Great Lake!

It was a full-ish day yesterday. Started with getting together with Justin, a friend of a friend who may become a friend. He is going to look after the house and water the plants while mom and I are traveling. Hopefully we will not have a repeat of the water pipe break that we had a few winters ago. He seems like a knowledgeable, hard working person. And he might be willing to help out with some of the tasks that the handyman we were working with before has not opted to do. He did, in fact, take away the pile of detritus that the other HM left after working on a job. Finally! I think it has been there almost a year. Sigh.

Next, a quick tour of the peonies in mom's garden. I just hope that she doesn't miss them entirely.

Lastly, off to Sodus Bay. A friend is working/living up there. I have never visited that town, so I thought it might be fun to pop up. It is only about 40 minutes from Geneva. And boom, there one is, on the edge of a lake. A great lake. A Great Lake even! Huge! Like a little inland ocean - though fresh water. Lake Ontario.

I went to two places - Abe's and Captain Jack's. Both were nice enough. Abe's was out of the one beer that I wanted to try - the only local beer they had on tap. Oh well. Captain Jack's had a lot of local beers - relatively. In the end, though, I opted for a Samuel Adams beer - Nahti? It was very hoppy and quite good. Went well with my ribs! Yay ribs. This was the second time this week that I had homemade chips with my meal. The only thing that would have made them better was if they were fresh from the from the oven.

After that, I headed to Newark, NY to visit the only Parker's that I hadn't visited. It was a nice one, but they didn't have anything exciting on tap, so I had to resort to an old standby - Ithaca Apricot Wheat. Only after I sat down and ordered, did I notice that they had the UFO Raspberry Hefe. Poo.

I got home and made Almond Roca. Well, Almond Toffee Crunch. I had some stuff leftover (nuts, toffee and chocolate) so had that for dessert. Yum!

So that was my adventurous (adventuresome?) day.

Mom's Peony bed - not lush, but there are a few

Peony

Sodus Bay

Abe's

Sam Adams Nahti

Captain Jack's

Ribs

Great Lake!

Parker's Newark

Almond Roca leftovers

Picture Post

Hi friends! (A friend is to the end as Abigail Saltonstall once told me - she also told me piece of pie - sigh - I miss her friendship...) Since yesterday was not a day filled with adventures of a large kind or even of the -let kind, a bunch of pictures will have to suffice. And some words of course. I can't really call myself a raconteur without raconteuring just a bit.

I did have a sort of adventure yesterday. I saw this woman once near the Redbox at my local Wegman's. Years ago, I read the Celestine Prophecies - one of the only things that stuck from that book was the idea that if you run across someone three times, there probably is no harm in talking with them. Or something like that. I think it was all way more cosmic in the Celestine Prophecies. Me, I just need some sort of excuse to start to talk with someone. Anyway, I went to the Wegman's to return my movie and in the vague hope of running across that woman again. And I needed some ingredients for making almond roca - I promised a friend some for her upcoming birthday. Speaking of which, I still need some milk chocolate...Sadly, the woman did not appear. I will survive.

Next I walked (yes, actual podophilia - nope, perambulation perhaps?) up the street and hill to Dunkin' Donuts. I have had a hankering for months now for their chocolate kreme (note the "k") donuts. Sadly, our DD doesn't make them anymore. What kind of crap is that? I bought two other donuts and just ate them for brunch. Yay! Then back down the hill to Rite Aid where I got some of mom's medicine and saw my phavorite pharmacist. Sigh.

Later in the evening, I wandered downtown, hoping to go to the new place on Linden Street. Unfortunately it was closed. Still. Or again. Rumor has it, it is open, I just haven't managed to be there when it is. So I went to Red Dove instead - where they had a whole lot of new staff - and Abby. One beer (Sly Fox O'Reilly's Stout (very similar to Guiness) then home for a night of Galaxy Quest and kicking back! Yay!

Where my PP works

Flowers

An iris after a rain storm

Sky picture

Another Sky picture

Cleanliness is next to

Cleanliness is next to Cleanlinessless in the dictionary. Ok, it isn't. But it ought to be. I am, surprisingly, often thinking about relationships. Some of you may know that I wrote a book about relationships, but I haven't worked on it in a while - needs a lot of editing. Anyway, I just had a thought. Regardless of all the other considerations when pairing up for a long haul, one that is necessary to think about is each other's cleanliness quotient.

