Thursday, June 19, 2008

LOT'S GOING ON ... FATHER'S DAY WEEKEND!!

L-A's parents were so kind to offer us their house in Greenport for the Father's Day weekend. They told L-A to WARN us about the peacock. HUH?? a PEACOCK????? PJ and I got out there around 8:00 Friday night. We quickly unloaded the car and then went into town to find a place to eat. We found a fun looking place, The Chowder Pot, where you can eat outside, overlooking the water. Everyone was wearing their WINTER COATS! It was so funny. But there we were in shirts and shorts! We were expecting the food to be better. We both had the same comment about out dinner... pretty tasteless. Oh well.
Saturday morning AT 6:10, I was awakened by this LOUD sound like a childs squeaky toy. I was like... What the heck is that?!! PJ knew. It was the PEACOCK! It was next to our car doing it's mating call !

It was so funny. There's a female peacock in a pen across the street. I couldn't believe that there were actual peacocks on Long Island. (I spoke with 2 guys from our volleyball team that grew up in the next town and they said there's a lot of peacocks in the area! Who knew!!!)

PJ and I set out to find a place with fresh coffee instead of making it in the kitchen. We found a country store just down the road that made the best coffee (Island brand). We went to a few garage sales and then back to the house to get our bathing suits on. We spent a few hours at the beach. We were the only ones for the longest time! We found some really pretty shells too!


We then went to Bedell Winery. It was a pretty place but too snooty for us. And $5 for 4 tiny samplings was just ridicules to us. I guess though, that it was a fair deal considering that they charge $8 for a glass of wine! Scott and Alyssa were to join us at night after Scott's hotdog eating contest at Shea Stadium that night. Chris arrived in time for dinner. We went to the SoundView Inn restaurant. Chris and I both enjoyed our stuffed Flounder. The weather was changing and the thunder was starting so it was time to head back to the house. But first, we decided to go to a Lighthouse in Mattituck. The stairs to the beach were easy going down but NOT on the way up!!!



PJ and Chris showing off their retro threads!



We didn't get the awful storm that went across Long Island but Scott was stuck in the middle of it. He came in 5th place in the contest (18 1/2 hotdogs in 8 minutes) which was great. Here's a video of the contest. Scott's all the way to the left with the hat on.
Him and Pete stayed for the Met's game but it was delayed because of the storm so they decided to leave. They got stuck on the LIE in a flood! Scott was standing ON THE DIVIDER and the water was up to his ankles! Cars were floating with water up to their windows! People were backing up on the grass to get to the last exit to get the heck out of there. It took him 2 1/2 half HOURS to go about 100 feet! Him and Alyssa decided to stay home Saturday night and get up early and drive out to us on Sunday morning.

As soon as they got to us, we had to leave to get to the Mattituck Strawberry Festival because Scott was in the Strawberry Shortcake eating contest! Those 'eaters' are just so weird! One, Ed Cookie Jarvis, wore a cloak as Chris and Alyssa called it. It had a silk screen of him eating a house and all of his eating stats screened onto it.

Scott wasn't feeling so great considering the 18 1/2 hotdogs he ate the night before! YUCK. A few of the guys were also in the hotdog contest. It was so funny to watch these guys. He was up against world record eaters! In the end, he came in fifth place, eating 8 3/4 pounds of strawberry shortcake in 8 minutes! He was just a 1/2 of a plate less than Badlands Booker! From a blog...

"New kid on the block 20yr old Scozzybone continues to impress as LI native put up back to back gems . 18.5 dogs at Shea and an astounding 8.75 lbs of strawberry shortcake. Without question the kid can eat. "



The stats are on there as well. That was so much fun to watch!

Each plateful is equal to one pound. They are weighed before the cream is put on top.




The guy 2 to the right of Scott is BeautifulBrian. He wrote this about Scott:
We left and went to Palmer Winery where they were having a Father's Day celebration. That was ok. We didn't stay long. We got back and took a walk to the beach with Scott and Alyssa. Chris already left!
Monday we left early, went out to breakfast and headed home, but not before stopping at Briermere's Farm to get a few pies!! Great weekend!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

WHAT A SCORCHER OF A DAY AT BELMONT!!

