visit to Baltimore

This past weekend, we got a chance to visit Christie and Tim in Baltimore. My mom went down on the bus earlier in the week, and we rode with my dad. Due to some icy road conditions, the trip took us about twice as long as it should, but we were in good humor, and we arrived safely.

It wasn't a long stay, but we got to do some Baltimorian things. We visited the farmer's market down the street from Christie and Tim's house, and we purchased a couple of items from Reid's Orchard stand. We also got to visit a couple of discount stores, and we got some deals (including a pair of jeans that fits me perfect for SEVEN DOLLARS).

Even though it was a short stay, it was WONDERFUL to spend some time with my sister. It gave me a taste of how awesome it will be to have a longer visit over Christmas!

And here's our latest [home-made] family portrait!

quick trip to Philadelphia

Two weeks ago, we went to Philadelphia for a mid-week overnight trip to see Jonah Matranga play at the First Unitarian Church.

While we were there, we got to catch up briefly with a few Philly friends, which was great. Why can't the roads between our cities be shorter?

Jonah Matranga is a musician that Eric really enjoys, and since he makes very few trips to the East Coast, we figured we'd better take this opportunity to see him. It was an incredible show--in a chapel with only about fifty people--and we were in the second pew. I will let Eric go into more detail about the music if he'd like, but I thought I'd share a couple pictures with you.

the return of our cat

For the past two years, our cat Amelie has been living with my very generous parents while we've been in living situations where a cat was not allowed.

About four weeks ago, we felt like we had our apartment settled enough to go and fetch her. Eric said, "Let's go tomorrow to get our cat," and I said, "But it's going to snow." Eric, ever the fearless adventurer, replied, "Let's go anyway!" So we climbed into the pickup and headed down the road, seeing this sort of weather along the way:

We got all of the necessaries from my mom, convinced the cat to climb into her carrier, and drove back through the snow to Bevier Street. She investigated everything inside the apartment and then peeked out the windows. Apparently she did not like what she saw, as she growled audibly and then ran upstairs to hide under the bed.

She spent several days with this sort of behavior, but now she's gotten used to the neighborhood and likes to spend her days surveying the activity in the street.

She's particularly fond of sitting on the steps like a queen and looking down on us in the living room.

It's really great to have our cat back. Since I have yet to begin any job, I especially appreciate her presence on days when Eric's at work. Even though she's deaf, it sometimes seems better to talk to her than to talk to myself!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my parents for taking care of her during these past two years. It's not always been a pleasant task, but we appreciate it very much.

I'll leave you with this parting shot that Eric took of our wild beast.

catching up

Ok, so it's been over six weeks since we've posted anything on this blog.

That
is
TERRIBLE.

And I apologize. To atone for it, I'm going to do some catch-up right now. That will explain the flurry of posts right in a row.

visit to Muddy Fingers Farm

One of the great things about being back in the northeast is that we're in closer proximity to some of our good friends. Last weekend we took advantage of that close-ish-ness to visit our friends Liz and Matthew at their farm in Hector, NY. For those of you who don't know Liz and Matthew (or who haven't heard us talking about them a lot), they own and operate an organic farm and CSA. It's not an easy thing, but they're living their dream and doing their share (or probably more than their share) to preserve our earth for future generations.

We went up on Sunday afternoon, and after catching up a little bit, we walked around the farm with their enthusiastic and energetic dog Gemini. Because it's getting to be late in the year, the cold is slowing things down. While it's not as green as it was earlier in the growing season, you can still see that they have a beautiful place.

We spent an enjoyable evening together, eating well (as we always do at their home), playing Settlers of Catan, and listening to records (yes, the vinyl kind).

Monday morning, they kindly let us sleep in while they started in on their work. Then we layered up against the cold and went out to do some harvesting to prepare for the farmers market on Tuesday. Like I mentioned earlier, it's late in the season, so there isn't as much to harvest. We helped dig up some potatoes, and then we helped to clean them and the parsnips and leeks and onions that they had already harvested.

With the harvesting done, we decided that we should go for a hike. We made a stop to see a friend who works at Wagner Vineyards, and then we headed to the Finger Lakes National Forest. It was perfect weather for hiking: chilly but good once you got moving. Here are some snapshots from our hike:

That last one there is going to have to go on my list of most favorite pictures ever.

When I was transferring pictures from my camera last night, I found this picture that Liz must've taken while we were sleeping:

Thanks for having us, Liz and Matthew--we had so much fun, too!