Christmas Eve in NYC!

choo-choo to the city!

Times Square - two of our favorite things - The Loft and Firetrucks...

something down in the subways needed help?

lots of cool displays

(it was pretty cold... note mom's PFD hat)

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree - not so crowded for Christmas Eve

Times Square on the Steps

Merry Christmas!

Can you tell I'm busy? We also did lunch at Rosie O'Gradys. Christmas Show at the Rockettes. And were home in time for some appetizers. The cheesecake managed to stay in one piece until Christmas Day - Juniors is the best!

let's get this party started!

The parents have arrived in a semi-timely fashion. The airlines should just add two hours to each flight and be done with it - delays just happen. Steph will arrive today - about 12 hours late, but that's ok I will leave work early to go pick her up. Great excuse!
So far we have managed to keep the Christmas tree alive and well watered. We got it Thanksgiving weekend so it's getting a bit old, but still sucking up water every day - that is a good sign. The kitties are enjoying their time under it, but starting to not sit too long as I think they might be getting pokies now from the needles falling. Mani is doing a bit better and is on new pills now for his crystal issue. Oh the joy I had this morning shoving it down his throat. He only foamed at the mouth for five minutes this time and didn't lose the pill he was trying to hard to puke up. I know the elf saw that one!
Tonight kicks off 4 days of fun! First up is a NY Italian dinner, take-out style of course because they serve you way too much food when you eat there! Christmas Eve we are heading to the city to enjoy lunch in Times Square (gotta love Open Table for finding a good place!) and then to see the Rockette's in the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show. After I'm hoping it starts to snow a little so the lights in the city will look cool - I mean they are cool without the white stuff, but they just seem to twinkle more with snow. We missed the big storm this past weekend so we would love to see some. Christmas we will put the kitchen into workout mode and eat lots of yummy food and of course open gifts. Now if the weather man is holding true to his word we should have a good dose of ice on Christmas Day.
Now I'm thinking I need to take lots of pictures... and hey my house is really clean so it's ok to do that!

Tattle to Santa Kitty

Mani has been spied being a naughty kitty! We have told him that Santa Kitty is watching and he will not get his presents if he is not good! In fact he was naughty right under the Christmas tree this morning! You should know that Friday we found out a reason for his peeing in the bathtub - crystals in his urine. (as a side note I can't think of a better place for him to pee other than the toilet and his litter box) So Santa Kitty you can take that "naughty" act off his "naughty boy" list as that was not his fault - he was sick. But you should know that today's antics are for your "naughty boy" list for sure!
First off he hid under the bed after eating his breakfast and would not come out. Finally he was kicked out by the broom handle. Then he ran downstairs and "hid" under the Christmas tree. Your elf can confirm this as he is stationed on the Christmas tree to warn us when they get snoopy. Then he refused to budge from his corner out of our reach until Mark reached under and pulled him out. Much squealing ensued - much more than ever before. (this was absolutely hilarious to me) All to avoid taking his medicine! It's only a pill!!!
So tomorrow morning we will try again and give him his medicine. This time before he eats while he is still the snuggly morning kitty that we all know and love.
Hope you are taking notes Santa Kitty...

Christmas Party Team Builder Event

Just a funny work story. This year for work we decided to try something different and had a full Italian dinner catered in. It was to die for and trust me we took our taste testing lunches very seriously. The only downside to the caterer we chose is that we had to serve it, but no cooking or dishes! With a great team we handled the serving part with no issues.

So the menu... We had penne ala vodka, lasagna, grilled veggies, eggplant rollatini, sausage & peppers, awesome salad and tons of desserts! We decorated with really cool paper tablecloths (note to self DO NOT USE PAPER!), lights, bows, the works. The tablecloths were not my idea and I would not have bought them for the food serving table - just the eating table, but that is another topic for another day. They delivered the food and we had it set up on the warming trays with sterno to keep it hot. (note to self sterno is HOT). See a trend here... paper and hot? Now I had tons of helpers - at least 12. No one thought that the sterno would get so hot as to catch the paper on fire. The paper was backed with plastic. (note to self plastic is smoky when on fire!)

