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November 12, 2007

A Plethora of Things...

So much has been going on the past few weeks, none of which are related, so I'll just spew them out one-by-one beginning with the most recent development...

New Job!

I will be leaving my current job as Marketing Coordinator at Horizons Federal Credit Union as of November 30 and beginning my new job as a Copywriter in the marketing department at the Press & Sun-Bulletin. My job will entail writing copy for marketing materials for not only the Press & Sun, but also the Elmira Star-Gazette and the Ithaca Journal (all of which are owned by Gannett and make up the Central New York Newspaper Group). I'm very excited for the opportunity! The next few weeks will involve wrapping things up at my old job and getting ready for my new one. I'm sort in that strange, transitional, in-between phase where technically I'm sort of employed by two companies, and I feel as if I'm straddling both of them at the same time. It's a strange, but exciting place to be!

Halloween

I had a very nice Halloween, and I actually dressed up this year. It was prompted by the annual kids' Halloween party I organize at work. I wanted everyone to dress up this year to make things more fun, so of course I had to do the same. So I went as Snow White (see right)! I had lots of fun. I chose the costume since I've always fantasized about playing Snow White at Disney World. What a fun job that would be! Though probably out of the realm of reality for me since you probably need acting skills and/or experience. Anyway, this was the closest I could get. I wore it for the Halloween party and then again to greet trick-or-treaters at home. Now it's tucked away in my closet for another year, or if anyone wants to borrow it. That's the bad thing about buying costumes - it's basically a one-year deal. Renting one is almost as expensive as purchasing one, and considering how many people have worn it before you, well...it's best just to buy. Anyway, it was worth it since the costumes did make the party more fun for the kids, not to mention the cool magician I hired that kept the kids enraptured for two hours.

Antiquing

A few weeks ago I went antiquing along Clinton Street in Binghamton. I wanted to see if I could find a nice metal-framed bed (I need a new one, and a bigger one!), but I got a fan instead. I love those old vintage fans! They were just so much cuter back then - before they were made out of plastic and had all the safety precautions. As you can see from the fan I bought, there is almost no cage to separate the fan blades and your fingers. Luckily I have no kids and pets to worry about. I chose this one because it was in good shape, and I liked the green color. Most vintage fans I've seen are either black, silver, or brass. This is a little desk model which I believe was also a wall fan. Before air conditioning, people would attach these fans to the wall near the ceiling to cool the room. My fan has holes along the base for screws, and the head can tilt all the way back, so it's pointed forward when mounted to the wall. Unfortunately I won't be able to use it for another several months, unless we get some sort of freaky heat wave in the middle of winter. But I'm not holding my breath on that one. I'm not sure exactly how old my fan is (the lady I bought it from didn't know either), but I'm guessing 1920's - 1940's. If anybody has a better idea than I do, e-mail me!

October 22, 2007

Church Tour

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take a guided tour of some of the domed Eastern European churches in Binghamton and Johnson City. Since they're #2 on my list of things I like about Binghamton, I was thrilled to finally be able to see what they looked like on the inside. The tour was organized by the Preservation Association of the Southern Tier (PAST). There were about 50 of us that got bused around to four churches, all within a one mile radius of each other (if that tells you how many people of Eastern European decent make up the local population).

If I were to describe the churches in one word, it would be GORGEOUS. We saw two Eastern Orthodox Churches and two Eastern Catholic Churches, but all had very similar design elements. Besides the ubiquitous domes, each had an iconostasis, or icon screen, in the front of the nave (where all the congregants sit). The screens were very elaborate and incorporated painted icons throughout. The screen is meant to separate the nave (or "earth") from the altar (or "heaven"). Each screen has double doors in the center that symbolize the gates of heaven. They open to reveal the altar inside. We weren't allowed past the icon screens, but we were allowed to take pictures of the altars inside.

Since Eastern European churches are a very visual experience, I've included lots of pictures below. With some I used flash, some I did not. Sometimes the picture looked better without the flash, bringing out the candle light for instance, but sometimes flash was needed. Just a note in case you were wondering about the differences in the lighting. I did a good job this time keeping the camera steady so the pictures wouldn't turn out blurry without the flash. I'm getting better at that! Also, it was a bright sunny day, which meant some nice stained-glass window shots. Overall, a very nice photographic day.

