Category Archives: Me stuff

Oct31

Happy Halloween!

Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 by Dianne

It will be over soon, but I wanted to stop in and show you a few nice photos.

I sent mom some flowers from Hallmark that came in a cute haunted house cookie/candy jar. I love the orange and purple! She loved them too.

My niece as Dorothy from Oz. I think The Wizard of Oz is our favorite movie.

My silly family-my sister-in-law, niece, brother and nephew as a hillbilly. Those are the candy corn hats I crocheted for the kids a few years ago.

I gave them this cool Gothic haunted house as a present this

year. It’s about 10″ tall.

I had given T. most of these stickers and she made this awesome poster out of them. Pretty nice and following in my footsteps maybe?

Footnote-I have to get a few more x-rays done because I put down a symptom on my mammogram form that I fill out every year and never did this before (they didn’t say this, but that’s what makes sense to me). I hadn’t seen the message today and Bri said, the radiology dept left a message-oh great! I had it done four days ago and thought I was ok for a year. I’m trying not to be nervous as the tech almost didn’t do the ‘standard’ mammogram because of what I wrote down. I’ll keep you posted. That was my 9th one too. Knowledge is power-Oprah is right! My mom and sister-in-law agree with what I said above.

Oct30

Wrong side of the morning

Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 by Dianne

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Note to self: stop lifting tons of stuff by yourself! That’s all I did yesterday, plus my heavy purse drags down on the left side. Still when you wake up at 7 with an aching left breast, it’s scary. I got myself in a stew, stirred up my congestion and tummy and got up. Within a few hours and a few applications of Icy Hot (miracle stuff), it eased up. Whew.
Then I was sitting on the sofa enjoying my second mug of tea and I felt something on my right shoulder. I thought it was a scab or sticker so I pulled on it and it was a tick! Not a deer tick, but a bit larger, I just hate ticks since I had Lyme Disease. The kicker was I was only outside for about 5 minutes or so total yesterday which included me filling up the birdfeeder under the evergreen-bingo! Drats!! I’ll keep a watch of it and see if I develop any symptoms, but it’s the little deer ticks that are worse in most of the cases. I used alcohol on it, then peroxide and then antibiotic cream. It hurt! I have the little bum in a jar,but will probably put it on a piece of tape.

Just to touch base. Wish me luck!

Update-After looking at photos on the web, I’m pretty sure it’s a deer tick that was a nipping at me. I was thinking that it had to get on me when I first got up today, because the area where it was attaching on my shoulder is where I lay all the time. It hurts and I’m going to watch it. I got to lay down for about 15 minutes and I heard the phone. It was Sean. I did call him earlier and say to wait until after 2. It was a few minutes after that and I didn’t talk to him, though was wondering who it was and the machine was beeping. After I got up, did some power picking up of my stuff outside, not finished, as I wanted to watch that sore spot. I’m planning on another Everyday Food magazine recipe- soy sauce glazed chicken legs and warm potato salad. I’m hoping to feel a bunch better tomorrow so I can get down to my brother’s house and see his kids for Halloween. Mom is out at my uncle’s as she had to buy him some food and take him for bloodwork.

Weird event of last night-my father-in-law called after 10 and said someone had driven over the curve, missed his big maple tree and hit his magnolia a bit-in his front yard! So close to the house. Now he’s lived there for 50+ years and never had anything like that happen before. There are some tire tracks in his yard, but that’s it I guess. We heard that something like that happened here to the previous owner. That’s why part of our hedge is missing directly next to our front door! I guess that’s also why the previous owners planted the evergreen across from the front door. They didn’t know it would get massive and cause needles to be dragged into the house all the time. ; )

Oct29

Hit the nail on the head

Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 by Dianne

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Dinner-Chorizo and Shrimp pilaf-Everyday Food recipe in the November ’07 issue. The plum tomatoes are from my garden and I just picked more tonight plus bunches of Italian parsley and rosemary.

I do believe my commenters have diagnosed some of my current lack of domestic interest. I will say I use to go to the store thinking of what would be good for Sean to eat; him being the child and getting his taste buds to wake up. I will say as an adult, he’ll eat almost anything. This I miss. But as I said earlier, if I make too much, I can freeze it for my uncle.

