The Adirondacks Old and New, on the Internet

From Steve Gross' Frontier Town (www.frontiertown.net)

Last night I got an email that I had a new Twitter follower.  Whenever I get one of these, I always check out my new follower's profile to find out a little about them, to see if I want to follow back.  I read their recent tweets, and if there is a website associated with a person's profile, I almost always will click on it.  Well last night's new follower turned out to be quite an interesting gem - it was the Embers family.  Turns out they live in Florida, but bought a somewhat run down motel and diner in the Adirondacks, and their whole family is working together to restore it, and run it.  Their story so far is quite remarkable, though their last blog post is a bit of a "cliffhanger" (they assured me an update is imminent though, LOL).  I'm not sure how long I spent on the website reading all about it, but just to give you an idea, here is just one set of before and after pictures:

Pictures from The Embers Eatery and Cabins

Make sure you also read the "About Us" section of their site, it's hilarious!

Wow, what an amazing transformation!  All that's left is a little landscaping and a couple of Adirondack chairs out front (I recommend a polywood adirondack chair - they're made from recycled plastic and they never need to be repainted - sweet!!).

After I finished browsing their website, I went to Google Maps to see where in the Adirondacks their place is located (they are in North Hudson, NY).  When I saw the map, I noticed that very close by is Frontier Town!  Did you ever go to Frontier Town as a kid?  Sadly it's been closed for quite a few years now, but there must be many of us who remember going there as a kid.  I decided to Google Frontier Town just to see what might be going on with it nowadays, and I found this wonderful website by Steve Gross at http://www.frontiertown.net/ which includes a plethora of information, photos, history and memories.  I ended up immersed in THAT website for a while, as well.  Does this postcard bring back any memories?

From frontiertown.net

If you want to relive your old memories, or just curious about whatever happened to Frontier Town, check out Steve's wonderful website.

So, after having my fill of all that was Frontier Town, I decided to send out a tweet with a website link to share with anyone else who might find the Frontier Town site interesting.  And who should reply?  But my new friends the Embers!  They tweeted back asking me if I ever went to the Land of Makebelieve.  I had never heard of that place, so they sent me a link to the website for the gentleman who created the Land of Makebelieve and who also created some things for Storytown. (Remember Storytown?  I'm happy to say that although the park was bought by Great Escape, they kept some of the Storytown rides and displays and you can still enjoy them today.)  Even if you never went to the Land of Makebelieve or Storytown, if you enjoyed those kitschy theme parks from our childhood, you'll probably find this extraordinary man as interesting as I did - Arto Monaco Historical Society.

From the Land of Makebelieve Photo Gallery at artomonaco.org

Arto Monaco also had his own line of toys - they are the most beautiful and whimsical creations!

Click here to see a photo gallery of more of Arto's unique toys 

Photo from artomonaco.org

So last night, thanks to my new Twitter friends the Embers (you can follow them too - @emberfamily) who started it all by following me, I spent hours on the internet checking out their project of revitalized Adirondack cabins and eatery to come in the future, and browsing memories of Adirondack attractions of the past.  What a fun night!

The end.

Kitchen Light for Cabin Possibility

I was able to find online a picture of a light we saw that we liked.  However we are getting a quote to see what it would cost to customize it a bit.  If we decide to go with it, I'll go into more detail.  We want to see what the price is going to be.  As I've said before, we're trying to be economical - gonna have to get used to not eating out as much, passing by the blac label clothing and cutting back on traveling (except to the cabin of course!).

Here's the ceiling fan we picked for the "great room" (which isn't all that great because it's kind small for a great room, but, whatever).  They didn't have this fan at our Lowe's down by us, so I was surprised but very happy to spot this at the Lowe's in Glens Falls:

It's kind of hard to see, but there's a cool Adirondack design around the top.  Oh and while I'm at it, I might as well show you the cabinets we chose.  They're very inexpensive, but they have a nice Adirondack look and I am happy with our choice.  Our kitchen is a small L shape, so it should be pretty easy to put together a nice kitchen with the different components Lowe's offers:

We saw some cool twig-like cabinet hardware - I'm not sure if this is exactly what we picked, but if it isn't, it's very similar:

Anyway, these are some of the things we picked - what do you think? 

The end.

Hey, That's My Seat!

