Pictures as Promised!

Finally! We had the inspection and appraisal done today. All is one track to close by the time we are being kicked out of the temporary housing. WOOHOO! This is a view from the front of the house:

This is the side back. It is a two car garage and walkout basement. The basement is not finished and will just be storage.

This is the master bathroom - it does have the big jet tub and a shower. Lots of great light from all the windows.

The kitchen is really huge! There is a pennisula (Mark took the pictures as I couldn't be there) and an eat in kitchen . The slider for the porch is off the EIK. And then the family room is off the EIK. Good set up I think.

This is the dining room - just off the kitchen. And there is already a light! Bonus!

And this is the living room with built in bookshelves and gas fireplace. It is a bit wider than it looks.

There are four bedrooms and 2 and half baths - a total of 2500 sq. feet. Lots of room for visitors! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!

Offer Accepted... Next Step...

inspection! YIPPEE! Our offer was accepted and we will be having the inspection on Thursday afternoon! Financing is back on track and we are hoping to still be in our new home by Labor Day weekend! I'm not so fearful that we'll end up in a questionable roadside hotel that takes cats for a couple weeks - and I'd be just fine if we had to wait a few days for our furniture to arrive. Housing ends here August 31st. And now I have a few things to rejoice about...
No more rusting pots and pans!
No more sharing the bathroom with the cats!
No more carefree days with no house to clean!
No more short drive to work!
No more freaky neighbors! (like the guy who stares when we go to the pool - trust me I am not a playboy bunny!!!)
No more excessive use of the air conditioning (you see we aren't paying the bill and I like it COLD at night)!
What am I scared of? Unpacking the boxes. It will be sort of like Christmas as I have not laid eyes on much of this stuff in SIX months - except for the few hours before the packing started in June. We are already discussing the giagantic garage sale that needs to take place. I'm not even sure I need my clothes at this point. I mean it's been six months - do I really want to wear that stuff? I'm also fearing the unpacking of the kitchen and all the stuff that will need to be washed - all of it!!! It took the guy a day to pack it all. Oh goodness.
Now for a positive. Since I am not really cleaning or organizing at home right now I did manage to clean out the office at work - major feat. It consisted of my office, my assistants work area, a first aid room complete with medical instruments from the 80's and a storeroom full of first aid items and "history" stuff. There was stuff from the 1960's! Not joking! It was 4 big push carts of crap. Plus my first week there were 3 big burn barrels of junk. The storeroom was totally packed when I started and now it's neatly organized and the cabinets are becoming less clustered. And this week I had a temp shred 12 garbage bags of papers. The non-confidential crap went in the garbage or it would have been 30 bags easy. And I have pulled a Julie when some things can't seem to make the garbage can. haha...

Ouchie!!!

Just so you don't think all we do is have fun here's a few pictures of our poor car! Keep in mind we've had our new insurance for just over two weeks and the damage is at least $4000. Of course it wasn't our fault. Damn BMW driver! When turning right don't hog two lanes!!! So let the voting begin... guess who was driving? Mr. Safety or Ms. Get Out of My Way?

p.s. no one was harmed in the making of this mess and no air bags deployed - go figure!

Sunday in NYC! Go Mets!

To distract us from dwelling on our latest house offer we went to NYC for a Mets game today. We had bought a mini-ticket package back in March and this was the first game we were able to go too. So in true NY style we took the train in and then jumped on the subway to Shea. Driving is a nightmare and almost just as much. This way we got to read the Sunday paper and all the other papers we didn't get to this week. Nice way to start a Sunday.
It was our first time going to Shea Stadium and it was neat to see yet another ballpark. It's huge! It was hot and a bit overcast and the rain held off until the 8th inning (which was about 2 hours into the game so a short game really by baseball standards). We had our first ever Nathan's hotdog. A must for all NY'ers and visitors alike. For those of you who don't know Nathan's are the hotdogs that they use for the 4th of July Coney Island hotdog eating contest as seen on ESPN - not joking! It's so gross they eat 40+ hotdogs in under 10 or 15 minutes. It's truly disgusting. I only ate one! However I will say they are easy to polish off. The man in front of us bought one when we did and it was gone before I was even two bites into mine and then his wife came back and she had two for him. I know she didn't know he'd just eaten one. Sneaky, sneaky. We had a good laugh about that. He was nice and gave her half of one however, which made me laugh even more. She had no clue.