St. John's Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Our first stop was St. Johns' Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Johnson City, about a 10 minute walk from my house. This church has the best looking exterior of the four (in my opinion), with a HUGE mosaic icon on the front of the building. We ended the tour here as well to get some delicious Ukrainian pastries and snacks. Apparently the congregation loves to cook. They have a Ukrainian festival every year and even published their own cookbook, in two volumes, filled with parishioners' recipes.
 

A close-up of the exterior mosaic.	The icon screen.	The doors in the icon screen opened to reveal the altar.	I'm not sure what the official name of this is, but it represents Christ's tomb.

St. Michael's Greek Catholic Church

Next was St. Michael's Greek Catholic Church in Binghamton, which incidentally is neither Greek or Catholic. It used to be Catholic when it first started out, but later switched to Orthodox. Its founding members were from the Carpathian Mountain region of Eastern Europe, not Greece. Semantics aside, it was a very beautiful church with a floor-to-ceiling icon screen, painted ceilings, and the best stained-glass windows on the tour.

Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic Church

In my opinion, Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic Church in Binghamton was the best-looking of all the churches we visited. It had the best overall design. This church was Catholic in the Byzantine Rite, which is different than Roman Catholic, but still part of the Catholic Church. Their church resembled more of an Orthodox one, though, so on the surface there doesn't appear to be much of a difference. The church actually began when a group of congregants from St. Michael's wanted to remain Catholic upon the church's conversion to Orthodox, and so formed their own church literally a few blocks down the street. I couldn't get a good building shot of it since it was right up against the sidewalk and I didn't have the opportunity to go across the street to get a better shot. One very unique thing about this church was that the domes were actually mosaics (see left). You don't notice it until you look at it up close (or through a zoom lens).

The icon screen, taken with no flash to bring out the illumination of the icons.	Close-up of one of the icons on the screen.	The walls and stained-glass windows.	An altar with an icon and candles.

Sacred Hearth Ukrainian Catholic Church

By far the most unique church on the tour (and probably in the whole Binghamton area) was Sacred Heart Ukrainian Catholic Church in Johnson City, just up the hill from St. John's. This one is a Catholic church in the Ukrainian Rite, whereas St. John's is Orthodox. Sacred Heart is the only wooden domed church in the area. It looks like a log cabin or a ski lodge. Even the icon screen is entirely carved out of wood, setting itself apart from the other ones made of gold. The entire interior is wooden too. In fact, there is a distinct woody aroma upon entering the building. It was smaller than the other churches, but very cozy. It felt like I was in a church in the Carpathian Mountains, instead of Johnson City. And this church had the best speaker, the parish's priest. He was the one who filled us in on the history the Eastern European churches in the area, and the differences between Roman Catholics and Eastern Catholics. One big difference is that Eastern Catholic priests are allowed to marry. Sacred Heart's priest is married with two kids, which he says often shocks a lot of Roman Catholics who don't know the difference. Before yesterday, I didn't know the difference either! He also mentioned that the church most resembled how they are built in Eastern Europe, since wood is more readily available in that area.

The icon screen, carved entirely out of wood.	The interior of one of the domes. I had to tip my head all the back to get this one.	A unique bronze icon.	No stained-glass at this church. It was much more simpler and rustic in design.

October 8, 2007

To Ithaca for Books and Food

On Saturday I drove to Ithaca, Binghamton's hippy cousin to the north, for their annual used book sale and farmer's market. And to get out of Binghamton to do something new and exciting. Though Ithaca is a mere 50 miles from Binghamton, it is like a whole other world. First of all, the community is more close-knit. People there seem to like being out at a cafe, or the park, or the Commons and just hanging out together. In Ithaca, everything is very close together so its urban geography lends itself to this. In Binghamton, everything is more spread out and suburban, so people keep to themselves more. They hang out with their family, friends, and co-workers but they don't commune much with strangers in the community unless it's at an event. It's just a different vibe here. Also, the people in Ithaca seem to be more laid-back and intellectual. And holy cow, do they like to wear their politics on their sleeves! I never saw so many bumper stickers and T-shirts describing political, social, and environmental beliefs in one place in my life. I for one like to keep my beliefs private, so I would never do that sort of thing. To each his own, I guess! Also, the going fashion up there seems to be sandals, big T-shirts, backpacks, and pony tails and facial hair for the guys. Not to be stereotypical or anything, this is just what I observed.

