Wednesday, April 15, 2009





Hello Nice People

Not too much happening today. Rain, rain and more rain. It 's been raining since Sunday night. I'm off from work all this week and I haven't been out of the house since church on Sunday. But it hasn't been a total loss. I cleaned some drawers. Threw away clothes that are getting shabby. Cleaned the silverware drawer, and spent at least part of the time just playing on the computer. Let's see, I watched The View, watched Oprah, watched Ellen and Tyra, and saw every piece of news about the untimely death of Harry Kalas. What happened to the Octomom? She would have been good for a couple hours of mindless TV viewing. Hey, and I even cleaned up my blog. I added some pictures. Those little darlings up there are my Grandsons. Thats Nick (13) and Angelo (12) and Anthony (10). Well, now the weather channel is on and they are predicting clearing late tonight and a nice tomorrow. Yes, yes, and yes!!!! Everyone have a nice evening and I think I am going to wash the dog.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Another entry already

Hello Nice People,

Good job USA! Something to make us feel proud. We watched Fox news yesterday about the rescue of the ship Captain while we ate Easter dinner.

I am off from work for a whole week. What a great feeling when you know you don't have to get up for work tomorrow. Not that I am a sleeper. Up at 5 AM. I love the morning when it is all mine. We have some things planned this week to catch up around the house like painting. We are off to Home Depot in a few minutes to pick out paint. Uh oh!!! I guess that is delayed for an hour cuz Hubby just said," I think we DO have a mouse cuz I just heard scratching behind the dishwasher." I have been telling him I hear scratching up in the attic during the night. But he says "Nah, its branches rubbing on the roof." If there is a mouse or mice in the attic, I guess we have to get rid of him or he will be peeing all over the insulation. And there are afghans up there and winter clothes. Oh yeh, since I am off from work, I plan to clean up my blog. Get rid of those horrible colors. Off to Home Depot!!!!

Talkatchalater,


Saturday, April 11, 2009

Easters Past


Hello Nice People
Shiver, shiver, shiver.......what a cold and rainy nasty day. And for the day before Easter too. But I think we forget as the days pass, that it is usually chilly in early April. I remember Easters that were snowy. Easter as a kid, was always spent on the Boardwalk. One dollar was all that was needed to enjoy a few hours of rides and junkfood. Of course, it would be in a frilly nylon dress and white patent leather shoes. As we got a little older, the frilly dress was replaced with slacks and little flat shoes. That was in the sixties when Easter on the boards was the perfect place to meet "boys." Living in a Tourist area, always was the BEST.
But 14 years ago on April 12, I lost my father. That was in 1995. Poor ole Pa, as I called him. He was 87 when he died. Actually, he was in good health and still working every day. He said he wanted to work right into the millenium. Unfortunately, he didn't make it. It was a couple of thugs that cut his working life short by mugging him in his parking garage booth where he worked. It was all downhill after that. He tried to go back, but only made it for a few more weeks. And then his health began to fail. Poor ole Pa, he was a good man. Never drove a car, never smoked a cigarette or drank. I used to pass him on the avenue, when I was on the bus coming home from grade school. He would be walking, on his way in town to work, and I could see his lips moving as he walked. Only I and he knew that he was saying his Rosary as he walked.
In those last few days of his life, he lapsed into a deep sleep that the visiting nurse said was near to the end. Of course, we called the Priest, and as he was giving Pa his Last Rites, he woke up. "Whats the Priest doing here?" he asked. "Oh, well Pa, tomorrow is Palm Sunday so he just came to visit." "Well, I could go for a good cup of coffee." And so he did. Pa sat out on the sunporch, with his cup of coffee and did his last crossword puzzle. And I still have that puzzle. When he was tired enough, he went back to his bed and never got up. Three days later, he passed away. That was 14 years ago on April 12. Poor ole Pa, he never bothered anybody.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Oh No,!! Not Again.


