CNY Nuts and Bolts

Utopia

2011-06-19T11:58:00.002-04:00

Having lived as a city mouse and a country mouse on both sides of this country, I have found that while both sides have their pros and cons, I think I belong somewhere in the middle. This is a list of things my perfect location would have. I don't know where this perfect place exist, but I will find it someday.

Location:
Less than an hour from a major airport
Less than an hour from a city that draws most music tours
Less than a foot of snow all year
Sun, sun, and more sun
Near a large body of water
A large variety of restaurants
A large variety of events to choose from
Less traffic than LA
No BSL
A place that allows Dave to have his toys

The living arrangement:
Single story- no stairs
Fenced in yard
Pool & hot tub
Neighbor's house at least 40 yards away
At least two car garage
No carpet
No HOA
Mom living less than a mile away

Semi- vegetarian aka meatloaf love

2010-12-26T14:55:00.003-05:00

Lately I have contemplated becoming a vegetarian. My decision is not based on my love of animals or for health benefits. My contemplation is based on certain people (Carnivore Dave) complaining that I don't eat enough meat or turn my nose up when he mentions a beef based dinner. It isn't that I don't eat meat, it is that I don't like many meats. I like seafood, chicken, ground beef, and bacon. I don't like eating pieces of meat with a fork and knife and prefer my meat mixed in with something. Casserole, burritos, pasta dishes, I just don't want to taste just meat, unless it is meatloaf.

One of my favorite meals is meatloaf. People say meatloaf is boring, but they have never had my meatloaf because my meatloaf never taste the same twice. You start with 2lbs of ground meat, any meat. Dave likes a beef/pork mix while I prefer a beef/turkey mix. I added ground lamb to the mix once and it was pretty darn tasty. Add to that onion, 1 egg, and bread crumbs and you have the basic boring meatloaf. This is where the fun starts. I like different themes to my meatloaf.

Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf- Add crumbled bacon and shredded cheddar cheese.

Asian Style Meatloaf- Add any combo of Asian Sesame Dressing, Sweet Chili Sauce, Sesame Oil.

New Mexico Meatloaf- Add chopped green chiles.

BBQ Meatloaf, Add BBQ Sauce, liquid smoke, dry mustard or dry rub to spice it up.

Mexican Style Meatloaf- Add a combo of chili powder, cilantro, salsa, Adobo seasoning.

Italian Style Meatloaf- Add roasted red peppers, basil, Parmesan cheese, and Italian style bread crumbs.

Teriyaki Meatloaf- Add teriyaki sauce to the mix and top with pineapple rings.

You really can't go wrong with meatloaf and it may be standing in the way of me becoming a vegetarian.

Sunday Soapbox- Lazy Realtors with Bad MLS Photos

2010-11-21T10:16:00.009-05:00

As you may or may not know, I have a little work in real estate. It wasn't really a business for me, but an expensive hobby that never panned out. I still scour local real estate ads and enjoy the same research that I did before only now I don't have to pay thousands of dollars in fees to do so. One thing that always amazed me was the laziness of some real estate agents. How do they manage to stay in business while doing a half ass job. Pictures in the MLS listing can be the easiest way to find a potential buyer for your property. You are allowed to post at least 10 pictures on the MLS. You should take advantage of that and use it to market the property.

Lazy agent #1

This property is listed at almost $3 million dollars. This agent could make a decent chunk of change if he/she sells this property.I have seen this faux pas at all price points in the MLS. It is hard to sell something that people can't see. Sure the homeowner could have requested that no pictures be posted for privacy reasons, but that seller isn't really trying to sell their property if that is the case. The address is listed on the MLS, so is someone is curious, they will be doing a drive-by. That seems more invasive than a picture of the outside of your property.

Lazy agent #2

This property is listed at around $750,000. Based on the photo and property description, I couldn't tell you what you are getting for that kind of money. Is it a house? Is it commercial? Get off your butt and take a drive to take pictures. Anyone can Google an address and get this same picture. You are doing an injustice to your seller by not providing an accurate description and pictures that show everything the listing has to offer.

Lazy agent #3

This is the only picture on the listing. This picture says,
1. I was in the neighborhood and only have my camera phone.
2. I didn't bother to get out of the car because I am either A) lazy or B) don't feel safe in this neighborhood or C) both.
3. Even if this house does sell, I won't make much money on it, so I am not going to put any effort into it.
4. I need to crop the picture so all you see is the house because there is no curb appeal. I also want to make sure I cut out the shadow from my car.

Lazy agent #4

These are the worst offenders. Here in Syracuse we have four seasons. This picture is on the MLS in November showing a house covered in snow. The snow tells me that this house has been on the market for at least 6 months. That must mean there is something wrong with the house, right? Not necessarily, but that is what buyers will think. You are also telling your seller and potential buyers that the house is a lost cause and you as an agent have given up on it. When the seasons change, the pictures should too.

Lazy agent #5
While quickly browsing the MLS this morning I didn't find any examples of this lazy agent, but with it getting dark earlier now, I am sure they are right around the corner. I am talking about property pictures that are taken at night. I know you are busy, but you owe it to your seller to take pictures of their property with proper lighting. Sure it is better than not having a picture at all, but not by much. If you can't be at the house during daylight hours, you need to find someone to do it for you. I know most agencies have people that will provide this service. You are telling the seller that you have better things to do or don't want to spend any money to have it done right.

You don't have to be a professional photographer to get the job done, but there are things you can do to show that you are doing your job and not being a lazy agent.

http://cnynutsandbolts.blogspot.com/

Sunday Soapbox- I hate Craigslist

2010-11-14T09:55:00.006-05:00

Once a week I torture myself by looking at the pet section of Craigslist. I always end up wanting to reach in my computer and slap people and not just because the majority of them can't form complete sentences or use spell check.

"Sharpie pup- 5 month old healthy black puppy needs to be rehomed"

While both are awesome in their own way, this is a black Sharpie:

This is a black Shar Pei:

"I have a 1 1/2 year old male Vizsla. He loves to play, dogs, cats, children and adults, he loves them all! Unfortunately for us he is just a little too energetic.
He is a pure breed with papers. He came from a good breeder."

You went to the effort of finding a "good" breeder yet you didn't go to the effort of researching the breed? Vizsla's are what you get when you feed a normal dog Red Bull. I like the part about "unfortunately for us..." since the dog will suffer more than you will.

Because of her past she is very anxious; she does well with some dogs (like our beagle-mix) but not others (usually larger dogs that look like pit bulls---we think she was used as a bait dog for fighting).
I really hate that people throw the term bait dog around willy nilly. This dog doesn't have a scratch or scar anywhere on it. I will save you the graphics, but do a Google image search for the term "bait dog" and see what one really looks like. Those darn pit bulls ruin everything, don't they?

Speaking of pit bulls....
"BLUE pitbull puppy needs a home (6 weeks old)he is 6 weeks old, had been his 1st set of puppy shots, going to be shourt n wide like his daddy, i dont have pic of parents,he is going to be beautiful when he gets older,he does come with papers but i will have to send them to you"

How is this dog Blue? The only papers that dog comes with is newspaper for it to pee on. There are no pictures of the parents for a reason.

Blue Fawn Rednose American Pitbull Terrier-If you are intrested or know someone who maybe please send me a message so that the details may be discussed.
Holy crap, it is a rainbow dog! Blue nose? Red nose? The only difference is the color. They are the same dog and neither are rare. You can find pit bulls of every color in shelters all across the country.

"FREE TO GOOD HOME"

If you must post your pet on Craigslist, please, please, please do not write that they are "free to a good home." Even if you plan on giving the animal away for free, do not let the person interested in your animal know that until the deal is done.

There are plenty of people who will recycle your free pet for profit. Your pet will be lucky to be re-listed on Craigslist with a "re-homing fee" and the person who picked up your "trash" will make money on it without caring where it ends up. They may end up in a good home, but they may not.

Class B dealers love finding free animals. They then turn around and sell your pet to be used in experiments. Animals are bought in bulk like scrap metal and your pet will be held somewhere until there is enough stockpile to cash in. http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pets_experiments/

Your tiny little kitten or puppy could end up as free snake food or a training toy for dog fighters.

If your dog is not spayed or neutered, it could end up as a puppy mill breeder. It doesn't matter if your dog is a mutt, designer mutt or purebred, people will breed to pay the rent.

Then there are the animal hoarders. They just can't say no to a free animal even if they can't afford to feed the other 40 animals they have in their house.

P.S. Of course your dog is special....all the dog's listed on Craigslist are special.

You can't keep your pet? Really? By a Shelter Director

2010-11-07T08:26:00.000-05:00

This has made the rounds, but it needs to be re-posted over and over again.

I think our society needs a huge "Wake-up" call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all...a view from the inside if you will. First off, all of you people who have ever surrendered a pet to a shelter or humane society should be made to work in the "back" of an animal shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would stop flagging the ads on craigslist and help these animals find homes. That puppy you just bought will most likely end up in my shelter when it's not a cute little puppy anymore. Just so you know there's a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it’s dumped at? Purebred or not! About 25% of all of the dogs that are "owner surrenders" or "strays", that come into a shelter are purebred dogs.

The most common excuses: "We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat)." Really? Where are you moving too that doesn't allow pets? Or they say "The dog got bigger than we thought it would". How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? "We don't have time for her". Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! "She's tearing up our yard". How about making her a part of your family? They always tell me "We just don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know she'll get adopted, she's a good dog".

Odds are your pet won't get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you, your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn't full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a walk. If I don't, your pet won't get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the "Bully" breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don't get adopted. It doesn't matter how 'sweet' or 'well behaved' they are.

If your dog doesn't get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn't full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of execution, but not for long . Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because the shelter gets paid a fee to euthanize each animal and making money is better than spending money to take this animal to the vet.

Here's a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being "put-down". First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their tails. Until they get to "The Room", every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it's strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 shelter workers depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a shelter worker who we call a euthanasia tech (not a vet) find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the "pink stuff". Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrained and jerk. I've seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don't just "go to sleep", sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves. You see shelters are trying to make money to pay employee pay checks and don’t forget the board of directors needs to be paid too, so we don’t spend our funds to tranquilize the animal before injecting them with the lethal drug, we just put the burning lethal drug in the vein and let them suffer until dead. If it were not a “making money issue” and we had to have a licensed vet do this procedure, the animal would be sedated or tranquilized and then euthanized, but to do this procedure correctly would cost more money so we do not follow what is right for the animal, we just follow what is the fastest way we can make a dollar. Shelters do not have to have a vet perform their euthanasia’s so even if it takes our employee 50 pokes with a needle and 3 hours to get the vein that is what we do. Making money is the issue here not loosing money.

When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? Or used for the schools to dissect and experiment on? You'll never know and it probably won't even cross your mind. It was just an animal and you can always buy another one, right!

I hope that those of you who still have a beating heart and have read this are bawling your eyes out and can't get the pictures out of your head, I deal with this everyday. I hate my job, I hate that it exists & I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and start educating the public. Do research, do your homework, and know exactly what you are getting into before getting a pet. These shelters and humane societies exist because people just do not care about animals anymore. Animals were not intended to be disposable but somehow that is what they are these days. Animal shelters are an easy way out when you get tired of your dog (or cat), and breeders are the ones blamed for this. Animal shelters and rescue organizations are making a hefty profit by keeping this misconception going.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about taking their dog to a shelter, a humane society, or buying a dog. For those of you that care--- please repost this to at least one other craiglist in another city/state. Let's see if we can get this all around the US and have an impact.

I Should Be Getting Paid For This Post (aka What I'm Eating)

2010-08-10T20:23:00.008-04:00

1. McCormick Recipe Inspirations. No leaving spices out of a recipe because you don't have it. You don't have to wonder if the spices you have are fresh and best of all, no measuring. Flavors: Apple and Sage Pork chops, Garlic Lime Fajitas, Quesadilla Casserole, Rosemary Roasted Chicken with Potatoes, Shrimp and Pasta Primavera, and Spanish Skillet Chicken. We had the Apple and Sage Pork Chops for dinner tonight and they were to die for.

2.Chobani Yogurt. Greek Yogurt is not for everyone, but it has twice as much protein as regular yogurt. When I first started eating it, I had to mix in fruit and sweetener. No I eat it plain and the regular yogurt taste like chemicals to me. Mix in some fruit and Fiber One cereal and you are set. It is a little pricey, so I stock up when I find it on sale.

3. Boulder Canyon Malt Vinegar Chips. Yes, my vinegar obsession continues. It has gotten a little better and I no longer carry a bottle in my purse.

4. Cassava Fries. I tried cassava fries a few weeks ago and it was love at first bite. They were lighter and crispier than their nasty cousin the french fry. They were awesome covered in vinegar too. We went back the next night because I couldn't get that taste out of my mind. They were different the second night and not as good. Turns out I really like the commercial frozen cassava more than the fresh. They are both pretty good though. Goya makes frozen yuca which is the same thing, but of course I haven't been able to find it around here. I have a couple of places to check before I break down and order it online.
Picture and recipe found at http://radiancerecipes.com/chilli-garlic-cassava-chips

5. Green Hills Market. They post their specials on Facebook and Twitter every day and it always sounds so good that I skip whatever lunch plans I previously had. They have amazing sandwiches with meat cut as they go, a variety of pizza and hot food, soups, and salads that are so good it makes me want to become a vegetarian. I can pick up groceries and something to eat on my lunch break because they are so close to the office. I was going to one store for meat, one for produce, and one for everything else, but Green Hills has everything I need and and don't need in one stop. Visit their bakery department and you will see what I mean about things I don't need. They have it all.

I Miss Boston

2010-07-25T09:18:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago Dave and I went to Boston for a few days. Dave's mom's family is from Boston and this was my first trip out there. I was expecting a dirty harbor and a run down city since everything out there is so old and has so much history. I was completely wrong. Boston is the cleanest big city I have ever been in. The streets and buildings are a mixture of new construction and old construction that has been updated. There were no abandoned buildings covered in graffiti and you could walk down any street downtown in the middle of the night without constantly looking over your shoulder. What I miss the most is walking. Anything you wanted was less than a 10 minute walk away. Of course all of these conveniences come at a cost. We came home and got sticker shock from the housing prices. I can't wait to go back.

Just another Day in Paradise

2010-07-10T16:32:00.001-04:00

Dave has the water turned off to install my new fancy shower head like we had in our hotel. Isn't he awesome?

In the meantime, I am outside with the dogs and Tater finds a dead baby mouse in the yard and decides to roll in it over and over until it popped. I now have a dog covered in mouse guts and no water. Baby wipes can only do so much..... Welcome to my life.

Lifestyle Changes

2010-07-09T14:45:00.002-04:00

Since the creation of this blog, it has mostly been about yummy food and most of it wasn't they healthy type of food. Back in February I decided to make a change in my diet. I am trying to stick with foods that either came from an animal or from the ground and eat less processed foods. On weekends those rules go out the window, but even when I splurge, I find myself making better choices. The staples of my diet have changed drastically. There are always fresh vegetables, fruits, Chobani Greek Yogurt, and cottage cheese on hand. I have also been tracking everything I eat on the Daily Plate at www.livestrong.com which helps me make good choices and helps me be accountable for what I am eating. The benefits are a slight weight loss and just plain feeling better. I have always thought about food non-stop, but now I am thinking about it in a completely different way. I am planning ahead and being creative with my cooking. Here are a few meals I have cooked up. I am really going to miss all of this fresh produce when the weather turns.

These vegetables turned into an awesome stir-fry with brown rice, chicken, and toasted almonds.

I also make this meal on a regular basis. Spinach omelet with homemade salsa and avocado.

Whole wheat pasta salad with asparagus, spinach, zucchini, onion and feta with a green goddess dressing.

There have also been many salads eaten in the last couple of months. With all the fresh veggies I have been finding at the Farmer's Market, we can have salad every night and they can taste different every night. I have learned that salad does not equal healthy. Most of the salads you get at a restaurant are so high in calories that you are better off eating a greasy burger.

In like a Lion...out like a Lion??

2010-04-09T18:59:00.002-04:00

March was a pretty crappy month around here. Dave's uncle passed away March 1st which created a dark cloud for the family. Then during the last week of March, his mom was in and out of the hospital. She seems to be much better now, but it is pretty scary when even the doctors don't know what is wrong or how to fix it. She has been out of the hospital for a couple days now and she seems to be back to normal as if nothing ever happened which is both good and bad. Dave's parents have turned into rebellious teenagers who are invincible.