Anyway, back to my activities there...the used book sale I went to was HUGE and seems to be a big Ithaca tradition. The sale is held in a warehouse to help raise funds for the Tompkins County Library. Since there are a lot of colleges up there (including an Ivy League one), a lot of the books were of the academic variety. I was surprised at both the selection and quality of the books. It seems that Ithacans love to read and donate their used books to the sale. One drawback: due to the fire code, only a certain amount of people were allowed into the building at one time, which meant a TWO HOUR wait outside to get in. Had I known I would be standing outside in line that long, I would have brought food and something to do. Instead I just stood there and daydreamed and listened to other people's conversations the whole time. Once I finally got in, I was probably there for only 15 minutes. I downloaded their map ahead of time to determine which sections I wanted to go to, so there was no wandering around trying to find things. I didn't bring any bags or boxes to put the books in - whatever I could fit in my two arms was all I was buying. That was how I "budgeted". Besides that, I don't have much bookshelf space left. I went to the anthropology section and the classics section to buy more Greek classics. Yeah, I'm a nerd! However, this book sale was a nerd's paradise. I would have spent more time there if it wasn't for my consideration for the people waiting outside and my "budget". A few of the books I got: a very old Modern Library edition of "Plutarch's Lives", "Male and Female" by Margaret Mead, "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi, a few books with Greek plays by Euripides, and "Bulfinch's Mythology". I'm not going to have to go to a library anytime soon!

After the sale, I was STARVING so I stopped by the Ithaca Bakery for a sandwich (which was good, but expensive). The deli seems to be an Ithaca staple, and I liked their HUGE menu and lively atmosphere. It was a traditional deli in every sense - Binghamton needs something like this (other than Panera Bread)!

Next it was off to the Ithaca Farmer's Market - which, like the book sale, was HUGE. Binghamton has small farmer's markets, but nothing of this caliber. It was right on the shore of Cayuga Lake, with a dock and park area behind it where you can chill out. There were a lot of people sitting on the benches and on the side of the pier reading, talking, and enjoying the nice day. The market itself resembled more of a flea market, with not only food but wine, jewelry, and crafts for sale. And, in typical Ithaca fashion, everyone was hanging out there and having a good time. In Binghamton you just get your food and go.

I wanted to stay in Ithaca longer but I was very tired and hot (we've been having a heat wave here for the past few weeks, with temperatures in the 80's), so I went home. I hope to make more trips to Ithaca in the future, since it's so close yet so different from my hometown.

Of course, I took lots of pictures!

September 15, 2007

Sugar Rush

Each year when fall rolls around I get the craving for Cider Mill donuts. These just aren't any donuts - they're crispier on the outside and chewier and denser on the inside. They're "cake-ier" I guess you can say. The powdered and cinnamon kinds are LOADED with sugar, so you'll have to eat them with a plate or napkin underneath to catch the droppings (ew, that didn't sound right...). I love them!! The Cider Mill is pretty much a staple in the Binghamton area. Every kid who grew up here went there on a field trip to watch them make the cider, which I did when I went there today for old time's sake (though it wasn't as exciting as I remember it). If you don't live around here, you can see how they make their cider and donuts on their web site.

Oh No, Otto!

My old college made this hilarious public safety video featuring its mascot, Otto the Orange. It basically puts poor Otto in various unsafe situations to demonstrate what NOT to do. They posted it on YouTube, so here it is:
 

This video brought back a lot of memories. I remember those blue safety lights being everywhere on campus. We were told that if we were being chased by somebody to hit each light along the way so public safety can trace our path. Also, you wouldn't believe how many people leave their dorms unlocked, even at night while they're sleeping! I was always terrified that somebody would break into my room, so I would have it locked even when I was in there. Also, the part where the guy is breaking into the car is funny since it's clearly parked on the part of campus called "frat row". If you want your car to be broken into, park there!
 

