Staycation Day v 4.0

Not a lot to report for Day 4. This was on the agenda as "go fishing and relax" day. But the rain theme continued this morning.... And, I didn't really have a Plan B. I had a dentist appointment this morning, then we went to the post office to turn in everything for our Passport Cards. So in a few weeks we will be legal to leave the country - or more precisely - get back into the country, at least from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Mexico or Canada. Whatever. Still irks me. The. Terrorists. HAD. PASSPORTS! I don't see how this is making me any safer....

After that, we stopped for puppy food then wandered around. We ended up in State College to check out The Arboretum at Penn State. Which we ended up not seeing. We had stopped at the visitor's center, but they were telling us that it wasn't really open yet, and something about having to get a parking pass and blah, blah, blah... We know where it is now, I guess we will have to read more on the website about it. It might eventually be a nice place to visit. If they ever intend people to visit it....

We had dinner at Olive Garden and came home. We're just hanging out now. Staycation is officially over. Dave heads back to work tomorrow. I still have a day off though. Gonna make a trip up and see pap.

Missed the graffiti...

I forgot to add this last weekend....



It's the retaining wall directly across the alley from our door. I hope when the cops find these kids, they make them use a SMALL wire brush to clean it off by hand. THEN, use the energy and talent they have painting to paint something constructive instead of trashing the neighborhood. Our alley and the next block over got it in one night. Some of the things on this wall have been accumulating all summer.

Staycation Day v 3.0

Today was a trip to Elk/Cameron Counties for some elk viewing and fall foliage...



...and again, rain was involved, but we managed. We did get to see the sun for a bit later in the day, and got to see some elk soon after arriving. We also saw a bull standoff later in the day, but no fight. A single male came too close to another male with a group of his cows, and they had words, pranced around for a bit and it broke up. No big fight. But we were kind of expecting one the way they were acting.



Some of the trees were changing quite a bit, but there was a lot of fog, so we didn't really get many pictures of them, but I kinda liked this house. At least I think it's a house, this was the only view we actually had of it. Looks like a castle in the trees.

Another fun day.

It was also a day of 9's. The Tracker rolled over 999,999 miles and the D40x rolled past 9,999 pictures. I'm glad they are both good for over another 100,000 miles!

Tomorrow starts out with a dentist appointment for me, after that, we'll see what's next on the list!!

Staycation Day v 2.0

Today we ventured out to Frank Lloyd Wright's FALLINGWATER. And there was too much falling water. Ugh, the rain!!



Everyone had the day off, so rain or not, we headed out. Mom and Dave's dad came along with us. I had hoped distancing ourselves from home, would distance us from the rain. But it didn't. The leaves are starting to change in our area, and I was so looking forward to checking out the scenery along our trip today. We had a few peeks between the raindrops, but the ride would have been more enjoyable if the weather would have been more like yesterday.

The house was really cool. It was cool to see how it was built into the surrounding landscape. One of my favorite features (besides the fact that the house had a waterfall under it) were a set of steps that started at the main level of the house and went down to the river flowing beneath, where the Kaufmann's who owned the house could trout fish, among other things. The sounds of the rain were nice, even though getting wet many times wasn't ideal for the trip. I could see how nice and relaxing it would be living there. Quiet, secluded, like your own little world. We all agreed though, it was just a bit too big for our liking, and too much to keep clean!! LOL

Staycation!

Dave and I both have a few days off, so, we've been staycationing! A trip to the falls would have been nice, but.... We're hoping we can fit that in next summer. One of the things on our list of things to do while we are off is to get our passport cards taken care of.

Yesterday, was day one... We headed to Pittsburgh for a Pirates game!