March was filled with death and sickness, but it was also a time for a reality check and eye opening experience. Dave and I realized that we only get one life and one body, so you had better take care of it before it is too late. We have been eating healthier and Dave has decided to go for a physical. If you know Dave, he hates doctors with a passion. While we are not giving up all of our bad habits just yet, we are cutting back and making more informed decisions about our health.

So that brings us to April.... I went to Minnesota for a few days to visit my family. It was a much needed break although it came at a bad time since Dave's mom was still in the hospital. Dave spent the week in the hospital and I spent the week on vacation. When I got back home we had both come down with some sort of viral infection that is going around. It may be our body's way of telling us we need a break. We got the message loud and clear.

Homemade Raw Dog Food

2010-01-03T16:46:00.003-05:00

This is what the dogs will be eating for the next couple of weeks. Each batch is a different variety.

The meats: lean ground beef and bone-in chicken leg quarters.
The fruits and vegetables: broccoli, zucchini, apples, potato, sweet potato, parsley, and carrots.
The filler: Oatmeal and rice
The add ins: Fish oil, raw egg with shell, cottage cheese, and water.

Tater enjoyed her meal and then headed off for a nap in her happy place.

2009 in Review

2010-01-01T13:25:00.003-05:00

It's snowing, my dvr is cleaned out and I am bored. I decided to go over my Twitter account , Facebook, and pictures from 2009 to reminisce.

January- In January we adopted Hank. Almost a year later he is still trying to eat anything he can get in his mouth. He was the easiest dog I have ever house trained and is very good about following commands. We are hoping that in another year all of the big dumb puppy spurts will dwindle. He loves to cuddle and must be touching Tater while he sleeps.

February- I decided to hang up my real estate license in February. Between the high expenses, a slow market, and picking the wrong brokerage, it was a disaster. I was spending buckets of money and going further into debt trying to keep my head above water. I still keep track of what goes on in my local market and I know I made the right decision.

March- In March I met my mom in Los Angeles. She had to be there for a business trip and we decided to mix business with pleasure. We visited old friends, ate awesome food, spent a lot of time on the beach, and toured our old hang outs. Kari and the boys were also in town, so we were all able to meet up for a day. Mom and I decided we should have an annual girls trip. We visited Huntington Beach's dog beach and it was my idea of Heaven. Sun, sand, water, and puppies all in the same place.

April- I didn't know it at the time, but April was my last month at the doggie daycare. I received a job offer that I couldn't turn down. It was bitter sweet saying goodbye to all of my puppies. I still work there once a month, but it isn't the same. If money were not an issue, I would go back to working with the dogs. There were some rough days, but working with the dogs made it all worth it. It was also nice to work with people who appreciate and love dogs as much as I do.

May- In May I started my new job at the construction company. I am still learning new things every day and I hope that never ends. I enjoy the challenge and learning a new trade. I also enjoy being able to pay my bills.

June- June should be the start of summer, but I think it rained for three weeks straight. Dave possibly came down with the swine flu and was not a happy camper. The doctor told him that it wasn't worth testing for.

July- July was one big party. There were clam bakes, bbqs (they call them cookouts here), graduation parties, and July 4th. With the exception of July 4th, it rained at all of these events. One of the graduation parties was in Rochester and we had to pack up quickly for a tornado warning. We saw a lot of rain, but not much of a tornado.

August- August was spent on home improvement projects. We ripped out carpet, painted, did repairs, and installed new flooring in our guest bedroom. It was a lot of work, but the room came out beautiful. We were hoping to keep up the hard work and move to the next room, but we haven't touched a paintbrush since.

September- My mom and Wayde flew in from Minneapolis. This was Wayde's first trip to Syracuse. We spent time at the NYS fair, the Thousand Islands, Skaneateles, and showing them the local sights.

October- I got my new Honda Element in October. It fits our family, is easy to clean, and drives great in the snow. This was my best purchase in 2009.

November- In November we finally got "city water". We no longer get our water from the well. That means we will never run out of water again and there will be no more mineral deposits on the dishes, toilets, showers, or faucets. Hallelujah! We had to rip up the yard and pull out some bushes, but it was well worth it.

December- December was spent preparing for Christmas. We kept it small and low key which resulted in much less stress during the holidays. We opened up a vacation account in December and gave each other passports as a Christmas gift. We are hoping for a trip to Mexico in late 2010 or early 2011.

We went to dinner with Dave's parents on New Years Eve and then spent the rest of the night on the couch. At midnight, Dave, Tater, Hank and I all exchanged kisses.

Hope 2009 was good to you and 2010 is even better. Happy New Year!

My newest baby

2009-10-31T11:18:00.007-04:00

With winter on it's way I knew I needed something more than my little Toyota truck. I bought the truck in California and it served it's purpose there. It got me where I wanted to go and it was plain enough that it wouldn't be stolen like the car it was replacing. My life has changed since then and I needed something with more than a bench seat and 2WD. I shopped for months looking for the perfect vehicle and kept coming back to the Honda Element. It is AWD and has a rubber floor for easy clean up. The seats fold up and out which actually gives me more room than the back of my truck.

I also had the issue of registration that needed to be dealt with. California holds the title on vehicles until they are paid off. My mom was my co-signer, so I had to deal with New York, California, and a co-signer in Minnesota. I has been turned away from the dmv for not having the proper paperwork enough to know transferring my truck to New York was not going to be easy. I was driving on California plates for two years and the registration had expired months ago.

I saw this 2008 model with only 10k miles and a great price and I knew I had to act quick. She is now mine and her name is Woot.

The real reason I bought this car:

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T09:39:00.004-04:00

Happy Halloween! I always complain that Trick or Treaters don't come out to the house because it is in the middle of nowhere. We found a solution to that problem this year. Tonight we are volunteers at the Zoo Boo at the Syracuse Zoo. We will get to see all the kids in their costumes and the zoo animals. We are hoping the weather holds up tonight.

Here is a video of part of our family doing the Monster Mash. My mom even made an appearance with her Don King hair.

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Click here if you don't see the video.

Be safe tonight.

It's Wabbit Season

2009-09-29T19:36:00.003-04:00

Dave got his first rabbit from his perch. He opened the bedroom window and shot the bunny. Yes, he shoots guns from the bedroom window. Welcome to the country. As an added bonus, he wore his Fargo hat to show off his prize.

Of course he can't take a picture like a normal person. I made him take off his hat, so he made a stupid face.

Since we feed raw meat in addition to dog food, we thought the rabbit would be a free meal for the dogs. Tater thought this was a great idea and is ready to go.

Tater sniffed the bunny and nudged it a few times.

She then gave the bunny a fifteen minute bath and cleaned his head wound. We tried exposing some meat, but she wanted no part of the bunny that wouldn't play with her.

Dave says he is eating the next one. I volunteer to watch him eat it.

Is it something I said?

2009-07-31T13:19:00.002-04:00

If you mention the word Swamp Cooler in Central New York they will all look at you as if you have a third eye. They assumed I was talking about dehumidifier since almost every basement in the area has one and I am just a dumb girl from California. They are almost polar opposites.

Evaporative cooler (swamp cooler) - An air-cooling unit that turns air into moist, cool air by saturating the air with water vapor. It does not cool air by use of a refrigeration unit.

Dehumidifier -A device used to remove water vapor from the air, thereby lowering the humidity of the air.

Welcome to the Twighlight Zone

2009-07-26T14:25:00.003-04:00

No, I am not talking about the silly vampire book series, I am talking about my morning.

I had to drive into the city to walk a friends dogs today. I get 10 minutes into my trip and realize I left my cell phone at home. I don't know how I drove without a cell phone before, but now if I don't have my phone while I am on the road, I panic. All the things that could go wrong race through my head. I envision everything from car accidents, flat tires, to alien abduction.

I arrive at my friends house in the middle of a not so friendly neighborhood to find one of her dogs at the door and he is not happy to see me. This normally meek mannered dog is growling and snapping at me through the glass. I wondered if he did not recognize me with my new glasses on. I took the glasses off and it didn't help much. I stood at the door talking sweetly to him until he backed down. I get in the house, leash him up and we head out the front door. When we turn to head inside, the front door is locked. Just beyond the front door is my purse and the keys. Even if I had my cell phone, there would be no one to call to help me out of this situation.

I walk around the house looking for a way in, but figure in this neighborhood you have to make sure everything is locked up and secure. I look for a hidden key, but come up empty handed. I take the screen off the front window in hopes of getting the window to budge. I am able to get the window open about a foot and a half and push the furniture out of the way. I contemplated getting one of the kids in the neighborhood to go in for me, but decided against it. The people on the street are all staring at me. I decide to just take the plunge. I tie the dog to the porch and jump through the window. I don't know if I am more surprised that I fit through the window or the fact that I managed to do it without hurting myself. The dogs did their business and I was out of there.

On my way home, a group of people on motorcycles surround me. I have no idea where they even came from. I was sitting at a red light and a bunch of Harley riders ride past me and through the red light. There must have been 70+ bikes swerving around my truck, barely missing my front bumper on both sides of the street. At the next intersection, the bikes decide they don't want to wait for that light either. A car starts to turn left in front of us and it is pushed into oncoming traffic by the bikes. A big guy jumps out of the car and walks up to the bikes that have blocked him from making his turn. At this point I am really wishing I had my cell phone. This guy was pretty big, but he had five bikers blocking him in and plenty more still coming down the street. Eventually the parade finishes and everyone goes on their way.

I am home now and Dave just asked if I wanted to run to Home Depot with him. At this point I think staying home just might be a good idea.

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-05T18:33:00.011-04:00

Yesterday we went to a 4th of July party high up on Onondaga Hill. The house had awesome views of the city which included at least ten different firework shows. As if that weren't enough, they were serving some amazing food. I ate until I felt sick and once the feeling passed, I would eat again. There were burgers, clams, sausage and peppers, pulled pork, chicken riggis, bruschetta, and more. For dessert there were Italian wedding cookies, brownies, and a fruit tart.

I could have sworn the fruit tart was made in some gourmet pastry shop. It looked like a piece of art and was perfectly sweet. Once I found out that someone at the party had made it, I had to have the recipe.

First, allow me to get your taste buds going and make your mouth water. These are just a few pictures that showed up in a Google image search. I don't think it matters what you put on it or how you arrange the fruit, this dessert screams summer.

This first picture is from http://cherrapeno.blogspot.com/ If you love food and great pictures of food, check her out.

Doesn't it look amazing? I think the glaze over the top adds a shine that makes the fruit look even more juicy and appetizing. I am told it also helps keep the fruit in place. Not all of the pictures had the glaze to them and you can see the difference. You could take this to any party and people will "oooohh" and "awwww" over it like I did.

FRUIT TART OR FRUIT PIZZA

1 pkg. refrigerated sugar cookie dough
11 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 c. powdered sugar
4 tbsp. undiluted frozen orange juice concentrate
Fresh fruit, bananas, strawberries, melon, kiwi, pineapple, etc.
1/2 c. apple jelly (honey colored)

Press cookie dough onto greased 14" pizza pan or into 2 (8") tart pans and baking according to package directions. Cool. Beat cheese, sugar and 2 tablespoons of the orange concentrate until fluffy. Spread over cooled crust. Arrange fruit decoratively on crust. Melt jelly with remaining 2 tablespoons orange concentrate and brush over fruit to glaze. Cut in wedges. Makes 12 to 15 servings.

I have seen recipes with and without the orange juice in the cream cheese mixture, but I think it adds another layer of flavor to the tart. Sounds pretty simple. This will be recreated in our house very soon. Enjoy!

Dusting off the cobwebs

2009-07-03T09:49:00.003-04:00

I may be a Facebook addict which would explain my lack of blog post. Most of my family and a lot of my friends are now on Facebook which gives us constant communication, so when I think about posting a blog, I feel I am being redundant in what I post.

My job is going great. It has branched off into uncharted territories for me. I have not been formally trained in the work I am doing, but all of my time spent on the computer at home is paying off. Part of my job right now is running the company's Social Networking and SharePoint page. I was Twittering for myself when I was selling real estate and I spent time on Twitter for the doggie daycare, but now I am able to dedicate more time to social networking and getting their name out there. I am now working on our website and marketing. I love that my job is different day to day and there is no set job description. I am also loving the company I work for. It is big enough that it isn't a small mom and pop shop, but small enough that there isn't a lot of corporate red tape to deal with.

I was looking at the calendar yesterday and realized that there is a party or even every single weekend for the next couple months. That is the bad thing about summers in New York. There is such a small time period of nice weather that you have to cram everything into a few short weeks. I don't think Mother Nature has had a chance to look at the calender though because it has rained off and on for over a week.

Dave is getting over a flu/ cold type illness. When it first started he went to see a doctor. The doctor said it appeared that he had the flu. With all the talk about N1H1 aka The Swine Flu, Dave asked if he should be tested. The doctor told him that he could be tested, but the only thing that would change is that he would have a name to go with it. Dave didn't bother getting tested. Another person I know was told that there were not enough N1H1 test, so they are only testing people who are in the hospital to know for sure. I can't help but laugh every time I see a news story about the Swine Flu and how the numbers are dropping or increasing. There is little or no truth behind these stories because most people are not even being tested. I chock it up to media hype and trying to play off people's fears...... much like most pit bull stories in the news.

Speaking of pit bulls, the dogs are doing great. Hank is on his way to becoming a well behaved dog. He still has random burst of stupid puppy behavior, but is learning to be respectful and mind his manners. I took both of them to a couple SPCA fundraiser events last month. Tater was an angel as usual and I expected Hank to be a handful. I was pleasantly surprised that he wasn't spinning around at the end of the leash and acting like, well, like an animal. The events were great for socializing him to kids, strollers, other animals, and all the noises that accompany those things.

That about covers the events on this side of the world. My mom is coming to visit next month and I can not wait. Mom just ran her first 5k last weekend with my sister in law, Kari. I am very proud of both of them.

Happy 2nd Anniversary, New York

2009-05-16T13:15:00.003-04:00

Today marks two years since I moved to New York. I would still move back to California in a heartbeat if I could have a good job, a house with a yard, everyone I love there, and superpowers that could make make LA traffic move. Since that will never happen, I guess I will have to deal with the nasty weather and crappy Mexican food that Central New York has to offer.

When I remembered that today was the anniversary I thought about how in California, my life revolved around traffic and how now my life revolves around weather. You can not plan outdoor events in New York because you never know what the weather will be like. Even in the middle of August, there is a good chance of thunderstorms. In California, we couldn't plan to go anywhere during rush hour if it revolved around traveling on the 91. Even with Fast Track, you would have to add an hour to any commute. The same was true for going near the 15 on a Friday afternoon or Sunday. The 15 was the way to Las Vegas and San Diego and it was always packed no matter what direction you were going in. A three hour trip to Vegas will last up to eight hours on a Sunday.

The past two weeks here have shown a lot of progress. My new job has given me more freedom than I have had since arriving here. I have a normal work schedule which allows me to plan better. I get to sleep in and I still get home earlier than I did while working at my last job. The pay is also MUCH better. WE can now eat peanut butter sandwiches and Top Ramen because we want to and not because it is the only food we have in the house. It will also allow us to finally do all the projects in the house that we couldn't afford to do before. As I type, my new dishwasher is quietly running in the kitchen. Our dishwasher quit working almost a year ago and the stove stopped working a few weeks ago. We found a killer deal on Craigslist and we have working appliances again. They are used appliances, but just because I have more money now doesn't keep me from being a cheap bastard. These babies are top of the line and we got both of them for cheaper than we could have bought a brand new bottom of the barrel model dishwasher. That makes them even better than new to me.

Since I can't seem to post without mentioning dogs, Hank was neutered a week and a half ago. From the moment I picked him up at the vet's office, he has acted as if there is nothing wrong with him. Once the testosterone is out of his system and his brain is fully functioning, we can begin NILIF boot camp. He is a good dog, but the jumpy puppy attitude comes out and that is about to end.

Gahhhhhlic

2009-04-25T23:26:00.002-04:00

Snow season is over which means it is now bug season. I look out the window and see nothing but swarms of bugs. I have no idea where the bug spray is and needed to go outside, so I grabbed a clove of garlic. I busted it open to let the sweet scent of garlic flow. It must have worked because I don't have bug bites on me and the dogs can't stop licking me. Good thing Dave loves garlic because I stink. If anyone knows a bug repellent that doesn't stink, please let me know.

