TESTING FROM CELLPHONE

I guess this works from my Android cell phone, maybe this means I will blog more, maybe not...please leave a comment telling me how this entry looks to you, thanks.

Merry Christmas

Here is a one page representation of Christmas Traditions that I scrapbooked for a project

On the left is mom at the 2010 Troy Victorian Stroll, and on the right are some additional images of her through the years. This was a double page that I scrapbooked for a project.

Today's Times Union - Early Bird Edition

So on my way to getting my coffee and coupons inserted in the local newspaper, I accidentially read the news. I've not been known to pour over the columned words all that carefully, also I watch the news every night so why would I read the same news....huh? But today, something drew me in. I was sorting and discarding like I always do to get to my gems, but today in the Capital Region section, "Local" to us oldsters, I spied an article written by an award winning journalist, Brendan J. Lyons, Senior Writer. If anyone ever doubted, never no more, he only writes on the best stuff and is always worthy of a look-see! Today he writes about my new boss, Daniel McCoy a fellow who locals know he just "won" the Albany County Executive race (he was unopposed), so to have a scandal so early is always a treat. Albany politics be damned, a scandal anywhere that politics has been intrentched as long as the machine in Albany is always a fun dish sampled from....so I read it. A confusing though not that unusual story about time off, time someplace else and time incorrectly written and sworn to on some type of timecard. Ok, enough of that nonsense, we will have many more years of this type of thing.

My next adventure took me to the Unwind section of the T.U. and to the Life section written by local journalist and blogger Kristi Gustafson Barlette (yes, she does realize her initials are KGB) the dangers of wearing your wedding ring or not and when and where you should take it off. Since I don't have one and don't wear rings it was not very important to me, other than the survey done where people said it was acceptable to take it off when pawning it, now that I like. The same page but not a local writer, Felix Carroll gives us a look into his childhood and guesses that today's youth are not as physically adventuresome as he and his friends. Well ok Felix, but I bet they can load an app like nobody's business, so, um there!

My trail then leads me to another story in Unwind, Travel and the fact that there is another "Manchester", ok cool, I'll give this to mom and she can file it away with other trips that we have yet to go on...

Continuing on the path...by now coupons are in a neglected pile...Arts and the fact that my "around the blogesphere name double", Colleen Skiff is resigning from an art gallery in Troy, NY. Well, Col I hope you have a great retirement and please use a different name when responding to a blog. Now the bottom of that same page is an interesting historical event that Abraham Lincoln, yes that one, was in Albany in 1861. Thank you Amy Griffin, frequent contributor to the Times Union for our history lesson, I'd love to see more of that so let's see something about the Schuylers and the Van der whatevers please!

Finally, yeah ok I prattle on a bit, in the Unwind section is "Flavor" written by Senior Writer and local blogger Steve Barnes. Here he answers some questions about "whatever happened to Nicole". Nicole Plisson was a local restaurantaur who made a go of two restaurants, all highly acclaimed and oft missed by the local foodies. She explains that that breast cancer and all that surrounds that horrible disease was what happened, and why the least of her worries was how to order lettuce from a local produce company. A concise piece that shows us while we are all carrying on our merry way, there are people who are trying to, well, just live.

Ok, one more, I know I lied up there, but KGB (see what I did there) had one more piece in today's paper, in the Health section, page one, above the fold (yes, I watch newspaper movies) where she explains about Anti-gravity yoga, ok so I like the Anti-gravity part and reading it says if rides at amusement parks bother you......I stopped, yes they do make my tummy hurt and therefore I will not be trying this yoga. Anyway don't you all know that exercise can kill you, no? Well, just read the TU from a couple of weeks ago, "don't tase/taze me bro", but that's for another time.

