Someone's in the kitchen

Sometimes, Claire is a perfect little Sous Chef...........

Sometimes, she is not.

To kids from one to ninety-two

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!" Dr. Seuss

Christmas is not about flat screen T.V.'s and diamond jewelry. Christmas is a four year old who:
Knows all the words to Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer.
Is learning math by adding up the number of school days and home days until Christmas.
Can't wait to make the Chocolate Chip cookies for Santa.
Thinks a lucky rock is the perfect gift for Papa.
After seeing a manger and hearing my explanation of who Jesus was, decided that Jesus should go out and fight bad guys with Luke Skywalker and the Ninja Turtles

and a two year old who:
Yells "Christmas tree, Christmas tree" whenever she sees lit up houses or wrapped presents.
Wants to open and read all the Christmas cards.
Gets wonderfully sticky whenever she eats a Candy Cane.

More words of wisdom............

Poor Frosty

 

He's just about buried. I had to dig the timer out so he'd light up tonight. I'll have to remember to move him further from the road too, the plow hill just about hides him from sight.

Fifteen inches was the official total, and they didn't even cancel school.

Definitely getting a White Christmas

I'm incapable of getting good pictures of decorating the Christmas tree. Either the kids are out of focus because the move around too much for the low flash setting, or the high flash washes out all the lights. This is the best I could do.

I've been wanting to get some snowy pictures up to please Joy. We've had snow almost every day for the last two weeks. Flurries some days, a few inches on others. I think we're at about a foot on the ground now. Tommorrow we're going to get hammered. At least a foot of snow in 24 hours, maybe up to 2 feet, with lot's of wind to cause snowdrifts. Dan is supposed to be working a charity dinner, I really hope they call it off today so he can stay home and drink hot cocoa with me and the kids. I'll post some pictures of that when the coast is clear.

But, just for Joy, here's a shot out my kitchen window. I wanted to get it when the thermometer said 0, but it's a completely unreliable piece of crap and currently says twenty when it really around five.


Now I have to do some caulking around that window, because it's very drafty. And then I need to rid our kitchen cabinets of mouse poop and plug some more holes. As well as wrap some pipes to keep the pipes leading to the washing machine from freezing again. Is it okay that I sometimes wish for global warming?

The Employee handbook is 142 pages

Was I too vague yesterday? Yes, I got the job. The ins and outs of how that happened so fast are still a mystery. As is the fact that I somehow managed to have my first day of work be the day before I was offered the job.

Now, I am filling out forms. Lots of forms. Three cheers for:
-Employer sponsored Health insurance starting immediately
-Vision and Dental
-Pension and a 401k with decent matching
-Flexible spending accounts for daycare and health
-discounts on loans and mortgages
-Paid holidays and Personal time (I'll even get paid for Christmas!)

Hip, Hip Hooray

Working 9-5

Yay!!!!! I can finally delete all the job search sites that I've been looking at for the last 2 1/2 years!!!!

Spoke too soon

You can ignore my last post. Someone in my department gave notice yesterday. All the bosses were in a meeting this morning, and I was not surprised that the first thing my supervisor did when she finished was to call me over and ask me to stay. It is still just a temp job, until a permanent replacement is found. However, it seems that if it was up to her, or the majority of my co-workers, the replacement would be me. I kinda felt bad for the woman who's leaving, because people were talking much more about my future prospects than hers. But she hadn't been there long, we actually started the same day.

Cross you fingers that no one who's already employed by the bank applies. No one has the last two times it's been open because it's near the bottom of the payscale. Then hope that HR doesn't have requirements that would exclude me no matter how good by recommendations are. In the meantime, I'm still employed.

And to add to this cheery post, here are some Christmas card rejects.

Easy come, Easy Go

The temp job has proved to be a temp job. I really like it there, my co-workers really like me, but there's just no permanent job for me. Last day is next Friday. So, onto plans A,B & C.

We're going to keep the kids in daycare for as long as we can afford it. Which gives me the freedom to just take any temp or part-time job that comes along. Kelly Services got good reviews of my work, and I'm also going to try to get into the bank's on-call teller system. That would make me an internal candidate for any future openings at the administrative offices.

