A theme decided

I am not an avid blog reader or writer. But I do visit daily my favorite blogs, most having to do with sewing/embroidery/quilting/cooking - that sort of domestic type stuff. Now I know many folk use the internet to indulge in pornography or politics or bomb building. In comparison, my internet interests are quite tame. However, I'd like to say that in my perusals of my favorite topics I have come across the work of some very cool, very talented women, and I'd like to be part of what they're doing. But I don't have what it takes to put together websites and blogs like theirs, so I'm thinking of some topics to devote my blog to, and I think I've come up with something. In a few weeks, we'll be going into phase II of having our property rehabed from underground oil contamination - a smallish leak from our own oil tank, and a Valdez-type affair from our neighbor's. This deal started a year ago, and the biggest part of the job has yet to be done: supporting our garage on "stilts" and excavating the dirt out from under the garage (not to mention emptying the garage of 30 years of junk!). While the gents are in the 12 hole under our garage, they'll be probing under our house to see how things look under there. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed things are clean.) I'll soon post some pictures of the work that's already been done and then document the next phase when it gets going. Good idea, huh? Might be better than just recording what I had for breakfast.

Yeah!!!

Yeah! It worked! OK, I might get back into blogging - not that I was ever really there - but I'll see what can happen. So here's what happened today: (aren't you interested?) I spent the day with my lovely daughter, going shopping, making dinner together. Then her husband and my son came for dinner. It's a rare occassion when we're all together (me, my husband, daughter, son, and son-in-law). I love everyone and wish I saw my kiddies more than I do. But they're adults now and don't hang around with mommy and daddy anymore. When they were little and were with us all the time was the best time of my life. Frustrating at times, and I would have liked to have had more freedom and help taking care of kids, but nevertheless, the absolute best time of my life. I can't think about this too much - them being grown and gone - because it's one of the very few things in life that make me feel so sad that I could cry. I hope they know I love them as much as I do. Enough of this sentimentality, however; life moves on.

I'll be back to this another time. Peace and blessings to all who pass this way!

Hey.

Hey. I'm doing a blog. First one since July, I believe. That's eight months. If I were pregnant, I'd almost have a baby! I wonder if I'll be able to upload a photo now that I'm on the "new" blogging system. I'm going to try . .




Well, if the uploading worked, you'll see a picture of our Christmas tree. Kind of out of season, but it was a handy picture for this test. OK, I'm going to post this and see what happened.

Need a ride?

A few young men apparently needed a ride to the Jersey Shore 4th of July morning, because they were trying to steal our car from the driveway! Despite the fact it was a holiday, my hubster's biological clock was still operating, because he woke up at 6 a.m. - the time he usually wakes up for work. He heard a rumpus in front of our house. Upon looking out the window, he saw two young blokes hop out of our "good" car and start to push it out of the driveway. The hubster scampered downstairs to call the police and then took a seat at the window to describe to the police the progress of the robbery. There was another car in the street (probably another stolen one, since it was a rather nice SUV) that then proceeded to push our car up the street - we think they were trying to pop the clutch to get it started. No luck. So they all left rather swiftly in the SUV. A police car arrived too late to see the "perps." Now I was out of bed and out in the street in my PJs. I was told not to touch "the evidence," which was the contents of our car's trunk scattered in the road. So our car was towed (at our expense) to the police station to be "dusted for prints," which there were plenty of since they had been pushing the car. We picked the car up later in the afternoon and then had to hose it down to get the print dust off. Well it was "Independence Day," was it not? Doesn't that mean you're independent to make your own decisions? And if that includes stealing someone's car - so be it. And there was our American flag, fluttering over our driveway as those young gents attempted to make off with our car, a symbol for them that they have the right to pursue happiness in our Infiniti. I don't like anyone touching my stuff! And I don't like those guys. If they were out at 6 a.m., I'm sure they just didn't wake up - I think they were out all night doing bad things! Maybe in the afterlife all this stuff will be balanced out. Maybe. Maybe not.

It's kind of 4th of July weekend

It could be 4th of July weekend if Monday weren't between Sunday and 4th of July. But it is. So it's only kind of 4th of July weekend. Nevertheless, in honor of this "special" weekend, we visited my town of origin today, Jersey City. (I actually go there frequently, but today was an honorary visit.) Here are some pictures I took on our trip:






That's downtown NYC and mid-town (see the Empire State Building?) from downtown JC. Had the downtown NYC picture been taken six years ago, you would have seen the World Trade Center towers there. . . no comment.