Hello Nice People,
Thanx Joyce for this tag. I am on my laptop and don't have much in files, so Joyces Tag came in handy.
Thank God its Friday. It was a horrendous week at work. What is the absolute worse that a school bus driver can do? Get into an accident? NOPE! Yell at some little munchkin? NOPE! Come on, we see it on the news all the time. Yep, thats it......Leave a kid on the bus. And it happened two times this week. And, it was TWO different drivers. So we all paid our dues attending mandatory meetings to assure that it doesn't happen again. Since this became a problem some years back, every bus is equipped with a button in the back that has to be pushed before you can shut the bus down. This forces the driver to walk to the back of the bus or else the horn will blow and the lights will flash. Did that solve the problem? No it did not. So, they added a form that has to be checked with the time that you pushed the button, and turned in every Friday. So what happened? Two drivers leave kids on the bus. Two nice, good people. Unfortunately, they are two nice, good, unemployed people. I just want to slap them and say what the he-- is wrong with you? Not only did you endanger two kids, but now you don't have a job! And we better all get down on our knees and thank the Good Lord that nothing happened to those two kids.
So here is the new ritual:
#1 Go to the back of the bus and push the BS button.
#2 Write on the form the time that you pushed the button
and initial it.
#3 Call base on the radio and say:
"2630 to base, I have unloaded my last kid in AC.
I have done a walk thru, checked under the seats.
There are no children on the bus."
THEN and only then can you continue on and shut off the bus
when you get home.
I hope this works.
Talkatchalater,

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Oh No! I have a Dold in my Dose

attention please Hello Nice People,

I have a dold in my dose, so don't get too close.  So, with a cold, and a stinky, cold and rainy day......whats to do but stay in the house and clean.  So thats what I did today.  I even stayed off  the computer.  That was not as hard as I thought it would be.  I put the food  channel on and cleaned while they cooked everything from creamy rice to peanut brittle.  Paula  Deen, Giada, and the Neelys, and now there is some new blonde with spikey hair that  cooks up restaurant food.   She explains everything in minute detail, like we are all morons.  Oh gosh,  that sounds a little mean doesn't it.  I guess I am tired and not feeling too well.  Don't mind me.

      When I had enough of the cooking channel,  I went to good old Fox News.  There is the sad story of  four cops in  San Diego, that were  killed.  Fox carried some of the funeral today.  We, here in the Philadelphia area have seen that scenario so many times this year.  Unfortunately, here at the Jersey Shore, we had two fishing boats go down.  The first one last week, all were rescued.  But on Thursday,  five of seven men lost their lives when a scallop boat sunk 65 miles off shore.  It is just so sad.  The man who owned the boat, lost his brother and two sons.  I  worry about my son in law, he is also a commercial fisherman.  Commercial fishing is rated the number one most dangerous job.  Why does bad things happen to good people.  I guess only God knows the answer to that.  

 

 

        Thank you Peggy for the link to the doll patterns.  Peggy has the cutest cloth dolls on her blog, and I love cloth dolls.  Google Raggedy Old Annie to see some her dollies and buy patterns.  I think I might give it a try.  Summer is coming and I should have more time to do what I want.   It will be so nice not to have to be in bed by 8:30 or 9 o'clock.   Speaking of time,  one of these days when I have some time,  I am going to spruce up this blog.  I have red and blue with yellow buses on the margins.  And  Maroon and pink on the inside.  Thats gotta go!!!

      Well, the house is clean and my creamy rice was devoured (I learned that from the food  channel),  so I think I will get off of here and watch some TV.  Good Night ALL!