If wouldn't be an adventure without pictures...

The ocean view from our seats

Mark is a Mets fan for the day!

as am I too!

hit a home and the apple comes up - it came up 3 times in one inning!

Go Mets!

p.s. they won 9 to 1! Woohoo!

Picked out a house in under 2 hours!

I know amazing! We met our new realtor on Saturday at 11:30 am and she is an absolute gem. We wrapped by 1:30 with a decision made pending being able to see one more house on Monday or Tuesday. Of course I had sent her the 4 houses we wanted to see to make it easy, but she did add in another one. And while we liked her suggestion we chose house #1 at that point. The one we didn't see was a pre-forclosure and the seller insists on being there. Annoying to say the least, but a great deal on a unique lot. If we can't see it we will just go with house #1. The funniest part of this go round. We had already been in the 3 houses I sent her - I just didn't remember the addresses. At the first house we told her that - she knew we had seen the 2nd, but for #3 we kept quiet. By that point we felt sort of silly and it did make things go faster. #4 was her choice. Our first choice is even better than the last house we walked away from. The builder did lots of cool things like a drain in the laundry room on the 2nd floor and a gas fireplace. Mostly lots of the items we would want to add anyway. It's in the country near some orchards and there are neighbors across the road and next to us. It's a slow windy road so traffic isn't fast at all. Unlike before the next time we go I will take pictures. This is it!!!

New Deal

So the latest deal for house #3 fell apart. By now you must think we are crazy or super picky or something. This latest one was advertised as a 4 bedroom and we were told when we made an offer it was only 3 the 4th didn't have a closet, but we could PUT one in to make it a bedroom. Yesterday we found out that the septic was only big enough for 3 bedroom house not a 4 bedroom so making it 4 bedrooms wasn't possible. Then the water had coliform in it, the roof leaked, and we could not access the septic clean out because there was a water pipe in front of it. While I am getting very anxious I was feeling like we were buying the money pit and it's brand new. So our realtor was fired - three strike rule and we meet a new one tomorrow and check out four new houses. Fun times!

is it Friday yet?

finally a weekend to do nothing and well we really did get a lot done anyway. We each got our hair cut at Super Cuts (not my normal places, but the timing was right and it needed to be done), checked out Stew Leonard's and bought groceries for the week, and the finally hit Target and bought 40 new hangers and that still wasn't enough for all the things I had to hang - but keep in mind I was hanging up all my shirts and not folding them on the shelf so still that's good. Picked out the lights for the new house too. That was interesting as there are so many to choose from. Ended up going with a local outfit and he was extremely helpful so I'm hoping they look nice even after we put them up. I thought they were pretty cool and didn't totally break the bank. Lots of errands wrapped up on Saturday so Sunday was a day for play. We went to the Fahenstock State Park for the morning. It's about 20 minutes from the apartment up on a mountain I think. Cooler than our little area so that was a very nice break from the heat. Did I mention how hot it is here? Hot and muggy. Perfect for NY. Anyway back to the beach... it was a sandy beach area and clean water for the most part - by early afternoon it was getting a bit cloudy, but there were tons of people in the water. Somewhat cooling and not too warm. You can fish and rent boats and there is a lot of hiking - too hot for that and the breeze off the water was too nice to leave. The park is very popular with the Puerto Rican crowd so there were lots of family picnics and hogging of the picnic tables. We did manage to snag one and the people next to us were fun to watch. We called it a day by 2:00 and chilled at home the rest of the afternoon.
The house buying event is moving along and we are almost ready to sign the contract and then the fun starts with the financing people. Amazing how many fee's they come up with and we are lucky this is a relo package. Can't wait to move in and unpack so hopefully it goes smoothly! Yes I know you want pictures... soon I promise!