On one of the recent and MANY very hot days we have had lately, I was trying to put off putting on the A/C for as long as possible.  So I brought my computer over to this chair that is within the breeze of our ceiling fan.  As you can see I had this whole setup going with the stools, my cup of water, yada, yada.  I got up to use the bathroom, and this is what I found when I got back.  Of course.  Kittehs always take the best seat in the house.  Not sure if she was planning on using my computer to look up fat burner reviews, or LOL Cats or I Can Haz Cheezeburger or what, but let me tell you, nothin' was getting in between me and the breeze from that ceiling fan, I don't care how cute and innocent she looked, LOL!  I let her stay long enough to snap the picture and then she was promptly evicted, 'cause THAT'S MY SEAT!

The end.

Speaking of the Garden...

I keep making fun of our garden, but hey, look!  We grew those green beans!  Boy, were they good, too!

And look - we grew that zucchini!  We put olive oil and salt and pepper on it and my husband grilled it up on the BBQ.  Between the two of us, we ate the whole thing!  (Our daughter didn't like it.)

If we keep actually getting edible vegetables from our garden, that ought to reduce belly fat, eh?

Tonight my daughter brought in our first "crop" of lettuce, so we will probably have salad tomorrow night.  We'd better enjoy it, because I'm not so sure how much more lettuce we'll get.  Maybe we'll get enough for at least one more salad.  We struggled with the lettuce.  Our peppers are finally flowering, though there aren't many plants that survived.  The tomato plants look like they are doing well.  Maybe by next week I might have my first ripe tomato?  A week after that no doubt I'll be back here asking y'all what the heck to do with tons of tomatoes, LOL!  (Mine are just "regular" tomatoes - I don't know that they're good for making sauce out of....???)

If you have a garden, how is yours going?  What do *you* do with a million tomatoes?   I like tomato sandwiches, but I'm not sure how many of those I can eat...

The end.

More Details From our Trip to the Adirondacks

I took this pic when we stopped in Lake George.

 As I mentioned in my last post, we traveled up north to meet with our builder to "pick out stuff".  A huge blessing was that we did not have to drag our daughter with us.  She would have been bored. to. death.  Fortunately for us, my one sister-in-law very graciously agreed to take our daughter up to her place and extend the sleepover our daughter and niece were already having at Grandma's.  They slept over Grandma's Saturday and Sunday, then I brought them up to my sister-in-law's on Monday, and my sister-in-law was so nice to have our daughter stay over Monday and Tuesday night so we could meet the builder without distractions.  Plus our daughter was absolutely happy as a clam to have the opportunity to spend so much time with her cousin.  So, I didn't end up getting my Sweet Pea back until today!  It was so weird without her around!  Anyway...

When we had our present house built our builder chose a lot of things for us.  This time, we get to pick out pretty much everything - even stuff we couldn't care less about, like bathtub drains!  LOL!  It has definitely been an educational experience.  For example, I didn't know that when you buy a toilet, it doesn't come with a seat!  You choose that separately!  Good thing the builder was with us to tell us that, or I think we'd have been mighty surprised to have toilets with no seats, ha ha!

We still have a few outstanding things to choose, one of them being flooring and another is a screen door.  We want to get some kind of wooden Adirondack-y kind of screen door.  I have to hunt that down, but I was thinking something like this:

Just an idea.  We also are choosing a special lighting fixture for over the kitchen table.  We're waiting on the quote for that.  If I can find a picture online, I'll show that to you soon.

Anyway, we're trying very hard not to overspend our allowances.  If we're not careful, we won't even need the best fat burner pill - we'll be so broke all we'll be eating is bread and water, LOL!  Oh, and the bountiful harvest from our Thousand Dollar Garden (rolling my eyes), ha ha!

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Mini Cabin Update

We went up to the Adirondacks today.  We didn't visit our property (nothing new anyway - still just a foundation), but we did go up to meet with our builder to make a whole bunch of selections for our "cabin".  By the end of it, it seemed like we had to pick just about everything but exit signs, LOL!  But, we got nearly everything chosen, yay us!

One of the things we picked is the siding for our "cabin".  We're getting fake log vinyl siding by Timbermill - it's pretty cool (and much cheaper than really building a log home!!).

We got home about 10pm tonight and I feel pretty brain dead.  Other than pick out stuff, that was about all we did up in the Adirondacks today.  We didn't even geocache!  We did stop in Lake George to take a few deep breaths and see the lake.  We also had a bite to eat in one of our favorite restaurants there, the Adirondack Pub and Brewing Company.  Then a stop at Stewart's to fill up with "cheap" gas (cheaper than here, anyway!) and a potty break in their usually very nice and clean restroom, and we were on our way back home.

