Cabin Update and Golden Corral

If you look to the left you can see the snow topped brown lp tank, which is new since we last visited

We went up to check on the progress of our "cabin" last week.  I have to say, this is the first time that I reeeeeaaallly didn't feel like going.  I had so many other things that I wanted to get done with Christmas fast approaching, and to "lose" a day was kind of tough, but, we're only building this thing once, so I realize it's important to keep going and checking on things.  Anyway, the latest progress was that the walls were painted, the lp gas tank installed, and the porch steps were on.

We weren't exactly sure how the stairs were going to look - we pretty much told the builder that whatever he could get the gal at the town to agree with was fine by us.  We were very happy with how they turned out.

This is looking into the kitchen.  The entire place was painted the shade of green we chose, so we were a little nervous because if we didn't like it, we were stuck with it in every room, LOL!  Luckily we were very happy with how the green looked.  I don't know how it shows on your monitor, but it real life it's a nice sort of sage-y green.

Looking into the livingroom.  In the corner will be an lp gas "woodstove".  To the left are the doors that go out to the enclosed porch.

This is the hallway to the bedrooms, bathroom, and basement stairs.  At the end of the hallway is a spot, 39" X 23" for our dog's bed.  In fact just this week I "custom made" a dark green bed for him to fit right in that spot.

Don't feel bad for the kitties - this is a photo taken from the loft area and that rectangle jutting out is actually the top of the entry closet (there will be a rail around it), to the right are the stairs up.  We just know the cats are going to love that little peninsula where they can look out and down at everything.

Gratuitous pic of the snow covered lake from our deck.

On the way home we stopped at "Golden Corral" to eat (I think it's exit 15 off the Northway).  We'd never been there before, but I had now and then seen ads for this "Golden Corral" place and I looked it up to see where and what it was (we don't have any in our area downstate).  I thought it would be fun to try someplace new to liven up another one of these trips up and back.

 

I liked it.  I actually liked it better than other "buffet type" places I'd been too.  Of course there's the feeling of being a cattle in a feedlot when you get up to fill your plate, but they had sirloin steak!  A big variety of foods.  For some reason I'm always big on creamed spinach at buffets and so I had my fill of that, which was delicious.  The staff was very pleasant and courteous, the food was good, and the bathrooms were nice and clean.  The actual customers did not seem to be the most friendly or polite bunch, but, hey - I tend to be a little crabby when I'm hungry too, ha ha...

So, we're getting pretty close to the end.  We had thought there was a slim chance it might be done in time to spend Christmas break there, but obviously not.  That's ok though, I'm pretty sure the place will be done before the end of January.  Whether we'll have the opportunity to stay in it before spring, I don't know.  Depends how much snow is up there.  I don't even know what we'll do to celebrate this long saga coming to a close - champagne?  don tomas cigars?  Mountain Brew beer from Stewarts??  :-D

Anyway, to all my readers celebrating the birth of Jesus this week, I truly hope you have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas celebration (or celebrations as the case may be for many, including us), richly blessed by the love of family and friends.  And to all my readers - even the ones who lurk and have never said anything, LOL - I want to thank you all so much for reading my blog, and for your comments.  I appreciate that more than I can say.  Big hugs from me to you (((HUGS))) and may you have a happy, healthy and prosperous  2011!  XOXOXOXO  Love, Carole

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Do You Seem To Be Getting Less Christmas Cards??

I'll tell you, *this* years card display could use a dose of hgh supplements!

That's a shot from LAST year, and that wasn't even all the cards we ended up receiving.  This year, so far, we literally have gotten like, five or six cards!  What's up with that??  Either suddenly everyone hates us, or something else is going on...  Is it because of the economy?  Maybe between the cards themselves and the postage it's just too much?  Is it because of Facebook?  People post so many pictures there is seems redundant to go through the trouble of sending cards?  Are people just late this year in sending out their cards?  ???

I say all this as a guilty party myself.  We usually have sent all our cards out long before now.  The reason we haven't sent ours yet is because we did photo cards for the first time, and I didn't plan very far in advance (however, I have them in hand now and they WILL go out probably Monday...). We usually send out about 65 cards.  If you know anything about my husband, you will not be surprised to know he has a whole spreadsheet for Christmas cards.  Not only is it for name and address, but there are also columns to keep track of who sent us cards, so we're sure to reciprocate with those who sent us cards.  We usually have a grace period of a couple of years before we cross someone "off the list", if someone didn't send us a card back, but I must admit, this year with the cost of postage plus our own need to be more financially conservative, we sort of ended the "grace period" practice.  If we sent you one last year and you didn't send us one, you got "voted off the island" - sorry!!  :-(  (However, if someone sends us a card that we didn't send a card to, we always have some extra cards aside to send one out quickly in return.)  Ya know, we just think it's nice that someone took the time to think of us and send us a card, so we like to return the sentiment.

