Mom is sick.

Sorry I have not blogged for a while.

Mom is very sick. I'm trying to get her back to where she lives on hopice care.

I'll blog about the trivial things later......

Misson Accomplished

What a day here at Stowe! Sunshine and 30 degs no wind, just a perfect day. We took the bus to the Trapp Family Lodge Nordic Center. We went up to the cabin which is near the highest point on the property. The climb was long but the trails were just perfect. The sky was clear and we could just see forever. The Haul Road downhill was great if just a bit icy. We fell a few times on out journey down the mountain. The trip down is always colder as you are not generating as much heat. But the lodge was not too far and warm and had food! A band was playing jazz as we warmed up by the hearth. Tonight is a wine and cheese and then dinner. Now I just have to get my bones into the shower... and a quick nap.

Three Cheers For the Bus Driver

After a 9 hr drive we made it to Stowe. The hiways were ice covered and there was a lot of backups with cars off the road. Good thing we had a professional driving the bus. Starr Tours driver and trip veteran Tom Dye made it look easy. Marilyn and I found a nice greek resturant to have lunch before we left. Kuzina by Sofie in Cherry Hill is a nice place if you are in the neighborhood. Here in Stowe we are at the Commodores Inn, the usual place, the cookies on our arrival was more than welcome. Now we have to get down to breakfast so that we can get on the bus ar 9am for the trip to the ski lodge.

Ski Weekend!

We are trying to make it thru the week to make it onto the Nordics Stowe weekend. We just have to negotiate a tough work week, weekly chores, doing stuff we really should be doing, and laundry. It'll be good to get away. Looks like snow here for the get out of town phase of the trip which could make things tricky. Snow there is plentiful, white, cold and deep. The weekend should be fun. Wonder if the Commodores has Wi-Fi???

A Convenient Truth

We've joined the Al Gore Planet Rangers!

Since we changed to compact fluorescents we used 25% less electric last month.

Take that Global Warming!

It's not as clear if we saved with the new windows. It look like we used 10% less gas too but I'm not sure due to the weather being warmer.

Helicopter Fixed

I fixed one of the helicopters that was damaged in my last attempt to fly. I replaced some plastic parts that were prone to break on a hard landing with aluminum and replaced the radio with the one compatable with the Spektrum radio. I also adjusted it so that it should be easier to fly. Note I said easier not easy. I just hope that I get a little more flight time for all the fixing time. I still have to get busy fixing the TREX.

Valentines Day

I came home on Thursday with a dozen long stem red roses from Carl Allen. They never seem to have it together when I pick up down there but the flowers look great. Also, I picked up a Stephanie Plum book for Marilyn. She bought me a new pair of ski boots, which I hope won’t rub me the wrong way and a great card. We went out to dinner a ShushiKazu. The ShushiKazu spicy tuna roll is really special down there and Marilyn now has a new favorite the hang on salmon roll with cooked salmon and crab.

Garlic Adventure!

This weekend we took our annual cross country ski outing at Garnet Hill. All the important things were there, good friends, lots of food and wine, and mounds of snow. The garlic was ritually sacrificed to the snow gods. I think that they were more than happy with the offering. Some of the lesser dieties were ticked with us. The great god of electricity saw fit to deny us power for several hours. Along with the power went heat, water, light, a way to cook food and flush toilets!

Also, minor diety, the god of reserservations looked down her nose at us and found us greatly unworthy. She saw fit to take my reservation for Feb 6 thru Feb 13 ( eeek Friday the 13th !) but my offering of $500 and a contract was meet with great displeasure. I almost told the goddess to kiss my @$$. But thunder would fly from her fingers and Bazil house and the garlic ritual would be no more. So I made the deposit offering, signed the godessess contract which she still found a less than perfect offering!

Wow!!!

I took an old lottery ticket to be cashed in this morning. Walked up to the clerk and I thought that the ticket was a $7 winner. She told that I won $100 twice before it sunk in. Wow!

Now I can see if money will spoil me!

Flight Rating ... Penguin.

...or similar flightless bird. Sunday was a perfect day to fly the new model helicopters. The copters were ready. The weather cooperated. The pilot however wasn't up to to the task. Splash two birds. Hard landing took both out. While they are not totaly wrecked I have to order some parts and repair them. Which gives me more time to work in the computer simulation.

Butterfly

Tuesday night Marilyn and I went out the see the Philadephia Theater Company performance of M Butterfly. First we has dinner at Nodding Head. The food there was good, too good. After having dinner both of us just wanted to go too sleep. I think it is just a lack of sleep not carbo loading. Not a great start for seeing a play. And the last time I went to this theater it was a musical review which I find is not my favorite. But we settled into our seats which were more comfortable than last time. There was no iron railing sticking me in the leg. The sets for the play were interesting, very elborate staging. This is a departure from when the company was in the smaller playhouse. The play was good it is your typical boy meets girl, girl is boy play. It was well acted but it was a little long. 2 hours and 45 minutes. We left during the intermission good thing too if we staryed we would have been home after midnight. We could have turned into pumpkins!

