If you see me on Faceback, you know we’ve been up in New York City as I do a blow by blow with my cellphone and FourSquare. I uploaded photos there, and here’s a sneak peak of what we did and saw.
Sean at the WTC/9-11 Memorial-South tower area
Museum of Modern Art in front of Christina’s World by local Andrew Wyeth. I had seen this at the Brandywine River Museum and we weren’t allowed to photograph it then and at it’s home here at MoMA, we could!
Signs pointing to the graves of the Kennedys and Unknown soldiers, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
We visited Arlington Cemetery a few years ago. This isn’t far from the ‘visitor center’. Actually the signs are a little deceptive as the walk to both graves is quite a hike. The signs are pointing you ‘somewhat’ in the right direction.
I’ve been a bit busy with work on New Year’s day (12-6, very boring) and running around to after Christmas sales with Brian on Monday. He goes back to work today. I was thinking though 2011 didn’t start out that great, we still got the nice 2005 Mariner at the end of January:
It was my vehicle for a few months until we spotted this one on the internet in July:
Yikes….it’s not a Ford/Mercury (my family loves Fords) and now we have two car payments a month for the next several years. I do love my little Ina who just turned 10. I’ve only seen two other gold PT Cruisers since July. She’s a rare one in these parts.
We decided we needed to take a few trips, not a week…but usually one or two nights.
First we went to Baltimore, MD and loved it there!
Baltimore’s World Trade Center
And we took the ‘side trip’ from Baltimore to Fort McHenry where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write our national anthem ‘The Star Spangled Banner’.
(Opps-that’s my funny shot)
We got to see Chincoteague Island and really loved the place too!
Because we had the Mariner, we got to travel more than we had in previous years.
Sean and I saw the taping of a local Philly talk show and one of the guests was ace Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee!
We went to the tribute band event ‘Beatlemania’ down in National Harbor, MD
We took a little time to see Alexandria, VA. and liked it there as well.
At the end of September, we finally got to go to a mini reunion for my high school class in Ocean City, NJ! It was fun and we enjoyed seeing the town of OC and Cape May, NJ also. My mom was along for that trip.
Brian took me up to York, PA again in October so I could attend the rubber stamp and scrapbooking show and we looked around the town a bit, not as much as I would have liked. But we went over to Mount Joy so we could eat at Bubbe’s Pub.
I got to see my little pal Nick and his mom Jenn on his second birthday when we spent the day at Longwood Gardens:
And oh Longwood…I really went there so many more times than I have in the past and hope to do so this year too!
And the Sugarloaf Craft Festival in November up in Oaks, PA was fun too-never been to that either. I found some nice gifts for people there.
So, it was a good year that we got to go places and see new things. We got to spend time with old and new friends and our family. I always like spending time with Brian and Sean, but this group-my ‘almost’ children (and mom too). : )
I want to get back on the weight loss track, one reason I posted photos of me at different angles. I plan to keep walking in the lovely local park and Longwood too!
And I can’t forget about getting the job. I’m wondering if I’ll still be there next week, only time will tell! If not, I’ll be taking a break for a month or so to get the house in shape and do some art.
I thought I’d have a new dishwasher by now. It’s 5:10 and I’m still waiting for the guys to get here. At 4:30 they said they had to go to a main drag in Delaware to retrieve it. At 3:30 I had called to see where they were and he said he’d be here by 4:15 or 4:30. I guess he didn’t know the dishwasher wasn’t in the back of his truck then? The guy who called wasn’t the same one who called this morning or who I called at 3:30. I didn’t get to enjoy one of the last warm days of 2011 (it was about 70 degrees). All I did was sort out papers. This leaves me time to at least now go through craft books maybe tonight!
Update-here is my new Kenmore-it’s more sturdy than the Maytag!
Two guys who were wet behind the ears installed it, and I hope all the hoses are tight, etc. They left water under the sink (from when they disconnected the hoses there) and the big box from this one. I think they were younger than Sean!
