Sept 26th
When Scott finally got up here, he was starving so we decided to take him to the Apple Festival to get something to eat. That thought changed and we went to the Farmers Market. He loved walking around and checking out what everyone was selling. We all got something to eat from different vendors. Then we went to the Apple Festival. Scott also noticed that there was hardly any apple items there. STRANGE!

Scott has never seen our property in Newfield so we took him for a ride. PJ and Scott had a great time trying to find the markers on the property lines. The weeds were tall and very fluffy!


Scott said he was very impressed now that he got to see it in real life. Pictures never do it justice.
The sun has gone away and the clouds started rolling in. We bought some corn from Early Bird Farm down the road. By the time we started cooking dinner, the rain started. We sat there eating our dinner in the rain!

Sept 25th
We made it up to Ithaca in about 5 1/2 hours. We stopped for breakfast so that's why it took so long. The campsite was empty except for 2 huge trailers, one on site 35 and one on site 37. Naturally we reserved site 36! We went back to the office and got it switched to site 23. Much better! We set up the tent right away. It took maybe a good 10 minutes!
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shinning and the air was crisp. A perfect fall day! We left to head to the Apple Festival at the Ithaca Commons but decided to make a stop at Six Mile Creek first to relax with a nice glass of wine on their deck. It's such a relaxing peaceful setting.


The Apple Festival was pretty interesting. There were hardly any apples! It was mostly booths selling Philly Cheesesteak subs, Blooming Onions, Thai, etc.... maybe one or 2 booths with apples and apple products.
PJ and I got a potato pancake to share. The smell was just calling us over to them! They came with sour cream and applesauce. Delicious!
After the festival we walked around town etc... catching up.
We went out to eat at Viva Taqueria... one of our favorite places. We got a table outside and sat and people watched as we ate out Super Smothered Burritos! YUM. Viva Taqueria is right across the street from the Commons so we got to watch the people coming and going from there all the while listening to the bands playing. Looking up the street at other restaurants... everyone was eating outside. It was such a beautiful night..... until it started to get cold!
We made a fire when we got back. It's always nice sitting by a fire and watching the colors in the flames dance around.
We were SO COLD. I'm glad I brought an extra blanket with us!!!


Sept 24th
I packed up the car today for our camping trip to Ithaca. We are leaving at 6:15 tomorrow. Scott will drive up on Saturday.

Sept 23rd
Alyssa made pickles today!! PJ brought home a bunch of Cukes from work so what else to do with so many but make pickles. She made Refrigerator Pickles and an Emeril recipe (will be on the cooking blog next week) for sweet & spicy kind of pickles. They are to sit for 2 weeks to be ready but she couldn't stop eating them even before they made it to the jars! When I can post pics, I'll put them in here.


Sept 22nd
PJ and I went to the Dr Oz show in NYC today. What a blast! It didn't start out that way though. We drove to the station in PJ's car with about 8 minutes to spare. There were no parking spots left so we were going to go park behind the 5&10. As we were going there, PJ realized that his car didn't have a TOH parking sticker! We had to fly home and get Alyssa's car! That didn't work because we couldn't find her keys so Scott drove is to the station. We pulled up and RAN with no time to buy tickets. We ran up the esculator to see the train sitting there ready to depart! We bolted into the train. Whew! We made it.
We knew we would have to pay extra on the train for the tickets but didn't realize just how much! EACH ticket, ONE WAY, was $14 !! Lesson learned!
We took the subway to 48th I think and walked the rest of the way which wasn't far at all. The show was being filmed at 30 Rockerfeller Plaza. We got in line with a million other people. They gave us our wristbands and were told to come back in 45 minutes. We went down the block and got Gyros. I've never liked curry but this was ok. I had forgotten that there was curry in Gyros. I kept thinking that I would have that Curry/India person smell when I was finished! BAD!
We went back and had to stay in a corral type of area. It was soooo hot in there that at one point I had to sit down because I thought I was going to pass out. I think I lost a gallon of sweat! I made a comment that "wouldn't it be funny if one of the segments today was on sweat. I'd be a prime candidate to be called on stage"!
We went into the show, got our seats and listened for directions. One of the topics of today was SWEAT! How funny!
It was a lot of fun. They had topics on the Flu vs colds, Sweat, Mediterranian Diet, Heart Disease, Q&A and I think one more but I can't remember what it was. I'll never watch another show the same where they show expressions on peoples faces when they're surprised, sad, concerned and even shaking their heads. It's ALL staged!
The best part was after Dr. OZ left, he had to come back because he forgot to say what was on tomorrow. We saw the words on the teleprompter and started to laugh along with others that saw it. Dr. Oz began to speak...Did you know that smoking causes your penis to be 1 centimeter smaller.... It was so funny! Great way to end the day!

