A FRIDAY VIEW

Hello, friends.  What a busy day I have had.  It was a beautiful warm day and I finally got around to cutting the grass.  Well, what calls itself grass in our yard.  More like lots of weeds.  But it keeps the ground from eroding.  I also got out the pruning shears and began the big job of cleaning up the overgrown bushes and weeds.  I have an entire trash can full and have made just the tiniest dent in the yard.  But it's a start.  My knees are very bad today so I just can't do a lot at a time.

Joe had an Elder's Meeting this morning at church.  When I picked him up we went and got his uniforms from the dry cleaners.  He needs them for the Memorial Day parade.  Then we went to Shoprite to get some things we needed.  We ate lunch there too.  My knees were hurting so bad that Joe had me sit in the food court while he did the shopping.

I got ground beef so I am going to make hamburgers for dinner.  I've been wanting a burger for a few days.  I have lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, etc. already in the house so that's no problem.

Tonight after dinner I am making 3 pounds of potato salad to take to my sister's house tomorrow for her cookout.   I always look forward to going there on Memorial Day weekend.  And this year Carole and Walt are going with us and Carole is driving so I can just sit back and enjoy the ride.

I was looking back on my blog the other day and saw that about 4 years ago I used to do a "Friday View" post each week.  It was just a random photo to show something interesting.  I wondered why I ever stopped doing this and decided I would start it up again.  So here is this week's Friday View.

The flags are all up along the parade route.  Can't wait for the parade on Monday!

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend.  I'll see you soon.

Kathy

IT'S BEEN ONE WEEK AND IT'S A PHOTO FRIDAY

It's been one week ago today since I retired.  And what a surreal week it has been.  I think I'm getting used to the idea of my new life now.  What is helping me a lot is I finally sat down and wrote out a schedule.  It's a LOOSE schedule where there is lots of free time and things can be moved around.  But knowing that when I get up I do things in a certain order has helped tremendously.  I am remembering to water the plants.  Get the dishes and wash in.  Take my medicine (VERY important) and feed the cats.  Instead of haphazardly trying to remember everything I now know I've done this and that is next on the list.  After the morning routine the rest of the day is pretty flexible.  So far it is working for me!

Yesterday I finally had a day where I didn't have to go anywhere.  The only place I went was to Rite Aid to pick up my medicine.  Got a few things done around the house, but not much.  Mostly I was typing up a couple of sermons for Joe.  He was told to have some ready to preach at a moment's notice.  We don't know who is coming in February or if someone is.  If there is no one, Joe is the chosen speaker.  At least people enjoy hearing him.

Today I took Joe to his doctor's appointment.  He was supposed to get his yearly physical, but instead had another upper respiratory infection.  On the way home we stopped at Wawa for breakfast and then at the pharmacy to get his medicine.

I got a breakfast burrito and it was so very good!  I will definitely buy it again.  We have been very good about not eating out like we did when I was getting a paycheck.  Being home also allows me to cook more.  And that's good!  We eat better that way.

This afternoon we finally got all the paperwork in for my handicapped license tag and for our birth certificates.  We just have to get our marriage license now.  It's amazing how you go through life never needing these things and then all of a sudden you need them all and you don't have them.  The handicapped tag is going to make my life so much easier and I'm so glad my doctor was willing to sign off on the form for me.

Tonight Joe and I are going to a funeral for my friend Ada.  I have known Ada since I was a 10 year old girl in Sunday School and she was a newly married young lady with a baby.  My former pastor called us last night with the news.  He is conducting the funeral.  So that will be two funerals in three days that I will be attending.  It's so sad and again reminds me of my mortality.  All the more reason to live each day for the Lord.

Today I am going to start a new feature which I am calling "Photo Friday."  It's sort of like my Friday View which I used to do, but I am going to show you views of my ordinary life.  Things I see everyday or often.  Things that show you what life in Philly is like.  For the first one this is a shot I took when I was stopped for a light coming home from Wednesday's funeral.  I saw this guy changing the sign at the gas station.  Although I could see the whole view, I realized by the way he was stretching his neck back that his view was quite different.  The sign was high above his head.  He was squinting in the sun and using his muscles to get the correct number in the correct place.  It just spoke to me.  And since my camera is always with me, I was able to snap the shot before the light changed.  Hope you enjoy it.

I think I'm going to have fun showing you life in Philly.

