Apr13

Feeling unlucky?

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Are you superstitious?

Exactly 23 yrs ago it was also Friday the 13th and I was getting ready to ‘take the plunge’ into matrimony. I guess it’s the way you look at things don’t you think? Sean’s car is at the inspection center and we hope everything will be fine with that. I’m feeling the chilly weather to my bones. I remember last year I had a nicer looking yard than this one and the lilacs were budded and about to bloom. This year I don’t see the buds at all. The pond needs cleaning and I just can’t do it until the aches ease up. I don’t want to end up like my mom who is dependent on pain meds to get through her day. I am happy to report that a Tylenol usually helps me and some nice, warm weather.

The heater guy adjusted the furnace yesterday and fixed the leaky filter. The banging we are hearing is from the duct work and he can’t do anything about that. He said our last heater was way too big for the house. He made a big fuss over the cat as he has 3 of this own. Cos was not use to a big hand rubbing his head so brisking, but he didn’t nip at the guy.

John Corzine, the governor of New Jersey, was in a serious car accident around 6 last night. He broke his leg (upper) and about 12 ribs. He’s in critical, but stable condition. He was said not to be wearing a seat belt. The police are looking the the vehicle that appears to have forced them off the road.

Next Thursday we are planning on getting together with Brian’s old college pal Kathy. She lives in Tennessee now and comes back up to PA every few years to visit mostly friends. She is divorced with no children. And we share the same birthday. We are thinking of Carrabbas, the yummy Italian restaurant to meet at.

I have the Neighborhood Round Robin #6 cross stitch project finished up for Su except for my name. I am done a month early! I figure since the next person to stitch on it is Su’s mum, she can get it early (she is finished with her lady’s design anyway) and then send it to her other daughter to finish up the 8th square (we had planned on eight people, but one dropped out) if that is what they are going to do. I’ll show you a photo soon.

Have a great weekend!

Apr12

Valerie, Valerie, Valerie

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Why did you get bitten by the Jenny Craig bug? Valerie Bertinelli wants to lose 30 pounds because she is a ‘size 14’-crap, that’s my size…sometimes! ; ) I bought the newest copy of People that features her on the cover. I am 5 months older than her. Go ahead, show a photo of her from 1980 when she was 20. I want to look like I did when I was 20, but it’s not going to happen. Gravity has set in a few areas of my body. Skin is also at these places where it wasn’t before. I mean, she has a cute face and her bod looks fine and she has a new man. She or her son Wolfie (Wolfgang) mention eating an entire bag of Doritos! That’s not going to help. I have cravings myself. The worst thing for me to do is watch ‘The Food Network’ if I am even the slightest bit hungry. Good luck Val (who is from Wilmington, DE).

The heater guy is coming to adjust the furnace. It bangs almost every time it  comes on or shuts off. I set it to 68, it heats the place to 72. When we had it installed last month, they didn’t even look at the upstairs thermostat. And guess what-they better not send me a bill!

Keeping warm and cozy in April-and tearing my hair out! ; )

Apr11

Happy birthday sweet niece

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My sweetie girl Tori is 8 yrs old today. She is a gem to me. We share a comment bond-only girls in a brood of boys. We also share a similar middle name-I’m Carol and she’s Caroline. I hope she has a fun day. Auntie Di (also your godmother) loves ya lots!

Tori ATC

Dianne at 6

Here I am at 6. You won’t be seeing the 8 yr old Dianne with the bad perm. Can you tell Tor and I are related?

Apr10

Ancestors and things

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I went down and met my mom at the hospital thrift shop. I was there browsing when she called and said she was finally finished up with her doctor’s appointment. She needs to get quite a few tests, one of which is a mammogram. I don’t know why she needs to be put through some of the others like a nuclear stress test and an MRI-I can almost guarantee she won’t be able to hack the treadmill at almost 77. She had a MRI several years ago and was in the machine for 1.5 hours without moving. They’d have to drug me for that one. She said there is an ‘open model’ in a place about 20 minutes from her house. She worries the heck out of me-so thin, hardly eats (I took her for an early dinner and she only ate the hamburger and not the bun at Ruby Tuesday), her house has so much in it, things that could be discarded. My brother and his pals did a ton more in her yard then I thought. I’ll have to take photos next time. She has old pine trees (that my grandfather Alan planted in the 50s) and they took out 6 dead ones and trimmed many from the bottom up-no privacy now. Ken happen to stop over and I suggested bushes along the neighbor’s fences. He was not thrilled by this. I came home and found a tick crawling up my pant leg. Mom’s yard was disturbed, so I’m thinking it came from there. Talk about taking one’s clothes off quickly! When you’ve been deathly ill from a tick, you don’t play with fire!

What I got at the thrift shop-a real old flour sifter (ok I’ll take photos!) and an old musical sewing box.

