Life in the Bristolwood

hahaha….

Yeah. The new camera really is cool. It is tiny compared to my big D-SLR, and takes great photos.  Especially if one knows how to burrow down through the many, many layers of  adjustments!  Not being very intuitive  concerning things like computers and electronics, I find myself aimlessly pushing buttons and hoping for the best!  Mark, on the other hand, is very logical and can figure his way through a new *toy* quickly. Bah!

So, last night, while we were out and about, I saw a pretty church in Geneva and asked Mark to stop for a moment.  I hopped out of the truck and took a photo.  I looked at it right after taking it, and to my dismay,  I had changed the picture from “standard” to “monotone”.  Oh joy.

Definitely an “oops”!  BUT,  I was determined to figure out how to get the color back,  AND, I refused to humble myself to the point of asking Mark if he could help!  I got back in the truck and fumbled, er….”worked” my way through the menus and, lo, and behold…..color!

Yuppers, doesn’t *everyone* drive around with an invertor plugged into their vehicle so they can plug in their toys? ….er, electonic necessities?  (that is the eerie green light!)

Okay, so I have shown you some crummy photos taken with the Micro four-thirds.  How about a “good” photo taken a few days ago from the porch?

Don’t you love the colors?  I do, especially since we rarely see anything like this because of the trees and surrounding hills.

So, the bottom line is this…..along with those fun new devices comes the frustration of learning all about how they work!

Today was a nail-biter.

We are in need of a new washing machine, but perhaps that will be put on hold for just a little while longer. Yesterday’s entry explained how the transmission fluid from the Explorer ended up in a puddle at the end of the driveway. Well, the Ford garage said that we need a (deep gasp) new transmission.  The price?  Well, without any negotiating, $3,500.00.

We just don’t have that much money. I am flabberghasted and feeling a bit on edge…..

Mark spent most of today on the phone, calling every transmission specialist he could find nearby. He spoke to the Ford garage last today and they might have a less costly solution. We will know tomorrow.  This one will be more along the lines of maybe $1,500.00?  Which we still do not have.

Argh.

while I cry my eyes out!

Yeah, I am being totally wimpy today and I just feel so overwhelmed!

I had no idea that the weather was going to take a one-eighty degree turn. While it has been so warm and unusual here lately, it very suddenly turned FRIGID.  No, not even cold. Beyond cold. Frigid!  As in, Arctic cold!  Now, I don’t mind cold weather at all, but shouldn’t the transition be a little longer than a day?

All right. No more bellyaching. 

I shoveled the ramp and knocked the four or five inches of snow off all three vehicles.  I got the Explorer all uncovered and part of the truck.  Then I went in the house to get something ready for dinner tonight. I had thawed a roast, so decided to make just the perfect meal for a bitter cold day…..Hearty Beef Stew, from my book, Slow Cooker Revolution.

Ben and I worked on finishing getting the vehicles cleared and then came inside. The temperature remained well below freezing all day.  I am housesitting so I went to check the house. I decided to take the Explorer. Ben was going with me. We stopped at the end of the driveway so I could grab our mail.  I shifted into drive to go on up the road, but the car refused to move.  Ben hopped out and told me to stop the car right away…..transmission fluid was leaking everywhere!  As we walked up the driveway, there was a streak of fluid all the way. Apparently, a piece of metal broke in the driveway and the gasket fell off.

Mark ended up calling AAA and they sent a flatbed to grab the car.  It was so cold….there is always, always a brisk breeze at the end of the driveway. The operator loaded fast and took the Explorer away. What a pain that was!

Ben and I checked the house I am housesitting and then we came home.  By this time, it was getting near dinner time. I made up a batch of dumplings and put them on top of the stew.  As it worked out, ev eryone loved the stew and it really was the perfect dish for this cold day!

I finally warmed up by taking a hot bath.  I had spent so much time outside today and I felt like I was never going to warm up again! Tomorrow, it is supposed to be warmer….I sure hope it is.  We have so many little tasks that still need attended to.  Mark and the kids just finished putting up the final boards on the new ramp yesterday. The kids were so glad they did it then, instead of today!

So, I will leave you with a couple of birdie photos I took today.

So…tomorrow will be a better day!

I was feeling pretty chipper this morning.  Nearly restless!  So, I made a Blueberry Pie. 

Thinking that the guys would be working outside later, I decided to make up a batch of  Tomato Soup. Carly had told me the recipe in the book I have mentioned here (Slow Cooker Revolution) previously was delicious.  As a little aside….that book disappeared from its “home” for several days.  I searched everywhere…through drawers, dirty laundry,  under mattresses, all over the floors, and even the basement and garage.  The book was nowhere to be found.  Totally disappeared.