Also, someone's advertising for Admin and HR people for permanent and temp jobs, and offering a wonderfully high wage for it. It must be Wal-mart getting geared up to do hiring for the new store, which is quickly rising up out of vacant land outside Potsdam. I don't really want to be a Wal-mart person, but the idea of working for them during a hiring blitz is intriguing.

Since the mall is forty minutes away, and the Wal-mart is still a work in progress, we country folk have to find other ways to get our Christmas lists to Santa. In Canton, they plan a tree lighting ceremony for the day after Thanksgiving, then all the kids line up to see Santa on the town green. He arrived by horse drawn carriage, and there were also a half dozen people dressed as Frosty, Rudolph and various North Pole critters walking around to keep the kids entertained while we waited.

Claire didn't last through the hour wait. It was below freezing, and a layer of snow and slush covered the ground. (Something Mom should have thought of before deciding to wear a pair of lightweight sneakers instead of boots.) So while she and Grandma retired to make Hot Cocoa, Nathan and I stuck it out to see the big man himself.


Apparently, he wants Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys this Christmas, and was devastated that the free goody bag had a book instead.

In other Christmas news, I'm trying to figure out how to decorate the house when I have absolutely no exterior outlets. Just to get this modest display up took three extension cords leading from the farthest corner of the garage, a timer and a small three outlet adapter.

I want to put lights on the porch, and bought an adapter to convert the light bulb socket into a plug, but I don't want to risk overloading that. Also, the porch is Zeppo's domain, and I'm not sure how he'd take to a change in decor. Although he's left the garland on the lamppost alone so far.

Whatever we do will certainly pale in comparison the the neighbors. They've been lit up for over a week, keeps me up nights.

Huh?

I set up an interview for Tuesday and they want three letters of reference. I don't think I've needed that since I applied for college, and yet the prospective boss indicated that it was the most normal thing in the world and required by the company. Ugh.

Most of the employees are nurses and health care workers, so I can see the point there. But I've never been asked for this for accounting jobs. They seem content with just running background checks.

So now I have to come up with a member of the community ("like a teacher, or politician"), and two employers. And I know that Hyatt employees aren't supposed to do letters, they're very much in the "let's avoid lawsuits by only verifying dates of employment camp". Plus, Hyatt employees don't stick in one job for long, so I don't even know if I can find my former bosses.

Should I just cancel the interview?

Hat, Glove and Scarf time

Does anyone wanna come over and take my doggy for a walk? It's 20 degrees out and I'm still not warmed up from the walk I took him on two hours ago. I suppose I should be grateful that it's not snowing again. Only six more months to Spring!!!

Crash and Burn

Ugh, I'm having a miserable week. Coughing. Coughing. Coughing. Night and Day. I stayed home from work Wednesday, and got some drugs from the doc on Saturday, but I still feel pretty rotten. Can't sleep unless I am propped up by four pillows, and even then I wake every hour with a coughing fit. Or drenched in sweat. Attempts to speak either come out in whispers or devolve into hacking fits. I dread having to call out to the kids to stop doing something, because half the time I can't get the words out.

The silver lining is that Dan took a week's vacation to chill out a bit. So every night he's been home to corral the kids. Except last night, when he was passed out drunk on the futon from too many Jager Bombs. You see, his co-workers like to have a yearly bar-b-que party, and since they're all apartment/frat house dwellings college kids, it was decided a few weeks ago to have it at our house. I cheerfully cleared out, and took the kids to the Grandparents for the afternoon. I expected to come home to my loving husband, who, knowing I've been sick all week, would have had things cleaned up and be prepared to take the kids off my hands again. Instead, he was the victim of peer pressure, which I'd think would be pretty hard since he's not only the boss, but also 8-15 years older than everyone else.

At least his friends can hold their liquor better, because someone did manage to clean things up, and one guy stuck around to make sure Dan wasn't alone. Although I was also really ticked off that they lit a bonfire in the backyard. Not surprised, these are chefs after all, they have to set things on fire, it's part of their nature. But I mentioned it to Dan last week and told him if he thought they'd like to burn some of our yard waste for fun, we should first get a permit. Instead, I came home to an illegal fire that was way to big to burn out before bedtime. The aforementioned responsible friends made sure to clear a ring around it and bank it a bit, but it was still smoking in the morning. Not happy about that, especially because I think that enough smoke got in the house to send me into twice the usual number of retching fits.

