Hi all,
But that is not why my internet is working. Hather called the local tech guy who ascertained that he'd plugged it into the wrong port. So apparently he didn't put things back where they were. Which led to the last 6 days or so with only internet stolen from the neighbor's network in 5 minute chunks. Although the 2 Macs in the house managed just fine.
Yesterday evening Sam decided he would drive a friend's car to Hudson, so I asked if Bean and I could come with. We could do a craft night with Schmee. Although it didn't really work out that way. Schmee was a bit shellshocked (and not surprisingly) because a deer had attempted to jump their yard fence and gotten it's leg horribly mangled. They called the police (it was about 8 pm) and it took them a long time to get there. When I called, they still hadn't arrived, so I volunteered Sam and myself to take care of it if the police didn't come. I felt even worse when I found out the poor thing had probably been there since dawn, but since it was in a secluded corner and quiet, no one on the street had noticed. Although I think we could've put the poor thing out of it's suffering, it really is better that the police finally came, and brought a back hoe. They had just dispatched it when we drove up.
Today I didn't have much time to think about it, however, as the morning was slightly chaotic. I tried to make yogurt, but the milk must've been a little off. When I cooked it, it turned all spongy. I strained it and decided to try anyway. 7 hours later it was a mess. So, luckily I have some reserved in the fridge and can try again Sunday with fresh milk. However, I think the cake I made for the fundraiser dinner tonight turned out ok (turned out that we made too many, and mine wasn't even cut up!) and the pesto was great. I did a lot of non-stop cooking, and the biggest challenge was the 3.5 year old who always wants to "help". But then won't keep doing what you find for him to do. Which, ok, not much of an attention span there. Not usually a problem, but when the morning is super-tight, definitely.
Luckily, he idolizes Sam, who is great with him.
Lunch was a nightmare. Connie was in full-out tyranny mode even before I served her. After countless reminders and then warnings - from all of the co-workers..., I finally "pushed the button". When I asked her to leave the table, she made the fuss I knew she would. Unfortunately, the amazing neighbor houseparents closest to us are on vacation. So I had to call someone else. Connie followed me out of the kitchen and trapped me in the pantry. I wasn't as intimidated as last time, even when she made a grab for the phone. Luckily, Hather came quickly and told her to back off and backed me up. Hum came too and took the phone (which made me nervous, I didn't want Connie to unthinkingly harm her...the whole pregnancy thing makes it worse...) and we got her to go up to her room. Sam stayed with and kept the table calm - Beau had been scooting his chair back during the meal and was perturbed by Connie's behavior. And then Connie took it out on Maria.
After a talk with an intervention person, Connie was saying she wanted to switch houses and not share a room with Maria. When I talked with her morning workmaster (Maria has also been there in the mornings this week because the house she goes to is on vacation and didn't set up something different for her!), I found out that Connie had been in a mood all morning and made Maria cry several times. So this made it even better. Sigh.
I guess no one said it would be easy.
Obviously moving houses isn't an option, I'm afraid no one in the village could/would take her - it's a delicate balance. The combination of post and pre-next-vacation stress, new houseparents, broken listening habit and the baby and new villager coming is taking its toll. So tomorrow on my day off we're going out to lunch and to the yarn shop. I need her to see the effort that I'm trying to take with her, and that I'm not trying to be mean. I want her to have the same peace that she was having before. She's so tightly wound right now that she can barely get her words out. It must be so frustrating to be trapped like that...
Tonight was the benefit dinner to raise funds for a truck repair. It raised about 600 dollars and was well received. Even better, it really pulled a lot of the volunteers together in a show of camaraderie and support -and with zero percent involvement of house parents. Although, a lot of them are on vacation now, or stayed home with those who didn't go.
Anyhow, tomorrow must be better,
Hope all is well,
Steph
Friday, July 9, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
No Internet = No Blogging
Hi all,
I know you have been feeling bereft of my presence, but I must blame Hather. Saturday I found the router unplugged (why???) and when I asked him about it, he said “oh, yeah”. So I asked if he might re-connect it…ok. Anyhow, I’ll probably have to mooch off of the neighbor’s internet in order to post this. However, as I’m typing in the kitchen, I will see how things go in the aftermath of cheesecake baking – workmaster’s birthday tomorrow!
