Category Archives: Me stuff

Jan14

The Presence of trees and other things

Posted on Saturday, January 14, 2012 by Dianne

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The Presence of Trees

by Michael S. Glaser

I have always felt the living presence
of trees

the forest that calls to me as deeply
as I breathe,

as though the woods were marrow of my bone
as though

I myself were tree, a breathing, reaching
arc of the larger canopy

beside a brook bubbling to foam
like the one

deep in these woods,
that calls

that whispers home

(so it’s not the woods, but isn’t this a wonderful tree?)

I had the rare opportunity to enjoy a walk at the park in January as it was in the 50s (this was on Thursday). I had my new-ish phone and captured this of what I think is a Sweet Gum tree. My fellow h.s.alumni , a movie director in California, gave me a thumbs up on Facebook (I sent the photo there first)-I was really flattered Todd. : )

So what else is new-sorting and cleaning in the super dusty and yucky basement-it was so bone chilling cold outside and I still needed to get Christmas stuff put away. I had a helper-thanks to Brian for sticking his nose in the dust. He’s making ‘smoke’ now. Good thing I took a Claritin. We had a nice roaring fire in the fireplace and he gave me a mixed drink of some peachy stuff and tequila-a bit strong. I had the ‘brilliant’ idea to get wood from under the Chestnut tree and it’s just not burning now. The ‘bought’ wood was fine, but I didn’t like the smell of it.

I got this today-a gift to myself and since I put so much moola in the iPad2, I wanted it to be protected:

(my protective cover has specks of dust under it, so little bubbles there)

You can see my messy wall desk calling out to me in the background. I am getting to that maybe tomorrow.

It’s a stand and the iPad can swivel from ‘portrait’ to ‘landscape’

I sent this to Zoey via email, not sure if she got it, but here’s catalog shopping at your fingertips! I got the case from eBags-funny I checked for coupons on the laptop while using the catalog app and found one for 20% off with free shipping. I really like that site. Got the case in two days! (Came from Penna. too).

(That’s my $5 ‘five below’ case, I think I’ll find a new use for it).

I got my mom the Le Pan tablet and she was upset as it froze up on her tonight. I went online and it said to just push the ‘reset’ button on the back. She is having fun browsing the web. She has an email account and Facebook but hasn’t used them yet, or any applications. It’s Android like the phones I am using. I got it for $180 and saw it for $350 on another website. She is enjoying it, but needs to learn how to clean out the cache.

I feel a weight off my shoulders as we start to dig through the mess of the basement. I want a craft corner for messy projects, etc. We made a resolution to go down there once a month and do more sorting. I have about 5 blue Hefty bags and only a few cardboard boxes with stuff left to sort. I’ll be buying more plastic bins for sure. We had 3 bags of trash and several things for the Goodwill. I still need to whiddle it down.

Keep warm!

Taken from the iPad2

Jan12

Winter Blooms

Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2012 by Dianne

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It’s so nice to see these blooms and ‘will be blooms’ during the bleak days of winter. The month is half over already, and as many of you probably do, I also count down the days until spring.

The white Amaryllis has been blooming since Christmas! (This is the second stalk). The poinsettia came from the same place as the paperwhites-Terrain. They are about to bloom. I have them in a aluminum pie dish with sea glass in it.

The tree came down yesterday and I still have some the boxes in the living room. I have major tidying to do in the basement, but will need help with the lifting and stacking part. I’ve been having lower back issues (on the right) that I feel is from standing so long and vacuuming for 45+ minutes-all the pushing and pulling. Certain things are aggravating it, so I have to be careful. Then my right eye is really red in the corner. I called the doctor’s office yesterday and she called an antibiotic drop in for me. I can’t tell you the last time that happened (not having to go in for a visit-but I will if it gets worse)! I have to use it for a week and it’s still a bit red, but it was weepy and filmy Tuesday night.

I’m going to start my new year of dental repair on Tuesday. It’s going to be quite pricey and they said we could space out the visits. The first visit will be two crowns on the bottom and a filling. I have an older crown on top where the tooth underneath has a cavity. I hadn’t had my teeth cleaned for over a year, but went there 5 times last year. This time they did bitewing x-rays and the very thorough dental hygienist found all my issues. She was kind of rough, but surprisingly my mouth only was sensitive in a few spots. I can never seem to be debt free with the dentist.

