Henry the Cat. A.k.a stinky

Nap time with Henry before work. He climbed up on my side and plopped head down over my arm. He still smells a little skunky.

**update - when I laid down Henry was at the end of the bed - he got up and moved up to my head, laid down and put his nose to my forehead. He's such a funny, sweet beast. One thing I've realized though - Henry doesn't like people, I opened the door and he wouldn't go out because there were people walking by. What I really think is that because I feed him he'd do anything for me! :-)

100,000 miles

I bought my Ford Focus Wagon (Bess) in August of 2003 - little did I know that I'd actually still be driving it 7 years, 1 month and 8 days later! This car is wonderful vehicle and has been on many adventures with me. As it turned to 100,000 miles I thought about all of the places I have driven this car to, some happy, some sad and some crazy.

Bess has been to Nebraska once, Texas twice, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. She's been to far too many hospitals in Buffalo, Utica and Boston. But she's also been on lots of seasonal roads, getting covered in mud and dust and pretending it was a four wheel vehicle. By far the camping trips - loaded up with all of my camping stuff and the bike rack on the back - heading out to Sampson State Park - were the best trips. Knowing that Bess was big enough in the back for me to sleep in was always in the back of my mind as showers and thunderstorms would roll through.

Bess also moved my mom to Texas. That poor car was filled to the gills - and silly me overinflated her tires a tad too much and black ice almost took us out. But we made it in one piece. I've lost her gas cap twice now - once I was able to retrieve it - somewhere in Illinois or Indiana - but this last time I was in Tennessee and didn't realize for hours that it was gone.

Bess was also involved in Mom's 'giveaways' - we'd drive through poorer sections of town on hot days with a couple of coolers of Italian ices, water and soda and give them to people sitting on their porches or walking on the sidewalks. This was my mom's favorite pastime - and I was her chauffeur.

There have also been times - more recently when RB and I sat in the back of Bess and played chess and had cheese and crackers while waiting for laundry to finish. And she's move clients from one office to another - I can fit a lot of computers and monitors and printers in her all at once. Yesterday was 7 pc's, 1 server, 5 printers, 1 iMac, 7 monitors, all of the keyboards, speakers, mice, surge protectors and UPS's. And I could still see out the back!

Bess is a great car and I hope to have lots more adventures with her for many years to come.

Good Morning

So much for writing every day. It was one of the busiest weeks I've had in a long time. But that's not a bad thing. Dinner with friends, relaxing with RB, TastefullySimple party at Bren's house and then headed to The Delta Lake Inn, Rome NY.
My friend KS has been asking me all summer if I wanted to head out to the Inn to listen to her friend Bonnie play piano and join in the sing-a-longs that inevitably happen and as much as I wanted to, getting used to working the two jobs and being an person who likes to be in bed at 9, I just never made it.  Well - last night Bonnie was playing - a number of KS's friends would be there and I know a lot of them too. What a wonderful surprise and so much fun! I love Broadway musicals and any other music that you can sing a long to. I was there for no more than 10 minutes when Bonnie played Billy Joel's "The Piano Man" - It's perfect and everyone sang along! It was also PL's birthday so that made it especially festive last night. I didn't stay late - 11 was my limit.
And the funniest part of the night was the joke that KS played on me - I'm still chuckling and shaking my head. It all started earlier in the day when I went to Empire Recycling Center in Utica with a lot of old computers and printers that were of no use to anyone. Well there were a few guys there that had ridden their bikes over hauling a lot of metal and stuff and they 'helped' me unload my car and push the cart (which did weigh 430lbs) when I got it on the scale. And the one guy "Gary" kept shaking my hand - LOL - big flirt! Too funny. They all were. So back to last night. KS and I went up to the bar right after I got there. A Guinness seemed to be the perfect choice for a beverage. There was a man there with overalls - very friendly - talkative - asking questions, being a little flirty - well after we went back to the piano area KS proceeded to tease me about this man 'hitting' on me. I told her about 'Gary' and the other guys at Empire and we laughed - KS told a couple of other people too who laughed too. Fast Forward to 10:40pm - this man walks up to me and hands me a soda and says it's from the man at the end of the bar. I almost ran out the door! We all got to laughing and I turned red - Bonnie started playing some 'love is in the air' type song. I slid over in my chair so the overalls guy couldn't see me. It took KS about 8 minutes - then she fessed up to being the one who had the drink sent to me - that started another round of laughter. Too funny and she got me good!