Anyway, have you noticed you have gotten less cards this year?  If so, why do you think that is?  Or are we just on everyone's naughty list this year?

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Scrapbook Explosion in Our Dining Room

Scrapbooking is one of my hobbies.  I rarely scrapbook at home though.  Usually I go to "crops".  It's one of those things that if you're going to do it, and enjoy it, you need an area to take out all your "stuff", AND you want to have a nice big chunk of time to work on it, to make it worth the big mess.  My daughter also loves to scrapbook, and it is a really fun thing to do together.  We had a rare weekend with some free time, so we took over the dining room and worked for practically a whole day.  A scrapbook is so much nicer than just a photo album because not only is it decorated nicely but more importantly, I write lots of notes along with the pictures to record the memories and stories associated with those photos.  I also write the names of everyone in the pictures so that someday when I'm not around, my (hopefully) grandchildren and great-grandchildren will know who those people in the pictures are.  (Or when I go senile, I'll know who those people are, ha ha!)

Scrapbooking can be very relaxing.  We had my computer set up on a snack tray and we were playing "Lassie" Christmas episodes while we scrapped.  Wine + Scrapbooking is also a good combination.  :-)  Sometimes when I need a little break I just play with some of the cool things I've accumulated over the years.  I have a cutter that can cut perforations, so I can make my own coupons.  I even have a punch that can make gift tags and name tags.  But there is nothing more satisfying than completing a book and knowing  you have recorded your own family history.

Between all this scrapbooking I've done, and the work I've done researching our family tree, I hope someday somewhere along the line somebody cares about all this, LOL!

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Our Gingerbread House 2010

Every year I buy one of those pre-baked "Gingerbread House" kits.  Generally, they have been a lot of fun to put together, and generally have come out quite well.  I can never remember from year to year which brand I usually get, so I think we've ended up using a bunch of different kinds.  I just know, "Don't get the one with the green icing!"  I won't tell the long tale of woe, but just trust me, stay away from the gingerbread house kit with the green icing, LOL!  Anyway, this year we got one made by Wilton, which is a company that I believe is known for quality baking products, so I had fairly high hopes and confidence in this year's.  I was not disappointed.  The icing came out perfect - not too thin or too thick, and it was very adhesive yet it stayed "workable".  I always assemble the house, then let my daughter decorate it.  Actually last year, my daughter and my niece decorated our gingerbread house (you can see last year's here if you want).

At one time I considered make a homemade gingerbread house...You can get pretty fancy and pretty complex.  I actually even found a website with what was practically architectural plans you could print out on your epson printers.  I decided to stick to the kits.  :-P

Anyway, we thought it might be perhaps the best gingerbread house our daughter's even done yet - what do you think?  Not too shabby for a kit?

I like the little gingerbread man it came with.  :-)  We did add some of our own candy like the peppermints, the big candy cane on the top of the roof, and the red sprinkles for the walkway.  Now the trick is having it out for display, but in a place where somehow the cats can't get it!  :-)

Do you make a gingerbread house this time of year?  From a kit, or totally homemade?

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Annual Cutting Down of the Christmas Tree

That's my Dad and husband cutting down this year's tree

It's been our tradition for many moons to cut down our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  Which is pretty killer, because I am usually worn to the bone after hosting Thanksgiving for 15-20 people.  But, it's a fun thing to do and we have had many, many funny adventures over the years, which we always reminisce about.  "Remember the year we rode in the rickety "wagon of death" to the Christmas tree field?"  "Remember the year it was raining and Mom lost her umbrella in the field and my little Plymouth Colt was wet inside for months?"  "Remember the year we drove to like 8 Christmas tree farms 'cause we couldn't find a "good" tree?"  "Remember the time we decided to have lunch at the little restaurant across from the Christmas tree farm and it took like two hours to get our food?"  "Remember the time we cut those trees at the top of that hill where the wind was blowing at like 60 miles per hour?"  "Remember last year when we got our tree from the scary field under the powerlines where they probably used nuclear waste for fertilizer?"  Good times, good times...