Sean is going to a GIS conference in New York City at the end of February, so I guess we will tag along. It’s been almost 5 years since we went up for Karin and Michael’s wedding. We will not drive in the city, but look for a place with bus transport right over the bridge. We learned the hard way. We will probably take a tour of Chinatown. We’d really like to see the 911 Memorial. Not crazy that it is in February, but maybe it won’t be as crazy up there as it was in June. ; )

Of course I am loving the iPad2. It’s worth every penny. I do love my laptop and phone too. I have 23 apps on it and a lady on Facebook has about 150! A neat one is Hulu pro, sort of like tivo for your iPad. It cost $8 a month, but you can watch tons of tv programs and movies. For instance, I missed ‘Parenthood’ the other night, so I’m watching it in my leisure now. The picture is so sharp! If you take lots of weekend trips or are waiting for people at the doctor, etc. it’s a great device as you can sit all cozy on your sofa and do most of what you do on the web. Am I selling it to you good enough? LOL

Of course I need to get down to doing the crafts I love which I haven’t lately. Everything is gathering dust. I have some ideas up my sleeve and I also have some new yarn for crochet (and new stitches to try thanks to Pinterest).

Jan10

New toy

Posted on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 by Dianne

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I’ve been waiting and waiting for ‘our’ new toy and it finally came at 12:30 this afternoon-it was ice cold. I had to figure out a few things (you have to download itunes first off), but we’ve been experimenting with it and it’s fun! I got a refurbished one from apple.com. Sean says it is about $100 more at his work (I got a 32 gbs).

Here is a photo I took using the ipad2:

I am actually doing well…imported 32 songs from my own collection which saved me some moola-it’s an ipod too!

I used ‘Face Time’ to talk to my brother and mom earlier-he has an iphone as does Sean. It’s like Skyping. The little book I have is quite good for a $1.

I do like Facebook better on the laptop as it of course is bigger. Pinterest looks like a weird app. My friend from Facebook uses all the different readers and downloads books from the library.

I hope to get to the tree tomorrow. I had to go food shopping as the freezer was pretty empty of meat. Now my eye is on the red side, outer corner of the right. I just had my hair done, so not sure if I rubbed a product in it or not. It’s a bit weepy. I swear it’s always something.

My mom got a tablet (not an iPad2) too! My brother is trying to get it to boot up. I got it through Amazon, so if it’s not that great, we’ll send it back. It got good reviews, but like all technology, you have to get use to using it.

Jan5

Seasonal help I bid you adieu

Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2012 by Dianne

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Today I went down to my mom’s house to spend some time with her and take her out to lunch. We went to the local mall and Carrabba’s wasn’t open for lunch! We had to eat somewhere else which was less than satisfactory. We decided to check out the sale stuff at Macy’s and they had such cute stuff for 75% off. I got some adorable mushrooms and gnomes. I will add some to my window display as it’s not just Christmas, it’s a winter themed one. My mom has that eye issue and broke a few of them at the store. Also got a few clothes for cheap. I mainly get my clothes when they are on sale at a deep discount and from Macy’s, Kohl’s, Boscov’s and Pee*bles….

…who I don’t work for anymore. I figured that when he only scheduled me for 9 hours this week and it’s been slow as molasses there. I hate to be bored. The last night I was there, I wiped down most of the shelving in the gift department, and let me tell you, it hadn’t been done for a while. I couldn’t tidy up another rack of clothes that night, so I did that. I made some money, got awesome discounts that not only helped us, but my mom at Christmas. I walked in there tonight to check the schedule and I wasn’t on it. Then the manager came around the corner and said he was going to call me later. Yeah, right. Why didn’t he just tell me a few days ago? I said I understood and I was glad to get the experience and I sure learned about retail again. So that’s that. Not sure if I’ll go back in November, depends on what I’ll be doing in November.

A little bit ago, I opened my email and there was a note from Care.com that stated a lady nearby was interested in for babysitting. Only it’s 4 days a week, also toddlers. The mom has an at home business and needs someone there. I’m thinking 2-3 days and not all day as I have my own house to take care of. Plus I’m thinking kid germs. But the money is good! What to do?

And my art is calling out to me. I’ve only been a little crafty lately. A store up in the next town sells mostly mushroom related stuff and back in November the owner said she’d take a look at crafty stuff from me. Lots of possibilities.

My poor back was starting to really complain-even driving to mom’s and back made it bother me. It was sure time to stop being on my feet hours on end.

So now I will be taking my Christmas stuff down and will clean like crazy. Working made me appreciate my home a lot more.

Jan3

2011 in retrospect

Posted on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 by Dianne

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I’ve been a bit busy with work on New Year’s day (12-6, very boring) and running around to after Christmas sales with Brian on Monday. He goes back to work today. I was thinking though 2011 didn’t start out that great, we still got the nice 2005 Mariner at the end of January:

It was my vehicle for a few months until we spotted this one on the internet in July:

Yikes….it’s not a Ford/Mercury (my family loves Fords) and now we have two car payments a month for the next several years. I do love my little Ina who just turned 10. I’ve only seen two other gold PT Cruisers since July. She’s a rare one in these parts.