I don't think that a clean freak and a slob would do well together. Opposites, in that case, would probably drive one another to distraction!

As far as that goes, I am not neat. Not a total slob, but I have never been neat. And I doubt anyone will ever consider me neat. Not that I am untrainable. I just haven't been trained to be neat. It is very low on my priority list. I understand neatness's value. I know it is easier to do a little all the time than to clean up a lot in one fell swoop. Intellectual understanding doesn't get me too far, though. And germs. I understand that germs can cause disease. But I believe that a healthy (ish) immune system is a great defense against most germs. So why stress over them.

Last night I made a foray to MacGregor's in Canandaigua. On the way, I picked up a movie - Ghost Protocol - to watch after I got home. Had a pleasant time, eating a yummy Caribbean steak wrap (I have half left over for tonight's dinner) and two good beers - Brooklyn Dry Irish Stout and Southampton Porter. Yay! Also had a good chat with a bar-mate named Frank and bartender Theron (no relation to Charlize apparently). 

Got home and watched Ghost Protocol. At best it was entertaining. But that was about it. Tom Cruise is not my favorite actor. Too much mugging for the camera. The other actors were fine, but not great. Some good effects and stunts and things, but it just felt weak somehow. Almost a parody of itself. Oh well. Maybe I will get another movie to watch tonight.

Dinner - yum!

This and that and maybe the other thing

The last couple of days, as you may have noticed, was all about (mostly) mom's reunion. Well, other thoughts have been percolating around in my head that I have not written about. So that is what today's exciting installment is going to be about. Read on, McFriends! :)

Mom and I finally finished watching Deadwood. Yay! It took a long time. I don't understand why Netflix doesn't wise up and send the whole season at one fell swoop no matter what plan one is on. Oh well. The series was worth watching for the most part. There was a bit of filler. And it ended kind of oomphlessly, with no one really getting what they deserved (bad guys that is). Maybe they didn't know that they weren't getting another season when they wrote and filmed the last episode.

I am percolating along watching all of the Stargate stuff. I remember watching the movie a long, long time ago. I enjoyed that. And over the years I had seen a few episodes here and there. Maybe 6 of them. Somehow I never got into it and watched consistently. Now I am on Season 9 (of 10) and am looking forward to the end. :) Seriously, it wasn't a bad show. It does make me want to watch Galaxy Quest again. Love that movie! Netflix online changed its interface - so far it seems for the better. Still don't see subtitles being readily available. But I often use my headphones when watching on my computer, so that makes it easier to hear. Has anyone else watched all of Stargate? It seems that the producers have a predilection for women with red hair! Yay! I do too, though I don't know why...

Today is the first real day of my long-ish vacation! Sad that I don't have someone special in my life to share it with. But happy to have it in any case. My plans are still forming for what to do in the next few days. I am leaning towards taking three day trips to visit beer places in the area. Ithaca tomorrow. Buffalo on Wednesday. Rochester on Thursday. Then Friday, drive East and stop at beer places on the way as I head to Maine slowly. There are a lot of beer places in Vermont that I would like to visit. We shall see if any of it happens. I might just sit around and do nothing instead.

It feels a little weird not worrying about what to make mom for lunch and dinner. And to be able to wander around the house aimlessly, clothelessly.  I know, scary image...

I tried uploading pictures to FB yesterday and it was taking forever! More than half an hour for one photo to get uploaded. That is just wrong. I will try again today and see what I can get to happen.

Still no beta testers for Flippety. Grrr. And I haven't really done anything to it or with it in the past few days (except play it on my iPhone). I am planning on adding a page for it to my website. Complete with Screenshots. Ooh, screenshots!

The plan for the Journey West is not really all that closer to being finalized. I haven't decided whether or not to try and sell books in Kansas City at the Flying Saucer, or just head north immediately. And where to stop - mom hasn't made any suggestions about what she might like to see or do, which isn't surprising. In fact, that is how she has always been. Sigh.

I was interested to discover that Smith staggers its reunion classes - so that the oldest classes are together on one weekend and the younger classes are together on another.