Sept 21st
I worked today with Mrs. S. from last year. She was actually my FAVORITE in the class!!! It was a very interesting day otherwise!
When I got home, I got a call from Brooke. She was in a 4 car collision at a light. She thankfully ended up with only whiplash. She saw the girl behind her looking down, not seeing that there was a red light ahead. She hit Brooke, who hit the car in front of her, who then hit the car in front of them!
Her back bumper didn't get any damage but the front did. We're thinking her car will be totaled.
I'm just glad that she's ok!

Sept 20
There won't be pictures for a while. I'm having a problem with my AOL.

About 5 years ago, we bought a DVD recorder/VHS so that we can record our home videos onto DVD's. Well, we never got around to it and the VHS part broke. So that defeated the purpose! So we bought another one for Christmas. Once again, we still haven't converted our videos and now the DVD part broke! I guess it's pure laziness on our part but we honestly didn't understand the directions! It was easier to ignore what we bought it for in the first place! I'm thinking that we should bring this one in for repairs and get cracking on making these DVD's!

Sept 19th

I'll be going over to Dad's house to see him later. I'm going to bring him the ham bone that was left from our baked ham from the other day. He (or Ann), can make Pea Soup out of it. I cut the left over ham into chunks and decided to make a Ham Pasta Salad out of it. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and it got great reviews. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Awesome-Ham-Pasta-Salad/Detail.aspx

It doesn't sound too good with the unusual ingredients but it's worth a try. You only live once!!

Sept 18th

I start subbing again today. I hardly got any sleep last night, just worrying about what I was in for. The day went VERY well and the teacher even tried to get the higher ups to give me a full time position in her class. They aren't hireing full time now though. It was nice seeing the adults again but I mostly enjoyed chatting with the kids from last year.

Sept 17th

PJ got us a new keyboard! YIPPIEEEE! The other one was really worn down. The letters were no longer printed on the Y, U, I, O A, M, N, or L. That could get a little confusing if you weren't used to the keyboard! The new one is sheer pleasure to type on.
Sept 16th

I took a few pics of Huck today. He hides on the kitchen chair keeping a watchful eye on the front door. If he sees something suspecious, he flies through the spaces in the back of the chair to attack!

Sept 15th
Tonight was the last volleyball night until next May. Sad.

Alyssa and I were on the sidelines somewhat cheering the team on. We didn't want to open our mouths too often because of the bugs!

I went to visit Dad today. He'll be coming home tomorrow. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing!

Sept 14th

Today I went to the beach to catch one of the last warms days of the summer. I'm sure there will be more nice days but I didn't want to miss even one! The water was crystal clear. There were quite a few people there but I think I was the youngest!

There were thse 2 guys that started digging holes about 20 feet apart. I couldn't figure out what in the world they were doing. Then i saw the baseballs. They were playing a game where you get points for throwing it into the hole. They had a great time!

Sept 13th

Today I took Alyssa to the ER. Her back was killing her and she kept getting stuck in the sitting position! It turned out to be muscular so that's a good thing. We were thinking kidney stones!
Afterwards, PJ, Scott and I went to Tag Sales on the north shore. WOW! That was fun! Scott got a lot of antique books of Classics, some dating back to the 1800's. We got Chris a shirt that is VERY funky but definately HIM!... Right out of the 70's!!! It's made in Italy buy a designer named Morevo Martin da firenze (or something like that!) . When I went to pay the lady the $3 for it, the husband wanted to look at the shirt. He didn't want to sell it but she told him that they have to. He said he paid about $300 for that shirt. I don't know if I believe him but everything in that house was NICE and EXPENSIVE but great tag sale prices. We were thinking that they were getting a divorce or financially took a big hit.
I'm going to send it to Chris this week. I think he'll like it!