Monday, March 31, 2008

Ski We Did

And it was tremendous.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

It's Settled

We will ski one final time this weekend. Broken cars, ice storms, work, budget, locusts be damned because The Williams Family Is Skiing This Weekend. And then, we will start working on the house for spring. We Promise.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Papalpalooza

My brother-in-law has been living a lie. Through his years of loyal attendance at Sunday mass, volunteer work, charitable donations, sacrifice to send his kids to catholic grade schools/high schools, various sacrament parties etc., he was living among us...but not one of us. GASP. Well, unless you paid close attention at communion time, boy, you'd never know it. He's been a better Catholic than me since I have know him. My sister's family is the type of Catholic that give Catholics a good name: knowlegeable about the faith, open-minded and willing to discuss, charitable, socially conscious and kind. And they have a healthy(some may say irreverent but not me)sense of humor about it all, which is why we descended upon Carlisle PA, for "Papalpalooza." - Doug made it official, with my sister as his sponsor and his 3 boys serving the Easter vigil mass. Welcome to the club Doug!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

I'd love to blog more

...but with all my trysts with hookers, and dating multiple side "partners" using area budget hotels, i just can't find the time. You know how we New Yorkers roll. I need to get back to my extortion and nefarious money transfers now but I'll try to post later.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

And Just Like That...

Summer is scheduled, mostly around the barn of course. We have a shore vacation with Joe's great family, then the Beloved Bower Boys come to the barn, then some friends from the city join us at the barn, then we visit my brother and his family in Cape Cod, then the Carter/Edmunds Milwaukee consortium is in town, then we descend upon my mom in Cleveland, and then off to a western road trip, before we hit the Democratic National Convention in Denver to nominate the best candidate our party has presented in my lifetime. (If you doubt his intellect and integrity, I encourage you to watch this.)

In between this, I have to continue my consulting work and Joe has to keep saving the Democratic Party from itself.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Barn Love

We have been very clear with friends and family that we expect to the barn to be used "often by many for fun and frivolity". I believe there is something really magical that happens when you keep that philosophy front and center. Last night was a wedding celebration party for our friends Shouvik and Shay, for those of us that could not attend the festivities in India. During the night, I introduced Joe to Debbie, another friend and former co-worker who once accompanied Shouvik up to the barn for a weekend when they both really needed a getaway. Debbie than introduced us to Marcus, a friend of hers, who accompanied them that same weekend. Turns out Marcus is Swiss and new to New York and says it was the most "magical" weekend of his summer. He was really getting depressed and missing the fresh air of the mountains and he said the trip renewed him. Debbie says she thinks about that weekend all the time. Now mind you, they left at 10pm on a Friday, got lost, and arrived at the barn around 4am. They watched the sun rise, went to bed for a few hours, got up and climbed a mountain. Then, they went to Tail O the Pup for BBQ and went canoing. They woke up the next day and went home. Yes, these people are nuts. But, they get it. We get it. It brings us such pleasure to share it. We are busy planning their next round.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

More craziness

Our power went out about midnight until around 3am. Joe was heroic and kept the fire stoked and kept guard that no power lines were tangled in our ever-stooping trees. We woke up to a state of emergency declared in surrounding areas. Trees were all over the road and our car doors were iced shut, but surely we could ski, right?
We headed to Whiteface, confident, not only would we ski, but it would be tremendous. First, we found out that opening was delayed because the power company wanted Whiteface to keep lifts off for a few hours. We settled in the lodge, confident we would ski, and it would be tremendous. Then, we noticed the winds were pretty crazy. We heard talk (Joe did actually...in the men's room)of "95 mph winds" but that would die down and we could ski, right? We walked outside to look at the hill for signs of activity and noticed it was darn cold - like below zero cold, but it was morning. Surely it would warm and we would ski and it would be tremendous.
Sigh. Not to be. We are home, drinking Wildberry Zinger herbal tee. The boys sledded but Clarke ran into a tree and now they are playing each other in Power Soccer online. We know we can't come back for awhile (probably till after ski season) so this is tortuous.
Meanwhile, our Ski Magazine "spring skiing" issue arrived and I am pouring over, looking for any driveable place that we could ski in late April for the boys next break. The season can't be done yet, can it?

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Trees

I am glad I don't have my camera because I know I would just get frustrated trying to capture the scene outside our window. The freezing rain first wreaked havoc on our trees. Joe and I just took a moonlit walk and you could hear trees creaking and crashing through the woods from the weight. We saw two of our trees that we knew were in trouble felled and then had to saw through and haul a huge fallen limb from our beautiful white pine (dangerously close to our house. Note to self: call tree doctor in the spring.) Of course, it was dangerous conditions all around but tonight when it started really snowing, the effect was simply awesome. We walked through the low-hung, painted trees, with the snow just dumping down from the sky. We are now back inside and the whole kitchen smells like fresh pine from our sticky, pine, hands.

Well, that was interesting

Out of the city by 3:30 pm! Snow in the forecast! One last 2008 Whiteface Hurrah! Almost past the Catskills already! Hmmmm, battery light is on...
We were lucky. When our alternator decided to cut out, we were just past the Woodstock exit but only 1 mile from a truck parking stop. We literally coasted with low headlights for the last quarter mile and made it. Another lucky break is that while pouring rain, it was not frigid, so the 45 minute wait for the tow truck was painless: Oscar dead asleep, Clarke playing some god-awful game on his cell phone, Joe and I using our blackberries to google "geico road-side", "ny 87 map", "hotels in woodstock". We were thinking of any way to continue to Saranac Lake still, but there's a point when you just have to surrender to the fates; we were 3.5 hours away, it was pouring rain, getting dark, and our car was broken. So the tow driver was adorable and nice, the Holiday Inn - Kingston was exceptional. I mean it. I have stayed in a lot of hotels in my career - some much fancier than a Holiday Inn, and this was a really well-run hotel. The woman at the desk heard our tale, and sent us upstairs with a goody bad of toothbrushes, deodorant, extra shampoo. Our room was pristine, comfy, overlooked a creek. We ordered in some rainbow sherbet and wine and watched some half-funny Hugh Grant movie. The next day started with free breakfast buffet for the boys (they really should exclude children-boys?- over 10. It was a little embarrassing how much food was consumed). Our car was ready by 11am and then the fateful decision. Go back or forge forward... Well, of course we forged ahead. We are now at the barn, fabulous fire, Joe and I finishing the work we were going to do tomorrow afternoon so tomorrow we can ski all day! It was a weird freezing rain but now it's turning to wonderful snow. We are on our way to Casa Del Sol, our favorite, for some fun. All in, our "sidetrip" to Kingston was around the same cost of skiing today so we'll call it a wash. All's well.
PS. Except for the full-on fist fight they boys got into while sharing a bed last night. Joe and I decided to completely ignore and see how it escalated/played out. Fascinating sociological study, tortuous parental exercise. They "hugged it out" this morning.

Friday, March 7, 2008

The Mind of a 13 Year Old

7:30 am. Clarke calling from subway. "Mom, do you see my Metrocard around" Mom, scrambling frantically, "he'll be late for school...does he have money with him for subway fare...should i run to subway.....where could it be...." Mom blazes through house, roots through jeans pockets, checks garbage cans, and breathlessly returns to phone. "Clarke, I can't find it". Clarke: "oh, ok, let me look in my backpack. I didn't want to waste time looking if it was at home. Oh, here it is."

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Dar Williams!

April 18th, Lake Placid. The weekend which begins the boys spring break (!) Cue the chorus of angels. Any Dar fans going to meet me there? Dar is the personification of what Clarke calls my "strummy dummy" music. Enjoy!