                                                          Forever friends (thanks Joyce)

                                                      marlene`friends

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A Chicken story


Hello Nice People
Thank Ya Much for all the nice comments from everyone.
What a great group of people we have here. I was reading Kellys last entry about Hank and "Yippee" he is doing better. Only Kelly could make us happy for a chicken.
I have a cute chicken story:
Many years ago, when we were first married.....now that would make us about 23 years old....the little kids in the neighborhood got wind of it that I had a big weakness for animals.I had a constant stream of little ones bringing me birds that had fallen out of trees, half eaten (by a cat) squirrels and even a skunk. Well, it seems that there was a teacher at Mill Road School that would hatch chicks for science and then throw them in the trash. So the little kids brought me 3 baby chicks. Two died, and I was left with one which I raised in a bird cage. As the weather got warmer and the chick got bigger, we put him outside in the back yard. Our little town has a law that there are to be no farm animals. Of course, this included chickens. Well, in the beginning,this was just a chicken. We never thought about male or female. One summer morning, the weirdest noise woke us up. "What the heck was that?" Heard it again. Here's where Hubby says, "That ain't no chicken, thats a ROOSTER!" What the heck are we going to do with a rooster in Northfield? Now I am emotionally attached to this bird and he insists on crowing at the crack of dawn and waking up the neighbors. A block down the street was a little market. I got a Call from Mr Puggi saying that your rooster is down here pecking holes in my watermelons. A block the other way is a small department store that sold garden supplies and tools. Mr Rooster would walk down there and go in through the revolving door. Eventually, there were just too many complaints about a rooster terrorizing the neighborhood, so something had to be done. A few miles away, in another town there was an elderly lady who had chickens in her backyard. Well, there I was on her doorstep, crying like a baby with this big Road Island Red in my arms. She agreed to take my chicken, and take good care of him. And I could visit him anytime I like. Well, I DID visit. But for some reason, she never showed me my chicken. It took a long time for me to accept the idea that MY chicken was probably her Thanksgiving dinner. Now that I am older, I'm not quite so naive. Sorry Kelly.

Sunday, March 15, 2009


Hello Nice People,
Is anyone other than me tired of seeing that picture of me in my last entry? Shoot, it's been sitting there since February 1st. I do plug into my Blog now and then to navigate to others who are tirelessly keeping THEIR blogs up to date. Yep, I have become a LURKER! I know, I should be ashamed. I don't know what happened to me. I just became very disinterested in keeping up this blog. I even thought of deleting it. Who would care. Would anyone miss it. But here I am. Maybe everyone feels that way now and then.
I am coming to you from my brand new LAPTOP. Well, it's not that new. I bought this shortly before Christmas. I know I have ranted about Hubby and how he took over MY computer with his card playing. And he doesn't even feel any guilt about it. OH, I would seethe (spelling?) as he sat at MY computer playing those stupid cards. "Do you want to get on here?" "Wellll NO, now its time to go to bed!!!" So guess what, I think we will buy a LAPTOP for me. Wow, it seems like yesterday we had this same conversation about getting a COMPUTER. That was about 10 or 12 years ago. ME--"Hey,lets get a computer." HIM--"Why, for what. what the heck do we need a computer for?" ME--"Well, cause Joan has one and Neva has one, so I want one. AND I want a Gateway because they come in cute cow boxes. So I did get a computer and I think I drove the Gateway people nuts for the next 6 months trying to get the darn thing to work right. Now I am the old broad that others call to ask for help. Here it is about 10 years later and we are a 2 computer family. It the house wasn't so small, I would get one in each room.
We are still on our LowCarb Diet. And we are down about 55 pounds each. I cleaned my closet and I have a pile of clothes that are all aout 4 to 6 sizes too big. Some I hate to part with, like my leather jacket, but what would be the sense in keeping them. I already have smaller an larger sizes in the attic that I will never use.
It has been cold and dreary here today and I had no intentions of going out. But, Carole called nad said, "there's a house sale on First Street." "Well let's go" I said, "what are we waiting for?" I've been looking for a vanity for the back bedroom Thats where I put my makeup on and do my hair. But I don't want anything new. I want an old one that I can paint shabby chic. I would be so happy with an OLD house that has a squeeky screen door and an old fashioned screened in porch. Uhoh, I can hear lots of people screaming, "Oh no you wouldn't".
Time to get off here and warm up some leftovers.
Talkatchalater,
Marlene