http://www.timesunion.com/

Windham, New York

So mom and I went to Windham, New York on a bus trip organized by the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Albany, mostly because we hadn't been on a bus trip in a while and also because we thought it would be fun. Mom called the JCC and paid the fee, and a few days later Hurricane Irene devistated Windham where roads were taken out, homes were lost and The Country Store, the place we were going to visit http://catskillmtncountrystore.com was completely destroyed. A few days later Clair from the JCC called to say that the trip was cancelled and how did we want our money back or could we use it on another trip. Mom wisely asked for some time to think about it and a week or so later Clair called again to say that the trip was on, the Country Store was back up and running and see you on Monday October 17th a little after 10am. So the trip was a go...then on September 8th I was not paying attention to where I was walking and I fell, landing on both hands, spraining both wrists, hurting both elbows and shoulders. After three days of denial about how much it hurt and how long it was going to take to heal, the trip once again entered my mind, would I be well enought to travel. I was on the couch watching TV, bored to tears and hoping that I could someday hold a ball, let alone travel. But, as with all things that I put my mind to, I was able to get well enough to hoist myself on the bus. The day began as most do these days, get ready, a little rest, get ready some more, rest a little. So we get to the JCC, hop on the bus and begin our travelling. It was all quite uneventful until the bus went by the Country Store and we had to turn around. Our bus driver Jim stopped, backed into a hilly driveway and promptly got stuck. We all then were waiting for a tow truck that had to be hired to ascend the Windham mountain from Cairo, NY and pull us a few feet, at $300.00 mind you so we could get lunch and shop at the Country Store. An hour passed and we were freed. Lunch was good enough and the store had a few cute mugs to purchase with their logo on them, but the thing I remember about Windham was how everyone was toward each other. From the people who stopped to ask if we needed help, to the gentleman wearing a Greene County Firemen's Convention sweatshirt to the friendly "Barney Fife" Windham Police Officer. They were also very kind and patient with one another, nothing seemed to upset them, and they seemed genuinely happy to help us and happy we were there. The owner of the Country Store even took a 2 minute ride to see us stuck on the hill and helped direct traffic. All in all a good day, and on the way down the Windham mountain we even got stuck again, this time by someone trying to deliver a storage container to a store, but we all had experience in this so we were much kinder to that person than I think we would have been had we not gotten stuck blocking traffic earlier ourselves.

The Pink Party is Coming to Albany

Every year my friend Matt Baumgartner throws THE BEST PARTY and this year it is to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; his blog post about the party is here: http://www.fridaypuppy.com/index.php/2011/03/02/save-the-date-the-pink-party/

The Leukemia Society is near and dear to my heart as I was on the Committee for the Light the Night event and I walked the event many years prior to being selected to be a member of the Committee. While I could not serve all the time that I had wanted due to knee surgery and moving out of the area, I saw what caring people there are in the Capital Region.

If you cannot attend this Party of the Year then please visit the LTN website and see if you can help them out with their fundraising: http://www.lightthenight.org/uny/

Holiday Stamps

Soooo, October 21, 2010 they announced that the new Holiday stamps would be forever stamps, evergreen and an Angel playing a Lute......hum, Evergreen? I could see where they would issue them for Winter, but for Holiday stamps they aren't very, um Holiday'ish. The Angel with the Lute is nice, but how about 4 Angels playing Lutes? So my choice is a generic forrest theme or one Angel.....meh, is it any wonder why they are losing money; I need choices people, choices.http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2010/pr10_094.htm

Halfway Done with Vacation

Ok, so I know I don't have any followers, but I'm going to write as if I did. Halfway done with Vacation and I've noticed some things. One, I don't have time to do everything I want to do; Two, mother nature doesn't seem to be cooperating and three, I'm just as tired at the end of the day as when I was working.

So, really vacations are not really vacations at all, they are merely a chance to do things that you don't have time for when working a day-job. I think vacations should be lounging around the pool, being waited on and sipping a favorite beverage. But, my mind would never let me do that, as I would be thinking about things that have to get done, or else something else can't be completed on time.