Winner's All Around!

Thursday was a big day for good things in the Sens household. We had our home inspection and it went pretty good. Just a few things for them to make a bit better. I met with the kitchen specialist to design the island - it has a shelf for my wine fridge and a spice rack. Love it. Hope to seal the contract today maybe or Monday. Then I will go back and take pictures for you all to see it.

And to top off the big day I won 2 Season Tickets to the Army football games at West Point. YES, I know they aren't good, but it's football and we love football. Mark especially loves football. We can tailgate and it came with parking passes - those are worth almost as much as the tickets. We already bought Army t-shirts at Dave & Barry's in anticipation of going to at least one game. Now we can go to six. And how did I manage this... well we went to a Renegades game (minor league A baseball short season). They play across the street from us so it's a quick walk. I put my name in a bucket and they drew it out! woohoo! We both also won 2 more tickets each to upcoming Renegades games - except not on fireworks night. Fine by me I can't last the whole game anyway. I mostly enjoy the people watching and boy is that an event there. Lot's of freaks. So we are going to be busy with fun stuff this fall.

the mystery of the disappearing hangers

So Mark is off an emergency run to Buffalo for an OSHA inspection - which was finished before he got there so I'm home alone and trying to clean up our temporary home (thank GOD it's not much longer till we are out of here!) Amazing what you can get done when you're on the computer I know. Lots and lots. Anyway I'm in laundry mode and need to catch up before the weekend and besides I do want clean sheets for tonight. So I'm adding things to the ironing pile from the clean laundry and think that maybe just maybe I should take a crack at my least favorite chore - ironing. I will avoid it at all costs and with any excuse. But lo and behold a new excuse. I have no more hangers and this pile of stuff needs a hanger so it doesn't get all wrinkly again. This just boggles my mind as this all came off a hanger, but there are none for them to be put back on. Do we have hanger fairies or thieves in the closet? I don't take them on vacation so that couldn't be it. I doubt it's the cat sitter - even if she is a bit special in many ways. Could be they go on the road with Mark or something? Target is too much of a pain to make a special trip too. That's a whole different post. And NO WAY am I going to Walmart or someone will be needing a really big Carvel sundae to make that wait all better. I don't need a sundae that much I know! I'm sure we'll have enough hangers once we get settled in our new home and Target will be much closer and not charge me a quarter to use a freaking cart. Yes, I'm still not happy about that and that goes back at least 4 months. So let's just say my lucky day that I can't iron because I have no hangers. Well I guess I could iron what I'll wear tomorrow and call it good. Or I could have Helen come visit - she is the world's best ironer! Not joking about either. But first we need another bedroom for guests.

busy weekend!

It seems each weekend is busier than the last. We spent this weekend in Rochester. Friday night was at Hotel Shannon. Very nicely appointed and cute - lots of blues and greens. Reminded me of a weekend at the cottage. It even had a resident cat! Saw her for a minute. Shannon is actually Mark's cousin and we stayed there because he has a cold and didn't want to make his dad sick again. We needn't have worried about that because he was sick when we got there and was re-admitted to the hospital less than 18 hours after he left. The last stay was almost a month and we hope this one is much shorter. He now has pnemonia in both lungs and they say he should be good to go in a week. If it's not one thing it's another. He's also now on a gluten free diet. Saw lots of goodies stock piled for him - they appear tasty and some are pretty normal. Thousand Island dressing for example is gluten free. Wegman's identifies all their branded foods that are gluten free so that is very handy.
The rest of Saturday was spent at a company picnic in Buffalo, NY and a return trip to visit Barry at the hospital. We did something different for dinner - Great Northern Pizza - it was very good! Sausage, peppers, and onions. YUM! Sunday morning Mark got up at the crack of dawn to work in the yard and get things cleaned up and then we took Helen out for breakfast to the Coal Tower. I got the multi-grain blueberry pancakes - pretty good, but way too much food. I always forget how big they are. Barry looked much better when we went for our last visit at the hospital - hopefully he'll be home this weekend. The liver transplant floor is busy and there are lots of beeps and buzzes - not a place to get any sleep! The return trip to Newburgh was rainy! We made it home by 6:00 pm and were hoping that this morning was a Saturday, but no it was a Monday. Makes for another long week. We'll be busy this week doing stuff for the house - will post pictures later!

