Category Archives: local interest

Mar28

Missing in blogland

Posted on Friday, March 28, 2008 by Dianne

Only a few pals are blogging regularly this week. I know one had company and others are waiting for their long winter to end so they can go out in their yards and blog about flowers, etc.

I was going to try and get to Longwood Gardens today if the rain holds out. I’m mainly interested in the orchids in the conservatories, but it’s a little walk to that area. Now my mom wants to come out too, but I bet I won’t see her for at least 3 or more hours. She’s anxious to print out her flower show pictures as I just bought her two ink cartridges for her new printer for Easter. She also wants to use her camera more. Sean used his new camera at the Clinton rally, though he wasn’t that close (8k were there!). He also took a little video. I guess he will upload them sometime today. I also have to proof a couple of his papers over the weekend.

I really feel like I need to get out of the house today, so I’m hoping I can at least chase a few raindrops to see something different.

Mar27

Extreme Home Makeover-local

Posted on Thursday, March 27, 2008 by Dianne

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About a month ago, the ABC show Extreme Makeover:Home Edition redid a home in Wilmington, DE., very near our neck of the woods. In the local paper it was saying how a local meat/food market provided the food for the crew (gourmet they said). Anderson Homes did the major work, but some local contractors did things like painting and removing debris and went back even after their alloted time was put in. The one guy’s daughter graduated from high school with Sean and I worked with his mom when I did the teacher aide fill in job. It’s a small world! Watch it on Sunday night at 8:00 and you’ll see those guys (other than carpenter Paul DiMeo) with heavy Philly accents!

Mom had me turn on a PBS show the other night as they were showing scenes from the Mushroom festival that takes place here in September, and one chatty lady who was telling them quite a bit about mushrooms was in the church choir with me.

Today, I’m like the lady in the commercial who feels like her head is blowing up like a balloon. My right sinus was achy like a toothache last night. I know it’s suppose to rain for about 1.5 days, so I was wondering if that has something to do with people and their sinuses-like barometric pressure inside your head? Anyway, got a pot of stew cooking to get my mind off my head as I can’t use Flonase until I get my eyes checked next week. I have to stick with salt spray or the homeopathic kind of nasal spray.

Bri has some dental work today, about 3 different spots and he’s just thrilled about that. My mom went to the doctor and he wants her to get a few tests on her spine as he is concerned about her sciatica still bothering her as much as it still does. She weighs about 120, not terrible, but she could stand about another 10 pds.

I want to get to Longwood Gardens before the 31st as that’s the orchid display is only up until. I completely forgot about it! I want some awesome photos!

Here’s some more flower shots from yesterday:

Mar25

Dinner review

Posted on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 by Dianne

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Brian and I went out to dinner to a new place and weren’t really impressed by what we ate. We weren’t satisfied like we usually are after eating at The Olive Garden. I had a steak dinner called Bistecca Franceshe-it was NY strip covered with a mild pesto (I couldn’t really taste it) and accompanied by stringy broccoli rabe and cannelloni beans. Beforehand, we had a salad-it was just a large pile of mixed spring lettuces with ‘one’ sliced cherry tomato and served with vinegar and oil. We also had crusty bread served with a bowl of plain olive oil for dipping. Brian had a Salmon dish and they were nice enough to substitute asparagus for the mushrooms it is usually served with. He had a small pile of spinach too. I gave him almost half of my dinner as I could tell he hadn’t had enough of his own. That left room for me to get the Chocolate flan-which was like a thin brownie with warm chocolate inside served on top of vanilla custard. The presentation of the food was really nice and I told our server I wish I had brought a camera. She was a nice girl, but you couldn’t help to notice that she has a pierced tongue as you saw a turquoise ball there everytime she spoke.

I don’t think we’d go here again. It has a fancy Italian name and we were thinking The Olive Garden on a grandeur scale and it wasn’t.

When we got home, Brian ripped through his gifts in about 5 minutes. He got mainly clothing. His one non-clothes item from me didn’t arrive yet. He had a quiet birthday, but it was nice to send some alone time together-the restaurant was very low key with some interesting belly dancing type music in the background. There were other patrons, but they were very quiet.

Mar22

Photo Hunt-Metal

Posted on Saturday, March 22, 2008 by Dianne

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A metal structure from the recent Philadelphia Flower Show. That big leaf looks like he is being modest and hiding behind it!

Metal sax player, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

And one of the most famous structures in Orlando, Florida-

The Epcot sphere. That’s Sean giving the thumbs up. We weren’t planning on doing Disney (just Universal) back in ’05, but decided to go on Mother’s Day. I could have had my legs fall off that night and wouldn’t have known it!

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I’m the 3rd comment on Martha Stewart’s blog-woo hoo!

Congrats on 500 fabulous shows! I really enjoyed your photos too. Thanks for inspiring a domestic goddess in mushroom country of PA!

Posted by: Dianne | March 21, 2008 at 01:08 AM

Mar9

Just a little tease

Posted on Sunday, March 9, 2008 by Dianne

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It’s been a long day. We didn’t get moving until 1 to get my mom and grab the 2:17 train to the city. I know, it’s a late start. Daylight savings messed with our sleep a bit. The flower show was on until 6 anyway. I think if the four of us go on a Sunday again, we should eat a big lunch and then go. We ate a big breakfast, grabbed a pretzel and nachos at the adjoining mall as a snack and then walked the walk, though mom was in a rented wheelchair. We always manage to miss something. I heard a woman say she loved the bayou with the steam. Well, we didn’t see that, yet Brian saw a photo of the exhibit on flickr. I shouldn’t complain as I took over 100 photos and did a video too! I haven’t uploaded or edited the video yet, but will tomorrow. However, here are some of my favorite people and some broad in beat up pink sneakers. : )

It was nice to have my guys along. Here’s the inside of the train on the 35 minute trip to the city. It takes us 45-55 minutes just to get to mom’s house first.