15 minutes to chow time we are all getting suited up with aprons and Santa hats and my boss comes out of the room with all the food and says very calmly that we have a problem and he needs help. No mention of fire and no panic on his part. So we all go into the room and he thinks we can put it out with our hands or something. LOL! We start moving the pans and pulling out the burning tablecloths. At this point I yell for someone to grab one of the 120 fire extinguishers that we have in the building - we do training on how to use them every year. Smoke is filling the room and people are freaking out that the food is going to be ruined and we will have 80 hungry people on our hands. Fortunately we didn't uncover the food yet and it is TIGHTLY sealed. And fortunately Bob the fire extinguisher man has great aim and carefully puts it all out while we all cough and gag and try to save stuff. This is where the term Team Builder comes in - we had to work together to save the food! There is white dust everywhere! Smoke is everywhere and people are freaking that the sprinklers will go off. I'm thinking it has to be hot to set them off and am the only person to know this random fact. Turns out I was right - thank God - can you imagine water being added to this mess? ugh.

I am laughing at this point - what can you do? The only thing lost was some bread. I couldn't tell if it had the white dust on it, but assumed it did since it was all over everything so I pitched it. With 10 minutes left the team managed to wash down the floors, get the huge fans going to suck out the smoke, pull the rest of the tablecloth off, re-light the sterno's and start serving food. It was fine - it was tightly sealed. Actually it was very good and I was more than starving at this point. It was killer to have to serve it and wait to eat.

So lessons learned upon the investigation of the fire (we investigate every safety incident at work with a team - no exceptions.... part of my job - LOL! for real!):
Next year no paper tablecloths backed in plastic.
Wait make that NO tablecloths of any kind.
Water would put out the fire and not make a mess.
DO not break up bags of ice over the pop cans in the cooler. They explode.
We need 300 servings of food to feed 80 people. Those men can eat!
DO NOT put the left overs in the office fridge because 3rd shift will come take it all.
Eat the cannoli's the day of the party or they get soggy.
Ok they didn't come up with all these, but a few of them - the others I added to make it better next year.

Quick Trip to DC

We made a quick trip to DC this weekend to see Eastern Kentucky play at Maryland. They did pretty good and even tied it up once. The traffic in DC is something else - so glad we do not live there. You could spend half your Saturday in the car trying to run errands. Above is proof it was tied at one point!

Debby and Greg gave us the whirlwind tour of DC at night and since we did not have our camera we made use of Mark's blackberry - used mine at the basketball game. Handy, but not as good! We had some pretty yummy crab cakes at the Old Ebbit House along with scallop sweet potato's - no idea what was in them, but they had a kick and were very tasty! We topped the night off with some bread pudding and another glass of wine.

Buried in Ice and Snow!

So it's been ages since I posted anything. We've just been busy traveling for Thanksgiving and then getting stuff out for Christmas. So today it's snowing, icing, sleeting, raining and I'm holding out to see if the roads get better. Not worth it. Not overly exciting I know.

I did try a new recipe last night for Christmas cookies and I didn't copy it before Tiffany left so I will share it later, but it was really good. Biscotti with heath bar mixed in! Yummy! Great with hot cocoa and super easy to make. Never knew biscotti was so easy. I'll put it up later.

Happy Snow Day! oh wait I mean ICE!

successful Sunday

You know Sunday is a success when you...

get the Christmas lights put up and don't freeze your fingers!

manage to clean out the garage and arrange everything so both cars and all the lawn toys will fit in!

procrastinate enough that finally you get a dinner invite to someone else's house! Italian dinner at that! My donation is a bottle of red wine - one of those really big bottles!

have a clean house and are ready to roll for Thanksgiving - at someone else's house!

are excited for Monday and work. It is a three day work week after all! Can't get any better than that!

home again, home again!