This has been an interesting week. Wednesday I received a job offer. I interviewed for this job back in January. What was to be an average week was turned upside down. I had to put in my notice at the daycare. I don't know if it is really giving notice when you are not really quitting. I asked to work one Saturday a month. I love that job and I am not ready to leave. I won't miss cleaning up pee, poop, and puke or the fact that those words are part of my daily vocabulary, but I will miss all of my puppies.

I am looking forward to getting back into the corporate world and all the perks that come along with it..... like medical insurance which I haven't had for over two years. Actually being able to pay all of my bills each month might be fun too. The company and the job are exactly what I was looking for and I think it will be a really good fit for me and for them too.

Finally!

2009-04-15T14:42:00.003-04:00

For some reason the last couple times I have tried to sign into this blog, it has told me my login information is incorrect.

I come to ask a question. We have been discussing a situation for a while now and can not come to a compromise to the situation. We need input on the situation.

As some of you know we fostered Brooke and her 8 puppies a while back. While they were here they did a lot of damage to the house. One of the major areas of damage was in the spare bedroom. They used this room as their bathroom quite often and nothing we put down helped and no matter how many times the carpet was cleaned, it is not any better. The damage has been done and we need to figure out how to fix it. Dave and I both agree that the carpet needs to go. We currently have the door shut and just never go in that room because of the smell and nastiness. Something needs to happen, but we don't have the funds to get new flooring in that room right away. So, here are the two options we have.....

A) Leave the carpet where it is until we can afford to replace it.

B) Remove the carpet now to get rid of the smell and replace it as soon as we can.

What would you do? I really need help with this situation because we have debated about this from the day the puppies left. Please leave a comment and let us know what you would do.

Thank you,
D&P

There's no place like home

2009-03-16T22:37:00.002-04:00

I just got back from California this morning. I am happy to see Dave and the animals, but I can't really say I am glad to be back. It was great to see my mom, old friends, be back home, and eat good food. I took quite a few pictures, but of course the card reader isn't working at the moment, so it will have to wait. It was a long night of flying and I have a touch of jet lag. I am not looking forward to waking up early tomorrow.
There are some mobile pictures up on my Facebook page if you want to see them. Not on Facebook? Get out from under that rock, add me, and take a look.

Nichols Grocery Store in Liverpool, New York

2009-02-27T20:40:00.003-05:00

My coupon shopping didn't go so well this week. On Sunday I clipped and organized my coupons. I had decided to go to Nichols in Liverpool because they have a huge sign in the window that says, "We Double Manufacturer Coupons." I decided to call the store and find out their exact coupon policy. I was told by the person on the phone that they double all coupons unless they specifically say, "Do Not Double". I asked if there was a dollar limit on the coupons that they would double since I ran into that issue at Wegmans grocery store. Again I was told they double all coupons unless it says not to. I spend over an hour in the store carefully comparing prices and matching up coupons only to have the coupons not double at the register. I walked to the Customer Service desk and the girl at the desk tells me that they don't double coupons if the coupon says not to. I pull out a duplicate coupon of one I used and she calls a manager. The manager then tells me that they double coupons up to 99 cents and they don't double coupons for a dollar off. If you have seen coupons, most of them are for at least a dollar off. I feel the window display is false advertising and the fact that two of the employees I spoke with had no idea what the coupon policy is ridiculous. I had thoughts of returning every item I purchased, but they had already wasted enough of my time and I didn't want to have to go to another store to buy the items I needed.

I spent money at Nichols that I would have spent elsewhere and it still would have been cheaper. Through the power of Google, this post may save someone else from being fooled by Nichols. Me and my coupons will not be returning to your store.

100th Post!

2009-02-22T20:21:00.002-05:00

It has been an amazing week even though it has done nothing but snow. Just when you think Spring is around the corner and things start to thaw, a storm hits.

Things at work are great. Last week we broke the record of 94 dogs in a single day. They are now paying me more to do something I love. It still doesn't come close to what I used to make, but I am learning to become more creative with my finances and being very frugal. I am back to coupon clipping and shopping for a great deal. It not only saves me money, but it is a rush when you are in a store and walk out paying very little or sometimes nothing at all. It's an ongoing treasure hunt.

As I am sure you all know, the real estate market is the pits right now. I have decided to take a break from real estate until the market changes. People are afraid to make a move in this economy and I can't really blame them. I have no doubt it will turn around, but I have no idea when that will be.

The best news of the week is that I will be going back to California for a few days in March. I have not been back since I moved two years ago. Even better is that my mom will be there as well as my sister in law and my nephews. I am already worried about how many friends I can visit with in such a short period of time and how much Mexican food I can stuff myself with. I am looking forward to warm weather and hopefully a trip to the beach. Dave won't be joining me on this trip, but I am sure I will leave with a shopping list of things to bring back for him.

Sonreír (smile)

2009-02-07T09:43:00.004-05:00

Random things that have made me smile.

Tater and Hank sharing a chair in front of the fire.
Getting lost and driving around an area I didn't know.
Doors of opportunity opening my way.
The chocolate pizza I got for my birthday.
2 hour lunch breaks
The racing snowmobiles outside my window.
Watching Hank hump his dog bed.
A clean kitchen.
Facebook Scrabble.
The things we fry.
Getting a return on taxes.
Sunshine.
Yo momma.
Home roasted coffee.
Dave- because he just asked if his name was on the list.

Tater is a big sister!

2009-01-24T10:19:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow will be five months since we lost Brooke. Since she has been gone the house has been very quiet. Tater has been bored without another dog to play with and we were all feeling like something was missing. I wasn't sure if I was ready for another dog so soon and knew nothing would replace Brooke. The thought of fostering another dog crossed my mind, but with all the drama involved with the last two rescue groups I knew I didn't want to deal with another one. We started looking at www.petfinder.com to see what was out there. We visited two shelters and found many dogs that would work in our pack, but none of them picked us like Tater picked us. That all changed when we met Hank at the same shelter we found Tater at. It was love at first sight when he tried to climb into Dave's jacket. He just wanted to cuddle with us. We had people, a dog, and a cat come into the room and he did not care that they were there. He just wanted to be in our laps. The following day I brought Tater down to meet him and knew Hank was the dog for us.

We went in looking for an adult male and came out with a puppy. I was not looking forward to house training and puppy proofing the house. Things have gone much better than I expected. Hank has not had an accident in the house since his first day here. He is lazy like Tater and just wants to curl up with Dave or I.

I know, bla, bla, bla, get to the pictures already.

Both Tater and Hank came from DeWitt Animal Hospital. Most people in Syracuse don't know about this place, but if a stray dog is picked up, it is taken to DeWitt. From there the dog has five days to be claimed by their owner by law. After their five days, they are available for adoption. Depending on the space available, they may only get their five required days before being put to sleep. If you are looking for a dog, go visit DeWitt and ask to see their adoptable dogs. When we were there they had puppies, adults, purebreds, and mixes. They get new dogs in everyday, so if they don't have what you are looking for today, they might get one in tomorrow. You never know what you will find.

DeWitt Animal Hospital
5620 Thompson Rd
De Witt, NY 13214
(315) 446-1200

Happy New Year

2009-01-09T23:04:00.002-05:00

Over the past two weeks I have been interviewing for a job that would give me the financial help that I really need right now. I gave it everything I had and found out today that I didn't get the job. I now have to refocus and find another way. I may be down, but not out.

I am trying very hard to stay positive and sometimes are harder than others. The weather is not helping much. I swear we have gotten more snow this year than we did last year. We had to skip our New Years Eve party because the roads were so bad. It would be very easy to hibernate until it is all over, but I am fighting the urge. I have plenty to be thankful for, but just need a reminder at times.

2009 is off to a good start. There is something about January 1st that gives people hope and inspiration. I am ready to hit the ground running. There are many things I want to change, but have to remember that if I try to accomplish all of these things at once I will burn out and give up. That has been the pattern in the past and I am determined to change that this year.

Please make it stop....

2008-12-26T13:01:00.003-05:00

Please make it stop snowing! The snow was melting away yesterday and now it is snowing again. Tater wants to go out and play, but she has no hair, so she freezes. She has a cute jacket that she wears, but she still gets cold. Yes, my vicious pit bull wears a coat and is still a wimp in cold weather. She wears a coat in the winter and sunblock in the summer or else she gets sun burned. Her favorite spot in the house is right in front of the fireplace. Last week I found her cuddling in front of the fire with the cat. If people only knew what big babies these dogs are.

Dave is feeling a bit better today and we are looking forward to "Christmas" tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T20:54:00.004-05:00

It has been an interesting day. Dave was up all night getting sick and Christmas was canceled in this house. He thinks it is from undercooked chicken and I think it is a bug since I ate the same dinner he did last night. We have rescheduled Christmas dinner with his family for Saturday. Hopefully he will feel better by then.

Although I am not a big fan of Christmas, I did enjoy talking to one of my nephews this morning and hearing the excitement in his voice. He was either really excited or had eaten way too much sugar. Either way it was cute and made my day.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa was as good to you as he was to me.

Bah Humbug!

2008-12-21T13:10:00.003-05:00

This is what we woke up to this morning. Most of it was already there from Friday, but we received another inch of snow overnight. Friday was pretty bad and had to dig my truck out of the snow at work. The plows could not keep up since we were getting two inches of snow an hour. It is supposed to be in the high 40s later in the week. Maybe once it all melts away we will be able to find the snow shovel that is buried somewhere in all the snow.

December is usually a crazy run around with all the shopping, baking, wrapping and Christmas events. The majority of my shopping and wrapping was done in the first week of the month. I even hand wrote 100 client Christmas cards to mail out. I was feeling pretty good about getting things done so early and then I dropped the ball. I didn't make it to the post office with the gifts until this past Friday, so they won't be to their destination until after Christmas. I kept adding to the box and kept shopping thinking I didn't buy enough. Then I was waiting to ship some of the baked items in the boxes. The ingredients for baking are still sitting on the kitchen table. Next year I will have to make a list and stick to it. This is one of the reasons I hate Christmas. I feel like I am doing too little and overcompensate only to feel like I did too much and keep things I don't need. It is complicated, expensive and not joyous at all. I just keep telling myself that it will all be over in a few days.

Doe, a deer, a female deer....

2008-12-06T10:01:00.004-05:00

I woke up to gun shots again this morning. That doesn't mean I live in a rough neighborhood around here, it means I live in the country and it's shotgun season. I hear this is the last weekend for rifles and then it goes back to bow hunting. Being from California the thought of killing Bambi made me sad when I would hear of people hunting. In this part of the country it is a necessity. I would much rather see the deer die quickly by gun shot and become food than to be hit by cars and lay of the side of the road waiting to be picked up. The deer also suffer the winter without enough food because of over population.

With that being said, I don't hunt and have no urge to hunt. I know it needs to be done and would gladly eat venison, but I want it to look like a piece of steak by the time it gets to me. Someone gave me deer bones for the dog last week and I was fine with that until I spotted a small piece of fur in the bag. The fur was a reminder of what it used to be and I don't want to think of it as anything other than meat.

I never knew what a big deal hunting was until this year. I know why they do it, but nothing could prepare me for what I found in our local newspaper. There is a whole section dedicated to hunters and their kill. Pictures of the hunters posing proudly with their catch. Maybe it is because I am not from around here and I didn't grow up with this as a way of life, but I was a little disturbed by the pictures of dead animals. Is it just me? You can see the pictures for yourself here, http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/hunting_photos/

What happened to November?

2008-11-28T11:08:00.005-05:00

November seems to have flown by. Dave just ended an eighteen day work-a-thon. He was working 9-14 hour days for the past eighteen days. In those eighteen days we also received quite a bit of snow. We would get a couple inches of snow followed by some sunshine and then it would snow again. I can see grass in the yard for the first time in a couple weeks.

We made a trip to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse a few weeks ago. It was my first time to our local zoo and I was very impressed. I was worried that with the colder temperature here that the animals would be out of their element. The animals were in good shape and had proper housing for the colder months. I usually end up feeling bad for the animals when I leave the zoo, but that wasn't the case at Rosamond. I managed to get some pretty good pictures while we were there.

For Thanksgiving we went over to Dave's parent's house for dinner. We ate way too much and paid the price for it. I am very thankful I didn't have to spend the day cooking and then cleaning up the mess. I am hoping everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Remember, there are only 27 more shopping days until Christmas.

Life -140 Characters at a Time

2008-11-08T10:13:00.011-05:00

Do you Twitter?

Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging tool that has a variety of uses. Do you want to connect with people in your community? Do you want to network with people in your field of business? Do you want to stay in touch with friends and family? If so, Twitter may be the place for you.

What's the point?

I was skeptical at first and thought Twitter was a group of people all trying to sell each other products and services. I gave it a chance and found that there are real people on Twitter who have a lot to share. A funny joke, a link to interesting news, or a local event, they all had something to share. For me Twitter isn't just about meeting new people, but I use it as a learning tool. I follow real estate professionals around the world and learn the latest trends in the business. I also follow people in the Syracuse area to learn more about my community.

How do you do it?

You can sign up for a free account at Twitter.com. Make a profile for yourself and find what people are talking about. For an example, I have started a Twitter feed on the right. My last five post on Twitter appear. Soon you will find yourself sucked in to Twitter and you will wonder what your Twitter friends are doing. Make sure you add me to your list, so I can follow you. http://twitter.com/CNYhousehunters

Video courtesy of http://www.commoncraft.com/

Under Construction

2008-11-01T15:04:00.002-04:00

Part of the reason I haven't been blogging is because there is some issues with the template code. It is more than I wanted to deal with when I went to write a blog post. I would write a post and it would look perfect in the editor, but once published things got wonky. I would have four different views in the Blogger editor, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and my Google feed reader. I am hoping it is fixed with a new template, but I am not an expert at reading and editing code, so I have no clue where to even start.

If things look out of place or out of alignment when you view this page, please let me know what browser or feed reader you are using. Thank you.

Extreme Home Makeover in Geneva, NY

2008-11-01T13:31:00.004-04:00

This Sunday you can catch the episode of Extreme Home Makeover that was taped here in Central New York. I blogged about it back in August.

Zillow.com did a great write up on the house. http://www.zillowblog.com/new-extreme-makeover-home-in-geneva-ny/2008/08/

Sunday November 2, 2008 8/7 central on ABC. If you miss it on Sunday night, the episodes can be found at the Extreme Home Makeover website.

Pictures and randomness

2008-11-01T12:45:00.023-04:00

I have been taking pictures and writing down blog ideas, but can't seem to sit still long enough to actually write. I am currently working three jobs at the moment and there isn't much play time left after that.

A few weeks ago I had a chance to work in some sightseeing and work into one trip. I loaded up my trusty assistant, Tater and we went for a drive to view houses for sale in the area and some fall foliage.

Are we there yet?

Look at all the colors. The pictures don't do it justice.

The trees are all bare now and we received about two inches of snow this week. It all melted away in time for Halloween. The only sign of Halloween was driving through the village since we don't get trick or treaters out here in the boonies.

That about covers October. I graduated from the real estate class I was taking and I am looking for my next class to take. I also worked four open houses last month.

Polish/ Mexican Food??

2008-10-09T12:27:00.006-04:00

Today I was searching the house for something to eat. I found a little leftover kielbasa and sauerkraut from dinner last night and a few tortillas from enchiladas I made last week. Fish tacos have cabbage in them and they are good, so why not use pickled cabbage? I made kielbasa and sauerkraut tacos for lunch. I must say, they were pretty darn good.

With Dave's new job he has been making quite a few trips to Utica, NY. He has been bringing home tasty food from the Utica area on nights we are both going to be late. Utica is only about an hour away from Syracuse, but it is like another country. There are more hole in the wall eateries and mom and pop shops that have been in business for 50+ years. There is a lot of charm in the way that things change yet always stay the same. I imagine some areas have looked the same for decades. The kielbasa and pierogi were from Hapanowics in New York Mills. They have an entire line of heat and serve food that is homemade and delicious. Their homemade sausage is out of this world.

Last week was an Italian/ Thai combo of Italian meatballs with rice and Thai chili sauce. This week it is Polish/ Mexican combos. You have to get creative these days and use what you have. So far the end products have been pretty tasty.

Bringing work home with me

2008-09-30T18:34:00.006-04:00

I have had a bit of a writers block lately. This is mostly because it has been all work and no play around here lately. Between real estate, doggie daycare, a marketing class, and doing research and writing for my other blog it has been pretty busy. Some day all of this hard work will pay off, but in the meantime these are all just very expensive and time consuming hobbies.