The bizarre building above is an abandoned power plant in Jersey City. Scary looking, isn't it. I think that's where Dr. Frankenstein hooked up the monster and used the lightening to get him going. The monster may still be stalking and stumbling around my beloved home town at night. Walking with his arms straight out and grunting.I hope I don't see him!

Summer Vacation

Today is my first "official" day of summer vacation! (It may be offcial, but I do have to work tonight nevertheless - taking pictures at high school graduation.) Therefore, I am embarking this morning on the first of the many items on my summer to-do list - cleaning the pantry. The annual pantry purge has begun: removing the contents, disposing of the totally rancid or unnecessary, washing the shelves, replacing and artfully arranging what's going back in. At least there's no "pantry moths" to contend with this year - nor was there last year. Those little pests would force the disposal of practically everything that was in the pantry. They can bore into anything and even get under jar lids. So today's job is relatively easy compared to the fumigating of past years. When I'm done, I may post a picture of my work.

Rainy Saturday

This is the second consecutive day I'm doing a blog - amazing. It's raining hard in northern New Jersey - a fine day to stay in and clean. I've tackled part of the basement/family room/laundry; we make good use of our limited space. There's still plenty of work to go. I'm listening to recordings of old Jean Shepherd radio shows. Anyone know him? If you were a kid in the 1960s in the NYC area, you might know Jean Shepherd. He did radio broadcasts from the Limelight in Greenwich Village for years. He was great to listen to in bed at night in the dark. A gifted ranconteur, he was probably the closest radio came to its own Jack Kerouac.

We have no telephone service today; probably something to do with the radio. A Verizon serviceman needs to make a call, but one can't come until Tuesday. Therefore, we're dependent upon our mobile phones - but I'm not sure many of our friends, those who may think to call us to go out to dinner tonight - know our mobile numbers. Therefore, I'll have to call everyone I know and ask if they're thinking of inviting us anywhere. Too pushy? I'll risk being pushy to avoid no partying on a Saturday night, even in the rain.

Rainy Saturday

This is the second consecutive day I'm doing a blog - amazing. It's raining hard in northern New Jersey - a fine day to stay in and clean. I've tackled part of the basement/family room/laundry; we make good use of our limited space. There's still plenty of work to go. I'm listening to recordings of old Jean Shepherd radio shows. Anyone know him? If you were a kid in the 1960s in the NYC area, you might know Jean Shepherd. He did radio broadcasts from the Limelight in Greenwich Village for years. He was great to listen to in bed at night in the dark. A gifted ranconteur, he was probably the closest radio came to its own Jack Kerouac.

We have no telephone service today; probably something to do with the radio. A Verizon serviceman needs to make a call, but one can't come until Tuesday. Therefore, we're dependent upon our mobile phones - but I'm not sure many of our friends, those who may think to call us to go out to dinner tonight - know our mobile numbers. Therefore, I'll have to call everyone I know and ask if they're thinking of inviting us anywhere. Too pushy? I'll risk being pushy to avoid no partying on a Saturday night, even in the rain.

Yipee!

It worked!! See the pictures on the post below! (Aren't they gorgeous, those kiddies of mine?) Now I'm going to have a good time with "No Time to Blog." (So instead of doing the housework that I need to do, I'll be fooling around with this. Oh well. - Here comes summer.

Yipee!

It worked!! See the pictures on the post below! (Aren't they gorgeous, those kiddies of mine?) Now I'm going to have a good time with "No Time to Blog." (So instead of doing the housework that I need to do, I'll be fooling around with this. Oh well. - Here comes summer.

Trying again

Photo upload didn't work with Explorer, so now I've loaded Firefox into my Mac. So I'll try again. . .

Well today was my last day of work for the summer, so maybe now I will have time to do some blogging! First, I'm going to try posting some pictures. The last time I tried this, I met with failure. So here I go again. I will attempt to post some pictures of my daughter's wedding in April. We recently received the photos from the photographer. If you don't see any pictures, that means I've failed again - here goes. . .

Well, that didn't work. As the ball spins, indicating the pictures are uploading, my search engine, Safari, closes. Ok. I'm shutting down here and trying again on Explorer. Wish me luck.