I will share more soon, but next on my schedule is SLEEP.

The end.

I'm Mad at Wegmans, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's!!

Because none of them have come to my area!!!

For some reason, Wegmans seems to be interested in pretty much any area of the northeast and mid-Atlantic EXCEPT MY AREA (Dutchess County, NY)!  What do they have against the Hudson Valley?!?  I LOVE Wegmans!  I would travel a reasonable distance to shop there! Why?  Why not here??

And I am mystified that neither Trader Joe's or Whole Foods has selected this area for a store.  We have the WORLD FAMOUS Culinary Institute here - HELLO!  If there is an area that would have plenty of customers interested in fresh, quality and organic products, IT'S HERE!  The Hudson Valley has tons of great restaurants - many run by CIA chefs,  and definitely a good segment of people that would consider themselves "foodies" and "gourmet cooks".   The Hudson Valley is a place where there is a big focus on fresh produce and environmental awareness.  How can it be that Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are overlooking us?!?   In fact, they saw fit to put a Trader Joe's off the highway in a lonely plaza near Danbury, CT - but they overlook Route 9 in Poughkeepsie, NY, a shopping mecca for miles around.

I'm so annoyed I'm going to need shampoo for hair loss from tearing it out.  It's not like this area is in the middle of nowhere - have you ever heard of nearby Poughkeepsie, NY?  It's like a mini-metropolis!  We have nearly every other store and restaurant you can think of...EXCEPT WEGMANS, WHOLE FOODS AND TRADER JOE'S!

And YES!  I have emailed all these companies and requested they come to our area.  Especially Wegmans.  MANY TIMES.  I at least want my Wegmans!

WAH!

The end.

Didn't Realize Wall Mounting a Phone is "Passe"

When we got back from our vacation, our phone was dead.  We tried replacing the battery, but it was still dead.  It was pretty old and the caller ID display had been broken forever, so we weren't TOO sad to have to buy a new phone.  I checked Consumer Reports, then went to the store.  I checked the box to make sure the new phone had all the features we wanted, including the ability to wall mount it, so we could put it where the old phone was.  Can you believe this is VTech's idea of an acceptable way of wall mounting their CS6319-2 phone??

Is that not the stupidest thing you've ever seen?  Who the heck is going to wall mount it if it looks like THAT?  They should not even say it can be wall mounted.  Anyway, the other phones I looked at seemed to nearly all be this "tabletop" style and I guess they would all look equally stupid wall mounted.  We just didn't realize wall mounting phones wasn't the "thing" anymore.  Well, now we know!  LOL.  We solved the problem by re-hanging our old phone back on the wall because we can still use the answering machine part of it, which still works.  We found a flat surface near a phone jack to put the new phone.

I must admit, it's nice to have a phone with a handset with a working caller ID so I can see if it's a company calling to sell me the best treatment for acne or if it's a friend or family member, LOL.

The new phone has a different ring than our old phone, and for some reason, the new phone ringtone makes our dog howl.  Right now it's funny.  Let's see how long that stays funny...

The end.

Rocco DiSpirito's "Better Than Mashed Potatoes"

I meant to take a picture of this before we helped ourselves, but I was so eager to try it, I forgot all about taking a picture until halfway through dinner.

Here's yet another dish from Rocco DiSpirito's cookbook "Now Eat This" that I've tried.  It's called, "Better Than Mashed Potatoes".  It's supposed to be a healthier substitute for mashed potatoes.  Now it doesn't taste anything like mashed potatoes, which he admits, but I guess it gives you the idea of having mashed potatoes.  I remember back when the no-carb diet was really hot, Uno's Chicago Grill had something like this as a side dish.  It's actually roasted cauliflower, pureed to be like a mashed potato consistency.  The thing is, I don't have a food processor.  Well, not a REAL one, anyway.  I have a plastic thing with a crank handle I think I got at the Dutchess County Fair years ago.  It actually works pretty good, and I RARELY have a need for an actual food processor, so I make do with my plastic thing.  But I think this dish would have been better if I could have pureed it more.  As it was I just about lost the use of my arm after cranking the handle on my pseudo food processor trying to get it smooth.

Anyway, I liked it a lot.  (We're going to have to get cellular shades just to keep the neighbors away if I keep making these yummy Rocco DiSpirito recipes, LOL.)  We don't normally like or eat cauliflower, so I like the idea of getting another vegetable into our "rotation".  In fact, in the last couple of weeks we've eaten THREE new vegetables that we don't normally eat - cauliflower, eggplant and kale.  We even liked them!  :-P

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Can You Spot the Geocache?