I also started another side "job". One of the parents at doggie daycare was looking for a dog sitter. I figured that since we are down to only Tater and she is lonely, it would be a good opportunity for Tater to play with another dog and for me to make a little side money. It is just like being a foster parent only this assignment has pay and I already know the dog and what I am getting myself into. Speaking of the dog, this is Badger......

Badger is a chocolate lab that was fostered by my boss at doggie daycare. The marks on his nose and around his face are from a Gentle Leader Harness that someone had left on him at all times and as he grew it grew into his face. They gray hair is where it scabbed over once the Gentle Leader was removed. Thankfully people stepped up for him and he is now living the life that every dog should have.

Badger is only here for a couple days and Tater is going to be sad when he is gone. She follows him around and play bows at him until he plays with her. She is ready for us to adopt another dog, but we are not ready yet. Brooke has only been gone a month, but it just doesn't feel right yet.

For now she will just have to lay on her back and beg other dogs to play with her instead of toys.

Hurry up and save a life- FOR FREE!

2008-09-20T23:11:00.002-04:00

Every year, thousands of Americans need a bone marrow donation.

During the month of September, NASCAR is sponsoring a MAIL-IN registration for getting on the bone marrow list. Normally, this expensive test requires a $56 fee from the potential donor. For the month of Sept, NASCAR is paying that fee! It's FREE, EASY, and you could save a life.

Go to this website: http://marrow.org/HELP/Events/NASCAR/index.html

Fill out the required forms (takes about 10 minutes), receive the packet in the mail, swab your mouth, and drop the swabs in the mail ASAP.

When you're done reading this (and signing up), please pass this link along! Women, and people of other minority groups are ESPECIALLY needed to fill up that registry!

Hurry, this offer is only until Monday, September 22nd!

Booyah!

2008-09-13T21:43:00.004-04:00

Driving around Minneapolis there were signs outside of firehouses that announced they would be having a Booyah Bingo event in the upcoming weeks. I have played Bingo before and thought Booyah was a different version of the game. I didn't put much thought into it until tonight and went directly to my friend, Google. Booyah is not a game at all. Booyah is a stew made in large quantities to feed hundreds of people. Most of the recipes I have found online yield about 25 gallons of soup and can contain any meat source with a variety of vegetables in a bouillon broth.

While in Minnesota we visited...
The Minnesota State Fair

My step-brother Phil and my nephew Derek had a blast on the giant slide.

My mom took my nephew Drew on the carousel. I have no idea what he is looking at or why he is making that face.

Derek and a day old calf.

Minnehaha Falls

Lake Street for the closest thing I have found to Mexican food since leaving California. I actually found a blog that does reviews on most of the restaurants in that areas of Minneapolis. Check out http://mplsmexican.blogspot.com/. We ate at La Poblanita which was pretty good. The salsas were a little off, but I have come to the conclusion that fresh produce isn't as abundant as it is in the west and it changes the flavors.

Mom and Phil posing with one of the many murals on Lake Street. Phil needed a haircut and we decided that since he is on vacation he should have a mohawk.

We didn't eat at Taco Taxi, but the building reminded me of some of the hole in the wall taco joints in Los Angeles.

Dave was very happy to find chicharrón at one of the many carnacerias (Hispanic grocery store) in the area.

We also visited Ikea, The Mall of America, a Toby Keith concert and a couple Super Targets. We had to skip all of my favorite places in Saint Paul due to the Republican National Convention that was going on, so we will have to return soon.

Syracuse's Italian Festival

2008-09-07T20:43:00.005-04:00

It's that time again. It is time for the Syracuse Italian Festival. This is the event we look forward to every year. I might diet all week to prepare for the party. Don't forget to save room for a cannoli. Click here for the pictures from our trip last year.

Festa Italiana Syracuse
September 12 - 14, 2008

In Front Of City Hall, At Montgomery & Washington Streets

9/12 - 11:00 am to 11:00 pm

9/13 - 11:00 am to 11:00 pm

9/14 - 12 noon to 8:00 pm

Over the Rainbow Bridge

2008-09-05T22:13:00.002-04:00

There is plenty to write about since we got home from vacation, but I can't write any of it until I post this.

Brooke passed away on 8/25/08. It was easy not to think about it while on vacation, but now that I am back, life isn't the same and it is really hitting me that she is really gone.

Rest in peace, Brookie. We love you and miss you.

From The Land of 10,000 Lakes

2008-08-29T00:27:00.002-04:00

We made it to Minnesota after two delayed planes, almost missing our connection, and sitting on the runway in Atlanta for over two hours. FAA's computers went down and there were two hundred planes just waiting to get into the air. We finally made it, but it was a long day. My step-brother Phil flew in from California and we all met up at the airport in Minneapolis.

Yesterday we all went to the Minnesota State Fair. We spent the most time eating and hanging out in the Miracle of Birth Building. We watched piglets being born, watched a cow going through labor, and watched chickens hatching. We watched the cow push for quite a while and decided to keep moving. We came back to the birthing center later in the day to find a new calf. They had video of the delivery playing in the background. No matter how many times you see the birthing process, it never gets old.

Minnesota had the average fried food on a stick along with some new creations. Hot Dish on a Stick was meatballs and tater tots that have been battered and fried with a cream of mushroom soup as a dipping sauce. It was pretty tasty. The other new item at the fair was chocolate covered bacon at Dave''s Famous BBQ stand. It was interesting, but not very good. People were lined up for the bacon and the combination of bacon and chocolate was too strange to pass up. I am glad I tried it, but I wouldn't eat it again.

I learned that Minnesota has a law that I have never heard of. I don't know if they do this in other states, but in Minnesota if you are convicted of driving under the influence, part of the punishment is to receive "Whiskey Plates" or "Wino Plates". All license plates issued to offenders start with the letters WN. There is no hiding your past with these plates. I have never heard of such a thing. It adds a new twist to the out of state license plate game.

Tomorrow we are off to The Mall of America. Pictures will be posted once I am home.

Breaking News

2008-08-23T13:43:00.003-04:00

This just in......

I am running for President in 2008!

Central New York is the place to be!

2008-08-23T11:31:00.008-04:00

There is so much going on in Syracuse over the next couple weeks. I picked the wrong time to leave town.

It's hard to go anywhere without hearing at least one person talking about The Great New York State Fair. The fair started on Thursday and will run until September 1st. There is so much going on at the fair that you could go every single day and not run out of things to do. If you are a music fan, there are a lot of big names on the bill this year. Ironically, I bought tickets to see Toby Keith at the Minnesota state fair only to have them announce the following day that Mr. Keith will also be playing the New York State Fair. If I were going to be in town, I probably would have seen him in both places. Tonight's concert is Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick!

The other big news in Central New York is that ABC's Extreme Home Makeover is in Geneva, New York. It was announced this week that Michelle and Tim Hill of Geneva are the lucky recipients of the home makeover. I haven't been out there, but I hear there are swarms of people in that neighborhood watching the demolition of the house and trying to catch a glimpse of Ty Pennington (pictured on the left).

I have mixed feelings about them destroying a beautiful 150 year old farm house, but I don't know the condition of the property. Hopefully they are able to work around the existing structure and not make the house stick out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood. I also hope the home owners are prepared for what this gift may bring. This year alone there have been two homes that were made over by the Extreme Home Makeover team that have gone into foreclosure for various reasons. Even if the Extreme Home Makeover donations pay off the mortgage on the existing property, I am sure the new house will be amazing and New York State will want a huge chunk of money every year in taxes. Anyone who lives in New York can tell you that the tax bill won't be pretty.

Speaking of new construction, the 2008 Home Builders and Remodelers of Central New York's Parade of Homes is going on from September 6th- 21st in Clay, New York. This is a chance for Syracuse's best builders to show off their work and display the latest trends in home design. If you are looking for a brand new home, this is an event that you can not afford to miss. If you are looking for the latest styles and decorating ideas, this event is also for you. The following builders will be on display.

Herritage Homes: http://www.heritagehomescny.com/

Mark Antony Homes: http://www.markantonyhomes.com/

Loscombe Custom Homes: http://www.loscombecustomhomes.com/

Harrington Homes: http://www.harringtonhomescny.com/

Sciuga Custom Builders: http://www.sciugabuilders.com/

JMG Custom Homes: http://www.jmgcustomhomes.com/

Miller Homes: http://www.millerhomescny.com/

Enjoy the beautiful weekend no matter where you are and I will be back in a week with many vacation pictures. I would like to thank my house sitter/ animal care taker for making this all possible. I don't know what I would do without her help.

The Money Pit

2008-08-17T12:48:00.002-04:00

August has been full of things going wrong or breaking. I am hoping that nothing else will break down for a very long time. If you have seen the movie "The Money Pit" with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, you know what we have been living.

It all started with another visit to the vet after Tater started showing signs of being blocked again. After a day on antibiotics, lots of fluids, and a couple xrays, they could not find anything wrong with her. Two days after coming home she squatted in the yard and delivered the strap of one of my tank tops. I wish this dog would stop eating things.

The following week the sink started to sputter while washing my hands. This is the usual sign that the well has run dry. I turned off the pumps and all the toilets. When I arrived home later in the day I turned on the pumps to see if the well had replenished. Their was no noise coming from the pump. We replaced the breaker in hopes that it was a simple fix, but that did not work. It was time to call in the professionals. Turns out the well pump had died and needed to be replaced. To add insult to injury we are about a year away from having public water in this area. Once that happens we won't need the well or the new well pump anymore.

Last week the dishwasher ran it's last load. The dishwasher is about 15 years old, so it was time for it to be replaced anyways, but this was not a good time for it to die. Until we can afford to replace it, we will be washing dishes by hand. I see a lot of paper plates in our future.

Yesterday Dave had a race in Rochester at New York International Raceway Park. the weather was perfect and the racing was good. I even got to ride along for a few passes down the track. After racing all day, Dave was putting his street tires back on the car and noticed that there was a screw in the racing slicks. That screw could put an end to the race season because the slicks are too expensive to replace right now. Hopefully it can just be patched, but we won't know until we take it in.

Other than all the unforeseen money pits, life is actually pretty good around here. Dave started a new job and loves it. He is working more hours and the commute is longer, but he is working with a good group of people and he is learning new skills to add to his resume. My real estate career is well on it's way. I am headed in the right direction and most of the big fees have been paid. We are both ready for a vacation and we will be headed to Minneapolis in 9 days!

Two steps forward, one step back.

2008-08-02T15:11:00.004-04:00

It has been beautiful all week and as soon as the weekend hit, we get rain. The plan was to do the yard work today so we could go to Bavarian Fest at Long Branch Park tomorrow. We may just have to skip one this weekend and I think German food and beer will win. If it is raining again tomorrow we may just have to skip them both.

Since my business cards are in, there is a rush order to get my website complete. We were getting so close and then the website was attacked by a virus. I don't understand how or why, but some companies love to insert viruses into websites to redirect traffic to their site. To clear up the mess we are having to scrap what we had and start over. The virus was also picked up by Google and now there is a virus warning attached to the website, so my traffic ranking has gone down the tubes. The ranking can drive your site to the top of the Google list or to the bottom of it. Grrrrr.

Speaking of computers, there is a GREAT program out there that has made my life much easier, GOTOMYPC.COM. This program basically allows you to log on to any computer in your network. I have used this program for years and I can not tell you how handy it is. Say you have files on your home computer and need that file at work, all you have to do is log in and access your home computer and pull the file. I also used to use it at work because the company I worked for had many sites blocked on the internet. I could bypass that by just accessing my home computer using gotomypc to do the things I needed to do. Lately Dave and I have been using it to fix our parents' computers. Dave's dad called last night because he had lost all of his icons on his desktop and couldn't figure out how to get them back. Dave was able to log on to his dad's computer and fix the problem. It's only $19.95 a month, but it has been well worth it for us.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

The moment you have all been waiting for....

2008-08-01T19:19:00.002-04:00

... ok, so the moment my mother has been waiting for. My business cards are in! The proof will have to do for now.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

2008-07-30T12:36:00.003-04:00

Our internet is up and running again! That alone is enough to make my day. I knew I was dependent on my computer, but I never realized just how bad it was. I needed to send emails, check my calendar and get an address last night and I realized that my entire life is in this box. Someone asked me what three things I would grab if there were a fire in the house and we had to evacuate. I told them I would take Dave, my animals (they count as one because I don't want to be forced to choose), and my hard drive. Every picture I have taken in the past 10 years is also on this computer. Loosing it would be a very sad day.

My classes are going great and at the end of each class I feel even more excited. Brian Buffini is an excellent speaker and unlike most seminars, he speaks common sense and the tricks and tools that he uses can be done by anyone. My motivation and confidence has only increased since starting this class.

Today was the ground breaking for a home in Marcellus that has been given to injured soldier, Jeff Guerin. Local folks can read more about it on marcellusny.com or www.homesforourtroops.org. There will also be coverage on tonight's channel 5 and 9 news. The development they are building in is the location for our classes this week and the property is listed with Gallinger, so we were invited to the event. Seeing all the people in the community that have come together for this soldier was very emotional and heartwarming.

Only 150 shopping days until Christmas

2008-07-27T13:43:00.002-04:00

July is almost over and Christmas is just around the corner. I do not even want to think about Christmas yet. Given that 2008 is more than half over I thought I would take a look at my list of goals for 2008 that I posted in January.

1. Find great homes for 9 out of 10 dogs in my house.
I will count this one as a success. The puppies all found great homes and Brooke found her great home right here with us. After fostering all of the puppies, I can honestly say I will never have a puppy again. Puppies are only cute if they belong to someone else. The puppies brought us Brooke, so it wasn't a completely horrible situation. Brooke has become our little comedian and will do anything for a laugh.

2. Go to Minneapolis to see my mom and her new house.
We leave for Minneapolis in 30 days!

3. Go to New York City and explore more of the East Coast.
So far this year I have been to Albany which is new territory for me. I still
haven't been to New York City, but there is still time left in the year.

4. Finally unpack all of my moving boxes.
Other than the pictures and tax records, I am starting to think that if I haven't opened these boxes in over a year, I probably don't need these items. I hate clutter and things being unorganized. I wish Dave felt that way too.

5. Paint at least 3 more rooms in the house.
We have painted the living room and the entry way, so I suppose that counts as two rooms. The next room to be painted is the dining room. We have been debating over painting the dining room red. Red can looks good in a room, but it can also look very bad if you pick the wrong red. I will make sure this goal is completed even I am painting on New Years Eve 2009.

6. Find a job that pays a wage I can actually live off of.
This is still a work in progress. I am in the start up phase and keep paying out
money, but it will all work out in the end.

7. Get organized.
I am more orgainized now than when I first wrote this in January, but still very
far from where I would like to be.

8. Get my RE license even if I don't put it to use for a while.
Completed! I had my business card picture taken last week. I wasn't thrilled with the picture, but after the photographer puts the finishing touches on it, I am sure I will. I start Brian Buffini's 100 Days To Greatness course tomorrow. I have heard nothing but great things about Brian Buffini and this program. It will also be a great way to network with other agents in the area.

9. Finalize my plans for taking over the world.
The ball is rolling. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Last Meal Before Going To The Chair

2008-07-14T13:19:00.002-04:00

That is what Dave called dinner last night. He said if he were on death row,this was the meal he would order before going to the chair. He was complaining about how he rarely has steak anymore because I am not a big fan of red meat. It's ok once in a while, but I would choose chicken or pork over steak any day.

We decided that he would grill his steak and I would have chicken last night. We went to Nojaims (the little grocery store we have in town) and Dave picked out the biggest T-bone steak he could find. After the steak was cooked it was still big enough to fill an entire dinner plate. He ended up waking up with heartburn in the middle of the night because of this huge steak, but he says it was worth it. The baked potato went uneaten because he filled himself with steak.

Next came dessert which Dave insist is his new favorite. It all started last week when when we had baked potatoes. I had a speck of sour cream on my finger and when I licked it off it gave me a flashback of something that had sour cream in it that I loved. Sometimes it is a smell, sometimes a flavor, and sometimes it is a deja vu feeling that I get. I could not pin point what this memory was. Yesterday out of the blue I blurted out "Chocolate Chip Cheesecake". The cheesecake in question has a slight tartness from the sour cream in it. From that moment I had to have it and I had to have it now. The only problem is that I had no idea where the recipe was because I had only made it once or twice and it had been at least 15 years since I had last had it. I Googled all that I could remember and found the recipe. The first bite reminded me of my teenage years when I first made this recipe. I don't remember where I got the recipe, but it was so good that I remembered it. It is possible it was on a bag of Toll House chocolate chips.