We decided we needed to take a few trips, not a week…but usually one or two nights.

First we went to Baltimore, MD and loved it there!

Baltimore’s World Trade Center

And we took the ‘side trip’ from Baltimore to Fort McHenry where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write our national anthem ‘The Star Spangled Banner’.

(Opps-that’s my funny shot)

We got to see Chincoteague Island and really loved the place too!

Because we had the Mariner, we got to travel more than we had in previous years.

Sean and I saw the taping of a local Philly talk show and one of the guests was ace Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee!

We went to the tribute band event ‘Beatlemania’ down in National Harbor, MD

We took a little time to see Alexandria, VA. and liked it there as well.

At the end of September, we finally got to go to a mini reunion for my high school class in Ocean City, NJ! It was fun and we enjoyed seeing the town of OC and Cape May, NJ also. My mom was along for that trip.

Brian took me up to York, PA again in October so I could attend the rubber stamp and scrapbooking show and we looked around the town a bit, not as much as I would have liked. But we went over to Mount Joy so we could eat at Bubbe’s Pub.

I got to see my little pal Nick and his mom Jenn on his second birthday when we spent the day at Longwood Gardens:

And oh Longwood…I really went there so many more times than I have in the past and hope to do so this year too!

And the Sugarloaf Craft Festival in November up in Oaks, PA was fun too-never been to that either. I found some nice gifts for people there.

So, it was a good year that we got to go places and see new things. We got to spend time with old and new friends and our family. I always like spending time with Brian and Sean, but this group-my ‘almost’ children (and mom too). : )

I want to get back on the weight loss track, one reason I posted photos of me at different angles. I plan to keep walking in the lovely local park and Longwood too!

And I can’t forget about getting the job. I’m wondering if I’ll still be there next week, only time will tell! If not, I’ll be taking a break for a month or so to get the house in shape and do some art.

Dec29

Working, tidying and watching movies

Posted on Thursday, December 29, 2011 by Dianne

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Yes, that’s my life this week. Though I didn’t go in Wednesday, I still have to get up early to call to see if they need me to fill in for someone sick. I worked Monday 10-3 and Tuesday 5-9. Today it’s 5-8. I worked an extra hour on Tuesday. I watched three movies-an ‘Indie’ film called ‘The Tree of Life’-more visual than a ‘regular’ movie; ‘The Help’, which was really good and featured Jessica Chastain who was also the mom in the first movie-totally different characters-she’s awesome. Then Wednesday Sean brought home ‘Water for Elephants’ another good one based in 1931.

He uses ‘Redbox’ now-a $1 a night and they are springing up all over the place.

Wednesday I was cleaning in the family room. I got halfway finished and pooped out. I am going to tackle the kitchen a little tomorrow. I may be having company for dinner on the 1st if I have off.

Sean gave us a Kodak printer for Christmas. It’s wireless-nice feature. But I am loving that it’s a copy machine too. I can do a bunch of stuff for my collages which I need to get into again. I have a pile of really old books and I can utilize the artwork and then if I really don’t like anything else about the book, toss it-well maybe-lol.

Off to read a few pages of my next read-book #13 for the year-a record for me!

Dec26

Some holiday shots

Posted on Monday, December 26, 2011 by Dianne

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For some reason, we left the camera on a high ISO rating, thus the photos are not as sharp as they could have been.

Mom’s Christmas fairy display

Part of her massive lighted house display (my brother did a ton of decorating)

Me and her dog Kelsey

The Comcast offered a roaring fire for atmosphere

We had turkey, ham, stuffing, cranberry sauce with walnuts and mandarin oranges and what I made puffy cauliflower casserole and ultimate green beans. The recipe called for a pinch of hot pepper flakes and must have really ‘activated’ when my brother reheated them. They were way too spicy.

I’m wearing a vest I’ve had for a while with a new top. Both Brian and Sean are wearing new shirts. You can tell Brian’s been sick from his dark circles. He’s getting there. These were taken before the tablet cracked. After that, we were kind of sad for the rest of the evening.

Update-Sean was able to return the tablet and get a refund. We’re saving up for a better brand that doesn’t break as easily.

