We haven’t had a deluge like this in a long time (I bet we’ve gotten about 3″). I, of course, welcome the rain as it’s been so hot and dry here. We have a well, so that getting lower is always on my mind. It’s getting lighter out. I was just out checking a few flowerpots to see if they weren’t too soggy, and they were fine. The flowers are all droopy. I love to walk in the summer rain. I use to do so when I was little. This one time, when I was on my way home from school the heaven’s opened up. I was a ‘walker’ and I believe I was about 400 feet or so from home, but I couldn’t see anything it was raining so hard. I started to bawl and just stood in one spot. When I finally got home, I got scolded for letting myself get soaked. Geez.
I went down to my mom’s yesterday and she wasn’t there. She had bent the frames on her new glasses that are about a week old and went to get them straightened. She also had gone grocery shopping. Guess who brought in the 15 bags of groceries? I wanted to take her to the dept. store that is selling off their flowers, so we went there too. She purchased a ton of gorgeous begonias for around $2 a pot. They are perfectly round too. Someone who grew them knows what they are doing. This time I went for the perennials. I can’t remember all of what I purchased, but one was on the 75% off table and the flowers look like all yellow daisies. Another plant is a foam flower. I only bought a 4 pack of pink cosmos to fill in spaces in the yucca garden(only one yucca bloomed this year, so I guess I need to thin them out). I think I am finished with the plants now and am looking into iris rhizomes. I use to have gorgeous ones as I think I previously stated. I have won a few on eBay, but I am hopping over to Burpee to see what they have. They also have free shipping for fall plants. Another eBay win is a package of hibiscus seeds for the flowers that bloom in the fall. My mom’s neighbor has these and the heads of the flowers are as big as dinner plates!
After Boscov’s and Wendy’s we went to the Goodwill and a Dollar Store. The Goodwills are bombs this year. I did drop off a few bags of items, but I go in and look for things to resell on eBay. The prices were a bit high and many things were chipped or broken. You could tell the kids were in the back as it was a mess around the collectibles. I found about 4 things for eBay.
I plan to do a little cleaning and then settle in with my 846 page novel (I’m on page 716) and do a little stitching. My gum is sore where the temp cap is. I guess I may have brushed too hard there. I’ll put some Sensodyne on it.
Tomorrow looks good. Maybe by the late afternoon I can plant some of the new perennials.

~~Light a candle for England this weekend~~

My brother had done a little sleepwalking as a child. On the first day of school one year we found him sitting in the car still in his pjs and he didn’t remember anything. I’m glad it wasn’t anything like this…
Sleepwalker found dozing high atop crane
Authorities are investigating how a sleepwalking teenage
London girl ended up asleep atop a 130-foot crane in the
middle of the night. A passer-by spotted the girl around
1:30 a.m. June 25, and called the police, thinking she was
going to jump. A firefighter climbed up and inched along
the beam to where the girl was sleeping. He was very
cautious about startling her as he secured the unidentified
teen in a safety harness, The Times of London said. A
special rescue truck was called, which deployed a hydraulic
ladder to get the girl down after 2 1/2 hours. The girl’s
parents were called to the scene, and told police their
daughter is a frequent sleepwalker, the report said.

Sean was up before me and when I got up, he told me ‘there was a terrorist attack’, my throat tightened. He didn’t know all the details at the time, but in a matter of an hour we were filled in thanks to the tv. I put on BBC America and of course they had the most up-to-date info. I had to do something constructive while they were relaying the info, so I pulled dead leaves off my African violets and watered them. I was going to tell Sean that Conan O’Brien had a temp cap put on a tooth in around the same place as me-but it was kinda stupid to say now considering the barbaric events of the morning.
If any of our English pals read this, I am so sorry to hear about this. We know what’s it’s like in a numbing way. Living in Penna and between NYC and DC-well you know what we went through on 9-11-01. God Bless the Brits!