All (most) of the pictures I took at the Reunion are on my facebook page.

Mom's Reunion Day 3/Last Day

I had set my alarm so that I could get up and help mom get ready for her maybe marching in the traditional Smith Alumnae parade. Color me red when I got out of bed and discovered that mom was long gone already! I guess she either got up on her own or others of her class got her up. I found her at breakfast with some of her classmates. One of them offered her their spare wheelchair (which she only uses when she is really, really, really tired - I mean the woman told us that she walks three miles a day!). Little did we know that Smith also had wheelchairs (and pushers) available.

Mom and her cohorts all girded their loins (so to speak) and off we went. The march wasn't all that far - interestingly done: oldest people first so they had to march the furthest. Sort of understandable I guess, then again, counter-intuitive. There was one member of the class of 37 who got to ride on a golfcart! The other classes folded through the younger classes following a marching band made up of people mostly in their 50s it seemed. Odd. Anyway, everyone marched to a sea of chairs where a meeting of the Alumnae Club was convened. Lots of talking about money donated, class participation etc. I basically lolled around. At the very end of the event, the Smith n' Poofs performed again. Yay! (Saw them later that day - I swear they were following me!)

Back to the dorm briefly before it was time to head to lunch and more speeches. Juliet appeared and said that she had decided to leave and not stay for the dinner and the light show. I was sad, cause I was looking forward to another open bar, another decent meal and the sound and light show. Oh well. Not a biggie - I would get to sleep in my own bad at least! We agreed to meet at 3:30 at the dorm. While the class of '52 was talked to, I went back to the hotel and packed mom and me up. I put my stuff in my car and piled mom's up for easy retrieval. One of the dorm monitors, Rachel, who I had seen a couple of times the day before - offered to help tote when the time came. Just then, a woman came up and asked me if I was Renée's son. Sure enough, I was. Mom had escaped and tried to lead a general revolt, but succeeded in only liberating a couple of her classmates from the torture of the dean's hour long speech!

Mom had been desirous of visiting the Smith College Art Museum, of which she had memories from her school days. The building had been changed since her day - but some of the same works of art are still rotated for display. Yay nostalgia! We spent a good long while wandering through the four floors of the museum. Unsurprisingly, we ended up in the museum store buying cards!

Juliet arrived at 3:30, the car got packed (thank you Rachel!) goodbyes and such were shared and off we went - mom to Maine and me to Geneva. Yay!

I am going to post an album of all of the photos I took while at the reunion (with some judicious editing of atrocious pictures) on my facebook page. When that happens, I will post a link in the blog as well. Please, no breath holding!

How cool!

Mom at breakfast

Mom's chariot awaited!

Class of '52 waiting to get marching!

Trombone guy

Class of '37 riding in style (sort of)

Some marchers

Juliet did not see me

I think mom was having some fun

That's a bunch of alumnae!

Mom and Martha

Lunch in Lamont

I love iriseseses

The museum

Mom and Rachel

Mom's 60th Reunion Day 2

Long day yesterday! I stayed up too late and was awoken a bit earlier than was comfortable. Oops. I ought to have gone to sleep earlier. Life is that way sometimes. Sadly, the bed is not optimal. I think it would need a mattress cover to make it a little less slippy for me to be more comfortable. I did, though, score a second pillow, and that helped last night. Anyway, mom appeared in my doorway and wanted to go to breakfast. What the heck is that? Well, we managed to get there and find food. Mom ate, I watched (since I don't usually eat anything until after I do my morning yoga). We sat with a few of her classmates and a woman from the class of 1942 and her daughter. The older woman was amazing, especially for her age. Her daughter is a renowned paleo-anthropologist who is working on the origins of man in Africa. Wow. (The daughter went to Radcliffe, not Smith...)

After breakfast, our first mission was to find mom's lost classmate - Nell Cochran. We found her! Turns out she was class of 1951! No wonder she didn't show up in any class literature. We gave her a call and they had a nice chat. Yay! Check one major thing off mom's stress list! We also had a brief visit with Juliet (my sister) who is class of 1962. We arranged to get together later in the day to chat. Suddenly it was lunch time. I made mom take the trail of tears to get to the dorm where food was being served.

