July Vacation

The weather was not kind to us for our July vacation up at the cabin. It rained three days straight, so we got a lot of reading done. The sun decided to come out Saturday at 6 and then again Sunday as we left! It was out Monday and Tuesday as well but temps were unseasonably cool. Despite the cool weather, Mike taught himself to wake board. After a few attempts he was up and away. He has been working on jumping with the view to jumping the wakes and a possible flip (not something I want to see in the learning stages). Since he is a snowboarder, the motion is very similar but landing on a moving ody of water is much different than landing on hard packed snow.

Click to enlarge hugely:



Then Tom and Mike started the new steps that will lead to where the dock will be. We will be moving it from the heaved, 40 year old cement steps. They had some help from our neighbor Peter.
Getting ready to finish the third platform where the last set of steps will start and reach the stone shoreline.

Tom and Mike

Peter's wife Gail, has a few trained chipmunks. Check it out above.

And of course one of my favorite ducks, the loon, came to call. Literally.

Why You Need An Electronic Key for Paypal

Not too long ago my Paypal account was broken into and two, one hundred dollar transactions were made. I was fortunate that Paypal called me in a random account check. Had they not called I never would have noticed until it was too late because I don't log into my account unless I am making a transaction.

I managed to track the guy down and emailed him after a hold was put on the transactions. I reported him to the FBI. I won't tell you what words I chose for the email. He gloatingly wrote back that he had all my passes and it's no big deal, it was only $200.00. But then I did further tracking and traced him back to Sharktech Internet Services. I called Sharktech and left a message that either he or one of his employees or customers was putting bots on people's computers and retrieving their passwords with the intent of stealing. I futher told him that I called law enforcement in Missoula, Montana and sent them the gloating emails along with all my tracing info. I guess I scared the crap out of him because he never called or wrote back. So I hope he's peeing in his pants right now because no doubt I was one of many he stole from and hopefully he will go to jail. In the meantime Paypal told me about their electronic key. It's simple. You have an added layer of protection when you login by pressing the button on an LED keychain doohicky that they send you. You type the number that is generated into a space on your login page. That's it. It was free for me becasue my account was compromised but it costs $5 for you. My advice is to go get one quickly! It's worth it!

I leave you with a picture of my homegrown lettuce. It grows like this, with the different varieties in each plant! The tomatoes got off to a slow start because of the cool weather but seem to be doing okay now. The basil is stagnant and I have no idea why. It's just sulking.

Machines, Regents and Other News

So how do I like my new washer? Well about 50 loads later, I have to say I am very pleased with it so far. It cleans the clothes well, and has tons of room (4 cubic feet). I love the blue lights too and the little tune it plays when the washing cycle is complete. The super duper spin cycle goes so fast the clothing is practically dry, and even though it is very quiet, it sounds like a jet about to take off with it's high but muffled whirring sound. There are settings allowing you to turn down the spin speed for various types of washes so you don't get wrinkles. A nice feature is the Silver care cycle (AG in the pic) that uses ions to remove all bacteria and dirt from clothing. This is especially good for removing allergens from sheets and it doesn't use hot water.

In other news, I am very proud to say that Dan got a 95 on his biology regents and Mike mastered his earth science regents. Clarkson awarded Dan a $44,000 scholarship as a leadership award, the University of Rochetser awarded him $40,000 for the same thing and RIT awarded him $25,000 for a computing award. We aren't sure what that is. Right now it's a toss up between RIT and Clarkson, with Clarkson a little ahead. However Dan has not visitied U of R yet. Dan will spend his summer working at KFC/Taco Bell and the summer rec program as a lifeguard. Mike is working with Nathan at Mizrahi Manor. We plan to spend a week in July and a week in August at the cabin and Dan will be going to Virgnia beach with his girlfriend's family for a few days soon.

After my first week of work I am pretty exhausted. Learning a whole new process after doing it again recently, is stressful and tiring. However I like it well enough and a bonus is coming end of quarter. So that will make three in a row per quarter of a paycheck or even two. Of course mine will be prorated as I will have only worked there two weeks in the last quarter but I am looking forward to next quarter. Naturally we have to make the numbers though and that goes for this quarter too.

This rainy Father's Day weekend was supposed to be a cabin weekend, but we opted to stay home due to the rain. The bonus was not missing the rabies clinic so we took all 4 animals down. The Mets play later and the boy is changing the truck spark plugs with his dad. We just got done spending $1,400 on the truck Dan drives on maintenance issues and are about to spend another $700 or $800 on the Kia for service, timing belt etc etc. UGH! Cars are expensive!

