This gallery contains 12 photos.
Last weekend was the 29th Annual Mushroom Festival a few miles away from here. We had wanted to go on Saturday night, but we got heavy rain and decided to try a restaurant around the corner from where we live. I lately haven’t been pleased eating out. I got lobster mac and cheese which was […]
Sorry I have been MIA. I have had knee issues since I posted about the 80s flashback band last month. That night, back in the middle of July, we stood watching for over 2 hours. Afterwards, we located a geocache in a lamp skirt which I knelt to retrieve and must have twisted the ligament to the right of my left knee. I started to wrap it in an Ace bandage and even went to Urgent care about it as I thought it had to be worse than a strained ligament.
On August 2nd, we went to the Billy Joel concert at Citizen’s Bank Park, usually home of the Phillies. I had my knee wrapped and as we (Brian) crossed the street to the venue, I felt my knee pop! And the pain was awful! I debated what to do, but there was Gavin DeGraw, Billy’s opening opening act singing his heart out. We were at the 1st base area and needed to get to the 3rd base. I believe it took me a good 45 minutes to hobble there. Then I had to face steps and step over a few people. I look back at all that and do not know how I did it.
This was our view for the Billy Joel concert. I thought our tickets would have been a bit better since I ordered them in March and the price we paid. That is a yellow pole we looked around.
So if was even rougher getting back to the car. We should have gotten a wheelchair. We walked right past the medic room. It was so crowded, I didn’t want to make a scene. I was in tears and had to stop many, many times.
When we got home I was crying out in pain when I tried to get out of the car. I decided I could wait until the morning for it to get looked at. I learned to slide along when I had to go to the bathroom.
Sean took me to the ER about 1:00 pm. After x-rays, they agreed with the Urgent care, that it was a strain. I got ‘stabilized’ in a long leg brace and given a walker! I decided to go to the orthopedic doctor and he thought where it was hurting me was maybe a torn meniscus. They need to be operated on. Oh great. He ordered an MRI., The day before the MRI, we took a drive up to Hershey Gardens with my mom. I had gotten tickets that were going to expire. I had visions of both of us being pushed in a wheelchair. We did get one wheelchair, but I had to switch out with mom half way through! I was stopping in pain every 10 minutes. We had a nice lunch right at the gardens, so that was nice. I feel like I put a damper on the trip, especially when we stopped at the museum and both mom and I said no to the 45 minute walking tour. I will show some photos in my next blog post. It is a lovely place and next time I will be stronger when I go.
So I had the MRI, just my lower half was in it and my head could be outside of it. I went back to the ortho doc and it should no tear, but a twisted or pulled ligament. I was really surprised hearing this as it’s so painful. I hope he didn’t miss anything. He gave me a shot and it felt better maybe one day, but it gets stiff and achy. The doc recommended physical therapy and I guess I will have to go for it.
I decided not to go back to work with the kids at the church until maybe the end of September to the beginning of October. I am not strong enough to help out yet.
I also have to go to a GI specialist on Sept. 9th. I had blood work in June and some tests were high. I have Lyme disease and the tick bit me right near my liver. I have been having elevated readings since 1998. The GP wants me to get checked out, so I asked for the best liver doctor in the practice. I certainly watch myself for symptoms of a disease. I have gained, not lost weight because of menopause.My arthritis is worse and my teeth have been mostly capped. I will be glad when that visit is over, but I won’t be surprised if he wants more blood work and a test.
Rest in peace Robin Williams. My heart is still sad. Thanks for the laughs and sharing your incredible talent all these years.
Next-gorgeous Hershey Gardens!
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I few weeks back, maybe a month ago, Sean and I took my mom to Scott Arboretum Swarthmore College’s campus to see their renowned rose garden. We had been there a few years ago and the roses were perfect. We also went in May. By June and after a rainstorm, the roses were starting to fade. It was a bit warm also, so we didn’t stay long.
Mom isn’t fond of this photo, but I like it because Sean is in it too. He worries about her so much as she had two mini stroke incidents that required hospital stays. When we we can, we go down and take her to a store or place like this. Right after this stop, we ate in a restaurant in Media called Picasso and shared plated of shrimp kebabs, battered dipped asparagus and a few other things which she loved.
These are geraniums!
A bench with Dean Bond’s name on it. This is his rose garden. The graduates get a rose from the garden pinned to their gown.
Beautiful Clematis with one of the college buildings behind it.
Sean liked the Seafoam roses
The gate to the rose garden
Really love this one.
The summer is flying by!
This gallery contains 22 photos.
This past Friday, on the 7th, Brian took me down to the annual Philadelphia Flower Show at the Convention center. I saw that Rachael Ray was going to make an appearance (at a flower show, thought that was interesting as she is known as a cook), and I wanted to see her. We had gotten […]
This gallery contains 25 photos.
