I think I got the blog back up running again. If you have trouble seeing photos, try hitting refresh. That was a huge pain in the ass fixing that. I was talking with tech support, my ISP (not sure why I was told to do that), wordpress support (radio silence) and nobody could get it figured out and finally I just was able to fix it myself by stripping my blog down to the start and rebuilding. Not what I wanted to do on my weekend.

First world problem for sure, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. I just uploaded the first theme that was in my list, so I don’t even know if I will keep it, but I don’t feel like messing with the blog any more for a while. Reference the meme above.

On Sunday, the fence came down. It was rotted in sections, so it’s not like that storm took down a quality fence or anything. The plan was to replace the fence at some point in the near future. We just didn’t think it would be coming down so soon. A new fence is not in the budget now and we don’t want an insurance hike. So down it came. I was swearing profusely at working on fixing my blog and finally figured it out. I got up to check the photos on my phone and looked out the window to see John had already started on the fence!

Then I went out and helped because I have to get my mitts on every project. It was done by early afternoon. Some of the sections were broken, so they just pulled out easy peasy. John had to use the reciprocating saw to cut a couple other sections free, but it went fast. Now we have a pile of fencing to get rid of.

I was going to offer it for free on my vintage lists since they eat up picket fence stuff, but as we were pulling it down, it looked like a lot of insect damage happened and I don’t want to send wood home to someone that might be infested with something. Ewww. Really glad it’s down now.

Arial view. That poor woman’s garage is still sitting like that today. Her insurance company needs to get on the ball so that can be taken care of.

It’s very strange to look outside now.

What it used to look like:

Honestly, in looking at the yard, I actually kind of like it without the fence, even though there is still the chain link on the one side. It’s not like we have a dog or kids to keep in place. The neighbor on the back doesn’t have pets or kids either – and her yard isn’t fenced all the way around.  She doesn’t care if we replace the fence or not.

I think we will just do a plant type border for now. Maybe some urns with plants in them every 10 feet or so would look pretty cool. I have to rethink some plants that are on their way that were to be put along the fence because they are not designed for full sun, which this corner is for sure.  I have some clematis planted that was going to climb up the fence, but I obviously need to move that now!  We’ll just add that on the pile of landscaping to be done this year.

**I am trying to fix my blog and wordpress because of issues so you can see photos again. I will be back to posting again when I get it straightened out. Excuse the look while this happens**

Thursday turned out to be pretty eventful. It’s been a crazy weather week, that’s for sure. We had a few inches of snow early in the week and it was really cold. Today was warm enough to bike, so I got out this morning before the rain came.

There was a bit of snow in the shaded parts of the path, but it was mostly clear.

I had stopped here because my account supervisor texted me. Sigh… Can’t ever get away 😀

It was really getting windy, too. I did 12 miles and it was a tough slog! But I biked.

The rainy weather came after noon and then about 4:00, the rain started coming really hard and the wind picked up.  It got to the point where I started to become very alarmed that it could possibly be a tornado and I was worried about all the trees in our yard.  Then it was gone and there was a lot of damage.

The tree across the street:

Our fence took a beating. When I first took a picture, I didn’t even notice our neighbor’s garage upended!

After things settled down in the evening, we walked around. Everybody was outside walking around surveying damage. This is around the corner from our house. Our fence fell over into their yard.

This is the house with the flipped up garage. We talked with the owner and she is just happy her house is fine. Like she said “It’s just a garage”. We offered her the use of any of our tools and stuff if she needed it, along with our labor.

Lots of huge trees went down. This road was blocked on both side of the intersection. An identical tree fell behind where I took this shot

This is a monster tree that went down and just missed the owner’s house. The branches were covering the front porch, but the house looked okay.

We saw a few trees leaning on roofs, but it seemed not any major living space damage and nobody seemed hurt, thank goodness.

Lots of cleanup to be done and roads are closed in spots from trees.