Dec21

Unique natural decor

Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 by Dianne

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Sean had off on Tuesday, so we decided to go out to lunch as I had a gift card for a Chinese restaurant. I try to eat salmon when I see it on the menu, so that’s what I got on brown rice. Sean had chicken and almonds. We both had egg drop soup. We went over to Pier One and I bought a few sweet things. I didn’t even take anything out of the bag as I had to go to work from 5-10. We then went across the road to Terrain and I took some photos with my camera phone of their unique display:

Gorgeous red Amaryllis

This was a two tiered tin planter with tiny white Poinsettia around the bottom and dainty Narcissus

This is real cotton in a display. They also pulled it apart to look like a snow covered tree. You can see it in the first photo well.

Sunday and Monday I dedicated to making cookies. I made Chocolate chips, Sour Cream Drops, 7 layer cookies, Peanut butter swirls, Cinnamon chip oatmeal and Rum balls.

I am on call again in the morning, so hoping not to have to go in, but I’m doubting that. Then they get me again on call Thursday and I work Friday morning. I mainly need to clean the house now.

Dec18

Cookie love

Posted on Sunday, December 18, 2011 by Dianne

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Well… I finally got around to whipping up a few batches of cookies. I started with chocolate chips and did some 7 layer (Sean’s favorite) and some with a cookie press. That cookie press didn’t work too well. I got a Martha S. one I found for $1 at a resale. I think my dough got too warm. I squeezed out about 2 dozen and forgot the sprinkles on the first batch. I will do a few more tomorrow. I’m happy to be getting this done. Cookies are a special part of Christmas to me.

Sean is bringing me home ingredients for Rum balls (update-he got the wrong kind of cookies-I needed Nilla wafers and he got those rectangular vanilla wafers) . And I love Chocolate Swirl Peanut Butter cookies too. I hope I have enough peanut butter! Opps.

Sean and I went to Walmart and Peebles in Parkeburg (near Lancaster) after church last night. He had given me a gift card for my birthday and I got Monkees (they were my brother Don and my favorites as kids for a time) and Christmas karaoke cds. I bought myself a little karaoke machine and Brian hooked it up to a tv Sean used at PSU. The lyrics are right on the screen. I ordered popular music and Beatles cd to use. I do like to sing (I have a soprano voice and have sung in choruses and choirs in the past), so this is for me to blow off some steam or pretend I am a popular singer. ; )

I went in the Peebles and it has half the merchandise that our store has here! But believe me, I used that discount for some shoes and clothes at this store too.

I am placing an order at a place near Brian’s work for some meat and cheese platters, tea sandwiches or fruit. I got a voucher from LivingSocial for $40 worth of food for $20. I have to give them 48 hours . It’s near where my uncle lived and mom said their sandwiches are great. What’s nice is that they give you half orders, so I will probably order a few things.

I hope everyone is taking time to relax. I was on call today, they didn’t need me. I work two days (one morning, one evening) and am on call two more days. They are having a little party on the 24th (I don’t work that day) and I only heard about it through the lady at the cosmetics counter. I haven’t signed up to be in the ‘Secret Santa’, but I do have a gift for it. I just can’t believe not one manager mentioned the party to me. I guess I’m stuck in the back of the store and they all talk up in the front. I was talking with a young lady in the ladies’ clothes (she’s about 19-20) and probably her parents are my age. We were laughing about something just when the manager came around the corner. It was 8:40 pm and they were closing at 9. He couldn’t let it go and asked if I had something to do in my department. I did a lot that night and I guess he was still peeved that I didn’t notice I was on call Thursday. Sean gets his schedule online-much easier. Oh well…nice to have some spending money!

Dec16

Cheers

Posted on Friday, December 16, 2011 by Dianne

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I’m around, but incredibly busy between work, home and shopping. I’ll try to stop by when I take a few more photos. I plan to wrap a few gifts before work. I was ‘on call’ yesterday and forgot to call as I saw my name on Monday and didn’t go down the rest of the page assuming you are ‘on call’ once a week. He got me this coming week as I’m ‘on call’ 3 days. Brian and I went in last night to get him much needed shoes and got a terrific buy on Nunn*Bush. He got bogo for 50% off and then with the discount and buyer’s pass-he got both for $64 (leather). The one assistant manager had to check me out and said sarcastically that I ‘was in trouble’ as I didn’t call in. She kind of took away all the joy of buying Bri his shoes. For some reason a few of these a.m. think they are way better than the newbies. They are around my age and I don’t take crappola from them. I simply said I didn’t see my name further down. As I recall, when I had taken the schedule to my checkout, another a.m. came along just as I was writing down my hours and almost grabbed the paper and told me to tidy up. They are good at that. Anyway, the discounts are helpful to my family and me and that’s a big thing.

Sean and I took my mom to BJs Wholesale on Wednesday and then to Bertucci’s where we had a great waiter and great food and drink from start to finish.

This was amazing-white Sangria with Peach Schnapps.