What Have I DONE!!!

Good? Bad? Horrible different at first but I'll get used to it?

It was really necessary after the haircut she gave herself. And Dan doesn't like her screaming fits when he has to comb her hair and put elastics in. Now I just have to deal with screaming fits at the hairdressers every few weeks.

Any suggestions for different styles that aren't so "page-boy"? It's hard to think of what would work with her straight, fine hair.

Turn me Off

Got our electric bill from Jul 10 to Aug 11. Tankless hot water heater was installed Jul 3. Our usage dropped from about 1050kWH in June to 575kWH in current billing cycle. Turning off the computer more, changing lightbulbs and generally being smarter has helped drop us from 1165 last August to this low. Our Dec & Jan totals were almost 1500 kWH, I don't know how much of that was water, and how much was just the need to have more lights on in winter, but we should see an improvement there too.

I should update when I figure out the propane costs, but right now I'm looking at bills for the delivery of a bigger tank, installation, and a credit for the old tank. Can't quite figure out how that translates into how much was in the tank or how much we use each month for cooking and water.

Bullwinkle!

I know, I know, you can't see anything. But the brown smudge on the tree line (just to the left of the white post) is a moose. He's been hanging around this field for about a week. I kept forgetting to stop by and see, so a co-worker called me on her way home to say he was there.

Unfortunately, he wasn't being very photogenic. We could see his ears wiggling a bit, but he hadn't moved from the spot for at least an hour and a half before we came, and he decided to stretch it out by another half hour after we got there. I was just getting to the point of leaving when he finally stood up. And in the time it took me to get the kids back out of the car and across the street, he'd already disappeared into the trees. We got a brief glimpse of his tail (or booty, as Nathan has taken to saying) before he was gone.

I'm posting about it anyway, because HEY I saw a Moose!!!

(Much better picture of the Moose here.)

You gotta have Friends

I'm not particularly good at making friends. I put too many barriers in the way. "We work different shifts" "We live too far away" "She's not married" "She doesn't have kids" "Her kids are different ages" on and on and on.

And then, even if I meet someone who I can't find any objections to, I still have to cultivate the friendships somehow. It can take me a year to work up to trading e-mail or phone numbers. I'm not someone who chats on the phone, very un-girly of me, so I don't know how to move easily from acquaintance to friend. Our habit of moving every 2-3 years has not helped this process.

When we first moved here, I was only expecting to stay for a year or two as well, before moving back to Saranac Lake. So I wasn't stressing too much about the need to put down roots and make friends. But a few months after moving, I met Allison, and not only did she meet all my stupid, random qualifications, she was nice too. It still took me months to get around to calling her to make plans. And we've seen less and less of eachother since I starting working. But we also had many good talks at the beach, playground and skating rink while keeping one eye and ear on the kids.

This time, instead of me leaving, she has. To Atlanta. Very, very far away. Sigh.

So now I'm back to square one. It's like dating, something I have even less experience with. The only other woman who I'd gotten beyond calling "so & so's Mom" is also moving this summer. I have to hang out at the playground, or find time to make small talk during daycare pick-up. Now that Dan works Sundays, I may try the U-U Church again. This really sucks.

Beauty School Drop Out

Okay. There are two things wrong with this picture, can you spot them?

See the hair next to her ear. It's supposed to be about an inch longer. But my darling, angel of a daughter decided to practice her beautician skills and gave herself a haircut last night. At least most of her work was confined to the end of the pony tail, so a visit to the hairdresser should even all that out tomorrow. But there were also a few suspiciously short hairs right on the crown of her head too, that I discovered when I removed the elastics. She may be sporting a spiky Alfalfa do later this month.


Here are the remains.

Animal Planet

It's getting to be like Wild Kingdom around here. First a snake in the kitchen. Then Dan found a bat stuck to some burdock while mowing. He disentangled it and left it on the swingset to recover for the day. And now Nathan's just gotten two stings, one on his leg and one on his cheek, from a wasp or bees.

Several minutes of ear-shattering screaming have now been replaced with a child happily playing in the tub. But I'm worried about that cheek. It's probably going to bother him a lot at bedtime.

Sun & Wind

I'd love to have some solar panels....
Or a wind turbine.....
But until then, I suppose I should at least harvest a little wind & sun and save on some energy bills.

I think the only reason we hadn't done this sooner was that with the pig farm next door, we weren't sure about the odors. And also, this is right next to one of Zeppo's runs, and I just haven't figured out a better place to move him to. But for now, we'll just go with it. If he causes trouble, we can always use the far half. Or hang things out while we're gone for the day and Zeppo is in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, I spent so much time working out the correct knot for the clotheslines (taut line, btw), that I got the sheets out too late. I wasn't thinking about the fact that the sun sets in front of the house, and this spot gets shady by 6:oo. Well, sheets dry fast. And the rest can go in the dryer for 10 minutes.

And just so you know, Dan's restaurant is doing great. They were serving 60-80 on weekdays, and up to a hundred on Fri & Sat. And that was before getting the liquor license. Last night was the first Sat with the license, and Dan thinks they may have done 200.

