Fun and Games Dept

Earl and I are back from our camping trip this weekend and are settling in for the evening. This evening has turned out to be quite warm and humid, so we threw caution to the wind and just got back from a jaunt to get an ice cream.

I’m not a big fan of ice cream. I never have been. I think it was my fifth birthday party that I first decided I didn’t want the pile of ice cream in front of me and threw it into the nearest running box fan, making quite the mess. I have no doubt that I was scolded for what I did but I was never offered ice cream again. So it’s a rare occasion that I eat ice cream but I decided that Earl and I needed the little treat so off we went. I had an “apple crisp” sundae which was basically apple crisp with a plop of vanilla soft ice cream on top. It was easy to eat around the ice cream. It was very good.

Today we celebrated my dad’s birthday with a picnic at Green Lakes State Park. Earl and I had to be off our campsite by 11:00, so we packed everything up and installed ourselves on some strategically placed picnic tables in one of the beach areas. We cooked up some pork tenderloins, baked beans and other goodies. My sister’s friend brought along birthday cake for my dad, so we did the whole sing Happy Birthday bit. It was a nice way to bring the weekend to a close.

I’m typing this blog entry on my old Dell laptop because my PowerBook is charging and feels like it’s going to melt from the heat. I don’t know what’s going on with it, but I thought it might be best to give it a little bit of a rest as it charged. This old Dell isn’t too bad; I have it running the latest version of Ubuntu Linux. I’ve always been a Linux fan and I think Ubuntu is top notch. It’s definitely a superior alternative to Windows.

Earl and I are keeping busy this week with social engagements. Monday night we have dinner with my sister and my mom, Tuesday night our friend Eric is coming over for supper and on Wednesday I am judging a local beauty pageant at the “General Herkimer Days”. We’re such the social butterflies.

Green Lakes State Park.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I are spending the weekend camping at Green Lakes State Park just east of Syracuse. While this is our traditional Easter picnic spot, it’s our first time camping here. The experience has been pleasant.

Stage right we have a young couple and his mother-in-law from the more rural area of the Mohawk Valley. They introduced themselves as Bill, Regina and Ruby. They have a small dog named Gizmo that hasn’t figured out how the leash around the pole thing works. They are friendly enough but they argue amongst themselves quite a bit. They were somewhat dismayed that we were eating lunch when they were still trying to figure out how to light their camp stove for the eggs and bacon they had planned for breakfast. It was 12:30 p.m. at the time.

To stage left we have a group of people with a really beat-up station wagon, complete with wood paneling. It may be mahogany. They have a small compound of tents around a blazing campfire. I think they forgot to bring a few things along, including their teeth. But they seem harmless enough and pretty much keep to themselves.

While the sites are not the biggest we’ve seen during our state park experiences, they are sized comfortably so that we don’t feel like we’re camping on top of other people.

Today has been a day of pure relaxation. The weather has been perfect with the sun shining brightly and the temperature comfortable. This morning Earl and I walked around the two lakes here, Green Lake and Round Lake. It was about 2 1/2 miles when all was said and done.

The two lakes really do appear green but not from algae growth or anything like that. There are few lakes in the world like these two, in that the bottom 2/3 of the lake are never “mixed”. Even though the lakes are relatively small, they’re both very deep with Green Lake clocking in at 85 feet and Round Lake, the smaller of the two, clocking in at 175 feet deep.

Being relatively close to Syracuse, the beach area was quite busy today with lots and lots of people populating the sand and swimming areas. Earl and I went for a brief swim and enjoyed the experience.

Tonight we’re going to grill up some steaks, make our obligatory campfire popcorn and drink some beer. I’ve gathered up quite a bit of brush to start a hopefully blazing campfire.

It’s good to be able to relax in the relative peace and quiet of a state park.

The roadway: An interstate in Upstate New York.

The vehicles: One VW Jetta, One Suburu WRX, One Acura RSX Type-S.

Top Speed: 101 MPH.

The victor: One Acura RSX Type-S.

The look of the other two drivers when a bald 30+ man effortlessly breezed by them: Priceless.

Earl and I just got back from enjoying the fireworks from the lawn of Utica College. Always a popular gathering place for young and old alike, Earl brought along a bunch of glowsticks and handed them out to all the kids surrounding the lawn chairs we had set up for the show. The kids threw the glowsticks up in the air in attempt to make their own fireworks. There was a dazzling array of orange, pink, purple, blue and green before the official fireworks show began.

I mentioned a couple of days that fireworks should be reserved for Independence Day. I firmly believe that as the dazzling pyrotechnics seem more special when we use them as a symbol to celebrate our country’s birthday.

Mother Nature wasn’t in the mood for a barbecue today, so we went and saw the movie “Click” after enjoying a hot dog (or two) at a locally famous hot dog joint. Nothing fires up your summer like eating a chili dog under a tent that’s being pelted by very large rain drops. Luckily the skies cleared up this evening so that we could see the fireworks!

Happy Independence Day.

Earl has been generous enough to make his “refreshing fruit dip” for me to take to work tomorrow and naturally we needed fresh strawberries to compliment the effort. So this afternoon, Earl and I took a short drive down to a neighboring field to do some strawberry picking.

We had such fun.

It’s been about 25 years or so since I last picked strawberries. We used to pick wild strawberries at the airport we were always at (my dad is a private pilot). We’d fill styrofoam coffee cups of these little strawberries, wash them off and then cover them with sugar and eat them. So tasty. Small wonder I was a relatively hyper child.

My grandmother used to take us “real” strawberry picking when we were in our early grade school years. I think I remember eating more berries than what I put in the little cardboard carrier.

