Saturday, October 20, 2007


Another view.

Here is a picture of Jim and Michelle's flowers. Wasn't that nice of Leslie to remember? We will try not to wear them out before they get back.

Mary
Dick and I spent an exciting morning at the Stephanie Weill Center as part of the taping of the Michael Feldman PBS Show What' ya Know. It was a special thing for Sheboygan. He geared his interviews and dialogue and music to Sheboygan.

He interviewed Ruth De Young Kohler about the current exhibit at the John Michael Kohler Art Center, a representative from Miesfeld and a local surfer called Long Board. He also featured a local polka band. We enjoyed it immensely and then went to Amber's for lunch. We then tried to go to Miesfeld's for some brats but ran into the biggest mess of a road repair right at 42/43 that we could not figure out so we just came home.

It was a nice quiet afternoon. Chelsea only had one coughing spell that we know of today. Quite a relief from yesterday. I took a little nap and just puttered on stuff around the house.

When we got home there was a message on the machine that there were flowers on Jim and Michelle's doorstep. So I went to get them as Jim and Michelle left today til next Friday for a dual birthday and anniversary vacation up north. They are from Leslie and Bill and are absolutely beautiful. I took pictures all around and will keep them in the den downstairs which is cooler to see if they will keep for Jim and Michalle. They left early this morning. We haven't seen them in about two weeks. They emailed on Thursday to remind us that they were going to be gone and confirm that I was feeding Boots. I did kind of expect them to call last night just to say goodbye. If I had not seen them this morning as they left I would have wondered exactly when they had left and when exactly they were coming back. Oh Well.

Anyway, I called Leslie and Bill to let them know that Dick and I are going to get most of the benefit out of the flowers. They were not unhappy with that. We had a good visit. All is well down there and Nora will be graduating on Dec 21. and will be home for Christmas.

Guess that is all for now.

All my love

Mary

Friday, October 19, 2007

Today is Friday. Whew. Another week under the belt.

Dick always takes Chelsea in for a nap in the mornings which on Friday's gives me a chance to clean the kitchen and get floors scrubbed and dry without little or big feet tromping on it.

I left at about 11:00 to go into Sheboygan Falls before my lunch with the Wells Fargo people at Dairy Queen at 12:30. I stopped at Evens to pick up some iron appliques for a small repair job and then went to Mother's to drop off her money, some papers and the quilt that I made for new little Elizabeth Neeb. As soon as I am sure that Becky has seen the quilt I will post a picture on the blog.

On the way home I was listening to public talk radio. The moderator was interviewing a man about the dangerous Lion Fish. This fish originally was in Australia or somewhere and is a fish who's stingers, even if they only brush your skin leave a very very painful rash.

For some reason or other, this reminded me of my Dad. Dad LOVED plants. At one time he had a real obsession with cactus. Mother still has a lot of the cacti that he collected (sometimes "illegally") over the years. She kind of wishes they would die. But we Deeley's somehow or other cannot bring ourselves to just throw out living things, even old and rather raggedy cactus so she brings them outside in late spring and hauls them back in to the basement in the late fall. Actually, Jeff or Randy do the hauling now.

For years unusual Cactus were a nice gift to give Dad for his birthday and/or Christmas. You would be very surprised, if you have not looked, at the variety that are out there and how lovely they can be. Some of them even bloom.

By "illegally" I mean that he was known to break off a piece to start at home of plants that he would see that were interesting in public buildings.

One year he came out to visit me when I lived out in California. We took him out to the High Desert to visit a friend of my in laws and to do some jeeping. He was in his glory, collecting cactus and rocks to bring back home. This was just fine until it came time to take him to the airport. I offered to box his treasures up and send them but he insisted that he wanted to take them with him. So we packed them. I could not lift the suitcase. Then to add insult to injury, He looked at me and asked. " Whatever do you have in there?" Between him and my ex we managed to get them to the airport and checked in. Wonder of wonders they let them go through. I was frankly amazed. Now days they would have looked and probably told him he couldn't take them.

Now for the reason that the Lion Fish reminded me of cactus. There IS a reason.

Nora and I always had the job of dusting and cleaning the glass shelves that Mom and Dad had in all of the windows of the dining room. These shelves had various plants, ranging from African Violets to cactus. There was one cactus that we SWORE you just had to look at to get the little tiny stickers embedded in you skin. I don't know what it was but we called it the Killer Cactus. I never once managed to dust those shelves without getting those mini spines in my fingers.

Have a nice Saturday. We are going to see Michael Feldman at the Weill Center. Should be a fun morning.

Love

Mary

Thursday, October 18, 2007


Tall Grass on Tallgrass Lane. Isn't it pretty?

