Notice Anything Different? (other than less clutter)

before

after

before

after

Not-So-Upper-Crust Aspirations

These will be our country club profile photos for someday when we belong to a country club. *Note that there is probably no chance of us ever belonging to a country club, but if we did, these are the photos we'd use.

Maybe there will be a country club that has a mini-golf course instead of a regular golf course.  That would be cool to belong to.  And they would only serve Pabst Blue Ribbon and buffalo wings.

Last Call for the Fishes

Last call for these guys to eat before the winter.

I Got One!!!!

I want so badly to do harm to this little guy who got on the back porch, but I took the high road.

Squirrels are Evil

These squirrels around here are ruthless. They have killed all the bird feeders at least once, killed our pumpkins, and are just plain ridiculous. I want to kill them but feel bad doing any harm. I guess I will just have to outsmart them.

Mum is the word...

You know it

Apple Pickin'

Fall is a great time to pick apples - much better than all the other seasons! We went to a place in Bethel, CT last weekend and got our fill of Jonagold's. It was a little expensive ($10 for a small bag). I still like Green Acre Farms in Greece, NY better, since there you drive in and they just weigh your own bags full on the way out for much cheaper. But either way apple picking is still the bomb! Here is the photo-documentation of that event. It was fun except really muggy and sticky outside, and the skeeters were insane that day. We got bitten all over our arms and heads. But, alas, we now are working on eating the big bowl of apples on the kitchen table. The sweet, crispy taste of victory...

Goodbye Focus, Hello Astra!

So it was time for the Focus to be retired. Naomi had 8 great years of time spent with her Focus, but it was time to move on and trade it in for a newer model. We went to the Saturn dealership hoping to get into a Vue Hybrid, but it ended up still being out of our price range. After also test driving an Aura (which wasn't meshing with Naomi's style, even though it is a really nice car), we saw the Astra sitting there. After a test drive and some trepidation about instantly signing for a car on the spot, they let us take it for a 24 hour test drive. Kudos to Saturn for being so chill. It was the best experience at a car dealership ever. We just picked up the car last night, and I think I'm more jazzed about it than Naomi, lol. Super-tight suspension and drive characteristic (especially after driving the Tahoe Hybrid), and with a whole-roof sunroof, its quite an amazing little car. The German (Opel) wing of GM has their s**t together as far as building smaller cars. Even though it's a smaller car, this Astra is super loaded with safety features and creature comforts. Most importantly, it is a blast to drive! Enough rambling, here are some pics...
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Now playing: Frank Zappa - Cosmik Debris
via FoxyTunes

So here we are, day 10 into the Great New York State Fair. Chris has been working, introducing Central New Yorkers to the innovative greatness of the Fuel Cell's progress with much excited interest. Just 2 more days to go. I took the week off and spent time with my parents for the beginning of the week. Since my parents left for California, I have been hanging out in my pj's and spending time with my cousins and family. I also got to see my friends from Rochester (who visited me in Syracuse) whom I miss tremendously and never get to see when we are in the Roc.....It has been great! Will post pictures soon. In between Chris's work ventures at the NYS Fair, we just happened to support the economy again and bought a great farm house table and chairs for our kitchen! Just thought I would post (my first post ever) to give a quick update and know that we will be back to updating (with pictures) soon! Hope all is well with everyone.

More Bathroom Remodeling

Almost all the drywall is up and just needs some more lovin' with the joint compound at the corners and seams. We had a stellar trip to the Home Depot today and got all the cement board to back the tiles in the shower, but the battery for the drill lost its mojo after 1 screw during installation. So the rest of the cement board will have to wait until tomorrow. I cannot wait to have this bathroom done, so that we can move on to the upstairs one. Plus we got a new shower faucet, but it needs threaded pipes and the existing ones have the copper pipes soldered in. I really don't want to have to "sweat pipes" or whatever it is one does to fix or remove copper pipe sections from each other. Don't take this as me complaining, cause it's a great chance to learn the skills of a homeowner. At the end of the summer (hopefully) this bathroom will be all done and then the pride of Naomi & Chris will be in full effect.



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Now playing: Fleet Foxes - Mykonos
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Lilly Pad Made a Flower

This flower is insane! It is all closed up when I wake up in the morning. Then every afternoon it opens up for a few hours and then goes back into hibernation. Hope it lasts for the rest of the season. It would be really sweet to put a time-lapse camera on it and make a video of it opening and closing. There's a second bud starting to pop up out of the water - maybe it will yield the same beauty. I notice that the frogs seem to like it, just chillin' on the rocks and lilly pads.

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Now playing: MGMT - Time To Pretend
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Drywallin'

Yeah, drywall sucks. I have a whole new respect to all whom build and do housing-related stuff. We decided to "remodel" the downstairs bathroom, since we need to redo the upstairs one as well and need a good, functional second bathroom to use while it is out of commission. This way we can practice our remodeling skills on a room that only gets used about once a month. We ripped out the toilet, vanity, shower, and a bunch of drywall. So far, we have replaced most of the drywall. Can't seem to find a shower that fits the dimensions of the existing base. I'll be damned if we are gonna try to move walls and such. We are amateurs, remember, so simple stuff only for now.

Just after the tear-down was finished
Starting to reinstall insulationDrywall is in, just need to sand and paint

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Now playing: Jerry Garcia Band - I Second That Emotion
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Merci Beaucoup Pour D'Absynthe

Thank you to my esteemed colleague who picked up a bottle of Absente on his return trip from France a couple weeks ago. I can't wait to dig into this...


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Now playing: Air - How Does It Make You Feel
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J4 2008 @ Allegheny

Well, America's 232nd has came and gone - Boo Hooooooeewwweewwweewwooooooo!

























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Now playing: Jerm - Ted Williams
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