Category Archives: Me stuff

Jul3

Heat and hiking

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I was all gung ho to score a few caches today over in Delaware. This ‘first state’ is so close to us and we enjoy it’s tax free shopping too. We went out about 2:30 and it was quite warm by then. We headed down to the Delaware Museum of History and this was pretty easy to find. No problem-o.

We headed a few miles down the road (near Joe Biden country) and found a lovely park there. Geocaching takes you to places like this!

There were about three caches in there. I had a big bag with me-water, the fan/mister bottle, Off!, etc. Brian forgot his water!

Look at those steps. I knew I was going to have climb them again.

I was joking around near the parking lot…ha ha for the time being…

Yahoo-here’s the one in the woods

I had had a baseball cap and and was starting to feel kind of funny after this was taken. As we walked back, I brought up another cache on the GPS and we headed for that. We saw it was way up a steep path and Brian went up it first. I went down a bit and found another less steep path. But after I went up, there were more stone steps and I got myself winded and started feeling sick. There was a cool stone bench and I sat there for a while, but Brian was suppose to find this one and he had no luck. If I had felt better, I know it was within 30-40 feet somewhere down a path, but I was feeling too yucky to look. I want to go back here in the cooler weather as I now know where to look.

Oh well…should be gorgeous in the autumn!

Back to those stairs up there. I had to sit down on them twice and I was feeling crummy. An old man walked by me too! Gee, he must go there for a daily walk! I practically crawled to the car.

So we stopped for gas and a cool drink. Oh, we went to the Winterthur parking lot, but I got out and went right back in the car again. I had Brian looking under trees, no luck. He needs to develop better stealth!! : )

I knew about one at Chadds Ford Winery and we stopped there-easy peasy. We would have bought a bottle of wine, but they were closed.

I bought some trinkets from The Oriental Trading Company for these caches as many don’t have that many goodies in them. I got those rubber bracelets, Pirate maps and ‘Kindness coins’. I added a bunch of these to the above boxes today.

Then we were near a Quaker Friends Meeting and there was a micro in there. I walked down the road near the cemetery and the GZ was a big evergreen tree-huge son of a gun. I looked and looked for the cammo film canister and then Brian looked. We couldn’t find it! Rats.

Saw this-what’s up with this?

And this little lamb…

Didn’t catch the name, but I think it’s on the Geocaching site, so I’ll go look again.

We went through Wendy’s and I got their salad with chicken and fruit-not bad. I mentioned to Bri that there was a cache directly across the highway. First I thought it was near the supermarket (which is changing hands), but it was behind the Walgreen’s! So cute.

First log of this kind! I had trouble getting it out-used a wire from a little flower I had!

So….no more hiking for me in this kind of weather! A nice shower helped, but I’ve had back issues from sitting on the floor (too long) to sort through things. I never learn.

Making a bundt cake tomorrow and some yummy foods for the 4th!

Jun27

20 Finds!

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A few days ago, Brian and I were ‘hiking’ in a lovely park near my hometown. As with most geocaching adventures, the coords took us into a pretty wooded area. I’ve been to Rose Tree Park many times, yet not that far into it. We actually found two caches that day! The first was an aspirin type bottle just lying under a tree. I think it was ‘muggled’, meaning non-geocachers got their paws on it. I signed the log and hide it in the tree a bit better.

Here is Brian with the larger cache. I am going to find some more goodies to add to these containers as most are kind of pathetic. I just hope whoever finds it, leaves stuff for the next seeker.

I think this was a challenge to take your photo near the old lifesaving station in Virginia Beach. Easy enough.

This was my first micro-film canister size I found Saturday. It was lying on the ground like the one from the other day! I didn’t have a pen to sign it! I know where I put it, but alas, someone came along and may have moved it! That would mean I have to hunt for it again to sign it.

The above was found in a park near an old 1700 Grist Mill. It’s so pretty there. My brother Ken and Colleen had some of their wedding photos taken here. I also went looking for a ammo box all by myself. I felt safe as I saw other people walking the paths, but the hide was up a hill on a 45 degree angle. I should have had someone with me or at least a walking stick! I really was huffing and puffing when I got up to the fallen tree! I guess the ticker is working good. ; ) Getting down was a bit harder-no not again will I go solo in the woods.

This is near cache and the path is way down-I was crazy!