September 9, 2007

Owego

I drove to Owego today to go to a horse show at Skyline Corral, but when I got there I found out it had been cancelled due to rain earlier that morning. (I kind of figured it was cancelled considering the place was completely deserted when I arrived.) Not wanting to waste a 20 mile trip for nothing, I poked around downtown Owego for a bit and did some shopping and picture-taking. I had taken my camera for the horse show, so I had to take pictures of something! I had forgotten how cute and quaint Owego is. The Front Street area, right next to the Susquehanna River, is very beautiful and historic. My first stop was the Hand of Man gift shop, my favorite store in Owego. I've loved it since I was a kid, although it's much more fun going there as an adult since I have money to spend and my mom's not around to tell me not to touch anything every two seconds. That place is PACKED with cute, whimsical gift items and collectibles. It was just fun being there looking at the stuff. I ended up buying some hot chocolate mix in pink, blue, and purple colors (I had no idea they made stuff like that) and a little something for my mom. Then I took pictures of the new bridge and some of the pretty buildings on Front Street. I didn't do much else since just about everything seems to be closed on Sundays in Owego.

September 3, 2007

Evolution of the Pool, Part 2

In a previous post I mentioned that my grandparents had decided to get rid of their long-time and much-loved swimming pool, much to the heartbreak of myself and others in my family. So, I've decided to document the evolution of the former pool-area, as a way of saying goodbye and looking ahead to the future (sorry if I sound sentimental, I just really, really loved that pool!). It's been a while since I've shown the dirt pile that was once the pool, so now it's time for an update. It's come a long way since the winter...

So what's next for the former pool space? My grandma said she would like a deck built there. That would look neat! My sister suggested she build a mini golf course, which my grandma turned down flat. :) A deck is good enough for me! (Though not as good as the pool, of course...)

September 1, 2007

Horse Show

As promised, here are some of the pictures I took at a hunter competition at the New York State Fair today. It was my first live horse show ever. I didn't stay to see the whole thing (that would have taken all day), but I saw about an hour's worth of action before moving on to other activities at the fair. I loved the whole set-up of the course, and the jumps looked pretty. :) This is generally the style of riding I do at my lessons, though I'm not this advanced yet. I jump cross rails, and I haven't done a course yet. But it was nice to see higher level equestrians at work. Here they are!

August 27, 2007

Fun with Harry Potter (and snakes)!

We're nearing the end of our annual Family Fun Fridays event at work, and this past Friday was particularly interesting with reptiles and a Harry Potter impersonator. The reptiles came from The Reptile Co. in Endicott and Harry Potter is actually a local high school student who just happens to resemble the famous literary wizard, and who dresses up like him for parties and such. For our party I took Polaroids of him with the kids while handing out plastic Harry Potter glasses. At right is a Polaroid the reptile guy took of me and Harry with a giant albino python around our shoulders. Even with Harry shouldering some of the burden (ha, ha), that snake was heavy! It didn't move much, so basically it was like dead weight. This is probably the craziest picture ever taken of me, so I had to post it on my web site of course! I mean, how many people have photos of themselves with Harry Potter, wearing Harry Potter glasses, and with a giant snake draped over their shoulders?? I apologize for the poor quality of the photo - it's a scan of a Polaroid, which was also of poor quality. Though in this case, content trumps quality.

Those of you who are afraid of snakes are probably freaking out about now. In case you haven't noticed, I like snakes! Even big ones! Actually, I love most animals except for scorpions and some freaky-looking insects. And I'll touch just about anything. When the ZooMobile was at our event a few weeks ago, I got to pet a fennec fox. They are so cute, and soft!

So what else is new? I'm looking forward to September, actually, when things calm down at work a bit and the weather gets a bit cooler. You know you're an adult when you actually look forward to September! Also, I'm hoping to catch a few horse shows next month. I'm going to a hunt seat one at the New York State Fair this Saturday and hopefully an English and Western show at Skyview Corral in Owego. Of course you know what that means...pictures!