We were geocaching on our vacation in the Berkshires and my husband was laughing at me while I was looking for this particular geocache.  If you look carefully, it's a tiny green container hanging over my HEAD in the tree.  I got a clue when I heard him snap that picture and heard the chuckling.

I am about 5'3" and I was just able to reach that geocache.  We've seen other geocaches that are fairly high up - I guess if you're short you'd better take your hgh, LOL. Actually, it's nice to geocache as a "team" because I can leave the  retrieval of geocaches that are in high places, scary dark holes, spiderwebby places, and buggy crevasses to my husband.  :-D 

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I'm Getting Tired of BBQing

Our latest grilling "kick" is to grill big onion slices.  We just put some olive oil and salt on each side.  They're really good, cheap and low fat/calorie.

My husband loves to grill all summer.  So when I do my meal planning each week, I look at the weather, and I plan something for the grill for the days that are going to be sunny.

It has basically been sunny for weeks on end.

I'm tired of thinking of things for the grill, I'm tired of eating grilled everything.  Plus we have blown through the meat in our freezer.

There ARE two good things: my husband loves to do the grilling, so it's a nice break for me from cooking in the kitchen, and, the grilled foods I plan are usually very low in fat and calories, so we're not getting fat off the BBQ.

Our grill is pretty old - it's about 10 years old I think, but it still works pretty good (it's a Weber, given to us by my parents as a housewarming gift in our PREVIOUS house!).  My friend Rebecca says her grill splatters oil at her when she uses it (her post here), but ours doesn't.  At least my husband has never complained of it.  On the other hand, my husband always enjoys a "cold one" while grilling, so for all I know he wouldn't notice it if the grill was spattering, ha ha!  Did any of you ever work at McDonalds?  I always heard that if you worked the grill there you'd end up needing acne treatment from getting a face full of grease spatters.

I worked at McDonalds, but I was a cashier.  I worked there back when the uniforms were brown polyester!  I don't want to knock that job, but I have to say as a teenager on the hunt for cute boys, reeking of hamburgers and french fry grease when I got off work was not a positive aspect of that job.

Did any of you ever work at a fast food place?  Which one?

The End.

Hey, We've Got Veggies!

Houston, we have zucchini!

Well would you believe it??  We've actually grown something!  Woo hoo!  :-D  These zucchini plants are probably the best plants of the garden.  They are gigantor and prehistoric looking, and they're makin' zucchini.

Our tomato plants are probably our second best plants, which is a surprise because they looked like they were at death's door for quite awhile when we first transplanted them into the garden.

No tomatoes yet, but we have lots of blossoms.  We've weeded since this picture was taken, by the way!

I didn't take pics of the beans or pea plants, but they are actually our first "harvest".  Check it out!

Despite these fine looking peas we've picked, the pea plants aren't looking very good.  Not sure what's wrong...not enough water?  Too much water?  Some of them are just looking very peaked...

Anyway, I think at this point, our "thousand dollar garden" is now down to our "$999.25 garden".  :-D
Too bad we couldn't have used money from a health savings account to build the garden - fresh veggies are for good health, right??  :-P

The end.

Vacation in the Berkshires

We could see the windmill on top of Jiminy Peak (very popular ski mountain) from our deck.  I love these modern windmills.  I find them graceful and mesmerizing.

We were on vacation in the Berkshire mountains of northwestern Massachusetts last week, somewhat unexpectedly.  :-P  You see, we have some awesome friends that own some timeshares, and when they weren't able to use it nor rent it out, they very, very generously offered the use of one of them to us.  Thanks to our awesome parents (who took care of our pets - too late to book the kennel) and my husband's awesome boss (who let him take a week off with little notice), we were able to basically drop everything with two days notice and leave for a week of vacation!

We didn't do a whole lot, but we did do a lot of relaxing which was NICE!   The place we stayed was beautiful - it was actually two suites put together, so it was huge for our little three person family.  The decor was really nice - a full kitchen, deck, fancy decor in the huge bathroom like Robern Medicine cabinets and a jacuzzi, etc.

The weather was extremely hot so we mostly just did "cache and dash" type geocaching, which was nice to at least enjoy the scenery.  It was just too hot to take advantage of the great hiking.  I also took my daughter to the Clark Art Museum, which was fantastic.  (Hubby skipped that - he let us be artsy fartsy while he did more geocaching.)  Our daughter loved the pools at the place we were staying, so we took her to frolic in the pool every day.