Well, this year was actually pretty uneventful, which was actually pretty nice for a change!  We don't even know what kind of tree we got, but it might be a "concolor fir".  It was a pretty, bluish color and seemed to be nicely shaped.  We are much less picky than we used to be.  Nearly any tree looks just fine with all the decorations on it, really.  Another nice thing is that nowadays we have my pickup truck, and throwing the trees in the back is waaaaay easier than the days of trying to tie them to our roofs or stuff them in our trunks.

Of course getting a real tree has a few drawbacks to an artificial tree.  First of all, you have to buy a new tree every year, and they ain't cheap.  We were actually fairly satisfied with the price of this year's tree - $45.  Not too bad.  Then you have to keep the tree watered if you want it to stay pretty nice and not drop a lot of needles.  But it does eventually start dropping needles which you kind of have to sweep or vacuum up to keep up on the mess.  Also, apparently some people are allergic to the trees, and who wants to find out you have to go to allergy treatment austin after you've gone through the trouble of chopping it down and putting it up!

However, on the flip side, there's nothing nicer than a real tree.  And as you can see, we have certainly made lots of memories over the years when we've gone to go chop one down!  :-)  If you've never had a real tree before, here is a post I wrote last year that has some helpful tips:  How to Cut Down and Care for a Real Christmas Tree 101.

So, the very day we cut our tree down, we brought out all the Christmas decorations and put it up!  It was so exhausting after all the work of Thanksgiving, but boy was it nice when it was done to know it was DONE!  And then we have the rest of the holiday season to enjoy it.

Do you cut down your own Christmas tree?  Do you have any funny stories about cutting yours down, or maybe you have a funny story about your artificial one?  When I was a kid growing up we had an artificial tree and we have pictures of the four of us, sitting in front of our newly put up Christmas tree as it fell over behind us!  Good times...good times...

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Proud Parent Moment

I mentioned in my last post that our daughter plays the violin.  This picture is from her winter concert.  I don't mean to brag, but for me, it was just a thrill to see her up there.  And WOW - what a difference from the elementary school orchestra - LOL!  In elementary school our daughter only had violin lessons / orchestra about 1-2 times a week.  In middle school she has orchestra every day, then separate lessons once a week.  Well the increased amount of practice was certainly reflected by the performance.  It was fantastic!  I'll never forget her very first orchestra concert.  Of course we were proud of our daughter then too, but oy!  The squeaks that came out of the stringed instruments!  The concert was almost like fingers on a chalkboard, LOL...  It's a relief to go now and really enjoy the concert.  :-)

There was actually a funny moment during the concert - of course everyone is supposed to have their Blackberries, htc desire 2.2s, iPhones etc. turned off.  Well just before one of the pieces, there was complete silence as everyone waited with anticipation for the conductor to throw his arms up and start the music when someone must have either turned on or off their phone and there was this big, loud robotic voice that said, "DROID" in that silence.  I couldn't help but laugh...

When I was my daughter's age I was in chorus, which I mostly enjoyed.  I was an alto.  However, I can remember our chorus teacher had some questionable taste in music.  I will never forget having to sing, "Send in the Clowns"...uggggghhhh!!  I still remember how much I hated that song!

Were you in the music program at school when you were a kid?  Any funny or great moments to share?

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More Thoughts Too Short For a Whole Blog Post

So our daughter has it in her mind now that she wants to learn guitar (she already plays violin and piano), which by all means is fine with me, so I've been letting her fool around with my guitar (I know how to play, but not well).  But as you can see, the thing is like practically as big as she is, LOL!  My Dad is giving me a ukulele for Christmas (I believe it's a soprano uke, if I recall correctly) and it's tiny - kinda like the kind Don Ho played.  That instrument will be much more her size!  I told our daughter I'll share it and we'll learn how to play it together. 

I wish someone would invent better packaging for a block of cream cheese.  I mean, I realize that I can't expect fancy packaging for the cheapest form of cream cheese, but, by the end of the block the wrapper gets so gross and messy and crusty and...yick!  Surely there's a better way that isn't more expensive?  I hope someone is working on that.

Been having problems with one of my email accounts (Yahoo).  The search function suddenly stopped working properly.  Been sending support tickets and even did a live chat with a Customer Service rep last night, to no avail.  Would you believe it's been a known issue for over a YEAR!  And still not fixed?? ZDNet Article about the Yahoo Mail Search Bug  I don't know about you, but I have about a bajillion receipts, account information emails, passwords, etc. that I need to be able to find!!  I think I have found a solution to my problem (since I'm not holding out hope Yahoo will fix it), and I'll report back if it turns out that it works.