What a fun and exciting day Alyssa, Krystal and I had at the Belmont Stakes. We started out at 8:00 to make sure we got a bench seat just past the finishline in the G.A. section with the 'fun' people. We sat there for about 5 minutes when the sweat started pouring out of us. With temps in the 90's and sitting IN THE SUN, we knew that this was going to be a long HOT day! There were over 90,000 people there!
We ended having a great time with the people around us. We couldn't have asked for better people. They were so interesting. Next to me was the CEO of UPS, the head of Security for UPS and a photographer for National Geographic and Sports Illustrated named Ike. He was by far the most interesting one. He had stories of his travels that we would never experience in a lifetime. He was on a scuba ship doing a photo story on hammerhead sharks near Ecuador, Galapagos Islands and Fiji. The captain of the ship ended up being a drug runner, the Columbian Navy was involved, a passenger was tied up and left on the bow, he had an uzzi pointed at his head and also met up with pirates. What a life! That's why he's now diviorced!

The other 2 middle aged men were hitting on the bimbo drunk girls all around us!
The 2 people in front of us were from Saratoga Springs and were so much fun. The guy was a pleasent drunk and she was just so nice and we got along great.

We took turns walking around to cool off and place some bets. I bet 3 races at one time towards the end. One of them was supposedly the Belmont Stakes race... #10. I bet $2 on each race to show. Later on I was talking to one of the guys next to us and he asked which race was the Belmont Stakes race. I said 10. He said "I think it's the 11th". I looked in the program and sure enough I bet on every horse in the WRONG race! He said that they may allow you to change it being that it's way before the race. I went back up and the nice man at the booth did change it for me. I went back to my seat and now realized that I had lost my sunglasses in the process! I looked everywhere and they were no where to be found. I must have been a fried brain at that point! Plus the plumbing was out because of low water pressure so I basically stopped drinking water too!It was nice to see the gardening crew with the blanket again. They are so proud of what they do! This is the first year in a long time that PJ helped put the blanket on the horse. He was on tv also! PJ brought Ike into the flower room and he took pictures of the guys finishing up the blanket and of the crew. He said that the pics may be used in National Geographic or Sports Illustrated! I would love it even if he sent PJ copies of the pictures.

Everyone was waiting with great anticipation to watch BIG BROWN capture the TRIPLE CROWN. It didn't happen. The jockey pulled him back fearing he was hurt and he came in last place. It was very sad.

We had LOTS of excitement and we came home with all of our money plus a few dollars more! Good Times!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

AHHHHH.....THE SWEET SMELL OF THE BEACH ROSE

I have become very observant lately in my walking at the beach. Normally I'm just people watching, but lately, I'm noticing my surroundings more. As I approach Field 5, one of the things that hits me smack in the face is that sweet smell of the Rosa Rugosa's.... the Beach Roses. They are so fragrant and pretty lining the walkway. Most people probably don't take notice, just walk by going about their business. I actually look forward to 'taking my time and smelling the roses'!


Tuesday, May 20, 2008

COOL RUNNINGS... ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES!!

Last night we took our dinner into the livingroom when Scott announced that Cool Runnings was on tv. I LOVE that movie! It's a feel-good, funny Disney movie that actually has a lot of messages throughout. It's a true story and one that I can watch over and over again! So this isn't MY adventure, it's an adventure of the Jamaican Bobsled Team that we all should experience!