Whew, had to get that all off my chest.

P.S. You have to watch Ratatouille. Just don't watch it on an empty stomach.

Bethel, VT

Found this cool photo on a blog today. That's my Dad's house on the hill on the far left.

Halloween

Halloween's over. Baseball is over. If I can just get over this cold and sleep for more than 6 hrs on a regular basis, I may feel half human again. Although with skating lessons tomorrow night and a Bowling B-day party on Saturday, I don't think I'll be able to unwind quite yet.

Halloween pictures!!

A few views of our yard

These are from last week, before the wind and rain knocked everything down.




A small fraction of what's in the yard.



Go Sox!

I is for Ice, J is for Jack O Lantern

I finally found my camera, buried in the bottom of my purse. So I took it out to put it somewhere safe, which means I didn't have it with me for the following photo ops, so you'll have to make do with blurry cell phone pics.

The most sincere pumpkin patch. Or at least the most sincere one within 10 miles that is open on Sundays. (One drawback to the nearby Amish & Christian Homesteaders is that their farmstands aren't open on Sundays.)




Nathan's first skating lesson. He fell down. A lot. But he had fun, let's hope the fun continues for every Mon & Fri night for the next few months. I felt bad not being out there with him, but I'm not sure I could survive even five minutes on skates. Hoping that Dan will be able to take him on Mondays and he can get out on the ice instead, while Claire and I have some girl time.



Work's good. Still hoping that it can somehow morph into a permanent job. More photos of Halloween costumes to come.

Peak in the High Peaks

Even though we have a bunch of Sugar Maples on our property that will be turning soon, we couldn't resist the drive down to Saranac Lake yesterday to see the peak of color in the Adirondacks. It was really perfect, a great sunny day and lots of red color on the mountains. We stretched our legs at a nature center that I like. I swear the lovely odor of the pine needles when we got out of the car just about knocked me down. Such a beautiful day.

Chaos

Forgot about the conversation:

"Wah Wah Wah"
"Knock Knock"
"Who's there?"
"Cracker"
"I'm sorry, I don't have any in the car. I'll give you some when we get home"
"Orange"
"Orange Who?"
"Apooplane"
"Yes, honey, that's an airplane flying overhead."
"Orange and a banana. Ha Ha Ha Ha"

Catching up

Things going on in my life, in no particular order.

1. Dan's mom had a stroke on Tuesday, but got to the hospital very fast and is feeling fine now. Did you know that blood typing has gone way beyond A,B & O in the last few years. Apparently she, and probably Dan, have a problem with their Factor V blood type that can cause clotting, so we'll be keeping an eye on that now.

2. Zeppo chomped on Dan's very pretty cell phone. LCD screens do not like to be chomped on. He's also on a streak of decapitating the toys we give him. I'm glad we finally found a use for the giant bag of stuffed animals that the kids never play with.

3. The Sox are making me very happy, but I need to call my Dad more often so that we can celebrate together. I would have today, but he's in Connecticut going to his Grammar school's 50th reunion.

4. Had another dose of Rituximab today, and now I'm feeling like I'm having hot flashes. Why is it still in the 80's here? Every weekend I say we should take the air conditioner out of the window, and then the next week we're back in shorts.

5. I am completely amazed at the amount of things Nathan is doing at Pre-K. They went to an apple orchard this week, and then made snacks with the apples. Each week he's given a new letter to study, and we print out something that starts with that letter for him to bring to school. This week I made him a snowflake. Now I have to think of some fun things that start with L for next week. He also told me he made a journal this week, and I'm really interested to see what is going in that.



6. Claire is doing pretty well at daycare too. Each day we get a report that says she's happy, although she didn't nap and barely ate the first week. Today was the first hiccup, when they didn't want her taking her blankie to the lunch table. We've tried not sending her in with blankie, but then she just carried her puppy-shaped pillow everywhere instead. When I came to pick her up, she was sending him down the slide.

7. We can make an attempt to sleep in for the next three days. No school and no work, but I'm sure we'll send the kids to daycare on Monday so we can have some time alone. Although that time alone probably needs to be spent dusting, vacuuming and mopping. I'd like to say that I just haven't had time since I started work, but I was pretty behind even before then.