.... into my own bed! Tuesday could not go fast enough. Two layovers and 6 hours of airport time! Next time I am paying way more attention to how those layovers work! Vegas was fun, but four days is enough. I had my fill of Mexican and will admit we did an all day buffet. Say what? All day buffet? Yep. Never heard of such a thing? Me neither until this trip. Let me explain why. It was free! F-R-E-E and came with our room at Excalibur - we stayed there the first two nights and then moved to Hard Rock Hotel. I was very worried about how the food would be at this all day buffet and that I would be trapped there all day. Surprise. You can come and go all day long from 7 am to 10 pm. You even get cuts coming back through - how's that for super piggy! Never fear remember I said this was free - this means we didn't feel the need to eat all three or four meals there or even snacks there - it was not our money, just our tummies. Breakfast was amazinly good, but we skipped out and went to PF Changs for lunch. Later on before the buffet closed we went back for a late snack and I got nacho's! yummy. Most people were paying for it - $29.95 to eat all day long and probably at least 4,000 calories for them. It was honestly close the best buffet I'd ever been too. Now maybe it was because we didn't eat dinner the night before and I was really hungry, but it did taste good going down. Needless to say we didn't pay for it the next day - too many great places to eat in Vegas.
My other favorite - other than PF's, which I'm sure you all know how good that is - was AGO at Hard Rock. We checked in there on a Sunday and it was 12x's points day and you only had to collect 100 points to get a $50 voucher for AGO, which is kinda pricey. I mean would you pay $12 for a little starter salad? hmmm... most likely not. I ended up with their pork chop and it was quite good - Mark had a porter house and then we split the warm chocolate cake and prune gelato. LOL! yes prune! Mark was a bit horrified I picked the prune, but it came with it and the waiter said it was really good. He was not lying - even Mark agreed it was good and he ate as much as I did. So as to not appear we were there for the free meal - because honestly that's why we went, but still - we ordered some drinks. Drinks were not supposed to be part of the deal, but they were.... hmmm.... ok it was worth it to go over the $100 I guess. Great meal considered all the quacky reviews online for the place. Reviews in Vegas are well ... not to be trusted is what I have learned. AGO is worth going too despite the snits online.
One more Vegas story... so I worked hard to get my 100 points on Sunday night so Monday night I was set on not gambling anymore, but for some reason agreed to play the penny slots. You know 150 pennies at a time. They still call it a penny slot and for some reason that sounds better than a buck fifty to me. I am talking about my shopping money here. So playing the penny slots I won $200 in one pull. I got all excited because the machine was going nuts and I couldn't figure out how much I won. On Saturday night I saw some lady win a million dollars - I was pretty sure that was not my fate and nope... $200 is still pretty good though. Then we started playing nickels. Won there too - $80 in a pull. This was only 45 cents at a time so still good. I ended up racking up over 600 points that night and walked out with about $180 at the end. Not bad considering I was done gambling.
We saw two shows - some magic show... Criss Believe - magic and stuff. Interesting - he was fun to look at. We also saw Love and it was very good! It's the Beatle's Cirque de Sol (and I'm sure I am not spelling it right...) show. I would love to go back and see it - and see the whole show UNinterupted! Let's just say that some people think being in Vegas is a license to drink way to much and be uber annoying. It was fun to watch her get kicked out, but it sort of spoiled it for those of us around her. They waited until the show was 3/4 of the way over. And in the meantime she downed TWO 32 ounce drinks. Stiff ones at that. So dragged out is more like it.
So the next Vegas trip... probably a long ways off - long ways. Mark actually booked an earlier flight home after his conference ended today. LOL! He is anxious to get home! A week there is way too long! We can skip Atlantic City for a few months now.

Red Rock Canyon

During the same day off the strip in Vegas we also hit Red Rock Canyon - again I had no clue what to expect - maybe we'd just look at some cool scenes, but no you can actually take quite a few hikes. If only we'd been better dressed... We did do a little hiking.

Dam, dam, dam... Hoover that is!

We've been here a few times now so we rented a car this time to check out some of the other sights off the strip on Sunday. First stop Hoover Dam. Now I went into this having to preconceived notions that it would be fun. I mean, hello, it's a dam. Big whoop - right? Actually it was pretty cool and we had fun taking a short tour and then walking over the dam into Arizona.

First stop was to take a quick tour - this is down in a tunnel.

From the observation deck you can see the backside of the dam. The construction of it was pretty amazing.

The bridge in the background was delayed for two years when the crane used to put the pieces in place broke last year during 80 mile an hour winds. Now I ask you... would you be that stupid as to operate a crane in winds that high? A crane that takes 2 years to replace. All I could think of to say was "glad it wasn't me who was doing the firing!"

Half in Nevada and half in Arizona - or pretty close to it. The towers behind us take in the water for the supplies being diverted to the southwest US.

