…now that my eyes are undilated! It took a good 5+ hours for my ‘cat in the dark’ pupils to go back to normal. But I am happy to report that the new eye doctor didn’t think I needed new specs. She even had the stylus right at that office to measure the thickness of my corneas again. If you recall I had to go to another office for that with the specialist doc. The corneas are still thick which makes the pressure in my eyes seems higher than it is. The doctor was probably a bit younger than me, but I enjoyed chatting with her. I asked her about my mom and she says mom’s left eye will probably ‘take over’ for the right, but of course with driving, there is going to be something missing.
Brian and I went out to dinner tonight to Apple*bees. It was good, not as good as a few weeks ago and rather noisy. I just needed a break. All the lights on the way there were like stars from the dilation. Ugh. Have a little eyestrain right now.
Tomorrow Sean takes the test for the census job. He could probably work something out between doing that and working at Wally*World since it’s only PT.
I saw an article in Woman’s*World about making extra money and I followed a link to Cha*Cha.com to be like a human search engine. People call or text in a question (or comment) and I’d be like the middle woman and screen the questions to see if they can be answered or passed on to the specialist (they have a previously asked questions data base and a section for jokes,etc). I viewed the training videos and took some quizzes (call me ‘Ms. 80%’). I just need to take the readiness test. You get one shot and that’s it. I didn’t feel like doing it last night (info overload) or today. I’d like to review some of the videos again since I was asking myself questions in my head and couldn’t figure out what to do-not good. It’s one of those places where you have to just use the site and get comfortable with it. The pay doesn’t look that great, but it does looks like it would be fun to see what kind of questions people ask. Of course they want to know crude things and they say you have to be discreet about what is moral and all. There are a few other places I will look at too. I needed a change, this may be it.
And how could I forget this awesome news-my friend Lorin is treating me to a ticket to see James Taylor and Carole King in June! She asked if I wanted to go! Of course yours truly fretted about it as Lorin can’t drive at night and I’ve never driven to the Wachovia*Center outside of Philly. Also, Lorin lives a distance from me. I wrote her a note of concern and she said her son would drive us! Woo! I said I could be waiting like 20 minutes from the center (that’s about how far a certain mall is). We’ll work it out. This will be the 5th time I will see JT (1979, 1982, 1997 and 2006). We are planning on making t-shirts (well she is as she’s an artist) and trying our darnedest to meet him! : ) What a treat it will be.
Coping
Only 12 days into the new year and there is such devastation in the country of Haiti. Just about 38 seconds (and many after shocks), caused the worst earthquake in two centuries. It’s almost unbearable to look at the photos of the wounded people and many buildings laying in ruin. We’ve met some Haitian people in Florida before when my brother took us to a flea market down there. Anyway, all I can say to do is what we did (give up pizza one night) to donate $10 through the Red Cross. You can text it on your phone as we did. Every little bit has to help.
Another thing for us on a more personal level is that my mom has to cope with her failing eyesight. She went to her eye doctor today and there is nothing else they can do to save the sight in her right eye. She sees distorted figures and wavy lines in that eye right now. We are praying that her left eye stays strong. I think she knew that’s what kind of news she was facing. Too bad she went through cataract surgery in 2008 as her path was taking her down this road, which they didn’t know back then. She is still driving, but I rather she not. I guess eventually she’ll have to go to senior daycare or have someone come during the day to help her. I’m hoping that’s a long way off for her sake.
So that’s a lot to digest for us all. Wish us luck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I did make some ‘Brooklyn Cheese Puffs’ from the ‘Lost Recipe’ cookbook. They were mainly ricotta cheese with a little flour, butter and cheddar cheese. You had to put them in the freezer for half an hour and then bake them in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. My oven was smoking!
You can see the recipe if you click on the photo and make it as large as possible.

Yum-so tiny and tender, like a biscuit, but they were definitely puffs!
Here’s the link to the cookbook.
Off to the eye doctor for me tomorrow for my 2 yr check up. I have a feeling I’ll need new glasses. All of us have dry eyes right now too.
Sean will probably start in Wally World next week. He just had the ‘drug’ test (the ‘liquid’ in a cup) today which won’t be finished getting evaluated until the end of the week. We are glad he will be bringing some money in for his bills, but it’s only part time right now.
A Tuesday Afternoon
So I was thinking what else I could do beside clean-lol-well at least do something constructive. Things are still not set up the way I want them and I seem to be missing a box of knick knacks which I’ll probably find in July! : )
I have had a crick in my neck or is it the bottom of my head, on the right. It’s probably a pinched nerve, nothing new-an ache a day I call it! It was my right shoulder blade area yesterday.
I tossed in a pot some stew meat, carrots, Yukon potatoes, onions, celery, a turnip and a few cut Brussel sprouts (!) to make this:

My ‘secret ingredient’ is a small can of V8 juice as stew meat isn’t known to be the most tender meat. It really helps. And so does cooking it for at least 3-4 hours.
I also decided that what I would do to tidy a bit is to clip Rachael*Ray magazines. They are great magazines, but between hers and the other few I get, I needed to do some clipping. This is what I did:



I’ve only clipped two magazines so far. I cut out the recipe and wrote the name of the recipe on the front of a file folder. If I try it and like it, I can either write a comment about it right on the folder or start up a notebook with the tried ones. Now I can look at a glance at what looks good and find the recipe easily. I could go further and separate them by appetizer, main dish, pasta, beverage too. One folder probably won’t be enough. I am also writing hints on the bottom corner-use coarse salt in a paste to clean cast iron skillets or the best chicken noodle soup is Camp*bells. There is also a pull out 7 day planner that I just kept intact.
I have my ‘lost recipe’ cookbook open to try some cheddar cheese biscuits, so I think they will go well with the stew. I’ll make them shortly.
Bon Appetit!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mrs. Jean Biden’s funeral was a stone’s throw from here today. I heard if you got in, they took away your purse, etc. for security reasons. President and Mrs. Obama attended as did Prez. Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.
The noon news had a live feed in the church and it showed V.P. Biden wiping his eyes. He had his mom a long time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sean’s at Wally World interviewing for a PT job. He is also going to take a test on Friday for census work which pays really well. So hopefully something will happen for him soon.
Dianne and Dot
In memory of my Uncle Don’s stepdaughter who passed away on 1-8-10 (also my brother’s 43rd birthday). Though we didn’t know each other on a personal level, it was always nice to see Dot and her sisters and their families once in a while. Pancreatic cancer is such a sneaky disease. Dot only found out in June or July of last year that she was sick. She got to see her son marry and have two daughters, both are still young. Her husband, who was 15 yrs older than her, passed away only 2 yrs ago.
This photo is at my uncle’s house where he has resided for over 50 years. This was the first photo in my personal photo album that starts with my babyhood and on to when I’m a new mom. I sent a copy of this photo to her sister and son in sympathy cards. I think the funeral on Wednesday will be well attended as Dot was in the bell choir and a current and not really old member of the church. I would have gone if my uncle wanted me to. Here’s the obit.
Out with the old…
Ran across this on Flickr. The only college dorm I ever lived in back in about 1981-1982. The 3rd and 5th floor on the right. Terrible roommates-left before the end of my second year as I had had it with a Math Theory class and I met my future husband. Later learned that they dumped the class as so many people couldn’t pass it.
Update for Zoey-though Brian did attend and graduate from West Chester U, he’s a few years older and I didn’t meet him until he attended the marriage of his first cousin to my brother back in June of 1982!
Photo Hunt-Bulky
Here’s a late entry. I was trying to wrap my head around the theme and finally remembered how I use to bundle Sean up in the winter in his bulky snowsuit. Most times he squirmed like a worm too. He’s just over one here. I had to beg him to put the hood up on his jacket the other night!
My little brother Ken turns 43 today
This was a ‘video capture’. Now that we have a HD, I’m going to redo this set for Flickr to get out the lines, etc.
He was such a cute little kid. He must have been absorbing amazing qualities from people around him, namely our uncle because he practically redid his entire home by himself. Of course his sweet wife Colleen was by his side every step of the way. And you know how much I love my nephew and niece. Definitely warm fuzzies time. Thanks to mom for having a baby at 36 and me being 7, could practice my motherly skills on him. He has a nice smile in big part because of me. And he also doesn’t mind cooking and cleaning up… I could go on. He was suppose to be a girl, but I really don’t mind now-lol. If I could have at least a granddaughter someday…
Happy Birthday Ken!
Close up hummingbird fountain
I thought this was so neat with the water droplets caught in midair.
Poetry in motion
One of the skaters we saw at a different performance.
Dianne and ice skaters from show
They gave a great performance in this bitter cold. They had a ‘meet and greet’ and most of the people were too cold to stay. We said ‘why not?’
They were all really nice. Jazmyn goes to the University of Delaware where many skaters train.
Kevin Sun(16 yrs old), Dirke Baker(26 yrs old) and Jazmyn Manzouri (21 yrs old).







