Wednesday

So I have finally recovered from thanksgiving.

I have decided to experience all of the local flavor that I can. I have been seeking out local venues to eat dinner at every night. So far (the past 2 nights – hahaha) have been great. I finally found a great “ny style” pizza place. It is a mom & pop place, and they are so nice. The pizza is yummy! Last night I went to a place called Brooklyn Pickle which has been around 40 or 50 years. They have hoagies and stuff, and it was very tasty indeed.

Dad – you would be in heaven! There are tons of greasy spoons tucked back in all the neighborhoods. It is so funny, it is just like I had always thought from watching tv – every neighborhood has its own personality, grocery, bar, and greasy spoon. I have yet to muster the courage to eat at one of those greasy spoons!

The weather has been insanely warm, but never fear…. The snow is coming. My boss is from Atlanta, GA and he said he hasn’t seen a blizzard in the 4 winters he has been here. There may be 3 or 4 feet of snow accumulated over a week, but not in 1 day – like what happened in ND this week. Whew! The guys are giving me a hard time about my car. They swear my tires are way too wide and I’ll float all over the place. Well I have faith in my Infiniti Technology and my expert driving skills (ahem!). Oh…. And I have good insurance.

Work is fun. I have been keeping busy and running around like crazy.

The guys at work have what they call “hog fest”. They bring in potluck for 2 or 3 weeks during the holidays. I have committed to some deserts. Mom – I’ll be contacting you for some recipes! What a great excuse to eat - bad girl!

ps - I have no photos of my new haircut, but trust me it is short! I also took no photos of the dogs worth posting. I just soaked them in.

Flying on thanksgiving rocks!

I was lucky... I guess I went through at the right time. This was the Pittsburgh airport last night about 6:30 pm.

Indianapolis from the plane

It was nice in Indianapolis when I landed on thursday.

Rochester from the air

Scraping the runway

They had the crews out in force at the rochester airport.

My drive to work

This too was before thanksgiving.

Today it was 60 degrees and sunny.

Tuesday's Snow

Here's my gas station on the tuesday before I left for thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

Well I made it just fine to Indianapolis. I got to the Rochester airport very early for my flight out on Thursday. The lady at USAir was so nice, she put me on a earlier flight which got me to Indiana 3 hours earlier. What a great thankgiving day present. By the way... Thanksgiving day is the BEST day to fly - it was dead.

When I got into town, Jim and I went to IHOP for thanksgiving dinner. It was nice. Pancakes all around! Now that's a great dinner! We proceeded to pack in thursday evening with all of our favorite activities including coffee, car shopping, and doggies. It has been wonderful spending time with Jim and the puppies. I already dread going back.

Yesterday I got all the blonde cut out of my hair, and yes I think this is the shortest my hair has ever been.

Well I am off to enjoy the wonders of Indiana and continue marvelling at the flatness of it all.

From the small boat bay side

It really was a pretty day, and Irondequoit was a cute town. I was amazed at how small the houses on the shore were. I would have thought they would be huge.

The grating

How cool is that!

I love this bridge

I guess they use the metal grate to allow the water to gush over it if necessary without destroying it. Further up there was a drawbridge. Those have always terrified me! No picture of that.

Expansion Joint?

They close this bridge from April to November because of the high traffic during tourist season. I guess it can't handle that much. They have a mini coney island there, complete with a rollercoaster, ferris wheel, and a large fiberglass hotdog.

These are for Jim!

This is a metal bridge in Irondequoit, NY - just outside of Rochester on Lake Ontario.

Jim loves bridges.

Yet another snow

Yesterday we had 4 inches by the time I left for work. It was all slushy and gooey. The guys at work were giving me snow driving advice.

Work was like a ghost town yesterday. I sure did get alot done. We have a PA system that they use to have people call extension such-and-such. Someone kept broadcasting a gobblegobblegobble over the PA. It was hysterical.

It is supposed to really be snowing by lift off this morning. I was going to leave for rochester at 5am, and it looks like a good idea. The rest of the snow has not hit that hard yet. They say a foot or more in places. Yikes. I am more worried that my flight will be delayed or cancelled. Don't worry mom, I'll call. I have had trouble sleeping, obviously judging by the time I wrote this.

I may not be writing again until Monday night, but you never know. I'll definitely post some sweet baby pictures!

Have a good turkey day! I think if I make it to Indiana, Jim and I'll be eating thanksgiving dinner at Waffle House! Weee! I sure would love some of Evelyn's pumkin pie.