Wow, it’s been a while since I posted on my blog! With the short time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, life moved pretty quickly! I was making cookies right up to Christmas eve. Sean and I went to visit my mom on Christmas eve, came home and ate shrimp and ravioli with Brian and headed to […]
Really, I am not kidding at all. Can you imagine your hubby or significant other belting out ‘You Raise Me Up’ for your birthday or anniversary? I know some guys can sing, but how many can hold a candle to Josh?
A Group-on deal came up to see Josh down in Philly-$25 each-holy cow, that’s the price of a concert in the 1980s! Brian and I decided to go. I guess it was like a date night. I knew it would be a low key crowd also.
We left a few hours early which was a smart move. We got a great parking spot and no lines at the ticket booth.
We had to wait to get in, but we didn’t feel rushed. The usher pointed us to what we thought was the correct row, and we made ourselves comfortable.
Beyond the railing were floor seats. As I said, wow, not bad for the price. The big screens helped a lot!
The opening act was a lovely lady named Judith Hill, I couldn’t place her at first. Here she was one of the finalists in last season’s ‘The Voice’. How neat is it to tour with Josh. She sat at a piano and sang a few snippets of songs, including ‘You’ve Got A Friend’. Woo, love a gal that sings a James Taylor/ Carole King song. She was on about 1/2 hour and then Josh didn’t come on until 8:30.
He ran out singing ‘Brave’
So I thought this was called ‘Gotta Run Away’-lol
Josh is only 32 going on 33. He has such a mature voice, you forget he is such a young guy.
Here is Josh’s duet with Judith singing ‘The Prayer’. He said he was asked to sub for Andrea Bocelli (stuck on a plane)with Celine Dion at the Grammys one year which made him well known.
He sang a nice array of songs, some in Spanish, maybe French. I was waiting for him to sing ‘You Raise Me Up’ and he did as an encore! That song makes me fill up as one time when my uncle was sick, it made me feel better and more hopeful that he would get better.
We thought the show was over and I used the ladies room and he was singing ‘Smile’. I love that song too!
All in all a nice evening except the man next to me was way too large for his seat and he really overflowed into my space. He should have turned toward his wife. He had a big beer and I knew he’d have to get up sooner or later and I made Brian change seats. Alas, he never sat down again! And here we were in the incorrect row! We should have been down one as the young ladies who were suppose to be in our seats came in late and I pointed to the ones below us. I wish we could have sat down there.
On the 12th, Sean was nice enough to treat his dad and me to a Phillies baseball night game. It’s been about 3 years since I went to a game and the temperature was about 92 that day and a bad storm blew in. The game was cut short at the 5th inning and we got home to water pouring in our basement near the well and no power. Not fun.
So….this time around rain was again in the forecast. We left around 4:15 and Sean headed toward 95 through Wilmington to hopefully avoid traffic. Turns out there was an multi-car accident near where we where headed. We thought to go back down Rt. 1 and that helped us get there before the game started. We wound through parts of Philly that we hadn’t been to in years! As we walked into the concourse area, we saw it was raining and the workers were laying down the tarp on the field. We thought we might as well get some dinner and went to a sit down restaurant adjacent to the stadium. The guys had burgers and me a cheesesteak.
After we ate, we saw that they were ready to start the game around 8 pm. Our timing was good then.
We had good seats behind 1st base about 16 rows back.
This was taken when we first got there.
Sean took this cute photo of us. I just had to use my Phillies bag that night!
Love watching these guys watch baseball as they share a special father/son snicker-actually for football too!
We also had our Phillies umbrella with us which went up a few times.
The first inning was awesome, the Phils scored 6 runs! Roy Halladay, the pitcher had been sick and he looked pale and clammy. By the 5th inning he threw wildly to 1st and then 4 runs came in. He was really mad at himself too as he threw down a ball or something.
At one point, a foul ball hit by Jimmy Rollins bounced off a bar and hit a young lady in the back of the head (she was in the first row to the left of us). She immediately put her hands behind her head and the EMT and a bunch of people went to check her out. She got up by her own accord and I guess went to rest in the office there. Jimmy kept looking at her as he had made it to first base. I bet he went to check on her after the game if she was still there.
We stayed until the 7th inning stretch as it was getting late.
We stopped and grabbed a few shots leaving the park.
Legendary pitcher Robin Roberts statue
We got home a little after midnight as Sean wanted to stop for a hoagie for lunch later that day.
It was a hassle and a half to get there, but I think everyone should go to a game to see the action in real time. The Citizen Bank park is really a great park and they think of everything from a play area for the kids to a nice restaurant.
