END OF THE MONTH

OK, who took the month of May and what did you do with it?  How do these months just fly by?  I remember it being April and looking forward to our trip to the shore and now we're heading for June.  I just don't know where the time goes.

Since I am working tomorrow I had off from work today.  This is my last Saturday to work until the fall.  Whoo hoo!  I enjoy having my summer Saturdays.

I spent a lot of time today at the hospital getting several x-rays of my jaw.  It has been hurting me and that's one of the signs that the Zometa I am given is not working correctly.  I think I am OK though because after the pictures were taken they let me leave without seeing the doctor.

The woman who checked me in at the x-ray lab apologized because she was so slow.  She explained that this was not her usual job, but they were shorthanded and she offered to help them out.  When she told me how much I owed for my co-pay, she said I had a balance.  I knew I did and said I would go to the cashier to pay for it.  She said I could pay the whole thing there, so I did.  We talked about my upcoming surgery and she said I owed for that too.  I told her I had already paid and that I had been double billed for my heart catheterization.   It turns out that she is the head of billing and she was able to straighten everything out.  She said all the people whose names were on my billing report worked for her.  She gave me receipts for everything and then gave me her card.  She said whatever I need (ANYTHING) to give her a call and she would help me.  Did God put me at that particular window with that particular person for a reason?  I believe He truly did.  I walked away feeling so very blessed.

On the way home Joe and I were both hungry so we stopped at the Dining Car Diner.

 

We haven't been there in YEARS and we've never been there together.  The food was good, the service was good and the prices were reasonable.  I think we will go there again.

I went to do some work in the yard this evening.  I waited till evening because it was 94* here today.  When I went for my clippers, it turns out that the vinyl box I was keeping everything in had come open and it was FULL of dirty and stinking water.  The tools were ruined.  So now I will have to stop and get new tools this weekend so I can clean up the rosebushes and the overgrown ivy.

We ended the day having Chinese take away.  It was just too hot in the kitchen to eat.  And now the dishwasher is going and I am going to put a load of clothes in before I go to bed.  Have a good night everyone. 

 

LITTLE PIES

Last Tuesday I made little pies for Bible Study.  I took pictures as I went so I could show them to you.  But there was so much going on this week that I never got to do this post.  So I thought I would show you today.  They are so easy!

First I took a box of ready made pie crusts.  Use any brand you want.  They are all good.

Unroll it and cut it out using a cookie cutter, or large mouth jar lid.   I used a scalloped cookie cutter because I was trying to make them a little fancy.  Each crust gave me 6 pie crusts.

 

I sprayed a muffin tin with vegetable oil spray and put the crusts in to make a little cup.

 

 Then I used apple and cherry pie filling and filled each one.  Each can made 12 little pies.

I baked them at 400*F for 22 minutes.  They were wonderful!

 

MEMORIAL DAY -- Warning: Lots of Pictures

It's Memorial Day.  A day to remember our fallen heroes.

As I mentioned in my last post I didn't wake up this morning until 10:30 a.m.  Well, I did wake up at 5:30, 6:45 and 7:30 but looked at the clock, said "I have to get up" and promptly fell asleep again.  What woke me up was the sound of the parade coming through our wide open windows.  (It was beautiful sleeping weather!)  I got up and watched the beginning of it out of the window.  But all I could see was the backs of people as they passed.  So I got dressed and told Joe I was going to the parade.  He opted to watch it from the bed.  Here are some of the highlights.

What's a parade without the Mummers?

Of course the VFW post was there.

"Betsy Ross"

Irish Thunder from Montgomery County

Abraham Lincoln High School ROTC

The boy scouts

The flag bearers of one of several high school marching bands

The Civil War rein-actors

The TD Bank mascot

World War I rein-actors

Giving a tribute to the Viet Nam war veterans

More ROTC

The Bridesburg Outboard Motor Club

Another high school band

Antique cars.  I missed most of them, but glad I got to see some.

The Viet Nam Veterans across from my house have erected a war monument to those who did not come home.  It's very touching.

The front of the building with flags of each service.

The decorations were nice too.

My friend Andrea's house was really decked out.

Even Joe was decorated -- wearing his Marine Corps shirt.

My flower pot beside my front door.

The red, white and blue star in my window.  New this year.

My whole house looking very patriotic.