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Estimated Times:
Preparation - 20 min | Cooking - 55 min | Cooling Time - 2 hrs refrigerating | Yields - 16 servings

Ingredients:

CRUST
1 1/2 cups crushed chocolate sandwich cookies (about 15)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels, divided

FILLING
2 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 300° F.

COMBINE cookie crumbs with butter in medium bowl until moistened; press onto bottom of ungreased 9-inch springform pan. Sprinkle with 1 cup morsels.

BEAT cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until smooth. Beat in eggs and flour. Gradually beat in evaporated milk and sour cream. Pour over crust. Sprinkle with remaining morsels.

BAKE for 25 minutes. Cover loosely with foil.

BAKE for an additional 30 to 40 minutes or until edge is set but center still moves slightly. Place in refrigerator immediately; refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Remove side of springform pan.

NOTE: Cheesecake may be baked in 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Prepare as above. Bake in preheated 300° F. oven for 20 minutes. Cover loosely with foil. Bake for an additional 20 to 30 minutes.

NOTE FROM PATTI: I used a regular 9" pie pan and it came out just fine. Sure it is prettier when using the springform pan, but it all taste the same going down.

Sunday's Random Thoughts

2008-07-13T13:42:00.002-04:00

The plan for the day was to cut the grass and take Tater to her weight pull event. Never plan outdoor events in Central New York because it will only make it rain. It has rained non-stop since we woke up. Hopefully Mother Nature is getting it out of her system because next weekend is the Syracuse Nationals. So much time is spent making these cars shine in the sun and look perfect. It would be a shame for them to get rained on.

I love the "For Dummies" series of books. There are so many subjects covered and they are all written in plain English with helpful hints and easy to follow instructions. I am currently reading Home Buying for Dummies. I have read several of these books on everything from computer software programs, cooking Mexican food, and investing. If I need a book on a subject, if there is a "For Dummies" book on the subject, it is usually the one I will start with.

Tonight is the start of Big Brother 10. Big Brother is one of my summer guilty pleasures. To my surprise, Dave started watching it with me. I didn't think it would be something that he is into, but he may be slightly more addicted than I am. There have been talks about signing up for the live Internet feeds this summer. I have done that before and I am hesitant. Once you start the live feeds you end up staying up all night just because you are afraid you will miss something. The Big Brother house is located in Studio City, California, so all the action is on West Coast time. I was living in California while I was watching the Internet feeds and I was up until at least 4am every night. Being on the East Coast would make it much more difficult to watch. I think I will stick to the live updates at JokersUpdates.com where people with live feeds type everything that happens as it happens. They also provide video and pictures through out the day. Yes, it is a sickness, but one that many reality TV show fans share.

This is my last week at ReMax. I am sad to be leaving because there are so many great people that work there, but I know I will run into them again being in the same industry. Hopefully working for the competition at Gallinger RealtyUSA won't change the relationship. I have not mentioned the company names until now because I wasn't an agent until this week. There is part of me that isn't comfortable putting so much information about myself out on the Internet for all to see, but I need to get over that. The fact that people can find out so much and know so much about me hopefully brings me customers. This paragraph is a bit of a "coming out" post. Soon my face will be posted on the linked website and many others. I used to enjoy having a very common name which made it very hard to find anything about me on a Google search. Now, I hope that people find me and having Smith as a last name only makes it harder to stand out in the crowd. Anonymity is dead.

From inside the Liverpool Library

2008-07-09T13:43:00.004-04:00

I am currently sitting inside the Liverpool, New York library. I am making up for all the times I told my mom that I was going to the library and went to do something I shouldn't be doing instead.

Why am I here? Because they have free Internet and air conditioning. I found that during my two hour lunch break (don't be jealous, it isn't paid time off) I can go to the library and use it as my home office. It's cool, mostly quiet, and it's free. It doesn't get any better than that.

There is a woman sitting across from me that is looking at houses online with her husband. I can overhear her pointing to the different features of the house and claiming that there is no street or price listed. I have the tools to give her all the information that she is looking for. I wish I had business cards ready because I could slip her one over the desk and send her to my business website. I will be at that point soon, but at the moment I am a sitting duck.

There are two kids to my left and one to my right. They are all surfing Myspace. I logged on to my Myspace just to feel like I am not an old lady. I think I am still cool even if I am old enough to be their mom. Yikes, I just typed that and it gave me the chills.

Just wanted to check in because I can. Hope everyone is having a good week. Happy Hump Day.

- the red head at the library that smells like dog.

Life in Fast Forward

2008-07-07T11:24:00.003-04:00

We had a very relaxing 4th of July weekend. It started with a bon fire and a delicious bbq at a friend's house. Saturday was spent boating on Skaneateles Lake and Sunday was spent driving around visiting open houses. When I went to bed last night I was dreading going back to work today.

I was woken up by a phone call that my real estate license had come in. It is official, I am a licensed New York Real Estate Agent. The ball is now in motion. Once I got into work I had to type up my resignation letter because I can not be an agent for one broker while working for another broker. I called to set up an appointment with a local photographer to have my head shot taken for business cards, and scheduled training with my new broker. All of this happened by 9am. The hurry up and wait game started a while ago and I am currently in the hurry to get started. Then I just wait for my first customer.

It's a good thing I decided to take it easy over the three day weekend because I don't see things slowing down for a while. Wish me luck.

Get well soon

2008-07-04T10:45:00.003-04:00

This was our cherry tree last year. There were more cherries on it then we knew what to do with. We were prepared this year and asked everyone we knew if they would like some cherries.

Unfortunately the cherries went from almost ripe to rotten in a matter of four days. On a Sunday they were still a little yellow and by Thursday the fruit was black and covered with flies.

After looking around online it appears that the cherry trees have brown rot. I guess our cherries will have to come from the store until we can figure out how to nurse the tree back into health. With the rising food prices it looks like there will be no cherry pie, cherry ice cream, or black forest cake this year.

Syracuse Polish Festival

2008-06-28T10:54:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we went to the 54th Annual Syracuse Polish Festival. Neither of us are of Polish decent, but we both enjoy Polish cuisine. We frequent Eva's European Sweets on Milton Avenue and would eat there every day if we could. Eva's had a booth at the festival and there was a line to get food at all times. This was a sample platter from Eva's Booth.

Starting from the left side of the plate:
Pierogi - A dumpling of unleavened dough stuffed with potato, cheese, and onions. It was topped with homemade sauerkraut.
Kielbasa -Traditional Polish Sausage.
Gołąbki - Boiled cabbage leaves stuffed with ground beef, onion, and rice. It is normally cooked in a spicy tomato sauce, but there wasn't much on the golabki pictured. It probably doesn't transfer well out on the street, but in the restaurant it has a lot more sauce.
Bigos - Bigos is also called "Hunters Stew" and considered to be the Polish national dish. There is no standard recipe and everyone makes it different. I have only had Eva's version of bigos and I don't see how it could be improved, but I am willing to try others just to be sure. Eva's describes their bigos as a hearty stew made of sauerkraut, sweet cabbage, kielbasa, ham, beef, bacon, mushrooms, and onions cooked in a light tomato sauce. Just typing the description made my mouth water.
This was all washed down with a Zywiec, a polish beer.

Another favorite vendor at the Polish Festival was the Ski's booth. In talking with their employees I was told that they traveled to the festival from the Detroit area. They were selling giant pierogi, potato pancakes with applesauce and sour cream, chicken and dumpling soup, and Polish noodles. Dave loved the polish noodles and he said they were the best thing he tried at the festival.

We were enjoying sitting in the sun, eating our meal and watching the traditional Polish dancing when suddenly the winds picked up and and the sky went black. Vendors had to hold down their booths and tables as the strong winds picked up anything that wasn't held down. People ran for cover as the sky unleashed and buckets of rain soaked the event. While standing under a tent I looked over to see the dancers continue to dance. They did not stop dancing until the music was shut off due to the lightening coming down.

The storm was enough to make us stay under the tent rather than head back to the car. We stood with other festival goers watching the sky for an hour waiting for it to pass.

The sun emerged and people came out from under tents and out of the building doorways. The show went on without missing a beat. When living in Central New York you learn to just stay put because the weather changes from minute to minute. You never know what to expect, so have sunblock, an umbrella, and ice scrapper handy at all times.

Here are some pictures of the Polish dancing.

The Simple Things in Life

2008-06-22T22:16:00.003-04:00

My mom used to always say that she could spend hundreds of dollars on toys for us kids, but we would still rather play with pots and pans or even better- dirt! The simple things in life are often the most amusing.

I was at a birthday party today where kids were running around and having a blast. There was a pile of dirt with Tonka trucks. These were the old metal ones, not the plastic ones that kids today have because they might hurt themselves. We played with the big metal trucks and we managed to make it through childhood without any major Tonka dump truck disasters. Seeing the trucks in the dirt reminded me of when our family would get together and the kids would all be playing in the dirt at Aunt Mary's house. I didn't see any of the kids today playing with the trucks. They were playing with plastic shovels in the dirt and dodging marshmallows that were being shot at them from a homemade pvc marshmallow shooter. Everything these kids were playing with cost under a dollar to buy or make. Parents spend thousands of dollars on high tech toys and video games each year and it is a complete waste. All a kid needs is their imagination to entertain themselves.

I recently saw another toy that reminded me of my childhood. Our homemade Romper Stompers kept us busy for hours. Mom made ours out of old metal Foldgers coffee cans and string. This is today's version of Romper Stompers that carry a $59.99 retail price.

This is my current simple form of entertainment. Bubbles alone are not enough to entertain kids these days, so they made bubble guns and automatic bubble makers. Brooke loves to play with bubbles, so we decided to buy a bubble gun. I don't know who was more amused, her or us.

Raw Feeding

2008-06-16T21:54:00.002-04:00

My dogs love raw feeding! They eat kibble for breakfast and raw food for dinner on most night.

A couple weeks ago I was telling my mom about the 40 pound package of chicken backs that I had just purchased at the meat market. She asked what I was going to make with chicken backs. I informed her that I was feeding it to the dogs. Like most people her response was, "You can't get dogs chicken bone." You can feed bones to animals provided they are not cooked. Cooking the bones is what makes them splinter.

If done right and you buy meat and organ meat on sale it can actually be cheaper than premium commercial dog food. There is a local meat market here that makes special orders and he told me that there has been a rise in people feeding raw food to their animals after the recent pet food recalls. If you want even cheaper prices you can search your area for a raw feeding co-op group.

If anyone in the Syracuse area is interested in feeding raw there are some great options out here. Mazzye's Meat in Liverpool will do special orders. Sweet Grass Farms has a booth at the Regional Market and sells meadow fed meats and even has a line of dog bones and marrow bones at great prices. If the bones are too much to handle, there are a couple raw companies that sell prepackaged ground meat and bones that looks like ground beef. Doggie Daze Bakery in the Regional Market has a huge variety of raw products and premium supplements. They get bonus points for being pit bull lovers. Even P&C recently started selling raw products, although they are very pricey.

This is for you, mom. Please ignore the Brady Bunch floor and the loud dishwasher.

A tornado?!?

2008-06-16T16:20:00.005-04:00

The phone has been ringing off the hook at work all afternoon with people calling to let us know that there is a tornado headed straight for us in Camillus. I looked out the window and there didn't seem anything to be alarmed about. Within minutes the sky turned black, the thunder rattled the windows and it started pouring down rain. There was a tornado on the radar, but it was never seen.
I am told that we don't normally get tornadoes in Central New York, but then I hear stories about the tornado that hit the New York State Fair in 2004. I researched on the Internet to find out more about the twister and found this on the archives at USAtoday...

"At least seven people were injured at the fair and 20 buildings severely damaged in Syracuse, leaving about 140 students homeless from the early morning storm.

Andre Duclair, a first-year law student at Syracuse University, was in one of those buildings that had roofs blown off, windows shattered or floors collapsed.

"It blew out the windows and the ceiling fell on my head," said Duclair. "I didn't know when it was going to stop."

The National Weather Service determined that it was not a tornado that struck the fair, which was canceled for Labor Day, but straight-line winds of about 100 mph."

It may not have been a tornado, but winds that can do that much damage is pretty scary. Thankfully the tornado warning today turned out to be nothing more than a free car wash.

Here is some video from later in the night.

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T23:16:00.004-04:00

Thomas Edison has been credited with saying "You Don't Have To Start With A Finished Product." I have to keep repeating that to myself when I feel overwhelmed. I have brilliant ideas for my new website, but I am having trouble getting it implemented. I am compiling data, researching different web products, designing the website, and trying to teach myself how to build a website. I am dipping into areas of the internet that I never knew existed. My webmaster/ boyfriend has been pulled onto a couple other projects that have deadlines, so I am trying to get everything up and running.

This weekend has been all work and very little play. We have both been working late hours which leaves the house a disaster. The weekend was spent cutting grass, scrubbing toilets, washing laundry, and cleaning the kitchen. We also made dinner tonight to celebrate Father's Day with Dave's parents. The menu was london broil, caprese, spinach roll ups, fresh fruit, and peach cobbler for dessert. It was a great, healthy meal and everything turned out perfect.

If you are ever looking for a quick appetizer that everyone seems to love, you have to try these spinach roll ups.

SPINACH ROLL UPS

INGREDIENTS:
* 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
* 1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix
* 1 cup mayonnaise
* 1 cup sour cream
* 1/2 cup real bacon bits
* 3 tablespoons chopped onions
* 1 package of large flour tortillas (TIP: The bigger the tortillas the less you
have to roll.)

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine spinach, ranch mix, mayonnaise, sour cream, bacon bits and onion. Spread the mixture onto each tortilla and roll it up. Refrigerate the rolled tortillas until ready to serve.
2. Slice each roll-up into 1 inch servings no more than 3 hours before serving.

Dave has recently started using a new marinade on the beef we cook on the grill. The recipe is originally for skirt steak, but for some reason we can only find one store out here that has skirt steak without making a special order. I have come to the conclusion that this is why there is no real carne asada in this area. We have tried this recipe on london broil also and it is my current favorite way to eat meat. This marinade recipe comes from Alton Brown of The Food Network.

SKIRT STEAK MARINADE
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
4 scallions, washed and cut in 1/2
2 large cloves garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar or Mexican brown sugar
2 pounds inside skirt steak, cut into 3 equal pieces

In a blender, put in oil, soy sauce, scallions, garlic, lime juice, red pepper, cumin, and sugar and puree. In a large heavy duty, zip top bag, put pieces of skirt steak and pour in marinade. Seal bag, removing as much air as possible. Allow steak to marinate for 1 hour in refrigerator.

This is where we stop following Alton's recipe and just throw it on the grill. In Alton's recipe you cook the meat directly on hot coals. I can't say I have ever seen a recipe that calls for the use of a hair drier. This is one of the many reasons why we love Alton Brown.

Hope all the dads out there had a wonderful day.

Nothing beats the smell of wet dog.

2008-06-10T21:19:00.005-04:00

This morning as I drove into work it was 85 degrees. This was at 6:30am. Thankfully they just installed air conditioning at daycare last week. I don't even want to know what it cost to air condition a large warehouse, but I am thankful. By 8am we had all the dogs inside because the heat was too much for the canines and humans alike. We decided to bring the swimming pools out of storage and put them to good use. My camera only takes 15 second videos and I got a few poor quality pictures, but it absolutely made my day to see them splashing around in the pools. There were four pools set up and they were all full of happy dogs.

I try not to pick favorites at work, but that little Boston Terrier is my buddy. She has this look and whine that she does that can make me do anything she wants. I call her my miniature pit bull.

Two hours after these pictures were taken the clouds started rolling in. We have had thunderstorms and pouring rain on at off all afternoon. The rain brought the temperature down to 70 degrees. As I was driving home the sun was shining, the rain was pouring down and there was a rainbow in my rear view mirror.

Lebanon Valley Raceway

2008-06-10T17:44:00.000-04:00

Dave and I had a great time this weekend at Lebanon Valley Raceway in West Lebanon, New York. The extreme temperatures were not ideal for racing, but everyone had a great time. Dave's car ran great, but he had a slight case of premature acceleration at the tree and red lit in the first round by -.002. It wasn't what he hoped for, but he was able to make three passes on the track with his new transmission, so it was worth the trip.

