A doggy death march...

Martin and I decided that because we had no plans for Sunday afternoon, we wanted to try to go someplace new to hike around with Loki. We decided on a section of the Genesee Riverway Trail, beginning our hike north of the city, and heading into the High Falls section. It was a great walk, and it was nice to do some exploring in Rochester for a change. The trail wasn't always clearly marked, and for sections of it, you are basically just walking the sidewalks of the city. But it took us to some cool little parts and we got to check out the dams and old power stations (and the ones still functioning).
Loki was a trooper. Before we even got to the High Falls, he was pooping out on us. We ended up walking right by the falls, because there was no clear indication (you know, like a sign) to let us know we were there, but we did find them! Its really pretty neat, because the waterfalls are just tucked away in the middle of the city. You sort of stumble upon them.
Loki didn't care much for the falls, and basically couldn't get into the car by the time we got back because he was so tired. He slept the entire way home....

Garage Sale Gurus

My mother found some really awesome deals at garage sales this summer, and Martin and I have been jealous! She got 2 bicycles for five dollars a piece, and a bunch of toys and camping gear cheap!
We finally figured out her secret though- you have to stop and look at garage sales! We stopped at a few this weekend and got some good deals. We got a crockpot (ours bit the dust a few weeks back) for only a dollar. It works and we have ribs cooking in there now. Its missing a leg, but Martin said he can fix that no problem. We also got a book on homemade pasta (we got a pasta maker at the beginning of this summer and the recipes will be a good inspiration) for only 25 cents. Our other big deal is kind of gimmicky- but we got a fried onion making kit for 50 cents, and figured since we enjoyed the one we had for lunch, maybe we'll cook some up for our friends....
Those were this weekend's finds.... good deals... and by not buying new, we are doing our part to "reduce, reuse, recycle."

Veggies for the week...

Well we got our veggies again this week, plus some extras! We got about 16 pounds of vegetables from Porter Farms. We got peppers, cukes, zukes, yellow squash, lettuce, swiss chard, some berry tomatoes, and some leeks!
We also got a nice big container of tomatoes and some peppers from Martin's father who has quite the garden of his own.
We went out and about on Saturday morning and ended up at one of the local farmer's markets. We got some really nice looking sweet corn for a good price and its right out of Elba, so its local!
So this week's menu is being planned around all of these nice veggies we need to consume....

A fair is a veritable smorgasbord orgasbord orgasbord ...

Martin decided to take off from work on Friday and we got up early and headed out to America's Fair. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, and lots of sun. We had a blast checking out the livestock, arts & crafts, and lots of interesting vendors. We had a fried onion (what I've always known as a "bloomin' onion" for lunch and were too stuffed to have a fried dough later on, though we both wanted one desperately.

There was one boar that weighed well over 700 pounds, and I daresay he was the biggest pig I've ever seen, but he was friendly and very cute. There was also a big ol' Mama pig who had some two week old piglets there. They were so cute! They basically try to suck on anything that comes near them, so poor Martin got a nice little suprise at how many teeth a piglet has when one took a nip on his finger!

The cows were, as always, beautiful. The animals all make me feel sort of wistful for when we had all of them as pets when I was a kid. I keep telling Martin, "Someday when we have a farm..."

We left midafternoon and scooted over to his parents to say "hi" and had a nice visit (including dinner). When we got home, we discovered that our little city of Batavia, NY was having a street fair, so we hiked down with Loki in tow to check it out. We listened to about half an hour of a keltic band, then mosied our way past another fried dough stand which we were forced to pass up due to fullness again.

The following day we went into town and hung out with Martin's friends for awhile. We came home and walked down to the street fair again, (new bands had piqued our interest) and we were yet again... full. So, a fair is a veritable smorgasbord... but we just can't eat that much!

A week's worth of words...