Pretty park

We had my mom here from Saturday to Monday. We took her to my father-in-law’s on Saturday. You read what happened there. We went to Carraba’s for dinner. The next day, we went up to Lancaster county. There’s a place up there called Flower & Craft Warehouse and everything in the store was 50% off, even marked down things. It was a bit overwhelming. The previously marked down things were outside in a red and white tent without proper lighting. I mean I could see enough to buy a few items. I got a big metal watering can for $5 and spray paint in a pretty green for $2-so I painted the watering can! It was white with ‘brush strokes’ of tan-kind of ugly. I wanted to get some summer like flowers for a big antique blue Ball jar I bought in Chincoteague. I got exactly what I wanted and will share the arrangement when I put it together.

After we went shopping we went to a diner a few miles down the road. It was shipped on three tractor trailers from Texas a few years ago. They did a great job restoring it! The food was good, could have been a little better. I got a turkey club and it was ‘half’ the size of the one I got in Atlantic City for about the same price!

So on the way home I mentioned geocaching. My mom got all excited as I’ve been telling her about it. I got my phone out and lo and behold, there was one in a town nearby. We had a little run-around until I looked at the map and there was the church. I found it within a few minutes and took the box over to her. It had decent ‘swag’ (goodies) in it and we took two things and left a few. Mom snagged a pen.

The next one was in a Lowes parking lot. That was closed and the GPS lead us near a cart return area. Now how could it be there? It had to be around the lamp post. Now from the help of another cacher for a  ‘not find’ near a lamp post, I learned you can lift those ‘skirts’ at the bottom. I mentioned this to Brian and he went over, pulled it up and there was the cache container! : )

So knowing this…there are a few I (we) have looked for and someone did tell me that one was indeed inside the skirt area (near wires) and then one near a grocery store was probably in the same kind of  location. It sure is a learning experience.

So we went back to one of the first areas we tried to find one as now I had clues from the logs and another geocacher that a stick was indeed a sign of where the cache was. There was a big electric box and Bri took the stick and stuck it under the box and felt something-a cache! Yay!

This was a bit damp.

We had looked near a lamp post in our town and it was full of old wasp nests! When I got home and read the logs and people seemed to say it was near there, but there was also one of the big metal electric boxes again-so thinking it’s under that.

Thinking I was on a roll, we stopped near the one near our house. I got out briefly and looked around. I’m not sure what I’m looking for. People said it was easy, but now I’m thinking it’s across the  street inside a guard rail. I think I’ll message the cache owner to see what it is.  That’s the most frustrating one so far!

I am at the stage of this hobby where I want to now hide some caches. I thought I had the perfect spot and called the Land Conservancy of my area. Seems of all the areas they sponsor and fund, the spot I picked is private land. The woman was so nice and said next month, they are making a trail a bit further down the road from the ‘mystery cache’ and I can surely hid one there-yay!

Yesterday and today are perfect, low humidity days. I did a fair amount of weeding, but I so need to mulch. My herbs look awful. Maybe we will do a run to Lowes after I do grocery shopping! : )

Tomorrow-summer blooms around the yard.

Jun26

One of my favorite beaches on earth

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After we went to the aquarium (on the 20th), we headed to the island of Chincoteague. We had gone last year and loved the hotel (alas it was booked solid this year) and the beach in the park. We stayed in America’s Best which had the door that opened right up to the outside. This isn’t good in Chincoteague as it is known for it’s mosquitoes. The room was a bit tight also. We went right to the beach at around 6 pm.

You drive a few miles through the park, a national preserve where the wild horses and other wildlife live. We saw lots of herons and a few turtles too.

Got to love that a gorgeous beach is at the other end. Of course when you are driving to the island, there are stretches and stretches of marsh and wet land.

I think Sean got a few shots of the ponies, but it takes him a while to upload his pictures….I’ll share if it’s good.

Look at this sunset-that’s their library

Here’s Misty!

The next morning we got on the road to Ocean City, MD and ended up in a little town called Pocamoke City, MD. We went into the museum there and it was like $10 each, so we passed on that. Little did I know there was a big cache right in the lobby! I use my phone a lot for caching and saw this several miles later.

We also went to Snow Hill, MD. We  actually back tracked! Sean knew I wanted to see the buildings and look for a cache there.

We ate lunch here-very nice.

Snow Hill it one of the only intact Victorian towns left (I think that is what the brochure said).

