THE GOOD AND THE BAD

Yesterday started out to be such a nice day.  I slept in and then called my girlfriend Debbie to see what she was doing.  We have not gotten together to just sit and talk in so long.  I was hoping to have lunch with her.  Happily she was free and was able to do just that!

First we headed for the farm.  I go every other week when I get paid.  I really made out well this week.  I got a tote bag full of food for $11.  I couldn't believe it!

 I have here a bunch of radishes, two huge Yukon Gold potatoes to bake, two summer squash, green beans, a sweet pepper, a candy onion and two bagels.

The farm was so beautiful today that I took some pictures to show you.

These mums were HUGE!  I've never seen such large ones.

Winter pansies were for sale too.

I love this picture of the mum and the pumpkins.

This was on the end of the stall where you check out.

More mums at the gate as we were leaving.

 After we were finished we went and got hoagies for lunch and then came over to my house to eat.  We spent several hours just eating and talking.  It was a lot of fun.

But then I got a phone call from my mother-in-law saying she didn't feel well and would I be available to take her to the hospital.  She had called the doctor and he said if she didn't feel better in an hour to go.  So I took Debbie home and then called her back.  She was still feeling bad, so off Joe and I went.

We ended up taking her and her sister to the Emergency Room of Aria-Torresdale Hospital.  At least this time it was close to home and not in New Jersey.  This is the hospital where my father-in-law was for several months before he died and where I go for all of my doctors.  I know this hospital like I know my neighborhood.  So I was able to take her right to the door of the ER and then went to park.

We didn't have to wait very long.  They took her in just a few minutes.  She had her discharge papers and medication with her so they were able to see right away what was going on.  They gave her a bunch of tests and found that her heart enzymes were high.  The doctor said she wasn't sure if it was from her heart attack last week or if she had had another one.  So they put her in an observation room for overnight.

We got to the hospital around 5:00 p.m. and left around 12:30 a.m.  A long, long time.  Her sister, Kathy, and I did leave at one point and go to the diner nearby and get sandwiches.  And at 9:00 p.m. Joe had to take his medication so we took Kathy home, went to get him his meds and then went back.  There is an advantage to being close to home.

Joe called her this morning and Mary Ann still did not know anything.  I am going to call her in a few minutes to see what is going on.  I told her if she is released today I will bring her home.

I have been so tired that I didn't even get to church today.  Joe and I have just been sleeping.  But it's about time I get up and get some things done around here.  I'm sure this saga will be continuing.  It always does in my husband's family.

FRIDAY VIEWS

It was so freezing cold at work today.  I mean really cold!  The thermometers all said 70* but with the cold A/C blowing on Diane and me we were sure it was lower than that.  We had jackets on and were looking for gloves.  Yes, it really was that cold.

A very slow day for our last Friday for the summer.  I think a lot of people thought we had already changed our hours.  

Two cute library stories for you today.  A few days ago a little girl came in with her mom.  She was really cute, golden curls, pretty dress and all.  She stood in the middle of the Children's Room, turned around, looked at everything and said, "Wow!  This place is amazing!"  We all had to smile at that!

Yesterday I was shelving some books.  One of them was Betty Crocker's Best Baking Book (or something like that).   There was something in between two of the pages so that it didn't close completely.  Lots of people leave strange things as bookmarks -- pencils, hair clips, bills, etc.  I shook the book to dislodge whatever it was and an envelope of yeast fell out.  Whoever had that book really got into it!  Ha, ha.

Joe and I watched the movie "The Iron Lady" tonight.  Meryl Streep was excellent in it.  What a good movie!  We really enjoyed it.
 
Joe's step-mom is home from the hospital.  She is very tired, but doing pretty good.  We took dinner over to her on Wednesday.  I am going to try to make some chicken soup tomorrow and take her that.

Well, for your Friday view today I decided to show you Jenny.  It's been awhile since she made an appearance on this blog.  I wanted to show that everyone is on facebook.  Even her.

Have a good night everyone.

KITCHEN CAPERS

It's not completely finished, but almost.  So I thought I'd share the pictures I have.  Everyone likes to see someone else's kitchen, don't they?  When we renovated the kitchen I picked out all the finishes and colors.  I just love it.