The white line is the water line for Lake Mead and it's down 75 feet from where it should be. That also means the water is down way low on the dam. Being from NY where people jump off bridges all the time we thought this might happen here too, but really it is not normally that far to the water. Right now it is. I was amazed at the blueness of the water. I don't care if blueness is not a word... it sounds cool to me!

fall catch up

found a few pictures while going through those I took in Vegas... a litte more fall fun!

at the local apple orchard - somehow I missed all the city folk - that would make for some humor... and funny pictures. we actually got our pumpkins here and a last batch of Charlies Super Sweet corn. 18 ears... most of it's in the freezer right now for meals this winter. good stuff!

a comfy napping spot - my guess is she laid in the middle of two piles and one toppled over on her. she loves little hidey cubby holes for naps so this hit the mark. if only I would leave her alone... keep in mind Sunday is laundry day and I really don't like doing laundry - hence the mess.

the orange lump on the other side of the bed is Mani... we don't make our beds on Sunday - it's laundry day. and if you buy that story I have a pink kitty to sell you next. LOL!

fun in the city!

a little bit of fun with a Statue of Liberty!

a few more pics from my fun weekend last month from Lisa!

smile pretty cause he now wants $5! LOL!

we can't just let Lisa be silly alone!

come back anytime ladies! it was lots of fun!

Proof that resume!

or you might end up on my funny of the day list....

"ABC (to protect this innocent company) Equipment Company is a manufacturer of personnel and material handling equipment."

Really you manufacture personnel? You make people? In companies that are not with the times employees are called personnel. I can't believe this company makes people? Now they do make heavy equipment. But I doubt that is to dig up people. That would be scary. I am guessing he means perSONAL. Not perSONNEL. It is the tag line under the company and I spotted it right away - and I am NOT an editor by any stretch of the imagination!
So should I tell him? He's going to be mortified. And I'm guessing someone will catch hell. At this level he might be paying someone to do your resume. CEO is pretty high up don't you think? In reality this is his fault because he should proof things before sending them out. And if he paid big bucks he should be getting a refund.

I got a lot of chuckle mileage out of this one.

Effective Advertising

Today I went to the big city of Kingston for a little Target outing. It's been a while so there was quite a bit for me to look at and even a few things I needed to buy. I was trying to figure out how to get out of the parking lot - it's a maze - and ended up stuck at a traffic light. I look to the left and there's a McDonalds. Then I notice the huge tarp sign stretched across most of the store.

It said:

2 McGriddles for $3.

That's a deal I'm thinking and then I read the rest...

1,120 Calories.

In HUGE letters.
LOL! I've never had one of those sandwiches. I much prefer the egg McMuffin.
Now tell me how that sign is going to sell those sandwiches? Unless someone thinks they should be eating 4,000 calories a day. 1,120 is more than half of what a normal adult needs in one day. Never mind it didn't mention the fat. I can think of way better things to eat for that many calories. So now I'm really wondering why it was up? New city law?
I would have been afraid if it said the same about the fries.

Just for Fun - Flashback!

Just a few pictures from our wedding day! To go along with the advice from yesterday I found a few pictures from the big day. I need to get one of the machines that transfers negatives into jpg's so I can upload them too. Tracy took the best pictures and didn't have a digital camera. Probably not a bad thing because at that time they were just so-so.

the dancing flower girl... sort of stole the show

humor is always welcome

can't wait for Megan's wedding in a few years! LOL!

the weather for Michigan was pretty mild for late October.

Now if we were close enough walk through Aquinas we would...

5 Years! Words of Wisdom

Five years ago today we got married! Now I know you think it was just yesterday, but it's been a bit longer. For our rehearsal dinner Aunt Sandy had everyone write down words of wisdom for us and we were supposed to open after our wedding. We are taking a bit longer than I think she meant it to take. We opened one on year one, two on year two and so on. Actually one year we pulled an extra as the advice was a bit well not exactly advice, but someone being ummm... well silly.
So we will share what we read today because it's kind of fun! These will remain nameless with a few clues. And you might just learn somethine new...
#1 - Be polite and respectful. When you can't - go shopping while he cleans the house. (thanks little sister for this wonderful advice!)
#2 - Katie & Mark, It would be easy to say "elope"! But more importantly remember it is the Lord that bines and make strong blessings. Long and happy life. Health and happy children and grand children and great grand children.
#3 - Mark & Katie, Stay cool and keep on keeping on.
#4 - Always use good manners with each other - "company manners" treat each other like an honored guest in your house.
#5 - You will have rough times - everyone does - even us (removed names). You will get through them as long as you remember you love each other and have made a lifetime commitment.

