Upstate

In case you haven't heard yet...the House dropped Artic drilling from the budget yesterday! They also dropped drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. For those of us who have seen Alaska know how important it is to preserve the last stretch of "true" wilderness in the United States. I can't even begin to tell you how this has totally made my day.

I hate to keep talking about the weather, but we've been getting some really weird days lately. Yesterday it was sunny and 70. And in November, I find that just a bit too much. It's just weird. Emily and I went up to Rheinbeck, got some ice-cream and walked around town looking at the little shops and such. It was really nice, but just strange, since the leaves are really starting to come down now. Very strange.

Also went to see a couple of good movies this weekend. Rachel and I saw Jarhead on Friday night, since Emily was feeling poorly. Really amazing movie. Again, a good bit of language, but a very interesting and slightly different look at wars, and modern wars in particular. Then last night, Emily, who was feeling much better, and I went to see Good Night and Good Luck, which was probably one of the very best movies I've seen in quite a while. In case you don't know, it tells the story of Robert Murrow, the CBS news anchor, and how he took on McCarthy in the 1950's. It's really well made, and very insightful on the role of the news in America, taken directly from transcripts and footage.

Here are some of those photos that I keep promising. I should have more when I get my camera back from Steve.


this is the fuzzy poster Emily colored, which is right next to our front door


our refrigerator, complete with Nan's "Ariel in Boat"















Richie and I in Riverside Park

Well, Hallowe'en is over, so now I have to focus on other upcoming holidays. We had a lot of fun this weekend though. Steve and his roommates had a lively party Saturday night. The costumes were wonderful (I'll post pictures soon), I went as a witch. Emily was also able to make it, which was really fun. We didn't really get a chance to talk to some of the people we really enjoy talking with, though, so Steve wants to have a dinner party in a couple of weeks so we can get together with Josh, Liz, Joe, and Catherine (as well as Brent, Halley, Richie and Dana). I really want to talk to Joe and Catherine some more, since the times I see them we usually don't get to talk all that much and they are both very big foodies. Which I pretty rarely find, so I'm pretty pumped when I do.

Baking is going really well. You guys would really be jealous. Yesterday we make e'clairs, cream puffs, cheesecakes, and fruit tarts, and the day before we worked on puff pastries, danishes and croissants. Today we're doing sponge cake and an Italian buttercream frosting with chocolate decorations. It's actually not all that hard not to eat it during class though. After being around that much sugar, all I want to eat is something very simple and clean, Asian preferably.

Emily and I just discovered the most fun thing in the entire world. We've started taking this class called Latin Rhythms at the Rec Center on Tuesday nights. It's basically some type of aerobics class where we just follow one of our chefs dancing around to Latin music. It's basically the most fun we've ever had. And a super-terrific workout all at once.

I'm writing this from my new job as a tutor. Since it's the first day of classes in the block, there really isn't anyone to tutor, so I'm just sitting here reading Understanding Baking. Quite a good read if anyone wants to know the science behind baking and ingredients, or really even wants to learn a bit more about them.

The weather is crazy right now. According to the Weather Channel, Hurricane Wilma has been traveling up the Atlantic and met up with a Nor'easter that was already there, so we're really getting hit right now. It's been raining straight through since last night, and doesn't seem to be slowing down, and the wind is pretty strong. I heard a rumor that it might even snow a bit tonight. But since I really have nothing to do until Friday, I'm alright with that.

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. Last week was a very short week at school since we didn't have class on Monday or Thursday, and this weekend just flew by. Emily, Rachel and I went out to dinner at a nice Chinese place in Rhinecliff, a small town about twenty minutes north of us, and then went to see Elizabethtown, which I loved. We get $2 tickets through our rec center, so we've been trying to take advantage of that.

As most of you know, my Mom, Jodi, Kelli, Rachel, Jane, Wendee, Pam, and Ellen came to visit the other weekend. It was a very fun weekend. The ladies got to do plenty of sightseeing, and, of course, shopping. From everything I've heard, the weekend was a success, and I'm hoping that everyone will post or share their photos. Although I'm generally more interested in people pictures than city pictures.

I can't believe it's Thursday already. This week has gone by pretty quickly.

Last Sunday Steve and I went to the M.Ward, the Shins, and White Stripes concert in Brooklyn. Coney Island actually. But since it's after Labor Day, and rather late in the day at that, it was dead. But the concert was a lot of fun. All of them are really good live. I've seen the opening bands before, but this was the first time I'd gotten to see the White Stripes, and they did not disappoint.

Classes have been going along just fine, if a bit boring. I have two quizzes on Friday, so I feel like I should at least look over my notes a bit. The highlight of my week so far was hiking at the Vanderbuilt mansion yesterday morning. Most of the lawn is really well cared for, although still a bit brown since we haven't gotten much rain this year, but there is a thick strip of woods between the bottom of the hills/cliffs and the river. There's a dirt road running through it for park service vehicles to run between their headquarters and Bard rock, which is where the Vanderbuilts used to dock their boats and such. You can get right down to the river there, and it's quite nice and peacefull. Beyond this, there are also some footpaths through the woods, which I wandered down. Really cool.

Other than that, it's been a pretty chill week. Got up to do yoga this morning at 9am, which is always nice, and tomorrow Emily, Rachel, Katie and I are going to Olive Garden because Katie loves it and Rachel's never been. I'd rather not go, but whatever. I can handle it for one day.

I'm going to try to make a 7pm showing of the Corpse Bride tonight, so I'll let you know what I think.

I've been to all of my classes now, and it's quite apparent to me that this will not be an overly taxing six weeks. Two of my classes, menus development and costing, are taught by the same man and are essentially, just an extension of the other. And neither is very difficult. There may be a bit of work, but nothing hard. And the third class, nutrition, seems like it will at least be interesting, even if it is a bit basic.

I have found myself with a good deal of freetime. I haven't found a job yet since they're pretty hard to find between blocks like we are. So I've been doing a lot of sitting around, reading, staring at the walls with Emily. Although Rachel, Emily and I did play a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit, 90's edition. And this weekend we went into the city for Rachel and Nan's co-worker's birthday party and so I could pick up some things that were still at Steve's apartment. Emily and I had lunch with her old roomates, which was loads of fun, got our hair cut, which was badly needed, and watched "Thumbsucker", which was really good. very good even, but not for those of you uncomfortable with r-ratings.

Now we're waiting for john wensel, a guy from Rachel and my class last year, to come over to watch a movie with us.