Our poor fence is toast. It was old and we were hoping to get another couple years out of it, but I guess not. We may not be able to replace it this year. Insurance isn’t likely to be worth the amount our premium will go up to have them pay for it.

Wavy fence:

We have this part tied back up with rope now until we take it down very soon.

Now I will have a sunnier garden than last year :O

We received some sad news today that a friend passed away from cancer. Joe was the first person I met in the area when we moved out here 10 years ago. Before we moved out, actually.

When we were looking to move from Illinois to upstate NY, you wouldn’t believe how many real estate agents blew us off. I would call about listings and they would seem interested in working with me, but no one followed up or called back or sent the lists of properties they said they would. Finally I stumbled on Joe’s company and he listened, sent me stuff and we established a relationship across states.

Joe was pretty unflappable about anything, and over the years I worked with him on my flipping houses, as well as our own purchases. There were some bitter cold days where we were traipsing through bank-owned homes with no heat on or in warmer weather going into a house with a fridge with spoiled food. We never knew what to expect when opening a door, but he never complained, ever.  He seemed to enjoy my positivity as well, which you really need in that business, and discussed Buddhism from time to time. After I sold my first flip house, he gave me a book by Thich Nhat Hanh.  It was thoughtful of him to remember our discussions, but no surprise because he listened.

Joe would have liked me to become a real estate agent, but I wasn’t too interested in that part of real estate, just making the homes shine again. He also invited me several times to his networking meetings that occurred at 7:00 am (!!) on Wednesday mornings. I always laughed those off because the only networking I wanted to do that early was with a cup of coffee. He always had the time for an email question or just seeing how we were doing. When renovating the houses, he would stop by to see progress and check in.   John and I would joke because it seemed whenever we were around and about in town, it was likely we would run into Joe since he enjoyed a lot of the same things we did.

Joe was also our agent for buying Radiance Manor – and I don’t have to remind you of the whole fiasco with that transaction. Through all those months, Joe was the only one who had our backs and listened to us. I’m sure over the years there were times when my name popped up on his cell or via email that he probably rolled his eyes, but you would never know it from his manner. He always had time.

We sold our old house last June and again worked with Joe for that. One week after the house closing, Joe went in for a lump in his throat and was diagnosed with esophogeal cancer. He went in for staging and found out the bad news that it was stage 4 and had metastisized to his lungs.  He still seemed in incredibly good spirits. We saw him shortly before he started chemo and he had a sense of humor about it and was positive – as you would expect from him since he never complained or got angry.

Unfortunately, treatment did not work and Joe entered hospice in February and just passed away. He will be greatly missed. Joe was one of the kindest people and he had the rare quality of being able to actually listen. A couple years after we moved out here, Joe and I were talking about the search to find our first home when we first got in touch. I remember him saying to me “I don’t know why the other realtors couldn’t help you. You were very clear with what you wanted”  Well, the key was he listened. Really listened.

Dang did that weekend go by fast! I worked (of course), but it’s late Sunday night and you just wonder where the time goes.  No biking this weekend. Cold and windy on Saturday and really, really windy on Sunday.  Not to mention some of this stuff!

It all melted by afternoon, but there is more on the way tomorrow. Boo.  We still walked to breakfast, even though it was 28 degrees and windy!  This was most welcome.

Sunday was my sister’s birthday. I wanted to do something a little different, so we decided to go out for drinks.  John and I had been to 9 Maple in Saratoga to see some jazz a couple months ago, and I saw this place had an amazing menu of martinis, from standard gin or vodka to liqueur martinis. There were somewhere around 200 drink choices. We didn’t have anything that night, but I wanted to come back and try some of them out.  The bar itself is quite neat. The building was built in the 1880s and there is a handmade mahogany bar. It was empty when we got there at first since it was early evening, which was awesome. 

Very neat atmosphere.  We had a couple martinis (don’t worry, neither of us drove).

