finally back to the pool! july 26th 2013

well the heat wave along with the constant humid drizzly weather we have had has finally broke. yeaaaa! today was 80 degrees , sunny and a light breeze so i  could finally get to the pool in the next town.

although we who were born in nj are somewhat used to humid - hot (80-90 degrees) in july and aug. we are not used to a whole month of 90- 100 degree days with constant drizzle and super sticky humidity. when the sun was out it was to hot for the pool as the water was even to warm and when the sun went in and it cooled a bit then we had drizzle and sticky humidity. finally today and thur the weather cooled down to 80 degrees with a slight breeze. we were told that the cause of this was a   Bermuda weather mass that stalled and tried to push the currents east to west instead of the usual west to east. when this happened the entire east coast from florida to cape cod ended up with the unusually hot super sticky humidity and drizzel. yuch! usually way up north in the north east it is much cooler in the summer than in nj. but not this july!

i live only about 10 miles west of the elizabeth port which means that we see sea gulls since we are closer than one might realize to salt water (sort of the bay). this means we are still effected by the off shore currents which can change as the land heats up by the afternoon.

the other reason i couldn't go to the pool if anyone read my last log entry is that last week i needed to let the swelling subside on my face due to the yellow jacket sting on my left cheek bone area which had swelled my left eye almost shut. i am happy to report after the dr put me on a somewhat high dose of prednisone that the swelling has subsided. yeaaaa! :-) i can tell you i was not very pretty last week. forget the eye make up i couldn't find my eye lid to even apply any make up!

 although this is a photo from a past year (since i was by my self today with no one to take my photo) it is the same bathing suit, hair and pool! so i looked exactly the same.

this pool now has adult swim for the last hour of each day which makes it really nice . in fact there were only a few people there besides the life guards.

afterwords i stopped at wendys (the order taker was nice enough to take my photo) for a soda 

and the A & P food store for the evening meal of salmon which i shared as diana with my dad.

the facial bee sting july 14th 2013

sunday while mowing my lawn i got stung by a yellow jacket on the left cheek bone.

i iced it heavily used adville and took a small amount of antihistamine ( a full does puts me in a fog the next day)

well monday with my eye almost swollen shut it was off to the allergist who who ordered prednisone and when i protested he said "  without it the swelling will get worse before it gets better" agggghhh

buy now i looked like a chipmunk on the left side of the face and i know it'll take at least 3-4 days to go down *sigh* still i know it could have been soooo much worse and i consider myself lucky in spite of it all.

believe me it is not a pretty sight and  make up is not going to help this situation!

  there isn't enough makeup in the whole world to cover this much facial swelling!

so i guess that leaves out diana time and diana at the pool for the next week or so grrrr!

but as i said i know it could have been soooo much worse and i still consider myself lucky in spite of it all.

sunday april 7th,2013

this is me headed to the diginity church meeting on the way out to the car i went across the street to chat with my neighbor. upon seeing her beautiful easter flowers i asked her to take my photo in front of the flowers. the weather being verrry nice finally but breezy ment all i could think of was how to keep my wig hair from being blown away. i guess with all the hair spray i used everything stayed in place! but the setting just screemed out "kodak moment" LOL.

the next stop was on to touch base with the historic site that i am president of this year. the building is open for tours on the first sunday of each month. thee wee 2 docents that knew of Diana and had seen photos of diana but had never seen the elusive diana in person. LOL of course there had to me one more docent on that didn't know of diana.... oh well.... but it worked out well.

from there it was onto the bakery to pick up goody's from the swiss pastry shop in scotch plains nj. for the social hour after the mass service of dignity.
the owner John is a master pastry chef who throughout the years during his training in the late 1950's has made cakes for several verrrrry well known people from around the world when they came to the ny area.
he only uses real ingredients no substitutions ie real dark chocolate  not coco, and real wip cream not crisco icing  ect. amongst his specialties include chocolate, cinaman, and aprocot rugala .
he always teases me that he prefers it when diana comes in instead of dave.

finally i was on my way up to maplewood to the service.


on the way home i stopped at manny's texas weiner resturant ( a full menu diner) also in maplewood nj for a bite to eat ( a verrry late lunch at about dinner time LOL) the usual waitress who is related to the owner was off but i ordered a burger anyway. (ignor the date stamp as the photo is newer - april 2011 -  then stated due to  a blond moment with the camera settings. LOL )

then it was home to cook dinner for dad and me ( as diana) in spite of the verrry late lunch i found i could still find room for some home made meat loaf. dad has been verrry accepting and gracious about me being dressed as diana. although he will ask were dave is LOL. i just tell him that dave felt it was time for him to have a prettier dinner companion LOL  i am soooo lucky to have such a understanding and loving dad!

hope everyone had a great day with great weather like we had!

hugs


  Diana

post storm sandy repairs march 26th - april 2th 2013

just some info to bring everyone up to date in our repairs since storm sandy.