The other thing is never getting help in the kitchen. I am seeing the holidays looming and some big dinners and lots of cleaning I have to do by myself. Bri’s dad hasn’t been here since Easter(!), mainly because Bri doesn’t want him driving over in his 17 yr old car. My holidays are usually spent in the kitchen while the men sit around watching football. If my mom is here, she’ll pitch in if she is able to. Doesn’t sound like fun for me does it? The one and only Thanksgiving we went out to dinner, Bri’s dad choked on lettuce because he was talking too much or nervous about being in a crowded restaurant.

So you see where I’m coming from? I am not a total slave to cooking everyday. I love to go out to eat, it’s a real treat. We went to Pizza Hut and then to AC Moore on Saturday, and that lifted my spirits tremendously.

It got pretty chilly last night and I brought in some of my plants. I need to find room for them somewhere. I hate to lose the pretty ‘freebies’ from the nursery as they are blooming like crazy right now.

So my 30th high school reunion was set for Nov 23rd-the day after Thanksgiving. I sent in the check before it was due on the 13th of this month. I check to see if the reunion guy has cashed it yet-he hasn’t. I’m wondering if people are showing enough interest in attending? There was a 25th. And there are over 100 people on the MIA list. We only had 480 in the class. I’ll keep you posted. I have new gray slacks, a garnet red sparkley top and pewter shoes (and jewelry) for it too. I was to attend the planning meeting and I would have suggested a picnic type reunion not another expensive sit down meal. The weather was so bad, I didn’t go. Not to say they would have picked the picnic.

Not bad for 99¢

Oct29

Domestic goddess needs help

Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 by Dianne

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I do call myself a ‘domestic goddess’ as I don’t work outside my home. I will say that my DG crown is a little tarnished lately. Seems all I want to do is play with digital art or paper crafts and ignore my domestic chores-there’s always tomorrow-that kind of philosophy. Ok, it’s good to set some goals. I did sort out mail stuff for the second week in a row yesterday which I really dislike. I thought for sure I missed one of my newer bills (had to get credit because of my teeth), but never ran across it. I guess it will be coming along soon. I haven’t set foot in the grocery store for over a week. I sent Bri for cat food, milk and a few other things a few days ago (had a bad week last week). What may get me shopping is that a new store opened in my town. The thing is it’s on the other side of the town and we have the same store (Acme), less than a mile away. The new one is boasting about a shrimp bar and other ‘bars’. I figured I get my points at Giant for the turkey (another store a mile away) and Bri and I can scope out the new Acme tomorrow night. I want some shrimp!

I’ve lost a little of my cooking and stitching mojo too. I am still doing both, but I think when I finish that older stitching piece, I can move on to the piece I am doing for the stitcher’s lottery that is due Jan. 1st. In this I have a chance of winning tons of finished pieces. I would be thrilled as I can count my finished pieces (most in this room) in a matter of minutes. Those are the only pieces that I kept for myself other than Christmas ornaments that are packed away and I adore what my friend have stitched for me-they are hanging on a gold tree on top of this computer desk!

About cooking (and I don’t have a husband who cooks), I did go through the latest issue of Everyday Food magazine and picked a few recipes to try. How does pumpkin pasta sound? Bri made ‘that face’, like right, not on your life am I trying that. I think it would be good with some toasted pine nuts on it. He liked the bean and chicken slow cooked recipe. He says he loves beans (Why me? Better get some Beano). Beans are good for you, they certainly are. Just keep the matches away.

So when things are blah, make lemonade or alter the page of an old book-whatever floats your boat. : )

Oct26

Just curious

Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 by Dianne

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Found this on the MySpace page of a high school alumni. Gee all those other Dianne Cs? Wow! How about you? Brian has almost 1,500(!) and Sean 404. With my maiden name-only 13 other Dianne Ks. And some of my family-Mom-20, Ken and his son-150, Colleen-17, Victoria-33 ,Dave and his son-430, Patrick-72 and MaryAnne-only 2!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
140
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Oct23

Friend update

Posted on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 by Dianne

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My friend’s mom passed on Sunday night at 6:25 west coast time. She did thank me for calling her and said it was an ‘angel kiss’ to her which I thought was so sweet. She sounds pretty good considering in the brief but sweet note she sent, but I know grief has it’s different stages and she’s at the ‘surreal’ one as she says so herself. I had just sent her the little Art trading card as pictured below and she got it and liked it a bunch. She’ll be getting a book sometime soon too.
I can’t be on the computer too long as my upper back and front pectorals are bothering me, like burning. I think I hurt them lifting all those books a few weeks ago and if I do any other lifting (a big rectangular box of shoes yesterday and lots of bending over) I stir up the inflammation again. A few years back it was more in my arms when I was moving the same books around. Plus I have another issue that would make me hurt a bit. Now tomorrow I may be fine and I sure hope I am on Thursday when I get squeezed. It’s fun being a girl! ; )