I applied for another babysitting job-3:30 to 6 every day. I’m getting frustrated now. I can view my stats on Care and 8 different people have looked at my profile 50+ times. What gives? A few ladies on Facebook say to watch little kids all day is too much for them, even a few days a week. I’m thinking the late day watching is better- two boys 8 and 9 (Sean was cute at that age). I sure hope they live around the corner.
All this waiting is a pain in the neck. Not to mention waiting for test results. After a week, I exhale.
Do you know what this is? One of those QR codes. I generated it from a site and it does say something for the holidays. I saw where a lady did this in a cross stitch pattern, so I think I’ll try it. That is also able to be scanned.
Next weekend is my birthday and retreat get-away that I bought in August for Brian and me. It’s not that far away, but it’s something different to do for a change. Having an autumn birthday has it’s disadvantages as it’s not a good time to go to the beach-unless you get great weather. And people give you Christmas related gifts. The place we are going is near a casino, so we may try our luck a bit next Friday night.
Come on dishwasher installers! Guess it’s a pizza night. I can’t start cooking and then they come along to put the washer in.
We went on a little day trip like we did last year up to central PA. It was just Brian and me this year. First we went to York (about 64 miles one way) where I did some stash building at the Heirloom rubber stamp and paper show. I felt a bit rushed last year as I had two guys waiting on me, but I was more relaxed this year as Bri didn’t mind waiting. We then went to a book store and emporium in downtown York (which was the first capital of the country). I would have liked to taken a few more shots of the historic buildings there.Here’s a sampling in the area of the book store.
The book store was packed with merchandise. Since I had just browsed the other place for 2 hours, I was a bit bushed in the book store.
I did find a ‘surprise’ for someone and will mail it along soon.
We then went about 20 miles (toward home a bit) and went to Bube’s Brewery (the first syllable is pronounced ‘boo’) and we ate burgers outside on the patio.
They were pretty good but we waited for them and for the bill way too long. We had seen a Turkey Hill place that was new (their specialty is ice cream) on the way to the restaurant, but they had closed a half hour earlier.
We got to the Strasberg ice cream place 5 minutes before they closed for our desserts. Bri got caramel and I got pumpkin. So we had a full day and it was nice to see something different.
Here’s my post about the trip last year.
It seems the days are blending into one another as they get shorter. I’ve been trying to walk every other day at the park, though I did walk around the yard 4 times on Saturday. I noticed a few more people with the same idea yesterday as I parked after I had a brush with a curve-in my beloved Ina! I am so mad at myself for trying to back up 75 feet or so when a flatbed was in the way to the parking area where I really wanted to go. I forgot it curved at the end, and up I went and scraped the side of the tire. Brian was 5 minutes away getting ads and stopped to look and said it looked okay. I of course, checked out the front door first thing this morning and she was okay. I am not use to the car yet and certainly not backing up. I feel dumb, but at least no paint scrapes.
I am going to go outside and put fairies and gnomes away today as it’s going to be nice in the 70s. Just have to get going now.
And because I like to share photos, a nice store window in Cape May, NJ:
You can see my mom and Brian in the reflection on the right side. I don’t know who those other people are. ; )
I don’t remember ever being near the beach at this time of the year, so we got to see pumpkins, mums and other autumnal decor. This is the steps of the Poor Richard Inn where we stayed back in 1999.
Gingerbread trim is so pretty!
The landscaping was gorgeous. Love the Mandevilla on this unique lamppost. This home was built in the 1880s!
You know I love gazing balls.
These are clever decorations. As mentioned below, this is the door to The Virgina Hotel where my maternal grandparents honeymooned in 1921.
Cute elf butterfly catcher
The arcade where we played games in the summer of 1967
The sky was rather ominious!
Cute tour trolley. Missed the horse drawn carriages.
‘The Empress’ what an amazing ‘private home’! I couldn’t get it all in one photo!
