Category Archives: local interest

Apr16

Virginia Tech tragedy

Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007 by Dianne

Just when you think the world is spinning on a safer axis, something like this happens. We don’t know all the details, but 33 people are dead-the worst in US college campus history. Sean knows a freshman named Stephanie who attends the school (from his old high school). He has a message in her Facebook ~~to make sure she is ok.~~

Update-Stephanie was home for the weekend and is still there-thank goodness!

I can’t even write anymore about this nor could I watch any news about it.

While I was sitting in my quiet and cold house this morning (we had no power from about 8:45 am to 12:15 and it’s still risky that it will go off again), I was reading an update on the opening of the new schoolhouse in Nickel Mines in People magazine. About $4 million in donations were sent from all over the world as that tragic event last October touched so many people. They have art work from some of the deceased girls hanging up in memory of them. And it’s called the ‘New Hope’ school. The magazine even quotes a minister from Quarryville, where Brian works.

Feeling better today-sure didn’t waste those 3 hours earlier. I finally wrote out my cards for the Make A Child Smile kids (see side bar) and sorted out stickers, etc for my art projects. If the power had remained off, I was going to clean my bedroom-well, I guess I can still do that.

; )

Apr16

4″ of rain Sunday

Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007 by Dianne

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That nor’easter sure did blow in and is hanging around. That’s a lot of rain for a single day in these parts. Mom’s yard was like a swimming pool (so she told me) as my brother was preparing it for grass-the seed is surely gone now!

I made a nice roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese biscuits, which was very good and perfect for the cool, rainy weather. Brian peeled the potatoes and mashed them to perfection. I didn’t use the ricer as the russets had weird looking skin and I didn’t want to cook that.

I haven’t been up to par, I had indigestion Saturday, ate the Chinese food (uh oh), but slept ok. I had a sore stomach all day until I wised up and took a Tylenol. It felt better within a half hour. I tried mint tea, Gas-X and assorted tummy remedies when I probably had a muscle pull! My mom had had a wicked tummy thing on Easter and I am knocking wood that I avoided that one.

So here is what I made today. I am using old flower, bird and kid’s books (shown mostly in the first example). I hate to cut them up, but I feel I am giving them new life through art. The second card has a definition for ‘dreaming’. I was using the water sphere from the flower show and rubberstamped a face on it, but the embossing power was put on thick and melted too much, hence an entire new idea crept up in my brain. The children were part of a CD collection I found on eBay.

These were photographed on a trio of cute wicker chests my mom gave me for Easter that I am using to store a lot of my art supplies in.

And last, but not least…my latest cross stitched piece, a The Prairie Schooler church for Su’s neighborhood (see link in sidebar).

Apr13

Feeling unlucky?

Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007 by Dianne

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Are you superstitious?

Exactly 23 yrs ago it was also Friday the 13th and I was getting ready to ‘take the plunge’ into matrimony. I guess it’s the way you look at things don’t you think? Sean’s car is at the inspection center and we hope everything will be fine with that. I’m feeling the chilly weather to my bones. I remember last year I had a nicer looking yard than this one and the lilacs were budded and about to bloom. This year I don’t see the buds at all. The pond needs cleaning and I just can’t do it until the aches ease up. I don’t want to end up like my mom who is dependent on pain meds to get through her day. I am happy to report that a Tylenol usually helps me and some nice, warm weather.

The heater guy adjusted the furnace yesterday and fixed the leaky filter. The banging we are hearing is from the duct work and he can’t do anything about that. He said our last heater was way too big for the house. He made a big fuss over the cat as he has 3 of this own. Cos was not use to a big hand rubbing his head so brisking, but he didn’t nip at the guy.

John Corzine, the governor of New Jersey, was in a serious car accident around 6 last night. He broke his leg (upper) and about 12 ribs. He’s in critical, but stable condition. He was said not to be wearing a seat belt. The police are looking the the vehicle that appears to have forced them off the road.