Oct22

Many thanks

Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 by Dianne

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I appreciate your comments on my entry from last night. I haven’t heard anything from my pal, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be good news unfortunately. Another friend from our group gave me her phone # and we chatted this afternoon for about 20 minutes or so. The dialects were traveling full force from the lady with the Philly accent to the lady with the Louisiana accent. She had her ear bent back good. Have you heard that expression before?

The fires are horrible out in California! They were showing the smoke from the radar on the news earlier and it was like nothing that I have seen before. My late paternal grandmom lived in Santee, a suburb of San Diego.

I watch ‘Dancing with the Stars’, mainly if I am interested in certain ‘stars’. Tonight, the performer who happens to be my age, and that’s Marie Osmond, passed out after she performed a strenuous dance-the samba. (the comments here are weird) They broke away for quite a bit and she was back for her score, a little shook up, but okay. She said she wasn’t breathing right, but after looking at the video, I think she was hyperventilating. Us premenopausal gals better be more careful. : )

I got a nice comment from Tootie, the gal who made the tags on the Halloween tree below. She was flattered that I had them on my blog-why not, they are so cute! I’m bidding on some Christmas tags she made, just as sweet.

Tonight I started to alter a book. What you mainly do is paint or glaze over the pages/words in an old book and add elements to them. I didn’t do that at first, I added a page of a pretty vintage girl. You are suppose to take out pages so that your ‘altered’ pages won’t make the book too bulky. I was just ripping instead of cutting, so my 1909 book was getting a little wobbly. I hope it will stand up to my altering. Will share some photos soon.

Two more days and Sean will be 21! He seems a little sad, but he says it feels like all work and no leisure time for him lately. He may treat himself (and maybe take a friend) out to dinner on Friday when he only has one class. He was complaining about having a big test on his big day. He’s struggling a bit, but it’s a transitional part of his life. He’ll be fine, I know it.

Be sure to catch my new video of my paint shopped pro altered digital artwork in my Vod pod.

Oct21

Lousy timing

Posted on Sunday, October 21, 2007 by Dianne

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Tonight I decided to call my friend in California as her mom hasn’t been well and I just wanted to hear her voice and give her a few words of encouragement. I have never spoken to her before and she had just given our group (the people I do art projects with plus a few other pals) her #. The first time it rang and rang and I left a message. I wanted to hear her voice again, so I hit redial and she answered it crying hysterically. Seems I picked the time when she was at the hospital because the end was near for her dear mom! I was in shock that she answered and then to hear her say what was going in in bits and pieces-I was very shook up. I guess I took too big of a chance. She did say ‘pray for me’ which I have been doing. Her mom’s been in the hospital for almost a month. She has a fatal disease, so I guess they’ve been walking on pins and needles for almost 2 yrs now. She just said her mom was set up in the living room in a hospital bed because she couldn’t climb the steps to her bedroom. That happened to my grandmom too, who basically passed on in the dining room back in 2000.

We all feel like we know Gs mom by now and we’re feeling so bad for her as they were very close like my mom and me. Keep G in your thoughts.

Oct20

My old mug

Posted on Saturday, October 20, 2007 by Dianne

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This mug was my favorite mug back in the late 70s. Mom just gave it back to me. I’m enjoying a mug of jasmine tea right now!

This is a little tree that I hung some tags on that I bought from a lady on eBay. I love other people’s art work and these are sweet. This artist is Honeygirl Studios.

Bri and I planted 3 mums on the side of the evergreen in the front yard. I also dug up my Persian Shield plant. It wore me out as I had about 4 hours of sleep last night. I got up to go in the bathroom at 6 am and heard the answering machine in the family room beeping. What? So I went in and it was my mom’s # on the caller ID at 2:37 am this morning! I listened to it and it was a lot of muffled stuff. Now it sounded like she had been mugged or something! I didn’t call her at that time of the day, but waited a few hours and she has no recollection on even touching the phone which concerns me. Weird.