July 9, 2007

I had a brief 4th of July break last week and decided to spend some of that time hanging around downtown Binghamton taking pictures. The last time I did that was during the flood, so it was nice to see the river in it's normal state (actually, since we've had a dry summer, it's a bit lower than normal). I've placed some of the photos I took of the Chenango and Susquehanna Rivers near downtown on my photos page. The city has been trying to improve the river area by installing a river walk and a park area near the confluence of the two rivers (called, incidentally, Confluence Park). One of Binghamton's downfalls is that it doesn't take full advantage of its rivers. Though the river walk is a good start, it needs to have river cruises or something like that. And more parks!

So why isn't downtown Binghamton on my list of things I like about Binghamton? While it does have its charms - the rivers, nice old buildings, cute coffee houses, artsy boutique stores - it's far from perfect. There are too many vacant store fronts and not enough going on. It used to be the retail hub back in the day, but now that everyone shops in the suburbs, that isn't the case anymore. Now it's more concentrated toward entertainment (like the Arena and Forum), government, bars, and businesses like finance and engineering firms. Though try going there during the day on the weekend - DEAD. The only thing that's open is the CVS. Or try going there on a Friday or Saturday night - DRUNK STUDENTS. Most of the restaurants and shops downtown cater to the professional crowd that works there during the week. They need to fill up all the empty retail spaces with something worthwhile (not more bars or stores that aren't going to work). And they need to have more shows at the Arena and Forum. Actual big names that will bring people in.

Anyway, I got a lot of great pictures along the river walk. The area also looks like a great place to bike, which I will have to do one of these days!

In other news...I finally got my passport! Now I can flee the country whenever I want (he, he)!

June 25, 2007

Busy!

Besides turning the big 2-9 on Friday and pigging out at Red Lobster with my family, I've been busy the last few weeks doing various a sundry things...and taking pictures!

Relay For Life

On June 15, my work did the Binghamton Relay For Life like every year. This year, though, I was the "Team Captain" which meant I was in charge! We raised a lot of money, and I stayed later this year to watch the Luminaria ceremony after dark. People decorate paper bags to honor their loved ones who died of cancer or who currently have cancer. Then we put sand and candles in them and light them up at night. It looked very cool to see them all lit up at once around the park. (Funny story about the sand - when I went to the tent to get the supplies for the Luminaria, I asked for sand and was handed a kid's sand bucket and directed to a big giant pile of sand behind the tent, where I had to shovel my own. It was a "serve-yourself venture" I guess!) I turned the flash off of my camera to pick up the glow of the Luminaria. They were really pretty!

Baby Horses!

When I went to the barn on Saturday for my horseback riding lesson, I finally had my camera with me to take pictures of the baby horses. I went up to the fence of the paddock where they in and immediately a mom and baby came right up to me! I don't know if the mom wanted a treat, or attention, but I was glad she gave me a front-row seat to take pictures of her foal! Unfortunately the foal immediately started suckling as soon as they got to the fence, so its back was turned towards me the whole time (which is why I got nothing but butt shots).

I seem to be having a lucky time with taking animal pictures. Normally animals are very hard to take pictures of since they move around so much and are unpredictable. That's why I prefer plants and flowers. But sometimes an animal will do just what you want them to to get a good picture (like the horses)! Another example is this chipmunk at my grandma's house. I walking around her front yard taking pictures of flowers when I found this chipmunk sitting on a piece of driftwood in the garden absolutely frozen still. At first I was wondering if it was alive or real, since it did not move a muscle - it didn't even blink! I took a few pictures and when I turned my back, it scampered away. Most likely it was frozen in fear, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to take a photo of a normally skittish animal. And they're so cute!

June 9, 2007

Extreme Porch Makeover

For the past two weeks I've been giving my front enclosed porch a much-needed paintjob and makeover. I'm exhausted and glad it's over, but the results are amazing!!

I live in a very old house, and I don't think the front porch had been painted in about 50 years (and I don't think I'm exaggerating there). My mom had painted the bottom part with the stenciling about 10 years ago, but that was about it. Before the porch was mainly used for storing junk we didn't know what to do with. Now I want it to be like another room in the house where I can sit and read a book or something. A lot of people would love to have an enclosed sun porch and I'm glad I'm finally taking advantage of mine!

