March 2012 - Happy St. Pat's and other big news

Grandma and Grandpa were coming over for dinner, and Grace got to choose and make dessert. She chose to make Celebration pie, and it came out just like the picture on the cover of the recipe book. It tasted as good as it looked.

Here is Ingrid enjoying a piece - even several weeks later she still says it was delicious.

During March this year there was about two weeks of June-like weather. One of the first of the really nice days, the girls went outside to do their homework. Grace chose to climb up in a tree to do hers.

Ingrid just threw a blanket in the middle of the front yard to do hers. The more important thing to get out of this picture is that she is writing with a pencil she has that says 'Emma Willard', the bag she used to carry her books out there says the same, as do the side of the sunglasses she's wearing. Not only did she get in, but she got a huge scholarship. We're thrilled, and she is very excited about it.

Then it was St. Patrick's day. Another fantastic day. We parked way over on the west side of the park and walked to the parade, then afterwards we went over to the El Loco for a drink and snack. Gretchen is hoisting a toast to St. Patrick, and the girls are enjoying a snack.

January 2012 - After 14 years

Taking the plunge

After driving the old Subaru Outback since mid-1998, it was finally failing in a big way. Although I probably could have fixed it, Gretchen was convinced she'd never trust the car again, and since it's the car we use for camping trips and pulling the canoe trailer, this was a bit of a problem. After saying for 14 years that the only car I'd replace it with was another one just like it, that's exactly what we did. Heres some camparison shots, the 1998 and the 2012.



As you can see, the new one appears to be a bit bigger than the old one. The outside is, but most of that extra room was dedicated to the passenger compartment, meaning the that the cargo space is actually a touch smaller.

One interesting thing about this - in cleaning out the file on the old car, we found the old window sticker for it from when we purchased it. We compared it to the new sticker, and found that the price has only gone up $1000 in 14 years. Either we paid way too much back then, or the current price is pretty good.

It's a nice car, and it is much nicer on the road, but there are still some features that I prefer in the old one, such as the manual parking break, the larger cargo compartment, and the ROOF RACKS. The new roof racks stink, and they look bad too. It was still the right car for our family. We still need to put a trailer hitch on it for the canoe trailer. David will be picking one out and ordering it shortly, and then mounting it under the car before canoe season.

Here's the old one, cleaned up and ready to sell. We did much better selling it privately than trading it in.

December 2011

Gretchen's Bad Day

So while David was in beautiful sunny Columbus OH for a week, we had the only snowstorm of note all year (in early December of all times. About 8" of heavy wet snow fell overnight and into the morning. On getting up, the first thing she found was this:



The heavy snow had built up on the netting that keeps the hawks out of the chicken yard, bringing a lot of it down, and tearing what was still up. Not the worst thing that could happen, but no fun either.

Then, later that same day, while downtown. She got a flat tire on the Subaru. It turns out this screw was embedded in the tire, but for a variety of reasons it resulted in completely replacing the tire.

Then, on getting home, she found that the weight of the snow had brought this tree down across the driveway. This picture was taken after she had done some surgery just to be able to get her car out of the driveway. All in all not a very good day

On the brighter side, later that month the girls played Christmas music at a local bookstore after school one day. Here is Grace playing 'Angels We Have Heard on High' on her saxophone. She also played some songs on the piano.

Ingrid also played, both the piano and the flute. Here she is on the piano.

And here with her friend Abbey performing a flute duet.

Lastly this month, Christmas Tree hunting - which Grace had to pay for because the rest of us forgot to bring enough cash to buy a tree. Thanks Grace. Lots of great trees at this farm - we'll be going back there every year for sure.

And the finished product, decorated and ready for St. Nick to come.

FINALLY - Bathroom Tile

There was a wee little accident a few weeks ago. (NOT WEE, something much more horrid!) And - the bathroom carpet was rolled up on the spot and taken outside IMMEDIATELY. No further elaboration needed, other than this happened, of course, while David was out of town. The carpet was actually a remnant we put down in 2005 - hoping to get a couple years out of it. Basically - we were tired of making decisions, out of moolah to invest in the house, and TIRED of house construction. So - we lucked out - the carpet lasted six years! Here are David & Ingrid hammering down the durock - the base for new TILE! yea! Today David got started mixing mortor. ONLY an engineer would use a scale and a measuring cup for this task. I have it recorded digitally now! OK - I'm a geek too. And here we go. After much debate - we finally came up with a scheme for the listello that wasn't going to make the tile job IMPOSSIBLE with tons of cuts, and looks nice with the fixtures and layout of the room. This is travertene tile we got for $4/square foot (cheap) and the listello was full price, but we only needed six square feet of it - so the job was very reasonable... Unfortunately as most jobs go - out come MORE AND MORE tools. This job is no different. David thought the molding was high enough for tiles go to under - but NOT QUITE. SO - out came the trim saw, and a piece of boxboard to approximate the mortar depth. AND - Gretchen got to work down on the floor to so David could keep laying tile. Then I cleaned the mortar out of my nice shoes and put on old sneakers. OK - we're rock and rolling now! And - here is the finished look, no grout yet. David leaves for Ohio tomorrow (not returning until late Saturday - natch) - so the girls and I'll have to live with this for a week. He isn't doing under the fixtures, nor in the closet today. It'll be a two short half day jobs to finish when he gets back. In the meantime, I'll seal the set tile so that the grout doesn't stick to it as bad - and the cleanup easier... Then - MERRY CHRISTMAS to us - the bathroom will have tile! Whoo-Hoo..... Doesn't Gretchen look totally cool with ear protection on? Here is a cut listello.... While David tries to work fast and stay put - Gretchen runs the wet saw on the porch. It's loud and leaks a tad - so it's a mess. This is not somethign to do inside THANKS SCOTT - it's working GREAT!