I forgot to tell you that yesterday I went out to the pumpkin/gourd/sunflower garden and found half the sunflowers were eaten. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! I thought, maybe this time the deer will leave my plants alone. I put a mylar banner up in the middle from the 4th of July that is shiny and has a fringe that blows in the wind. Ha! Like that will help.
My flower garden (crop circle) planted with all seeds is about to burst into bloom! The zinnias are about ready to open and some of the little wildflowers are peeking out of the jungle of green.
Brian took me out to dinner and it was a nice one. I had something rich-lobster ravioli, but it was really good. Bri had ziti and sauce.
I asked Bri if we could run down to Wally World so I could get a bag of potting soil. I believe I’ve gone through 8 bags of soil by now. I had enough today to plant a mini rose and portulaca in a medium size pot. The rose was 25¢, the 4 portulaca were 40¢ and the pretty green pedestal pot was $1.49. So for a little over $2.00 I have a pretty display. I don’t have too much luck with mini roses, but hopefully I can help this one along. The cost of it won’t be a big loss if it doesn’t make it. So at Wally World I got a gorgeous peach ruffled hibiscus for around $12.44, a Irish Gold (I think that’s the name) rose bush for $10, and two pots of 2 feet tall Stargazer lilies for $4.00-$5.00 each (one is for my mom) and a mini display of cacti for about $6. I have other cacti in a little wagon. When we walked in the garden center I smelled the delightful aroma of the lilies and then of course I had to buy some.
I don’t know when the plant buying frenzy will stop! I guess I am enjoying gardening so much this year I want more and more. At least the prices are right.

I don’t know what I ate or if I was just overtired, but my stomach was churning and gurgling all day. I tried Rolaids, 2 acidolphilus and finally mint tea until it calmed down ‘just enough’. The rest of me was pretty good until I went to the dentist.
I should never think ‘I only have 2 more payments’ until my dental loan is paid off. Damn it-I have to get another crown and that’s another 9 months or so of payments. I told my dentist about the above and he took a lot photos of the chipped tooth showing that the tooth was structurely defective, thus I needed a crown that cost an arm and a leg.
If you ever had one or need one, the whole pre-crown process is nasty. Especially the stuff you have to bite into so the dentist can make a mold of your tooth. The second gook is purple and he put too much in and it shot to the back of my mouth and I had to suffer with it like that for about 1o minutes. I have a temp cap right now. All the others have come out (I have 3 others) before I got the permanent one in. Now they have a cement inside them that you can run under warm water to ‘reactivate’ it. Cool-in a pain in the butt way.
We had a bad thunderstorm go through around 3 pm. It was also Sean’s first day of his summer session. He said it was ok, but his head hurt after 4 hours. He was able to go to the mall afterwards though. He can also use the exercise room there. He left here at 9:15 am and didn’t get home until 4:30 pm. I was worried about him driving in the storm, but he did fine.

The guys just went to the fireworks over in Hockessin, DE. I just took a shower, turned on the Philly 4th celebration and will get out my cross stitch and relax.
We had Brian’s dad, my mom and her friend Jim here for a picnic dinner. Brian burnt the hamburgers again, but the turkey burgers were fine. He was waiting for the turkey burgers to get as brown as the regular burgers and they won’t as they aren’t as fatty. Sean and mom couldn’t eat them. Guess I should have been watching the grill, but I was getting a salad ready.
Everyone cleared out of here by 7. I watered some flowers and planted some in my front garden. I got the 4 in a cell packs for 40 cents each at a local dept store. I got some marigolds, ageratum, yellow celosia and a few more blue salvias. They were practically giving away mini-roses and carnations at 25 cents each. I only bought a few of these.
Yesterday we went to my mom’s and we had stopped at this store on the way there. I bet in a few weeks the flowers there will be 10 cents each. So we got to my mom’s and all the neighbors around her were having parties. The newer neighbors had a DJ set up in the yard facing my mom’s house. She is about 100 feet off the road. No, they couldn’t have him down near their house that’s closer to the road. It was 4 hours of torture as the music was so loud. They knew we were in the yard there and they wouldn’t be nice and turn it down. All their guests were away from the music in front of their garage. Geez. We went down to try and put up mom’s screen house. Mom had taken out the directions to look at them and lost them. Tried as we might, we couldn’t figure out the poles. I called my brother who lives around the corner and he came over on his motorcycle. It took him about 45 minutes to figure it out, but he did! Thank goodness. We also got mom’s fountain working. I need to go down there and help her move plants around. They aren’t doing well at all in the shade.
We went to a local restaurant and I got salad with bleu cheese in it. I don’t know if that’s what made me feel half sick all night. It was hard to get the food ready for today, but everything turned out well other than the burgers.