Seasoned House Hunters

so you say you want a new house? moving to another state? Let me give you a few tips. Ok, fine I won't get started, but I will tell you we still are still living in the little apartment and have seen at least 100 houses in Orange and Dutchess Counties. So we have settled on Orange County and are looking in the country - think snakes, bears, and deer in the back yard and lots of trees. Yes I saw a snake sunning in the rocks at one house. We even jumped out of the car to take a closer look. No idea what kind it was, but the realtor said it wasn't a nice one. Not a rattler. Our top picks are also new houses, but are almost finished so we can stay on task. I will post pictures when we seal the deal and that might be a couple weeks given the quickness here in New York. Not. We have become very good at picking out the good in a house and noticing issues so that's a bonus. See seasoned isn't all the bad right? Tell that to our kitty who will soon be put on a diet and I'm not talking about Mani - it's Cali who is quickly catching up to him. Poor thing. So stairs to run up.
Can't wait to have some visitors! We hope to be in something by Labor Day!

Seattle Foods!

Here's a list of must hits if you are off to Seattle - at least from my taste buds perspective.
Ray's Cafe - above Ray's Boathouse. It's the cheaper cousin above the fancy swanky dinner spot. It was quite good - I had an awesome dish recommended by a friend of Julie's. Chatham Strait Sablefish in Sake Kasu - it's black cod and was quite yummy. Somewhat Asian in flavor, but very good and served over rice. The non-fish eaters had burgers and they looked good, but this is Seattle and I love fish done right. Reservations are a must. And if it's sunny being on the deck is a must.
The Anthiem - or something like that... it's in Pike's Place and where they filmed a bit of Sleepless in Seattle. I had crab cakes - yummy. Mark had fish and chips - quite good and not your usual fish and chips like NY. Their pie looked wonderful - Grandma got a piece for her birthday and managed to eat almost all of it!
For our final meal our last night we hit Duke's on Lake Union. They have a few locations all over Seattle. Uncle Greg had the winner - white salmon. I'm not making this up. One out of every hundred salmon that are caught have white flesh and he said it was very good - it looked good too! My choice was also yummy - this time I had the fish and chips, which I split with Shannon and a cup of chowder. At this point we were on a chowder mission because of the food tour we took. It didn't match up to Pike Place Chowder at all! Now that's the place to go if you go anywhere in Seattle and want a great cup of soup. The chowder is made with real cream so to split a cup might just be a good idea. It was so good - nothing fishy about it at all. Even had a few veggies tossed in for some odd reason.
If you have a day to spare in Seattle I would highly recommend the Savor Seattle Food Tour. Do it your first day or two so you can go back - you will want too trust me. My favorite sounds gross, but trust me it's the bomb. Even Aunt Jean loved it and she doesn't like salmon all that much. It's at Piroshky-Piroshky and as you might have guessed they sell Piroshkys, a Russian pastry full of yum. My favorite was the Smoked Salmon Pate Piroshky - and really I don't like the flavor of fish, but this was pretty hammy in flavor. Sprinked with a little dill on top made it to drool for! Don't even ask me what the other sample was it didn't even come close. The apple ones also looked yummy. No sample there either - just on my wish list.
If you need a another dinner place Etta's has lots to offer and we had a sample of their Coconut Cream Pie - it was a cute little pie and we each got one - think 4 nice bites here - nothing major, but more than enough to make me happy.
Daily Dozen donuts was good, but I think you can find them at the fair in Michigan and probably NY at that. If you have a hankering for a hunk of greasy fried dough go for it, just make sure to share them. Market Spice was also fun - we tried some Heart Healthy Spice with cream cheese and I think we all bought a bottle to take home along with a few other things. They also make that famous Seattle Spice Tea. This was not new to me, but yummy all the same.
To top it off a visit to Beecher's Handmade Cheese is a good choice. Not only is the cheese very good, but they offer this homemade mac and cheese not meant for children. Didn't get to taste it as we ran out of room in our tummies.
All in all a great day of food grazing! It's a great way to learn about a city and get in on some local taste treats. Pack your tennis shoes and get ready to walk!