I love to paint, by the way, though it's SO MUCH work. I love choosing the colors and making things look new again. You can have a yucky, nasty wall and just immediately cover it up with a new color. Then viola! A new room! I chose the colors I did for the porch ("stratosphere" and "tile green" from Glidden) based on furniture pieces we already had that were the same white and green. And I just think white and green make good colors for a porch.

Web Site Update

In case you stopped by and got a "page not found" error page, it was because stupid Geocities decided to delete my web site. For some reason they thought I had violated their terms of service, but after reading them I didn't see how I could have. I e-mailed them pointing this out, and they finally restored my web site. First of all, that is really scary that Geocities can just delete your web site without warning or notification (yes, it's in the terms). Plus, it wouldn't have been such a big deal had I saved backup copies of my web site on my computer like I should have. Needless to say, I backed up my site as soon as it was restored, and hopefully that will never happen again.

May 23, 2007

We went to a car show in Hershey, PA on Saturday and of course that means lots of pictures of neat cars. I'm not much of a gearhead, but I do appreciate the artistry and creativity that goes into these cars. There were way too many cars to take pictures of each and every one of them, but here are some of my favorites:

May 14, 2007

Bike or Car?

I always think it's interesting how some of my co-workers are always so interested in whether or not I rode my bike to work that day. If it's a nice day and I drove my car, they'll ask, "No bike??" If there's a chance of rain and I ride my bike anyway, they'll say, "You rode your bike??" I can't win! Whether or not I ride my bike to work is based on a number of factors, including but not restricted to:

* The weather. If it's too cold or there's a good chance of rain, I drive the car. If there's a small chance of "scattered" showers, I'll bike it. As long as it doesn't rain in the 20 minutes it takes to get there in the morning and back at night, I'm good!

* I need the car for something. Sometimes I'll need the car to pick stuff up for work or if I'm going somewhere directly after work and I can't bike it.

* I don't feel like biking. Yep, I get lazy sometimes. And my body does need a break every once in a while. I actually like occasional rainy days because then you don't feel bad about taking a biking break and driving the car. However, when you have long streaks of good weather, sometimes you just have to take the initiative and leave the bike home for the day.

As for my co-workers...they just need to chill out and let me get to work however I want to that day. Actually, I've always fantasized about riding a horse to work, though that would be virtually impossible since a) I don't own a horse, b) I live and work in the middle of town were there's traffic, and c) I would have no place to put the horse while I'm working. The only way that would work is if I lived out in the country and I owned my own horse that lived on my property, and I didn't work far from my house, and if I had someplace to put the horse while working. I read an article a while back about a guy who said he would ride his horse to work if the gas prices went above $3.00. When they did after Hurricane Katrina, he rode his horse to work! Lucky guy. :)

May 13, 2007

Is it just me or do I volunteer WAY too much??  Last week I volunteered at Binghamton's local PBS station WSKG for their TV auction along with people from other credit unions in the area. I took bids over the phone as stuff was being shown on the TV. It was fun! And yeah, I do a lot of volunteering, but it's fun and it's for a good cause, so I'm not really complaining. :)

I took some photos of inside the studio during the auction, though I forgot to set the camera to accommodate the harsh studio lights, so the lighting looks a bit off. The one on the left is me pretending to take a call while someone took my picture. I was taking everyone else's picture, so they wanted me to get my turn. In the middle is the area where they set up all the auction items (check out that crazy multi-colored stuffed dog created by a local artist). On the right is the board that was used to take down the live bids (yeah, I made them pose that way).

So what else is new? After a long winter of sitting around I've gotten back into my old routine of horseback riding lessons on the weekends and biking to work. So I feel like I'm in better shape. And the weather has been BEAUTIFUL the past few weeks, so I feel like I've been in a better mood because of it. I really hope we have a nice DRY summer this year!

Speaking of horseback riding lessons, we had a very freaky occurrence last week. There were five of us taking a lesson in the outdoor arena when all of a sudden a dust devil formed in the middle of the arena! It was like a mini-tornado just appeared out of nowhere. It was my first encounter with one (how many of those do you see in upstate New York??), and it just happened to be when I was riding a horse. The horses got pretty spooked of course, though no one was thrown off thankfully. All the dust devil ended up doing was knocking over the jump that was set up. But still, it was pretty scary.