This little goldfinch has been peeking in the family room’s bay window (perhaps seeing his own reflection). Sean captured him dropping by today.

When starting a new project, do you start in the middle? If you do, once you’ve worked down to the bottom, do you turn your chart and fabric around so that you are stitching the top section downwards again or do you just stitch upwards from the middle?
No way! That makes stitching too difficult. It’s logical to start at the top left or middle and work your way down. I use to start in the middle and messed up more than once. I would highly recommend working from the top down.

I don’t do these forums that often, but since I am so bloggin’ happy today, I thought this one looked good…
The Friday Forum
1] Have you visited many United States historical sites? (For example, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the Freedom Trail in Boston, the monuments in Washington, D.C., etc.) Which did you enjoy the most, and why? Do you have any plans to visit a U.S. historical site anytime soon?
I live near Philly so you bet I have seen the Liberty Bell more than once! Been to Independence Hall, almost all the sights in Washington, DC. Been to Plymouth, Mass and say ‘the rock’.
I guess I enjoyed the trip to New England as everything was new to me.
I’d like to see some of the memorials that I missed in DC like the Vietnam one.
2] Do you consider yourself a patriotic person? Why/why not? How will you celebrate this Fourth of July? Do you decorate your home at all for the holiday and/or wear red, white, and blue?
I think I am patriotic. I have a lot of respect for my country and it’s diverse people.
We use to celebrate the 4th with my older brother’s birthday and still do sometimes. I do decorate with flags, etc. The guys have the Old Navy flag shirts and I have some patriotic tees too.
3] What are some of your favorite Fourth of July foods and beverages?
Anything grilled! 😛 Love potato salad, homemade ice cream, ice tea with lemon.
4] How did you celebrate the Fourth of July growing up? Did you have fireworks at home? Did you attend a fireworks show in your city? Did you watch patriotic celebrations on television?
When we were little we would go to a local park to see the fireworks. More than once we went with the bitchy neighbor who hogged the punk sticks and put them under her chair so the mosquitos would leave her alone.
Sometimes we go to the fireworks (if they are free). I won’t go if it’s too humid. Sean loves to buy fireworks and we have fun setting them off in the driveway. Longwood Gardens and Hartefeld Golf course both have firework displays but we don’t have $60 or whatever to blow going to either. I will watch fireworks on tv! No problem!
Happy 4th ‘ya all!!

Sean went down for registration and to get his ID at Penn State yesterday. He will be taking basic Freshman courses plus a ‘required’ seminar class and gym class. His earliest class is the one he is looking forward to the most-‘Intro to Metereology’ at 8:30 two days a week. Now it will depend on this class (in my opinion) to see if he likes that as a major. His advisor said he could swing over to Environmental Science which would be minus some of the required math that his major has. He’s all finished at 2:20 every day.
He went to the mall afterwards, the same mall I use to hang out at when I was his age. Funny how things go in circles. His dad also went to that same Penn State campus. We’re thinking Sean could get a job at the mall. One day, I think it’s Tuesdays, he has to kill 3 hours between classes.
He seems optimistic about it all. It’s a 36 mile drive every day for him. He goes to school from August 30th-December 9th. Not too bad.