Jake, Natasha, Asa enjoying a Nilla wafer break.


Returning from another visit to the Lodge.


Toes in the bay; waiting to go fishing.


A friendly game of Life.

Asa, Harley, and John... off for more fishing.


Foosball at the Lodge.


Natasha at the Lodge.


John, Asa, and Jake fishing off of the bridge.

Jeanne in front of cabin #13


Asa feeding the ducks.


Jake and Natasha making plans.


Rabbit ears

Manhattan for Cherie Blum's 40th Birthday

The weekend of February 25 our family went to New York City to attend Cherie Blum's surprise 40th birthday party. Tammy, Jordan, and Nick came along so Tammy could hang with Jake and Asa while we went to the party. We all took the Staten Island Ferry to do a drive-by of the Statue of Liberty, saw Times Square (our hotel was in the heart of Times Square), went to Soho to go to our favorite store, Pearl River; guess who we ran into in Pearl River the morning before the surprise party?? To our great surprise Josh, Cherie and Lily were shopping in that store. Perhaps we blew the surprise, but Josh tried to convince us that Cherie already knew that something was up. The party was a lot of fun with a delicious dinner, then an 80’s dance party after. Jake came down with a pretty bad virus on our first night, and he’s just about over it now – on Wednesday! It’s been a rough week for the boy – but he’s almost over it. Just the week before the trip, Asa had strep throat! Now spring is almost here, and hopefully we’ll stay healthy for the rest of the winter.

In the subway.

On the Staten Island Ferry. Jake is smiling for the camera, but in between each picture, his facial expression changes dramatically.

Jordan and Tammy watching a street musician playing the steele drums.

Lunch in Soho after bumping into the Blums at Pearl River.

Sick boy Jake on the car ride home Sunday afternoon.

What Else Can We Burn?

Despite the deep snow, I am able to get a fire started in the pasture. I only burned a small part of this pile. The rest we are going to burn all at once instead of a bit at a time. The neighbors swear this will be okay...

Hulk tired.

The boys get a bath together.

First Burn

Finally, what we've looked forward to since we moved here! We've had this huge pile of ivy vines, tree branches, and other various yard debris left laying in a gigantic pile just outside of the goat barn by the previous owner. That pile is now gone! It took three weekends, but we did it, and we really enjoyed it. The first weekend, at the end of the first day of burning, it began to snow. It kept snowing until it was 17 inches deep.

All that snow didn't stop us, we went back out and dug out a fire pit in the snow, and began pulling the wood from under the deep snow and set it on fire! It burned, no problem. It's exhausting work - which surprised us; we were achy and totally spent at the end of each day's work. The boys had lots of fun too. Now we have one monstrous pile left in the pasture. On a windless day some weekend, that pile is going to go up in one glowing apocalyptic mushroom cloud. Our neighbors swear that it'll burn crazy-huge for about 15 minutes or so then will ease up. Apparently this type of event is no big deal around here. It scares the crap out of John and I, yet some small dark place inside of us can't wait to see it all go up...

Thank You, Josh!

Josh and Lily Blum came for a visit with us a week or so ago. Josh came to help John renovate the attic and turn it into either a guest bedroom, or possibly, our bedroom. Josh and John moved some beams, created a beadboard ceiling, and framed in one end of the room. It was a lot of hard work that was pretty time consuming. John could never have done the work himself, and we are very grateful for Josh's help.

During the visit, we got to really bond with Lily, who came to feel like a little sister to the boys. Her personality was a perfect compliment to our existing family vibe. Mr. Henry came along for the visit, and the poor guy, who is allergic to grass, had a skin reaction to our back yard grass, and a digestive reaction to all the kitchen waste that I've been tossing out there all winter long. Pee-You!! Mr. Henry gave Asa a run for his money in the gas department. Even still it was a wonderful visit and we were sad to see them go back to Brooklyn and Cherie after five days. Thanks again, Josh!!

Happy New Year!

Thanks to Sassa, John and I were able to go out on New Year's Eve. Sass hung out with Jake and Asa at G&Gs house in Columbia, and John and I went to the famous New Year's Eve party at the Randazzo's house. We got to see much of the old Tanglewood posse and catch up a bit. Some of us danced the night away to Paul's music mix, and some of us just took pictures of the people dancing! Lots of pictures. So many pictures. More than was needed. Pictures of things that you don't want to see. Lots of pictures of the Randazzo's ceiling. Lots of pictures of Glen Johnson's tongue. But still, it was great fun.