We enjoyed our week away, even though it was a little crazy leaving on the spur of the moment.  All the pets did fine - Texdog stayed at "Chez Dad", who spoiled our doggie and treated him like a prince.  The kitties stayed home, but my Mother-in-law and Dad took turns visiting and feeding them.  They did just fine except the day we came back one of them had some unbelievable monumental projectile vomiting explosion all over a chair and the floor in the kitchen which left a delightful stench that greeted us when we arrived home.  But, if that was the worst thing that happened while we were gone, I can deal with that.  (Both cats seemed fine, so whatever happened, it didn't seem to have any lasting effects or be serious.  I don't even know which one of them it was.)

Did you go on vacation this summer, or are you planning to?  If so, where are you going?

The end.

If You Are A Person Who Loves Summer...

...do you actually like being hot and sweaty?

Or maybe you're one of those people that hardly sweats.

I hate being hot.  I hate sweating.  Your clothes stick to you.  Your makeup melts off.  You have bad hair day, after bad hair day.  You have to keep wiping your brow.   Your car seats and steering wheel fry your skin when you get in the car.  Then you freeze to death in restaurants and stores because they turn the A/C too high.  Endless applications of sunblock, or else sun burns.  Mowing the lawn.  Mosquito bites. 

You don't mind all that?

I think spring and fall are WAY WAY BETTER than summer.

The end.

More Thoughts Too Short for a Whole Blog Post

We were actually away all last week on a spur-of-the-moment vacation.  This was the view from the deck of the place we were staying.  The view is of Jiminiy Peak - a popular skiing destination in northwestern MA, in the Berkshires.  More to come on our vacation...I am still catching up, doing laundry, etc.  We actually just got home from having to drive a form up to our local 4H office that had to be in today; I didn't expect to be on vacation last week and didn't think to get it in the mail before we left.

I am bored of the current style of photography which is using a macro lens for everything.  How many more close ups of blueberries or earrings can I look at?  Yes, give yourselves a pat on the back, you know how to use a macro lens - yes I see what a wonderful job you did of getting this close up object so clear, and the background so fuzzy and out of focus, woo hoo. 

I totally realize that some restaurants wish to discourage families with children.  I am not offended by this in any way, I think that's fine.  (A big clue that a restaurant discourages children is when they don't offer a children's menu, or have booster seats or high chairs.)  I just wish there was some way to know AHEAD of time that a restaurant doesn't want kids.  Like there should be a little sign out front, or lightpost with a purple light, or SOMETHING to let me know that there's hardly going to be anything for my kid to eat.  This way we could choose somewhere else and make everyone happy.

The book "In defense of Food" by Michael Pollan was great - I read it on vacation.  If you liked Food Inc., I think this book is a great follow up with some practical advice that really makes a lot of sense to me.

Took our daughter to a pediatric urologist after her second kidney stones episode (the first one was two years prior).  The Doc didn't see anything wrong from her blookwork etc., but he wants to do some non-invasive investigation, as two kidney stones in a kid is very uncommon.  So we're apparently getting a kit in the mail to save her pee for 24 hours and then send it in to be analyzed to look for any possible "metabolic" causes, and we have to schedule a kidney ultrasound to look for any abnormalities.  What fun!

Occasionally my daughter gets an issue of "Teen Beat" or whatever and I have to admit, I like reading those magazines.  I also get copies of the National Enquirer from my mother in law who subscribes, and I LOVE looking at all the photos from the red carpet and what the celebrities are wearing.  I also love the weight loss stories from People magazine.

Why do so many female Disney stars have to turn slutty once they're out of Disney?  I can only assume it's because that's what they believe will launch them into the next phase of their careers and make them appealing to adults.  However, I would like to point out that Taylor Swift isn't the slightest bit slutty and I'd say she's pretty darn successful!  It's a shame to see so many of these female Disney stars head down the wrong road once they hit 18.  It's easy to see that Miley Cyrus has got her blinker on and is heading that way too.

The end.

Do you want me to kill you now, or should I kill you later while you sleep?

LOL.  Just kidding - Angel is too sweet to have those kind of thoughts.  Probably...  LOL.