Saturday I kept the house to task with cleaning – pretty easy because we only had our two most capable villagers around. We got a lot done. So that was nice, but ate up the morning. I heated up leftovers for lunch and we had a long resthour until they went to the café for goodies at 3. I then threw the hamburgers and all of our picnic stuff together. Hum still wasn’t feeling very well and had decided to stay home with the younger child. We were ready to leave at about 5:05, although the neighbor’s car wasn’t properly gassed up. We could’ve made it there and back no problem (ahh, the wonder of Prius’), but since I was going on to Albany to pick up Sam I didn’t want to take any chances. I’d already reduced chances by taking Pegasus with – a big thank you to Bean!
At the picnic, the hostess (it’s a separate but related property, and she runs a workshop in the village), came up to me and warmly greeted me: “Schmeeeeeee! It’s great to see you!”. The look on her face made her immediately realized she’d screwed that up. I had to tell her in the end. Keep in mind that I’ve interacted with her many times in the past 6 months, especially when I was almost sent to her workshop! It got better as the evening went on, as a villager also mistook me for her. In all fairness, he asked about her houseparents and didn’t know either of our names when we stood side-by-side.
The gathering was good fun. Hather did our grilling and there was music, lots of conversation and I even (with another girl) dared to join the pick-up game of soccer. And I scored. Good for my ego. Anyhow, the fireworks were lack-luster as the “Great view” we’d been promised turned out to not be. The tree-line obscured all but the highest fireworks, and even those partially. Luckily, I don’t think anyone had set extremely high standards.
Afterward, I used Pegasus to plot the course, but then got caught in small-town-post-firework-traffic. So I was 10 minutes late picking up Sam. I’d gotten a frantic message from him when my phone was off – as if I’d forget! He was full of chatter and anecdotes, and I’m glad he had a good time – including meeting my next-younger brother. Apparently they’d hit it off as well as I’d predicted. Good deal.
I had Sunday off, which was nice as we didn’t get home until 12:30. I was up at 9, as Bean planned on collecting me at 9:30. She got held up while delivering papers (sometimes “help” is not really all that helpful…), and made it around 10. She’d also forgotten that I’d moved my room, so I got a confused text. We went out to Golden Harvest to pick berries, although only ended up touring the distillery there, as they only have pick-your-own apples in fall and just sell other produce. So we wound up at Love Apple Farm, where we both picked a pound of black raspberries. Yum.
We made it back to Schmee’s house in time to have brunch with them (and freeze most of our berries) and picked up Pix. We went to the Saugerties Lighthouse, which due to the 4th of July, was actually closed. Bean had researched some local highlights the night before, because I was busy with picking up Sam, and so we moved on to the next one.
We wound up at “Wing’s Castle”. It’s pretty hard to describe, so check out the link. The bottom line is that 40+ years ago some non-conformist (OCD) guy and his wife dug a big pit in his father’s picturesque field with a borrowed bulldozer and then spent the following years scavenging treasures and building supplies from wrecking companies in the Hudson Valley area. Very interesting, but very imperson-able. I believe his wife usually runs the tour. But, they were open and willing to do ($10…!) tours on the 4th…
Then we found some ice cream for me.
We went back to Hudson and dropped Pix off. We went out to dinner at Baba Louie’s – whose lunch menu is much better than dinner… - and went back to the village. We watched most of a comedy show and then called it a night.
Talk about a full day!
Today I because a Twilight vampire again – I was grinding down pieces for my next piece. I managed not to butcher any of the pieces. Nope, I lied…just 1 this time…I’m improving. Anyhow, I’m trying to learn what amount of space between pieces is ideal. Not that I can always make it happen. One piece is a bit too small. Luckily I have a tendency to cut big as a rule.
I went to the café for lunch and finally had a really good meal. Well, I ate everything anyway. Since I’m also making pesto pasta for the neighborhood lunch tomorrow, it wasn’t quite perfect…
I had my massage at 2 and got to work around 2:50. It was SUPER hot today. About 95. Yuck. Luckily the co-op stays pretty cool. We had a rather productive day and got a lot of things bagged. Sam did dinner and so I got to relax after work a little bit. After my walk with Connie, I went to a Young Co-worker’s meeting. It was a much smaller group as many couldn’t get away, but still had some great discussions. We will be hopefully having a dinner Friday night…
Anyhow, my cheesecake is done…hopefully this will post!
