PARASAILING WAS FUN!!!

I WONDER WHAT'S NEXT? ZIP LINING MAYBE???




Sunday, October 31, 2010

2 Year Blogiversary!!



Today is my 2 year Blogiversary!!!  Yay me!!

OH!  and Happy Halloween, y'all!


Saturday, October 30, 2010

Six Word Saturday



Symphony + Cirque + Free Booze = Fun Time!

Thursday night, I got a phone call from my daughter, Gina.  She asked me if I was doing anything on Friday night.  I wasn't.  So she asked me if I wanted to go to the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and see a performance with Cirque Dreams.  Of course!!!

Gina works for Delmarva Broadcasting (WSTW and WDEL) as a copywriter (she writes commercials and sometimes does the voice-overs)  She also does an interview show on Sundays, but that's just a mom bragging.

One of the perks of her job is she gets tickets to really great shows!  For instance, last year we saw the Ten Tenors at the Dupont Theater in Wilmington, (and by Ten Tenors, I mean 10 hot Australian guys with incredible voices)   She also gets concerts tickets, ball game and hockey tickets from time to time.

So last night there was a fundraiser to benefit the Delaware Symphony Foundation.  It was wall-to-wall mucky mucks in attendance, including Delaware Governor Jack Markell  and his Secret Service detail.  Senator Carper, Congressman Castle, CEOs of companies, lots of folks with lots of bucks (you could tell by the muy expensive dresses and tuxedos.)  

We had tickets to the good seats (4th row) and free booze and food. 

Of course, it had a theme.  The Symphony was performing Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade (beautiful!).  As an added treat, Cirque Dreams  performed Cirque Masquerade, an Arab-themed  show with A-M-A-Z-I-N-G  feats of acrobatic stunts that left my daughter watching, open-mouthed through most of the performance (I'm sure I was too).  There were even live camels outside, at the entrance, with their handlers dressed in Arab garb.  They were brought up from North Carolina just for this event..

The fundraiser was held at the Chase Center on the Riverfront, but the regular performances will be held at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington.

We actually only saw a portion of the show, although we heard all of the Symphony performance.  It was incredible!!!  This show is slated as fun for the entire family, and it really is! If you've ever seen Cirque du Soleil perform, you'll know what I mean.  Cirque Dreams is a similar company of performers.

It was a great time, and I'll be happy to be Gina's date any time she wants!!


Want to try your own Six Word Saturday? Go see Cate at Show My Face and link up!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Is it just me, or is it hot in here?



This past week has been interesting, to say the least.  I've had a few "Tropical Surges" in the past ten few years, but nothing like I've had this past week.  To say that I have been having hot flashes recently is putting it mildly.


I thought it was from the suddenly milder, almost summer-like weather we've been experiencing.  Not so.


At work, the back of my head is suddenly drenched like I just stepped out of the shower.   I find myself fanning myself with menus, and finding excuses to hang out in the walk-in refrigerator.  


Poor John.


I went to his place yesterday (Wednesday) like I always do.  I made a lasagna for him several days ago and we were having the leftovers for dinner.  Now one thing I've learned is if I eat too many carbs, I begin to sweat (I have type 2 diabetes)... and the symptoms of menopause make it worse.  I can't even think about drinking wine or other alcoholic beverage.  The sweats are insane!


great.


I had a normal portion of lasagna, and about an hour later, it felt like someone turned the heat up... a lot!


"Whew!!!  It sure is hot in here!!"  


John tells me the heat is set at 60 degrees.  He says he feels fine.


"Well, I'm really hot!!


I'm trying not to drink any Diet Coke because I know it will keep me up all night.


Then, I start getting cranky.  He wants to watch Criminal Minds on ION TV.  It's an episode that I've seen several times and it's not one of my favorites (I love criminal Minds usually).  But it's his house, his TV. 


I went on the internet with my netbook.  It's letting off some heat and it's making me sweat even more!  So, I put that away. (now I'm REALLY cranky!)


I grab my Kindle and go into the bedroom to read.  His clock has a thermostat on it.  It's registering 75 degrees.


A little while later, John comes in and gets his shower before bed.  I'm fanning myself like crazy.


"Whew!!!  It's STILL hot in here!!!  


By now, the thermostat says 77 degrees!  


"SEE??  I'm making the temperature in here go up, just by being in the room!"


"Can't we open a window or put the air conditioner on?  You can grab a blanket for yourself out of the closet."


He agrees to open the window.  He wants to know if there's anything else he can do to make me more comfortable (he really is being a trooper )


"Well, one thing you CAN'T do is sleep with your arms around me.  I'll go out of my mind if you do that."


Okay.


The window open seemed to have done the trick.  I rubbed his legs for a bit (he gets bad leg cramps sometimes) and we fell asleep.  