My drink was English Raspberry Martini – Bailey’s, Chambord with a splash of Half and Half shaken and strained into a chilled martini glass.

Happy birthday Colleen!

There is something fun about a martini glass. Not sure what it is. You all know I don’t drink all that much and I’ve never had a traditional martini before so I don’t know if liqueur martinis are ‘proper’, but they were tasty!

My other one was Gates Martini – Tia Maria, Grand Marnier and Marie Brizard Dark Crème De Cocoa stirred and strained into a chilled martini glass.  Tia Maria is a coffee liqueur.  That certainly was something different to do!

Then we headed back to my sister’s for some cake. A Carvel ice cream cake.

Phoenix had to investigate the presents:

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It’s always nice to get together!

I took the whole weekend off from work and it felt pretty good! I worked Friday, but not Saturday or Sunday. Most times I work at least part of one day or both days, but not this weekend. 

Saturday was chilly, but I bundled up for a solo ride. I look interesting, I’m sure, but at least I’m warm!

It was struggling to get into the mid 40s. There was warmer biking weather at the end of February!

I took a new loop and went by the West Mountain Ski area. This is all that’s left:

It was a pretty sorry ski season this year. There was just not much snow this year and they probably had to make the majority of it to put on the runs.  This is only 7 miles or so from our house, so if I wanted to try downhill skiing again, I could. I didn’t like it when I tried it in Colorado.  Maybe tubing would be more fun.

Not a bad early  season ride. 

Think I’m ready for 25-30 mile rides now. We just need the weather to cooperate on the weekends!  

Sunday was a great weather day, but we had an early afternoon dinner to go to.  I made the vegetable tian:

If you haven’t made this dish, do it. It’s super easy and tasty. Even I like to eat it with all the different veggies!

We also brought along this seltzer because it was just too intriguing to pass up:

So what does a unicorn kiss taste like?  We couldn’t decide. It seemed like a berry mix to me. John thought watermelon and other people thought something fruity. I don’t know if anyone loved it, though.  

We had ham, pasta, the tian, green bean casserole (which I don’t like, so not on my plate)

And a lovely fruit salad:

Then it was the game Apples to Apples and dessert, which I forgot to take pictures of. Probably because we were just laughing too much! Or maybe I ate too many mini peanut butter cups…

Just some random stuff today! Nothing blooming because… nothing is blooming! It’s been cold and damp and we even got a little snow. Plans are being made, though. Not to mention, I have been really, really busy with work lately and it seems I mostly do that and haven’t had oomph to blog. 

Busy at work is good, though. Means I am making money and now more is coming in than going out like last month. My job is feast or famine and right now I am stuffing my face 😀

I like Facebook, but this is one of those times where it starts to really bug me.

I guess that’s the problem with FB, it’s just right in your face without asking for it. I’ve hidden a few people and unfriended some. I would imagine they haven’t even noticed…

Does this ever happen to you on the internet? 

This happens to me too often. I think I find a site a couple years later that I have forgotten about. 

Our local coffee house is trying to have a sense of humor:

I think it maybe is funnier after breakfast and coffee? 

John made pizza for dinner tonight and then we went to Lowe’s. It was like the perfect date night! This is how I feel when we go there, though:

I need a vacation, obviously. Guess I will have to settle for a bike ride on Saturday 😀

Nothing quite blooming yet, but I do have sprouts!

I planted seeds this week and some actually sprouted already – the zinnias!

I tend not to have a lot of luck with starting seeds indoors, one of the reasons being Ms. Nosey in the photo there.  I still have some seeds to plant and this will be going into my studio once I’m done to hopefully stay out of Pixie’s harm’s way.  These are some of the seeds. I collected a platoon from the cleome, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if those self-sowed outside since there were a billion seed pods on those flowers. 