I was bemoaning the fact that I no longer have a BJ’s Wholesale Club membership as I had let it run out.  I had seriously begun to think that I would have to rejoin so I could buy another book.  Yes, THAT book is THAT important!

Well, as I sat in my favorite chair (rocking) the day before yesterday, there on the floor, next to the chair…..was my book! I immediately asked the kids if they had found it and placed it there.  Both of them got perturbed by my nagging and said they absolutely, positively did NOT put it there.  Nor did they find it.  So, I am now left with the explanation that the Lord knows just how important that book is…important enough to send an angel to place it where I would find it!

Phew…anyway, I made the tomato soup up in the Crockpot and let it cook.  Of course, what goes better with soup than a tasty loaf of bread?  I pulled out my bread machine book.  I never, ever use the machine anymore as I have found there is something therapeutic in kneading bread by hand!   I searched around and found a recipe for Carmelized Onion Bread. 

I love onions!  Mmmm…..Or maybe not! The recipe called for two onions.  The instructions were to cook the onions in butter until they were golden.  Then the liquid from the mix was to be placed in the mixing bowl.  I got quite a bit of thick, almost syrupy-looking liquid.  I mixed up the bread and then after it was almost finished being kneaded,  I added the (mostly dry) onions.  In working them into the dough,  I thought there were far too many onions.  I had used a huge onion instead of two smaller ones and it seemed there was just too much!

Well……let’s just say those onions cooked in butter sure were yummy! Here is how the bread turned out.

The tomato soup was a BIG thumbs up.  The bread was astronomical!  Yes!!! A winner, indeed.  Usually when I make bread, it gets too heavy.  This time, it was light, airy, and delish! I ate a tiny bowl of soup and a slice of bread.  Afterwards, I had a piece of pie.

By about four this afternoon,  my stomach looked like someone had pumped it up!  It was so bloated and let’s just say my “gastrointestinals” were revolting!  Apparently the probably quarter cup of onions I had demolished were now playing with my digestive system.  I am still experiencing some discomfort.  My stomach is making so much noise, it is ridiculous.

Wow….I cannot believe I just wrote about this whole situation….for awhile, I felt genuinely ill!  From now on,  I think I will not use giant onions….they might be just a tad upsetting to the stomach when “overdone”! 

So, tonight, I am so thankful we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”.  It is so incredible that we were designed to recuperate from our over-indulgings!

When Michelle had a “bug” a little over a week ago, I wasn’t worried.  I seem to not be catching colds and such like I used to.  I was the one who, if in a room where someone sneezed,  I would get a cold.  But, not so much anymore.  Until a couple of nights ago. 

This bug really isn’t *so* awfully bad…..I was able to get up (in my terribly infirmed state)  this morning and cook up a batch of Beef Burgandy for a late lunch.  It was yet another recipe from that great book,  Slow Cooker Revolution.  I am pretty sure that the price of $17.99 that I paid for that book,  has been greatly given the stamp of approval by my family.  The Beef Burgandy was delicious, according to all.   It took some preparation,  but once in the Crockpot,  it was all so easy!

Oh, about this “bug”?   It resembles a head cold and just a general feeling of being drained.  The saddest part is,  I was feeling so envigorated by the cooler weather we had been having just before the proverbial shoe dropped!  It really isn’t that bad..probably more of an inconvenience!  I did notice when we ate our late lunch outside, on the porch, (oh, c’mon!  It was 55 out and the sun was shining!!!)  I felt much better.  I love fresh air!  The sun helped, too!

I don’t have photos for today.  I have been very limited in the photography area.  We have been spending a great deal of time talking with car dealers and such….I do not have the stamina it would take to “wheel and deal”,  but Mark is so good at this kind of stuff.  I keep telling him he should be an “advocate” for those needing one,  such as the elderly and disabled.  He would also make a great attorney as logic seems like a strong point with him.

If you are in the market for car-buying,  it would be to your great benefit to learn of a couple of amazing online tools:

1.) Truecar :   http://www.truecar.com/      This site is INVALUABLE!!!  It gives you the information you only WISH you could find.  Although it will give you the name of dealerships that work with this program,  Mark used the pricing for leverage with a dealership that is not associated with Truecar.  If you have any questions,  please let me know and I will pass them along to Mark.  He LOVES this…having previously worked with Kelly Blue Book,  Edmunds, and NADA…all online.

2.)  IF you have  a great credit rating, check out PenFed Credit Union.  Oh my! That stands for Pentagon Federal Credit Union.  Although neither of us have served with the armed forces, we were able to join this credit union by simply making a contribution of $20 or $15 to one of the two options listed at their site.  Their rate for purchasing a new car, for up to 48 months, was 1.99%.  That is better than anything we had found.  Mark called and spoke with a fellow and got approved immediately.  Oh…did I mention their credit card?  If you use it for gasoline,  you save 5% at the pump!  That means for each dollar spent, your actual cost is 95 cents.   (BTW, Mark found this little gem by searching at banks.com for a competitive rate on auto loans)

Okay, so those are my two “hot tips” for tonight. 