Wow, were there a lot of cops out! We saw at least a half dozen before we even got out of town. Traffic here was crazy when we left, not really sure why, shouldn't everyone have been working? I had been worried about traffic out there. The trip to Pittsburgh was actually one of the best days of travel into Pittsburgh that we've had, even with the whole G20 Summit going on. If we would have travelled the Parkway, things may have been different. We went in on 28 and found the stadium - and parking - rather easily, but the radio traffic updates sounded like the Parkway would have been real fun (things were running late at the G20 with rolling roadblocks, etc...). There was a definite show of force in the city. Every bridge was barricaded with fences hummers and lots of camo, choppers were hovering and circling constantly, and riot police were all over the place (though they looked rather relaxed, things seemed really calm). We even saw some of the protesters marching by. I wanted to get a few pictures of everything, but I was just trying to keep track of where we were, didn't want any more fender benders like the last trip. All entrances to the ballpark had security checking everyone. We had to go through the whole hands to your sides, valuables in the basket, run the metal detector over us drill. That also went pretty smoothly. Dave didn't beep or anything!! :-) Love you baby!! :X:X:X The game was nice, weather was great. The Prime Minister of Japan threw out the first pitch. And... THEY WON!!! Woo Hoo!! Go Pirates! We braved the parkway on the way home, again, no problems. It was a nice day.

Now, on to today's adventure!

The day was wayyyyy too short...

How can we add in a few more hours to today? The weather was soooooo nice, but we didn't really get out much, but I feel good, I got a lot done for tomorrow. Went to the store and grabbed some things then got started on dinner for tomorrow, it's Dave's Dad's 70th birthday, so I made stuffed shells and Red Velvet cake with cream cheese icing for dessert. Just need to pop the shells in the oven, finish up the salad and slice the Italian bread and it should be a great Birthday dinner. Hope he enjoys it. In between we went out with his dad and mom & mani & the boys for dinner, wandered around the cruise in for a bit, stopped at work to plate a job that I'll have in on Sundays for the next couple months, then came home and finished up. Now we're all just sitting here listening to Duncan bark his head off, apparently because Benson won't play with him.

Today...

We didn't get to sleep in on a rainy Saturday morning. Had to run Duncan up to the vet. Nothing bad or anything, just a puppy physical and update on his shots. He is SO GOOD in the car. Sits and looks around so good, doesn't try to jump in front like his brother does. LOL. Came back to town and drove to see if the elk and buffalo were out, some local people have some, saw a couple buffalo off in the field, but that was it. Then we came home. I started doing some checking for some day-trip type things within driving distance to do for later in the month. Dave and I both have a few days off, so I want to find something fun to do. Any suggestions? Later in the afternoon we went to the festival over Lakemont for a while. Was nice, but not a lot to keep us there for long, the festival is getting smaller than in the past. Hope it picks up next year. After that we went to Olive Garden for dinner, then stopped at Sam's Club for a couple things. After we got home, I started washing some dishes and ended up rearranging some things in the kitchen. We're getting too many little countertop appliances and no room for anything. And the new mixer doesn't fit under the cabinets, so I rearranged so it could sit on the counter by the fridge. Anyone need a blender? I never use it, no point in keeping it. The slushy maker gets used instead. And now, just relaxing with the puppies. Not bad for a rainy Saturday I guess.

Happy Birthday Howard

We went to Tim's Monday for a birthday remembrance party for Howard, yes I was hanging out in a bar. It was nice. I debated if I wanted to go or not, but glad we did. I've been thinking of him quite a bit knowing it would have been his birthday. It's been 4 months but it's still so hard to believe that he's gone. It's hard to explain, but even though we saw him, and know he is gone, it just still doesn't seem real. I still expect him to be at the house when I stop, and it's weird to be there knowing he isn't, and I wouldn't have been surprised to see him in his chair at the bar, though him NOT being in that chair is reality now. Someday maybe I'll get use to it.

But, on the bright side, it brought us all to the same place for a short time, even the babies!!!!

Finally, a picture of all three of the boys together!!!


Landon, 3 yrs - back left;
Connor 1 yr - back right;
Parker, 3 1/2 mos. - front