8. Work is good. After a week of giving me lots of copying, typing and filing, they realized that my talents were being wasted. So I am now doing the whole job of the person I'm filling in for. I'll be taking care of fraudulent or mistaken direct debits to checking account, refunding the money and any overdraft fees. (An aside: Don't people know that you're not supposed to use Debit cards for online transactions, hotels or rental cars. Doesn't everyone know that?)

9. I thought I left my credit card on top of my car while getting gas and had to cancel it. So for the last week I've had to use my debit card for everything, including online purchases. Found it in my jacket, which I had not worn for a week because it was 80 frikken degrees.

10. I wanted to add more pictures, but I can't find the camera. Cleaning the house is a definite priority this weekend. I'll have to settle for these pictures from a carnival last month.

To be continued

Still adjusting to working full-time, and too busy and stressed to want to write. Except that this was an actual conversation (if you can call it that) in our car today that I wanted to share.

ugh, nevermind. We ran out of milk and I had to go get some. Now it's 11:30 and I have to be up early to drive to Saranac Lake for more Rituximab. Night Night.

Yes please, I'd love to buy some overpriced wrapping paper

Gah, the fundraising merry-go-round has already started. The kid's daycare sent me home with a giant book full of candy, coffee mugs and magazines subscriptions for my schilling pleasure. And when I signed Nathan up for skating lessons I was given another booklet, out of which I must sell $50 worth of useless crap, or be assessed a $25 dollar fundraising fee. The daycare is going another route, awarding the highest seller with $120.00 off their bill. I won't be the least bit surprised if I get something from the Elementary school in the next few days too.

Banker's hours

This is going to take some getting used to. Working 40 hrs again, and trying to sort out the kids, the dog and dinner in a short period of time when I get home. At least I don't have the insane commute anymore. Although I now have an insane amount of paperwork to look through from Pre-K, Nathan's daycare and Claire's daycare. I'll have you know that most of the artwork goes straight into the garbage. Although I am keeping some of Nathan's best attempts at writing his name.

The job is pretty cool. Not at all what I was expecting. The office is termed "Deposit Operations" and there are four departments with 8-10 people each. I'm in Reconciliation, and the people I work with review IRA accounts, ATM transactions, Debit card disputes and more that I haven't seen yet. The woman I'm replacing is on maternity leave, so I'm expecting to be there 3 months. They're not teaching me the complicated stuff, but the "grunt work", which is fine. My immediate boss has made a good impression on me so far, although it's pretty hard to fall lower than my last boss. Hopefully she'll be like my first controller at Hyatt, who was a hard worker, but took time each day to check in on us and joke around a bit.

Whether it will turn into a permanent job is a big question. Another woman in the data entry dept said that she'd been there as a temp for none months and no permanent jobs had opened. But I don't think she had any prior job experience, or much interest in the job, since she's now leaving for her completely different dream job. So things could be different for me. At the least, I'll make the best impression I can in case there are openings that the boss can recommend me for in the other local offices. I'm afraid that they do a lot of their hiring by promoting tellers.

In other news, the pig farm is now a cow farm, and they're being quite noisy on their first day home. Claire is thrilled, and wanted to go out and wave to them for a bit.

Kelly Girl

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the lost job last week. I obsessively checked websites for job leads, and even began to wonder if I could make a living off mturk at .10 a job. All that's behind me now, at least for the next two months.

I'm not sure why I wasn't registered with Kelly Services earlier. Maybe it was bad memories of a summer spent opening mail for Publisher's Clearing House when I was a Kelly Girl in 1991. But I sent them a resume Friday, took the skills assessment tests yesterday, and on Monday I start a new job. I'll be working for a bank, but not in a branch. Instead I'll be working for "Deposit Services", which I guess means handling the paperwork that flows from the other 130 branches in the area.

Technically, it is only for two months. But the recruiter said that they have kept a lot of people on permanently. I was amazed that I could set daycare up this fast, it will be annoying if I have to pull them out again.

And because I'm a history buff, here's a 1910 postcard of where I'll be working. Somehow, I don't think it still looks like this.

I do it!!!!!!!!

Claire is in her "independent" phase these days. "I do it" is her favorite phrase, whether it be fastening her seatbelt, putting the top on her cups, putting socks on. She has to do it. Unless it's doing her hair, then she runs away screaming.



