New York City 2009

We left Wed. am at 9:30 on the train from Albany-Rensselaer and arrived at Penn station around 12:30. Took an interesting subway ride up to 7th ave. to get to our hotel...rooms not available until 4pm. We left our bags (for a $3.75/bag fee) at the hotel and headed out on the streets to site see. The Christmas Tree lighting at Rockefeller Center was that night and everything was very crowded (125,000 people came to see that alone)

We walked alot, saw lots of great sights. Had lunch at TGIF Fridays, headed up to Time Square to see the night life and all the lights. We didn't want to go to the tree lighting (good thing as it poured). We walked to Central Park and took the horsedrawn buggy ride. It was great! All the horses come from the Amish in Pennsylvania. We did more siteseeing then we went back to our room, got some great fresh pastries from the deli next door and laughed and visited til we were exhausted. (Molly and I roomed with Leanne and Carol at the Park Central hotel) It was really a great room...Brenda got it earlier in the summer thru Price line for next to nothing (after we split it by 4)

The next day we got up early, got coffee at Star buck's next door and had a great quick breakfast at a little restaurant across the road. We then decided to take a cab to the empire state building (instead of the subway or walking) It was definitely worth it. I think with a tip it was $10 or so. We arrived before any crowds and got right in. 2 elevators rides later we were at the top. Gorgeous day 60 degrees and sunny! Great views, definitely worth it. When we headed back down the lines and the crowds were outrageous. From there we headed to Madison square Garden to see the Cirque de Solei show. Also very good, we really enjoyed it. Lots of gymnastics and aerobatics to music. We left the show and Molly decided the taxi was the way to go to our next stop "The Body Museum" and offered to pay. We jumped in a cab and Carol visited with the driver and wanted to go to Chinatown first.....well he ended up letting us off at a very shady part of town...lots of big scary looking Black guys just mulling around and the driver told us to "hold onto our purses and don't talk to anyone" He then pulled away...Molly and I were very uncomfortable...Carol wanted us to "not look too much like tourists!" We scrambled into a bank (sort of safe) looked at the map and Carol felt we were only a few blocks from China town. She wanted to head out and walk. I was so proud of Molly! She said "no way! **** Chinatown" and saw a cab with it's light on approaching and popped out in the street and flagged it down. (Mind you there weren't many cabs around) She hopped in and I hopped in after her...Carol and Leanne wanted to keep walking) We gave the driver the address for the museum and were there in about 10 min's. The area was much nicer, cobblestone streets, down by the seaport. We had a great lunch at a little deli and met up with the other members of our group and headed into the museum. (Very interesting all real bodies with various parts dissected out, arteries, veins, nerves, skeletal system, fetal developement, various body parts with different diseases, cancer, strokes....

Carol and Leanne arrived while we were in the museum. From here we walked to Ground Zero, saw the planned memorial, then hopped on the subway to head back to the hotel. Mind you, it's now rush hour about 5:15. The subways were mobbed, our group got separated, and a couple of NYPD cops told us we weren't on the right line, we had to get off at Time Square and transfer. Meanwhile our friend were in the car ahead of us and of course cell phones don't work below ground. Luckily one of them turned around and caught Brenda's eye and she motioned to get off at 42nd street. We transferred, headed to the hotel, grabbed our luggage and hopped back on another subway to go back to Penn Station to catch our train home. (A cab would have been sooooo much easier) Anyway, we made it and were pretty exhausted by the time we got to Albany then another 2 hours home and in our beds by midnight! It was a great trip!

Late entry of thanksgiving pic's

Here's the pictures from our day...we had a great meal with lot's of leftovers.

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a great day..got up early and put the bird in the oven at 9 am. Molly and I made desserts yesterday. (Brownies and pumpkin bread, regular and gluten free!) We also made squash, sweet potato casserole, stuffing (aunt Judy's recipe), deviled eggs, shrimp, cheese and crackers for snacks and Mom's carrot casserole. The food was delicious. We ended up eating at 1:30. The bird always finishes cooking before the allotted time. Martha came over. We had a nice visit and now everyone is full and sleepy. Tom was on call so wasn't able to come up. I'll post some pictures. Hope everyone had a great day, Happy Thanksgiving!!

The new nail trimmers

The other day when I was shopping on Amazon I discovered this neat tool that grinds dogs nails. Austin has been clicking around our floors for a long time. I trim his nails but have sometimes gone too short and then they bleed. I ended up buying the trimmer and some stiptic powder to use "just in case". I'll post the results!