We went to this little museum to find a nano cache. It was kind of funny seeing three adults looking in crevices and tapping bolts to see if they were fake. We had no luck. A nice side story is that the cache owner (part of a family of 8 who geocaches) answered my email to where it may be. She told me exactly where it was (I had logged it as a didn’t find already) and she said to message her anytime if I am stuck on a cache. Cool.

After we got to Ocean City, I did a virtual cache (photo), a small cache (near the old life saving station) and a web cam one-that last one was too hard to do as it was really bright and you were suppose to save the shot of you to show the person who did the challenge. We walked several blocks in the heat and I think we at least tried to do it! : )

We then headed to Rehoboth and grabbed a hotdog at Nathan’s and tried to do a web cam challenge there-not easy again. We weren’t there long as it’s a pain with the 30 minute parking meters you have to run back to again and again.

That was about the extent of our trip and now it’s time to weed the gardens and get that bathroom finished.

We are going to see the Bacon Brothers (Kevin) on July 10th at Longwood Gardens. We also want to see the night light display there, but we have until September. I’d rather wait a few weeks as the crowds there have been crazy. I made Sean drive past there a few night ago and they were parking in the grass near the parking lot as overflow.

Tomorrow-cache collecting-up to 20!

Jun25

Blog neglect, vacation stuff

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Since my whirlwind of activity is dying down, I can get down to brass tacks again with blogging. I went and got my mom on Saturday for a two day visit. We all went over to the father-in-law’s house to wish him a Happy 89th Birthday. From the get go, I felt pops was uncomfortable having my mom and me there. Brian and Sean were installing his new a/c (birthday gift) in his room and it was a messy job. Well Bri’s dad starts up about something ‘we need for the house’. I’d rather not say exactly what it is (send me a note if you want to know) and I said we didn’t really need it right now. Well he wouldn’t let it go and got mad at me and left the living room to sit in the family room. He’s living in a 4 bedroom split level. Mom and I were shook up and I took the car down to a local shopping center so pops would simmer down. We never did go back in the house again and never sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. I sure was hoping it would make him happy to have a house full of people (well almost), but that didn’t happen. It was going on 6:30 and we had to go out to eat. Too bad pops wasn’t along, but he got so grumpy that it ruined our visit.

So….we were away from early Monday to late Thursday. Our trip didn’t quite go as planned. Monday and Tuesday we were in Virginia Beach and had a nice time.  We got on the road Wednesday to head to Williamsburg, but got in traffic as the tunnel there had a disabled vehicle. We got off at an exit, tried to go another way, but of course they weren’t letting anyone in. We heard it was a 5-9 mile backup, so we decided to go to Norfolk, VA for an hour and see if that changed. We tried to see the historic society, but that was closed and they were painting. We got to see the nice garden and only a few of the buildings there. We passed by the General Douglas MacArthur statue.

Here are a few Norfolk shots:

The city in the late 1880s

The backup never got better, and we had to go to Chincoteague later, so we headed to the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach. It’s a neat one!

Turtles sunning themselves in the entrance area-it was very warm here.

Wow, a Komodo Dragon. He was checking everyone out!

 I like this shot

Menacing sharks

Lion fish

Jelly fish-amazing!

A few more shots from Virginia Beach

The King Neptune statue was amazing and had a cache hidden under it-shhhhhh!

Sean and me under him!

Tuesday I got to met Rachael who I know from cross stitching and Facebook. She is from CA, but lived in Germany for a while, now is in VB as her hubby is working out of Norfolk. We went to the Contemporary Art Museum to see an Andy Warhol exhibit. We couldn’t take photos of the Warhol art, but I did think this glass chandelier was fascinating.

I wish I could meet all of you!

I’ll talk about the last few days of our trip tomorrow.

May31

Scored two geocaches!

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I had to get Brian away from the sink for one day. He needed some other pipework, but he is having trouble with the plumbing part. I wanted to go to a park where Brian use to take Sean fishing many moons ago. It’s so pretty there! We walked around a pond, went down to a lower level and through the woods, past runners and a couple smooching. : )  The ‘key’ to finding these seems to be reading over past logs. When the clue said look for a ‘beech’, well I knew I’d have to go to the one identified by the marker about 10 feet or so off the trail. There were old tree limbs leaning against the tree-very unnatural! I moved them and lo and behold, I found cache #3!