Hope all is well,
Steph
Friday, July 2, 2010
I Get Around...
Hi all,
No, no no...not in that way. Far too much gossip happens in this village for me to be even tempted to do that. Anyhow, I spent a majority of my day in the van today. After making pancakes by myself - : ( - I did the garden market/meat run and got back to send Connie off to work. Then I took Franklin with me to the doctor's office, then we zipped into the IGA (or Eye-ga as poor Hum thought...), post office, pharmacy and bank. And we got back before 10:30. Nice.
After a tea break, Franklin did some jobs while I whipped up a really good spaghetti sauce. I browned a garlic shoot thing, onion and then the hamburger, and the 3.5 year old helped add the mushrooms (and was very put-out later when he couldn't find them in the sauce...lol). I sloshed some red wine in and put a cover on it. Then I browned some zucchini, added a little wine and fresh herbs from my pots outside. Several forms of basil, oregano and rosemary found their way in. And some garlic powder. Then I added the crushed tomatoes with basil, tomato paste and finally 6-7 chard leaves. Then I added the meat. It was pretty darn good. I didn't do bread today, but I'm saving my sanity.
Lunch with Connie was a disaster. We had 3 guests and she wouldn't stop talking, breaking her just 'listening' rule that we've had in place successfully for months now. Some of it is post-vacation stress, some is the new family I'm sure. However, it was very hard. Hum thinks it's kind of mean (but I am making time for her in the evenings now, and she wasn't here for the bad months!), but it's truly a slipperly slope. You can't just have one meal where you engage her and expect her to go back to listening. Or ask just 1 question and not open the flood gate. Unfortunately for me, Hum seems determined to learn this lesson the hard way. Maybe she'll find an even better solution though, I'm trying to look on the bright side!
Dinner went little better. I was late, as Franklin had a routine doctor's appointment over an hour away. So we both missed afternoon work. We had time to got to Target quickly and have a tea break at Barnes & Noble. It was nice to get out and we had a good time. Mostly because of Pegasus - Bean let me borrow her GPS again. I'll need it for tomorrow night when I go and pick up Sam from the airport in Albany. Urg. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day. Hum is feeling a little better, but the younger child has lymes. Not good, but she's been on treatment for a while now. Although if I get lymes, I'm going straight for the allopathic drugs. Sorry.
Anyhow, it's been another long day.
Enjoy the pictures.
Hope all is well,
Steph
No, no no...not in that way. Far too much gossip happens in this village for me to be even tempted to do that. Anyhow, I spent a majority of my day in the van today. After making pancakes by myself - : ( - I did the garden market/meat run and got back to send Connie off to work. Then I took Franklin with me to the doctor's office, then we zipped into the IGA (or Eye-ga as poor Hum thought...), post office, pharmacy and bank. And we got back before 10:30. Nice.
After a tea break, Franklin did some jobs while I whipped up a really good spaghetti sauce. I browned a garlic shoot thing, onion and then the hamburger, and the 3.5 year old helped add the mushrooms (and was very put-out later when he couldn't find them in the sauce...lol). I sloshed some red wine in and put a cover on it. Then I browned some zucchini, added a little wine and fresh herbs from my pots outside. Several forms of basil, oregano and rosemary found their way in. And some garlic powder. Then I added the crushed tomatoes with basil, tomato paste and finally 6-7 chard leaves. Then I added the meat. It was pretty darn good. I didn't do bread today, but I'm saving my sanity.
Lunch with Connie was a disaster. We had 3 guests and she wouldn't stop talking, breaking her just 'listening' rule that we've had in place successfully for months now. Some of it is post-vacation stress, some is the new family I'm sure. However, it was very hard. Hum thinks it's kind of mean (but I am making time for her in the evenings now, and she wasn't here for the bad months!), but it's truly a slipperly slope. You can't just have one meal where you engage her and expect her to go back to listening. Or ask just 1 question and not open the flood gate. Unfortunately for me, Hum seems determined to learn this lesson the hard way. Maybe she'll find an even better solution though, I'm trying to look on the bright side!