I'm not sure why, but both Angel and Q-ee like that spot on the mat next to my "garden shoes" (they are like rain boots, but with the top part cut off).  Even when Basil was still around, she liked that spot too.  She liked to watch the leaves blowing on the deck in the fall - almost like she was going to try to "get" the leaves - it was cute. Wow, look - I found a picture of Basil in that spot:

I guess it's got a nice view - that must be why it's such a primo spot.  Plus there's a mat.  Don't know why, but all our cats have loved to sit on mats.

Ah, the simple life - happiness is a nice view and a mat.  We humans are doin' it wrong.  No wonder cats think we're stupid.  :-P

The end.

Ok, But What is the Deal With "Big Thunder"?

Here in NY we have these blue historical makers seemingly all over the place.  They're really interesting though (to us, anyway).  We saw the one pictured above recently.  Now I realize they only have a few lines on each sign to sum up whatever it is that is of historical significance, but, you can't just put, "Home of Big Thunder" and not explain who or what that is!

Here is a picture of the actual home of "Big Thunder", which I felt offered no clues.  (I think Big Thunder could use a new stainless steel drum to replace that rusty one out front, and maybe a little tidying up, however, on the other hand, maybe one should just let "Big Thunder" do whatever he or she wants to do, you know?)

Anyway, I was left to query the internet when we got home, to find out who or what was "Big Thunder".

Apparently Dr. Boughton was a speaker and activist from the NY anti-rent war of 1845-46.  From AmericanHeritage.com, "The calico Indians were tightly organized as the militant wing of the rent strikers...The Indians’ mission was to halt distress sales and block eviction. Boughton became the chief of all the Indian chiefs and adopted the name Big Thunder."

I'm embarrassed to admit I knew next to nothing about the anti-rent wars before I went and looked this up.  If you also didn't know about the anti-rent wars and would like to know more, you can find out more here.

Well look at that.  I learned me something new today!  

The end.

The Lazy Days of Summer...Unless You Have a Pool

My mother-in-law is wonderful, for many, many reasons.  Just one of those reasons is that she has a lovely pool, and lets us use it whenever we want.  But a pool is a lot of work.  I don't think she'd still have the pool if it were only her using it.  However, she loves to have her children and grandchildren visit, and so she goes through the time and expense of keeping the pool up, because she knows the grandkids especially enjoy it.

We went over to visit the other evening.  That's my mother-in-law in the top picture using the skimmer, and  out on the float, lazily enjoying the pool is our daughter, LOL.  Actually, she likes to help when it's time to get the debris on the bottom of the pool into the middle - then everyone walks/swims/paddles along the edge of the pool to make a mini whirlpool of debris in the middle for easy vacuuming.

Besides the nice pool, my mother-in-law also has a really nice, big deck, with an awning for shade, and some nice patio furniture.  It's really nice, and a very relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

And as if it isn't nice enough that she lets us come use the pool whenever we want, she's always offering lunch or dinner.  When we went over the other day, we actually brought down some burgers and french fries to save her from making dinner, but my mother-in-law insisted on making some of her often-requested and much loved tuna and shell salad to add to our meal. 

(Yes, I realize I am very blessed to have a mother-in-law I can sincerely call wonderful! :-)

The end.

Our Peas Were Falling Down

That's what I told my husband the other day.  So we went out and strung them up.  We ran some strings for the beans too - they're starting to get pretty tall also.  I am totally fascinated by the little curly pea "grappling hooks" they grow.  How do they do that?  It seems too smart for a plant.

After we put the strings up, I found myself getting caught up in trying to "hook" the pea plants on, to help them.  I know they don't need my help though.  In a day or two they'll all have somehow found the string on their own and be securely hangin' on.

We actually even have some pea pods starting.  They're about the size of a vitamin (LOL - why do vitamins keep coming up?!?). And if you've been reading my blog, you know that in my world, vitamins are actually pretty big.  (Speaking of vitamins, I remember when I was pregnant I was taking a prenatal vitamin, I think it was vitafol ob - that was like the only time in my life I was ever excited to take a vitamin.  Like, "look at me, I'm pregnant - I have to take prenatal vitamins, woo hoo".)

So, it looks like the very first thing we may get to harvest out of our "Thousand Dollar Garden of Mistakes" might be some peas....keeping my fingers crossed! :-)

The end.

I Won Tickets to a Hudson Valley Renegades Game

That's our local minor league (single A) baseball team.  They are affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays. 