Last week I went home to visit my family in Westerlo. It was fun-filled and exhausting. My brother's girlfriend has a 3 year old, who by all means is _busy, busy, busy._ I had a blast playing with him, he's got quite the imagination and he's very perceptive! I think the funniest thing he came out with was after he had icecream with my dad. Dad gave him one scoop and of course, he himself had several more than that. Dad hands Dylan his one scoop and says "A littl cone for a little belly." The next day he tells my mother, "Myra, I have a little belly... and Charlie has a _big_ belly. It was so funny (and true!) He's a cutie pie:




Mom recently acquired some bicycles and has been very diligent about riding every day. Which meant that while I was home, I had to ride every day too. I forgot how sore a bike makes your tush when you aren't used to it! Whew...

Thursday, my parents and I packed up from Westerlo and headed out to Delta Lake State Park for some camping in the rain! Dad was prepared- with two huge tarps, and we stayed nice and dry thankfully. Martin came out Friday night to meet us (with Loki in tow) and Saturday the sun came out all day. It was a good trip and it got us wanting to go camping at least once more before year's end. (We remembered the camera but forgot to take pictures!)

So we got home on Sunday and first thing Monday morning Loki and I drove out to Porter Farms to get our veggies for the week. Martin's got all the details on this weeks 20.2 pounds of veggies, here, on his blog. But here's a picture anyways...

Loki was so excited to have gotten to go "bye-bye" in the car that he came running through the house and ended up sliding on the floor and wacking into the bannister, the poor guy got a nice little gash on his face:

We then spent yesterday cleaning and baking, mostly finding "creative" ways to use up our zucchini. Zucchini bread and zucchini and cheese "scones" were the result... both were delicious, though I ended up with way too much bread and ended up freezing half of it. More for later... mmm.

So that's the update..... oh, and I've decided to work on painting the front hall/stairway. So spackling happened this morning and color choosing will be next!

(Not) Validating my 21st Birthday

July 26th was my 21st birthday. I had a blast getting pedicures with Jen and then spending the evening hanging out with friends, eating delicious cake and lots of yummy food. It was a great day, but alas, turning 21 was more than a little anti-climactic. Having spent much of the last two years in the bars, going out seemed pointless. Especially because none of us are really "bar-going" people and no decent bands that we know of were playing that night. So, there was no validation of my turning 21- no beer buying, beer chugging, or beer pong. But hey, I guess I should look at it and be grateful, I've been "21" for quite awhile!

Randy made me a wonderful chocolate and peanut butter cake (amazing doesn't describe it). It was a cake that tasted like reese's peanut butter cups, yum!

I went with a nice bright blue-green color for my toes! Very Summery! It was my first pedicure and definately won't be my last!

Jack got me some _very_ beautiful flowers!

I had a great day and was glad to share it with a pretty awesome group of friends!

Oh, and Martin and I spent the next day on the couch watching Arrested Development Season II. It was nice to just be lazy. Until of course we decided to go hiking around at Genesee Couty Park. You know, let's hike up the toboggan hill because its there? It was great weekend.

Birthday Fondue

My friend Jen took me out for a wonderful dinner at The Melting Pot to help celebrate my birthday! The food was wonderful, the service was great, but somehow a fondue dinner ends up taking three times the length of a normal meal. I'm not complaining- we had a blast and it was a nice, relaxing meal and we were sure not lacking for conversation.

We had the meal for two, which included salads, a cheese fondue and our actual meal.... it was great. We followed that with a yummy chocolate turtle dessert and they even brought out champagne for us to toast my birthday! Great place, and we both agreed we'd go again for sure.... I just need to make sure its on a day that we're not in a rush....

Hello Big World!

I've been inspired by Martin's blog to try to keep my own. It will be an interesting experience and while I intend to blog about our activities and interests, I also hope to include a more in-depth look at how we are managing with all of our veggies we are receiving through a recently joined CSA program at Porter Farms , along with some scanned images of some scrapbooking I have done. I will attempt to avoid too much overlap or repetition among the two, but we do spend a lot of time together! We'll see how it gets divided up.....