When we take Zeppo for his walk, I always start her in her stroller, but many times she has to walk back. First, she'll re-fasten the seat belt even though she's not in it. Then she'll insist on pushing the stroller, even though she can only go about two feet before she runs aground. And if she hears a car, she'll sing out "Car Coming" and then abandon the stroller in the middle of the road. If I try to help, she whips out her second favorite phrase "Go Away".




And a shot of Zeppo, who is getting gigantic. I was trying to line up a shot that would give you a good view of the field we pass every day on our walk, but Zeppo's ability to sit still and pose is very limited.

A near miss

Given how much time and effort we put into our restaurant plan, it's not surprising that we continue to keep up with news and rumors surrounding the building. This week Dan heard something that makes us happy that we didn't continue our plans.

It seems that there may be an illegal/dangerous oil tank on the property. Which will be costing the college $100,000-200,000 to remove. Yikes. Can you imagine if we'd been up and running for a year and then found out about this while trying to buy the building? It certainly would have kept us from buying, and probably would have led to the restaurant having to be shut-down for clean-up. Luckily, it's not our problem.

I think this might mean that they had a buyer lined up, but then found out about the hazard while doing disclosures. They may also be doing some more renovations before trying to sell again. We'll keep an eye on it, and hope that it takes so long that we'll be able to try our concept again.

And on.

And the job search goes on. And on. And on.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Things you should not say at a job interview.

"I'd like a job with less stress."

God, why? Why did I say that? aaarrrgh.

In context, it makes sense. She saw all the experience I had on my resume and wanted to know why I was looking at this job, especially since she'd just told me the sadly low pay rate. She was just trying to make sure that I wouldn't take the job and then leave in a few months if something better came along. So I was trying to be reassuring that this is a job I want, and instead I said something stupid that makes me sound lazy.

I'm hoping that I recovered. I tried to make it seem that it was stressful because of the 50 hour week (which Hyatt expects of management) and horrible commute. But I should have also stressed that since my degree and experience don't match, I was only expecting semi-entry level job offers when I moved back.

I do want this job. Even though the pay was lower than what I thought was the lowest I would take, it comes with so many benefits that it will work out in the long run. Free tuition for the kids at any of the four local colleges is a pretty nice perk too. Even if they only went for a year or two before transferring, it would be so worth the low pay now.

Let me be a wage slave again, please

Are you all getting as tired of me posting about jobs as I am in looking for jobs? If so, cross your fingers for an interview that I have on Monday. Should be an interesting job, with great benefits and hopefully decent pay at one of the colleges.

However, I'm wondering about one little issue. The department posts pictures of all the employees on the website, so I was glancing through to see if I recognized anyone, and saw that one of the employees is one of our near neighbors. She's not someone I've met in person, but there's no doubt that I should recognize the name if we're introduced. And there's a chance that she would recognize me because I always walk Zeppo as far as her mailbox before turning around. I'm wondering if I should practice some complimentary phrases about her lawn in preparation for meeting her. And hope that she doesn't hold the fact that we're a bit messy against me. Maybe I should take a moment today to move the garbage can away from the street and put the hose away just in case.

P.S. I really want to complain about the heat, but I know that Joy has it much, much worse, so I won't. (but seriously, 92 degrees, in Sept, this far north, WTF??)

First Day of School!

Sniff-sniff. Boo-hoo. He's all grown-up.



Dan laughed at the parents who were taking pictures of their kids waiting for the bus, so I didn't do quite as much photojournalism of Nathan's first day as I may have wanted to. Plenty of time to correct that when I go to pick him up.

The class is only from 8:30-11:10, and a fair amount of that time will be spent having a snack. Two boys who he met last year at swim lessons will be in his class, so hopefully that will ease his shyness. Meanwhile, it's just us girls here at home.

Set my Season Pass

The news that Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) was going to do a stint on Heroes this year was reason enough for me to rejoin Netflix so I could finally watch it. Love It! I've watched the first six episodes - don't tell me what happens next. I don't know why I didn't get into it last year, I was Tivoing it, but I think I missed the first episode and never got caught up.