We actually started the shrubbery takedown out in the front. This is now the view from the office window:

Out of that huge mass of shrubbery and it was only 2 bushes. Only 2 stumps to dig up, but the ground was too hard for that yet.  Now all the slate is showing that we had hidden behind the shrubs. Ooops! Our little trash house… That slate is for the pathway on this side.

Now for some prettier pictures. I had received a gift certificate to Hostas Direct for Christmas – yay! So this is what is on order from them.

Bleeding heart. 

This is supposed to remain green all season and rebloom, so we’ll see what happens. For the back shade garden.

Another one for the back shade garden. More Heuchera!

I am obsessed with the coral bells. Obsessed! They actually can be in the sun as well so I might be having these everywhere 😀  I think I have something like 10 of the Heuchera now. Oopsie!

For a sunny spot — and for the hummingbirds — Penstemon:

This one is watermelon taffy. It will bloom mid to late summer. Isn’t it cute? I’ve now shown you pretty much everything that was ordered online. Other plants will come from from the local garden centers once they get stock in.

I’ve been working so hard lately and Sunday is a treat for me – the Capital District Flower Show! I’m so, so excited to go. I am bringing my Rebel to get some great flower pictures, hopefully.  Guess who will be seeing some flowers pictures come Monday morning? If you said yourself – bingo 😀

I’m a real scrooge with my money, but nothing will make me part with it faster than garden stuff!

It was a nice weekend here. I actually was off work for the whole weekend, which was really, really nice. It’s been over a month since I had that. Saturday was pretty cold, but I got it started off right with week 4, day 2 of C25K.  

This was 5 minute warm up, 3 minute jog, 90 second walk, 5 minute jog, 2-1/2 minute walk, 3 minute jog, 90 second walk, 5 minute jog, 2-1/2 minute walk, 5 minute cool down.  It’s not bad, really.  I don’t know if my leg has settled into whatever and it doesn’t bother me so much a few years later or what, but I’ll take it. The real test will be the 20 minutes jogs in a couple weeks. I think that will tell me if I will be able to keep going.

We decided to go out for lunch on Saturday after some errands. We had a coupon and stopped at The Silo.

This is a fun place. It’s a reconstructed old barn and silo (d’uh) and the inside has a restaurant and a big store.

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They also make cider donuts in house, which smelled amazing, but we resisted 😀  My lunch was a ham, turkey, swiss and cranberry sauce on french toast bread.

Sort of like a monte cristo, but not deep fried 😀  I was so hungry that this tasted really good.

The rest of the day was project time. Pixie has been back to her old self, and I think even better, really. I think those bladder stones must have been making her uncomfortable for a while and we were probably thinking it was more aging than something more being wrong.

John took the old board off the radiator and make a more solid radiator cap for Pixie to lay on and I covered it with some leftover fabric so she has a lovely new perch to enjoy.

My new tires arrived ready to be put on the bike on Saturday:

These are gatorskins and they have a beaded rim, which helps seal the tire to the rim and prevents stuff from getting in there to pop the tube. These are also a little harder, which means you go faster with them, which I can use LOL!

Once these were on, that means the bike is off the trainer for the season. Good tires don’t go on the trainer.  Bike season is open now!!!  

Sunday was the day to test out the new tires. It was still chilly, 40 degrees, but sunny. We bundled up:

These little white gloves underneath were clearance at Target for $1.75 a pair. They have the special threading on the index and thumb so you can use your phone without taking the gloves off. John got a pair as well. 

It was a much more successful ride than last weekend with the flat tire 😀  These tires work great and both of us are in decent bike shape already – most likely because we were riding into December.  Yay!!!

13 miles done and feeling good. Still need lots of work on the hills, but it’s only the first week of March.  We will be riding this week with warmer temps and I’m pretty excited about the spring so far!

Finally some good and positive things around here.  We are finally *FINALLY* done with wallpaper removal at Radiance Manor! About a year and a half after we bought it. John finished the last room himself, for which I am most grateful. We never ever have to remove wallpaper from this house again! Now we are thinking wall colors. We got some sample paints and put them on the wall. I think people usually stay in one color family and get different sample tones, but we weren’t really sure about which color to go with. We ended up getting 3 samples we liked. A sage green, yellow and peach.

