Brrrrrrrrr

Our hot water heater died Friday. We're certainly giving Roto-Rooter a lot of business since we moved. New well pump, all new pipes, plus a patch job on the sump pump. And now a water heater. You may think that since it's summer, we don't necessarily need the hot water. If you think that, you've obviously never tried to shower with 50 degree well water.

It should get installed tomorrow, although there's been some wrangling over the expense. We've been wanting to switch to a tankless water heater, but they're mega-expensive. Although they quickly pay for themselves in reduced electric costs. But we either need to be approved for financing tonight, or get a rental agreement to get those. Otherwise, we'd have to go with a traditional electric heater, which is such a waste of energy. I'd thought that if we had to go traditional, we could at least switch to propane, but apparently we can't get that installed in the basement.

It's really never a good time for a heater to fail. All of Dan's thoughts are on the restaurant opening next week, and we're off to a wedding this weekend. Hard to organize our time when we're also traveling to Canton every day for a shower.

Flikr Mosaic

I liked Joy's Flikr Mosaic based on those "get to know me" lists that are always flying around the internet. And since I was off today, I did one too. You answer the following questions, then plug them into the Flikr search. After picking an image from the first page, you load the photo into Mosaic Maker.

1. What is your name? Amy, so glad I didn't have to use an Amy Winehouse photo
2. What is your favorite food? mac & cheese
3. What high school did you go to? Maloney
4. What is your favorite color? green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Henry, the Super Accountant
6 What is your favorite drink? coke
7. Where is your dream vacation? Sedona, (too bad McCain lives there)
8. Favorite dessert? Ice Cream
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? restauranteur
10. What do you love most in life? my kids
11. One word to describe you. quiet
12. Your Flickr name. saffry-had to cheat and use saffron



1. Cupcakes from Amy Sedaris' 2. gotta be KD, 3. Sarah in the Band, 4. Verde no Aquarius, 5. christopher_gorham, 6. return for refund, 7. Cathedral Rocks, 8. Homemade berry ice cream 9. Juanita Musson 10. Bless from above 11. A Winter's Landmark, 12. saffron

Graduation

I think every grade now does some kind of moving up ceremony, which will soon get tedious. But this first one was fun anyway. Here's Nathan with his teacher, which is a counterpoint to the photo in this post.



The ceremony was rather elaborate. The kids sang songs (except Nathan, who just looked around while everyone sang). As they were giving out diplomas, they played a recording of each child saying what he/she wanted to be when they grew up. Behind them, a large sceen showed them each dressed up as their future job, then a picture they'd drawn. Lot's of veterinarians, doctor's, nurses and fireman.

I'm sorry that this video came out so strange, the camera couldn't deal with the projection screen. But the audio makes it all worth it.

Roughing it

Have you been wondering if we're still without power? Sorry I didn't update, we got it back Thursday afternoon.

I'm finding it ironic that after two days of complaining about no heat or water, that Dan and I are talking about going camping sometime. Not this summer, since he's so busy with the new restaurant plans, but next summer.

I've started looking at campsites near Acadia National Park. And trying to decide if we should spend a whole week in one place, or break up the trip by also camping somewhere between here and the Maine Coast. It's a very long drive, but we really would like to see the ocean again. Especially the wild, rocky Maine coast.

I'm also trying to get a sense of what type of campground suits us. On the one hand, we like peace and quiet and would not want to be in an RV-centric place with lots of organized activities. But I think with the kids, we'd want a place that was big enough to have a pool/playground and convenient bathrooms and showers.

Of course we have no gear to speak of. Not even sleeping bags. Dad might have some camping supplies we could borrow, since he and Kyle go weekend camping a lot. But we'd need a bigger tent, and our own sleeping bags. And an air mattress. Definitely need an air mattress. We'll probably find that the cost for the gear will outweigh the savings of a campsite over a hotel the first year.

Anyone gone camping recently who could give me some tips? I went on week-long trips every year when I was a kid. Until about the age of 13 or 14 when Ray and I started going to Scout camp instead. I loved the quiet mornings when Dad would get the fire going and make breakfast on the camp stove. Dan's experience is limited to a few overnights, and his most lasting impression was that it was hard to get the tent up. Well, we have awhile to plan and think and decide if this is what we want to do.

No power

We had a storm rip through the area on Tuesday afternoon, and our house has been without power since. For us country folks, no power means no water, so we've de-camped to the in-laws in Canton for a few days.

Luckily, the storm missed the more populated Canton and Potsdam villages, but it did a number in some of the nearby towns. Here's a news article with pictures of some of the damaged houses.

At our house, the storm only polished off one of our maples, the one that got damaged the week after we moved in. The trunk is still there, but all the limbs came crashing down onto our power line. Oh well. More details when I'm back on my own computer.

Hey Batter, Batter, Batter Swing Batter

I think he learned that follow through from Big Papi.

Canton Dairy Princess Festival

Went to a small festival in Canton yesterday, the Dairy Princess Festival. The town green was chock-a-block with vendors selling hot dogs, pretzels, sno-kones etc. A lot of it was fundraising for the small-town groups that keep small-town life going, like Kiwanis and the Lions club. Plus a bounce house with a reallllllly long line. That we had to go to twice.

There was a cake walk to raise money for a playground. I've never seen this kind of fundraiser anywhere else. They put stakes or safety cones with numbers on them, and then 20 people form a circle and walk around while the music plays. When the music stops, you pick a number to stand by. The organizers than draw a number, and if it's your number, you win a cake. So it's a simple raffle, but with an exercise component to make it seem like work.

The main event was a band sponsored by the local John Deere dealership. They close off a few blocks of the street and park a variety of tractors for the kids to climb on. And hand out a lot of green and yellow balloons.


But the more exciting event for us was the Big Wheel races. We watched most of the 4 yr old level, as they ran 6 heats, and several semi-finals to narrow the 30 kids down to three. There were probably more in the five & six years groups. Although, as you can see by Nathan's attempt, we didn't need to stay past his heat to wait for the semi-final rounds.

Owwww, don't do that

New Favorite Show

Anthony Bourdain No Reservations