I think I’m getting the hang of finding the larger caches, though the second one was in a sandwich sized box, so the micros have to be easier to find soon…I hope!  This one hardly had anything in it and the log book was soggy! I had won some geocaching buttons from eBay and left one. It was suppose to be a music CD share, but there were none in there. This ones been around for 10.5 yrs!

We were very close to another cache in a cemetery. We pulled in and didn’t I get out to a fairly new grave next to me-dirt piled high and just a paper name tagged at the end. Luckily, you aren’t allowed to put caches right in the graved area, so we walked to the back of the cemetery where the hint said to go. There was a pile of old gravemarkers in one area and vault covers in another. We were thinking the spouse passed and they got a larger marker-maybe, right? So the clue was it was under a tree and a white stone. I sent Bri in to look….and he looked. I decided to come in the weeds and right in between some old markers was the next cache! Yay!

I was glad to get out of there. I saw later there was a micro in there-some other time, but I don’t think in the same area where we were.

We walked at least 2 miles at a the park There’s another one in there and we’ll go another day-it’s only 3 miles away. I still need to find the one in my other walking park. So glad we went as I like ponds, etc. and this is a nice place to walk. BTW, I used both my phone’s GPS and the Magellan-still getting the hang of the later one.

We later went out to dinner with Sean to Friendly’s. A lady next to use gave use a $5 off coupon! We went to Kirkland’s, like a Pier One kind of store, and I got a pretty ‘collage’ picture for the bathroom ($10-marked down from $25) and some jeweled shower curtain holders for $5. I got a shower curtain yesterday. I have a striped plastic one and got a solid Wedgewood blue. The jewels are green like the sink. I figure my accent colors will be sea glass green, blue and white.

We stopped off at Whole Food Market that just opened in April. It was nice, though pricey. I prefer Trader Joe’s and Fresh Market more. There was a ‘micro’ cache right near the store, but though we were in the right spot, it was dusky and the security guy decided to park near there. I should have read the log better as a guy said exactly what it was and where. At least we know now. ; )

 

May29

Unexpected renovation delay

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So we were moving (actually Brian) right along and the toilet got installed on Thursday. Friday morning dawned and Bri said he was going to install the vanity and sink. The thing with him, it’s 2-3 in the afternoon before he gets started. I know, it’s being unemployed and he’s on a schedule like Sean and me-stay up late, get up late. Glad we have light until 8 pm. : )

So he turns off the water, unscrews the pipes and takes the vanity out-it’s much worse than we think-it was just crumbling from water damage-just not usable anymore.  So then we see the floor next to the wall. It’s in bad shape-there’s rotted wood there. Bri starts digging at it-ends up with about a 2 foot by 6″ hole. He spent many hours finding wood, making sure it fit well and was level. This will be covered up-we have to find similar linoleum tiles though-guess we’ll look for those tomorrow or the next day.

He did saw off the foam overflow. We have tiles to put up along the edge there-the dark brown ones. You can see the 52 yr old original floor and the newer one we put in which is like parquet.

This will be covered by the vanity and I think I’m going to redo the floor down the road too.

A few rows below the toothbrush and soap holders were 4 tiles with holes from the original pedestal sink. Brian carefully took them out. I ordered 3 sample tile sheets from Susan Jabalon tiles, the place I used when I did the kitchen. I figured one color or design will be the right one and I’ll save the rest for art projects. 3/4″ mosaics will fit perfectly without me cutting them- 5 x 5 = 25 a square. I just have to grout them in place and fix a few that came loose. I saw some river pebbles that they use for floors. I ‘may’ order a sample just to see how it feels. We have less than a 5′ x 5′ space to worry about-yes, our ‘main’ bathroom is small.

I was going to get a new medicine cabinet. Now I think I’ll tidy up the old one, maybe paint it. That should brighten it up.

I also planted more annuals and am weeding the pond garden. It’s been very hot and humid these last few days. Can’t stand that! I lasted an hour on Sunday and did indoor stuff.

Wish us well with getting that floor fixed and the vanity and sink in! Hope to show pretty photos next!

May23

Sorting and stuff

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Wednesday night already! Wow! The week is going by quickly. Monday I was changing out my winter to summer clothes-a job I regret as I have so much of everything. Letting go of stuff is hard. I made myself try on long sleeved tees (I prefer 3/4 inch more) and many were shrunk up in the front. A certain brand ‘Basic*Editions’ from a Mart with K were all this way. I am happy to say I filled up a big bag for charity, but I still have too many summer tops. If I don’t wear them yet again this year, they aren’t going in storage, but in the charity bag.