Another snow

We are supposed to get another snow tonight. This one should produce 4-6 inches of lake effect snow. we are also supposed to have qualls. Jim and I were debating what squalls were last night. I always associated them with ocean voyages, like they were something that happened out at sea. Apparently they are just lines of thunderstorms. This place is so weird - snow and thunderstorms at the same time!

Well as the week goes on, it gets more and more sparse at work. The guys at work sound like a bunch of women. They always trade recipes, talk about food, and compare cooking methods. Yesterday they were debating the best way to stuff a turkey. That of course led to a turkey impression contest. So there were half a dozen geeky guys making gobble-gobbles for 30 minutes. I almost peed in my pants.

I am getting kind of tired of seeing fat men in camo walking down the side of the road with a gun. I can't wait for deer season to be over.

The survey marker at the end of the levy

It made me think of Jim.

I don't like ducks

But these guys were so cute. They all had their heads tucked under their wings. They were in the small boat bay.

Is it a pier or a levy?

Either way it stretched out into the lake, and it provided a great view of the shore.

Ginkos?

I never thought I'd see a ginko leaf on a beach. Ginko trees lined the shore. I am sure it is fantastic in the fall.

Matilda would freak

She loves the beach, and I'm sure there were lots of things she'd love to investigate. I could just imagine her snorting up the sand with little grains all over her nose.

I love these little guys

They were everywhere. I don't know what they are called, but their little shells were all over the place.

The lake ontario shore

It was such a gorgeous day. Perfect to spend on the beach! This was at Rock Beach on the north side of Rochester.

I love this building!

This is the grating above the door of the art deco building.

Deco Detail

Across the street from the church school was this awesome aqrt deco building. Art deco is my favorite.

Armory Tower

This the tower on the armory. This building is just so massive.

Old Armory

This is the old armory in Rochester. It looks like a castle.

Hey Jim, its for sale!

Church School

This building, also in Rochester, has incredible details - the carvings and the brick patterns.

Corner building

This cool building was near downtown Rochester. It has a bank of bay windows down the left side.

Yum!

My first real NY bagel. It was hot too.

Rochester

So I thought I'd stay local on Sunday, but the beautiful weather got the best of me! I wandered out to Rochester about 8am. I took the NY turnpike, so there was no dilly dallying. I went under the guise of finding the airport. It was pretty easy to get around town.

Rochester proper was okay, some of it was downright scary, and there were tons of suburbs. It started all looking the same. The best part was Lake Ontario - my second great lake. I spent most of the day there. I walked up and down the beach, out on the pier, and just generally sat around on the beach and marveled at how much it looked like the ocean. All that was missing were the jelly fish.

On the way home I stopped by the Waterloo outlet mall. I found some good buys at the Gap and Brooks Brothers. I'm adding to my professional wardrobe slowly but surely.

I have to say I am fascinated by the NY service areas. They are like rest areas but with restaurants and a gas station. I think they are a weird oasis on the toll road, kinda like a microcosm.

Look Ma! No wads.

I even hung my delicates, be it on the dining room light fixture, but...

I really am an adult. I swear.

Laundry!

This is my laundry room, how clean and nice it is. I kinda like being able to do 3 loads at on time!

Power Station

So I came back through Schenectady on Rte 5 and drove along the erie canal. Which I found as dirtier and grosser than the white river canal in Indianapolis. Except the locks were great.

I saw this power station on rte 5 and I thought of Jim. It was right on the canal and very ominous looking, and it was still in operation.It had clouded over again.

I went on rte 5 until Ithica. I looked for Cornell without much knowledge of where it was, so with my excellent navigation skills - I did not find it. It was later in the day, and I was tired of the dirty, scary small towns along rte 5, so I hopped on The NY thruway and booked on home. The towns along rte 20 were much nicer.

It was a fun trip.

Row houses

These were everywhere in Albany. There were several colleges/universities downtown so the area is alive with people.

Albany

Was awesome. It reminded me of a flatter san francisco - there were lots of row houses. They also had many cobblestone streets, and in the center of town was this nice park. You can definitely tell it is a really old city. I got lost (shut up Jim!), but I saw more stuff that way.

I could totally live there.

Pinewood

Pinewood is another smudge of a town between cazenovia and albany. This is the point in the journey I started noticing LOTS of stone houses. There were several stone quarries. Some of the houses were stacked stone, some block, but the neatest were all of the rounded stone houses.