This was a natural daylight picture. We are leaning towards the green, but maybe a shade lighter. There will be pictures of maps and bicycles in this room for decoration.

I got a raise at my job for that new account I started a month ago. It’s just for that account and not the rest of my work, which is annoying as far as recording my paysheet, but I am happy that they gave it to me. The client is very pleased with my work. I’m the only one on it, so I own all mistakes and good work 😀  That will help start to build back up the savings after all those medical bills. It’s nice to have your hard work recognized.

When I haven’t been eating brownies  🙄 , I’ve been eating pretty well lately.  Some different breakfasts:

Oat bran with a sauteed banana on top and nut butter. Every time I take a picture of this meal, I think it looks like scallops.

This week I went more savory with breakfast. Chicken breakfast sausages and omelet:

Seems omelets have been making a more frequent appearance lately. One of my quick dinners:

John made slow cooker lasagna soup, which was really good!

More chicken (BBQ) with roasted sweet potatoes, carrots and broccoli.

I batch cooked the veggies and had them for SalMonday (can I trademark that?)

I think I am starting to get tired of chicken. Or maybe meat in general, I don’t know.

This afternoon I got my permanent crown put in. That seemed to take forever between the broken tooth, root canal, temporary crown and permanent one.  I did tell the dentist that I was tired of coming in LOL. On a fun note, we discussed gardening. I had made an offhans comment a couple times ago about the cold temps and how my garden was uncovered and he then took out his phone and started showing me pictures of the water feature he built last summer. 😀  Now each time I come in we talk gardening. 

It’s March and I can start eagerly awaiting the tulips to start showing themselves. Even if they won’t bloom until April/May, just seeing them come out of the ground will feel pretty good!

We had a really nice weather weekend to end February with. Temps got into the low 50s on Sunday! Woohoo!  Sunday was quite the exercise day, too. We walked to breakfast and my mom joined us:

We discussed riding our bikes later in the day. John’s was in the garage. Mine was up on the 2nd floor attached to the trainer, plus I had my C25K training day today, but 50 degrees in February?  How could I not take it down? This means it’s down for the year because I don’t want to drag it back upstairs and all that stuff. 

It felt so great to be out! I had a big silly grin for the first mile, and then — Flat.

This was totally on me, though. My tires are really old. Near the end of last year, I skidded out and got a bald spot on my tire, so I swapped it out with another old tire I used for my trainer (which was an old replacement itself). I just wanted to finish out the season and then use that tire on the trainer. The idea was I would buy new tires this spring. Little did I know I would be riding in February! I just pulled the bike down, inflated the tires, checked the brakes and all that and we set out.

Anyway, this tire has thousands of miles on it and when I checked it over looking for the reason for the flat, there was a hole all the way through the tire:

I had forgotten this tire had a patch on the inside and it wore through that as well. Yeah, you’re not supposed to see daylight through the tire.  😳  My bad. So, we put a couple patches inside and out and put in a new tube. I decided to stick close to home and let John go ride wherever he wanted.  I ended up with about 5.5 miles – in February!

And look at that – bare ground in February, too. It’s crazy!

Now I have 2 new gatorskin tires on the way arriving this week, so I’ll just leave the bike off the trainer and change these out. Hopefully we will have lots of March riding. After I got back, I went and did my C25K workout outside. That was weird, I will say LOL. Very active Sunday.

Pixie update:  She is back to her normal self now! She still has a few more days of the antibiotic, but now she is using her litter pan properly, running around, talking to us and eating a lot. She seems to be feeling good now. It’s wonderful to see her eating again. She had lost weight from all of this.  Poor Pixie had a rough few weeks and it’s good to have her back again. Thanks so much for all the well wishes for her.