I got out in the yard and took some photos too. The Clematis both have been outstanding this year

Near the pond

Sean gave me this lovely chair seat for Mother’s Day. Brian and Sean went to get it in Delaware last night at another Wally World. Brian assembled it for me today. They are really comfy and because you have a leg rest, they are like a lounger. The table is nice, but the textured glass is upside down and will be flipped.

We have a few huge boxes in our living room-one had a new toidy in it and the other has the new vanity in it. Brian and Sean will do the toilet tomorrow. I think 52.5 yrs is a long time and our old one can be disposed of now or used as a planter-lol! : )

I have a little more planting to do. I haven’t bought mulch yet, but there are a few areas that look better with it.

This is what’s going in soon! : )

Apr19

Amazing Arboretum

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Brian, mom and me went a few town over from her house to the Scott Arboretum which in on the campus of Swarthmore College. We’ve never been! The photos on the arboretum’s facebook wall enticed us to go and ‘free’ is good too. Well worth the little trip for us. There were dozens of lilacs, cherry trees and peonies blooming ‘three weeks early’ (as the lady in the main office told us). I will add more tomorrow as my tummy is a bit off tonight. I did a lot of walking a few days ago and I believe I’ve had a bug or something and shouldn’t ignore it and now my system is off. Ginger ale and gum sure helped.

Mom and me among the wood hyacinths

Mom took this one

Some of the most gorgeous peonies I’ve ever seen!

Apr15

Yes, it’s been 28 years

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Brian and I met almost 30 yrs ago. I can attest to time flying by, so make the best of the days as they whiz by.

At about 4 pm, I had remembered that Brian received about 6 gift cards from a birthday pack-they were all free. The coupon was for $25 off if you spent $60, so we actually needed another person to spend that much. This is a place in Wilmington, DE, right on the river front. It was a nice evening, but we ate inside. Sean had been away at the college working on homework and we waited on him to come home and join us. It was after 7 and we had to wait 30 minutes or so before we sat down. I ordered their ribs, and guess what, they were out of them. It was crowded. I ordered the salmon with avocado sauce special. The manager heard it was our anniversary and I didn’t get what I wanted, so she gave us all free desserts! So beverages, nice big salads, entrees and desserts were under $40 for 3 people. I like when that happens. The salmon could have been cooked a bit more for me-I like it flaky. I brought it home and ate it along with the rest of the yummy au gratin potatoes and green beans for lunch. Sean also ate the rest of his pizza for lunch. So we actually got 5 meals for that price.

We are enjoying the 80 degree weather. I started cleaning some spots, but Brian do more work today. He had mowed the lawn yesterday. I sat under the Japanese maple that is in full leaf!

I’m about to make some turkey burgers for the grill. I may mix up some sweet BBQ sauce like I made for my sausage balls (an appetizer) for Tori’s party on Friday. They were good, but not many people ate them. They loved the pizza dip! I’ll have to share that one with you. Great to bring to a party with some Frito scoops.

Apr5

Flower Girl ATCs

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Flower Girt ATCs

I’ve been enjoying making ATCs for swap-bot.com as many of my Flickr art groups are no longer trading. I am doing a flower series, though I missed a few at the beginning of the swap. I just sent off ‘Iris’-2 different ones to 2 different people. The next one is Daffodils.
So I was thinking how girls have flower names and thought an ATC series was in order. I can think of a few more and will make them too. I have to make Iris again, since she was traded. I think they look cute. I realize I used ‘was’ instead of ‘is’ as these are ephemera and I’m looking as them as in the past.
I’m taking an antibiotic for the root canal I had on Friday. I had a bit of a sore throat yesterday morning, but am sneezing and blowing my nose a lot, so thinking the allergies are acting up. I wish we would get some good rain to clean up the air! I see where a sore throat may be from the antibiotic too.
I took my mom to the eye doctor on Tuesday as she was getting the shot in her good left eye and she said it took until the next day to clear up. We went to a diner and I had the best turkey BLT salad. I’m doing the MyFitnessPal again as I’m not happy with my weight and how I look and feel. Too much sugar! I hope to get walking more. I signed up at Walgreen’s to monitor my walking. It’s something I enjoy doing on a regular basis. Also took mom to Trader Joe’s. Love getting their goodies.