The best part of the day was that the winner of the race was a woman. She was the only woman competing and she out-raced 16 men to be the winner of not only the race, but she also won the Big Dog Challenge. This was the first time that a woman has won in this series. It is fitting that a woman won this race since this race track is one of the tracks that Shirley Muldowney "The First Lady of Drag Racing" began her career at. If you get a chance, you should pick up Heart Like A Wheel which was recently released on dvd. The movie is about Shirley and her story of becoming the leading lady of drag racing and one of NHRA'sgreatest drivers.

Our trip would not have been possible without the help of good friends. Our dog sitter didn't work out and we had to call for back up. Thank you Big D and family for everything you do.

The little kids in their Junior Gangsters were awesome. It was great to see so many young girls involved in drag racing. There two were around nine years old and had probably been racing for years.

Marcellus Olde Homes Days

2008-06-05T23:46:00.004-04:00

I received a comment about leaving Marcellus Olde Home Days off the schedule of events this weekend. I forgot that was also this weekend until tonight. I was driving into the village and saw the carnival rides being pieced together. I don't know how I could forget about it when there have been signs up for weeks and it is all anyone around here talks about.

I hear Saturday is the best day to go to this three day event. That is when the parade and vendors are out on Main street. I am hoping to make it home on Saturday in time for the fireworks. I would love to see them, but I am also worried about how the dogs will react to the noise.

Reading the list of events for Olde Homes Days I am reminded that I am in Small Town America. I know who is working the flag sale at the American Legion (please buy a flag and support your local veterans). I know someone who couldn't go to the race this weekend because they are in the parade, and I have the pleasure of knowing the grand marshal of this years parade and their wonderful son (Hi, D). I couldn't name three people who lived in last California city I lived in. I have only been here a year and I know more people who live in my area. I may not know them by name, but I know of them, where they work, and usually where they live.

It reminds me of a Miranda Lambert song called "Famous in a Small Town".

They say life is so much sweeter
through the telephoto lens of fame
around here you get just as much attention
cheerin' at the high school football game

I dreamed of going to Nashville
Put my money down and placed my bet
But I just got the first buck of the season
I made the front page of the Turnertown Gazette

Every last one, route one, rural hearts got a story to tell
Every grandma, in law, ex girlfriend
Maybe knows it just a little too well
Whether you're late for church or you're stuck in jail
Hey words gonna get around
Everybody dies famous in a small town"

The weekend is almost here!

2008-06-05T13:18:00.003-04:00

I figured out how to make my blog into an RSS feeder for all of those who don't use Mozilla Firefox. Subscribing to this blog can now be done at the click of a button. Learning this little trick has brought me closer to Web 2.0.

I called in sick to work for the first time ever today. I woke up and have a pinched nerve in my back that makes even breathing painful. I have so many things to do in order to prepare for the weekend, but so far nothing has been done.

I found a pet sitter that is willing to come take care of the dogs on Saturday, so now I get to go with Dave to the race this weekend. I have sat out on quite a few races because I couldn't leave the dogs for that long. The race is out towards Albany, New York which is uncharted territory for me. I am excited to see new parts of the state. The camera is charging as I type.

You can tell when summer hits because there seems to be so much going on every weekend that you are forced to choose between events. This weekend there is a Greek Festival at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church in Syracuse. This weekend is also the Taste of Syracuse Festival in Clinton Square. Saturday is booked with the race, but on Sunday I would love to make it to one of these two events. Next weekend is the 29th annual Heineken 93Q Balloon Fest at Jamesville Beach Park. There is so much to do and so little time that there are even events during the week. I am starting to understand why people hibernate during the winter. Not only because the weather is bad, but because they have to relax after having such a busy summer schedule.

Break out the pocket protectors.

2008-06-02T22:56:00.010-04:00

You are all about to find out what a real nerd I am. Three simple computer components have made my life so much easier. These things are about the equivalent of what Tivo did for the way I watch tv. I think I may love these things almost as much as Tivo. These may actually be better because they are FREE! I swear I am not being paid to promote these products....... but I should be.

These are a few of my favorite things....

MOZILLA FIREFOX

Mozilla Firefox is an alternative to Internet Explorer. There are many features on Mozilla that make it superior to Internet Explorer, but they have a built-in as-you-type spell checker. Since the invention of spell checker my spelling abilities have gone down the drain. With Mozilla I know the second I have a typo. The only problem I have is that when I go into work I forget to manually spell check documents before sending them.

iGoogle!

iGoogle is a way to personalize the Google.com search page. I have had Google as my homepage for years, but now I can add gadgets and themes to my personalized Google page. I can add news, clocks, calenders, joke of the day, Mapquest, calculators, and a day planner to the front page. There are thousands of gadgets to choose from and you design the page that you want to look at all the time. You can also add RSS feeds to your front page. RSS is my next favorite thing.

RSS Subscriptions!

RSS is a feed reader or a subscription. Some pages will have this icon located within the webpage. When you click on it, you are subscribing to the page. Anytime there is an update, you will be notified. There are many ways to be notified. When you click on the icon it will give you options as to where you want the subscription sent. I send all of my subscriptions to either my Google reader or to my iGoogle homepage. So what does this all mean? This means that instead of going through my book marks to read each and every blog I am now notified as the page is updated. This means that those of you who check this blog daily looking for an update (Hi, Mom!) would be alerted the minute I post. Here is where my love for Mozilla Firefox comes back into play. When using another browser, you have to search a page for the RSS logo to add the feed. Firefox lets you know there is a feed by putting the RSS logo in the address bar. You can click the address bar, tell it where to alert you and be done with it. No more bookmarks and checking in to see if there has been an update. This has come in handy with the 5,000 real estate blogs I have been reading.

And that concludes this episode of geek speak.

Who needs sleep?

2008-06-01T02:10:00.003-04:00

It is 2:30am and while most sane people are sleeping, I am up. A few years ago partying until the early morning hours would have meant nothing, but now it seems I have to stay up late because there just aren't enough hours in the day. Beware: the following may be sleep deprived babble.

I have been doing a lot of real estate research lately and the majority of it is numbers and statistics. My brain is full and I have only scratched the surface. Market analysis, SEOs, website builds, marketing strategies, mortgage calculators, and listing presentations are making my head spin. One day I will have a client that will benefit from all of this. As of right now I have signed with a local real estate broker and I have applied for my license. I need to schedule an appointment next week with a photographer to take my business card picture. It's hard to believe that this is actually happening. Up until this point I have only been thinking about getting started and I am now making it happen.

Aside from getting my business started and working two jobs, Dave and I decided that Memorial Day weekend was the perfect time to start a home improvement project. We spent three days moving furniture, prepping the walls and painting the living room and entry hallway. It came out great and it was decided that new flooring was needed. There is a huge difference between what we want and what we can afford, so we added price shopping and flooring options to our "to do" list. There are just too many options out there right now.

This is the closest sample I can find of the colors we used. The first color is what we put in the living room and we put the tan color in the entry hallway. We looked at paint samples for months, but we couldn't agree on a color. We liked this color and like it even more on the walls. Depending on the light in the room the color looks either blue, green, or gray.

I found a gallon of this color on the "WHOOPS" shelf at Lowes. When they don't match a paint color right or if someone is not happy with the way it turned out they mark down the price in order to sell it. It was a great quality paint that normally sells for $43 a gallon and it was marked down to $3. Not only that, but when I got to the counter they charged me full price for it. Thanks to Lowes policy about items ringing up incorrectly, they also took off an additional 10%. A 10% discount off $3.00 isn't much, but it was just the icing on the cake for this penny pincher.

I suppose I should go to bed now. I have bored myself with this blog entry, so I am sure I have done the same for all three of you who actually read this.

Witty Title Here

2008-05-18T11:56:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we were able to participate in the Downtown Living Tour. This parade of homes were all living spaces in the downtown Syracuse area. The Masonic Temple, The Hotel Syracuse, and old firehouse, The Syracuse Trust Building, and the old Central New York Telephone and Telegraph Company have all been turned into living spaces. Living spaces is an understatement. It is amazing what has been done with these 19th century buildings. Next year I will have to bring the camera. I was able to get one good picture outside The Hotel Syracuse. It is just a small example of the beautiful craftsmanship found downtown.

A couple weeks ago I went out in the yard and took pictures of the spring flowers in bloom. I finally have the pictures uploaded for your enjoyment.

Daffodils

I have no clue what these are called.

Cherry Blossoms

The lonely Tulip

Snowball- Guardian of the lonely tulip

I shall title this one "Sweet Revenge". My arms may be covered in black fly bites, but I think I won this battle. Pay no attention to the California plates that are still on my truck.

Speaking of plates. Dave got away with these plates for six months before he was told they were unacceptable. They are proudly mounted on his shed.

Happy Anniversary, New York

2008-05-16T14:25:00.004-04:00

As of today I have been in New York for one year. It has been interesting to say the least. I was going through this blog and seeing everything that has happened in the last year and it feels like I have been here forever. I have met many great people, made a lot of new friends, and have learned a much different way of life. I can honestly say that I will not be moving back to California any time soon or ever.

This week we not only bought our plane tickets for our vacation to Minneapolis, but we got an amazing deal. The average plane ticket out of Syracuse would have cost over $500 each. I found that by driving an hour to Rochester we can get a much cheaper flight. We found tickets for $189. Part of me thinks it was a typo and we should be getting a call any day from Orbitz telling us that we need to purchase new tickets. Until that happens, I will do a happy dance. I was worried that we would only be able to go on vacation if we started selling ourselves to science and donating body fluids.

I also purchased my first domain names this week. I haven't done anything with them yet, but I am the proud owner of www.CNYhousehunters.com and SYRACUSEhousehunters.com. I have learned a lot working at a local real estate company in the past year and I am almost ready to hit the ground running. I feel that seeing what works and what doesn't work will give me a slight edge. I have been working towards this goal for a year now and it is nice to finally be at the starting line.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Syracuse Downtown Living Tour. The tour takes you through old buildings that used to be banks,hotels, churches, and firehouses that have been rezoned into apartments, lofts, and condos.

I love my job!

2008-05-02T18:20:00.002-04:00

Don't tell my boss, but I would probably do my job for free. Of course there are days that I wish I was sitting in an office surfing the Internet like most people (you know who you are). 50-80 dogs a day and while some of them may look alike, they all have completely different personalities. My job is to know their personalities, know how they will react to situations and keep them happy. Of course there is the clean up aspect of it, but you would be surprised the thing found in dog poop. There are good days and bad days, but it even a bad day isn't all that bad when you are surrounded by these faces.

You will have to excuse the quality of the pictures, but they are from my phone and they don't sit still for long.

The little things in life.

2008-05-02T17:44:00.006-04:00

We hit 2000 visitors to this blog.

Last weekend we had to cut the grass for the first time this year. The grass is making up for lost time because it needs to be done again this weekend. While I was out there I took some pictures of the flowers that have popped up in the yard. We have one single tulip and dandelions as far as the eye can see. I took a few pictures and I will try to upload them this weekend. I could probably go take new pictures because it seems everyday there are more flowers and different things popping up.

While out in the yard I learned a valuable lesson about Central New York. Just because the sun comes out it doesn't mean you should stop covering yourself from head to toe. I have been covering my arms with anti-itch lotion all week because 33 black flies ate at Patti buffet. I look like I have chicken pox or measles. Also if the sun comes out you should enjoy it while it last because it can go from 70 degrees to cold and rainy in a matter of minutes.

In two weeks I will have been in New York for a year. As far as the weather changes go, I think I have seen it all. I am told this winter was pretty mild, but I have nothing to compare it to. The locals told me I would head back to California as soon as winter came. I stuck it out and I am still here and I don't regret a single thing. The only thing I miss is nice weather and Mexican food. That's what vacations are for, right?

I like bullet points

2008-04-18T13:12:00.003-04:00

* I passed the New York State Exam!!! Now all I need is a broker and enough money to get started. The broker isn't a problem, but Uncle Sam just cleaned me out this week, so the second part will be a work in progress.

* I was urinated on by a Saint Bernard at work this week. I think that means he likes me. He is lucky he is cute.

* Yesterday it was 75 degrees out. I actually turned on the air conditioning in my car.

* Dave made Caprese last night because I currently addicted to it. As always, the fresher the ingredients, the better.

Insalata Caprese

8 oz ball of fresh mozzarella
2 ripe medium tomatoes
1/4 C basil leaves (packed)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

We just use really good Italian dressing instead of the oil and vinegar because I think it gives it more flavor even if it isn't authentic. You can layer the ingredients or just toss them in a bowl. Just make sure the tomato and cheese are the same size whether you slice it or chop it. So light, so easy, and so delicious.

* We don't really have plans for the weekend, but if the weather stays nice we may have to skip the usual housework and find something to do.

* Only four months until the Minnesota State Fair. For some reason the New York State Fair and the Minnesota State Fair run at the same time for the past two years. Last year we went to the one in New York and this year it will be Minnesota. Minnesota is supposed to have one of the best state fairs in the country. We might have to spend a couple days there. I might need to start fasting now to prepare to eat many foods "on a stick". The Iowa fair has been named the best of the best. That will have to wait until 2009.

Pull....Dig.....Pull

2008-04-14T14:56:00.003-04:00

I was cruising Craigslist a couple weeks ago and found an ad for a dog pull that was happening this weekend through CanineCultureCNY.com and decided it would be fun to try. We gathered a few of our pit bull rescue friends and we were off.

Sue came out with her beefcake Quinn.

Jeremy and Jodi made the trip from Rochester with Tiffany. Tiffany was a natural and was so excited that she would jump as she pulled. Here she is in the middle of her jump.

Melissa and Dozer showed up fashionably late, but it worked out because Dozer just wanted to sleep.

Tater had a blast and did awesome. She came in 5th place in her weight class by pulling 308 pounds. The pulls are held once a month and there is a good chance we will be going back next month with Brooke.

The star of the show was a 12 pound terrier who managed to pull 188 pounds. This was the smallest dog in the group, but she had her heart in it and finished strong.

Thank you Lisa for putting on a wonderful event. If anyone in the Syracuse area is interested in taking their dog to next months pull, please contact Lisa at 315-280-0107 or visit www.canineculturecny.com.

Flip flops have made their 2008 debut.

2008-04-07T13:28:00.004-04:00

This weekend was absolutely beautiful. It was 60 degrees and the sun was shining. All housework was ignored in order to be outside. I packed away the sand bags out of my truck and the snow shovels. The storm windows are up and the heater turned off. Hopefully we have seen the last of those items for a while.

Saturday morning started off with transporting a boxer puppy named Briggs from Rochester to Liverpool. This little guy was making the 420 mile journey from Buffalo, NY to Meridian, CT. I picked him up in Rochester and drove him to the meet up spot in Liverpool where the next person picked him up. Mr. Briggs changed hands six times and finally made it to his new home. He went to sleep in the car for me and was a perfect snoring angel.

I got home around noon and I was ready for the 1st Annual Crawfish Festival. The Beatles cover band, The Fab Five hit the stage at 2:00 and I was not disappointed. The band was great and we will be going to future gigs.

I am sure the food at the Crawfish Festival was good, but I wouldn't know. By 2:00 the line to get crawfish was down the street and at least an hour wait to get food. Dinasour BBQ had run out of food and was packing up to leave. The only other options were some nasty looking pizza, hot dogs, or funnel cake. There was beer and wine, but neither of us wanted to drink on an empty stomach. We decided to listen to the music, people watch, watch how the crawfish were prepared and then head out to get food somewhere else. Next year we will know to get there earlier. I don't think the event coordinators were expecting such a large crowd. The weather was perfect and people were looking for something to do and they all ended up at Hanover Square.

Six turkey fryers were running with what appeared to be a mixture of water and Zatarans Cajun Seasoning. The live crawfish were stirred into the pot with a boat oar and boiled for 30 minutes. After a half hour they were floating at the top of the pot. Massive amounts of salt were added to the pot followed by ice to shock them.

The sport of people watching.

2008-04-07T11:33:00.002-04:00

The Crawfish Festival was a great place to people watch. Here are some pictures of the crowd and the sights.

Beautiful blue skies

These boys were so funny. I looked over and saw them picking "soldiers" to go into battle before being eaten. There were many techniques being used to eat crawfish, but these boys had the most entertaining method.

The Baldwinsville High School Jazz Band.

The extremely intoxicated guy who thought he was the 6th Beatle. He stood in front of the stage lip singing into his hands and dancing as if he had live crawfish down his pants.

Here he is doing the twist with a woman who obviously lost a bet with her friends and this was her punishment.

The woman who could barely stand yet managed to lip sing every song while making up her own version of sign language to go along with the song. Standing got to be too difficult, so she decided to sit/fall down.

