Another great weekend

The weather was perfect. On Saturday, I took the kids to another of the local recreation areas, this one is called Green Lakes and it's a little south and east of us (but still only about half an hour away). The water is indeed a bit green looking. We stayed for over 3 hours, and then we only left because a thunder storm was coming and the life guards made us get out (I was relieved because I was getting tired and the kids were not!) Caleb has always loved swimming and Alana has become a little fish as well - she was laying down in the water and splashing around (it starts out very shallow and gets deep very gradually). I'm including a couple of pictures (I actually remembered the camera this time!) Then on Sunday, I took Caleb back to Oneida Shores (which is less than 20 minutes from our house). Larry stayed home with Alana, who was supposed to take a nap, but guess who was the only one who fell asleep?! Caleb and I agreed that we like Oneida Shores better than Green Lakes - it's closer and the water is warmer (and it's cheaper, though Caleb doesn't really appreciate the advantage of that). Caleb suggested we take Matthew there when he comes to visit (Larry is picking Matt up on Tuesday). It was great to hang out with Caleb and be able to focus on just him, and I feel like he really needed that. Plus it's a little nerve-racking to try to watch two kids (at such different ages) when they're both playing in the water.




Tonight we went to a Skychiefs game - that's the local minor league baseball team. It was a gorgeous night - not hot and not raining. We got free tickets from someone Larry knows, so we went ahead and gorged ourselves on over-priced junk food (hotdogs, french fries, nachos, cotton candy) and of course peanuts - Larry says it's not a baseball game without them.

Dog update

July 19, 2006

Several people have asked what's going on with our dog adoption. Here's the latest: we finally got approved (!) at the SPCA and all four of us went there last week to "visit" a dog - after the visit we found out that the dog we had picked (I call her Blackie, though no one else likes that name) was already being considered by someone else and we would have to wait and see what they did (the staff weren't supposed to let us visit Blackie b/c of her "hold" status, but they just overlooked the paperwork in her file). In the meantime we answered a local ad for a dog "free to a good home" b/c the owner is moving to NYC and can't take the dog with him. Meeko is a shepard mix. We're in the process of arranging to meet her (and her owner). Then, the SPCA calls and says that "our" dog was NOT adopted and is available. Yikes! We told the SPCA to take the hold off that dog (so that someone else can adopt her if they want) while we sort things out with Meeko. So it's sort of raining dogs right now. Everything is still up in the air, so we'll let you know how it all turns out.

Back to the beach

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to the "beach" at Oneida Lake, about 20 minutes away. They call it a beach, though of course it seems odd to me, since there's no ocean. But there's sand, maybe that's the key ingredient for a beach. It's hot here, but not as hot as Philadelphia, and not quite as humid. Everyone says we wouldn't need central air conditioning here, but I can't really see surviving all summer without it. It gets pretty stuffy in the house, even with the ceiling fans. Thankfully it cools off at night, so sleeping hasn't been a problem (though last night was definitely the worst it's been). Anyway, the kids had a blast at the lake. Alana was a tiny bit nervous at first, but quickly got comfortable in the water and she played along the shore, throwing sand in the water and so on. Eventually she even ventured into the water alone, so I had to watch her carefully. Caleb made quick friends with some other kids who were looking for fish (there's lots of tiny minnows, though it's hard to see them in the murky water). We stayed for a couple of hours and plan to go back next weekend if the weather cooperates. There was a pretty good crowd, but it wasn't crowded (at least not by Jersey shore standards!), just enough to give the place a nice energy.

Larry's folks were here for most of the weekend, our first out-of-town guests. We gave them a minimal tour of the area on Saturday, though it poured rain most of the day (the rain only seems to come down in torrents around here!) The kids enjoyed having their grandparents around to show off for. We found a nice place for breakfast nearby (The Market Diner) that we'll definitely be visiting again.


Below is a picture of the kids playing with Play Doh that they got from a friend (I'd include a photo from the beach but of course I left the camera on the kitchen table - I was focused on remembering the sunscreen!)