And now I have to run and get some things done and dinner made before we need to leave for the funeral home.  I'm glad it's only two blocks from my house -- not far to go.

Until later...

Kathy

FRIDAY VIEWS

Just a quick post today because it is my early day at work.  On Friday we work 8:45 to 5:00.  I like getting out early on Fridays.

My foot is hurting worse every day.  I have a doctor's appointment for Tuesday afternoon.  That was the earliest I could get.  I would go to the Emergency Room but the last time I went it cost me almost $800 out of pocket.  That is over what the insurance paid.  I don't have that kind of money.  All I want is to get an X-ray to see if it is broken or not.  I think it's time to get a new doctor.

At least it is the end of the week.  Diane is out today so it is just Bob, Doug and me.  We work so well together that it will be fine.  I have great plans for the weekend and just hope I can get them all done.

I thought for your Friday View I would show you some pictures of Ocean City, NJ.  I love that place and can't wait to get down there this summer.

May 15th

May 17th

May 25th

May 26th

 It's so pretty.  I love the ocean.

See you tomorrow with hopefully some great pictures for you.

Kathy

FRIDAY VIEW

Hello everyone.  It was back to work today and even though the schools got out at noon because the weather was too hot to have classes, it wasn't an overwhelming or bad day.  I am working on putting together a new "Humor" section and so have been entering books and pulling current humor books off of the shelf to put them in this new category.  It's interesting and fun.  (I enjoy reading some of the jokes too.)

What happens to a frog's car when it breaks down?
It gets toad away.  

What did the duck say when she bought lipstick?
"Put it on my bill." 

Well, enough of that.  Go ahead and groan now. 

It was another hot day today.  I went to Wendy's and got their new Strawberry Fields Chicken Salad for lunch.  I was pleasantly surprised by it.  It was really good.  I'm going to get it again.  I just had to take my medicine beforehand because it had cheese on it.

I stopped at Shop Rite after work and did my food shopping.  I spent more than I expected to but got enough for several weeks so I'm happy with that.  It is so much easier to shop right after work on Friday.  The store is crowded (it's never NOT crowded) but not as bad at 5 p.m. than it is at other times.  I can usually find a parking spot pretty close to the door too.  I guess 5 p.m. on Friday night is not when most people are shopping.  I haven't been shopping in 3 weeks so our shelves were pretty bare.  It's nice to see them filled again.  I have lots of ideas for dinners.

I wanted to have fish tonight, but the crab cakes were sold out and so were the flounder and tilapia.  The $8.99 salmon was gone and only the $13.99 salmon filet was left. I couldn't afford that. I looked at the refrigerated fish (left overs from yesterday) but that was pretty bare also.  So I did what I almost never do and looked at the frozen fish.  I found a package of two cod filets with an herb seasoned crust on them.  The price was right and they looked good so I decided to try them.  Oh my!  They are our new favorite fish.  It was wonderful.  I had that with seasoned fries and sliced tomato.  So good.  And a fast dinner since I got home so late.

Tomorrow I am working at my old stomping ground.  I am taking my turn at Northeast Regional Library where I worked for 8 years.  Just about half of my time with the library was spent there.  We had to put in to help out because they are so short handed.  This is actually the first Saturday the branch libraries are closed so I expect it to be a busy day tomorrow.  Our children's librarian, Liz, will be working there too, so I told her I would come to that department to see her.  The Northeast is the busiest branch outside of the Central Library.  There are four floors and six departments in the building.  It's huge.  So this will be quite a change from my usual day.  I am not looking forward to it, but after this Saturday I have my weekend free for the rest of the summer.  Yay!

So for your Friday View this week I wanted to show you my new flower arrangement outside of my front door.  I finally took down the Christmas tree (Oh, don't look at me like that.  It's been undecorated since New Year's Day.) and put in some pretty flowers.  It looks very summery now.

I'm going to end because I know it's going to be a long day tomorrow.  Have a good one, folks.


Kathy

A LATE FRIDAY VIEW

OK so it's Saturday.  But only by an hour.  I had off from work on Friday and am working today so this is going to be short and sweet because I really need to go to bed.

I thought I would get so much done today but not so.  I slept in (which I think I needed) and even ended up taking a nap in the afternoon.  I have one more day of work and then I am off for four days.  Wednesday is Joe's birthday and I took some days off for us to go away or do something.  However, now that he is not doing too well, I don't know how plans are going to go.  But at least we can go to breakfast and maybe a movie.  Or take a drive.  Or sleep in.  Something!