The fountain dance.

The Fab Five

April 1st

2008-04-04T14:40:00.004-04:00

Many know April 1st as April Fools Day, but here in Central New York it means something else. It means fishing season has begun. I was headed to work Tuesday morning and there were cars parked all along the road. I had no idea what was going on until I came to the Nine Mile Creek parking area where there were about 40 cars and a news van. There were men standing along the creek with their fishing poles and there has been a constant flow of people standing there since April 1st.

The weather has been warming up, the snow has melted away and Spring is in the air. There are quite a few signs that winter is gone. For starters the "honey truck" has been making quite a few trips down our street. The "honey truck" is a dump truck filled with cow pies that they spread on the farm land across the street. Even if didn't see the honey truck, you know it has been there by the smell in the air.

The pancake breakfast signs are popping up in every town. There is a pancake breakfast, fish fry, or clam bake in every town to support the local fire stations. I enjoyed my fist pancake breakfast at the Borodino Fire Department last year. All you can eat for just $5 and they are held every 3rd Sunday of the month during the summer. You could probably drive around and eat at a different firehouse every week. Good food, a good deal, and the money goes to a good cause.

Once the snow melted away, it unearthed 5 months worth of dog crap. I keep hoping for heavy rains that will melt it all into the yard, but it would take a lot of rain and we would probably just end up getting flooded and the poop would float to the top.

Hopefully the weather continues to be nice because this Saturday is the Operation Southern Comfort Crawfish Festival to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I plan to donate a lot of money in the form of crawfish, gumbo, and bbq purchases all while listening to cajun music and a Beatles cover band. I may be a little overly excited about this event. Camera is charging as I type.

It's a girl!

2008-03-29T11:30:00.005-04:00

The day after Thanksgiving we got a call about a female dog with her eight puppies that we had signed up to foster. They were pulled from a shelter in Long Island where they only had a few days left until they were scheduled to be put to sleep. Overnight we went from one dog to ten. In January the puppies were all spayed and neutered and ready to be adopted. Their mom, Brooke was on the back burner while the puppies were pushed because everyone wants young puppies. The older they get, the less adoptable they are. Once the puppies were all placed, it was Brooke's turn. I drug my feet and put off getting her spayed because I wasn't ready to let her go. I had every excuse in the book as to why she wasn't ready to be adopted. Dave wasn't much better. While I was trying to not get attached to Brooke or any of the puppies, on the second day they were here, Dave asked me which one I would keep if I had the chance. He chose Brooke. Brooke doesn't like cats and that was the only thing that was holding us back from keeping her. This week we had to make a decision and we have decided to keep her. Tater and Brooke love each other and get along great. We will work on the cat issue and keep Brooke and the cat separated at all times. Brooke is a great dog and used her charm and goofy ears to work her way into our family.

Brooke's Puppies

Brooke's first day here. You could see her spine and ribs because she was so thin. The little piggies latching on to her every time they saw her didn't help.

Sisters

Look at those ears!

East Coast Language 101

2008-03-20T10:09:00.003-04:00

This list continues to grow as I learn the language on this side of the country.

Salt Potatoes- Salt potatoes are a Syracuse food that most people have never heard of. In stores you can buy bags of salt potatoes. It is a bag of small white potatoes and a large bag of salt. You cook the potatoes in a pot of water that contains about 3 cups of salt. They are served with butter and are a side dish at many events and cook outs.

Cook Outs- We have always called them barbecues. It there was food on the grill, it was called a barbecue. Everyone here calls them cook outs. Dave tells me that if there are hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill it is called a cook out and if there is anything else on the grill it is a barbecue. When we had a barbecue in California, there was usually carne asada on the grill. I haven't been able to find carne asada in stores out here and they don't have carnicerias (Mexican meat markets). Side note: I just looked for a picture of carne asada at a carniceria and this is what came up which is slightly creepy.

Crumbly Bleu- When ordering a salad out here one of the options for salad dressing is crumbly bleu cheese dressing. It is bleu cheese on top of the salad and drizzled with Italian dressing. It has become my favorite way to eat salad. I haven't asked for it in other areas of the country, but I am assuming the waitress would give me the same blank expression that I gave when I first heard about it.

Lacrosse- Lacrosse is huge out here. Every school in this area has a lacrosse team and being on the lacrosse team is the equivalent to high school football in other areas. I have never seen lacrosse played and all I know is that there is a stick and a net. We grew up tossing around a football or playing baseball and the kids here are running around with sticks and many of them have nets in their yard to practice.

Basements- California does not have basements. I had never even been in a basement until visiting Colorado. Every house here has a basement or at least a crawl space. I may be wrong, but I believe it is because the base of the house needs to be below the frost line or else the base of the house would freeze and then melt causing the house to shift.

Sump Pump- Sump pumps are used to prevent the basement from flooding. All water around the basement drains into a sump pit. From there the sump pump pulls it out of the pit and pumps it out into the yard and away from the house.

Camp- Any cottage, cabin, lake house, or summer house.

Winterize- When the weather starts to get cold, you have to "winterize" your camp or summer home to prepare it for winter. You have to put down the storm windows, poor antifreeze into the drains to keep them from freezing and bursting, and turn off the gas and electricity. If your camp is on a lake you have to pull your dock out of the water and if your water supply comes from the lake you have to pull the intake hose out of it.If you have a swimming pool you have to "clos it" by draining the water level, clear all water out of the lines, disconnect the pump, and add pool grade antifreeze, and cover it.

Squall- The weathermen in this area love the word squall and they get very excited when they get to use it. A squall is a sudden violent gust of wind often attended with rain or snow. Black squall is a squall attended with dark, heavy clouds. Thick squall is a black squall accompanied by rain, hail, sleet, or snow. White squall is a squall which comes unexpectedly, without being marked in its approach by the clouds. Snow squall is an intermittent heavy snow shower that greatly reduces visibility. Needless to say, I don't like that word.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

2008-03-15T16:52:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I am back dating some entries. I have been too busy to make an entry into this blog, but that doesn't stop me from writing random phrases on a piece of paper regarding things I want to blog about.

Saint Patrick's Day is a huge event in Syracuse. There is a Shamrock Run through Tipperary Hill, a parade, and plenty of green beer flowing.

Tipp Hill is an old Irish area in the city and home of the "Green on top" traffic signal. Legend has it that back in the 1920's a traffic signal was installed at the corner of Tompkins Street and Milton Avenue. The local Irish were outraged that the British red was on top of the Irish green, so they threw rocks at the signal to break it. Every time the light was fixed, they would break it again. After replacing the lights many times, the Irish won and the green was placed on the top. It is the only signal today that has green on top.

We were unable to join in the festivities this year, but we did have the American tradition of corned beef and cabbage for dinner. It may not be the Irish thing to do, but it taste so good.

In like a lion...

2008-03-04T20:19:00.002-05:00

I am told there is an old saying that if March comes in like a lion it goes out like a lamb. If the saying is true then I can not wait for the lamb. In the past four days we have had almost a foot of snow, a sunny 55 degree day that melted the snow away, a wintery mix of snow and ice, rain, and freezing rain. I am officially ready for winter to be over even though people tell me that this winter has not been bad at all. I didn't even get a snow day. Living in the west we always heard that people didn't have to go to school or work if it was snowing. I can tell you that in Syracuse, that is not true. Reliable plows are a curse and a blessing.

I have taken pictures of the field across the street at the peak of every season. Once Spring is here, my collection will be complete.

Summer 2007

Fall 2007

Winter 2007/2008

It has been 10 month since I started this blog and today we hit 1600 views. Who would have thought anyone would want to read this garbage.

What does this mean?

2008-02-18T21:03:00.003-05:00

Dave and I went out to dinner in Auburn, NY the other night. We had to park around the corner from the pub because there was no where to park. As we got out of the truck, I spotted this.

Someone had a stencil of what appears to be a male version of the mud flap girl that they spray painted onto the side of a building.

I am sure there is some reason behind this or it is a promotion for something, but I can't find anything on it.

Take 2

2008-02-09T11:16:00.000-05:00

During the week I think of things to post on the blog, but finding time to actually post is hard to do. So today, you get two entries.

I have had two people this week tell me that my accent is cute. What?!? I have never been told that I have an accent. According to Dave it is a very slight accent, but it comes out when I say a word that has a double "O" in it. I think the people at work have picked on it because potty, poop, dottie (one of the dog's names) are part of my daily vocabulary at work. There are many phrases that you use at a dog daycare that you couldn't get away with at any other job. I can't tell you how many times a day I say, "No Humping", "Pee Outside", and "No Eating Poop!"

While out and about last weekend, I took some random pictures in the city along State Street.

This is probably one of my favorite buildings in Syracuse. It is the old Penfield Mattress Company. The mattress company closed in 2006 after 113 years in the business. There is a house on top of the mattress company. I am told that there are many stories as to why there is a house on top of the building. One story is that the owner lived in the house. Another story is that it was put there in order to fulfill some city zoning ordinance and yet another claims that the house is where all the elevator equipment and rafters. The history of the building can be found here .
Here are the pictures I was able to take without getting out of the truck because it was pouring rain.

Here is a good picture of the building that has been "borrowed" from a Google image search.

P.S. Friends in California, please send me some sun. I could really use it. Thank you.

Good Morning!

2008-02-09T10:04:00.000-05:00

While still not a morning person, I am being forced to wake up before sunlight lately. I would have said I have to wake up before the sun, but I haven't seen the sun in over a week. Waking up early for my new job which I absolutely love also forces me to wake up early on weekends. Last weekend we were awake by 8am on a Saturday which never happens. We decided to use it to our advantage and went to the Central New York Regional Market.

We had planned to just walk around and see what they had to offer. We figured there wouldn't be much out there since it is the middle of winter, but we had our hands full of goodies in the first building alone. We picked up fruits, vegetables, 4 year old extra sharp cheddar cheese, fresh churned butter, and kitchen utensils. The best buy was bulk meat and raw dog bones from Sweet Grass Farm.

Buda's Meat and Produce is like no other store I have been to. They have a variety of meats, cheeses, produce, and grocery store items. Many of their products are restaurant grade and many items are things you will find in ethnic grocery stores. There is a small catch to their great prices. Many of the items are either expired or soon to expire by regular grocery store standards. If you are looking for a five pound can of restaurant salad dressing, this is the place to go.

If you get hungry while shopping at the CNY Regional Market, there is a great little Mediterranean cafe and deli inside the strip mall. We feasted on gyros and moussaka which is a dish of layered vegetables and meat in a meat sauce. The one we had was beef, potato, and eggplant. Apparently the moussaka is a special because when I went back to get some during the week, they did not have any that day.

On the way home we remembered that we had bought the fresh churned butter and realized that we needed something to put the butter on. We made a slight detour to the Columbus Baking Company in Syracuse. This little store front is a blast from the past. You walk in and the smell of fresh baked bread hits you in the face. The entire bread making process is right in front of you. You can feel the heat from the brick ovens and the steam from the bread fogs up the windows (as you can see in the picture). This place sells the best Italian bread I have ever had. It doesn't get any better than fresh home churned butter on homemade bread.

I tried not to look like a tourist while taking this picture, but the man cleaning the steam off the window wasn't buying it.

Wooof!

2008-01-18T00:22:00.000-05:00

January 15th was a big day in our house.

We celebrated Dave's birthday with albondigas (Mexican meatball soup) and cupcakes.
The puppies were all spayed and neutered.
I started a new job at a Dog Daycare.

The new year has only just begun and it has started to shape up nicely. An additional income and we have already adopted out one of the puppies. One down and 8 to go. If anyone on the East Coast is looking for an adorable mix puppy, please email me. We have heard the puppies are shepard, pit, hound, and even great dane. No one knows for sure what they are, but they sure are cute. I will post new pictures soon.

The added bonus to my new job is that I get a discount on dog food. With 9 dogs in the house, we were going through at least 40 pounds a week in food. It wouldn't be bad if I were feeding cheap food, but these guys are eating better than we do.

I know this post is all about dogs, but they seem to be taking over my life lately. I am surrounded by 9 at home and a typical day at work involves 70 dogs. I look forward to going to my desk job where there is no mention of dogs, but of course I am cruising dog message boards even while I am at that job. I may need an intervention.

One more dog item and then I will shut up. There have been quite a few people who stumble on my blog by searching, "Dog ate ". There is an easy way to to retrieve your swallowed item. Give your dog one teaspoon of Hydrogen Peroxide per 10 pounds of body weight. Once given, walk your dog around or gently shake his stomach area to mix the peroxide with the stomach contents. Vomiting should occur within 15 to 20 minutes. If no vomiting occurs, you can repeat the three percent hydrogen peroxide once. This has saved us from going to the emergency vet more than once. Tater ate an entire stuffed animal shortly after her surgery and I was able to get it back with this method. Not only can it possibly save your dogs life, but it will also save you the $50 that the Poison Control hot line will charge you for this information.

Hope everyone's New Year is off to a great start.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T01:59:00.000-05:00

2008 is finally here. 2007 was insane with many life changing experiences and many first time adventures. I refuse to make New Years resolutions, but there are a few things that I would like to put on my TO DO list for 2008.

1. Find great homes for 9 out of 10 dogs in my house.
2. Go to Minneapolis to see my mom and her new house.
3. Go to New York City and explore more of the East Coast.
4. Finally unpack all of my moving boxes.
5. Paint at least 3 more rooms in the house.
6. Find a job that pays a wage I can actually live off of.
7. Get organized.
8. Get my RE license even if I don't put it to use for a while.
9. Finalize my plans for taking over the world.

One thing I can cross off the list is posting the recipe for Nuts and Bolts that everyone seems to be looking for. This recipe comes from Lydia who is my second favorite southern woman. She is only second because Paula Deen is the best thing south of the Mason Dixon.

I have made quite a few of Lydia's recipes and I have not been disappointed. Notice this recipe contains not only bacon drippings, but two sticks of butter. Gotta love southern women. Thank you, Lydia.

NUTS AND BOLTS

3/4 c. bacon drippings
2 sticks of butter, melt
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. seasoning salt
1 tbsp. red pepper
1 tbsp. Tabasco
3 tbsp. Lea & Perrins
4 c. Corn Chex
1 bag thin pretzels
1 lg. can peanuts
1 lb. pecans

Mix the first 7 ingredients in a saucepan. Pour over dry cereals, pretzels, peanuts and pecans. Toss and bake for 1 hour at 250 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes.

Thursday Night Randomness

2007-12-27T22:04:00.000-05:00

It is a Thursday night and all of my shows are playing reruns due to the writer's strike, so I will post a bunch of randomness for your enjoyment.

Thought #1
If anyone knows what chocolate covered nuts and bolts are, please let me know. My site meter tells me that many people stumble on my blog by searching for the recipe for nuts and bolts and low fat nuts and bolts.I am guessing it is a Christmas snack since the number of hits for the recipe has jumped in the past couple of weeks.

Thought #2
I can not tell you how proud I am of all the things my mother has learned since I have been gone. She has set up a router, learned to cook, uploaded pictures from her camera, programed the Tivo and many other things that she used to play dumb about in order to get me to do while I lived with her. She recently bought a townhouse and is getting ready to move in. She found moving boxes on Craigslist and was very proud of her find.
I received this email from her today and I laughed so hard that I was crying.

"so, I'm boxing up stuff with the boxes that I got from that girl on the
craiglist ad. she wrote the box contents on the top of the box (silly girl,
you're supposed to write it on the sides so that when you stack them, you'll
still know what's in them. so this one box top is marked: FRAGILE, then
lists plates, sippy cups, stemware and "vials of werewolf blood". WTF is
that for? she sorta looked like a normal person, had a baby about Drew's
age. werewolf blood? ewwww I should call and ask her."

Thought #3
I found a new addiction today. It is a game called Google Image Labeler. You are randomly paired up with another person online and you are shown pictures. You type words to describe the picture and when the two of you match a word, you are awarded points and given another picture. The goal is to have as many points as possible after two minutes. The labels that you give a picture help Google improve the relevance of image search for users. I know it sounds boring, but it is addictive. Dave is playing as I type this.

Thought #4
I am still waiting for these dogs to find new homes. We still have 10 dogs in the house and the puppies are growing like weeds. I took the pictures down on this blog and removed the name of the so called rescue because it turns out that they are not what they present themselves as. We are taking care of it and the issue will be resolved soon. Who knew that trying to help someone and help a mom dog and her puppies would turn out to be such an ugly and dirty thing. I will fill you in more once it is all over. For now I will leave you with a short video clip of the little monsters that have taken over my bathroom and have decided that the bathtub is a wonderful toilet.