The guys took turns pushing mom around and helping her take photos. At the end, she ditched the wheelchair and walked around to see if she got to see everything!

Did I mention the theme was New Orleans?

I don’t wear sneaks a lot, but I had to today with all the walking we did. I know my ankle boots would look so much better, but it was comfort over looks here! I saw a young woman go in the show in about 3″ spike heels-she’s crazy! I am at least wearing my new glasses. This exhibit had lights pointing down (see the foot marks) so you could stand under the exhibit. Bri didn’t get he was suppose to take a shot of what was over my head along with me! But I am standing in the wrong direction too!

And for Zoey, our friendly blogger tablescaper:

This was a hot pink mylar like rug!

and this too:

Plastic or paper lights and tons of orchids. The other tablescape will be on my slideshow that I’ll put together later.

We went to Carrabbas Italian restaurant when we got back to mom’s area and enjoyed a nice dinner there. I guess I’m glad I went. I just love using that camera so much, but I like spending time with my family the best!

Mar2

Ah fresh air!

Posted on Sunday, March 2, 2008 by Dianne

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We mixed up our Sunday a bit and went to church today instead of last night. If I went one more Saturday night, I would have screamed! Really, it gets old. We headed down to a little coffee shop in Delaware for a sandwich afterwards and came home. I suggested Bri trim back the two sadly overgrown pear trees we have, but it may be too late for them. Fruit trees, especially the smaller ones, do take some care. They shouldn’t be over a certain height (I’m thinking 7 feet) and you have to trim out all the sucker branches. Plus you should spray them when they bud. We never did any of that. We lost a dwarf apple tree last summer when it fell over and pretty much destroyed half of the veggie patch. I helped Bri a little, but I suffered with a stuff upper back yesterday and didn’t want to aggravate that. I did promptly have to apply Icy Hot to my lower back though. My neighbor has cut down four trees (I think) 3 leaf trees and one evergreen. We still have a row of evergreens between our house and his (that belong to him).

My father’s half brother emailed me late last night and said that my father’s apartment was all cleaned out-all 6 boxes of the stuff. He gave away a table and a few other things. He had a broken 486 computer too. My uncle said he had some high school annuals, and things from the time he was in the Korean war on a ship. Sadly, he mentioned no photos. My brother wants the stuff, he can have it. The taxi driver who befriended him almost had the same last name as me, change out one letter and add a ‘s’ to his name-isn’t that weird?

I’ve been making some ATCs as gifts and really enjoying it. My one friend’s dad loves to garden and if I post a photo to tribe.net, she nearly always prints it out to show him.

Not sure about the Philly Flower show. I do want to go and I don’t . I have the pass to Longwood Gardens and usually don’t have to worry about crowds. My mom could go with her friend on Tuesday. I was thinking about Wednesday as I am getting my hair done and we could go afterwards. I was also hoping my brother could inspect my van and see what the funny hamster wheel noise is under the hood. I guess I’ll end up going. Any excuse to use my camera!

Feb2

Photo Hunt-Narrow

Posted on Saturday, February 2, 2008 by Dianne

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Here my boy Cosmo is making a narrow escape from under the narrow underneath of the sofa! This shot is over a year old and we haven’t seen him go under there lately (to lay near the heat duct and hide) as he may be too chunky now. There’s a heat duct that is more accessible in the remodeled kitchen and has a catnip mat in front of it. He’s not dumb!

This photo is of the narrow canal in New Hope, PA was taken with *gasp* a film camera. I love this area and haven’t been up there for a couple of years. If you look closely, you can see ducks in the water. I noticed the date on the picture-my 40th birthday!

If you are a regular blogger, please comment below and take a chance at winning some prizes! Visit the link under the event sign too!

Jan30

Sunny roses

Posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 by Dianne

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On Tuesday I mentioned how nice it would have been to receive flowers from Bri the day before as I had been to the eye doctor and was a little bummed. Last night I got these (my favorite color too!)

And since I was on the floor next to this pile photographing the flowers, thought I’d share:

I better get busy going through these! I signed up for some garden catalogs and got all three yesterday. Honey Girl Studio used hers for Art Trading Cards and I may copy her idea, though there are a few things I want to make a note of.

Then for those of you who didn’t know, we have a mascot for the PA lottery-Gus the Groundhog. Some west coast friends sent for this calendar and never received it. So here he is:

The wind woke me up today-it’s wicked. Soon Mr. Cosmo the kitty came in and snuggled next to me. He’s my alarm clock too. Unfortunately my sinuses feel like they are full of cement-heavy though very dry. A friend suggested a vaporizer. I use to have one for Sean who suffered until he was 10 with winter respiratory illnesses (knock wood). So I may have to locate the old one or buy a new one. My above friend uses a warm mist one every night and it helps her and she has gorgeous skin!

Jan12

Photo Hunt-Skinny

Posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008 by Dianne

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Skinny? Gee, how many things fall into that category? Here, we aren’t skinny in body. I do have a snake photo somewhere (of the garden variety) but I thought this fit (again kudos to Longwood Gardens-I most thankfully renewed my yearly membership!):

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It’s one of several very tall and skinny lamp posts that flank the sidewalks. I bet they are very old too.

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!