 During the afternoon the veterans had another memorial service.  I couldn't see it from downstairs, so took pictures through my bedroom window.

I ended my day with an ice cream cone.  I've been wanting one for about three weeks and finally got it.  (Don't look at my messed up hair!)

 It's back to work tomorrow.  I hope the day isn't too crazy.

T-SHIRT SUNDAY AND OTHER HAPPENINGS

Usually we have T-shirt Sunday on Labor Day weekend.  But this year since we all just got new church t-shirts we had it on Memorial Day weekend also.  About half of the people in the congregation were wearing theirs. 

Early this afternoon the Vietnam Vets had a memorial ceremony at their monument for those who did not make it home.  I took pictures from the house.  It seemed very nice.

Carole and Walt came over for dinner and we had a "cook-in".  We had hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, deviled eggs, and they brought some pies for dessert.
 

The deviled eggs that Joe made.  He's an expert.

My pasta salad.  So easy to make and so good to eat.

A satisfied customer.

I was so tired that I went to bed around 8 p.m. last night and left Joe to entertain Carole and Walt.  When I woke up it was 10:30 a.m. and the Memorial Day parade was starting outside of our house.  I must have really been exhausted.  More about our Memorial Day next time.

BACK TO THE FARM

It's been many months since I visited the farm.  I decided since I'm back on my Friday lemon slush schedule, I should start my Saturday farm visit schedule also.

I called up my friend, Debbie, and we headed out to see what they had.  This is the third week that the farm stand has been open and it's still pretty sparse.  The only thing I got was the Boston lettuce that we love, a loaf of sourdough bread and two bagels for our breakfast tomorrow.

I also got three coleus to put in the yard.  They are so beautiful!

Then we went to Shop Rite.  We each grabbed a cart, took each other's cell phone number so we could figure out where the other one was, and took off to do our shopping.

I have not been food shopping since before I went to the shore so I had a lot to get.  We were completely out of meat and veggies.  I got a lot of good buys and now have enough dinners in the house for two weeks.  I even got some extra little treats and it was still $50 under what I thought it would be.  Good for me!

One of the extra little treats was these pretty red, white and blue fresia.  I thought it looked so patriotic for the holiday.

I have so much to clean up around this house, and I made a stab at it, but I was so tired I fell asleep on the sofa.  I just could NOT keep my eyes open.  I figure if I am that tired, I need to sleep.  I only slept about 1 1/2 hours, but felt better afterwards.

I made periogies and asparagus for dinner.  It turned out really good.  And now after watching some TV it is time for bed.  Joe is the worship leader at church tomorrow, so we have to get there on time.  Until later....

FRIDAY VIEWS

It was my "Fishtown Friday" day today.  I was late getting there because I had to go to the bank and make the weekly deposit for my boss.

I got into the commercial line thinking it would just move right along.  Wouldn't you know I was in line for almost half an hour?  The guy in front of me was there at least 20 minutes.  "Uh...  I'll take that in $100 of quarters, $20 of dimes....  No, make that $25 of dimes....  No, maybe $20 is enough...  No, I will take $25.  Now for the nickels..."  Oh my goodness I wanted to push him aside and say, "Look, buddy, I have one deposit to do.  It will take less than 2 minutes and during that time you can make up your mind about what amount you want your nickels to be."  I am usually a pretty patient person, but he was driving me (and the teller) nuts.  I breathed a big sign of relief when he finally picked up his rolls of coins and left.

Yesterday it was 84*.  Today it was 61*.  Plus it was raining and windy.  My umbrella blew inside out 3 times before I just gave up and stuck it in my tote bag.  So you know there weren't very many people in the library.  It was an extremely slow day, even for Fishtown which is always slow.  I was definitely not dressed warmly enough.  I froze all day.  I couldn't wait to get into my car and turn up the heat.

When I got home, I woke Joe up and we went to the jewelers to get our rings that were being re-sized.  They turned out beautiful.  You can't see at all where Joe's wedding band was made smaller and my mom's engagement ring was made larger.  They even cleaned my wedding band so that it matched the cleaned up diamond ring.  It is such a good match that the rings look as if they had been bought together.  No one would know that the diamond was bought 54 years before the wedding band.  I tried to take a picture of my rings, but it didn't turn out.  Maybe in the sunshine tomorrow.

