I am mesmerized by this child. I hope someday to have a granddaughter who looks and acts just like Dakota Fanning. It’s possible! ; )

Not only is it time to make cider, it’s also time for my mammogram slam. Yep, you can compare the two as a press is used in both incidences. I’ve been having them done for a number of years, usually with a uteran ultrasound which required me to drink 32 oz of water and drive myself over to the office. It wasn’t a nice drive at all. Sometimes, I’d cheat and go to the bathroom a little and just drink more water. I always got the ultrasound done without the tech really saying anything except that my bladder wasn’t all the way ‘filled’. So, at the gyn, the midwife decided I didn’t need the ultrasound this year. Crossing fingers for this other ‘event’ to pass smoothly.
Next will be Sean and my eye exams at the beginning of November. This scares me too as my mom has both cataracts and glaucoma, as did her mom. My eyes are the same color as my grandmom’s, down to the speckles-hope that doesn’t mean anything else.
Not much is new. I found that Tuesday is a good day to go to the grocery store as there was hardly anyone there. Sean needs to write down all his food intake for a week. He didn’t even eat all his dinner. I just had a stir fry prepared sweet and sour shrimp dish. He left most of the snow peas (he just doesn’t like peas of any form).
I have been to a few book sales now and I have a good pile of books for resale. I also need to clean up my selling table and donate things that never sold. I got a cute book of bazaar items to make and I may make a few of the things I saw in it as gifts.
Off to shower-I can’t have any deodorant residue on me as it messes up the films.
~Update-It really wasn’t that terrible this year and only hurt a little. I think I have been gardening more this year thus developing that area. I hope I won’t be eating my words tomorrow as I seem to skip a day in the pain area.

‘Denial isn’t a river, it’s a huge ocean’ (or something to
that effect)-from Gray’s Anatomy the tv show.

This is so true. My mom has been in denial that her dog Hunter was sick for months. First he lost his bark. Then he couldn’t climb the steps to the second floor anymore. This past Thursday, he took off, down a 100 foot driveway up a busy road. If my brother hadn’t been test driving a car for a pal, Hunter would have been a goner that night. He barely lasted 3 more days. He thrashed around so much at the vet’s on Saturday, that he dislocated both his back legs. He had a tumor on his behind area. All I could see was this dog, the size of a lab, with his back legs in a wheeled contraption. My skinny mom couldn’t really deal with a large dog. Hunter was 13.5 yrs old. Mom also had his mother Lucie, aunt Tara and grandmom Pita as pets. They all did their parts of doing various doggie things to the house, but mom loved them all through thick and thin. Hunter was suppose to be our dog, but I believe at the time Brian had lost his job of 13 yrs and we couldn’t afford to put up the fence we wanted to, so mom kept him. He looked like Chewbacca from ‘Star Wars’ as he had long blonde fur. That fur was all over mom’s house and all over her clothes when she came to visit here. That fur blew out about 5 vaccuums.
Whether or not he is replaced is a big question. I would like to see her get a house cat to get the mice that seem to sneak in. My brother says ‘no’. We’ll see what happens in the next few months. Mom needs to get herself in better shape, she is so thin.
I spent 6 hours with mom today. I took her to a book sale. I saw the lady from high school (that I saw about 3 weeks ago at AC Moore) at the sale and we chatted a bit. That was cool. She did remember me.
I took mom out to dinner and she seemed better. The thing is, mom’s pal Jim who boards at her house loved Hunter to pieces. When she told him about his passing he was a wreck. Sad stuff.

The concert was really enjoyable! I didn’t know Linda was mostly going to sing old Judy Garland standards. Well, she did just do a CD of Judy songs. I think Judy Garland was great and ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is one of my favorite movies. Linda came out in a gray paisley gown with the paisley being outlined in crystals or something slightly sparkly. I envy her her long legs-Ms. 5’10”! But her voice is so Broadway-she had those speakers vibrating. After the break, she came out in a black lace cocktail dress with a pretty diamond like pin at the top. The songs I loved the most that she sang were ‘Always Catching Rainbows/Somewhere over the Rainbow’, ‘By Myself’, ‘You Made me Love You’ and her signature song ‘Vienna’.
She didn’t have a sold-out house and some people near us moved on the ground level (are you allowed to do that?), I thought our balcony seats were fairly good.
She didn’t talk at all about her 6 yr old son. She said she was 44 and had a new guy Craig who was in the audience, though she didn’t point him out. She had some groupies there in the front row. I could never be that caught up with someone. A girl up front said she had seen Linda 18 times!
On the way there, we made one wrong turn, asked for directions and got on track again. The neighborhoods near the Grand were a bit seedy. We had to walk about 1/4 mile to the place-me in my patent leathers-whew- I was a bit winded. On the way home we were headed toward 95 and made a turn and then I told Brian to make the next left and he didn’t. He made a ‘u’-bie right in the middle of this 4 lane highway-don’t worry, it was dead. And my instinct was correct-we were headed toward 52 again.
I was hungry, but it was too late to stop for a snack, so Brian got some donuts and we had one with tea when we got home.
Linda’s Trail Mix show about horse lovers will be on Animal Planet in January 2006.

