poor kitty has diabetes!

So I guess eating lots of bad stuff doesn't necessarily lead to diabetes. Our cat is fed a diet of cat food - no treats really and this is not my cat that likes ice cream, yogurt and whippy cream either - it's ms. picky, Cali. She was eating like a piglet and drinking a lot of water and still not getting fat so off to the vet she went on Tuesday. They sent her home after lab work and called us Wednesday to bring her back right away. Her sugar was over 400! In humans that's high so in cats it must be too.
So she has bought herself a mini-vacation at cat camp while we are on vacation! They will regulate her insulin and then we get training on how to give that daily shot when we get home. I would must prefer a daily shot to a daily pill.
So no more treats for her! Mani will hopefully enjoy being the "only" cat for our house sitters to dote on!

Full Plate Diet - get the book for free!

The Full Plate Diet can be yours for free! The first 20,000 to sign up get a free copy to preview. Maybe I'm a suck for free or something, but it sounded interesting - and I don't do diets. Maybe this is different? Who knows, worth checking out!

Ulster County Volunteers Fire Parade

On one of the first days of summer (because it's not summer yet here) Milton hosted the annual parade for all the fire company's in Ulster County. 50 departments and 20 bands... makes for a very long parade. The little boys around me were going nuts - I guess it is a little boys dream to be a fireman and they were loving it.
The parade ended at the park behind our house - how convienent! The jacket is all wool - and it was quite warm. Not sure why he still had it on for this picture, but it looks nice.

There were 20 bands and lots of skirts!

more men in skirts - the did play some good tunes!

Having a band is not something everyone can do - this is one departments "band". Another department had a "mechanical band" which was a large speaker attached to a boom box in the back of a pick up. Funny guys, very funny.

The oldest fire truck in the parade.

more history...

and more...

Mark's company

I hear these are hard to march with...

Mark is the 2nd from the left in this picture.

All in all there were over 50 fire departments in the parade

and that's way too many pictures for a blog!

Tigers + Yankees * Square + Central Park

= one long, but fast weekend! Did you catch the equation?

It also = lots of fun!

First stop was the new Yankee Stadium

Our seats were out in left field - full sun of course.

While it appears we might be cold - we are not!

After dinner we walked down to Times Square - it is pretty overstimulating with all the lights, sounds, and people = way too much to take in. Bed time? Ha? Not after that walk.

Sunday we got up and walked down to catch Times Square in daylight

Check out the cool sign in the background - Michigan!

Off to Central Park for a eco-friendly ride!
Faster, faster!!! Helen is telling him to get a move on!

This was way better than horses!

The Boathouse is behind us

We couldn't have asked for better weather!

we have visitors!

woohoo! finally visitors and I promise I will post some pictures after our trip to the Yankee/Tiger game and New York city excursion on Saturday! Mark's parents are in town so we are taking them to the new Yankee Stadium and then spending the night in the Times Square area. I will be wearing my Tigers shirt! And as usual will be in good company because this is one game I know that there will be lots of other Tiger's fans in attendance! It's kind of fun.
now let's see... can I ignore the calorie counts on all the concession stands? I'll try!

cooking oops!

Saturday I made a pie after visiting the farmer's market. They had more sour cherries - and I love cherries! After making my pie crust I thought it was a bit puffy. Remember I am blonde, but rarely use that excuse for messing up. Well upon further inspection I noticed I did follow the directions and use all the ingredients as directed except for using self rising flour. It was turning out great and was super easy to make. I put it in the fridge to chill while I made the filling. Upon taking it out I figured out that I used SELF RISING FLOUR! yep. Self rising flour.
Now I could have started over if I'd had more butter and salt, but I didn't and I didn't feel like making a trip to the store for it. So I used my trusty google skills and you could make a crust with it. I thought I could make it work. Well... to counterbalance the extra salt I added sugar to the crust. LOL! sigh... It looked kind of like a normal pie, but the crust was too salty. I actually would use it again, but not add any SALT to the crust. It makes it sort of like a cookie crust.
The filling... fantastic with a crumb topping. So not all was lost as that was tasty and I just scooped that out, warmed it up and ate that. yummy. Minus the crust.
Off again to the market tomorrow. Might just stick with apricots and not cooking this time.