Hopefully, I will be feeling MUCH better tomorrow and things will get back to normal.  Or, at least “more” normal!

It seems like life is building a head of steam and plowing right along….faster and faster each day!

We “borrowed” a car from a dealer yesterday to see how it might work out.   One of Mark’s goals is to have a car that if he decides to go out by himself,  he will be able to without depending on anyone to help him in and out of the car.  For this reason, he had considered a minivan,  but then decided we might be better off with all wheel drive.  I think there are few minivans with AWD, and if they have it, they might be pretty pricey.

We borrowed a 2011 Subaru Outback and it seems like it might just work out.  The trick is to put the backseat behind the passenger seat down.  Mark can then transfer into the car, then reach out and disassemble the wheelchair and put the pieces on a blanket in the backseat.  It is a little tricky, but we think it just might work.

Mark and I went out this afternoon to Penn Yan.  I wanted to make a recipe from that awesome book  I bought, called Slow Cooker Revolution.  The recipe called for 4 teaspoons of Curry Powder, but like Mother Hubbard, my cupboard had none!  I wanted to drive the car, since I hadn’t tried it.  Mark agreed to take a spin to Oak Hill over in Penn Yan.

We were surprised at the fuel economy of this car…it is rated 22 MPG, city, and 29 MPG, highway.  Well, since there are no “highways” between here and Penn Yan,  but hilly, rolling country roads,  we were surprised that the average miles per gallon is about 29.4 since we got the car!  We have been driving backroads and that means some stopping and starting, just like city driving!

We got home later than we thought we would, and I hurried to make my Curried Chicken in the crockpot.  Instead of taking several hours,  I turned the cooker to high and left it there for an hour.  The chicken was fully cooked in about 3 1/2 hours. (I turned it back to low for the last 2 1/2 hours. ) The recipe turned out well and everyone liked it.  Another winner! LOVE that book!

Well, one photo tonight…..this one was taken for my daily photo journal…..Murphy, the model.

Oh, and one funny true story from this morning….

Ben said he got bored last night, so he decided to make a “man” sitting in the chair in the living room.  He used some tubes to make legs, covered by a pair of his gray socks.  A pair of Michelle’s boots on the legs.  Shorts and a shirt, stuffed with pillows, and a pumpkin on top for a head.  The pumpkin wearing a baseball cap. 

I carried Murphy downstairs as I do every morning.  As I rounded my way off the stairs and turned toward the living room, poor deceived Murphy just about had a heart attack, seeing that “MAN” in HIS living room.  My eyes had been a bit bleary…plus, it was on the dark side….but the first thing I saw when I looked up was the pumpkin head.  Murphy!!! What a nutty little dog…..trusting his eyes instead of his “sniffer”! It was very comical, though! (Sadly, Ben took his effigy apart this afternoon before I photographed it….it really was pretty good!)

Sunday morning, we got up and went on a little adventure.  We drove a couple of hours to Allegany State Park where the park was basically filled to capacity!  Instead of taking our camper along with us on this trip, we took tents.  I had a sneaky feeling this trip was going to be really different!

We pulled into the campground and were given a choice of three sites from which to choose.  The girl at the desk advised Mark to take a certain site, so we did.  In driving over to take a look,  one a couple of sites down was better.  The kids began to set up tents and we drove back to the administration building to switch sites.  As soon as I told the girl, she informed me the better site had just been taken. Great!  So, we rushed back to tell the kids we couldn’t take the better site.

We set up on the smaller cite and as I looked around, I could not believe how many people were there!  The campground was totally packed, save for the one site we decided not to take.  It was near the restrooms and I had visions of people coming by all night long,  making Angus and Murphy restless.

As it was, we were next to some people with a Lab that tried to walk into one tent and jump into our truck. Why should anyone obey the six-foot leash law, after all?  Argh!  Our little boys stayed in the truck much of the time so they wouldn’t get nervous and bark…there were so many “wandering” dogs!

Later on, the last site was taken by two guys on motorcycles.  They were rather interesting…the next morning, I saw them lying on the ground, wrapped in blankets mummy-style!  They slept out under the stars!!!! That was interesting. Oh, and the stars?  They were totally awesome!

Here are the very few photos I took at the park.

I love this photo!  The little girl was playing in the stream and the light from the setting sun was filtering in so nicely, highlighting the girl like a spotlight!

so, why did the turkey cross the road?  Yes, this turkey was just enjoying a Saturday evening stroll along the road.

I must admit at this point that I am one spoiled rotten camper.  Yes, I was missing our camper….terribly!  I missed the comfort of the couch and chair,  a nice little kitchen, running water, and yes, even the air conditioner!  As evening rolled around, so did the thick smell of smoke.  Everyone had a campfire!