A little while later, I get up to go to the bathroom (another fun fun menopause symptom..... peeing several times a night, and by several I mean 5 or 6 times a night) and I find poor John sleeping as far away from me and still be on the bed  as he possibly can.  I flip my pillow over and go back to sleep.


I'm surprised he didn't throw my ass out last night!



Wednesday, October 27, 2010

One Word Wednesday: Passion


Passion

If I ever get married again, this is the song I want to dance to.  It says everything I feel when I think of John and me.  He woke a passion in me that I thought was dead and gone forever. It hasn't diminished a bit in 4 years, and I don't think it's going away any time soon.   And nobody can sing it like Miss Etta James.

I give you....

At Last






At last, my love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Oh, yeah, at last
The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clovers
The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to rest my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Oh, yeah when you smile, you smile
Oh, and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine
At last


If you want to play along, Jillsy Girl has the rules right here.  

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

New Wedding Tradition?

On Sunday, John and I took a trip back to Peace Valley Park, so I could get some changing leaves  and great sunsets photos.   I did get some lovely shots, like these...  (click on any of the photos below to get a bigger and better view and some good details)












Then, I saw this...












WHAT?????  Is she really wearing a wedding gown???


My sister told me that apparently this is the new thing to do after your wedding.  Ruin your wedding gown in a fun way, because you're never going to wear it again.  Brides jump in mud puddles and other crazy things (like roll around in a cold lake) .


I can't imagine my daughter doing this after her wedding, especially after all the money she spent to purchase her gown.  (she won't and I'm sure you'll see a comment from her confirming this!!)


I, myself, had my wedding gown preserved, in case one of my daughters wanted to wear it when they got married.  I should have realized when I married a man who was 6'2" tall (and I'm 5' maybe) that chances were, any daughter I had would be taller than me (Gina is 5'3" and Dani is 5'5")


Here's a blast from the past!   My brother, Michael and me on my wedding day in 1981.  Michael gave me away because my Dad had passed on the year before.  I paid $250 for my dress, which probably equates to about $1,000 in today's dollars.  I can't imagine ruining this lovely dress!








Anyway, I Just thought it was nuts!  To ruin a perfectly good dress, even if you don't plan to wear it ever again.  Maybe a future daughter might!  Or use the material to make a First Communion dress or a Baptismal gown.




Saturday, October 23, 2010

Six Word Saturday



I have a bad sinus headache.
(hope it doesn't become a migraine)


Want to try your own Six Word Saturday? Go see Cate at Show My Face and link up!


Wednesday, October 20, 2010

John's Cancer Update

Last week, John had his 3 month PET scan to check to see if his cancer (Lymphoma) is still in remission or if it was rearing it's ugly head again.


Today he had his appointment with Dr. Nasta to get the results.


She walked in the examining room, stopped in her tracks, gave a HUGE grin and said, "You are better than ever!!"


And I gave a big sigh of relief!


Dr. Nasta (a wonderfully brilliant hematology oncologist) said John's numbers are better than ever!  


And she doesn't want to see him for 6 months!!






We celebrated by having lunch at the Potbelly Sandwich Shop that's attached to The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.


Then we went home and took a 2 1/2 hour nap!


Saturday, October 16, 2010

Six Word Saturday



A beautiful weekend in my neighborhood!

Want to try your own Six Word Saturday? Go see Cate at Show My Face and link up!


Friday, October 15, 2010

He has a lot to say!

John has a lot of tee shirts and just about all of them have some kind of message.  He's very very political (talk about opposites attract!  I'm very apolitical!).  I got an idea to take pictures of him wearing his tees with so many messages.


NOTE:  the tees that John wears do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this writer.


In one of the pictures you can see his displeasure because we had a discussion about what he wanted me to say regarding the previous shirt he had modeled for me.  When I get to it, I'll tell you about it.


Some of these shirts are amusing, some show his views on certain political opinions, some are just funny and a few are endearing.


So, without further ado, here is John, with his tees of many colors... and messages!


In case you can't read this, it says Democracy is when two wolves and a lamb vote 
on what to have for lunch.  Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
~Benjamin Franklin


John plays Dungeons and Dragons on Friday nights.  What can I say?  
The man is a nerd.  He sometimes wears this on game night.


John sometimes wears this when he plays Go.  Go is a very old game, originating in China over 2500 years ago and became very popular in Japan.   The tee is written in Japanese, Korean and Chinese.



This is my favorite Tee shirt!  I bought this for John because it's a true description of him!  He wore this when he was in the hospital, getting his transplant.  It lightened things up quite a bit... made folks smile!



The front of this shirt just has a small logo.  The message was on the back.  
We found this in Ocean City, MD a few years ago.  No explanation needed.