April 22, 2007

The weather just keeps getting weirder! Though this time for the better. It's hard to believe that less than a week ago we had eight inches of snow on the ground (see below). Today, it was sunny and in the 70's. No complaints here! A group of us at work participated in the Southern Tier AIDS Walk today, and it was the perfect day for it. The band Third Eye Blind was there to cut the ribbon at the starting line. No, I'm not kidding. Here's a picture! That's the lead singer Stephen Jenkins with the scissors. The band was in town to perform at Magic City Music Hall in Johnson City and somebody from the Southern Tier AIDS Program must have some good connections because they got them to come to the walk. I'm not a big fan or anything (I like their songs, but don't own any albums), but it's always cool to spot celebrities in lowly Binghamton.

April 16, 2007

I took the above photos this morning around my home and work. Yes, today...April 16, 2007. We got socked with a freaky snowstorm, freaky even for upstate New York. Snow in April isn't uncalled for, but not a foot of snow. The snow that fell was very wet and heavy, and clung to everything. It was very beautiful to look at - it looked as if somebody sprayed marshmallow fluff everywhere. But I didn't like having to clean my car off and drive through it. I'm supposed to be biking to work at this point. Hopefully this will be the last of it. I know the above photos probably look like the rest of my winter photos, but I thought I'd share since it was so unusual given the time of year. The weather here has just been weird ever since the June flood.

The snow was caused by the same nor'easter that caused flooding in New Jersey and the New York City area and tornadoes in the south. So though it's weird to have snow in mid-April, I guess we ended up being the lucky ones.

March 14, 2007

I went to grandma's on Sunday to celebrate her birthday and found out my grandparents got rid of their pool!! My grandma had talked about filling it in some months ago, but I was hoping it wouldn't happen for another year - just so we can have one last mega pool party to send it off. But no, turns out my last time in the pool was last August. Of course I didn't know it at the time. I have been swimming in that pool every summer since I was 4 - that's 24 years! I learned to swim in that pool. I had a pool birthday party in that pool - we all had to jump out when a thunderstorm came and retreated inside to the hot tub. First the hot tub left, now the pool! I hope someone else in my family (hint, hint) decides to get a pool in order to fill the void. My grandparents have had that pool since the early 70's, and I honestly don't think my family can survive without one!

To fill it, some guy drove a plow up the hill behind the fence and pushed dirt from the hill into the pool hole. It looks like a mess now, but it's going to be converted into yard space. No garden, just yard. I don't know, I think we need to put some sort of plaque there in memory of the pool or something ("Here lied the greatest pool on earth (1970 - 2007)"). Yeah, I'm kidding, but that would be funny. I'm going to miss that pool!!

March 6, 2007

On Valentine's Day we got socked with a massive snowstorm that dumped about 1 1/2 feet of snow on the Binghamton area. Here's a picture of my car and street buried in snow. Of course, it's a lot better than being buried under water! Seriously, after going through a flood, a snowstorm is nothing. There's a lot of work and inconvenience with the snow removal and driving in it, but at least snow doesn't get into your house and destroy your stuff, or destroy your car. So basically I just stayed home from work that day, shoveling and eating chocolate all day long. I can think of worse things happening to me!

I checked out my site stats and I haven't had too many hits on my San Francisco pages. So if you haven't visited them yet, please do! It took me a long time to put those together. Then again, since I have so many pictures on there, it's only a matter time before they start showing up on Google Image searches. I swear most of my web site hits are from Google Image searches.

Also, my guestbook has been getting spammed to death lately. The spam has been filling it to capacity, preventing legitimate people from signing it. Though I do approve posts first for this very reason, it's been hard to keep up. Unfortunately Geocities doesn't have a spam filter on their guestbooks, so I'm looking into getting a third party one if the spam doesn't stop. How annoying!

Sorry about all the complaining, but I've been restless lately. Work has been busy, and on top of that I haven't been able to go horseback riding since January because of the cold weather, nor been able to ride my bike to work since Halloween for that same reason. I guess you can say I'm having a bit of "March Madness". (Sorry, I couldn't resist...)