Mary
Posted by Picasa
We had rain and sunshine today. The rain early and I hear coming in now and sunshine in the middle of the day. Chelsea and I took a rather short walk because it started raining when we were well on our way. By the way, Chelsea has not had a seizure since the day before yesterday. She has coughed a couple of times but no seizures.

Got a call yesterday from Donna. There is a new person in the world. Elizbeth May Neeb was born yesterday. She weighed 7lb1oz and was 20 inches long. We are all very happy. I finished the quilt today. Now that I know who the baby is, I was able to finish the whole thing, even the tag. I will put a picture on the net after Becky gets the quilt. She should see it first. I will take it to Mother's tomorrow.

It was a rather quiet day, I mainly quilted. I did go to the bank and Dick and I mixed up a batch of Gewurtiziminer wine and replaced the screen with glass in the front door. Better to get that done before it gets REALLY cold. I still have about four planters to bring in. One of these days I will be home when it is not raining and I will be able to finish up.

I am going to post a picture of the planter in front of the house. You can see why they call it Tallgrass Lane.

Love

Mary

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Somehow this day is finally winding down and I feel like there should have been an hour or more to fit in all that was accomplished.


Chelsea and I had a lovely lively walk this morning. I believe that this is the first day in over a week that we have not had a severe coughing spell or seizure.

Dick and I went to breakfast,(Mc Donalds.) and then grocery shopping early. Then we had to take Chelsea for her checkup at 9:30. Her levels lo0k good. Dr. Connors is somewhat concerned that she is still having episodes. We are going to continue with the medications as we are giving them until her regular appointment in mid November unless things change. Actually, Dick and I are pleased that they are getting further apart. I am going to record them from now on.

I made a big batch of chili today. If anybody is interested, we are going to have it for supper tomorrow night. We eat about 5:30PM. All are welcome.

I also made a great apple salad.

Tonight was the second meeting of Celtic Women Sheboygan Branch. We again had 7 people there. Five of the originals and two new. I think we will be OK. We decided on our next two meetings and enjoyed the session at the Stafford. I sang two songs so it was a fun night for me. I sang Isle of Inishfree and Whiskey on a Sunday. People SAID they liked it. I hope so. If I go again, I hope they let me sing again.

We were talking family histories tonight. My Grandpa Deeley came to work in the Brickner Woolen Mills at the request of Mr. Brickner to work as a foreman because of his reputation as a manager in mills in the East. Grandpa Deeley tells of his entry into Sheboygan Falls. He took the train as far as he could and then was told to walk the rest of the way into Sheboygan Falls. Now, remember he was from the East, New Jersey and Connecticut and such and Wisconsin had been described to him an still was pretty wild and unsettled. On his way he hear a godawful noise coming from the bush around him. He just KNEW it was Indians and he ran the rest of the way into town in a total panic. Imagine his chagrin later to find out that the "Indians" were nothing more than wild turkeys.

Love

Mary

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

It was a quiet day. Our walk was rather short as everything was soaked and it was misting even then. Chelsea would have gone further but I turned her back.

I spent a good portion of the day quilting the baby blanket for Becky's little one. I should get it all done except for the label on Thursday. I can't do the label until the munchkin is here because I need the name so I can personalize it.

Today I tried something new. I had about a dozen jalepeno's left from harvesting the plant on my deck so I made poppers. I was a little worried because neither Dick nor I like things TOO hot. I cooked bacon, onion and mushrooms until the bacon was crisp. Let it cool, then mixed in shredded mozzerella and Mexican cheeses and creamed it together with cream cheese. Then I cleaned and halved the jalapenos and stuffed them. They baked for about 20 minutes at 350 and were delicious. I will hang on to that one.

Tomorrow, Chelsea has her blood test to be sure that her medications are not affecting her kidneys. Let's hope.


Autumn




The trees are full of color

Like an artist's palette with no rhyme or reason

The joy of the season is reflected in the hues

Of the trees as along country roads

Store these colors in the recesses of your soul

To comfort and warm you when the cold stark white and gray

Of winter threaten to overcome and leave you empty.




Joy to you

Mary

Monday, October 15, 2007

A very busy day. I slept until 6:30AM. It was still kind of darkish when we went for our walk. If we can convince Chelsea to sleep til then every day we will only have to put her off for a half an hour or more when the time changes.

We were 10 strong at Bible Study. The message was persistence. The story of the widow who asked the crooked judge for justice. He finally gave it to her because he figured that if he didn't she would keep on bugging him and eventually come and hit him. Since God loves us, we may have to persist but will probably not have to go and hit him.


