Seems like fall arrived in the past few days. Lots of color in the leaves. Had to rake a few of them today. A bit of a chill in the air. Think I mowed for the last time this year. Even had to wear a sweatshirt while running.
Quiet week and weekend for us. M went to a Halloween party at a friends on Friday. C and I took the dogs to Petsmart to have their nails clipped. I have to hold Fenix while it's being done. She tries desperately to get away. Aspen is much calmer about it all.
E called to say she's going to try to move to a different room and/or dorm because she can't get her roommate to stop playing loud music in the early a.m. and because the roommate never leaves the room. Hope she can work it out this week.
Looking forward to having Election Day get here and be over.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Here and there; and a look back
I made a quick run up to Bethlehem this weekend. C had taken the train to NYC on Friday to do an interview. Then she took a commuter bus to Bethlehem that afternoon to see her parents. I drove up there Saturday.
It was fun. C's brother and sister and their spouses also came, so it turned into a big dinner. Everyone is well. For the first time in a long time no one had their kids with them, which was odd. They're all getting old, I guess. All but one are now in college.
E came home Sat. because she had to pick up new contact lenses. So we came back here in time to be home by early afternoon today to see her. She's good.
M spent much of the afternoon helping a friend make a video for the friend's communications class at George Mason. They used our home and yard as backdrops. M is now over at the university taking part in a dress rehearsal of his friend June's play. He helped select the music.
While we were in Bethlehem, we finally got to see the photos that C's dad took at our anniversary party. Here's one of the "band:"
It was fun. C's brother and sister and their spouses also came, so it turned into a big dinner. Everyone is well. For the first time in a long time no one had their kids with them, which was odd. They're all getting old, I guess. All but one are now in college.
E came home Sat. because she had to pick up new contact lenses. So we came back here in time to be home by early afternoon today to see her. She's good.
M spent much of the afternoon helping a friend make a video for the friend's communications class at George Mason. They used our home and yard as backdrops. M is now over at the university taking part in a dress rehearsal of his friend June's play. He helped select the music.
While we were in Bethlehem, we finally got to see the photos that C's dad took at our anniversary party. Here's one of the "band:"
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Fall in the mountains
As you can see from this photo, the leaves are pretty well changed and are coming down fast around "the cabin." I went out there Sat. to do some work. Did some more today as well.
E came home Fri., so I got to see her Fri. afternoon and evening. She say she's still enjoying Shepherd and thinks she's doing well.
C and I went to D.C. Friday night to see a band I like: String Cheese Incident. Really good show, though the crowd may have been more intense than C would like. Very much like a Grateful Dead show. Lots of dancing in the aisles.
M is over at Potbelly's now for his weekly gig.
Hope all is OK with the snow and melting in WNY. Too bad about the Bills -- again -- this week. I listened to much of the game on my satellite radio as I drove home this afternoon.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Bonding with bloggers
C and I enjoyed the rest of our vacation, following the trip to L.V.
The ride to W. Va. on Tuesday began with heavy rain in WNY and through Erie, but the weather turned sunny and warm as we headed south. We went around Pittsburgh and down past Morgantown, then across the mountains of W.Va. to "the cabin." Some really beautiful stretches and the leaves in the higher elevations were quite nice.
The two days at the cabin were productive. While we were there, the work was basically finished that brings our home into compliance with state laws on waste lines (all paid for by the original developer). And we had 22 tons of gravel spread over the driveway. Well, I spread the last couple tons myself because the driver of the truck was nervous about trying to unload it all as he drove up our rather steep drive, so I had him dump some at the bottom to lighten his load. It was a good workout moving the stuff around.
We got back home Thursday. Had a good dinner out with M at Macroni Grill. On Friday, I went into D.C. and met up with Zeyad, an Iraqi dentist/blogger, at the Online News Association annual convention. We mapped out the last details of the program we would do the next day.
That went well, I think. We were onstage for a half-hour or so just before lunch on Sat. I basically interviewed him for about 15 minutes, then opened up the discussion to questions from the floor. Sort of like that Bravo TV program called Inside the Actor's Studio, if you've ever seen that.
Zeyad's blog is called Healing Iraq. I put together a blog about his blog for the conference. I called it Hearing Zeyad. Editor & Publisher wrote about his appearance, though E&P seemed not to have noticed that there was someone else on the stage. Oh well.
Jeff Jarvis, a CUNY professor and one of Zeyad's mentors, blogged about the event here. He writes that "Zeyad was interviewed on the stage at the Online News Association by USA Today’s Mark Memmott and the room was pin-drop-silent from start to end. I thought it was riveting and so did many others."
Good to hear that Martha celebrated her birthday with a new vehicle.
M did his weekly gig at Potbelly's today. We had a really good early dinner of turkey, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, etc. M made the green bean cassarole. E is planning to come home next weekend. C will go get her on Friday. I may make a quick trip to the cabin on Sat. to do a little "winterizing"-type work.
I'm sure glad the Bills didn't play the Bears last week!
The ride to W. Va. on Tuesday began with heavy rain in WNY and through Erie, but the weather turned sunny and warm as we headed south. We went around Pittsburgh and down past Morgantown, then across the mountains of W.Va. to "the cabin." Some really beautiful stretches and the leaves in the higher elevations were quite nice.
The two days at the cabin were productive. While we were there, the work was basically finished that brings our home into compliance with state laws on waste lines (all paid for by the original developer). And we had 22 tons of gravel spread over the driveway. Well, I spread the last couple tons myself because the driver of the truck was nervous about trying to unload it all as he drove up our rather steep drive, so I had him dump some at the bottom to lighten his load. It was a good workout moving the stuff around.
We got back home Thursday. Had a good dinner out with M at Macroni Grill. On Friday, I went into D.C. and met up with Zeyad, an Iraqi dentist/blogger, at the Online News Association annual convention. We mapped out the last details of the program we would do the next day.
That went well, I think. We were onstage for a half-hour or so just before lunch on Sat. I basically interviewed him for about 15 minutes, then opened up the discussion to questions from the floor. Sort of like that Bravo TV program called Inside the Actor's Studio, if you've ever seen that.
Zeyad's blog is called Healing Iraq. I put together a blog about his blog for the conference. I called it Hearing Zeyad. Editor & Publisher wrote about his appearance, though E&P seemed not to have noticed that there was someone else on the stage. Oh well.
Jeff Jarvis, a CUNY professor and one of Zeyad's mentors, blogged about the event here. He writes that "Zeyad was interviewed on the stage at the Online News Association by USA Today’s Mark Memmott and the room was pin-drop-silent from start to end. I thought it was riveting and so did many others."
Good to hear that Martha celebrated her birthday with a new vehicle.
M did his weekly gig at Potbelly's today. We had a really good early dinner of turkey, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, etc. M made the green bean cassarole. E is planning to come home next weekend. C will go get her on Friday. I may make a quick trip to the cabin on Sat. to do a little "winterizing"-type work.
I'm sure glad the Bills didn't play the Bears last week!