And a New Job (Again)

It's been a lovely weekend. The whole family (for a change) went to Nina's for dinner to celebrate my new job which starts tomorrow. Hopefully this one will last more than 3 months before a layoff. So what's this about a new job? Well....a few weekends ago, the FFA (used to be future farmers of America but now I don't know what it stands for) had their yearly awards banquet at the school. Both my boys are members of this organization. We sat at the same table as the mother of one my boys' classmates and friends. She was talking about her job because Tom knows a a lot about the latest Japanese manufacturing methods. I mentioned that I also have manufacturing experience and recently got laid off. She mentioned that they were looking for someone like me. I emailed my resume to her the next day to give to the GM and on Monday the personnel manager called me to set up an interview. This interview lasted FIVE hours and I saw all the key players. The company makes mostly high end organic dog food (Paul Newman's and lots of other brands most people have heard of) and recently got the Ol' Roy Walmart contract. Business has been fantastic and the recession passed them by, so much so that the employees have received two bonuses already this year. I am very lucky to have fallen into this job and yes they made me an offer 6 days later. I will be the QA Manager and am looking forward to it. Quality Assurance will be my concentration but the job is wide open for someone to come in and take ownership. I start tomorrow.

The company is steeped in history. Do you remember Gainesburgers? Clarence Gaines, back in 1928 developed the first complete dog food as we know it today. And the pet food company has been around ever since then!

I leave you with a pic of the Norwich Y Pickleball group that played at the Empire State Games. I am in the back row, 2nd to left.

I Got The Gold and Silver Too

I played in the New York Empire State (senior) Games yesterday and today. My partner scratched for the women's doubles so I was out of that. Yesterday my mixed doubles partner and I were down 14 to 3 against the eventual gold medal winners and managed to come back to lose 20-18. It was quite a game. At the end of the day, we were the silver medal winners. Today was the singles and I won the gold. I was pleased. I have to say though that it was very hard to get used to these courts which were just polished, and so the glare was terrible. I often completely lost the ball. My bracket was the 50-59 age group. I couldn't play last year because I was too young! I was amazed at how agile the 70-75 age group was. Staying active really pays off.

I had never been to the SUNY Cortland Campus and was quite impressed. It is one of the best teacher schools in the country. Last year out of some 20,000 applications, only 1,100 got accepted. Of course I got lost finding the place and lost trying to find the sports complex.

Here Rascal is modeling the medals.


Too bad the gold isn't really gold!

We Have Ducks

Tom's boss had received a few Mallard duck chicks for his daughter. As they became more ducklike and less chicklike the daughter got bored so he offered two females to us. You see these ducks were trying to dig their own pond in the dirt! So they arrived in their little house on Saturday and we let them out and put them down by the water. We had to slip away quietly as they are quite tame and were following us. We left them alone and checked on them daily and so far have adapted well. We really enjoy having them here and once they are able to fly, hopefully they will be go south at the appropriate time.





Check out the Bluegill fish nest too. Note the sand in a circular pattern with gravel in the middle on which to lay the eggs. The mother is hovering at the top of the circle.

Memorial Weekend at the Cabin

click on pics to enlarge

Red Misty Morning

Ooops! Almost Flipping the Tube

Campfire Looking Down To The Lake

Jonboat as it pulls away from the dock

We arrived at the cabin to find the dock installed as we expected. We launched the little Jonboat at the nearby launch, then headed into Hammond to pick up the pontoon boat. That launch went without a hitch and Mike, Brent his friend from school and I drove the 15 minutes to our bay while Tom drove the trailer back. So now both boats are in and the cabin is truly open for the season. The weather was very nice, sunny and not too warm with temps hovering in the 70's. We love the Jonboat and it's much nicer than the previous vhull 14 footer we had. It's more stable and really flies. The kids took advantage of this as they puttered around all weekend and did some fishing. They got some tubing in despite the 65 degree water.  At night they built a fire and toasted marshmellows. Because Dan was playing and marching in the Memorial day Parade at home we had to leave at 6 AM Monday to be back in time to see him.

I started my second sock and am about to start the heel.

Now This is a Magic cast-on I can understand!

In the latest pair of toe-up socks that I am doing, I opted for a provisional cast-on because I did not like the first one I had used at all. You had to hold two needles in one hand and it was awkward, resulting in a toe with loose stitiches and therefore holes. I had tried the magic loop cast-on but could not get it....until I found this video via the toe up sock knitters group.  NOW I understand! You really have to spoon feed me with some of these things and the other videos just didn't do it for me. Check this one out. It is the perfect cast-on for a perfect toe with no holes. 

Now my provisional cast-on which I used for this sock, made a perfect toe with no holes but there is a "seam". It's under the foot but so no biggy, but the magic loop seems far superior to me.

Onward to the second sock!