Now, I'm trying to sort out the fall schedule so that I won't miss anything good again. Pushing Daisies is definately getting taped. Maybe Chuck, because I've fallen in love with repeats of Jake 2.0 and these are as close as I can get to new episodes. Plus, Adam Baldwin's in it.

Part of the problem is that I have to tape things for Dan, and I don't always have the kids in bed in time if I want to watch something different. The battle between Ugly Betty and The Office was a big problem last year.

Maybe I should just get another Tivo. Ours gets so full of kid's shows, that we sometimes miss taping things. Especially when we save half a season's worth of Lost so we can go back and search for clues.

The McFarland Gallery

Continuing with the fridge theme, this is the current artwork displayed on the new fridge.

A charming portrait of the artist and his family.



This is a jedi battle with Luke, Anakin, a couple of storm troopers and what looks like a small dog.


The artist's signature, sure to be worth a fortune someday.

Frat parties, and keggers, and loud music, OH MY

I had to deal with traffic today. And lines. There was even pounding rap music heard in my back yard today. Am I still in Potsdam?

The students are back in town, and our population is going to go from nine thousand to sixteen thousand, and even higher this weekend with the parents in town too. I suspect Dan will be working late the next few nights.

Kitchen design 101

I probably said that one of the good points of our new house was that the kitchen is large. And it is large, there's plenty of room for Dan's cookbook bookcase, Zeppo's crate, a dining table and a kid's table. It's just that the part of the kitchen that is actually, ya know, for cooking, is very small.

When the fridge door is open, you can't get to the sink. We can't get to the corner cabinet next to the fridge, it's blocked by the garbage can and recycle bin. And all the counters seem to be covered in crap.

So, I'm thinking of moving the fridge. We're going to be buying a new one this weekend, since ours started making a funny noise that seems to indicate it's out of freon. And we've noticed some problems with food not keeping well since the sound started. Ideally, we could put the fridge where the butcher block counter is, but it seems like that's violating every rule of kitchen design to move the fridge so far from the sink and stove. Putting it on the other side of the door seems like a bad idea too.

Plus, once I see the state of the floor under the current fridge, I may have no choice put to put another heavy appliance there to cover it up.

Brain Damage

Sigh.

I do this a lot. Or at least more often then I should. I buy things at the store and then leave them at the register or in the cart. I once went through a drive-thru, gave them my money, took my drink, and then drove off without the burger and fries. At least I realized my mistake pretty quickly.

Today, I made it all the way home before finding that the closet organizer I bought at Wal-Mart didn't make it into the car. And there's something called NB TOL MADDI on the receipt that I honestly don't remember buying and don't see in the bag anywhere. What the heck was it?

Worse was the day I left my wallet in the cart. We had made it most of the way home when my gas light came on. I had Nathan's wallet with me, so I borrowed 4 dollars from him to buy a gallon of gas, then had to bug Dan at work so I could get his credit card to get enough gas to go back and pick-up the wallet. Soooooo annoying. And it was pouring down buckets of rain too.

Job redux

How depressing is it that I keep seeing jobs that I applied for last year become available again? Ah well, they should have hired me to begin with.

Speaking of which, my former employer called to ask (perhaps beg) me to come back. And even though I am probably jeopardizing my whopping $100 wk in unemployment, I declined. It seems that the woman who was leaving, then wasn't leaving, decided to leave. And now I think the controller is gone too. So even though his departure would make for a friendlier work environment, it will also be a huge mess while they are understaffed. Good riddance.

Minesweeper: The Movie

Do Mac fans get Minesweeper humor?

Yummy food

My Aunt and Uncle from Maryland came to visit this weekend, which was a great excuse to get a chance to eat dinner at Dan's restaurant. I don't think I've done that once since we moved, I've had a few lunches, but not on days that Dan was cooking. We all had the special salad, which was dried cherries, pistachios and Stilton cheese over a mesclun mix. Yum. It was also perfect weather for eating out on the deck overlooking the river, so I think I showed the town in it's best light.

I had Maple Brined Seared Atlantic Salmon with a Warm Bacon Vinaigrette, Rosti Potatoes (a crunchy hash) and Malone Salad(cuke and fennel). Aunt Erin had Grilled Mahi Mahi with a Relish of Green Beans, Fennel, Tomatoes, Olives and County Meadows Feta. Uncle Richard had a San Francisco Style Cioppino which was Shrimp, Scallops, Salmon, Mahi Mahi & Crab stewed in a Vodka-Tomato Broth with Roasted Pepper Croustades.