The only downside that I know of, is that they had wanted to be open for lunch, but they were having trouble getting staff. And this is impacting Dan because he has to go in earlier to do prep for dinner. If they had lunch cooks, a lot of the dinner prep would be done and Dan could go in at 1 or 2, instead of 10 or 11. So hopefully that will get settled soon. I know that he's managing the extra hours, but it'd be nice if he had some time to himself each morning instead of having to go to work as soon as he's dropped the kids off.

Slight break from typing as I went into the kitchen to get dinner and there was A SNAKE OH MY GOD WHY IS THERE A SNAKE IN THE KITCHEN BROOM BROOM WHERE'S THE BROOM GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT AHHHHHHHHH

I don't like snakes. I reaaaaallllly need to convince myself that it came in while the back door was open for awhile, and that it is not actually from a nest of snakes in the basement or in the walls of the kitchen. Please, please tell me that that is the case, and that it won't find it's way in again. Please.

Sorry

Not writing much, sorry. I wasn't used to Dan being home nights for the 2 months before the new place opened. And now I'm not used to him working nights again. Plus, he now works Sundays, which he used to have off, in addition to Saturdays. I'll try to get back in the habit soon.

Dr. Horrible's Sing A Long Blog

Go watch. Right now. Especially if you like Buffy(Once more with Feeling), Doogie, Firefly, Over-emoting, evil laughs, and love songs that revolve around freeze rays.

Donovan's Steak and Ale

The restaurant opens tonight. They had a practice run last night.

My dish
NYS
Grilled Dry Aged New York Strip
Bacon, Cheddar and Scallion Baked Potato Pie,
Brandy~Mushroom Sauce, Haystack Onions


Janet's
Pan~Roasted Atlantic Salmon
Vegetable Couscous, Cucumber Salad
Roasted Pepper & Tomato Sauce


George's
Grilled Sirloin Steak
Steak Fries, House Steak Sauce


I didn't take a picture of the kid's hot dog and chicken fingers, although the steak fries were artfully arranged. Everything was wonderful. I barely recognized the place from our last visit when chairs were piled everywhere and the floors were covered with drop-cloths. Last night was all white tablecloths and attentive waitstaff. And food that fires off all your taste-buds.

Dark skies and quiet walks

I wish I could take you all out with me when I walk Zeppo at night, it's so amazing.

After I put our house to my back, there's only one house in my sights. They're far up the road, and don't turn many lights on, so my eyes adjust to the dark pretty quick. I get past our trees, and there are fields to either side of me for 2/10 of a mile. Tonight, there was still some straggling fireflies floating around. The field on the left has new bales of hay scattered all around. I think once they bring those in, they'll put some cows to pasture there. A small sliver of a moon was there tonight, a bit orange as it was rising.

That's the only direction that I get a "city glow" from Potsdam, and it's not much of one with only 10,000 residents. Sometimes there's some more glow to the north from Massena, but that's 30 miles away so it's not very strong either. Looking to the right is always totally black. There are no towns between us and the Adirondacks in that direction. Even though I can't see the mountains, the dearth of human activity is evident at night. Because the moon was just a crescent tonight, and there were no clouds, it was a fantastic night for stargazing. I've never seen as many stars anywhere else I've ever lived or visited. And the milky way stretching over it all.

We usually walk for 10-15 minutes, and hardly ever see a car or hear any sound of humans or machines. Dogs, yes. And coyotes a few times, they call them coy dogs here. Last week, at dusk, a car did come by and scared out a deer that had been hiding in the field as we passed. Poor Zeppo really wanted to chase it back down to woods.

That's where I live. And why I live here.

Country-style wedding

 

Just got back from the wedding of Dan's cousin Meg down in the Rochester area. I think this picture captures the mood of the reception pretty well. Meg got out of the dress and into a tank top pretty quick. The cake is layers of cupcakes with sugared violets. The father of the bride is just out of the shot and wearing a John Deere T-shirt. And we've just finished our ribs and are about to start the square dancing.

All this was at Uncle Norm and Aunt Mar's house. Norm had built a barn a few years ago to house some vintage tractors, so that gave us plenty of room for dancing and the bar. And the side yards had some lawn games for the kids. At the time we left, they were firing up the tiki torches and I think there was going to be a firepit going. Aunt Mar must have started planting flowers and planning the gardens since the engagement announcement last year. The yard looked absolutely beautiful.

I know Dan has been looking forward to this visit for a long time. Even though we're not separated by many miles, it's still an ordeal to get the kids down, so we haven't seen many of his cousins since we moved back. In fact, there were two other weddings in the family this year that we missed. But he got to see a lot of the family the night before the wedding when they had a boat cruise on Canandaigua lake. I missed out, but I'm not dissapointed to be spared the 1 1/2 traffic jam leaving the fireworks show.

But I must say, having a 3-4 hour trip take 6 1/2 hours is really making me rethink the camping trip to Maine next year.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

We just got our hot water back on today. Part of the delay was that we decided to go with the tankless. Here she is.....



It's very small, only about a foot wide and two feet tall. The water is instantly heated by propane as we need it, rather than having a tank being heated constantly. Our electric bill is going to plummet this month. Now I can finally give the kids baths, which I must to soon because we have to get ready for a weekend trip to a wedding near Rochester. Happy 4th!!!

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.