beepin' fun ... how to fix the fire alarm

Definitely not funny at the time, but as a note to self I will blog last nights drama/trama/annoyance. It starts with the power going off mid-day. Mark was home getting ready for a trip so he had to listen to the fire alarm beep for an hour or so - he followed my instructions as I "knew" how to get it to shut up. No dice. The builder had told me this might happen and how to "fix" it. Didn't work.
So the builder is wrong and I call him. He tells me there is a battery that I might need to change. huh? It's hardwired. I think he's mixing our house up with another, but agree to go home and look. Wow - there is a battery. He's told me to change them ALL out. So I count them all - there are 7 and I have one 6V battery at home. ONE - that means I need to go spend lots of money to make them shut up.
So off to the grocery store - Target isn't close and I'm in need of a few grocery items. $18 later I have my batteries. I go home and swap the first one out - it's still beeping. Loudly I might add. I then proceed to ladder up and look at the others. Hmmm... no batteries in them. That's right only one needs a battery because they are all interconnected. When one goes off they all go off. Nice safety feature I'm sure.
At this point I'm pissed - I just spent $18 on 6 more batteries I don't need. But also happy that I switched out that one battery. But it's still beeping.
Time for option B - pull the breaker for a minute. done... still beeping.
Time for google. I find the company and call - they are closed. Upon further reading I see I might need to vacuum out the smoke alarm to remove dust. Ok... whatever. Helpful FAQ - not.
I do that - it is still beeping and I have the vacuum in array in the hallway.
Back to google. Time for the owners manual - we don't have one, but I can download one.
Tip #1 for changing the battery:
Shut off the electricity. (duh)
Then change the battery. (yeah...)
And finally.... press down the test button with the electricity still off for 10 seconds.
viola! No more beeping. (ok, this is a bit much to get your alarm to stuff it and I have to wonder how many people have ripped theirs out of the ceiling at this point - the beeping is annoying!)
This took me at least 2 hours with the trip to the grocery store and many choice words.
And if you think that leaving the breaker off quiets it... it doesn't. I makes the beep louder!
So six months from now I will be pulling up this blog and doing this all over again...

Lovin' the "Breeze"

Ok, I mentioned it once before that we were trying out this new kitty box. And no these are not my kitties, but Breeze models. Mine could do it, but this works just as well. We have issues or I should say our kitty has issues and will only use his box when it's clean. He is fastidiously clean and neat. Just this morning he was licking my hand and then using my hand to clean his head. Neat freak! No idea where he gets it - certainly not me. Since we aren't into OCD meds for poor kitty we have been trying to keep up with the box and well we aren't always the best at it. Going away on vacation spells trouble or should I say boarding and that is pricey.

So just short of buying this really expensive cat toilet - I am not that nuts - I found this new product at the pet store. The Breeze! The box was about $32 and it came with a start pack of pellets and pee pads. Pellets are changed once a month (maybe longer if I'm naughty and cheap...) and the pads every other day. That I will not skip on or it might start to smell. So far no ODOR!!! WOHOO! I hate cat pee! It's about the same price as litter, but there are no more cat litter tracks around the house and the stairs are now very clean. hmmm... So the big test would they use it. Well let's just say I set it up in the hallway outside the laundry room and poured the pellets in and Mani jumped right on it and peed. He never does that! One sniff and he was sold. It did take longer for the stink bombs, but they now use it for that too. Those get scooped out and flushed - the pellets don't stick to poop - whew. So I guess we need to buy one more box and make the transition. I am so excited!!!!

Camping in Pennsylvania!

Locust Lake

Camp spot 212

More lake - this is one of many fishing piers.

So the Adirondaks went off the radar early Thursday morning with a forecast of rain and cold all weekend and we made plans to move farther south to PA. The forecast there was 75 and sunny all weekend. Amazingly enough there were camping spots open and we headed to Locust Lake State Park somewhere in the middle of PA. It took about 3 hours with a stop at Wegman's for some food. The camp is in the middle of the mountains and woods and was created in 1970 by a damned up lake. I think we got super lucky in finding this place. Our camp spot was surrounded by trees and about 50 steps to the bathroom, but you really couldn't tell it was that close. For the most part it was quiet - I'm going to say it's because they don't allow alcohol, but that's just my guess. I know people were drinking, but if they say no alcohol that means you need to keep it quiet. Bonus for us who don't stay up until midnight. The best part about the PA parks is that it is free to get into their parks - no park fee's and they had all sorts of free activities. Movie nights, hikes with guides, animal shows and stuff. The trails were well marked and the lake actually had a paved path around it. The lake was stocked with trout and lots of kids were fishing - free for them. Nothing like a Michigan state park in many ways.

Friday we went golfing at a course about 5 minutes away. Excellent fairways and lots of good hits by us. They did a great job of landscaping and using the natural resources around the course. We almost got rained off and then when it quit we joined up with Paulie and Billy, the guys in front of us. They told us that if we went to the 9th hole on the next set of holes we could see our campground down below - and we could.

Saturday was hiking day...

this is the Spirit of Tascora - check out that tree knot!





PA really knows how to show off their parks. Saturday we went on a hike at another state park a few miles away - they didn't have camping there only a lake with a beach and picnic facilities and then hiking. The hike was led by a DNR lady and we were lucky enough to have the tour really led by the man who made the trail, Paps. He goes out with the DNR lady quite a bit and points out things she can show others when he can't go. He keeps the trail clear of limbs and grass and takes special pride in making it special for others. He showed us the Spirit of Tascora Lake, a cool stream, some special butterflies (so special I can't remember what they were called), and a White Pine that he estimates to be over 180 years old and it had it's middle missing so it was was like a 4-pronged fork. Oh and we saw purple mushrooms. Yes, purple. We were out for almost three hours walking, jumping, and leaping over logs. Quite fun. And free.

So tonight we are home and going to snuggle into our own warm comfy bed and it's only a few steps to the bathroom - ahhh.... and a clean shower. Camping is fun, but coming home is fun too.