Now we have many more to open and this will take years....

West Point's Coolest Seats in the House!

Taken from our perch! Can you see where this post is heading?

the Head Coach guest passes - access to the cool seats!

Which we did have to give back after the game, but still cool all the same.

We've been planning a Friday night tailgate for almost all season with someone I work with and really he's a Navy grad so not really a West Point fan like us. We just like college football and love coming to game here because there is virtually no traffic like most other schools. And hey sometimes they win. Ok back to the story... Just so happens that my co-worker, Bob, is connected to the head coach at Army - they went to the Naval Academy for summer school and then Rich (Coach Ellerson) left and went off to school elsewhere, while Bob, stayed around and graduated 4 years later. When Rich ended up coaching at West Point this year Bob contacted him and got an invite to a game.

Little did he know just what a cool invite it was! We got to watch the game from his office overlooking the field! How cool is that? Somehow we also got these really cool parking passes for the backside of the resevior near their house. What a neat place to tailgate. If only it had been light out I'd have some really neat pictures, but no we only have these from the game. Coach has a very nice family and even though Army lost we had fun! Can't beat having the ESPN2 on at the same time. Since it was raining these really were the best seats in the house too!

Just a few rain drops... actually it was pouring!

It was also quite chilly, but the porch heaters made it a little bit toasty.

Mark and Bob - and then some of Bob's kids. We were a party of 9. The kicker was after the game Coach wanted to catch up with Bob at his house. Now Bob is at work every morning at 6:00 am so by 11:00 pm when the game ended you can imagine where Bob wished he was - LOL! I'm sure he had fun though. We made the quick escape so I think I really owe him lunch now.

invasion of the...

you guess??? literally hundreds are covering our house - just arrived today! Thank GOD we have all our windows shut, but they are still sneaking in the little cracks!

Even with the bad focus job you can tell they are freaking lady bugs! Only about 20 or so made it into the house. Better freeze tonight!

wacky weather!

Sunday I had on flip flops.

See the previous post - those are my toes!

Today it snowed...

Still too early for the heat at work....

thank God for my little space heater and the door I can close!

Even better it's almost FRIDAY!

Took this before many of our pretty leaves came down!

Let Loose in NYC!

braving the subway!

Well sort of let loose... Lisa and Paulette, the girls from my Keeler days came for a long weekend and we hit the city on Saturday - it was Lisa's first time there! Lots of firsts. She did great in getting some cheap purses so good they followed us around the rest of the day bugging her to look one more time. I got a few pictures and am waiting on Lisa for the really good ones! We posed with one of those Statue of Liberty dudes. Pretty fun if I do say so myself.

trying to get a bargain - trying...

we are almost to full color

we survived!

Walkway over the Hudson

The latest tourist attraction hits the Hudson Valley! The car bridge is in the background and if you went that way down the river you would come to New York City.

The bridge goes from Highland/Llyod to Poughkeepsie - it's about 5 minutes from our house.

A new state park opened near us yesterday - the Walkway over the Hudson. Amid much hoopla we managed to find a good parking spot that only being a local you would find. We then took a shuttle to the bridge. Much like it sounds it is a bridge over the Hudson River. Creative I know. It used to be used for trains and they converted it to allow pedestrian traffic - people, dogs, bikes, jugglers, and crazies. Last winter they did one of those reality shows - I think it was World's Scariest Jobs or most dangerous on the construction of the bridge. It's about 1.25 miles across and 212 feet high. I didn't feel as though I was that high in the air and unlike the last bridge we walked across it was not see through grates. Thank goodness! Not scary at all. The sides are nice and high, but not high enough to discourage jumpers. From what I can see they have the signs for people to call for help, but no phones. Just lots of park rangers and cops.

It was a full moon night and that was quite helpful as there are NO lights on the bridge. Perfect night to be out there. Mild temps and no wind. Pretty sky too.

I mentioned the crazies - this is one of them! Really there were just a bunch of circus type acts and I'm pretty sure they were real circus performers - kind of gypsie like. This freak show would dance with people and there were 4 of them.