Vivian Marie Reeves
Here is Vivian Marie Reeves with her grandson Mike at a family cook out at my mother’s place last summer. Vivian passed away on January 15th at the age of 79. A quote by Elizabeth Barret Browning best describes her: “Twas her thinking of others made you think of her“.
Doug’s Love Bus
I almost forgot about this one! After work one morning, Doug and I went to Sarge’s Triangle Restaurant for some breakfast. I had my usual biscuits and gravy. In my opinion, their biscuits and gravy can’t be beat. At most other places, they throw a biscuit on a plate and drizzle a little bit of gravy on it. Not at Sarge’s! They serve it in a bowl of gravy. There is so much gravy you can’t even see the biscuits. Tasty. On the ride back, the vanagon, aka the “love bus”, stalled a couple of times. Once we got back to my house, it didn’t take long for Doug to figure it out the problem.
Uncommon Grounds
If your looking for a great cup of coffee or espresso, check out Uncommon Grounds. It is by far my favorite coffee shop in Saratoga Springs, New York. The atmosphere is just right. The people are always friendly, and the walls are decorated with artwork from local area artists. Try getting there in the morning when they roast their coffee beans in the machine that’s on the left as soon as you enter. The delicious aroma fills the place and can make it’s way out on to the sidewalk. They also sell a wide variety of foods including soups and sandwiches. My personal favorite is the breakfast sandwich on a bagel. It’s so tasty probably because their bagels are made fresh daily. Any bagels that are older than a day are not used. They are sold in packages at a discount which usually go pretty fast. Being a huge geek, the free Wi-Fi is definitely a plus!
Dinner at Ray’s
Last night we met Pete, Natalie, and Mia over at Ray and Diana’s place for dinner and cake in celebration of Jennifer’s birthday. Ray gave Jennifer a tripod small enough for her to carry around almost anywhere. A perfect present for her, because she is really developing an eye for photography. He also let her borrow a ton of home videos from her childhood. There must be hundreds of hours on all those tapes!
Blue Mountain Organics Open House
Our friends Doug and Sonya invited us to a “Winter Celebration” yesterday at Lisa and Jim Carter’s house in Granville, New York. Shortly after arriving, Lisa greeted us all and gave the grand tour of her beautiful home. Every room we explored was filled with so many unique antiques. The best part were the stories Lisa would tell about many of them. For example, she showed us an antique writing pen that her Grandmother used in a one-room school house. It still had the dry ink in the jar!
The house was also filled with some fascinating individuals. We met many new people including Geoffrey Gee. He spent part of the evening filling the house with some great piano music, but did find some time to chat with us. He is a pianist, composer, and sound designer living at Hebron Hollow, a farm for arts and ideas. Check out the video introduction to the farm.
Afterwards, we went over to Doug and Sonya Just’s home in Hartford, New York. Doug gave us a tour of the huge historical house and showed us some of its unique aspects including an old outhouse and a few secret compartments. He has done an amazing amount of work of it. Some of the home improvement projects he has undertaken can seem overwhelming for one person, but he somehow figured out a way. Check out Doug’s Flickr site for some photos.
Cross Country Road Trip
A conversation at work made me think about a cross country road trip Jennifer and I took a few years ago. The entire trip was in a little two seat convertible. I documented the whole thing with over 50 rolls of film and a journal that I would write in every night before bed. We only had a few rules: never drive at night because you miss too much scenery and never eat at the same place twice so we would be forced to find the local joints. The top was down every day of the 28 day road trip! If we were on the road when the sun would start to set, no matter where we were, that’s where we were going to stay.
We started the journey in Seattle, Washington. From there we drove south into Oregon. On the way to Crater Lake National Park, we stopped off at Clearwater Falls. After the lake, we continued south into California passing through the Redwood National Park on our way down the coast. We crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. We stayed there for a couple of days, and then headed east to Yosemite National Park. Our next stop was Death Valley and onto Las Vegas where we stayed at the Luxor for a couple of days. Then it was onto the Hoover Dam and Utah. We went to every national park in southern Utah. First we explored Zion, Bryce Canyon and then Capital Reef. We stayed in Moab, Utah a couple of days nestled between Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. We then went south through Monument Valley into Arizona. We toured the Grand Canyon in a helicopter. Then we headed south and further east to see the Petrified Forest National Park. The trip took us though St. Louis and eventually to Saratoga Springs, New York.
The few sentences I have written to briefly summarize the trip does it no justice. Every single day was an incredible adventure. Whether it was seeing another natural wonder, finding a hidden local treasure, or meeting someone new, every moment of the journey seemed to be better than the last.
Black-capped Chickadee
It has been unseasonably warm here. All the snow is now gone. Since it was so nice, I wandered around outside. I was in the backyard with literally dozens of birds flying from the feeders to the trees and back again. If your quiet, you can here them pound and crack open their seeds and peanuts in the trees above. I guess the warmer temperatures brought more of them out. Here, you see a Black-capped Chickadee waiting patiently for another turn at one of the feeders.
Happy New Year
It was another great First Night in Saratoga Springs. We started the night off with a tasty beverage at 9 Maple Ave. I went with a Laphroaig Cask Strength. Mmm, good! At midnight, Alonzo Fireworks rang in the New Year with an awesome fireworks display. Last year was a year filled with many challenges and rewards, but I’m committed to make 2007 another year to remember! Happy New Year!