Below is a photo (taken with my camera!) of my great grandfather William Hasselberg and his siblings that mom gave me a copy of today. The third man over is the great grandfather (Charlie) of my cousins with the store Dane Decor I mentioned a few posts back. My mom thinks this is from the 1930s-40s and was taken in Bohemia, Maryland. When I see Bette Midler, I think of her husband, Martin Van Hasselberg. Also, Elizabeth Hasselbeck’s husband must be a distant relative.

Great grandfather William

My great grandfather is the first one!

Going on to other things and a weird coincidence-aren’t you glad you know who Dannielynn belongs to? I mean she looks just like her real father. I was looking up Larry Birkhead to see how old he was (34) and then clicked on the link to Anna Nicole Smith who was born November 28th, the same as my brother Don. Here’s the weird thing-her father’s name is Donald Eugene Hogan and my brother’s name is Donald Gene!

Apr10

Easter Monday

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This was a quiet day. Yesterday was too, but I was out in the kitchen for a while. Not that I mind, as I love that kitchen now. It will be almost a year since the remodel-hard to believe! We had Bri’s dad here, he talked our ears off and still tells Sean how tall he’s getting. I had ham and turkey-both freebies because of bonus coupons. We had the pasta salad, red potato salad, green beans, corn, rolls, coleslaw, a cool whip type prepackaged dessert and chocolate cake also from the store.

So here’s what I made with some of the leftover turkey:
Sweet and sour turkey

You take a can of pineapple tidbits or chunks and make a sauce out of the juice. I added a little relish and maraschino cherries to make it a true sweet and sour. The other red you see are grape tomatoes and red peppers. I think I’d like it with shrimp and chicken better. You know how reheated turkey has ‘that taste’. Maybe I need to wrap it better for storage. We had brown rice and couscous too.
Hopefully off to mom’s tomorrow!

Apr8

Happy Easter

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Vintage Easter
After cooking from the early afternoon to just a little while ago (taking a breather) I wanted to stop by and wish everyone a blessed Easter. We are waiting for Brian’s dad to get here. I took a photo of my asparagus pasta salad that I will share later. Hope you are having a nice day.

Asparagus pasta salad
It needed a little something extra-perhaps the pasta absorbed too much of the oil? You see: asparagus, grape tomatoes, ham, pepperoni, carrots, mozzarella and pasta! Yoy can find the recipe here.

Apr6

Driving through historic country

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Sean and I took a late lunch at Red Lobster to celebrate the final day of Lent. We decided to drive the entire distance of our road which runs through an area where the Brandywine Battlefield was. I saw the fancy road marker even. At the end of our road that is near Chadds Ford and the Brandywine River Museum, the land is more open with lots of fields of grazing horses with a few sheep in the mix. There is such a mix of houses too! From the colonials of the 1960s (like my mom’s house) to the dark sided one with the unusual vertical lines and rectangular windows of the late 70-early 80s. This is about the area where the movie ‘The Village’ was filmed.
We had a nice lunch-great waitress who filled us up on the famous cheddar garlic biscuits and kinda spoiled our appetites. Sean had shrimp and lobster fettuccine and I had lobster pizza. We both ate more of our lunch for dinner later.

Run, don’t walk to your nearest Kohl’s! What a fabulous sale they are having Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately I grabbed a size 6 skirt and have to take it back in a few days. It’s too cold to wear it for Easter anyway. I got some earrings for my niece Tori’s upcoming 8th birthday and a few pieces off the 80% off rack. Plus they have a coupon for another 15% off, so I made out well.

We also went to Target and Michaels. I now have a nice mix for my art cards now. I bought some neat papers, rubber stamps, stickers and embossing powders today.

Better post my photo hunt photo for ‘clean’. Mr. Cosmo posed for that one.

Apr5

Easter like 1970

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The local weatherman is predicting a chilly Easter (in the 40s) like we had in 1970-the last time it was this cold. Sean thought he’d be smart and say-bet you can’t remember that Easter. I do have a pretty good memory-I was in 5th grade, had a gem of a teacher-Miss Brown-who gave us interesting postage stamps from all over the world for perfect spelling tests. I did get mostly 100s if I remember. That was the year mom gave me a cute little stamp album (about 5-10 pages with the places to tuck the stamps in a row-like 5 to a page). I have it around here someplace.

I went to the doctor and saw a new, young lady doctor. We discussed me and I am trying something for three months. I hope it agrees with me. Have to mention the Amish couple in the gyn office-what a surprise! I guess some are coming around more to western medicine.

Here are some gifties that I received in the mail this week and my little pal Bunny Woodstock:

From Gret and Pea
Love them gals! These are the best kinds of gifts to me.
Ode to the Flower Show
My Ode to the Philadelphia Flower Show 2007