I did get some work done in the yard.  My earthbox is looking good again and I did over the fairy garden.  Last year I had a cute statue of some birds on a wagon wheel.  It fell off of the shelf I had it on and broke.  Well I found the same one at Rite Aid today for half price so got it for $2.  It's now in the fairy garden and looks wonderful there.

I went to Rite Aid to get white out.  But you know me.  I came out with $20 worth of stuff.  Besides the little birds, I got a beautiful ceramic planter for the patio table.  I want to plant it up this weekend.  And a birthday card for Joe.  He's going to love it.  I love it!  They also had cereal 2 boxes for $5.  You can't beat that.

I cleaned off the lamp table next to the sofa today.  How do I accumulate so much stuff?  It's so easy to lay things down when you walk in the door and the table is right there.  But it's looking good now.  So much more cleaning to do.  But I am not going to get myself all upset about it.  I'm just taking things one at a time and eventually it will get done.  Especially when I have four days next week!

So for your Friday view I am going to show you the new African violet I bought.  I cleaned out the pot that I had the old one in that died.  I washed it real good and put fresh water in the bottom.  Then the new plant went in.  I have never seen a violet like this one.  It's a ruffled violet but is growing both white and purple flowers on one plant.  Imagine that!

Gotta go to bed.  Morning comes quickly.

Kathy

FRIDAY VIEW

It's such a beautiful day!  Sunny, warm and just perfect.  I had to work today and am so happy to be home and able to just relax.  That is until tomorrow which is going to be a full day.  But for tonight I am going to enjoy.

Work went pretty good today.  No real problems and what there were I was able to easily solve.  Why can't it be like that every day?

I went to Rite Aid at lunch and they had garden chairs on sale.  Usually they are $15 and I got one for $10.  We desperately need new chairs and these are really pretty.  They are black metal folding chairs with a sky blue back and seat.  They came in bright red also.  I'll be taking pictures this weekend to show you.  I got just one to see if it was the right height for the table.  If so, I will get three more.  If not, just one more that I can use in our seating arrangement.

After work I stopped at Home Depot.  I was looking for a couple of hanging baskets for my shepherd's crook.  But they were not only expensive, but huge.  Much bigger than I wanted.  So I am going to keep looking and if worse comes to worse I will make my own.  We'll see.  I did get a new African violet though.  Mine finally bit the dust.  I'm going to wash out the pot tonight and get this new one all settled in.  Yes, I know.  Pictures will follow.

Since it is Friday I called out to Dominos for dinner.  It's so easy and I'm all about easy this week.

I finally got over my migraine this morning after having it for two days.  Almost everyone in my family gets migraines.  We are so lucky.  Maybe that's why I'm feeling so much better.

I see from the app that our sandwiches and chicken are out to be delivered, so I will get off of here.  But before I go I need to show you my Friday view.

The other day at work I was just doodling as I often do at lunch time and drew a rubber band on my calendar.  Well, I did such a good job on it that for days I tried to pick it up and put it away.  Not just once, but several times every day.  That darn drawing!  I was glad to tear off that page when I changed it to May.

Looking back, it was pretty funny.  But I'm not doing it again!

Have a good night everyone.  I'm planning great posts for this weekend.

Kathy

FRIDAY VIEWS

This has been such a busy week that I haven't had time to post anything.  It isn't that I've forgotten about you, dear readers.  I've been visiting your blogs when I've gotten a chance.  I hope this post will make up for things with picture overload.  Uh...  maybe not.

Anyway, on Monday we celebrated Diane and Tom's birthdays at work.  I went at lunch time and got a cake and cards at ShopRite.  Diane's birthday was on the 1st and with everything going on with Joe I completely forgot about it.  So I wanted to get a cute belated birthday card for her.  Could I find one?  Of course not.  Finally one of the employees helped me.  There was one card in the entire store, so I got it.  It wasn't what I wanted, but it had to do.

Bob was on the desk and he wanted to sing to them, so I hopped on to replace him.  As a result I didn't get a picture of the whole cake, but here's the cake after it was cut.  I tried to get a marble cake because Diane likes yellow and Tom likes chocolate.  Well, there was a little chocolate in it but not much.  Not much of a marble as far as I was concerned.  But it was good and everyone liked it.