Deer Hunting

Well John has been gearing up for deer season for a long time...saving his time for vacation days, sighting in the gun etc. Day 1 was a miserable rainy, raw day. He was sitting in his hunting blind most of the morning down the road in Robin and Jerry's meadow watching several doe. While eating his lunch he looked out and a nice 8 pointer stood up. Apparently he had been bedded down with the girls the whole time. We saw him in my pasture the day before deer season too. Very nice deer and now he is in the freezer. (That's another story, we had to buy another freezer as we didn't have enough room! Our old freezer was a small chest, not frost free so we ended up getting an upright frost free from Sears that will be arriving on Monday. (I say arriving, but we have to pick it up!)

Here are some pictures...I wish someone had put the poor deer's tongue back in his mouth!

October 20th already!

Lunch at Applebee's after our hike.
At the base of the mountainThe forest road

Molly's senior picture
Apples!
More Molly pic's

Well it's been a while! We've had a busy fall, lots of rain still. We did get to pick apples at Champlain Orchards which is a yearly tradition. Made a few batches of Apple crisp that were yummy. Molly's been on top of the college application process. She's submitted everything early decision so now she can sit back and wait. She still really likes Colby Sawyer the best. Mass. College of Pharmacy and Science called her tonight. Her computer died on Sunday. Luckily she printed out most of her AP Bio report. Not sure what's wrong, it won't boot up, just an error message...funny that she just did her updates the day before. Anyway we are headed to Tom's tomorrow to drop everything off and see if he can diagnose the problem. She really would prefer a mac!

Our friend Jerry died suddenly a few weeks ago. He and his wife own the stone house down the road. So sad, so very young, only in his 50's. They had a service on Saturday and about 80 people came.

I had a nice walk with Austin this morning and a great ride with Kacee today. The weather has been very chilly, about 30 in the morning with a good frost. We hiked last week and it poured half way up the mountain, then turned to sleet and snow. I'll post a few pictures.

Hope everyone is well, take care!!

Fishing on Champlain

My bass
The Northern Pike


Wednesday we decided to get the boat out...it's been so rainy that we really haven't been fishing much all summer. We went on Champlain from the landing and headed north. We ended up trolling near Munger Brook and I caught two mammoth fish. One large mouth bass and one 35" Northern Pike. We couldn't find the fish scale so not sure how much they weighed but I'll attach some photos and a cute video too. The best part was that I was using the cheap Zebco reel and according to John it only had 4 lb. test. The Northern was hooked in the side of it's mouth so it didn't bite off the hook. So many times I thought I was going to loose it. Sometimes it pulled so hard that I thought it was going to pull the rod out of my hands! (The whole time John's telling me how to bring it in and not to loose it!) We got the bass up on the boat and out of the net and it almost jumped back in but John saved it! It was a great day!

Vacation time...

Kacee and I venturing out on a ride.

The "Pug Hole"
First day photo
First day photo
Well I ended up having another week off! It has been awesome weather, sunny, cool and perfect for riding. Monday Kacee and I went to Saetta's driveway and then back around by Grant's. She was very good and we both had fun. (Only a couple of stubborn moments) Molly started back at school...she's a senior this year. Lot's of hard classes, she actually has a study hall her last period and is able to leave school and come home at 2:15. She gets more done at home where it's quiet. She had her first AP Bio test today.

More pictures!

Here are some pictures!

August 30th 2009

Well John was on call again all weekend. Yesterday it rained most of the day. Molly and I decided to go out to lunch. First we had a quick visit with Grammy then headed to the Lake House on Route 30. We had been getting the steady drizzle left over from Hurricane Danny all morning, but it stopped for lunch. We had a nice lunch, I had a chicken burrito and Molly had a Philly cheese steak sandwich. We headed to Rutland to the mall but decided to forgo the trip as the hospital was having it's annual health fair and the place was mobbed.

Today we got up early and and walked the dog down the road from the narrows to Saetta's. Our road was really muddy from the recent road work. When we came home we decided to get Kacee out and Molly and I rode her around the block by Grant's. She was awesome..very willing and forward. You just never know! After returning home we headed to Fair Haven for an ice cream at Missy's and fresh corn for dinner. I'm off this entire week! yes and it's going to be good weather! Maybe we can get out in the boat and do some fishing and definitely go riding too.

I forgot to mention that Molly and I did our yearly kayaking excursion to the Chittenden Dam on Wednesday last week. We go up just before school starts, spend the day and take lunch. The weather was great and we saw Loons. We stopped at Saltwater Cowboy on the way home and got fresh shrimp to do on the grill and more fresh sweet corn. It was delicious!!

One of the dorms.
This is the library...built to look like a farm.
Some more photos.....