I won a giveaway on Twitter the other day and I got free box seat tickets to a minor league baseball game.  We've been to their (Hudson Valley Renegades) games before, but it was nice to have such nice seats, and go on their dime.  If you've never been to a minor league baseball game before, it's more fun that you might think.

First of all, the game itself *I* think, tends to be more exciting because the teams aren't as good as the major league players and you never know what surprising mistakes might be made that end up in game changing scoring events.

Secondly, in order to make it fun and appealing to families, there is entertainment provided in between every inning - all kinds of silly contests and prize giveaways.

They also manage to sell all kinds of sponsorships and advertising for everything from joint supplements to car insurance which sometimes results in freebies for the spectator.  Our daughter got a free comic book with her ticket the other night.  Another time we came, we all got free hats.

As a bonus, the Renegades stadium has wonderfully spacious and clean restrooms, which is SO NICE.

Probably the best thing about a minor league baseball game is the inexpensive ticket price.  I believe the seats we had only went for $14 each.  We just bought Mets tickets recently and we're paying $30 for seats practically in the nosebleed section.  And they wonder why major league baseball attendance is down!!!!

The end.

The Best 50 Cents My Husband Ever Spent

That's what my husband told me.  As you know from an earlier post (about Gorilla Munch), my husband seems to have a penchant for primates.  Well, we were exiting a grocery store a couple of days ago, and one of those little kid's toy vending machines caught his eye - it was full of little toy monkeys.  So he took 50 cents of his hard earned money and put it in the machine.  Much to his great joy, he got this little monkey sticking his butt in the air.

Now I get the enjoyment of finding a little monkey sticking his butt at me in unexpected places, like this morning, my loving husband left him to greet me next to my coffee:

I can hardly wait to see where this little mischievous monkey shows up next.

If I win the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes, I'm going back to that monkey toy machine and I'm buying every last monkey.  Then I will somehow sneak into my husband's office and leave hundreds of little rude monkeys on every surface of the modern office furniture.  Somehow, someday I will get him back for all these little jokes he's always playing on me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The end.

Texdog, Why Do You Let the Cats Walk All Over You?

Here's Angel Kitty sleeping in a primo spot of sunshine.  In fact she has somehow dragged the catnip scratching mat from it's usual spot, into the sun.  Notice how she dragged it right over the dog toy in the foreground.

I stepped back to show you the larger picture here.  Notice Mr. Texdog, relegated to a spot under the coffee table.  Other times he's been reduced to squeezing himself under the end tables, or tv stands. 

Mr. Texdog, you are four times the size of these kitties (well, maybe only three times the size of Mr. Fatty McFatcat Q-ee, LOL) - why do you let them bully you?

Ironically, any time someone pulls into the driveway or rings the bell Mr. Tex is ready with scruff bristling and threatening barking.  He's ready to viciously defend us and his home against any foe.  Unless it's a cat.  In all the cartoons and movies I've ever seen, the dog is the one doing the chasing and threatening over the cats.    Hasn't Tex ever seen this on tv?  Doesn't he know he's supposed to be the one doing the intimidating??  What's wrong with our dog??  :-P

The end.

View from the Boathouse Restaurant, Bolton Landing, NY

We stopped to have lunch at the Boathouse Restaurant the day we went to peek at our Adirondack property.  Lunch was good (I had the crabmeat salad sliders, my husband had the cajun catfish sandwich), but even better was the view.  I actually walked out onto the dock from our table to take this picture.  They could have served sh*&$!t on a shingle, and with the beautiful view of Lake George to gaze at, I would probably hardly have noticed, LOL!

I must say, I am amassing quite a nice library of Adirondack photos.  I should make them into a slide show to look at when I'm having a bad day.  Actually, as you've seen, we've been documenting the progress on our property (you can click on the "cabin" label in the column on the right if you want to see all cabin-related posts - or I can try to do it for you I think if you click HERE), and it will be pretty cool to make a slideshow of that when it's done.  Someday.  Hopefully.   Maybe in the not too far off future....  :-)

The end.

Rocco DiSpirito's Creamed Spinach Recipe

As I'd talked about in a previous post, I have been trying some recipes from Rocco DiSprito's cookbook "Now Eat This".  This is the second recipe I have tried so far (the first was the macaroni and cheese).  Now I have to say, I was surprised that creamed spinach was even in this book.  I LOVE creamed spinach, but I didn't think it would make it into a celebrity cookbook.  In fact, occasionally if we go to one of those "buffet type" restaurants, they usually have a creamed spinach with cheese dish, and that is my FAVORITE thing to eat at the buffet, because it just doesn't seem to be a popular dish.  Or so I thought.

