I can’t get enough of this spunky little chef from New York. It was her Food network show $40 a Day that got me hooked watching Rachael. One of the first on these shows I watched was her trip to Philly and she went to the Reading Terminal Market, a place I’ve been to and enjoyed in town. If you watch this show, you’ll have to eat because along with Rachael’s show ’30 minute meals, you’ll get so hungry. She really enjoys what she is eating, a true ‘foodie’.
I did get one of Rachael’s cookbooks ‘Cookin’ around the Clock’ for Christmas. I have a few recipes ready to try.
Notice I am utilizing the link feature lately. Thanks to my pal Abby for getting me hooked doing that.

Damn this weather! I had to go out in the white stuff to run some errands, though it had just started. We tend to make a big stink out of an inch of snow. What bugs me is when it is blowing all over the place and in your face. I had to mail off some packages, get some money and go to the dentist to get two fillings replaced. I didn’t slip around, but didn’t see a white car until they put their headlights on and almost pulled out in front of them.
I really like my dentist, Dr. Paskow. He is so calm and nice, almost like the dentist on the Extreme Makeover show. My mouth is hurting me from where he had to remove the metal rim they put in to help hold the filling in place. My teeth aren’t too bad for someone my age. I have my trademark front tooth gappy smile. : )
I begged Brian to run down to McDonalds (I did say I was watching the scale, but no way was I cooking with a sore mouth tonight).
On to a hopefully quiet evening.

I absolutely hate this kind of weather. We go from the high 60s not even a week ago to 0 wind chill today. Sean is taking my van every day this week he has to go in. It’s mid-term week for him. Tomorrow he doesn’t have any. Thursday he is visiting the guidance office to see if she can help him make up his mind about college.
My scale isn’t being nice to me. I don’t feel like I’ve gained 5-6 pounds. It’s because I am stuck inside and can’t walk it off I guess. I have been snacking more too. I am telling Brian to drink water when he feels hungry, and I am not living by my own words.
My mom had wanted me to watch a show on Lifetime called ‘How Clean is Your House?’ I finally caught a couple of back-to-back episodes last night. It is hosted by two English ladies, Kim and Aggie-60ish I guess. The houses they went to ‘inspect’ were some of the nastiest places I have ever seen. The ladies actually get down on their knees to smell spots, etc. I guess they have strong stomachs! They also will take dust or pet hair samples and get them analyzed. There was some bad stuff in the two homes-black mold and something else that could make your lung bleed! Now the question to me is how could two fairly intelligent people let their homes go to pot? They weren’t invalids. The man was retired but worked on cars all day long. The woman, who was a little younger than me, worked. Who lets cats take dumps under the bed where you sleep? Cat poo is really strong. How could she just ignore that? So they go back to the houses in 2 weeks, and the man kept his looking really nice. The lady had piled stuff in her living room again, but said she is ‘going through it slowly’ and taking it to the thrift shop. She needs to join ‘Hoarders Anonymous!’
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I did call Quiznos, not Quizmos-lol and complain about the sad Philly cheesesteak we brought home Sunday night. The guy sounded like he wasn’t that much older than Sean. Said they weighed the meat for the sandwich. I said, no way was that enough meat for a large sandwich. He said I could come in and ‘have one on the house’. Said to say ‘King’ okayed it. I don’t know too many people with that as a first name, or maybe it was his last name that he goes by. But then Sean said, ‘It’s Martin Luther KING day!’ I actually made Brian call the place up a few hours later to confirm that King did work there and he did.

Our day was a little hectic. We found our way up to the Delaware Valley College (60 miles one way) that Sean was thinking about attending and in the dead of winter, it was nice, small and not really exciting. Beautiful land and lots to do down on Rt 202. Sean and I got out of the car (we had to take the Taurus and it was really cramped for me in the back). I took some photos of the buildings-some were really old and needed paint. Sean even posed in front of the library.
We went down the road 10 miles to a favorite restaurant that serves brunch called ‘Cock and Bull’ and enjoyed that. It was so chilly today and to walk in and see the huge hearth and a fire burning made it warm and inviting. The food here is I think prepared by cooking students. They have the best pastries and even had red velvet cakes-petite fours dipped in white icing.
We had seen a few places we wanted to go on the way home, but Brian didn’t get on the correct road after brunch and we ended up missing the stores. We also got off at the wrong exit on the PA turnpike and had to backtrack. We don’t travel that often and seem to always do this everytime. I don’t know if this dampened Sean’s prospects about going to school there. I told him you just get use to the trip and will know it like the back of his hand in no time.
We stopped at my mom’s and did a few things for her-I vacuumed, Brian was checking her older car out, Sean was moving things around. Mom seems better.
On the way home we stopped and drove around Penn State, Delaware County, the college Sean could attend if he lived at home. It’s about 18 miles away. Brian went there and said it’s much larger (buildingwise) than what it use to be.
We got home and vegged. No one was hungry, but Bri and I split a Philly cheesesteak from Quizsno. It was a joke. Hardly any meat in it and full of that gross white cheese sauce and too many onions. I knew the girl who made it, she’s in Sean’s class at school. I plan to call and complain about the joke of a hoagie that cost $6.99. Here’s what a real Philly Cheesesteak looks like.
We watched the Golden Globes. Of course Robin Williams was hysterical and poignant at the end of his endless ‘comedy routine’ when he mentioned Christopher Reeve being an angel.
I must be getting old or something, as I didn’t see most of the shows or movies that were nominated. I think there are a lot of cable shows we don’t get. I like to see what the celebs are wearing too. I could never even afford one of their shoes!