We stopped and got gas at Wawa.  I paid $3.41/gal for it.  On the way home from work I saw it for $3.55/gal at Hess where I usually get it.  That's quite a difference!

We decided to get dinner at Sonic.  It's Friday so I had to get my lemon slush (which I'm still sipping on).  Joe got two cheeseburgers (we had a buy one, get one coupon) and I got a hamburger.  We just took them home.  Joe started eating a burger and said it was good.  But when I looked there were only cheeseburgers left.  He ate my hamburger!  Oops!  He kept apologizing, but the damage was done.  I had to eat a cheeseburger and I'm allergic to cheese.  I took a dairy ease, so hopefully I will be OK.

For your Friday view this week I am going to show you a picture I took on the way to work.  I was by the park and when I looked at the sidewalk, the trees were just framing it so beautifully.  It looked so cool and peaceful that I wanted to forget about work and just walk down that sidewalk.  Hope you enjoy it.

RETIREMENT SEMINAR

Today I went downtown to Two Penn Center to attend a citywide retirement seminar.

Two Penn Center

It's across from Love Park.

 I signed up for it months ago and was afraid I wasn't going to get in.  I found out about a week ago that I could attend.  You can attend only once in your city career, so I wanted to make it as close to retirement as possible.

We had six lectures.   They were really interesting.  They were on financial investments, how the retirement plan works, Social Security, deferred compensation, health benefits after retirement, etc.  I thought it would be deadly dull, but it wasn't and the day went really quickly.

I have not worked downtown for about 17 years now.  I worked in center city for about 20 years and loved every minute of it.  It is a whole different lifestyle.  It was deja vu going down in rush hour, walking along the streets, going into a high rise office building (the meeting was on the 17th floor), and taking the train home again (something I used to do every day).

Carole drove me down this morning.  I didn't know how the trains and buses ran, so I was afraid I would be late.  She got me there at exactly the right time.  That was so nice of her to drive me in rush hour.  Not an easy thing to do -- so many crazy drivers.

I didn't know where to eat lunch, so asked one of the ladies who worked down there.  She told me about a place on the ground floor of the building called Lunch Express so that is where I went.  They had all kinds of sandwiches (hot and cold), soup, a huge salad bar, and an iced tea bar.  Never saw that before.  There were about 12 different kinds of iced tea.  I got a meatball sandwich, a bag of chips and an iced tea and it cost me over $7.  Joe says that's called the "center city gouge".  Everything costs more there than here in the northeast.  I would have paid about $4 for it near home.  They had tables and chairs outside, but they were all chained up.  It would have been nice to eat out there since it was a beautiful, but HOT, day.  Instead I ended up taking it back to the building and eating in the seminar room with a lot of the other folks.

While I was out at lunch time I looked around until I found the entrance to Suburban Station so that I wouldn't get lost going home.  The station is underground.

Don't know if you can see it, but it says "Pennsylvania Railroad/Suburban Station".

Coming home I went into Suburban Station and made my way over the the ticket counter for the train.  It was so strange to be there again.  When I entered the station I knew exactly where I was and how to get to where I wanted to go.  I guess when you do something that long, it all comes back.  

Suburban Station

This is where you go down to an even lower level to get onto the train.

Ticket counter

It was really interesting to see all the shops.  I kept saying things like "Oh, the Hallmark store is still there.  How many times did I shop in there?" and "Roy Rogers is gone -- now it's Church's Chicken.  Interesting."  There were a couple of guys playing guitars and singing and farther along there was a violinist.  I even saw a woman with a fresh fruit and vegetable stand and she was doing quite a good business.  I thought, "If I still worked down here, I would probably be buying off of her to take things home for dinner!"

Some of the underground stores.

It's only a 12 minute ride on the train.  I even remembered which car to get onto to be able to get off at the station.  

Platform where you wait for the train.

The commuter train.

I had parked in the train station parking lot near home in the morning, so could just walk across the street to get the car and drive home in 2 minutes.

I really enjoyed being a center city employee for a day, but I don't think I'd want to do it every day again.  I'm spoiled now being able to drive to work in 10 minutes and come home for lunch.

I can't take credit for any of the pictures today.  I got them all from Google because I wanted to show you where I was.  Thanks to all the great photographers out there who made my post today so much nicer.  (None of these were copywrited!)