Another cool house in Cazenovia

It is a historic town, with many mansions. This was just a house. All of the street signs were wood and there were tons of huge evergreens everywhere.

I rolled down the window and it smelled wonderful!

One of the cool houses in Cazenovia

Cazenovia

This is a little lake in Cazenovia. It is this cute little immigrant town.

Pompey, NY

So it is a smudge on the side of the road city-wise, but they had impressive town hall/hwy department! It was outfitted with some wicked security yaks. Sweet!

Looks kinda like home

The clouds were low lying most of the morning, but by the afternoon the sun was out, and it was a balmy 39 degrees.

It was a great sunrise

So I left at 8:30 after getting some supposedly decaf coffee and headed east on rte 20 straight into Albany. On the way it was gorgeous, rolling, snow covered hills.

Thanks Dad!

You gave me your love of rambling around, and I love it. I went to Albany today. Jim laughed at me for not knowing how far it was from Syracuse, or that if I had just gone 20 miles further, I could have gone into Vermont and Mass.

I'll save that for another day, but probably not tomorrow.

The gateleg table

Mom wanted pictures of the gateleg table in its new home. So here it is! I even put the lamp that dad fixed on it.

Well

Mom helped me realize than something happened to all of your comments out there. I think I fixed it! So please continue to comment, and I'll comment back.

Thanksgiving

I decided since the latest weather issues that I will not drive to Indy for thanksgiving as I had planned. Insomnia induced implulse buying lead me to find a great airfare (considering the holiday travel). I had set out in search for shoes, but I guess I am better off. I am so excited. Well... except the whole flying on thanksgiving thing. I have to drive to Rochester to the airport there, but it is only 70 miles away. It is also all on the NY thruway, so it will be clear.

I get to see the doggies! I know it will just have been 2 and a half weeks, but on these cold nights I miss my personal heaters.

ps - Jim you rock.

Snow!

So Jim beat me to having the first snow, but I think I beat him in amount. We had 3 inches in camillus, but we weren't in the major snow band. Driving to work was a breeze. But I think the worst is yet to come. Thankfully the rest of the front has shifted toward canada.

The snow - since it was not dangerous - was very pretty.

I am glad it is the weekend. I plan on vegging out in front of the tv, and exploring somewhere that has not too much snow. I want to go down to campus and look around.

Mom, I miss you. I have no one to shop with! And I have to do all the complaining myself! Just to let you know... I have been keeping my doors locked.

:)

Wow

Was Sunday really the last day I posted? I guess I was a bit jim-sick, I mean homesick, after he left. We had such a great time.

Well things are still going great. Work is cranking up, and things are really moving. I have people rallying around and getting excited about what I do. I've been going to bed early - who would have known working 9-10 hours a day would be so gruelling? Anyway I am meeting tons of people and keeping busy.

I went to Oswego on Monday evening. It is awesome up there. It is on lake ontario and there are all these locks along the canal through town. The downtown is big and thriving, and there are tons of old richardson romanesque houses that have been immaculately restored. The drive up was nice. It is only about 40 miles away.

I got an outdoor thermometer which I am very excited about. I am obsessive about the temperature.

Mom (and Jim) you will be proud of me... I iron every morning, but I have yet to vacuum!

Well we are expecting lake effect snow tonight and tomorrow. 3 to 6 inches. I am so titillated! My first snow. They call it wet and greasy. Yuck. The clouds associated with lake effect snow are actually brown. It is quite creepy.

I feel guilty - I have not been watching enough of my cable tv! Hahaha. But boy I sure do enjoy it! I am also saving money not going to starbucks. I am also saving pounds by not eating gingerbread loaf. Oh but I miss it so. The gingerbread loaf... not the weight.

A park we found

South Syracuse

This is the view of south Syracuse from a nice park Jim and I found.

One of the neat buildings in Syracuse

The Armory

This is in downtown Syracuse. It was orginally an armory, but now its a planetarium.

View of Skaneateles from the pier

The lake in Skaneateles in the morning

What a lovely mini-van

At least Jim does his best to make it prettier!

Busy Jim

He was a real trooper, and probably glad to head home. I think I wore him out, but he kept getting me lost. So we are even.

The Lodge

It is really big and really pretty. Lots of exposed beams inside. It is on its own pond, and its built in the Anirondack style. People all over the area use it for weddings and functions.

The back of the building

The is the back of the Welch Allyn building. You can kinda seem some of the old mill parts.