Thought #5
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!
Love,
Patti, Dave & Tater

Happy Nor'Easter

2007-12-15T10:58:00.000-05:00

There is a northeastern storm coming. That is what the news channel keeps telling me. I'm not quite sure what it all means, but I am about to find out. We went to the grocery store last night and stocked up on food for a few days. That is the first time we have done that, so I am assuming it's going to be bad. The weather has dropped to 10 degrees and the windows are iced over. The storm is supposed to hit sometime tonight. I am hoping this is like storm watches in California where the weathermen get excited over nothing.

So far there has only been one snow event that had me ready to head back to Southern California. Last week we had about a foot of snow come down while I was at work. I wasn't prepared for it and had no choice but to drive home with white knuckles. The closer I got to home the more relaxed I got. That was until I got to the hill to get up to the house. My tires were spinning and no matter what I did, my back tires were drawn to the ditch on the side of the road. I had people stop and offer to jump in the back of my truck to add some weight to it, but at this point I was too frazzled, so I put my emergency flashers on and called Dave to come get me. I know, that is such a chick move, but I didn't know what to do and I didn't want to drive into the ditch in the first snow of the season. Unless I have to go to work, I stay home if it is snowing. I will get over it eventually, but I do not like driving in the snow.
Dave loves plowing with his tractor. It is still early in the season, so I am sure that will get old quickly.

I get to go to work tomorrow!

2007-11-25T19:56:00.000-05:00

My house is a zoo. I can't wait to go to work tomorrow where it is quiet, it doesn't smell like poop, and I can sit on my butt and do something other than feed dogs, clean up after dogs, or wrangle puppies. This is why they make puppies so cute because if they weren't, people wouldn't even bother.

10 dogs, 1 cat, 2 insane humans.

Time flies when you're having fun.

2007-11-24T09:37:00.002-05:00

I logged on here today and realized that it has been a month since I last posted. I thought once the weather got cooler that things would slow down, but there is no sign of that happening any time soon.

I finished my real estate course and now just need to take the NY State exam. I have a broker lined up and all I need to do is pass the state exam and get started. I am aiming for the beginning of 2008. I need to learn as much as I possibly can in the meantime. If anyone is looking to buy or sell a house, let me know.

Dave spent some time in Atlanta for the Super Southern Heavy Shootout. I couldn't get the time off to go, but it looks like everyone had a good time. The Apple Pie Moonshine was flowing in the south. Dave brought some home and it is good stuff.
Next year I am hoping we can both go. It isn't the Shootout that I am interested in though. I just want to go to Savannah and visit Paula Dean's restaurant.

When I uploaded the pictures from Atlanta there were quite a few pictures of the girls at Hooters, women with mullets, and people passing around what appears to be mason jars full of apple juice.. Here is one from the actual event.

Last weekend we went to Englishtown Raceway in New Jersey. It was the last race of the season. Dave placed in the top 20 for the season. We have decided to start visiting the local track more often to get in more practice runs. Yes, I said WE. there is a good chance that I will be making passes on the track at some point.
I drove the car home in the caravan from Jersey last weekend and I got the race fever. Driving a car with that much power is intoxicating. I enjoyed the drive home until I spotted a huge deer standing in the middle of the road. I had a buck in front of me and a 16 year old behind me with a big diesel truck and trailer without trailer breaks. Thankfully there was no oncoming traffic. I ended up on the wrong side of the road while the truck and trailer screeched past me with the truck breaks smoking. We were all a little shaken up, but everyone was fine. We drove a little slower the rest of the way home.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving a couple days ago. Dave's parents came over and we stuffed our faces. Everything turned out great and everyone enjoyed their first fried turkey. Frying a turkey in the snow is new to me.

If all of that wasn't enough excitement for one month, we had a special delivery last night. There was a mom and eight puppies in a shelter in Long Island. They hitched a ride to our house last night and have done nothing but poop and bark since they got here. It's a good thing they are adorable or I might not be so excited about them being here.

Random Google Search

2007-10-21T16:43:00.000-04:00

I have a web tracker on this blog that lets me know how people find this site. Today we had a Google search hit for.......

"lift balls underwear"

So now I am sitting here wondering if they make underwear to lift balls and if there is a big need for them to be lifted.

Shorter days without a shorter list of things to do

2007-10-14T22:05:00.000-04:00

The past couple weeks have been insanely busy for us. Dave has had a big project at work and I started a class that goes from 6-10 every night on top of picking up extra hours at work. We knew it would be a crazy couple of weeks, but we had no idea just how crazy it would be.
Tater the Underwear Raider struck again. The underwear managed to make their way into the small intestine. We were at the emergency vet until 4am last Thursday night. Friday she ended up having to have surgery to remove the blockage and a foot and a half of her intestine that had died. The vet told us that had we waited 12 more hours, she would have died. She was able to come home on Tuesday, but she was still in a lot of pain and not happy about wearing the cone collar. She is even less amused that we keep taking pictures of her in it. The cone should be able to come off in a few days. Until then, this is the sad face we see every morning.

The week leading up to the Tater incident, we had talked about taking a drive up to the Adirondacks to see the color changes in the trees. It will have to wait until this time next year. The trees around here have beautiful colors on them, but I am told that they are not as vibrant as in the Adirondacks and Poconos.
For now, this USAtoday picture will have to do.

Speaking of colors, look at the colors on Dave.

Yesterday we went to a paint ball birthday party at HeadRush in Syracuse. Right now HeadRush is a warehouse with two paintball arenas for open play and tournaments. Dave and I agreed that it was the most fun we have had in a long time. It was a great work out without feeling like exercise and we were hurting this morning. I had a few marks on me, but it was nothing like the black and blue marks that Dave has. HeadRush is in the middle of of construction and the expansion will include an indoor water park, a 200 room Hotel, Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant, indoor BMX, skateboarding, motocross, go carts and a retail store. Why didn't they have places like this when I was a kid?

Seasons Change, Part 1

2007-10-06T13:09:00.000-04:00

Central New York has been having record setting heat lately. Yesterday the temperature reached 85 degrees which is the record set back in 1959. The warm weather and the fall colors on the trees make it a perfect time for a drive.

Last weekend we drove down Route 20 to visit the pumpkin patches and apple orchards. The LaFayette Apple Festival is this weekend, so I am glad we went last weekend. There were crowds at the stands last weekend, so I am sure with the Apple Festival, there are more people out than I care to deal with.

Tim's Pumpkin Patch in the Rose Hills area of Marcellus, New York is one of the best pumpkin patches I have ever been to. Growing up in California, I never knew there was such a wide variety of pumpkins and squash. Not only did Tim's have a wide variety of fall produce, but they also had entertainment for kids of all ages. There was horse drawn hayrides, u-pick pumpkins, petting zoo, a hay maze, and a play area in the barn. The gift shop and food stands offered pumpkin funnel cakes and homemade baked goods.

Seasons Change, Part 2

2007-10-06T11:44:00.000-04:00

We visited Beak and Skiff apple orchard last weekend. There were so many people there that it made it hard to find a parking spot and even harder to move around once you got out of the car. The gift shop was huge and had every apple product, baked goods, and crafts that you can dream of, but there was so many people inside that you were forced to move like cattle once inside. I would recommend visiting Beak and Skiff on a weekday in order to enjoy it. They have u-pick apples, hayrides, petting zoo, pony rides, cafe, gift shop, bakery, cider mill, bee exhibit, and play areas for the kids.

It was a beautiful day out and they have a great view from Beak and Skiff.

Navarino apple farm is a smaller orchard on Route 20. They had all the apple products and homemade baked goods without the crowds. They don't have all of the extra items for the kids that Beak and Skiff does, but if you are there to pick apples or buy cider, pies,and gift shop items then Navarino has everything you need.

Dear Zach,

2007-09-25T14:33:00.000-04:00

Oreo Truffles:

1 package of Low Fat Oreo cookies
8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese, room temperature
1 lb milk chocolate
1/2 lb white chocolate

40 truffles (unless you are lazy and make them softball sized like I did)
Using a food processor, grind cookies to a fine powder.
With a mixer, blend cookie powder and cream cheese until thoroughly mixed (there should be no white traces of cream cheese).
Roll into small balls and place on wax-lined cookie sheet.
Refrigerate for 45 minutes.
Line two cookie sheets with wax paper.
In double-boiler, melt milk chocolate.
Dip balls and coat thoroughly.
With slotted spoon, lift balls out of chocolate and let excess chocolate drip off.
Place on wax-paper-lined cookie sheet.
In separate double boiler, melt white chocolate(or be lazy again and just mix the white in with what is left of the chocolate).
Using a fork, drizzle white chocolate over balls.
Let cool.
Store in airtight container, in refrigerator.

No pain, No gain!

2007-09-16T12:16:00.002-04:00

Our latest adventure took us to the Festa Italiana in downtown Syracuse. It was a three day event centered around eating, drinking, and being merry. There was live music and local food vendors with some of the best Italian food Central New York has to offer. Between the two of us, we figured we could sample a little of everything. I was the first to call it quits. I had eaten so much that I was in pain, but there was so much left to try. Next year there will be better planning. If we fast for a day or two, we may be able to make it.

And let the eating begin......

First stop was Antonio’s Restaurant tent where we had rigatoni in vodka sauce and fried meatballs. Neither of us had even heard of fried meatballs and our love of all things fried made Antonio’s our first stop. The meatballs were not very good. They may have been good meatballs, but frying them ruined their flavor.

Next stop was Mama C’s and Mama B’s Brooklyn Pasta House where we ate fried ravioli and a meatball sandwich. These two mamas sure know how to make a meatball. They were moist and flavorful. I believe fried ravioli is a local item as I have never seen them outside of New York. I have seen them on menus, but had never tried them before . They were everything I thought they would be and so much more.

Charlie's Pizza New York Tossed in Utica came out for the event and they had the most lively booth at the festival. Their colorful sign and their energetic employees were a hit. The sign made sure everyone knew that Charlie's was coming to Syracuse soon. Given that they were from Utica, the home of Chicken Riggies, we decided that was the place to have them. The sauce on the chicken riggies was almost like vodka sauce, but it had a kick to it. I will have to try them at other places to see if they all have the kick to it or if it is just Charlie's. After seeing their full menu, I can not wait to find out where the Syracuse location is going to be.

Last but certainly not least was Joey's Fine Italian Dining. They had slightly different menu items than the other stands and Dave's mouth was watering for their pork shanks and fresh tomato salad. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Fine Italian was exactly what they served up.

Our bellies were bloated as we waddled back to the car. I had to unbutton my pants just to be able to bend in the middle. It was painful, but well worth it. We can't wait to do it again at next years Italian Fest.

Note to self:

2007-09-11T16:10:00.000-04:00

It is spelled ITHACA, not ITHICA.
Thanks for the heads up, D. I am lucky I can pronounce some of the city names around here, let alone spell them.

In honor of September 11th, 2001, here is a picture of a piece of metal that was pulled from the wreckage. There was a beautiful display at the New York State Fair. You can also see pieces of the Twin Towers near town hall in Dewitt, NY.

The food orgy contunues

2007-09-02T23:21:00.001-04:00

While my mom was here, we made sure she had a taste of what this area has to offer. She was only here for three days, but we had pizza four times in that short period. We had Geno and Joe's pizza right outside of the Syracuse airport which has pizza by the slice and offers different topping combinations. Eggplant Parmesan pizza, Chicken Cordon, Chicken Wing, and Chicken Riggi pizza are usually hot and ready to go. We made breakfast pizza while she was here and mom thought it was different that they offer pizza dough in bags at the grocery store. I had never seen that before I moved here either. The deep fried pizza at the fair was pretty good. We saw it on the menu and had to try it. It tasted like Tony's pizza rolls that you get in the freezer section of the grocery store. We made sure to save the best for last, so on Sunday, we made a trip to Utica for O'scugnizzo Pizzeria on Bleeker Street.

There are no bells and whistles to the pizzeria, but what they do have is awesome food. We ate antipasto salad, wings, and pizza. The food disappeared before I could get a picture of it, but I did manage to get a picture of the leftovers. We tried to finish it all, but we were painfully full.

Utica is an hour away from the Syracuse area, so anytime we are in the area, it is mandatory to stop in to the Holland Farms Bakery. Donuts are my mom's downfall and she was quite impressed with the donuts and macaroons at Hollands. I have had quite a few half moons since I arrived in New York and Holland's still has the best in my opinion.

We did do more than eat while entertaining my mom. We went to the Turning Stone Casino on our way back from Utica. The Turning Stone is the only Indian Casino we have been to that has roulette. Gambling just isn't the same without free alcohol like in Vegas, but it did save us a lot of money. We also went to the Pyramid Mall and Purity Ice Cream Shop in Ithaca, New York. We spent quite a bit of time in Skaneateles, New York waiting for the boat tour, but were unable to go on the boat tour because the boat was having issues. I couldn't have asked for better weather all weekend. I just wish it hadn't gone by so fast.

Hurry back Mom, we all miss you already. See you in November.

Momma came to town!

2007-09-01T22:58:00.000-04:00

My mom flew in from Minneapolis on Wednesday night. I have never lived so far from home and I have never gone this long without seeing her. We talk, email, and text message everyday, but it is not the same. Dave and I could not wait to show her our home and central New York.
Back in April I purchased concert tickets to see Kenny Chesney and Sugarland at the New York State Fair. Together mom and I have seen these two groups perform 5 times in California, Minnesota, and now New York. The fair was just an added bonus. Who am I kidding, it was all about the fair food. The three of us shared everything, so it allowed us to try just about every food item at the fair. We had fried dough, canolis, sausage sandwiches, fried Oreos, pronto pups, london broil sandwich (tri-tip), fried pizza, lobster rolls, chocolate milk, gyros, and we washed it all down with beer.

Cabin Fever

2007-08-23T22:46:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, Dave told me that he had to make a little road trip to pick up some car parts in Lyons, New York that he found on Craigslist. We spend too much time and money shopping on Craigslist.

This turns out to be his awesome find on Craigslist. There wasn't much left of the car, but lucky for Dave, it still had the pieces that he needed for his Camaro.

I expected the inside to be covered in blood, but I didn't even see a drop. The airbags had both gone off and the inside panels of the car looked as good as new. It appears that the person who was driving this car was very lucky.

On the way home, we stopped at Mac's Drive-In in Waterloo, New York for lunch. I had never been to a drive in and Dave had never eaten here. I was hoping the waitresses would be on skates, like they were in the 50s, but they weren't. Another thing they didn't have was good food.

After lunch, we took Tater for a walk down the creek at Marcellus Park. Dave has lived in Marcellus his entire life, but hadn't been on this trail and hadn't been to the park in years. This trail and Nine Mile Creek are my favorite places to take the dog to walk by the water.

Next week my mom comes to town, so expect a lot of pictures.

Your dog ate what?

2007-08-22T22:17:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had one of those weeks that you never want to repeat? Last week was one of them. My wisdom teeth had been causing me pain for over a month. I kept hoping that the pain would go away on it's own since I don't have insurance at the moment. It got to the point where I didn't care what I had to pay, I was getting this taken care of. So last week I had two impacted wisdom teeth removed and for good measure, they took the broken molar out at the same time. So, I walked out of the office with three missing teeth and a bottle of Vicoden.

At 3am the day after surgery, the dog starts having issues. It started with the runs and I figured that she had gotten into something that didn't agree with her. The following day she vomited up a pair of my underwear. We were thankful that she got them up and figured that was what was bothering her. At 3am the following morning, it starts again. She vomited up two more pair of my underwear. We start to wonder just how many she got out of the hamper. She would be fine all day and then take a turn for the worse in the night. We decided to take her to the vet. They did an xray, but didn't find anything in her stomach. Our options were to take her home and if the problem continued, to bring her in and they would do an ultrasound or they could open her up and see if they find anything. We decided to take her home and she has been fine ever since.

Cleaning up vomit and diarrhea while in pain and messed up on Vicoden is not one of the highest points in my life.

I am doing better now and I am off the Vicoden, but I am popping Advil like there is no tomorrow. I can not wait to go more than an hour without pain medication in me.

Dave took the day off work when I had my surgery to take care of me. He even made me dinner although I couldn't put anything more than pills in my mouth. I ended up eating some later in the week and it was good stuff.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Made on his new smoker that we have used so much that it has already paid for itself.

And homemade Macaroni and Cheese