On another note - Heading up to RB's camp tonight after work. Can't wait to enjoy a beautiful campfire and all of the fresh cool air up north.

The view from the back of RB's house and the fire pit is right there as well.

To RB - a story

There once was this girl who thought that she would never meet the "right man" and have someone to love and who loved her back. She prayed about it a lot. Dated some nice guys, dated some not so nice guys and finally got to the point where she just didn't date. Her mom was not in the best of health and she helped her mom with stuff around the house and when she was in the hospital she would be there for her mom. But one day her mom moved a long ways away and the girl lived alone for the first time ever.

It wasn't easy at first because the girl didn't know what to do with the freedom! Not having to worry about where her mom may be and what may happen and all of that scary stuff. It took a few months but finally the girl felt like she was coming into her own.

And then one day she received an email from a guy on a website - a nice email, from an intelligent sounding man, and she replied and he replied back and this went on for about a week when they decided to meet. The girl went with little hope that they guy was as nice as he seemed in the email. Seriously how could he be? - he seemed smart, kind, and way too nice.

Well the guy and the girl met for the first time at a coffee house - the girl felt safe there - she knew the owner and knew ways to get out of the building and be gone before the guy would even have a clue. But within a few minutes the girl realized that this guy was as genuine as he seemed in his emails. He had a manly face, an open engaging smile, his eyes crinkled and he laughed with joy when speaking to the girl. The first date lasted a few hours and the guy and the girl exchanged email addresses and phone numbers at the end and had a quick hug. The girl went home hoping that what had just happened was for real.

Well five months plus later - the girl is still surprised by the guy on a regular basis. He is as genuine and giving and loving and nice and caring as she thought and even more so he's funny, adventurous and just a wonderful man. The girl is thinking that God does answer prayers - better than anyone could ever know....

Thanks RB for emailing me that day....it was a good, good day!

Sunday

I slept in for the first time in a very long time - really slept in. Usually 6:45 is sleeping in - sometimes even as late as 7:15. When my eyes opened this morning it was 9:40 - wow!

Yesterday I had to work at my second job - 8:30-3:30 - it made for a long day. Then last night was Game Night at KS's house - with 9 other people! Lots of laughs - my stomach is still a little sore from the laughing. We ate yummy tacos - had lots of dips and chips and fresh fruit and rum cake for desert. The only thing I can tell you about KS is that she loves to mix up the foods! And I love her for it. There is never any of that well you can't have filet mignon with potato chips - stuff - it's eat what you like with whatever else you like and it's all good!

We played Apples to Apples, "L-C-R" or Left Center Right ,(this is a fun game and could be played with money, or as a drinking game - or whatever else you come up with. It's lots of fun! and fast paced!), we also played Outburst - our team won of course! LOL  And there were many "verbal explosions"! It was a great night and now I have to go buy L-C-R because it's inexpensive and so much fun!

Date Night

My girlfriend and her husband are instituting date night - they have a sitter for their son 2 nights a month - a Friday and a Saturday. Tonight is their date night but RB and I are broke so we can't join them this time. I'm not really broke it's just that I have an insurance payment, property taxes and all that fun stuff to take care of.

But who says date night has to be a going out adventure? RB and I are going to make dinner together - well he's probably doing more of it than I am as he gets out of work earlier - but we'll cook it together. I have the National Treasure movies, so I'm thinking we'll have dinner watch a movie (or two), maybe play chess too!

The Remsen Barn Festival is taking place on the 25th and 26th of September, so I hope that my work schedule is conducive to heading up there on that Sunday. I actually started to write that it was next weekend, but thankfully I'm incorrect about that as I already know I have to work on Saturday.

Fall seems to have hit hard all at once. The temperatures have cooled right down, it's been rainy and misty. Saturday looks to be a beautiful sunny day - I hope that people take advantage of it and get outside. All of our (upstate New Yorkers) complaining about the cold and snow and length of winter should make us get outside and soak up all of the sun when it's out there.

