch finish as the center design. I’ll keep you posted. I picked up an old cross stitch project (says 1988 on the package-but I think I started it a few years past that), it’s pretty-a swan surrounded by waterlilies.

Sean and I watched the movie ‘Across the Universe’, based on the music of the Beatles. It was pretty creative, a little long and it reminded me of ‘Tommy’. It’s nice when you can sing along to a movie, plus all the actors had great voices.

We signed up to get a portrait taken for the church directory today. It’s a free 8 x 10 and we get the free directory. It will be nice because you see people every week and don’t know there names.

Jul26

Photo Hunt-Hanging

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Hanging display in red, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This is a ‘hanging’ display from this past year’s Philadelphia Flower Show. The different designers really know how to utilize all the space at the Convention Center! These are made of test tubes! Pretty clever! I wonder if any broke when they were hanging them up? The flowers are red carnations. The other elements appear to be wicker or string balls that were spray painted red.


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Jul22

Local guy really feeling the heat

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A local newsman, Larry Mendte, really screwed up his career by hacking into his co-anchor’s Alycia Lane’s email account-about 500 times over the last few years!

During this time, Mendte allegedly leaked privileged legal information about Lane’s personal life to the press “in an attempt to undermine his colleague’s ongoing legal cases,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid at a press conference on Monday.

Larry is from Lansdowne, PA, the same town as my mom and graduated with Brian from West Chester University in 1979. He worked at the same tv station where my oldest brother does.

The article goes on to say that he was jealous that Lane made about $100K more than him a year. Larry was on the syndicated nationally known show ‘Extra’ years back, before returning back to the Philly area to anchor the news.

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I’ve been watching ‘The Mole’ and the last of the three people from the Philly area went home (was executed) last night. Clay, from West Grove, PA a few towns over, at least got to see his wife before he was sent home. I’m going to be on the look out for either one of them at Walmart, etc.

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I picked some Italian green beans (I think that’s what they are) today and a few zucchini. It was wicked hot to do so. It is suppose to rain tonight and tomorrow-thank goodness! We watered things anyway, as they were so droopy. A couple of squirrels were in the pear tree having a feast and scooted away when I came to pick the beans. I noticed there was a small pile of pears, like they were harvesting them! I picked them up, thank you critters!

Jul20

Hail Caesar!

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For our mini, last of the summer, before Sean goes back to PSU vacation, we are going to Atlantic City for a couple of days and staying at Caesars! Many of you know, my father-in-law takes the bus down there weekly. I was getting tired of the ho-hum (but peaceful) last few places we’ve gone. I sit on the beach and that’s about it. At least there is more stuff to see and do here. We could only get a Sunday through Tuesday reservation. Bri’s dad has rewards, so that saved up tremendously on the room- a big thing. We are taking my mom. Even if she can’t walk around a lot, she can certainly see something different right in the casino. The beach is nicer too, so Sean says from his excursion last weekend. I’m not a gambler. I’ll play a little, but I keep thinking-gee with that $20 I could have gotten lots of stuff at Michael’s Craft store. : )

Not much else is new. I can’t do much outside because of the heat and humidity. The grass is drying up. The weeds are taking over. I don’t care right now. I’ve been making ATCs to keep me busy. Also been running out every night to water things I can’t enjoy during the day. Sean and Bri help a bit with that. I should be cleaning, but that’s too much work in the heat, even when you have air, you still get hot, especially at my age.

I may be going out with Sean in a few hours to do a little of shopping. His friends are all tied up doing other things, so he relies on me sometimes. I don’t mind one bit.

A couple of my new ATC-homage to historic figures:

And this Stargazer lily, which is in a pot, smells delightful!