There was a great sunset on Monday also.  Look at this!

On Tuesday we had a fantastic Ladies' Bible Study.  We are going through the book of Daniel and this week did chapter 5 -- the handwriting on the wall.  I always put little pictures at the bottom of the study sheet they get.  I found a picture of God's hand writing on the wall and I couldn't put it on because it just freaked me out.  I'm not usually like that, but I could just imagine it.  So instead they got a picture of the ruins of King Nebuchadnezzar's palace.  Much safer.

Joe has been doing so much better and all his injuries are healing nicely.  But on Wednesday his tremors returned and he wasn't able to get to church that night to lead his Bible study.  He sent me in his place.  I was really not prepared because I teach the little ones on Wednesday.  So I could have had everyone coloring pictures of the Garden of Eden and making snakes out of play dough, but that was about it.  It turned out that we just shared our thoughts with each other and had a time of prayer.  The little girls were bothering us during the prayer time because they kept running in from the classroom to ask questions or show us things, so while the others were praying I took them to their room and we read them some books and we went over our memory verse.  They were making pictures of princesses and made one that they said was me.  They put my eyes in my forehead because I am short and this way I can see over the other people.  Ha, ha, ha!  They are so creative and funny!

On  Tuesday Diane went home sick.  On Wednesday Clarissa was sick, but wouldn't go home.  She called out sick on Thursday, though.  Today it's my turn.  My stomach is queasy and my head is pounding.  Boss is not too happy with us this week, but it must just be making its rounds.  Better sick here at home than at work.  Monday starts another week.

So for your Friday View this week I am going to show you the work going on next door.  Remember I told you about all the pounding going on inside as they gutted and remodeled the place?  Well they sided the back of the house and it looks beautiful.  Now they are getting the front ready for stucco.  Or so they told me.

This was taken in my car's mirror so everything is backwards.  But I wanted to show the three layers on the house.  The original is the wooden siding.  Then there's a layer of asphalt that looks like brick and a layer of asphalt that is gray (the way I've always seen it.)

These next pictures are taken at night under the street light outside our houses.  I'm the brick front.

They are going to town on it.  The insulation is on and they are putting up plywood.

Look at this scaffolding!  I would not want to climb it.  Heights aren't for me unless I'm inside a building.

As you can imagine it is very noisy during the day.  It isn't helping my headache at all!

More of the scaffolding.  The guys are really nice and pleasant.  They cleaned up the mess they made on our sidewalk.  I move my car if I am home so it doesn't get damaged and they have more room to work.

I like the view of this photo.  It's my "art picture".

 They are hard at work today.  I am hoping to take more pictures when they leave.  I don't want them to think I am taking shots of them.  More to come!

Hope you have a good day.  I'm going to take some aspirin and try to feel better.

Kathy

FRIDAY VIEW

Yes, folks, it's time for another Friday View.  I have a cute one for you today.  Last week Liz, our children's librarian, was on vacation so Jerry, the adult librarian (with three small grandchildren), filled in as the reader for the Preschool Storytime.

He even wore a Cat-in-the-Hat hat when he read Green Eggs and Ham.  The theme for the day was "green".

Because he was the only librarian in that day, I had to sit at his desk and play librarian.  So I took these pictures from there.

What were my co-workers doing while this was going on?  Why working, of course.

Have a good day, everyone!
 
Kathy

----------------------------------------------
Thursday's weather:
 Rainy
High:  69 degrees
Low:  39 degrees 

FRIDAY VIEW

This has been quite a week.  I've been working every other day.  That has made it very confusing for me.

Monday -- Holiday for Martin Luther King Day.
Tuesday -- worked 11:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday -- took a personal day to take Joe to an appointment
Thursday -- worked 11:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Friday -- day off this week
Saturday -- working 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

You would think with all the time off I would have done a lot around the house.  Instead, all I did was sleep.  I am so tired all the time.

Today I went to the doctor's to get my 3 month blood test.  Each time I am tested for different things.  While I was there I asked the doctor to look at my hand.  I have had a lump growing on my index finger on my right hand.  It hurts something awful.  It is starting to shrink, but the pain is still bad.  I thought it might be a cyst, but she thinks it is a torn tendon.  It just has to heal.

Because I couldn't eat before the blood test, I was really hungry when I left the office.  It was almost 11:30.  So I went to the Chinese buffet and got take away.  I didn't know they had it, but I asked and they did.  So for under $5 I got a big lunch.  It was so good.