Tornado and Junior Prom Almost Meet

The kids had their prom on the same day that a tornado touched down in the very location they were to have their after prom party! Fortunately the tornado hit in the afternoon, well before the prom was due to start. This is a photo taken from the cell that my husband had, as he responded to the call as a volunteer fireman/EMT. Look at this tree sheared in two! Note the damage to one of the barns in the background. There will be more pics  soon.

Now on to the kids:

Dan and Bethany at home by the pond gazebo

Some of the kids rented a limo, which drove them to Cazenovia where they had dinner at the Brae Loch Inn. From there they went to the school for the prom. A good time was had by all even without the after prom party.

As to tornado, fortunately no one was badly injured. The owner of the farm received a broken elbow and wrist. One barn had the roof ripped off and the house also lost the roof. Naturally there was a huge downpour right afterwards so things got pretty wet in the house. A telephone pole was also sheared in two. There was a pretty detailed news report on News Channel 10.

Don't Buy Sears Products, Buy Samsung and Bosch

We have just had one of the worst customner service experiences ever. A few days ago our washer sounded like a bomb had gone off in it during the high speed spin cycle. It's a front loader, Sears washer. Tom took it apart and found that two of the three supports that hold the drum had cracked. When the drum slipped, it punched a hole in the basket.



 The parts cost about a total of $500. The machine is about seven years old. The drum has a lifetime warranty except it doesn't. We searched the internet to find out more about our problem and lo and behold others have had the exact same problem along with the exact same horrendous customer service! The word service should not be allowed in the same sentence as Sears.  Tom spent at least an hour on the phone being hung up on, argued with, transferred and put on hold. At one point one of the customer service twits told Tom that customer relations did not want to talk to him!  To make a long story short, they won't replace the plastic basket even though their failed part broke it. They might replace the lifetime warrantied drum.  Might. And they would charge labor at $65/hour to replace the drum even though we had already done most of the work and only wanted the parts. Gee I wonder why Sears stores are closing all over the country? It's worth pointing out that Tom is not a rude person so his treatment was abhorrent. Eventually he did snap and let them have it. And so he should have. We will be lodging a complaint with the BBB.

So off we went to Lowes yesterday and did some research. Samsung and Bosch are hands down the best washer/dryers you can buy. Their customer service is second to none and the quality of their machines is top notch. They stand behind their products unlike the crooks at Sears. We found a model that we liked and it even includes a fancy sanitation cycle using cold water.  And we lucked out. That model is 10% off with the use of their credt card and a further 10% off starting next Thursday.  We also have several hundred dollars in gift cards that we had intended to use on a new fridge but alas, that's not happening quite yet. I had just done several washes so we should make it to Thursday. However Mike has three baseball games between now and then so I am washing his uniform as I type (yes I have very long arms) and will be washing it by hand during ther week. Needless to say, the last game was in a downpour and the kids decided to slide in the mud so the uniform is about as muddy as it can get! 

Next Thursday, we will be making our contribution to the economic recovery!

Pitching

Mike isn't a pitcher but he has an accuracy that allowed him to be considered as one of the pitchers, since there is a shortage on his team. Otherwise, he is the shortstop. Here are a few pics of his most excellent form in his first start as the pitcher for the team (click to enlarge).

Meanwhile Mike has switched camps and has joined the rest of the family as a Mets fan. As a former Yankees fan, he was impressed with the Met's latest rally and I couldn't be happier.

Mother's Day and Cabin is Open

We opened the cabin Saturday. What a gloomy weekend it was weather wise up there.  But the good news is there were no burst water pipes, so we are getting better at winterizing the place. Because of the high winds, rain and lightening, we did not get the dock in. It will be in by Memorial weekend. We had hoped to put the the Jonboat in but again the weather was not cooperating. So we left it there on the parking pad. I got some yard cleanup done...lots of broken branches and twigs. I even did a little raking although the leaves were wet. There aren't nearly as many leaves this year.

I've been determined to get better photos of the hummingbirds so we removed the screen on the window. However these pics are still taken through glass so my next challenge is to sneak outside and take one with nothing between me and the bird. This is the female, who has no splash of red on her breast. Both the male and the female have been at the feeder together. Click to enlarge!

Umphrey's McGee is playing in baldwinsville. If you like Phish, you will like these guys. The venue is a picnic area/park type setting. I think we will go.

Mother's Day saw us drivng home from the cabin. Once home, Tom made a scrumptious dinner of Porterhouse Steak, mushrooms and a pasta salad with artichoke hearts and olives.  We all sat down together for this feast which of late has been unusual with Dan working and Mike playing baseball or practicing. It was nice to have the whole family together! While we were gone the sheep shed had flipped from the very high wind. It was a good thing no sheep were injured.  It flipped right into the next pasture and broke.