Dinner went little better. I was late, as Franklin had a routine doctor's appointment over an hour away. So we both missed afternoon work. We had time to got to Target quickly and have a tea break at Barnes & Noble. It was nice to get out and we had a good time. Mostly because of Pegasus - Bean let me borrow her GPS again. I'll need it for tomorrow night when I go and pick up Sam from the airport in Albany. Urg. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day. Hum is feeling a little better, but the younger child has lymes. Not good, but she's been on treatment for a while now. Although if I get lymes, I'm going straight for the allopathic drugs. Sorry.
Anyhow, it's been another long day.
Enjoy the pictures.
Hope all is well,
Steph
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Too Busy to Blog
Hi all,
For sanity's sake, I let it slide the past few days. Hum has been getting sicker and sicker, throwing Dather and myself together. Tuesday morning she managed to get a cake made for a neighborhood house father's birthday, and also ran the morning crew, but I think that's about it. It must be frustrating to be such a go-getter and be stuck in body (with another body...) and unable to do whatever you want. On would argue that a child is pretty good for recompense, but we all know that's debatable. : p
Really though, there are benefits to living with children. Like when they drag in the single flower that they cut and need a place for it, likewise for the wriggling worm. Pretty darn cute.
Anyhow, Tuesday morning I attached the chain I made to my piece. It took a little wrangling, but it now hangs almost absolutely straight. Not that I have anything to hang it on, but it will look nice in my window eventually. It's nice that they let me keep it, but I'm pretty sure it's not sale material...But I'll get there.
I also started on my new piece, which will feature an agate slice in the middle, and various shades of purple. One day I'll hit the warm colors...
Tuesday afternoon I brought Hum's cake and some peaches I'd cooked down in syrup to the neighbor's. The house had cafe lunch, and I'd made a delicious feast of noodles with garlic, greens and chard sauteed in butter with some parmesan cheese after I'd done the peaches. Yum.
I wasn't able to stay long, but appreciated Franklin and his friend's ridiculous vibrato...longest rendition of "Happy Birthday" ever.
I then had my first "rhythmic massage". It was less then idyllic, however, as the basement it's in is currently under construction and it's not reassuring to have dust falling through holes in the ceiling when all you're dressed in is a sheet! I'm not sure about the method either, but it definitely didn't hurt anything!
When I got home for dinner at around 5:30 - things always run late on Tuesday - nothing had been started for dinner. Dather seemed surprised at the thought that he could've started the proceedings. Sigh. It's going to take some time. I whipped up some pesto and had everything ready by 6 anyhow.
At 7:30 we had a mandatory meeting about some events that had transpired, but it was relatively painless. We had a good group discussion afterward, and I think we have a chance of getting a series of monthly (/bimonthly?) meetings out of it along with planning community events. We hope to have a karaoke night within the next 2 weeks. It could be ridiculously awesome...
I had a chat next door, due to some house drama and then went out with Julia. We were going to do a walk...but that was transformed into "Let's drive into Cupcake and get icecream!" Unfortunately, the drive was blocked off and the restaurant was closed. However, we realized that the restaurant was being filmed in - a commercial perhaps? - but since it's such a neat restaurant (think 50's diner), it could definitely be for a movie. We suppressed the (very mild...) urge to go and ask if they needed extras.
We returned and got ice cream at the co-op. Supporting the village and organic ice cream. Probably for the best...
Wednesday was interesting from the start as I'd planned out the day, only to have it broken to pieces when I found out that we'd be having a neighborhood lunch. I ended up making Mexican millet for 20 people. Long story short, I also threw together Julia's vegetable stir fry as she was cleaning up projectile vomit that also happened to hit her. It was a tad bit crazy. The lunch went fine, however, and the meeting as well. It was a gorgeous afternoon, with beautiful clouds.
Last evening I took a walk with Connie, and we've decided to make it a weeknight tradition (minus Thursdays, because of activities) for the summer. It's easier to listen to her when we're walking, I think the movement helps and she's more relaxed. She's also not disturbing me when I'm trying to concentrate on cooking or doing meds or such, which is also good.
Then I went and said goodbye to S&B friends (not Bean...who's finally back from vacation again...), and we had tea and made s'mores in the toaster oven. They're leaving me...one by one...