My hairstyle is such that my hair is parted to the side, and unless I have it tucked behind my ear, sometimes my hair hangs in my face a little bit - just enough to affect my peripheral vision a bit on that side.  Which normally is not a big problem.  However, there is this one store in the mall that I shop in sometimes because it has the type of clothing and whatnot my daughter likes and they have a bunch of mannequins and cardboard displays set up around the store.  Whenever I shop there, I constantly think someone is right next to me, or looking over my shoulder - because of my hair in the way, I just see a "form" or "body" there and keep thinking these mannequins or cardboard cutouts are a real person.  It makes shopping there very disconcerting!!

Can you believe my own husband hasn't been reading my blog lately?  Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.  LOL...!  (Sometimes he gets busy and doesn't read it for a while, but then he does go back and catch up.  Especially when I start telling him that I wrote stuff about him, ha ha...! :-)

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Adirondack Cabin Update and Gratuitous Adorable Cat Picture

That is Angel kitty, snuggling in my arms.  She is the most snuggly, lovey dovey cat.  We nicknamed her "Baby", because she's like our baby - always wants to be held.  Which is fine with us - we love it!  We even rotate her around - if she's on my lap but I have to get up, I will pick her up and put her on my husband's chest if he's sitting nearby.  Or I'll go put her in my daughter's lap.  She even likes to sleep with me - under the covers!  We call it the "Cat Cave".  Usually she starts out under there, but sometime in the night, she pops her head out next to me on the pillow - it's the most ridiculously cutest thing I have ever seen!!

Anyway.........Cabin update:  Pretty much nothing.  Well, not nothing exactly.  The power company came and finally hooked us up, so we're "on the grid".  We are still waiting for the LP tank to be installed, but to my knowledge it will be arriving tomorrow.  I guess all the work that could be done without power and heat has been done, so we've sort of been in a holding pattern.  Which maybe some people would be mad that things had slowed to a halt, however, I have to say, we were getting pretty burned out running up there every weekend just to look at the place for like, an hour, and then leave and drive all the way home.  With the Thanksgiving holiday and decorating for Christmas, it was actually a bit of a relief to have a break.  Plus all this stress is giving me breakouts and I'm running out of anti acne cream, LOL!

Apparently, once the heat can be turned on, the house has to "warm up" for a few days before any more work can be done...so, not sure when there will be more progress to look at.

The cabin should be ready just in time for all the roads to be snowed in so we can't go stay in it 'til spring, LOL!  (Which doesn't come to the Adirondacks 'til like, May!)  I can't really complain.  There were many times I thought this thing was never going to get built, so, I'm just happy it's really happening.  :-)

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This is What I'm Using My Bachelor's Degree in Graphic Design for These Days

 

You see, we have this Christmas countdown calendar box/thing, which in retrospect, had I realized the commitment I was getting myself into, I probably wouldn't have bought.  Anyway, each year I am obligated to fill all the little compartments with something for each day until Christmas.  It's not easy to find 25 small "things", let me tell ya.

In the past I have bought little toys or candies.  But, my daughter needs 25 more little "doo dads" that are just going to end up on the floor in her closet like I need a hole in the head.   And she's still got a ton of candy from Halloween, so I didn't really want to go the candy route.  On top of it, because of our "cabin" in the Adirondacks we're building, we're really kinda trying to ratchet things down to "super frugal" mode.  So I was trying to think of what on earth I could put in those little compartments...  I ended up deciding to buy some Christmas stickers, cut some of them out, then drew a "calendar" with a spot for a sticker each day (which you can see in the top photo of this post).  So each day she would get a sticker to put on the "calendar".  Then I colored it with my crayons.  Yes, I have my own personal box of crayons.  Don't you?

I was a tiny bit worried when my daughter came home that she might be disappointed that it was stickers in the countdown calendar box instead of something more fabulous, but, she was actually thrilled with my idea and said she loved it.  Woot!

Well, at least my artistic "talent" comes in handy for something now and then. It's not a cure for cancer or acne like md clear, or a magic weight loss pill, but hey, I solved my problem, LOL.

This is one of those times that I think to myself, those of you women out there that are reading this that work full time and have successful careers must think to themselves, "So that's what stay at home moms do besides watch the soaps and eat bon bons - they make little crafts and color with crayons!" Honestly, sometimes I do question what is the value of the things I do compared to what working women do. 

Anyway, do you have any sort of "countdown to Christmas" tradition or calendar?

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