New Yorkers FINALLY head to NYC

After several years of thinking about it - I finally remembered to BUY TICKETS in September to go down to NYC for the day and see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Show. This has been running since 1933 in Radio City Music Hall. We left Albany at 7:30am via the MEGA-Bus. This is a double decker express to NYC. Just 2-1/2 hours and VOILA - you're there. The girls got to sit in the very front row on the 2nd deck. It's like being in the drivers seat with no stearing wheel. WHATTA RIDE!
Ingrid's bird's eye view of the Lincoln Tunnel.

Grace likes to STAND on the subway - - - - we'll, in the morning anyway!Grace got her wish - to see the Statue of Liberty. Altho from afar - it was a beautiful day down in Battery Park.

There is even a building in NYC called the "GRACE BUILDING". It is adjacent to Bryant Park.

Here is the patron filled lobby of the Radio City Music Hall. I can't believe we finally did this trip. Everyone is very excited!

Even if we did have to go up to the 3rd Mezzanine. The show was great. David got lucky too because even tho still jet-lagged from just returning from Europe - all those Rockette leggs - 80+ of them, DID INDEED keep him awake thru the whole show. There were even two movie clips for which we had to use 3D glasses. Quite a place.

After the show, Grace finally started to understand why they call this "the city that never sleeps". We had dinner at 9:30! Mostly because we had walked ourselves stupid before the show and never sat down for a whole meal. For Ingrid that meant "CHEESECAKE"! Also, because we were tired and the train to Albany didn't leave until 11:50. It was a long day, but we're so glad we made the trip.

A view of Times Square (I think) - from 50th and 6th Avenue. It's Saturday night in NYC!

HAVE a HAPPY THANKSGIVING Everyone - - - - - -

Lunch Options In Leipzig Plant

OK - this is different. These are words directly from David's e-mail describing a UNIQUE cafeteria where he is in Germany! "They have a tiny little cafeteria, it seats 24 people total. We were asked to pick out what we wanted an hour or two before lunch, there were pictures and each had a stack of cards with it. You take a card from the one you want and write your name on it. When we went in for lunch, they were ready. Exactly like an old fashioned TV dinner, in the foil tray. It is what everyone ate." I know it's blurry - but here is a close up of one of the 'selections'. Today he asked what was special about the ones that this audit team was given to choose from. He was told that they were the more expensive options. They said "GUEST" at the top. He has no idea what the price actually is, but did say they aren't "bad".....

Davids Last Three Weeks

David started off his travels on November 2nd with a 3-day trip BACK to Ohio. Not to Columbus for 6-sigma training this time- but to Newark for an Energy Audit. He's on a team of 12 that is auditing all 15 plants around the world on a crazy 3-week schedule to look for 5% energy savings NEXT year. So - Newark Ohio was his destination. Not too exciting. An hour out of Columbus, and a population of 45,000. Headquarters for several large businesses - including the Momentive plant.....
and this lovely structure -- the Longeberger Basket Company Headquartrs. HOW OHIO!!! OMG. It's a BUILDING!

Well - he got home late Friday night (11/4) and was then off Monday (11/7) afternoon to Europe. This first stop - The Netherlands. A much classier destination I assure you. His first stop - Rotterdam for another plant Energy Audit. This is a picture of a bridge they call THE SWAN over a river in Rotterdam - it's just beautiful.

When the audit was done, he spent the weekend in Amsterdam. Here is a picture of one of her canals. Imagine skating on these. They are all over. He got to spend a day seeing the sights and enjoying some local cuisine.

Sunday - November 12th - found David jetting off to Leipzig, Germany. This city was once behind the iron curtain. Having been bombed heavily during WWII, when the curtain opened in the early 90's this city was devistated, having not been kept up during the Soviet occupation. David said that the Germans taxed their citizens an extra 2% to revive these classic old cities - and it has seen quite a revival. It has a population of 500,000 and is looking quite nice these days. David hasn't gotten to sight see much as he is at the plant by 7 - and the sun doesn't come up until 8 - and works until after dark. He did get this picture of the OUDE KIRK. It was constructed in 1303 - and he did get inside, but no pictures were allowed. Not sure if it is THE ONE, but this was Bach's city. He was once cantor at one of her churches. Imagine!

That is the only picture he's sent from Germany. The other he sent is this: the streets in the old part of Amsterdam.... quaint..... He returns Wednesday evening. We're all ready. Just ONE MORE trip that we know of this year- the 1st weekof December - back to the lovely state of Ohio - his 7th trip there this year.