The Empress was built with the purpose of opening as a bed and breakfast. And yes, it is as neat and mysterious inside as one would expect– not that we’ve seen it first hand (the owner is out of the country) but we’ve chatted with a couple of people who have been inside and have had a look at the original blueprints. It has eight guest rooms, each themed after a queen – hence the name, “The Empress.” Each guest room has its own luxurious bathroom, also themed with regard to European tiles and decor. At the ground level, blueprints show a spacious parlor with a fireplace, an adjacent living room, also with fireplace, a dining room and big gourmet kitchen.
From: Capemay.com
The garden of ‘The Empress’
I have to say I was so exhausted from having about 7 hours of sleep in 2 days. I had tossed and turned the night before going to the beach and that night, even though we turned the lights off at 12:30, the air conditioning, light peeking in through the slants in the blinds and my mom being noisy (when she takes out her hearing aides, she doesn’t know how loud she is). We had a little trouble finding Cape May (feel dumb-a few towns over) as the GPS wasn’t working that great.
Here are a few scenes from Ocean City, NJ
Not too many 5&10s around! It was a cute store with lots of marked down merchandise that mom enjoyed going through.
Neat window of a consignment shop
Not too bad of a beach day
Where we met the gang for breakfast…mom bought ‘a baker’s dozen’ of their famous cinnamon donuts and they didn’t last long-only had two in three days. The car smelled so good.
If I won the lottery!!
My pal Heather and me. Many of the ladies came down together and hung out together, just like high school. I hung out mostly with Heather (she was solo) and Sue and her hubby.
And last but not least, our photo booth shots-so crazy!
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I had so much fun I made another from our trip to National Harbor…
NatlHAlex 044, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.Thanks to a lady for posting her own sunset photo on Pinterest, we found Sauciety( http://www.saucietyamericangrill.com/) right on the waterfront to get our own sunset photo, a good meal and a bit of a discount on the meal! It was the restaurant below the Westin Hotel. I booked an online reservation and mentioned a code word to get 20% off the bill. Anyway, we got a glass of wine (Brian and me) which shot the price up.
The three of us chose a three course, prefixed meal and that saved a bit too. We had huge bowls of spring mix salad with raspberry vinigrette dressing, crusty bread with olive oil and some with sun dried tomatoes for dipping. Brian had salmon and asparagus:
And Sean and I had lobster ravioli:
How do you like the dishes?
And we had a creme brulee type custard for dessert
and Bri had bread pudding (not shown).
The prefixed price was about $35 each.
Us at dusk on the boardwalk:
And my favorite guys:
English Garden in front of the hotel:
Brian, Sean and me had a nice weekend down off the Potomac River at the National Harbor (also known as Oxion Hill, MD). Sean didn’t go to the concerts, but explored the little ‘boardwalk’ town and took a water taxi to Alexandria, VA. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to, but he finally made up his mind to do just go! We went there by car on Sunday and ate, shopped and walked around there.
It was a bit muggy but there was an occasional breeze off the river. The group pictured here is called ‘Brit Beat’ from Chicago. They dress and perform in four different ‘Beatle phases’. This happened to be the Sargent Pepper era. They were great. It was awesome as there were bands from all over the world! We especially liked the band called ‘Old Brown Shoe’ (from a George Harrison song) from the Netherlands. Another cute band was ‘Jukebox’ from Puerto Rico. There were some issues with waiting for bands to set up and then this one band ‘Norwegian Beatles’ didn’t play as they had equipment issues. We mostly enjoyed seeing a new place and sitting and listening to some of best known songs in the world. Some didn’t just play Beatle songs-some Rolling Stones and a few others, even the band’s original songs were tossed in the mix.
And the place we stayed, The Gaylord is the biggest non-gaming hotel on the east coast! There are 2 thousand guest rooms and at least 5 restaurants (we ate breakfast in one). They have an Olympic size pool (Sean stuck his feet in the water). If he had sat in a lounge chair right outside the pool area, he could have heard the music for free! It’s kind of hard not to hear it anyway.
More later!
By the way-used a mesh back support thing I got in a Dollar Store which helped me most of the time, but the chairs provided were metal fold up chairs-ugh.
Collages & Creative Goodness 