Yet another post about the weather. My friend in Illinois usually sends over her weather, except we haven’t gotten any measurable snow yet. Thanks for that Karin! It’s been raining since late last night. The wind was really howling and so was Brian! He snores in different styles. Since he’s been using his ab-lounger, it’s been bothering his knees, so he is having trouble falling asleep. I can’t catch the winks before 2:30 am it seems, but last night it was because of my mom…..
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So I went to the doctor with mom, didn’t go near the office, but sat in the lobby. The 23 mile trip to her house takes at least 50 minutes now. For some reason, when I was about 10 minutes from her house, I got really bad cramps like when I was a teenager. So I got to moms and begged for a Tylenol which she didn’t have. She was hurting herself because she hadn’t had a pain pill since the day before. I did find her last Advil and took that thank goodness. It got me through the rest of the day. (Later she bought some Tylenol).
So mom was in and out of the doctor’s in 1/2 hour. She lost 3 much needed pounds, from 115 to 112. She is on the old pain killer. We went to the coffee shop there and split a sandwich. Then we drove over to the thrift shop. They didn’t have a lot, but I got a ‘Trading Spaces’ fairly new book for 25 cents. The lady who work there had a familiar name and I went to school with her son. I had another guy in my mind and my mom corrected me! Those two guys looked alike.
Off to CVS for the pills and then to Trader Joes for some cool food items. I grabbed an Arby’s roast beef on the way home.
Mom called around 9 and said she had continued her ‘crying spell’ that she had after I left. Think she is withdrawing from the other pain pill! Said she missed me terribly. Made me feel terrible.
I called her this morning and she didn’t sleep hardly at all last night. Hopefully she’ll switch gears ok and feel better. I worry so about her.
Sean is home today for a 4 day weekend. We are going to take down the Christmas tree-stop laughing! It was too pretty to take down plus I haven’t been up to it.

I see Mindy beat me to mentioning about the fog. It’s really bad in the surrounding area of Philly all today. And she can quote ‘Monty Python’ and she did it in two posts! I use to watch all their olds shows on PBS as a teen and didn’t miss any of their movies. I had a major crush on Michael Palin and still smile when I see him on talk shows.
I miss the sun! I get really ‘foggy’ in the brain when I can’t sit in the warmth of the sun. I hope I feel more chipper tomorrow as my mom wants me to go to the doctors with her. I am a bit paranoid of hospitals during flu season. Think I will unload her in the waiting room and go sit in the lobby. Hope we can at least go to the thrift shop there. Once I found a bowl that matched my 1960s Franciscan dishes there! Their prices aren’t as reasonable as the Goodwill. I need a shopping fix. Our budget has been driving me crazy! I now shop mostly for eBay, but I can’t help but buy what I like too.
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My MSN group is so far a hit! I have most of my good stitching friends there, 11 with me so far. We are sharing recipes too. I hope it is popular.

Things have been moving rapidly here meaning that Sean has heard from 3 out of 4 colleges he applied to. He got accepted at Penn State annexes in Delaware Co and Altoona Pa-got the big ‘welcome’ package. Then he got two rejections-one on Saturday and one today. Something was wrong with Sunday’s letter. Said his academics were not good. Being a doting mom, I just couldn’t let that one go. So I wrote a letter to the director of admissions reminding him that Sean has a 3.0+ average. Not only as a senior, but through all this high school years. Didn’t the assistant director from the above mentioned school call us tonight! I didn’t answer at first because I wanted to compose myself and be able to reply without stumbling as I was nervous. He called back after I had left a message and said that they hadn’t seen both Sean’s ACT and SAT grades. So he said the director didn’t know what to do about Sean and handed him the letter. He said because my boy is so studious, he should be accepted! So he wants me to call tomorrow to confirm Sean’s acceptance now. Woo-hoo-where are we getting all the money for this expensive school!? (financial aid would similar to the cost of a modest house). Let’s say, maybe Sean will go here a year or two, if he wants to go there.
We were bummed about the other school dropping the bomb on him. I have an email to them too. We’ll see if I get another call.
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Also got ‘dared’ to start a group on MSN because most of my friends from a Yahoo group aren’t budging and staying put there. Three of the ladies from Yahoo joined my group! I have all my stitching pals (most of them-hey Mindy!!!) as members. It should be a fun group!
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Almost finished a very involved cross stitch piece for Love Quilts. If I wasn’t on here, I’d of finished it up tonight. No more backstitching for a while.