An iris I just planted a few months ago got a bud. I haven’t gone out to check it lately. My impatiens still look good. They must love all the rain. And my November birth flower, the mum in my favorite yellow-gold color greets me near the front door.

Here’s one of the Chestnut trees (the other is about 25 feet to the left) that drops 3 different things-fuzzy things, the burrs and then leaves. I heard these are rare, but who needs to deal with this? We don’t eat the chesnuts as they get wormy. Pictured is the second dump of burrs that Bri is just getting around to cleaning up today.

Another dismal day here. We only have seen sun for minutes at a time for over a week. It’s depressing. What do you do when you are depressed (besides eating?) You go shopping! Yesterday I went shopping at a Tuesday morning store looking for birthday things for Sean. I found a few things, but a great find was kitchen stuff for my Katrina box for 60-75% off! I was so happy. I am including a pretty oven mit and dish towel set and a few sandwich plates with butterflies as decorations (along with more stuff!). I am glad I can send new things. So as I was looking around in TM, I happen to recognize a lady I went to high school with. I didn’t say anything to her, but she looked exactly the same. Brian says I should say something, but I don’t as I am afraid they won’t recognize me. So Carol Ackerman C., I saw you in Hockessin on the 13th and saw your old pal Cathy Simms L. in AC Moore about 3 weeks ago!
Sean was looking for Penn State clothing and we decided to go to Dick’s down in Delaware. (Before we hit the road, Sean went to Wawa and got us lunch-some shortie hoagies). They didn’t have anything there, so he picked out some things from Old Navy. I got a pretty silk chartreuse top and mauve top for myself. Then I went into AC Moore and picked up a few of the DMC linen flosses to add to my collection plus some Halloween goodies for the kids.
We decided to go to The Olive Garden. 4:30 is a great time to go as you get seated and waited on right away. We love the big bowl of salad, the garlicky breadsticks, the peach ice tea and of course their yummy pasta. I got Brian take-out from there.
We hit Kohl’s and I could have done damage in there with their 75% off rack. I didn’t have enough time to ‘really’ look, but I got a few things and some marked down sterling silver jewelry. We went over to Barnes and Noble so I could look for an UK Digital Photography magazine for Brian. I ended up not getting the correct one, but I also got a cute issue of Crazy for Cross Stitch because of the little Halloween and Christmas designs included. I got a novel recommended from an online group called ‘Angry Housewives eating Bon-bons’ by Lorna Landvik. I never paid over $10 for a novel-well, not lately. I happened to see something I wanted for my birthday-‘Wicked’ about the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West-I love Oz. There’s a broadway play about it.
So, the Sports Authority had a few Penn State things-all too big or small. We figure they are picked over because the team is 8th in collegiate football right now. It was nice to spend some time with Sean. I see where he gets the shopping bug from!
Technorati Tags:
Penn State, Shopaholic, Wicked

If you know me, you know I sell on eBay. So I just sold a man in Florida some salt and pepper shakers to ‘help replace’ things that were lost in Katrina. I pressed him as to what had happened and could I help? He said that a family member had lost their childhood home. I offered some cookbooks and coffee mugs that I have a lot of (these were off the top of me head). I plan to go down to the local Big Lots and see what other goodies I can send. Every little bit helps. So if you see this, maybe you look around the web to if you can help someone in need.
Here’s part of the letter:
Dianne, this is so kind! I really don’t know what to say. I have been so impressed by the generosity of strangers in this time of trial. These people really have nothing, which is why I am getting them things like salt and pepper shakers. One of my Cousins lost the 150 year old home that she grew up in, it is just gone, obliterated, along with the homes next door that had been my Grandparent’s home, and a beloved local School Teacher’s. All gone.
Technorati Tags:
Katrina Charities

Can you believe these have been blooming like crazy in this overcast weather? I, of course have been missing them. I happened to look out the bedroom window and saw a big white bloom. I even got the binoculars just to be sure. I had to walk through the chestnut burrs, but here is a shot of the moonflowers. I forgot to see if they have a scent. I had started these from seed in late May or June.

Here’s a shout out to a new blog group I just joined. The ‘aim’ of the group ’25 Things for Charity’ is to make 25 thing to give away in a year’s time. It can even be more or less. I already made 5 catnip toys for a homeless pet shelter. I plan to make some kitty mats next. It’s not really hard to find places where you can donate handmade things. I did a Google search and found an entire page. So if you’d like to whip out the sewing machine, crochet hook or knitting needles, there are people or pets out there who would be grateful for what you make.

I’m off to the hairdresser in a few hours to cover the skunk strip. Besides having a belly bulge, this bothers the heck out of me. I use to color it myself, but you can’t do your entire head of hair all the time as your hair gets way too dark. I may teach Brian how to put it on as I have seen it done enough times now. I am getting brave (and cheap) enough to give this idea a whirl. As for my tummy, the girls on tribe.net have mentioned belly dancing. Now, for someone my age to start that, I don’t know. I’d have to test drive it by checking out a video tape. ; )
Sean has a dilemma. He went online to take a vocabulary test-did the first one and hit ‘submit’ instead of ‘next’. Now why would they put a submit button on the first page? So he has to see the teacher and see what to do. He had 3 days to do the test, so I hope he can get it worked out.