Next Thursday we are planning on getting together with Brian’s old college pal Kathy. She lives in Tennessee now and comes back up to PA every few years to visit mostly friends. She is divorced with no children. And we share the same birthday. We are thinking of Carrabbas, the yummy Italian restaurant to meet at.

I have the Neighborhood Round Robin #6 cross stitch project finished up for Su except for my name. I am done a month early! I figure since the next person to stitch on it is Su’s mum, she can get it early (she is finished with her lady’s design anyway) and then send it to her other daughter to finish up the 8th square (we had planned on eight people, but one dropped out) if that is what they are going to do. I’ll show you a photo soon.

Have a great weekend!

Apr6

Driving through historic country

Posted on Friday, April 6, 2007 by Dianne

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Sean and I took a late lunch at Red Lobster to celebrate the final day of Lent. We decided to drive the entire distance of our road which runs through an area where the Brandywine Battlefield was. I saw the fancy road marker even. At the end of our road that is near Chadds Ford and the Brandywine River Museum, the land is more open with lots of fields of grazing horses with a few sheep in the mix. There is such a mix of houses too! From the colonials of the 1960s (like my mom’s house) to the dark sided one with the unusual vertical lines and rectangular windows of the late 70-early 80s. This is about the area where the movie ‘The Village’ was filmed.
We had a nice lunch-great waitress who filled us up on the famous cheddar garlic biscuits and kinda spoiled our appetites. Sean had shrimp and lobster fettuccine and I had lobster pizza. We both ate more of our lunch for dinner later.

Run, don’t walk to your nearest Kohl’s! What a fabulous sale they are having Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately I grabbed a size 6 skirt and have to take it back in a few days. It’s too cold to wear it for Easter anyway. I got some earrings for my niece Tori’s upcoming 8th birthday and a few pieces off the 80% off rack. Plus they have a coupon for another 15% off, so I made out well.

We also went to Target and Michaels. I now have a nice mix for my art cards now. I bought some neat papers, rubber stamps, stickers and embossing powders today.

Better post my photo hunt photo for ‘clean’. Mr. Cosmo posed for that one.

Apr1

Feeling cultured

Posted on Sunday, April 1, 2007 by Dianne

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Woo-hoo! I’m the blog of the minute on wordpress as I type this. : ) **bows** Hey is that April Fool’s maybe?

SO, last night the three of us headed to Wilmington, DE to hear The Delaware Symphony Orchestra at the Grand Opera house. The ride there is very scenic, and I don’t know why we don’t go to Wilmington more often. All the years we lived here and we never took Sean to the Brandywine Zoo! They say three is the charm (how many times Bri and I have been to the GOH) and we didn’t get lost, we actually got there 40 minutes early. A requirement for Sean’s History of Western Music course was for him to hear a professional concert of classical music. We were thinking of Philly, and then the instructor mentioned the DSO. I also have an Entertainment coupon book and we have one for the DSO and got $13 knocked off of one of the tickets-Sean was only $10.

I can’t really remember hearing a symphony orchestra. I have heard orchestras with stage plays though. We sat in the balcony and it was awesome up there. Many of the other patrons were elderly folks. A few kids were mixed in.

The guest pianist was a man named Christopher O’Riley. He was wonderful. First he played a awarding winning composer’s ode to Liberace. After that he played Strauss which was what Sean came to hear. He reminded me of a shorter and brown haired Conan O’ Brien.

I would recommend anyone going to hear a concert like this. It’s interesting to watch the musicians play and to distinguish the different sounds of the instruments.

We amazingly didn’t get lost going home. It’s always good to have directions printed out, but we just had to back track.

