East Coast Happenings

[Diane Amberg]

Another perfect day. Northwest breezes from Canada and humidity in the 30's.Yesterday I got my hair cut and stopped at the farmers market and Pepperidge Farm outlet on the way home.
We went to nearby Maryland later to try out the relatively new Golden Corral and Grill at the truck stop just off I95. We went for the early bird dinner which was a bargain at $ 7.69 including beverage. I was surprised that it wasn't very busy.
They started in North Carolina so there is a southern lean on the cooking. Good pot roast, grits, okra, baked potatoes,gravies, several kind of beans and breads, salads and all sort of good things to try.
  I have never see so many desserts in my life. They even had a chocolate and vanilla fountain with dippers. I don't personally care for that ... too many germ potentials for me. But the soft ice cream over apple pie was very good.
Time to go put the clean clothes away and finish in the kitchen.

[Diane Amberg]

Nature did it again.It's beautiful.We don't usual get such a run of weather this nice for this long.
I've been enjoying the photos of some young friends who just spent their honeymoon hiking and camping in Peru.Their goal was Machu Picchu and they made it. It took four days of rugged trails and camping to get there and the altitude was hard on them but they loved it.
Tomorrow we're going to a Bat Mitzvah for the twins of friends. They are doing a beach theme for the birthday party following services, so I put together a gift filled sand bucket for each of them... looks really cute.
Pizza tonight..no cooking. YAY!
Tomorrow the thundering herd starts coming back. They've already had their first overdose last night and the dorms aren't even officially open yet. Some will run wild, get hit by cars,drink themselves into the hospital, or worse, and now we are having a heroin overdose epidemic.
I dread the next two weeks. I have to add 10 minutes to everywhere I go until the traffic patterns settle down again.
I left a casserole dish in the sink to soak, time to go wash it.

[Diane Amberg]

I picked another big trug of toms and a dozen or so more cukes.The cukes are about done.
Tomorrow Ill make another peach cobbler and a nice summer squash casserole that we both love.
  UD is back in full swing. We've had several students hit by cars, overdoses galore, stupid drunks stumbling all over the place, and the traffic is a pain again twice a day.
I can hear the marching band practicing from here, which I love.
The Bat Mitzvah service and party after was wonderful. The Rabbi is very modern (reconstructionist) and a delight to listen to.(He played guitar for all the songs.) At least half the people there were not Jewish, and he was very good about explaining everything in English. The birthday party afterward was at our fire hall and was totally decorated in beach themes and there was boardwalk food. Our one hall manager had a fit when Dave hauled in 4 50 pound bags of sand and George was scared to death of what Dave was going to do. When questioned, Dave(the father) told him he was going to dump it on the floor to make a beach area.    (It was to put in big sand buckets (wet) to put big beach umbrellas in on the tables). Very clever. When asked about the big buckets, Dave told him they were for the water fights.   Poor George about had a heart attack.
All in all everyone had a wonderful time.
Back to Bingo tonight.

[proelkco]

Our garden did nothing this year so glad yours did.

[Diane Amberg]

We have had a lot of rain, almost too much sometimes, so we did have a very good garden this year.
I'm sorry you weren't successful. Too dry? We're going to be back in the 90's for the next few days and then it drops down again. That may cause the toms to stop blooming, but we'll see .
With UD back in session, Newark is sure hopping.

[Diane Amberg]

Hot but nice today.
The Pope is coming later this month.The mid Atlantic region and on up to NY is really starting to get excited. It's all kind of lost on me, but means a lot to many people here. For most it's a once in a life time event.
He'll be in Philly for a weekend and there are several events planned. People are swooping on every available room, including here.
  As much as I hated to do it, it's time for this old girl to catch up on health appointments. I scheduled my annual mammogram, blood tests, physical, and the dreaded colonoscopy. Thank goodness it's only every 5 years. I hope it stays that way.
We have been helping out a very old racoon with a bad leg. She comes up on the deck almost every evening looking for food. So far she seems to do OK with dog kibble. I don't usually approve of feeding such animals, but I know she'd never make it on her own.
Twice now, after she has had her fill, she has curled up under the deck table and slept for a long time. I'm sure winter will claim her.( I'm just guessing that she is a girl.The males I've seen are usually much bigger.)
The lady fox, who we have seen quite often all summer, has finished raising her kit and doesn't come around as much now.
The local squirrels are starting to chip away at the dogwood seeds now that they are turning red, and the hummers are starting to look like little stuffed sausages. Al is calling.Have a great day.

[Diane Amberg]

Our get together at Green Tree PA was lots of fun yesterday. These are the retired vet and my forever girlfriend who had their 50th anniversary recently.We had to finish before the Penn State game came on. They can't miss that.
The "Pour Girls" It is a colonial inn deep in Amish country, so it's a treat to drive the 34 minutes there through beautiful farm country. It was a perfect day, so all the Amish were out with their beautiful bay horses cutting corn, hay and the tobacco leaves that are pegged as they are cut and then hug to dry in the big ventilated tobacco barns.
The woman have beautiful flower gardens that are always so colorful this time of year. The wild walnut trees are dropping their leaves now, and are rattling down the road as the squirrels gather up the nuts.
We stopped at an Amish stand on the way home and I got two quart baskets of Limas to freeze.
   Al's little belt sander, that he has had for 25 years, broke this morning. He just came home with a new one. I hope it's not Chinese junk..
UD lost its first football game at home Friday night. Not a good start.
On Sept 22, on Discovery, they are supposed to have a show on about the infamous "Johnston Gang" that has roamed around in PA and Delaware for years.(I think that they are all in prison now.) Very violent and dangerous, and would steal anything from anyone. My friends from yesterday lost a tractor to them years ago.
Time to go start working on dinner.

[Diane Amberg]

Nice, but a little too hot today. I'm starting on my fall house cleaning..gotta shovel it out once in awhile whether it needs it or not. My favorite East Enders weren't on again last night, so we watched some more reruns of Prime Suspect. I always liked Helen Mirren in that series.
I'm working on the school lists and Fire Prevention Contest Rules packs for the schools in our fire district. There are 21 schools in our district, so it takes awhile for two of us to get the packs out to everyone from K-8. I hope to get some of mine delivered tomorrow and finish on Wednesday.I'm sure you all must do something similar in your schools.
No Bingo tonight, so I'm soon going to read for awhile and then treat myself to a rare nap. Hope all the non retirees enjoy their day off, if they get one. For everyone else, enjoy this symbolic, but official end of summer.

[Diane Amberg]

Whew! It's hot and humid this afternoon.I expect pop up thunderstorms later.
I had my annual appointment with 'Julius Squeezer," this morning and the girls still look OK, but the doc will check the digital x-rays for details later today.
While I was out anyway, I got the contest deliveries made to four of our schools. I hope to finish the other 5 of my share tomorrow.
I also stopped and filled my gas tank. $2.19... a great price by at least 10 cents here.
For the rest of the afternoon I have a boring and detailed job to do.I'm on the Constitution and By- Laws Committee for our fire company. We have done a big over haul and amended and added a number of things. Now I have to proof read all 45 or so pages.They actually WANT me to find the spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.
Bye for now.

[Diane Amberg]

 I worked late, got up very early and did more on the proof reading.Turns out to be 50 pages with the addition of  a new membership category. I'm almost finished, but need to run through the whole thing again so I don't miss anything. Parts are kind of technical, so I want to be sure there could be no misinterpretation.