Anyway, the creamed spinach was easy to make and was really delicious - I loved it!  Even my husband ate it and didn't mind it - and he's not a creamed spinach fan.  I did change one thing though - I did not use baby spinach.  I generally don't mess around with recipes, especially the first time I am making something, BUT, if I had used baby spinach for this recipe, it would have ended up costing me like $10 just for the spinach!  Instead I got a bag of regular spinach for $1.99.  I did chop it up so that it would be more like the size of baby spinach, and it seemed to work just fine.  It was so good I ate all the leftovers the next day for lunch.

With all that spinach I ate sure won't need iron or hgh supplements!  And following Rocco's recipe, I won't get fat from it either!  :-D  This recipe is a keeper and I will definitely make it again.

The End

Trying to Find Vitamins

You know, choosing vitamins should just not be taking up this much of my time.  The Gummy Vites pictured above are the ones I finally gave in to buying for our daughter.  We have well water and therefore we do not have fluoridated water, thusly, daughter was prescribed fluoridated vitamins by her pediatrician years ago.  Which she hates.  And you know what?  I really can't blame her!  I had to take those same yucky vitamins when *I* was a kid, and I used to use all sorts of tactics to avoid them too!  I just can't go on fighting it anymore.  Besides, our daughter somehow never has cavities when we take her for her check-ups (one could call me the Tooth Brushing Nazi when it comes to our kid - I guess it's working), so I gave in and got the good vitamins.

Oh and by the way - vitamins are expensive!  What am I buying a bottle of loose diamonds here, or what??

Oh but now let's talk about me.  Why on earth do the vitamin tablets have to be gigantor?!?  Why not make them a smaller, more reasonable size and I'll just take two instead of trying to swallow one miniature submarine?!?  So I thought I was smart - HA!  I'll buy the chewable adult vitamins!  I bought the Centrum ones.  THEY ARE DISGUSTING!  The flavor is like a weird sour orange.  They seriously could not come up with a better flavor than that?!?  I actually called the phone number on the Centrum website and complained that their vitamins taste really yucky.  They were very polite about it.  The gentleman told me they actually have some people who call up to say they love the taste.

?????????????????

Not sure how I am going to solve my "vitamin problem".  I am open to any and all suggestions!  Either a smaller vitamin to swallow, or one that DOESN'T TASTE NASTY!

The end.

The Next Time You See A Photo of Our Adirondack Property...

...maybe, just maybe there will finally be more than just a foundation!!

We finally signed a contract with a builder to build the structure on our foundation, woo hoo!  Work should be starting soon, however, I'm not running out getting quotes for business card printing to say, "Carole, Adirondacker Extraordinaire" just yet.  There are about 18,000 rules/laws/permits/approvals/etc. to build anything in the Adirondacks.  I am hoping and praying that we won't run into any unexpected hold-ups.  You just never know, though.  We already made it through the variance process - I'm hoping that was the worst of it.

The photo was taken just this past 4th of July weekend, and even in the Adirondacks it was hot.  It's funny because we also visited our property last year for the 4th of July weekend and it was FREEZING!  We sat and had a picnic lunch huddled in our sweatshirts.  Maybe next year the weather will be just right, LOL.  And maybe we'll have a cabin!

The end.

Dangers of Cat Ownership

Q-ee underfoot

When I get old, if I still have cats, I am going to see if I can get insurance quotes for "cats underfoot".  If you are a cat owner, I'm sure sights like the above picture are commonplace at your home too.  Not only do I have to use my agility and quick footwork to avoid tripping over Q-ee and Angel congregating around my feet, but I don't know about you, but any time I step on something that feels like a cat's tail, I am also jumping away in surprise.  (Unfortunately we seem to have a bunch of cat toys that feel like a cat's tail when you step on them.)  Of course there's the surprise when you actually DO step on a cat tail, accompanied by the loud and startling cat screech.

It's especially fun challenge when the cats decide to swarm when you're in the middle of cooking and have hot pots and pans going.  Try to stay upright AND not scald yourself OR the cats when you're carrying a pot of boiling pasta to the sink while kitty is dodging between your feet.

How do older people not have broken hips, arms and legs every other week from tripping over the cats??  Do you just get to a point where you just kick them out of the way and say the heck with it??  I am lucky to still be fast on my feet, but I fear for my own safety if one day I can't move fast anymore!

The end.