Mark found out there were going to be fireworks at Quaker Lake at 10 pm.  We went and I (foolishly) took the new camera. Too bad I didn’t take the Nikon…I would have gotten more and much better pictures.

For some reason, the Canon had some trouble with the more colorful fireworks, but that is okay.  After all, the very ***best*** display of color was on our way to the fireworks.

When we got back, we decided to do something we never do when camping!  We made a campfire! Michelle was tired, so Ben, Mark, and I sat around our little cozy fire and chatted.  It was pretty late when we started the fire, so we knew we were going to be staying up late.  We were so enjoying ourselves.

Then it happened.  The Scotties were in the truck and we heard a distinct “click” sound.  Yes sir…Angus had locked the power windows on the truck.  Everything we needed was inside the truck…including both sets of keys!  So….Ben and I took a later-than-midnight stroll about a mile long to the admin building!  We walked along the bike path, and although the stars were beautiful, it was dark!

When we arrived, I told the police we had a rather unfortunate situation at our site.  After explaining the problem, one of the officers said they bought a kit for just such a time as this.  He reassured me we were not the first to have this happen. In fact,  he said one night, he opened five doors with keys locked inside!

The officer was so incredibly sweet. He worked on the door until finally the latch popped!  Angus and Murphy were such good boys. They never barked or carried on at all, even though this man with a strange looking glow-in-the-dark wire was intruding their space at one o’clock in the morning!

Ah yes, nothing like a good crisis to end the day!  The officer told us he would hate to think anyone would ever call a locksmith in Olean to get their door open.  He said he thinks the base charge is $250.  And, he said the locksmith knows the police can do it for free!

Ah yes, the fun times living with Scotties.  And, speaking of Scotties, here is a photo of Angus as we were driving to the campground along the park road.  We weren’t going very fast and he thought the air was smelling very fine….

I thought he looked all the world just like a black bear cub!

I had a little problem with my computer. The Dell laptop I use was the problem, really.  I had accidentally caught  my sleeve on the Alt key and it pulled up in the air. I had removed keys from keyboards before to clean them, but this Dell key was pretty tricky.  I showed Mark and he told me to put it aside so he could fix it when he had time.  He thought the laptop needed a cleaning as well since he thought it felt too warm.

This afternoon, Mark got around to fixing the laptop and now it works much better.  And,  Mark even had some trouble trying to figure out how to replace that key that popped off.  (made me feel better!)

Hopefully I will be keeping up better now.  I must say that Mark was unable to totally resuscitate  the Panasonic camera….I never realized how much I missed it until it broke. I have a new model I am awaiting, but it is on backorder. It is also a Panasonic.  I was told today I *might* see it in about three weeks. Argh.

Oh, while the Dell was down,  I was using  my little Acer netbook.  Wow….the processor was so slow and it was nearly painful trying to upload photos for blogging.  I love the Acer and use it alot, but it really is good to be back to “more” normal!

All this to say a Happy Belated St. Paddy’s Day.  This fellow was sporting a grand green chapeau for the green holiday at the rod and gun club my parents belong to.  We were there the day before St. Paddy’s and I had a dish that was chicken with a fabulous artichoke and spinach sauce on it!

I decided to “go lie down” last Sunday after feeling terrible with a bad cold.  No big deal.  I figured I would feel better in a day or two. Or three. Four. Five. Six!

Today was the first day that I got up, dressed, and stayed awake almost the entire day.  Before this, I spent much of my time coughing to the point that I was sure I was choking.  If I didn’t lose weight from all the coughing I have done, I would be totally surprised.  My abs have definitely tightened up a bit with all the “activity”.

When I spoke to Carly on Friday evening, she wondered aloud if I might have Bronchitis. I discounted this, but as I thought about it the next day, I realized she might be right.  I have not felt this sick since before Ben was born.  I was sick an entire ten weeks before he was born.  He was taken C-Section, as I had a terrible pain in my side the day he was born; the doctors verified Ben was in distress and he was taken.  Poor fellow was feverish upon birth and needed to be cooled! Meanwhile,  I was being administered morphine and who knows what antibiotics.  It took a couple of days before I finally came round….(I shan’t go into how if I would have had an ounce of strength in my body at that time, I surely would have lobbed an object at the mouthy nurse who looked at my sorrowfull state and asked, Oh, a smoker?)

 I  began taking a round of antibiotics yesterday and the difference between “before and after” has been extreme and like day and night.  Although I have a ways to go, I am feeling some strength coming back into my body. Whereas each day last week it was a chore to rise off the bed to even use the bathroom, today I actually cooked a meal and made fresh rolls. 

Needless to say, it is good to be back amongst the living!