Congrats to my son Sean for his acceptance into two Penn State annex campuses today!  

Ok, I’m just being silly. I mean I was actually sorting and tidying up my desk and eBay stuff. I tossed about 2 yrs worth of old sale receipts from eBay and went through the printer paper and stuff. When we got the new desk, it ate some storage space, plus I wanted to put my ‘eBay box’ in the corner in the family room out of my living room where it is hidden more. I hope it works out in here as I don’t have a great writing surface. Yet another desk with no real writing space. I may set up a tv tray (we have nice wooden ones) or use my lap desk (from Bombay that I haven’t really used). It’s nice to utilize space and items. The problem is one of our speakers needs to be mounted on one of the walls next to the desk. I’m holding my breath. It’s stuck in the corner here right now.
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Brian came home with a swollen right arm! It’s below his elbow and is warm to the touch. Maybe he lifted the trash bins incorrectly last night and pulled a muscle.
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One of my friends from a Yahoo groups was bad mouthing blogs. Now she knew me and another lady have had one for a few months and I was kinda pissed about what she wrote. This particular lady has a humorous writing style, similar to Erma Bombeck. I told her a blog is right up her alley. No response yet. This Yahoo group is a nice group of ladies, but I really am getting annoyed by the format. I get ‘daily digests’ and there are at least 2-3 of them with 25 messages in each. I have to scroll through either really long messages or short ones and many of the ladies have ‘signatures’ with what they are stitching on, where their photos are, etc. Too much. I complained again about it and suggested they move to MSN groups-nice and tidy. I even sent an example of a site (and I know the moderator too). Let’s see what they say. If anything is ‘out of style’ it’s the Yahoo groups. I use to be joined to a dozen and whiddled it down to maybe 5. I am a group leader of a James Taylor group, took it over from someone, and hardly get any posts there. The best find for me was Tribe! I love meeting people and all the quirky groups that you can join.

Doesn’t that sound interesting? We are on a tight budget right now and I am cooking more. So I decided to look for a decent potato soup recipe among my huge cookbook collection. Martha didn’t have any, not the soup book I got from Jessica’s Biscuit, not in Bobby Flay, not my friend Barb’s Headless chicken cookbook (don’t they eat potatoes out west?) not even in 1,000 recipes! I couldn’t find my beloved Fanny Farmer. Then I found some in the Farm Journal cookbook with the very aged yellow pages. I picked a recipe (there for even about 4) that didn’t call for chicken broth. Now that I think about it, chicken broth really gives soup some body and taste. I had to mix butter with 3/4 cups of flour. That made the soup taste very pasty. I when started to throw in some garlic, parsley, dill and finally cheddar cheese which helped. I could have figured that recipe out myself! We also had tuna salad. We have soup and sandwiches once in a while which isn’t that easy for me as I make everything from scratch.
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Sean and I started to watch ‘The Terminal’ with Tom Hanks. Is there any movie he does that he isn’t good in? I guess his greatest failure was ‘Bosom Buddies’ though it really wasn’t a failure but a lame tv show. This is definitely one of those movies that you could watch a few times. I asked Sean if he thought I looked like Catherine Zeta Jones (mom told me I was on her line) and he said ‘not really’.
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There was a new episode of ‘Lost’ on. I like that show. It’s definitely like a good book. I especially like when they do the ‘flashbacks’. Is there anyone on that show who’s ugly?
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My mom called and said my Uncle Don is good for the time being. He had to have his bladder cauterized and the doctor said it didn’t look that bad. UD had been having some bleeding. He was told to drink lots of water. It was being suggested a few weeks ago that he may have to have his bladder removed. I swear UD is like a cat with nine lives.
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I started to list on eBay again—————————————>Moonlitstitcher
I already have one bid. I really love selling things and wish I could even invent a million dollar selling product. We’ve got to get the old wheels spinning in our brains.