February 11, 2007

I posted some of my Roberson Museum photos on my photos page, the ones that actually turned out. I went to Roberson over my Christmas break mainly to see their annual ethnic Christmas tree display. It used to be a tradition for my family to go there every year, but we stopped going years ago. I had really missed it. Every year the museum creates Christmas trees and displays for just about every country and ethnic group you can imagine. Not ones to be Christian-centric, they even have displays for Hanukkah, Diwali (the Hindu holiday of light), and the annual Muslim hajj (or pilgrimage). The museum seems to be improving, which is good since it's Binghamton's only real museum. They even did some renovations on their adjacent mansion, which opened up some additional rooms not previously open the public. The mansion has always been my favorite part of the museum. I used to want to live there as a kid (and I still do!). I love Victorian mansions!

That's about it for photos for a while. All the other photos I have are of family and I wouldn't post those anyway out of privacy.

January 29, 2007

Well, it's finally done...my San Francisco site! I hope you enjoy it because it took forever. And I hope you have broadband because it's very photo-heavy and can take forever to download with dial-up. Speaking of which, I recently decided to get with the 21st century and finally traded in my dial-up for DSL. It was one of those things I should done years ago but kept putting it off for whatever reason. Finally it just got to the point where I was so frustrated with slow download times that I caved. My site especially was getting hard to work with because I kept adding more and more pictures, which made it slower and slower to download.

Of course now that I have broadband, keep your eyes open for more photos on my web site. I take a ton of pictures with my digital camera (the same one I bought over two years ago, still going strong) but have kept most sitting on my hard drive since it would take so long to upload them to Photobucket with the dial-up. Next I plan on posting pictures of my Christmas break trip to Roberson Museum. I got some very interesting shots there.

In other news, it's been very, very cold here. We had a mild winter up until a few weeks ago, when it suddenly switched back to typical upstate New York winter (teens and 20's). And yes, I'm still horseback riding! I used to hate riding in the cold when I did it in college (it was in Syracuse, and it would be about zero degrees at the barn...tacking a horse with numb fingers is not fun!). But now I look forward to it despite the weather. I've learned to dress better for it, and you get warmed up once you start riding. Plus, since I don't usually ride my bike in the winter, it's about the only exercise I get besides yoga. I'm not really a winter sport type person (or a gym type person either).

January 9, 2007

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday! I had a great Christmas - I took time off from work to relax at home and spend time with family. I had a nice, peaceful, crisis-free Christmas, so I couldn't ask for anything more! And since I haven't updated in forever, I'm going to go back a bit to the fall and talk about my mini vacation to southern Pennsylvania. I went down there to attend a wedding and got to do some sightseeing on the side. We went to Hershey's Chocolate World and Gettysburg Battlefield. I have more pictures on my photo page. Hershey's Chocolate World is a cheesy, commercial, touristy spot with a fake "factory" tour that resembles a Disney World ride - complete with animatronic singing cows! And of course there are plenty of stores from which to purchase Hershey products and souvenirs. It was actually a very fun place (and every chocolate lover's paradise) as long you don't take it too seriously. :)

Gettysburg, on the other hand, was anything but fake. We toured the battleground using an audio tour in the car, though we couldn't finish it because it took so long and we had to head back home. They've maintained the battlegrounds just as they were during the Civil War, even going so far as chopping down trees to maintain the aesthetic. You can stand on a hill and imagine the troops marching over the horizon. Today, though, there are numerous monuments scattered throughout. There is a monument for every battle, every troop, every state, you name it. Some of the statues, such as the North Carolina memorial (left), were very moving. You could see the emotion on the statues' faces. If I were to go again (and I would like to go again), I would probably bike through. With the car, you always had to find a place to park. And you were just driving slowly from one stop to the other. A bike probably would be more practical.

Right now, life is same old, same old. Same job, same everything. I replaced the car that got flooded in June with a similar model, only to have that one almost flooded again! The Binghamton area had yet another flood in November, this one a freak flash flood. I was at work, and all of a sudden we had a huge rainstorm and the parking lot (which resembles a soup bowl - very poor engineering) filled quickly with water. When I got out to my car to move it, the water was already up to the bottom of the car. Luckily I got it out of there just in time. My carpets were a bit damp but that was about it. Let's just say that I've had it up to here with floods (as well as everyone else around here).