5 months after storm sandy our roof is repaired, the canopy and gutter replaced, and
the town removed the stump and filled the hole. Yea!
 due to afternoon drissel it took the roofers 3 days just to work on what you see in this photo (the front roof area only)

( the second photo is what it looked like during the storm )
a friend of mine asked if i was really just trying to hide from the tax man. LOL


of course the town crew and the roofers all appeared at the same days. LOL

the cool stump tool drills and breaks up the stump (due to the natural gas line right under the stump)
but using this tool only took about 15 mins

the following week the other company came to install the front canopy and front gutter. and the town also arrived to pick up the stump pieces. what are the odds...

st patricks day sunday march 17th, 2013

thought you'd like to see a photo of a lass ( me) in a green sweater on st patricks day.

i had gone to the dignity church service (a GLBT catholic group that rents a non catholic church to hold a mass) and on the way home i stopped at rise and shine a local diner for a corn beef dinner for my dad. Z( even though dad is german LOL) ironicaly even though i am 1/2 irish or truly 1/4 i am not a big fan of corn beef since if it is not cut right and thin enough many times it tasts like boiled rubber to me.
i had originally stopped at mannys hot dog diner in maplewood nj but... the waitress i knew said that she was sorry but they had JUST served their last 2 plates of corn beef. agghhh to the couple sitting next to were i was standing. so a quick phone call to rise and shine to hold a dinner for me and off i went back to my home town diner to pick up my order. :-)
when i arrived home i defrosted a hamburger for myself and sat down to dinner (me as diana) with dad

the new boots March 16th 2013

i just wanted to show off the set of boots i bought when i went to pick up the new wig earlier in the day!
i know i am at the same boring errand of saturday late afternoon food shopping ! at least if i can go as diana it takes the edge off the chore.

on a different topic

did anyone else hear on the news today about the new European fashion trend for men called "mantyhose" or rather tights for men! they come in all shades and patterns and the commentator ended in saying "what next dresses for men?"
so i guess we have all been just way ahead of the styles. LOL sort of takes the fun out of being a CD LOL

hope everyone has a great St Patricks' Day!

 

hugs Diana 

a tempory new hair style...january 2013

i have been quite concerned for awhile now as to what i was going to do for hair since the beauty supply rybina closed last year. as a cd this becomes a panic since that is how the public recognizes diana . 
i had gone from store to store and none of the beauty supplies could order the junee manhatten style wig for me. so i tried one more store in plainfield nj this time B & B beauty supply and bought this longer vanessa  to replace it with. thinking it will be good for the pool in the summer since it is longer and i can pull it up. also i found it can be styled with a low setting heated curling iron. ( which is a no no with most synthetic wigs or tey will frizz in heat and become junk) what i have since found out is that the wig cap inside is made of a heavier material ( vs the junee which is a mesh) so it will make it warmer  in the summer ugh. mean while in chatting with owner of the shop they offered to order my currend junee manhatten style.  YEA! and when it came it actually was just what i wanted. so i ordered a second. as i allways try to have at least 2 of the same on had at all times.
the interesting thing is that i had gone into the shop as dave carrying my org. wig in a bag. and 2 of the helpers saw me that way. when i went back to pick it up i was dressed in fem as diana and there was a 3rd worker there that day. ironically the newer worker refused to believe that i was a guy. LOL even after showing here my photo on my drivers license and with the other 2 workers vouching for my story . LOL she asked who that was and in my  best diana voice i said that was me. LOL LOL it wsn't till i went to the back of the store to try on the replacement wig that she believed me!
i have to say this is a great little shop they have GREAT prices on everything in the store wigs here are a LOT less than other shops alot like the previous ryubina shop.

anyway so here i am at the food store on a sat night getting used to the new wig. also the new boots i bought at dots store when i took back last years pair for a price adjustment. ( hay they set the policy... got em for less than a dollar since they had a store sale that day)  sort of a lost leader for them since i bought another pair while there.

on other matters we are still waiting our turn with our roofer to get a new front roof and canopy since storm sandy. and 2 houses in our neighborhood are being finished up as they have had to remove the top of the house and replace the second story. i still don't sleep well when the winds kick up to 60 MPH . hay one tree on a house in a lifetime is one to many!!!