I just realized I have been blogging over 9 years now!
This gallery contains 21 photos.
Visiting these gardens have been something I wanted to do for a few years, but never got around to it until a few weeks ago. They have a Facebook page and their photos were tempting me so much! So Brian and I went over to Wayne, PA and spent a few hours enjoying the property […]
Since the last time I posted, I met a goal by finding my 250th geocache with Brian! We went after church and unfortunately started driving around in the area from the weekend before which is way out in the boonies too much. The first place we went to would have meant ‘maybe’ walking by a stream. It was about 6:20, so we didn’t want to do that one. The next one was also more like a little hike which we got out for thinking it was in a guardrail. The third one was in a little park that I has seen better in the daylight, but not at night. Finally we headed to one and when we approached a guardrail, the compass counted down and I knew we had one! Yay! Someone had put a rock in front of the cache and it hadn’t been found since December. Whew! That took over an hour. We then went on and enjoyed lovely salads for dinner.
I had a meeting at the church where I work (once a week) this past Sunday. The coordinator also had a delicious lunch for us from mini pulled pork sandwiches to fruit, veggies, soup and chili. We practiced gathering the children (there were none there) to get out for a fire. Then we went in the bathroom-in case we were threatened by an intruder. We were to pull a piece of paper off the wall with ‘red’ on one side and ‘green’ on the other. If someone we knew came in, we were to pass the paper under the door before opening it with the appropriate color up. And with both incidences we need to bring the clipboard in with the signed in kids listed on it. I think we all need an emergency plan like this.
Other than that, I haven’t been able to get that special Silver Linings Playbook cache published as they said that it was too close to a house and I need permission. I appealed a few times to the mother company and the volunteer said she looked at the satellite and it was too close to the house. I decided to look at the satellite photo again and my coords are off for the area where the cache is. It shows it being in the middle of the road, near the incorrect house. I feel a bit stupid as I didn’t see this, but I think once the cache is archived, it’s really hard to get it up again. And the reviewer is a volunteer like the appeal people. I didn’t know that the cache reviewers could also still geocache! I saw where the person who reviews mine goes ahead and looks for the ones he reviews and I saw where he was the ‘first to find’ on one cache. This doesn’t seem fair to me at all like they have an unfair advantage. I told him and the appeal’s person this too. Makes the ‘game’ seem a bit lop-sided especially when the reviewer’s geocache name has over 11k!
So here is where the cache is and where I put down the incorrect coords-marked by the ‘B’. The yellow is correct.
And from that corner there and down about 10 houses is the real SLP house
It’s the house in the middle (pretty sure) as I compared it to the screen shot from the movie.
I have one more day of work and then I have a break for Easter.
After seeing ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, I was itchy to go down to that area to eat in the Llanerch Diner where the characters Pat and Tiffany kinda had a date and then to see the house where the movie was filmed. And then if I was really lucky to hide a geocache along that particular street there.
I went to my hometown which is about 5-6 miles from where I was headed. I got my mom and we stopped off at the cemetery where a geocache was. It’s also where my maternal family is resting. The cache was around the bend from that area and I got out of the geomobile and left my mom there. It was an area with a few evergreens and bushes. I got to 17 feet away and I swung around to see a tree that probably had broken off. I looked in and low and behold, I saw a film canister! Yay, less than 5 minutes of looking. I hustled back to the car and told my mom since we were here, I was going to walk over to the family plot. It took me a few minutes to find it, but I did and was sad to see it faded a lot from the sun-it was a pink marble.
Got back in the car and headed for the diner. I was taking some shots with the phone camera of the sign:
and when we were being seated, the lady lead us right to the booth where Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence sat! I didn’t even ask her where it was. But this told the tale:
My mom looked cute when she poised:
She had a little trouble taking a photo of me-this was the best of 4
I liked the asparagus/Swiss Cheese Omelet I had, but mom said her pork chop was a little tough (I think overcooked-I never order pork chops out as I have trouble enough cooking them myself).
The next stop was the avenue where the house used in the movie was located. At first I went the wrong way, but it was right down from the diner. Then I wasn’t sure which house it was. I remembered them all walking up to the front door and it had pillars made of stone with the thick cement in between. Mom thought a lot of the homes were built in the 1930s. I think I saw the house when we drove by after looking at a newspaper article online and the opening credits of the trailer.
So it was fun to see all this and I also hide a ‘premium’ geocache as I didn’t want too many people coming here at once and it was just a little nano with a tiny log. I’m waiting for approval.
Update-The reviewer won’t grant me permission to place the cache as he says I need approval from the people living near it. What? It’s not on private property and not near the SLP house.
Collages & Creative Goodness 