Here is my clean table and the autumn swag I got to hang on the windows.  The table always gets messed up so fast.  I have to clean it off again tomorrow.  The picture between the windows says "Live Simply".  I got it in Lancaster County.  It reminds me to do just that.

The cleaned off counter.  I used to have a large lazy susan on it that took up so much room.  It broke after using it for 10 years and I was just as happy because I have so much more room now.

I made one end of the counter a little beverage area.  It has my Keurig, the electric tea kettle, and my K cups.  The mugs are off to the left.

Here are the mugs behind the kitchen sink.  I have a corner sink which I hate.  When we redid the kitchen I asked to NOT have the sink there, but no one would listen to me.  Well, it's OK.  I have my trays and cutting boards on one side and vinegars on the other.  Don't know if you can see it, but my paper towel holder is a little cat.

My apple fruit bowl has finally found a home after floating around the kitchen and being stored in different places.  It is LARGE and it's hard to find a place big enough for it.

I even have an autumn apron.  Above it is a potholder that my mom made.  It matches the apron even though I bought the apron years after my mom died.  The lamp on the table was my mom's too.  She had it on her kitchen table.  It reminds me of her and I like using it.

 So that's it so far.  Still need to straighten my pantry, clean up the microwave and bread box and clean out the drawers and cabinets.  But it's getting there.

BACK TO WORK

I woke up this morning to the most beautiful sunrise.  I have to show you the view from my front door around 6:30 to 7:00 a.m.

 I'm trying really hard to stay organized now that I'm in the habit.  So I made sure the dishes were done and ironed some clothes for this morning.  Then I decided to have a nice fall breakfast with a pumpkin muffin.

I had never had one of Wawa's pumpkin muffins before.  It was really wonderful.

Work went fast.  I was glad.  I got just about everything done that I wanted to.  That's a good thing.  I thought after a week off  that I would have a hard time going back, but I really didn't.  I missed being home, but it wasn't all that bad.

It was chilly today.  I needed a jacket this morning.  That's the first time since June that I wore a jacket to work.  I guess fall is really here.

My friend Donna stuck her head in the workroom at lunch time and insisted I go out to lunch with her.  I had made lunch, so I grabbed that and we went to Checkers.  We both got drinks and apple pies and I got fries to go with my sandwich.  Then we sat in the car in the parking lot and ate.  It was really great seeing her and great getting out of the building.  I don't mind eating lunch at work, but it always ends up with someone calling to me that they need help with something.  It seems like I never get my whole lunch.  So leaving the building is a nice change.  No one can get ahold of me that way.

I was really tired when I got home, but managed to pull together dinner.  We had spaghetti squash with homemade tomato sauce.  It is so hard to cut the squash in half that I had to have Joe do it.  But it is well worth it to get to that yummy flesh inside.  It is one of our favorite meals.

I finally got everything printed out for our Bible Study tomorrow morning so now it's time for bed.  Good night, folks.
 

LAST DAY OF VACATION

The last day of vacation was not what I expected.  I keep saying this so I must have had great expectations for this vacation which just didn't pan out.

I went to church by myself this morning while Joe tried to get in touch with his stepmom and the hospital.  When I got home I wasn't feeling too great so I laid down for a little bit.  We decided to go to the hospital around 3 p.m.

Before I left I put a pork roast in the crock pot.  It was still frozen, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out.  I also didn't know how long we would be gone.  So I took a chance.  We were gone for about 3 hours.  When I got home I cleaned and cooked some fresh green beans and then checked on the pork.  It came out perfect.  Dinner was so good.  I love my crock pot!

So we went to see Mary Ann (Joe's stepmom) at the hospital this afternoon.  She's in Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ.  Neither of us had ever been there before, so we looked it up on the GPS.  It wasn't hard to get to, just confusing.  But we found the place.  We got on the elevator in the parking garage and pressed the button for the 8th floor.  Another couple got on with us and wanted the 10th floor, but it only went up to 9.  So they figured they would have to walk the last floor.

When the doors opened we got off and discovered we were on the 8th floor of the parking garage, not the hospital.  We started laughing.  I grabbed my camera and took a shot out the window while Joe rang for the elevator to come back.

When the elevator doors opened, there was the other couple.  They were laughing too.  They had done the same thing.  We got another good laugh when we got on the elevator and there was a big sign that said press level 1R for entrance to the hospital.