Today I only had two berries while we were picking. I had to make sure that they were ripe and ready to go. They were quite tasty.

Every impulse in my body screams that Earl and I should be taking some sort of mini Jeep tour this weekend. I’d love to see us jump in the Jeep, bag in tow, and go someplace, anyplace and just hang out. But my work schedule isn’t really affording us that luxury this weekend, so we’re going to do something here at home.

We are going to have a picnic in the backyard.

I’m actually looking forward to spending the weekend at home and enjoying some (fingers crossed) down time. I have to work on Monday so it’s not really a long weekend for me, but thought sentiment is still there. But this Saturday and/or Sunday we are going to fire up the grill and have us some good JPnEarl cooked food and a couple of beers.

Enjoy the weekend!

I just got back from the lovely city of Schenectady. I joined Earl for dinner tonight; he’s out of town on business but luckily he’s close enough that I can drive a couple of hours and see him during his down time. It keeps us both out of mischief.

We had dinner at a great little place called “Pinhead Susan’s”. I didn’t see any pinheads running around, and the burly guy behind the bar really didn’t look like a Susan to me, so I read the whole tale of the name of the restaurant on the back of the menu and found it quite interesting. You’ll have to stop by to find out for yourself.

We then took a walk through downtown Schenectady, which is undergoing a rather extensive renovation project. It’s good to see a city’s downtown area being revitalized without being entirely ripped down in the process. Earl is staying at The Parker Hotel tonight; a delightfully early 1900s hotel renovated to modern standards and quite nice. We also took a walk along the Mohawk River, which runs between Schenectady and the neighboring Village of Scotia (SKO-shuh, in case you’re wondering). There was a water-skiing demonstration on the river for those that were interested. We also had the obligatory ice cream at Jumpin’ Jacks, where they have old early 20th century cash registers in the ice cream parlor and in the food area, a beautiful mid 1970s mechanical NCR cash register that I really wish I could get my hands on. When you tip the folks working the ice cream counter, they yell out “Subway!” and all thank you. Quite charming.

Mother Nature treated me to a small lightning show on the ride home along the Thruway. I celebrated by rolling down all the windows in the car and cranking up the Eagles’ “One Of These Nights”.

Earl and I are on our way home from suburban Philadelphia after spending some time down here with his dad for Father’s Day. The weather has been beautiful; I wish I could bottle up a little bit of it and bring it home and convince Mother Nature that it’s summertime where we live too.

Last night we watched the Phillies play Tampa Bay at Citizens Bank Park. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, though it could have been even better if the Phillies had won the game. We ended up leaving at the 7th inning stretch.

After the game we headed over the famous Geno’s Steaks in South Philly for a Philly Cheesesteak. Geno’s has been in the news lately because of their new policy, which is posted all over the establishment: You must speak English when you order. This has some folks up in arms because it runs contrary to the ultra-PC notion that has taken grip of our society, but personally I support the policy.

When Earl and I travel to Montréal, I always make a valiant attempt to speak French. My success at this has been moderate in that I’m relying on my four years of high school French with very little practice in the 20 years since, but at the very least, the person I’m trying to talk with usually gets frustrated enough to switch to English. I like to think they appreciated my efforts of trying to be do as the natives do.

There was one time that I thought I was going to slugged by an old woman, though. We were at some touristy place and Earl was in the bathroom. It was the middle of July and very, very hot, even in metric. This older woman was smiling at me, so I figured I’d say something. So I said, “boy it’s hot” in French. “Il est chaud.”

She then looked rather startled and then annoyed because I had told her “he’s in heat”.

I should have said “Il fait chaud.” Must be she wasn’t interested.

Back to Geno’s. My “provolone wit” (cheese steak with provolone and onions) was delicious and it proved that the U.S. is the home of diverse English, because I don’t think there’s many places that you can order a “provolone wit” and have someone understand what you’re saying.

Outside.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Do what I am doing today during my lunch hour. Get outside and enjoy the sunshine. Breathe in some fresh air, even if you live in the middle of a big urban area. There’s still fresh air to be found. So what if it’s raining where you are. Get outside and splash around in some puddles.

Enjoy the moment.

I know it’s only Wednesday but I’m already thinking about our activities for the upcoming weekend. There’s so much to do with such little time – it’s bear night in Rochester, I believe it’s Pride weekend in Buffalo, there’s BBQ to be had just about anywhere; the list goes on and on. But there’s one thing that tops the list of “must-do” activities this weekend.

We’ll be waiting for our cable repairman.

Nothing says “fun-filled weekend” like waiting for the fourth visit of the Adelphia repairman. It really is a necessity, since our internet connection only works when the sun isn’t out and the temperatures are cool. I suggested to the technician on the line that predictable outages may be related to a heat issue but I think I deviated from the script or something because they immediately sounded flustered and mumbled something about writing that note down in my technical file.

I wonder what else my technical file contains. Are there notes about my demeanor on the phone? Because technically I hate Adelphia, but they’re the only game in town when it comes to broadband internet so I have to put up with them. But they’re not good at what they do and I’ve told them that.

I know what you’re saying. “It’s only your internet connection.” First of all, how dare you speak such profane things to a Super Geek like myself and secondly, our phone service rides the same connection so our telephones don’t work when the sun is out or when it’s warm.

I called Adelphia on Monday where they set up the service call for me. “Oh, you’re lucky, there’s an appointment available on Sunday.”, said the perky technician.

“Yesterday was Sunday.”

“Yes, but I’m talking about this coming Sunday.”

I just sighed and took the appointment, grateful that I didn’t have to wait for some second coming or something. So this weekend I may be arrested for kidnapping the cable repairman and holding him hostage until he gets this internet connection fixed. Let’s hope he’s cute.