Lots of things checked off our list!

or as Mark said knotches we can put in our belt. Things we can say we've done and never have to do again. It was a busy and one of a kind 4th of July! We met up with Greg and Debby in New York City. They were married last year on 7/7/07 so this is their 1st anniversary and we met up for dinner and fun. This is the one thing we would do again - meet up with them for dinner and fun.
#1 ... Watched the 35,000 - 40,000 fireworks on FDR Drive with hundreds of thousands of other people - trust me many were not New Yorkers although there was plenty of rude shouting about umbrella's so I know they were present in the crowd. Some of the fireworks were smiley faces, squares, the flag and other things I couldn't quite pick out. Fantastic and totally worth getting wet for. I'm quite sure there were at least a million people watching if not more. Way too many people. Many people started leaving about 10 minutes into the 30-45 minute show. There were many displays that made you think it was the grand finale. I mean we fought hard to get our spots so why leave?
That brings me to #2 - watching fireworks in the rain. We were lucky that the hotel G & D stayed at let us borrow their umbrella's for free. They still shot them off and we all had to put down our umbrella's or ran the risk of being tossed in the river hence we still got wet. So much for those countless times fireworks shows have been cancelled - they still work in the rain people! And rain doesn't hurt you.
#3 ... Used an umbrella to protect my face from other umbrella's. Almost became a weapon as most people don't pay any attention to those around them.
#4 ... We walked at least 8 miles in our treks that day and I was wearing sandals. Dumb I know and I have blisters on the bottom of feet to show for it. The wine helped I'm sure. Today I'm not so happy and am hobbling around.
#5... took the sky tram to Roosevelt Island. Need to find out more about it. The hospital there looked VERY old. Great view of the city however on the tram. Cheap $4 thrill.
#6... Mark got an awful cold just in time for the 4th of July.
#7... ate breakfast at the singing diner on Times Square. Ellen's. DO NOT GO THERE! Total toursit trap and very BAD food. So-so singers. Broadway wanna be's I'm sure.
#8... stayed in the smallest hotel to date. It was a closet, but comfy. I would stay there again too. Hudson's Hotel - you must try it. It was a priceline special. Would have liked to have checked out the bar, but was way too tired upon our return after the fireworks.
and #9.... I got poisin IVY!!! Can you believe it? Guessing it's from our hike earlier in week. Found it when we got back after the fireworks. Just on my lower leg and so far not itchy. I'm sure that is yet to come. If it gets good I might post a few shots for entertainment purposes.
and we have to have a #10 ... let's see... took the smallest overnight bag to date. Need to get something bigger next time. A big backpack would be a great idea.
And yes mom I know I owe you a food report from Seattle yet.... I'll do that soon!

Seattle Wedding Update

95 and hotter than ever - the umbrella is for looks only

Uncle Larry and Aunt Pam

The escort down the aisle

Jeffery did a great job with the ring

cousin Jennifer

Aaron and his new wife Pa

Grandma's 88th Birthday - the first dessert of many on this trip!

Yes, finally - and the laundry is not yet done either. That can wait. You needed to see pictures of the family - I got them all on the Koenig side. We had a great time and I have a full report for all - the food report will have to wait as the wedding was the main highlight of the trip. Don't worry it was very good eats. More on that later.

About the wedding - the usual ... pretty bride, nervous groom, and sweating mother of the groom - wait I guess I should say we were all sweating as it was 95 out and the wedding was in full sun on a field of grass. Lots of fun had by all - really it wasn't that bad!