I have never been in a hospital like this one.  It was huge and beautiful!  It looked as if you were checking into an expensive hotel.  There was a huge check in desk with a granite top.  Carved into the front of the desk was "Welcome to Cooper University Hospital".  There were groupings of beautiful sofas, chairs and tables.  These were separated from the desk by 15 foot screens of live bamboo growing up to an atrium.

 

At the ends of each of these pots the bamboo were growing in there were huge floor to ceiling columns which were softly glowing lights.

Each table had a beautiful bouquet of autumn flowers.

 

We visited with Mary Ann for about 1 1/2 hours.  She is doing really well and may be sent home tomorrow if all goes well.  Boy, they really don't keep you in the hospital for very long these days.  Here's a shot from her floor.

Before we left to go home I asked to use the ladies room.  I was directed down a hall and through a door that looked like every other ladies room I've ever been in.  Through the door, though, everything was marble and chrome.  And everything was automatic:  toilet, water, soap, towels.  Wow.  No one else was in there so I quickly snapped a picture in there too.

 

Imagine working in a place like that!

Well, back to work tomorrow.  I really don't want to go back.  Can I please just stay home and have them just send me a check every two weeks?  If only.

LAST SATURDAY OF VACATION

Know what I did today?  NOTHING!!  How lazy can you get?  It was just one of those days where I slept a lot.  I guess the long drive yesterday did me in.

We were going to cook out today, but we got a major thunderstorm.  Lightning, pouring rain, the whole thing.  So there went that idea.  But I did make my "world famous" potato salad and we had turkey burgers.  Joe had some ice cream for dessert.  He loves Moose Tracks and we found that Turkey Hill has one that is no sugar added.  The sugar is low enough that it doesn't bother his diabetes.  And Turkey Hill makes good ice cream.

I have tried for two days now to add a video to my blog so I could show you the ocean, but no luck.  It just runs and runs and never loads.  If anyone can tell me how to do it, please let me know.

I just got a phone call from my stepmom-in-law.  I got a little worried when she called at 10:30 p.m.  It turns out that she was out to dinner with her friends and had a major heart attack.  She is in the hospital in New Jersey.  She was too sick for them to bring her back to Philadelphia.  She will be there till at least Monday.  Don't know if they will let her go home then or if she will be transferred to a Philly hospital.  Please pray for her.  Her name is Mary Ann.  Thanks.

What a way to end my vacation.  One more day and I will be back to the grind at work.

HOME AGAIN

We are safely home again.  It was a really short vacation, but worth every minute.  I got up early this morning and went to the beach to take some sunrise pictures.

Joe was still asleep and I was a little hesitant about going out by myself, but when I got down there other people were on the boardwalk and there were people taking pictures and fishing on the beach.

I stayed out about a half hour.  I had just a tee shirt and capris on.  I didn't realize it would be so cold.  I mean COLD!  My fingers started turning blue.

It was getting lighter and lighter.  It was looking really pretty and I was getting some great shots when my batteries died.  So I took that as a sign to head back to the hotel.  I was freezing and glad to go back.

When I got back Joe was awake and we decided to have breakfast at the hotel's restaurant.

Then we went back to the room and got ready for the day.  It was still really early.  There was a great courtyard right outside our room.  The plantings were really nice.  We had time to just sit out at one of the tables for awhile.  They had piped in music and a lot of people were there just enjoying the nice day.

You can just see Joe in the last picture behind the tree.  He was getting our luggage and packing up the car because it was time for us to check out.

We went back to the boardwalk.  I wanted to go on the beach again and walk in the water.  Joe didn't.  He was running a fever again.  So he sat on a bench and I went down on the beach.  The tide was so much higher than it had been at sunrise.  And the waves were pretty large.  But I walked into the water and let it get up around my ankles.  Even that little way I felt like I was going to get pulled out into the ocean.  The current was REALLY strong.

Afterwards I looked down at my feet and saw that the sand had "painted" my toenails.  It was so funny.

There were lots of tee shirt shops.  I loved this one.  It was so funny I had to take a picture of it.

While we were sitting on one of the benches along the boardwalk we saw this truck come by with these plants on.  The guy would stop the truck, get off and throw bundles of the plants on the boardwalk and then drive a little further on and repeat the process.  We thought maybe it was beach grass that they were planting for the erosion problem.  We just couldn't figure it out.

