Quiet Week

All the camps are finally winding down and this week is relatively quiet. Which means that in theory I could get on top of household and administrative stuff. In theory that is.

 

We still have daily swimming lessons for the three youngest, so that takes away most of the morning. On the other hand, it is nice to just sit and read a book for a bit instead of running around like crazy during that time.

 

On other news: this morning I saw a coyote walking through my back yard, the same one I saw in my neighbor's back yard a few weeks ago. And no, I didn't get a picture because it was fast and I was way too slow to get the camera instead of just standing there, being amazed.

ARGH!!!! Fairpoint Foolishness

Yes, I still do exist. Yes, I have tons of things to write about. No, I haven't. Yes, I indeed have been driving around in crazy circles all day instead.

Anyway, I have my phone and internet via fairpoint communications (for now, that is :p) and I needed to contact them about two fairly simple issues. One to get my online access password reset, since I hadn't used it in ages and the website didn't like me anymore.

 

Geez, in the end it took me more than one and a half hour to get it all done. That included talking to three people , one of which said she needed a minute to look into something, but accidentily must have hung up on me instead :p. The others were very nice but I still didn't get done what I needed until after a lot of waiting and calling and trying again and again to log in to their website.

Fairpoing still has my married name in their system, even although in the past I have tried to change that, but I am sooooooooooooo not going to spend another one and a half hours to do so :p

One of them tried to sell me an 'all inclusive' package of $41 for unlimited long distance calls, since my calls were usually between $29 and $40. Ummmm... how would the $41 package save me money?

I think the almost $80 I pay for phone and internet with them is an expense I am going to look at and to shop around at their competitors.

Now going to do all the other boring administrative stuff I want to get done today. Hope it will be a bit more speedy and efficient.

I am Woman...

... hear me roar!

Today I went to the thrift store and found a nice hutch for my dining room. I had them load it into my car, but when I came home no one was at home. Neither did my friend pick up her phone.

 

I figured I had two choices. I could either leave the hutch in my car, and unload it late tonight, or tomorrow morning when the kids would be home.

Or I could try to unload it by myself.

Never having been known for the virtue of patience, I chose the second option. I heard thunder in the distance, and quite close by too, so I was very motivated to get it done NOW. Before the rain started. Even if in hindsight it never did, darn it.

 

It wasn't super easy, but it wasn't impossible either, and the feeling of accomplishment I have from doing this all by myself is exhilarating.

One of the drawer knobs was only half attached, but the missing screw actually was inside the drawer so I fixed that.

Now we have a great place to put placemats, napkins and other items we need for setting the table.

Back from Camp

Both Erik and Jane came back from camp, with lots of awesome stories. They both had a great time.

 

Jane felt slightly guilty about not missing us, but was also happy to be home. She had done awesome activities like an overnight canoe trip, wilderness survival skills and learned how to shoot a rifle.

 

Erik had all kinds of very active happenings, including capture the frisbee and lots of gaga ball. He said he had a fantastic time. He learned many new jokes and riddles, not all of them very good :p

 

It is nice to have everyone home again.

Off to Camp

 

On Sunday Jane and Erik went off to camp. To get Jane to her camp, we drove a very pretty route through Vermont and stopped at this scenic view.

 

In the distance you can see a huge power dam.

 

 

At another rest area we met this moose head...

 

We didn't get lost too much and eventually we actually made it to Jane's camp. She got assigned into the coyote cabin. Not sure what to think of that. A cool thing is that one of her class mates from her school was at the exact same camp and they didn't even know that they both were going.

 

After we dropped off Jane, Kate and I slowly made our way back home, stopping for anything that interested us. We both liked this covered bridge.

 

And even although we weren't even geocaching (still haven't found my GPS), we still looked for a geocache, just in case. We didn't find any, even although we have found many on other covered bridges, they seem to be popular geocaching hiding spots.

 

 

It is always nice to look at the water and rocks under the covered bridges.

 

This was the first time ever I saw mailboxes on a covered bridge. What a super cool mailbox location! Maybe we should move there, just to have a mailbox like that!

 

Kate is pointing out interesting architectural details.

 

 

Next stop was the tiniest library we had ever seen. Too bad it wasn't open on Sunday, so we couldn't actually go inside.

 

Now we found ourselves in Littleton where we wanted to eat lasagna, since last Sunday was National Lasagna Day (yeah, I didn't know that either, but Kate had found it somewhere online, so it has to be true)

We didn't found lasagna, but we did find another piano project.

 

Kate had fun playing on it.

 

And even although no stores were open anymore since it was later on Sunday now, we totally enjoyed ourselves by windowshopping. Very creative wooden doll houses in this store.

 

 

 

Since we couldn't find any lasagna, we had pizza instead, since that is Italian too, right, so it's almost the same.

 

Lovely Hike

The weather was nice, we had done too much indoors stuff, so I convinced Erik we should go on a hike together. He wanted to try out the new camera, so all the pictures in this post are made by him, apart from the ones where he is featured.

This bridge does not really seem to go anywhere, but I think it is used for snowmobiles in the winter and maybe 4wheelers at this time of the year.

 

I am not used to finding pictures of myself on my camera, it was nice to have Erik take some.

 

He liked the flowers, here are some black eyed Susans.

 

And a daisy.

 

No idea what this purple flower is, but it looks pretty.

 

This was our destination for the day, the local ex-beaver-pond which is now more and more of a marsh instead of a pond.

 

Interesting looking rock, not sure what it is either.

 

Erik on that bridge in the first picture.

 

Me too, even if the bridge doesn't seem to have made it into the picture.

 

Not sure what is going on with this plant. See how the stem has a thickening and then it gets normal again. Maybe caused by some insect?

 

Some more silly pictures of Erik on the big blocks at the entrance to the trail.

 

We had a great time hiking!

 

Today we did a similar hike again, only we went farther and the grass was still wet from the rain. Not to mention that my camera was out of batteries, so we didn't take it.

There was much whining and gnashing of teeth, especially when the bottom of Erik's pants got wet and he was wet and cold and miserable and everything was wrong and nothing was right.

Let's hope next hike will be better, more like the lovely one from the pictures, instead of the not-perfect one today ^^

Random Snippets

Sylvia is doing a dance camp (same as Dawn, only in a younger group) and thoroughly enjoying it. Tap dance is her favorite. "I like how you have to use your brain and it is really hard, but also really easy at the same time!'

We made a quick but productive farmer's market stop today, which solved all my today's "It is 5:15pm and I have no idea what to make for dinner" problems.

 

We FINALLY have a local place where you can buy falafel sandwiches. At the farmer's market, so we might have to live without them for the winter. For now we are really enjoying them!

We still have 19 pianos to find before the end of the month, I hope we will be able to make our goal of finding all 50. Today was Very Rainy, so not a good piano hunting day.

 

I found a new easy chair at our thrift store today and Sylvia is so happy with it that she insisted on sleeping in it. Didn't seem very comfortable to me for night time sleep, but she is sleeping, so I guess it works. Or maybe dance tired her out so much that she would sleep anywhere.

Cees and Tim are visiting the Netherlands, they should be arriving there around this time.

 

Last week goal was to make crepes and I actually managed to make them and now can put them on my 'easy sweet or savory treat' list. This week's goal is to make Eggplant Parmesan or whatever you call it, so I got an eggplant at the farmer's market today. Let's see whether I actually managed to prepare it.

I am addicted to the fresh carrots we get at the farmer's market, they are just PERFECT. My most blissful moments are when I have a good book and some of those carrots to eat and can do so outdoors on MY deck.

Argh, it is almost midnight, when did that happen? Time for bed!