John's favorite sweater.  Oh wait...  


This is John's newest political shirt.  He is NOT a fan of Obama and for the record, 
he wasn't a fan of McCain either.  You can click on the picture to enlarge it to read the poem.

  
John is a die-hard Libertarian and this is his favorite Libertarian shirt! 
It's wearing out and he's hoping to replace it soon.



John is very proud of his 20 years of service to the US Army, 
especially his years as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne.  


John LOVES to wear this shirt when he takes his brother shopping in the Germantown section of Philly.  I think he hopes someone will take issue and say something.  I get nervous when he wears it.  I don't like shaking things up.  This was the shirt we had a "discussion " about!


See his face?  He was NOT happy with me because we just discussed what I didn't want to write about the previous shirt (but I did anyway).  Anyway, he loves this other 82nd Airborne shirt.  Too bad he's scowling!


He gets a lot of positive feedback when he wears this one, surprisingly!  


I bought this one for John when he was undergoing his first round of Chemo, back in 2007.  
That is a Lymphoma ribbon.  And he certainly was a warrior!


John REALLY gets positive remarks about this tee shirt!


I love this tee shirt!  John wore this for Pottstown's 2008 Relay For Life.  I cried when he walked with all the other survivors that day.  He was so proud to wear that shirt and walk with his fellow Survivors!  


This is the back of his Survivor shirt.  It's the only time I can get him to wear purple willingly.


There was one other tee shirt that he wore the other day and for some reason, it's not here.  As soon as I can upload it (when I get new batteries) I'll add it.  I bet you just can't wait!


Wednesday, October 13, 2010

A Sweet Celebration


SWEET!

I keep seeing this meme, One Word Wednesday, hosted by Jillsy Girl and I really like it.  So today I've done 2 blog posts.


This week's One Word is SWEET.



After checking out other entries, to get an idea of what photo to choose, I came up with this one.  This photo was taken one year ago, at my niece's wedding.  Of course, my niece's wedding was a sweet celebration, but the subject here is John, boogying with my daughter, Gina like there's no tomorrow!!  This photo was taken less than 2 months after he underwent a stem cell transplant to get rid of his Lymphoma (cancer of his immune system) once and for all!  Doesn't he look like Daddy Warbucks?


I posted a riddle just below this post!!!  Go ahead!  Try to solve it!


Riddle Me This! the answer is in the comments!



I haven't left a riddle for anyone to solve in a while.  I hope I found a challenging one this time! If I get no correct answers by tonight, I'll start leaving clues.  Good luck!



MIRROR

Mirror, mirror in my hand,
Your face all burned with light;
You dance in circles while you sing.
A jewel holds you tight.

What am I?




Clue #1:  Matt was closest to the answer with his first guess.


Clue #2: What things have a mirrored surface?


Clue #3: What's another word for "dancing in circles"?

as always, credit goes to Tower of the Riddle Master.


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

RTT: This and that



My daughter, Dani came come from school overnight because she had an orthodontist appointment early on Monday morning.  About an hour after said appointment, she came running into the house because her braces had been removed!  She got her braces a week before her 18th birthday and now, 22 months later, they were gone!!  She was so excited!




Dani, with braces



Dani, without braces

Oh, and her hair is pink and purple now.  

I just realized I'm now old enough to move into a 55 and over community.  Not a nursing home or assisted living facility, silly!  A neighborhood that's kind of like a clubhouse with NO KIDS ALLOWED!



So, who wants to buy my house?


I like this song a lot.  It's Secrets by One Republic.   I'm not even sure of the lyrics.  I like it because I love the cello in the beginning.  I have to give special thanks to my daughter, Gina and to Joe Alan, the afternoon DJ at WSTW, 93.7 FM in Wilmington, DE (Gina also works there) for telling me the name of the song, because he knew what the hell I was talking about!




Tim's cat, Tucker knocks on the doors when he wants in or out.  It's cute, but it gets annoying when he does it constantly.  I feel like we're living with a 5 year old.  Oh and he figured out how to open the door!

Mason, my black cat, just meows until you get up and let him in or out.  

I really need a cat door.

If you want to play along with Random Tuesday Thoughts, go here to get the widget and add your name to Mr. Linky


Monday, October 11, 2010

Musical Mondays




Amanda at Bloggin’ with Amanda hosts Musical Monday – What Move’s You?. You can get the instructions by clicking here.  The theme this week was songs from movies.






Also Lorie at The Shrewbridges of Celebration, FL told me about Monday's Music Moves Me, so here's another cool music blog meme to do!


This is my first foray into Musical Monday. It looks like lots of you are doing a Halloween theme. So in keeping with that, here's my entry. The Time Warp, from Rocky Horror Picture Show! Enjoy!