Job search

July 13, 2006

I know I mentioned that I had a nibble from the University -- I'd gotten an email saying they were starting their search, but two weeks had gone by without a word, so I called this week - they said I would hear from them by the end of the month (you forget how slowly these bureaucracies move!) I've gotten some intriguing recruitments from various online search engines - tutoring, working for an online university, reporting for an online newspaper called USA Voice. If I can't find anything full-time, I may check into some of this stuff. I'm not really much for working from home, but I could make some money until something more permanent comes along. Who knows, one of these could end up being my dream job. =)

My freaky cat

July 13, 2006

Our chubby cat, Rudy, has taken to sleeping in some odd places in our new house (his favorite place in our old house was a very normal spot - under the bed). Here's two photos of him - sleeping in the broken kitchen drawer (before it was fixed) and sleeping inside a cupboard.

Moving update

July 5, 2006


Greetings friends and family,


How was your 4th? The weather here was lousy - we had a huge rainstorm in the middle of the day. We had planned to go to the recreation area by the lake or to a local Manyunk-type place that was having a big sidewalk festival, but we ended up staying home all day b/c nothing would have been fun in the downpour.

Larry spent the whole day with the electric drill in his hand, fixing stuff - for example, the bar in the upstairs closet fell down as soon as we put clothes on it . . . there's a lot of stuff in this house that has been done poorly. He also put in ceiling hooks for my hanging plants and hung my china cabinet (with my cream pitcher collection). It was great to get a bunch of that stuff done. Tomorrow the electrician is coming to put in the ceiling fans and the fence guy is setting the posts for our fence.

I've finally got some photos uploaded, so I'm including a few: the kids in front of the house (our lawn is full of yellow flowers and purple clover - Larry is dying to cut the lawn with his new lawn mower, but I think the flowers are so pretty) and in the backyard (with Larry on the deck); Larry fixing a broken drawer, me working on the computer in the entryway (before we got our internet hooked up) and Alana pushing Caleb in the stroller in the playground parking lot.

Larry jinxed us

July 2, 2006

This morning Larry said, "What else could go wrong?" (because the couch he ordered will take another week) so of course this afternoon during a violent but relatively brief thunder storm, the power went out and stayed out for several hours. It came back on around 8 p.m., right before it got dark, thank goodness. It wasn't a complete disaster b/c we ended up hanging out on our neighbor's sun porch for much of the time and had a chance to get to know our two over-the-fence (behind us) neighbors. Nice people, one with 2 daughters (one who babysits!) and the other with a baby boy (8 months old and a bruiser). Not my soul mates or anything, but it's nice to know I could borrow a cup of sugar if I needed it.

Otherwise, things have been hectic and the unpacking is moving along slowly. We put all our errands on hold on Saturday and just worked around the house - we got some stuff done, but not as much as we hoped to, of course. Larry installed some of the closet organizers that we bought and I unpacked what seemed like a lot of of boxes, though there's still so many to go.

Caleb starts summer camp tomorrow (Monday). I'll miss him, but I'll get a lot more done without him around. He's been to the YMCA pool several times with Larry and is really comfortable in the water again. He'll do great. Of course the camp is closed on Tuesday, so he'll just go for one day and then be off a day, but that may be a nice way to transition into it.

No, we have absolutely no plans for the 4th. There's fireworks, but they start so late that I doubt we'll go.

It's very buggy around here, which was a surprise, though it shouldn't have been. I thought the cooler climate would help keep the bugs to a minimum, but I forgot that we've been living in the middle of a city all this time - bugs come with suburban living I suppose, and there's a wilderness area right behind our development - apparently the bugs don't know where their designated territory ends. Alana has quite the bug phobia, though I'm sure it's just a phase. She admits to liking ladybugs, but otherwise wants them all to give her a wide berth.

The house is really working out fine, other than a few little repair jobs that we hadn't noticed before (for example, the front screen door is coming off its hinges and the sliding glass door in the back doesn't lock), which is sending us back to Lowe's. It's lucky that one of our neighbors is handy - he'll be a good resource, both for knowledge and tools. But it's really nice to have the extra space (though we still haven't found a place for everything!), and I'm finding the layout to be great. I just have to keep reminding myself that it took a long time to pack everything up, it's going to take some time to get it all unpacked too.

I think this is probably enough rambling for tonight. Hope everyone is well and your summer is enjoyable.