Mother was just fine. I brought her a pumpkin square. She went to the turkey dinner at Blessed Trinity with Randy and Donna. She said that it was really good. Nowadays they have Two Guys and a Grill cook the meat. When I was a kid and even maybe 10 years ago. They bought turkeys and people cooked them at home and then brought them in to be sliced etc. They do still make the dressing the day ahead of time and send the big roasters to whoever can take care of it to get it all cooked at staggered times. Years ago, they used to grind up lot of the skin and mix it into the dressing along with onion, celery and apple. They still do SOME of that but I suppose the skin is out. It would be considered a fat bomb now and a big no no but it sure tasted good.

The Cream City Writers Club was this afternoon. It went quite well. We almost had an argument between Don and Sy again about their differing religious beliefs but Bev and I both told them that we were there to discuss writing not religion and they were fine with that.

I had a telephone conference with the Celtic Women Board. It went quite well. We are considering doing a program/event of some importance in May of 2009. The Chicago group will try to do a small event in May of 2008 to kind of practice and let some people know that the bigger one is coming.They also liked the Membership Dues notice that I prepared on Printshop.

Now that Brenda has helped my be able to send things, I can share my fun creations.

Hope your Monday was as much fun.

Love

Mary

Sunday, October 14, 2007

A rainy Sunday in Plymouth town. Not heavy but just kind of misty and steady. My knees are telling me that it is an unsettled time. Chelsea and I were able to walk this morning. I had to get up at 6AM in order to get to Mass on time and it is really still too dark to be walking. It is time for Chelsea and I do revamp our schedule a bit. Last year, I would take her out long enough for her to do what was absolutely necessary. Then after my shower and breakfast (unless we were going out) when the sun is out, we would go out and finish our walk.

Despite the fact that she coughs often and has seizures at least once a day (twice so far today) she is still eager to go walking and obviously is enjoying herself.

A nice Mass, Fr. Van Beeck always gives a nice sermon. A friend from choir at St. Mary's who also moved to Plymouth was cantor this morning so her whole family came to celebrate the mass with her today. The Dobrozynski's. It was good to see them all. I miss Debbie. We were altos together. And her Dad, Wally, had open heart surgery in He looks great. Good color and everything.

Did I tell you that my brother George called yesterday. I am always so glad to hear his voice. He was just checking in. Betsy reads the blog and was wondering about Chelsea. It is nice to know that people care along with one. We are ALL looking forward to the Wedding at the end of the year. He and Betsy have been doing a bit of traveling and may spend Thanksgiving in England.

This morning Dick and Brenda came to see us. They had spent part of yesterday with his mother. She is doing so much better that she may be able to go home in a couple of weeks. I am sure that this will bring a big improvement. It has been almost 6 months that she has been hospitalized and home must be looking mighty good.

So, Dick and Brenda invited us to go to the American Club for brunch. They got here at 10 and the dear souls helped us with a couple of computer puzzles before we left. The brunch is excellent. We had mimosa. Isn't that fun. They have a marvelous spread, including main dishes, made to order omelets, fresh fruit and breadstuffs and tons of other things. We were all stuffed and enjoyed our visit immensely. Brenda and I are considering going to In Celebration of Chocolate.

Barb called this evening and we had a nice visit. She is in Florida working at an office there, I think I mentioned that. It is hard as she has to be there for at least two months, but Bart will join her soon for a couple of weeks, and that will help. I had called her last night but she was at Epcot with the gal that she is replacing. I am glad that she is seeing things.


We somehow got into a discussion of bars in Sheboygan Falls. I said that when Mom had her card games, I was not sure what Dad did. I said that perhaps he joined some of the husbands downtown at Fitz's. Dick asked if I perhaps meant Dales, but I assured him that I meant Fitz's which was right next door to the Deeley's Men's Wear that my Uncle Jack owned. Fitz's is now The Other Place and has expanded into the building that was the men's wear store. They serve really great perch lunches and Dick remembered eating there when I reminded him who ate with us. Another Story.

I think I told this story before, but Brenda did not remember, so I said I would tell it today. During the strike, funds were short. Fitz's served chicken dinners at their establishment and parboiled the chickens prior to cooking. Fitz asked Dad if he had any use for the chicken broth. So occasionally, Dad would bring home a bucket of chicken broth. Mother became very creative. Besides soup, she made a dinner we all just loved. She would mix up a meatloaf mixture, roll the meat mixture into meatballs, brown the meatballs and drop them into the chicken broth. When the meatballs were cooked she would thicken the gravy a bit and we ate them over mashed potatoes. I fix them occasionally. It also tastes wonderful over noodles.

She also would brown chicken giblets, heats and gizzards, which were at the time very cheap, and heat them in the thickened broth. We loved them too. Either they really do taste good, or we were mighty easy to please and/or fool.

Guess that's all for tonight. Have a happy week. We are delighted. The only one who has a doctor's appointment this week is Chelsea.

Love

Mary