We were supposed to have a lot of snow on Tuesday and it turned out to be a dusting.  More rain than anything else.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a major snow storm.  I am hoping for more rain.  If it is bad, I will take the bus instead of driving.  I am glad I work so close to home.

It's getting late so I will get right to your Friday View.  I took this the other day when I parked my car.  These houses are on the next street over from me.  It's the last vestiage of Christmas.  Two days after I took this, all the lights were gone.

I've started decorating for Valentine's Day so hopefully I will show that to you this week.

Kathy

FRIDAY VIEWS

This was a short (and sort of strange) week at work.  I worked on Monday, had a vacation day on Tuesday to spend with my sister who was visiting, worked on Wednesday, had a sick day on Thursday and now I am working on Friday.  I will have the weekend off and then have a fairly normal week next week.  Except I will have Friday off because I am working on Saturday.  So I have worked every other day this week.  So glad I was able to keep track of what day it is!

I had a fun day on Tuesday even though it wasn't what we had planned.  It began with me trying (the operative word is trying) to clean up the house.  I work so hard on it and it still looks a mess.  And I do mean a mess.  But I am not giving up.  I figure if I can just get it looking good I will be able to keep it that way.  But I digress.

When Elaine showed up we ran a couple of errands and then decided to go to find what we thought was a new Lenox outlet.  I drove all the way to Bristol, PA only to find out that the address I had was the main offices.  No outlet.  The next closest outlet was another half hour away.  I didn't have time to do that because I had a doctor's appointment at 2 p.m.  So we turned around and came back home.  An hour's drive for nothing.

We ended up at Dollar Tree where we both found things for Christmas.  I love dollar stores.  The only thing wrong is you spend so much money because everything is a good deal!  I got candy canes, little boxes and gift bags, bows, tape, a pair of Christmas socks and some other assorted things.  A couple of stocking stuffers too.  Plus I found some Marie Callendar's blueberry muffin mix which I will make up for Fellowship Time on Sunday morning.  Good deal -- $2 for a dozen muffins.  I couldn't get them in a store for that.  I also got two stockings to decorate with -- one for me and one for Joe.  Aren't they just too cute?

Then we came home to use the bathroom and went to my doctor's appointment.  We got there at 2:00 and no one was there.  In fact, no one came into the office until 2:30 and my doctor not until 2:45.  That was so ridiculous.  There was nobody there when we first walked in but other people came while we were waiting -- one for a 2:15 appointment and the other for a 2:30 appointment.  Everyone was complaining.  I wasn't too happy about it either.  I was going to walk out at 2:30 if no one had showed up.  Elaine waited in the outer room while I went into the office.  The stories she told me when I came out about the people in the waiting room were hilarious.  I told her that living away from the city for so long she had forgotten what Philly is like.  People are so funny.

It was freezing cold and raining like crazy all day so it's just as well we didn't take the long trip we had planned out to Lancaster County.

By this time it was getting on to 3:30 p.m. so we opted for an early dinner.  I went to the bank and then to the eye doctor to get my glasses fixed.  The nose piece had come off both my glasses and my spare.  Weird, I know.  So I got them fixed.  Then we headed for the Country Club Restaurant for dinner.

The dinner was so good.  I had chicken francaise, Elaine had flounder francaise and Joe had veal parmigiana.  Elaine and Joe had dessert, but I was stuffed.  I asked for cookies to take home since dessert came with the meal.

On the way home we stopped by Greeby Street.  There is a block on this street that decorates so elaborately for Christmas.  I wanted Elaine to see it.  We both got out and took pictures.  Joe opted to stay in the car since it was still raining.  Elaine's pictures turned out better than mine.  A lot of mine were blurry.  But here are some of the ones I took.  Consider them this week's Friday View.

The last 13 pictures were taken from the Greeby Street Christmas facebook page where there are even more pictures if you want to look at them.  It's incredible.

Yesterday I went for my six-month checkup with my oncologist.  Everything is good.  Yay!  But the entire drive there and back was snow.  At least it was the kind of snow I like.  It looks pretty coming down.  Sticks a little bit to the grass, and is gone by the end of the day.  No slick sidewalks or streets.  It was coming down good there for awhile.

So that has been my interesting week.  Let's see what the weekend brings.  One more day until two days off!

Kathy