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.