9/10/11

Diary of a perfect birthday day:
Breakfast at Waffle Frolic

followed by hanging out at the lake and the Ithaca Farmer's Market and then camera shopping.

Beautiful flowers and festive balloons from my mom,


and an entire day off with my sweetie.


Topped off by dinner out on the patio


with my sis

and some sweet friends.

It was my sweetest birthday ever.

Today is 9/11. I will never be able to think of the events of that day without hearing the music of Shostakovich. We were in rehearsal when we received word that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I had visited there only a few months before. Had walked the neighborhood extensively and had especially enjoyed the sweet little church located just a block or two from the Twin Towers. I've never been back to the site and don't know if I ever will. No words I'll ever write can even come close to describing the horror and devastation I felt on that day. I tacked a note on my studio door and went home. It read "Pray for peace". Guess we're still working on that.

Rain, Rain

Our friends and neighbors thirty miles to the south of us are under water this morning. Thousands have been evacuated. Here it's damp and foggy and the roof is leaking in our bedroom, but what a small inconvenience compared to the loss of a family home and its entire contents. Today is a day to be grateful.

Our roofers arrived cheerfully and promptly yesterday after my somewhat frantic call and immediately located the source of the problem. The clapboard sheathing on our fireplace chimney is completely rotted inside and out and no amount of flashing and caulking will fix it this time. We're talking complete demo and rebuild, but they're experts and quick workers and it'll be a good as new in about two weeks.

While they were up on the roof I entertained them with a demonstration of what to do if one suddenly finds oneself standing in quicksand. When I walked out to meet them I accidentally stepped on the ground above our newly dug french drain. I've walked on it before but never after such rain. I knew the ground was soft, but who would've expected I would sink in the mud up to my thighs (no exaggeration). I thought the guys would pee their pants laughing and after two seconds of being scared I joined right in. I mean really. It must've been quite a sight. I managed to extricate myself fairly quickly but not without getting covered nose to toes in slimy clay mud. Good thing I have a sense of humor and a good washer. So what did you do on your rain day yesterday?

All Washed Up

The public schools are closed today due to rain. Now that's something I've never heard before. We're pretty lucky here in our neighborhood. We've got a few washed out roads and a lot of flooded basements, at least that's what I hear. I'm not venturing down there...no how, no way...not unless I absolutely have to.

This year critters ate all (and I do mean all) of my beautiful lettuce and then they helped themselves to the parsley, the beans and the strawberries for dessert. Thank heavens they weren't interested in the asparagus. They even got many of my potted tomatoes but thankfully the top few were out of their reach.

From the sound of things out my window this morning it appears the rain may have stopped. I can hear the crickets again. Please summer won't you consider staying on just a bit longer or at least until the rest of the tomatoes are ripe?

Just after I clicked to publish this post I got a phone call telling me that classes at the College are canceled until noon today due to widespread flooding. I've never had a "rain day" before.

This Very Minute

September...ahhh.

Cool nights, early days and a bevvy of birthdays including my own. Fleece sheets, down blankets, wearing socks to bed.

Apple picking, stew cooking, port drinking. Sweaters, hats, scarves. Traffic snarls, tricky parking, so many new faces.

Question after question after question and many are my own.

Suddenly summer's starting to fade from view and I really feel it now.

Hanging on...

Stormin' the Castle

Here's to dear friends,

good food, good wine, a comfy couch

and "The Princess Bride" on dvd.

Thank you Terry and Diane for thinking of a way to get us to slow down, take a deep breath and laugh out loud.

Labor Day Proclamation

Being a child of the 70's, born and bred in the south (south Florida that is) and the product of a regular church going family, I saw my share of proper church fashion. My favorite of all time remains the polyester, pastel, double knit leisure suit, especially if it's worn with pair of sparkling white patent leather loafers. I don't know where or why or who it was that impressed this on me, but some how I grew up thinking that wearing white after Labor Day was a cardinal sin tantamount to going around the entire day with your zipper open or your bra strap hanging out. Today in honor of Labor Day and my upcoming birthday, I thought it worth announcing here and now for all to see that I intend to wear white when and where I please all season long because after all, you're not the boss of me, at least not any more... There, I said it! Happy Labor day.

This and That

We made a good go of the onsite auction yesterday, sticking it out for four or five hours before packing it in. Had we come to buy this

or this

we might've declared the sale a huge success.

What we found instead was a rag tag auction crew with a primitive analog auction system and a pile of stuff that gave a whole new meaning to the word craptastic.

Still all in all, it was nice to spend the day together taking in the sights and sounds of rural upstate NY and we did manage to come home with a few nice treasures.

Just Brilliant

It's way too early to be awake and to boot I'm suffering the ill effects of my own poor judgement. I gotta say though, those chicken fingers and fries at yesterday's auction were simply the best things I ever ate...ever...almost...or at least in a long time...until right now this very minute.

We are up early today to get to another auction. Wait a minute, didn't we just just get home from one like seven hours ago? Today is an on-site auction - our favorite kind and we're all ready to go except that we're on our second cup of coffee and so far there appears to be no positive effects from the caffeine that I can see or feel or hear. Huh? Did you say something? What? Are you speaking to me? Say what? Whose idea was this anyway? I hope I have something blog-worthy to report from today's excursion because right now I'm thinking we are just a little off our rockers to think this will be good. In the meantime I'm enjoying sitting here with Peter watching the sunrise over the woods and thinking about what there'll be to eat at the auction...

Fullness

Pergola construction - check.
Week I of classes - check.
Tired, worn out and mildly grumpy - check.

Rats...it sure doesn't take long for the effects of summer vacation to wear off. The good thing? Fall is definitely in the air, I'm thrilled with my new class of students (and my old ones too) and the auction season is starting to heat up again.

Time to squeeze out every last drop of summer this weekend and really enjoy it!

Life is once again incredibly full and it's all good.

Pioneer Days

There's so much going on in our lives right now I'm not sure what to highlight in today's post. The wonderful thing? It's all good (as Sandy might say!). What a lovely problem to have.

I've really enjoyed getting reacquainted with my students this week and hearing about their many amazing summer adventures. They inspire me. Twenty years ago when I arrived at the College there was no "studio". What I found when I arrived was a rag tag bunch of lovely and talented violinists and a handful of violists (three to be exact). My how things change. Speaking of building something from scratch...

FOUND just celebrated one year of being open on August 28th. Yesterday we received our first national press by being listed in the pages of FLEA MARKET STYLE Magazine under "Reader's Favorite Antiques Malls".

We were one of only three shops mentioned from New York state. If you listened carefully you might've heard us whooping and celebrating last night! There's just something so satisfying about the "if we build it they will come" projects.

And finally speaking of building...
Here's the latest pic from our patio/pergola project. They'll finish construction today and stain it white and I expect we'll have dinner under it tonight. Now all we need is just a little more time for ourselves and our friends and family to enjoy it! I'm working on that..