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Posts Tagged ‘travel’

Truly portable

14 May

I’m blogging tonight from the iPad. I’m not as entranced by the thing as I was in the first couple of days – mostly because I haven’t imported my bookmarks, I guess. And the MacbooK has been getting overtime duty as I slog through years of knit swatch photos.

Note to self: there Is no reason to keep thousands of blurry shots of swatches and ribbing.

So it’s been a long slow week at work. Paul came down to see the ‘rents, put up a retaining wall, and take me out to dinner (Shane’s Rib Shack in Clifton Park, decent food, outdoor tables which are surprisingly uncommon here).

After dinner we went exploring, and happened upon the Vischer Ferry Wildlife and Historic preserve. Theree is a 150 year old iron bridge, the old Erie Canal, and the oldest settlement in Saratoga County. Plus the most vicious swarms of bugs I’ve seen in ages. A nice walk, though.

One week until the wedding! It’s hard to believe that it’s almost here. Everything is in order, all we need to do is enjoy. I can’t wait.

 
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Posted in Blather

 

Brought to you courtesy of Apple

02 May

At last, I’ve gone over to the other side – I got a Mac. (And an iPad, but that’s a story for another day.)

Rock cress

Rock cress

Setting up the new machine, and playing with years of digital memories in iPhoto, has gotten my creativity raging again, and since the weather is so incredible, I’ve been out in the garden. NOTE: “Setting up the new machine” actually consisted of copying my photos, music, and knitting patterns.

The rock cress, phlox and late primroses are in full bloom. I love the carpets of color in the rock garden! Everything now is in shades of pink and purple, except for a few tulips hanging on. I’ll never be rid of the grape hyacinths – they’re pretty, but there are so many of them.

The daffodils are nearly all gone – it’s time to clean up the spent blossoms. Our tiny azalea is showing some magenta, though it looks dead 11 1/2 months of the year. The roses are budding, and wisteria is blooming. Though nearly every lilac in the city is in full bloom (today Walking in the woods is the best day to visit Highland Park, but the Lilac Festival isn’t until next week) ours is at least a week away.

Yesterday, we went south to Cumming Nature Center in Naples, NY. The boys had fun herding snakes, tracking muskrats in the pond, and generally horsing around. The place is a bit meh, though the location is interesting – there’s a beaver pond, a stand of Norway pine, wetland, grasses, and more. A woodpecker (or yellow-bellied sapsucker? don’t know, never saw it) was working away somewhere in the treetops, and a pair of Canada geese were having some kind of debate on a log in the middle of the pond. The beavers moved on decades ago, but we spotted a muskrat building his cattail lodge.

Today is heavy, waiting for the rain. We’ll be visiting Corrie & Bowden later this afternoon, and Staffan is rehearsing his newscast for homework. Meantime, I’ve got Faces to confirm.

 
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Posted in Garden

 

The view from here

28 Oct

This is my new office building, at 4:30 pm today.

Out of the frying pan, into the freezer. At home, we haven’t even had a frost yet. Wish I’d remembered my wooly hat!

 
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Posted in Blather

 

Back in WNY for a few hours

26 Oct

Funny, when you’re unemployed, it seems you’ve got all the time in the world for doing stuff.

Then, you get whumped with a job. A “can you start Monday” job. A “your office will be 200 miles from home” job. And of course, a “you need to train in the office for a month or three” job.

So I’ve been working again, which is an all-or-nothing proposition for me. No knitting, no blogging, no READING blogs. I’ve grown lots of asparagus and berries, because I only check my garden once a week.

Go Bills! Squish the Fish today!

* * * * *

PS – I take back my threat to vote Libertarian again. In fact, if you’re dying to change my vote, you’ll need to do it within the next 15 minutes – because I’m about to fill out my absentee ballot. (Another of the wonders of working hours away from home.)

 
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Posted in Blather

 

Travel broadens your horizons

25 Aug

We just returned from (actually, recovered from – we actually got back late Saturday night) a road trip to Wisconsin. Did you know that “fresh” cheese curds are not refrigerated? They’re best straight from the dairy, while still warm even, and they squeak when you bite into them.
roadtrip-kids.jpgThe kids were wonderfully well-behaved, considering we spent 28 hrs out of 84 in the car. They were very excited to see Aunt Laura, Uncle William and their cousins, and chattered about them the whole way there – with only two or three “when will we be there”s.

We took a walkfloodnests.jpg to the nearby elementary school, and Megan showed us the creek that flooded this last spring. The clumps of grass in the tree, 8-10 feet above the water? That was the crest. She walks over this creek every day – except that, during the high water, the bridge – and its railings – were completely covered.

We also saw a bit of mcdonalds129.jpgAmericana: an original McDonald’s restaurant, #129, with the original sign and arches. A nice counterpoint to our trip to the mall in Appleton, where all the stores (except for the store with the Green Bay Packers gear) were the same as every other mall in America.

More highlights (sorry, no pix): Laura’s birthday dinner at Fratello’s – a really nice restaurant on the waterfront; the Oshkosh B’gosh outlet store; Pierce Manufacturing, where they make fire trucks for communities all over the hemisphere; lunch (and German Chocolate ice cream) at Culver’s.

 
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Posted in Family