Given these culinary gems, I'm not at all surprised or disappointed that Dan turned down a job offer this week. The local organic grocery approached him because they'll be expanding their prepared food section and wanted to see if he was interested. The pay wouldn't have been too different, and there were actual benefits provided, as well as an almost 9-5 schedule. But Dan loves restaurant work, and didn't want to deal with making pounds of granola each day. I'm sure it's for the best.

Shooting stars

I can see a lot of stars at night, it's so beautiful. I take Zeppo out on a walk before bed, and once our house disappears behind the trees the road is pitch black on a moonless night. There are about two patches of urban glow, a large one from nearby Potsdam, and then Massena in the distance. But to the East and North it is perfectly black. The milky way stretches above my head, and the stars are everywhere.

Before going out last night, I spent about an hour looking at star charts to work out where the Pleides meteor shower was going to be. It turns out that I can't make heads or tails of the charts. I did find a neat program called My Stars from a website called Learn what's up. You put in your location and the date/time and it fills in a star field. But even though it names the constellations, it doesn't draw the pictures, which is something I need to learn from. And it wasn't printable. But I'll keep at it, I'd love to be able to know all the constellations and major stars so that I can teach the kids.

In the end, I didn't need to know my east from west or my Ursa Major from Minor, because I caught sight of two shooting stars by chance, right across the Big Dipper. I can't wait to see how many more there are tonight as the meteor shower hits it's peak.

Family and Fun

Another busy, busy weekend.

We started with Nathan's last swimming class on Thursday, which was a scavenger hunt followed by toys and candy. To get the clues for the hunt, they needed to do things like get their faces wet or blow bubbles in the water. We stayed for another two hours in an attempt to beat the heat, and Nathan finally started going under water. Something he did last year but hasn't wanted to do at all this summer.





On Friday, the kids and I headed to Vermont for leg one of the journey to a family picnic in Wallingford. I roped Dad into doing all the highway driving, yay! Saturday was another 4 hours in the car, but then we had a good time at the picnic. The kids played soccer, had a water balloon fight, learned to fence and generally ran free for five hours. I didn't know where they were half the time, but various aunts and cousins helped keep an eye on them. It was great to see everyone again.





The trip took a turn for the worse at about 9:00 pm on Saturday when Claire vomited in the car. Yuck. Glad I just bought rubber floor mats before the trip. The vomiting continued until about 1:00 am, relasped a bit in the morning, and then came back at full force in the Saranac Lake McDonalds while surrounded by Rugby players. She was fine yesterday, but sick again this morning. It's so hard to balance the need to keep her fed and hydrated when she's refusing everything and vomiting up what she does get. Went to the Doc's this morning to make sure it wasn't anything worse than a simple virus aggravated by 16 hours in the car. So far, dinner has stayed put, keep your fingers crossed.

Toss 'em

Even if you don't have kids, you probably heard about the massive Thomas the Train Engine recall a few weeks ago. Luckily, Nathan's interest in trains was short-lived and we didn't have any affected items.

But today, Fisher-Price announced a million item recall of toys that had a high lead content. We have two items that were on the list, but they're claiming that the danger is only for items purchased in the last few months. Why in the world would I take the chance that ours our safe? Damaged items got past their last round, how do I know this one is really safe?

And dammit, it's Fisher-Price, I should be able to trust them. I'd expect this from the junk we get at the dollar store, but not from the figurines that were on Nathan's 3rd Birthday Cake!!!!!!!!!

Wal-Mart if Coming

According to our local news, they broke ground just outside town today. The project has been mired in lawsuits and town squabbling since 2004, I'd started to think they'd given up after they postponed the groundbreaking earlier this spring. No such luck.

It's hypocritical of me to not want them here, since I make regular trips to a nearby town that does have a Wal-Mart. But that's a larger city with an industrial base, not a quaint little village with a walkable downtown and locally owned stores. And I still don't see how we could possible have the population to sustain a Supercenter, especially with two other Wal-Mart's within a 40 minute drive.

Although last I heard the company and the town government were still haggling over sewer and water access, so it may not be a done deal yet.