I then popped over to another house around 9:30, and had good timing - they'd just began the film "The Perfume". I didn't think it could be as disturbing as the book, but I have to say that they got close. It was good to be out and around people last night, even if it was almost midnight by the time I got back. Tonight I really need to work on and finish some tomato planters, so during the activity night I'll be with Bean.
Hope all is well,
Steph
For sanity's sake, I let it slide the past few days. Hum has been getting sicker and sicker, throwing Dather and myself together. Tuesday morning she managed to get a cake made for a neighborhood house father's birthday, and also ran the morning crew, but I think that's about it. It must be frustrating to be such a go-getter and be stuck in body (with another body...) and unable to do whatever you want. On would argue that a child is pretty good for recompense, but we all know that's debatable. : p
Really though, there are benefits to living with children. Like when they drag in the single flower that they cut and need a place for it, likewise for the wriggling worm. Pretty darn cute.
Anyhow, Tuesday morning I attached the chain I made to my piece. It took a little wrangling, but it now hangs almost absolutely straight. Not that I have anything to hang it on, but it will look nice in my window eventually. It's nice that they let me keep it, but I'm pretty sure it's not sale material...But I'll get there.
I also started on my new piece, which will feature an agate slice in the middle, and various shades of purple. One day I'll hit the warm colors...
Tuesday afternoon I brought Hum's cake and some peaches I'd cooked down in syrup to the neighbor's. The house had cafe lunch, and I'd made a delicious feast of noodles with garlic, greens and chard sauteed in butter with some parmesan cheese after I'd done the peaches. Yum.
I wasn't able to stay long, but appreciated Franklin and his friend's ridiculous vibrato...longest rendition of "Happy Birthday" ever.
I then had my first "rhythmic massage". It was less then idyllic, however, as the basement it's in is currently under construction and it's not reassuring to have dust falling through holes in the ceiling when all you're dressed in is a sheet! I'm not sure about the method either, but it definitely didn't hurt anything!
When I got home for dinner at around 5:30 - things always run late on Tuesday - nothing had been started for dinner. Dather seemed surprised at the thought that he could've started the proceedings. Sigh. It's going to take some time. I whipped up some pesto and had everything ready by 6 anyhow.
At 7:30 we had a mandatory meeting about some events that had transpired, but it was relatively painless. We had a good group discussion afterward, and I think we have a chance of getting a series of monthly (/bimonthly?) meetings out of it along with planning community events. We hope to have a karaoke night within the next 2 weeks. It could be ridiculously awesome...
I had a chat next door, due to some house drama and then went out with Julia. We were going to do a walk...but that was transformed into "Let's drive into Cupcake and get icecream!" Unfortunately, the drive was blocked off and the restaurant was closed. However, we realized that the restaurant was being filmed in - a commercial perhaps? - but since it's such a neat restaurant (think 50's diner), it could definitely be for a movie. We suppressed the (very mild...) urge to go and ask if they needed extras.
We returned and got ice cream at the co-op. Supporting the village and organic ice cream. Probably for the best...
Wednesday was interesting from the start as I'd planned out the day, only to have it broken to pieces when I found out that we'd be having a neighborhood lunch. I ended up making Mexican millet for 20 people. Long story short, I also threw together Julia's vegetable stir fry as she was cleaning up projectile vomit that also happened to hit her. It was a tad bit crazy. The lunch went fine, however, and the meeting as well. It was a gorgeous afternoon, with beautiful clouds.
Last evening I took a walk with Connie, and we've decided to make it a weeknight tradition (minus Thursdays, because of activities) for the summer. It's easier to listen to her when we're walking, I think the movement helps and she's more relaxed. She's also not disturbing me when I'm trying to concentrate on cooking or doing meds or such, which is also good.
Then I went and said goodbye to S&B friends (not Bean...who's finally back from vacation again...), and we had tea and made s'mores in the toaster oven. They're leaving me...one by one...
I then popped over to another house around 9:30, and had good timing - they'd just began the film "The Perfume". I didn't think it could be as disturbing as the book, but I have to say that they got close. It was good to be out and around people last night, even if it was almost midnight by the time I got back. Tonight I really need to work on and finish some tomato planters, so during the activity night I'll be with Bean.
Hope all is well,
Steph
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