Later we saw this is what they did with them.  They will yellow as they age and look nice for the autumn.

Joe wanted to eat a "misteak" at Del's.  Every time we are in Ocean City he gets one.  It is a cheesesteak with fried onions and sweet peppers.  He loves them.  Del's was supposed to open at 11:30.  We were there 11:45 and they were still closed.  He looked in the window and then knocked on the door.  The guy in there said they were running late and would open in about 15 minutes.  Joe said he'd wait.  And he did.  He REALLY wanted that steak!

It had warmed up and was a beautiful day.  So nice to be out in the fresh air.  And yes, Christine, I took deep breaths of that nice salt sea breeze.  If you don't understand that last sentence, see the comments on my last post. ;-)  The water was so pretty sparkling in the sun.

See the sailboat in the last picture?  That was kind of neat to see.

The seagulls at the shore are fearless.  They just sort of dive at you whether you have food or not.  This one guy even landed on my head and then took off again.  I had to get a shot of the culprit.  Here he (or she) is on top of a building.

The last place we went was to Fudge Kitchen.  I got fudge and Joe got a pound of sugar free chocolates.  He couldn't decide what he wanted, so I told him to mix them up.  He got chocolate covered raisins, coconut, almond bark and pretzels.

By this time it was 1:00 and we decided to go home to try to avoid rush hour.  But we got lost and ended up in the beginning of it anyway.

Tonight we went out to dinner with our friends Walt and Carole to the Country Club.  I finally got my fried chicken that I've been wanting for a couple of weeks.  I just cannot make good fried chicken.  I've tried.  I've really, really tried and it just doesn't work.  So this was nice.  I even had some left over to bring home.

Now it is time for bed.  I am so very tired.  Hope you enjoyed joining me on my beach adventure.

WE GOT HERE LATE BUT AT LEAST WE'RE HERE!

Today almost didn't happen.  Well, not the day itself.  Today would have come with or without me.  I mean going down the shore.

Joe got up to have breakfast today and had three (count them THREE) seizures in a row.  I got him to bed and then got him something to eat.  He said his head was killing him and he needed to sleep for awhile.

I really thought that was it for the day.  I was disappointed that we weren't going away.  I know that it's rather selfish of me, but I really wanted to do something this week besides clean up the house.  (Not that it didn't need it, mind you.)  And I thought I had lost $100 if we didn't show up.

But at 3:00 Joe got up from his nap, said he was feeling pretty good, and we packed up and took off at 4:30.  Unfortunately it was rush hour and we hit some pretty heavy traffic.  But when we got on the Garden State Parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway we were able to make some time.  The maximum speed limit in Pennsylvania is 55 mph.  In New Jersey it's 65 mph so I really felt like I was moving right along there.  We got to Ocean City about 6:30.  Not bad.

We were hungry, so after we checked into our hotel room we went down to the boardwalk to see what was open.

You know how I love skies.  I just had to take this one.

We wanted to go to Del's, but they were closed.  We looked next door at Manco & Manco but they were so crowded we would have had quite a wait.  Neither of us had eaten since breakfast this morning.  So we kept walking and came on this pizza place named Prep's that looked interesting.  They had sandwiches too.

 

The place was decorated with all things Italian and was so cute.

 

I just got a hot dog, fries and lemonade.  Joe had a meatball parm sandwich, mozerella sticks and a diet Pepsi.  It was nothing to write home about, but it was all right.  We were hungry so we ate it.

Afterwards we took a slow walk back to the hotel.  I took some pictures of the boardwalk at night.

We could hear the waves crashing, but it was so dark you couldn't see the ocean.  I took a picture to show you just how dark it was.

The Polish water ice place was open, but I was too full to get any.  Joe got a mango  It looked good. I will have to get some tomorrow.

 Joe forgot to bring his hat with him.  He was looking at some in one of the stores.  I spotted one I liked and he bought it for me.  I think it's cute.

Now we are back at the hotel watching the Phillies/Mets game.  The Phillies just won 16-1!  Whoo hoo!  Go Phillies!!!

I'm really tired so I think this will be an "early to bed" night.  I want to get up early enough to get to the beach in the morning before we have to check out.  Until later, folks.