New wipers

It's a good thing that I finally bought new wipers - it rained last night and it looks like today will be rainy off and on. Not complaining because we really needed it. My old wipers were so bad that I couldn't see out the window - this morning - it was like the lights came on in the car when I turned those bad boys on! There was light! and it was streak and bug gut free!

It will be a busy day today - that's not a bad thing in any way. I enjoy having lots to do, keeps me from getting bored and wanting to sleep. Brought cupcakes in - already had comments about them - as in "ugh" from the one guy who always goes in for the kill and wants to eat sweets. His only will power with them is if they aren't here. So he always gets 'mad' at me for bringing them in - but enjoys them anyway! :)

Enjoy your day!

Good Advice

I was reading the Pioneer Woman today and am going to take her advice to heart if at all possible. So basically it is to make sure that if you are a blogger to keep blogging and give your readers something to read.

She writes about everything! Embarrassing stuff, funny stuff, heart wrenching stuff, everything!

I don't think that I want to share any embarrassing stuff. At least not right now!

My day was a little strange - didn't feel so hot all day - lots of stress, but we all have that right! So after work - in my very nice clothes - better dressed today than usual I went to the auto parts store and bought new wipers for my car. It's bad when your wipers leave a worse mess than what you are trying to wipe off! I seriously thought I just put the last blades on a year ago, um....no it was 26 months ago - no wonder they were falling apart!  My car is now happier and the windshield has been de-bugged.


On Monday RB and I went to Heids of Liverpool. RB saw "Man vs. Food" and realized that Heids wasn't that far away. So we had lunch there - it was good but honestly I won't drive an hour for it again. Sorry Heids! It's cool that it was on a national show - but I really like Zweigles so much better! Thanks to RB - of course you can only get them in Rochester area Wegmans!


Last night RB and I decided to go to the laundromat and wash our blankets. Well RB always has great ideas and we had Twisted Tea, cheese and crackers, played chess and have nice clean blankies now! I've never enjoyed a visit to the laundromat so much in my life and believe me, I have been to very many of them over the years.


Well - I have to go get the cupcakes out of the pan, frost them and bring them to work tomorrow!

Kayaking

It is a week later than I said I would do this, but things have been so hectic! I started on this last week and the phone rang and then I realized I was going to be late for work if I didn't get a move on....LOL
So - a few week's ago RB's friend (and now my friend) LM told me she would go with me kayaking. I did it quite a few years ago and loved it and have been dying to do it again. So we drove up to Old Forge - Mountain Man Sports - RB had been there and thought it would be a good place to go.

We rented two kayaks - with the big opening (which was a really good thing because it was hot in the sun and we got more air that way). And we got loaded into a van - with our kayaks on the back trailer rack and brought up to North street

At the top right hand corner of the map you can see where there is a bridge over the river - we got dropped off there and proceeded to snake our way all through the River all the way back to Mountain Man Sports. One problem - well we knew it but still it didn't stop our optimism - it was 5 miles! It took us about 4.5 hours and we got stuck on logs and sand bars a few times - too funny. Had to get out and stretch our legs. Oh and we brought nothing with us - no water, no sunscreen, no food, nothing! Unprepared to say the least - but it was so much fun! I did get a heck of a sunburn on my shoulders and arms as well as the insides of my legs. The kayak protected the outer sides but from the center of my shins in I was burnt. I look funny still! At one point too - you have to get out and carry your kayaks for .2 of a mile - most of us would swear it is a mile by the time we are done. LM and I carried the two kayaks together because unless you put it over your head or drag it's not getting carried alone. There were mud pits, roots galore, hills, bridges, more mud, rocks and more roots. But we made it!

View Larger Map

This map will allow you to look at the whole length of the river that we followed.

We were probably an hour into this and needed to take a break. This is LM's kayak as my sandals were strapped to the back. It was very sandy and really nice all along the river. 

This was pretty much the widest place on the river - and absolutely gorgeous. It was a spectacular day!

When we had to carry our kayaks - I forgot the other thing we had to do - was carry it over this bridge! It was a little dilapidated, but we did it!

Here's me - still thinking that I'm strong enough to carry the world! LOL - this was about halfway down the trail!

I took this picture from the foot of the bridge - it was so beautiful with the sun streaming through.

It was a fantastic day and if you ever want to try kayaking I suggest you go to Mountain Man Sports - they were nice, professional and it was something like $78.00 for the two of us all day.