Lunch was buffet styles, lots of salad type stuff. Followed by dessert! Yay dessert!

After lunch, we headed back to the dorm for a rest before going on about our business. I was so exhausted, I napped for an hour. Ooops. Mom had wanted to go to the Smith Art Museum, but the timing didn't work out. Instead we met up with Juliet and just puttered around until it was time to head to dinner.

Dinner was at what used to be the Faculty Club. Nice building on the side of the river. Drinks on the porch were great - I had a good Longtrail IPA or three. Everyone chatted up a storm. I had a good talk with mom's friend Martha before dinner. At dinner, which was much better than the meal the night before, we had steak and asparagus and mashed potatoes. Yum. We were also serenaded by the Smith n' Poofs - an a capella group. Great stuff! The speaker was the current head of the Smith Museum. Long and interesting.

Back to the dorm for a sing along, which I barely attended, choosing instead to rectify the lack-of-tooth-care-products issue. And stopping for a beer (Peak Organic Hop Noir - a black IPA) at Hinge. I liked Hinge way better than The Dirty Truth for some reason.

Back home, and to bed so I could get up and do it again!

Juliet and Mom

Mom under the reunion banner

Pretty flowers

Lunch table

Salads

Some reunion people

Pat was paying attention - mom, well...

Ellie and Martha

Decent Dinner

Sing along

Beer List at Hinge

Reunion Class of '52 Day One

I got up relatively early and found mom already awake. I hope she got some sleep. I actually slept pretty well, which is unusual the night before leaving for a trip. But I felt pretty prepared and thought that 2 hours would be plenty to get the final touches accomplished before hitting the road. My tasks - make some lunch, clean out the car, pack the car and get mom in the car with everything she wanted and needed for the trip. I mostly succeeded.

Sadly, I forgot to follow up with mom's packing of her morning ablutions stuff - after we got that cool bag from Rite-Aid and everything. Oh well. As I tell mom, we aren't on the moon, so all of that stuff is easily purchased. I also forgot to pack a sweater/jacket sort of thing that she wanted to take. Oops. Other than that, at noon, we were sort of ready to go. We did have a few last minute things to handle, but nothing major. Yay!

On the way out of town, quick stop at the library to drop off an audio book, and then through the mail street (Linden) to drop off some mail.

The drive was uneventful and easy. No major traffic snares, not much in the way of precipitation. We stopped at a rest stop for a break, and to eat a little. And to get gas. Note to self (and anyone else who drives on the NYS Thurway): Indian Castle Service Area has the most expensive gas on the highway! Glarp!

The GPS took us directly to Alumnae House and there was a parking spot right in front! Yippee! Unfortunately, though we had paid for two people, they had only reserved us one room. With one twin bed. I love my mom, but not quite in that way. So they gave us a second room, which, fortuitously was only one door down! Yay! I do, though, get to walk up two flights of stairs to the bathrooms since the other residents of the floor (for the most part) are not used to Uni-sex bathrooms.

We have house guards all the time. Young students who are earning a little money. The first day we had three - one from Afghanistan (who made my bed) - one from Greece and one from Burma! Later, we had a nice young woman from Sierra Leone!

Dinner was at the Northampton Hotel. Weirdly arranged. Cash bar - yet there was only one bartender who was not very fast. And because of some MA regulation, one was only allowed to buy two drinks at a time. Grrr. The tables were in an upstairs dining room - fairly small and packed tightly together. The food was ok at best. The managers on duty finally found a cocktail server who was allowed to "run" alcoholic beverages. It took forever to get one. I ordered a beer with my salad and it came as I was eating my ice cream. All in all, not great service-wise, but that wasn't the point. The point was for people to be able to sit together and chat. And that worked out well!

We got back to the dorm around 9:30. I gt mom situated and then headed downtown for beer before bed. I found a nice place (which had been suggested by the Hotel staff) that had 44 taps! I had a delicious St. Ambrose Oatmeal Stout on nitrogen. Yay!

Long day, short night. More tomorrow!

My stuff for the trip

Mom, Pat and Gigi (Hard g's)

The cash bar

Mom's not exciting salmon

Our dinner table

The site of the class dinner

Waiting for the shuttle

I am in 208

The beer list at The Dirty Truth

My dorm room