Saturday, May 10, 2008

WINE & HERB FESTIVAL

On Friday night (May 2nd), I happened to be online checking events in the Ithaca area. I came across the Wine & Herb Festival put on by the Cayuga Wine Trail Assoc. It was for SATURDAY and SUNDAY! I mentioned it to PJ and he said "LET'S GO"! And we DID! I love these spur of the moment adventures!
During the Wine and Herb Festival, participants can visit all 16 wineries on the trail ( over the 2 days) and enjoy wine paired with a different herb-enhanced recipe at each winery. Best of all, you get to take home the potted herb that was in the food pairing at each winery to begin your own garden. (They give you the recipe of the food that you sampled too!)
We stopped at Wegman's first to get salads for lunch and then took them to Cass Park where we sat on a love seat swing and watched the Cornell Crew Team practice in the inlet.
Off we go.....
What a blast!! We had sooo much fun and we even learned a lot on the way! We started on the left side of Cayuga Lake at the first winery... Americana Winery. We paid for our tickets and they gave us 2 souviner wine glasses that we would take to each winery to sample the wines. They also gave us a recipe and a garden layout plan for a herb garden. If we went to all of the 16 wineries, we would end up with 16 herb plants, just as in the diagram. They gave us a sample of their Asian Noodle Salad and a little sampling of their Cayuga White wine. This is going to be fun! We then went into another room where they let you sample about 5 other wines. On the way out they gave us a chive plant. Off to the next stop!
We probably went to about 8-10 wineries the first day. The good thing is that you go at your own pace so hopefully the wine won't 'hit' you! We noticed a lady wearing a crocheted wine glass holder. What a GREAT idea! Carrying the glass back and forth to the car and trying to hold all of the papers was getting to be annoying! She told us that there's a lady selling them outside of the Thirsty Owl. That was our next stop! The lady was gone. DARN.
While at a different winery we saw 2 ladies wearing those crocheted things. We told then about the missing lady that was selling them and it turned out to be THIS LADY! She had 2 left
($3 each) so we took them! They're funny looking but made life easier.
On and on we went until we decided to head back. We had dinner at The Boat House, one of our favorites.
The festival didn't start until 12 on Sunday so we took a ride over to the Community book Sale, an annual HUGE event. We bought a big carton of books, mostly cookbooks though. PJ found a book that one of our favorite shows BONES was made from. He then found the rest of the series. We didn't know that was from a book series.
We went for a stroll through the Ithaca's Farmers Market before heading out. We got our lunch 'to go' from 2 separate vendors that we always wanted to try.
Our first winery on the right side was King Ferry which has a Riesling that we like. PJ was wearing his belmont Stakes shirt which started a conversation with the man serving us. It turns out he's one of the owners sons and lives in Asia. He came back to film a documentry on historical places in America... one of them being Belmont Park! PJ and him have now been in touch and might be in this documentry!! We went to the rest of the wineries with Hosmer being our favorite. We ended at Six Mile Creek where we did our sampling on a deck overlooking their vineyard and pond. VERY NICE! We finished off by having dinner at the always great Maxie's Supper Club and then heading over to Sunset Park to watch the sunset.
We got our 16 herbs and tasted a lot of nice food. Some of the recipes were:
Roasted Red Pepper Tapenade from Hosmer, Rosemary Corn Soup from Lucus Vineyards, Wine Thyme Chowder with Chicken & Corn from Montezuma Winery, Potato Salad With Lemon and fresh Herbs from the thirsty Owl, Old World Pasta Roma Tomatoes from knapp Winery, Sun Dried Tomato Pesto from Cayuga Ridge Winery, and Basil Pasta Salad from Sweedish hill Winery. I have more in the car but am too lazy to go and get them!
We had such a great time. We want to go again next year and bring along a bunch of friends!




Six Mile Creek Vineyard

Sunset Park



Boy we're getting OLD!!


Thursday, May 1, 2008

SO WORTH THE YEAR WAIT!!!

This past weekend was the scrapbooking weekend at the Simsbury Inn in CT. Judy and I wait ALL YEAR for this date to come around! We had such a GREAT time with TONS of laughs, like we were in elementary school! The weekend came complete with great friends, great food, lots of laughs and even a fire where we were evacuated!!! The firemen even had a great time with us and posed for pictures! It was a perfect weekend getaway!

Judy and I requested to be with Laura and Andrea again this year.
The other girls at our table
Judy, Laura and Andrea glittering
Someone's 'stuff'

The Simsbury fire dept put out the dumpster fire.

our room


my favorite stairway
the omelet station for Sunday's brunch
a small sampling of dessert
my plate
the gazebo in the front
Until next year.....