An Almost Meeting.....

So there I was. Doing my regular Friday routine of driving to work. Running out of the house late and not having enough sleep. I knew there was going to be trouble, I could hardly keep my eyes open and I was repeating... " Gotta drive to Jenkintown.... Gotta drive to Jenkintown..." just so that I would not end up in the Ambler train station. I knew my inattention would catch up with me. But racing thru the neighborhood short cuts I found trouble. Or he found me. There he was. Black and white, two foot tall and all attytood! We'll call him Pepe la Pew, I caught him making like Joey Chestnut at the Wing Bowl, just jamming down some good eats right there in the middle of the road. After all this was his road, his garbage, just a lonely neighborhood street where the trashman comes late. Why should he be concerned, he is king of his world. That is, until some half awake nut, late for the train, commits gluttonus interruptus. I came upon him fast, he looked just like the preverbal wide eyed wilderness animal in the headlights. He ran right..... I swerved left.... He fired at me like an Iraqi with an RPG. The shot went wide! He missed! I got off lucky no collateral damage. The last I saw him was in the rearview mirror. He was standing next to a flattened street feast shaking his paw at me. I swore I heard him say... " I'll get you next time! Monsieur!"

Takeoff ... well almost!

Well last night I tested out the new helicopter. I put it down in the living room and spun up the main rotor. Not so much that it would take off but enough that it would be light on the skids. I rocked it back and forth using the controls and it took off. It only left the ground about a inch before I shut it down. Egad! The thing sounds like a jet starting up. I was starting to get a little scared of this thing taking off and bouncing off the walls and ceiling! Well, that was all for the battery I'm not getting the charger till the end of the week so test flight are done. Tonight Marilyn and I are going out to see a play, M Butterfly at the Susan Robberts Theater. A review of the play will be in the blog tomorrow. Also, Tomorrow I have to see Mom so I busy for a few days.

Snow tires

Got the snow tires on both cars this weekend. This will ensure that we will get no more snow this winter. The ski trip to Garnet will be in two weeks so we'll get some use out of them then.

Yesterday I ripped all the cd's that we got for Christmas onto out hard disk. We now can enjoy our new music on iTunes and out IPods.

Today I have to fix the lamp in the living room it has been defying my attempt to rebuilt it and put in a compact florescent bulb. So far it's taken 3 trips to Home Depot to get the right parts for it. I will win this battle!

I've pretty much mastered the little indoor helicopter that I've been fooling around with. Saturday I bought a new ( actually used ) model helicopter. This one is big enough to fly outside. Crashville awaits. I have to check on Adrik today I bought him a model helicopter for his birthday.

Longwood Gardens

Marilyn and I went out to Longwood gardens and took some pictures. There are more in our photo album here . It was nice inside the conservatory very warm and humid. There was a place to hang jackets again so we could look around without carring a heavy jacket it was about 20 degs outside today and at least 85 and humid inside the greenhouses. The pictures in the orchid room came out great so look for them.

It's the Weekend!

I went over to Fast by Ferracci to get Marilyn's cycle. I had them truck the bike over to the storage unit. Too bad it was a nice day and they tuned the cycle up real good. My sore throat and cough is still hanging around so I wasn't going to risk it. Marilyn has been making me hot tea to try to sooth my burning throat.

A ton of stuff went off to the post office this morning. Birthday presents, returns to LL Bean and cards are all on their way. Marilyn then worked on stories for the annual report. Later, she took the ornaments off the tree. Tomorrow we'll roll up the lights and pack away the tree.

I've been flying a model helicopter around the house. Crashing a helicopter is more accurate. I went to the a hobby shop to see if the flight failure is me or the helicopter an it turn out to be a little of both. The guy adjusted it for free and flew it around the shop. I took it home and now I can keep it level at least for a little while.

Motorcyle Stuff.

Before I put away the motorcycles for the winter I went to get Marilyn's cycle state inspection. It needed a few items. It's been in the shop so long I had forgot about it.

I got a call from the cycle repair shop. It's done now an I can pick it up anytime. Well not today as it's snowing! Have to check the weather to see when I can pick this thing up.

Down for the count!

Yesterday I had to call in sick. Sore throat kept me up all night and I was beat. Spent most of the day in bed.

Sunday Matinee

We went to the Ambler to see the movie Atonement. It's a good movie just don't go if you are feeling down! The story is about an injustice committed in youth that end up ruining three lives. The story is well told and the cinematography was just outstanding. The beach scene in Dunkirk is something to see.

Go see it at the Ambler theater it a great old small movie house that makes the film even better.

Nice day for Jannuary.

It was nice out here on Saturday. It was 50 deg and we got in a walk to the library. I still have a cold that is killing me but a walk was good even though I was hacking up the occasional hair ball. What I would give for a good nights sleep!