Mar31

Photo Hunt-WATER

Posted on Saturday, March 31, 2007 by Dianne

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I knew taking lots of photos at the Philadelphia Flower show would come in handy!
The first is a 3-4 foot glass ball that had a hole at the top and had rapid water pouring out of it. We did different exposure settings of it. There is another one of the sphere on the 11th . The next photo is a koi pond that was also set up at the show. They were some big fish!

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

Mar28

Pollen is really bad…

Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 by Dianne

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I can attest to this as when I was out in the strong breeze, I sneezed like crazy.

Thanks to Channel 6 for this:

March 28, 2007 – Several South Jersey fire departments received calls from people seeing what they thought was smoke in the forest.

As it turned out, what they were seeing was pollen flying off trees.

Just touching the branches of a Red Cedar tree unleashed a thick cloud of pollen. When the wind is strong enough and the cloud is big enough, it easily be mistaken for smoke

Between 7 and 9:30 Wednesday morning a dozen 9-1-1 brush fire calls were reported, mostly in Gloucester and Atlantic counties. Malaga Fire Company responded three times, but in each case fire was not the cause. It was pollen smoke.

Mar19

One more day

Posted on Monday, March 19, 2007 by Dianne

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Yeah, so the furnace isn’t going to be replaced until Wednesday. The weather messed up the company’s installer’s schedule-boo hoo. I had just canceled my dental appt that day too. I decided to keep the whole week open. Bri has a few more things to move. I can’t as I sprained my right thumb and can’t lift things too well. I had hurt it a few weeks ago and then was replacing my M&M guy on my van’s antenna (stop laughing) and I pressed too hard with my boo boo and made an ouchie again. Get that?

I did get to mail some auction wins today. It took three drives around the parking lot before a spot opened up.

When I got up, I popped a pork roast in the crockpot and mixed up some stuff with the pulled pork McCormick seasoning. I had to stop and get rolls on the way back from the post office. It was really good! I had forgotten Bri had a pork sandwich Saturday night, but he liked my dinner better. Always nice to hear.

One thing I did bring up from the basement was all the clippings from when the Phillies won the World Series back in 1980. I was Sean’s age of 20. I have them in a big yellow envelope and they need to be put in a plastic box. I took the envelope out on the front step and hit it with my duster thingie-yes, it’s very dusty. I got to meet Tug McGraw, the relief pitcher who lived in my hometown. I know there’s a blog post about me getting his autograph. He use to frequent the bar up the street from my mom’s house. Tug was a great guy. If I find anything good in the clippings, I’ll share here. I plan to dump them in a clothes basket to further shake out the 26.5 yr old dust. ; )

Found this about Dallas Green’s managerial record (I see there is a singer with the same name!) Dallas may still live in West Grove, PA, a stone’s throw away and Applebee’s, the restaurant has DG memorabilia including one of his baseball shirts.

Year League Team Age G W L WP Finish
+—-+———–+——–+—+—–+—-+—-+——+——+

1980 NL East Phildlpa 45 162 91 71 .562 WS 1

Mar15

Need a little springtime…

Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 by Dianne

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…right this very minute-we are expecting a mix of different weather-snow and rain and all that fun stuff. My van is inspected and fine. : )

Please note that I added a ton more flower show photos to my Flickr album which has two clickable links in my side bar.

So here are some spring-like photos….
The inviting entrance to the flower show

This reminded me of Naturegirl’s lovely arrangements-so this is for her and I love African violets too!

A big tree tied with scarves and decorated with fishbowls of cut flowers-Gerbera daisies?

Mar13

Some more shots

Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 by Dianne

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Sean and I are headed up to Lancaster. Target owes him money for being overcharged on buying a t-shirt that he didn’t. We need to birthday shop for Brian a bit too. We will probably get him a new cellphone. He wants a gigantic can of Virginia peanuts from Reading Glass Factory.

Here are some more flower show photos. One is a gown with orchids on a mannequin (Brian took this) and of a design in a garden bed filled in by glass in the harp garden (you can see it a bit there)-I guess it’s smooth on the edges. ; )