So I'm a total loser!

Ok I haven't updated the blog in quite some time. All I can say is that we have really spent a good amount of time in the Pocono's. The house looks great. We have a lot to do with the landscaping and I'm sure the neighbors are thrilled by that. We just returned from Ned's sister's house. We were supposed to go to the U.S. Open tennis tournament for our annual day but it poured all day and was a complete wash out. We did however go for a nice early birthday dinner for Ned at Beni Hana and watched a movie on DVD "All of Me" with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin. It was pretty funny. It was my choice as well so I was glad everyone enjoted it.

The Summer has included a week with the Lafer's in NYC, Phila, the Pocono's, Long Island and NJ. We went to our niece and nephew's Bnai Mitzvah during the week. I went to the Saratoga racetrack last week with my sister for her birthday and it was great fun. In the past one of us has been a big winner. Well as big as you can be when you place a dollar bet to show on a horse. Unfortunately this week neither of one really but we did have a great time.

My obsession this summer has been www.youtube.com if I ever figure out how to make links it will be one of my links. Let's just say I've been able to see Julie Andrews and the muppets, Lena Horne and the muppets, Cher, Tina Turner and Kate Smith perform a Beatles medley(OK that was kind of tragic) but still it made me happy and love the seventies even more. So for a good time visit the web site. You can see so many performances from Broadway, to concerts, to T.V. to people lip synching in their home. It's fun.

well that's all for now. Here is a photo of the summer.

The home is a home

So it has been a busy week and a half. Last week we got the certificate of occupancy and have been together and individually driving up to the Pocono's to get the house settled in. It looks great. Much more to be done inside and outside but after yesterday it is a comfortable place to put your feet up and relax.

Ned leaves tonight on a bus bound for Toronto as Philadelphia area champions for hockey North America. I will be joining him tomorrow via airplane. Though I am sure the nine hour bus ride is going to be great fun, it's best left to the team. Anyway here are some pictures of the just about finished product.

"HOME" stretch

So we are getting close to the completion of the mountain retreat. We have running water, flushing toilets and a first floor deck. Certificate of occupancy my be gotten within 3 weeks. It's amazing. The house was being cleaned while we were there Saturday. Can't wait to entertain everyone up there.

Ned's a hockey champion!

Ned's Hockey North America league team "The Moose" won the division championship Saturday night with Ned on defense. It was runaway game for them with a final score of 5 to 0. It is the first win for the team and Ned's 4th as a player in this league congratulations to him and his teammates.

Shirl's day in the country

Our good friend Shirl aka Patrick took a ride with us up to the house to deliver ceiling fans and see the progress since last week. It was a lovely sunny day. On the cool side but not freezing. We now have the fireplace hearth and stone work, kitchen cabinets are installed and the stairwell banister is done. All in all it was a busy week. To the right a photo of Shirl and me and below a couple of other new pictures.

Finally an extra shift!

Ok so the ongoing joke around here is that I am going to work extra shifts to pay for the Pocono house. Well it's a joke for me anyway. Ned I think, has been waiting for me to really work some extra shifts, silly man. This week I finally really did work an extra 12 hour shift. I got lots of time and a half and night shift differential as it is known in nurse speak. After a 2 hour nap this morning we drove to the Poconos to see how our home also known as the reason we now have to work long hours was coming along. I can honestly say we both were impressed and happy to see the progress and the look coming together. As you recall the house color was a disappointment. It has started to grow on me but Ned is still having a hard time with it. The trip today, though made him feel good again about the project. Dare I say even giddy. Walls are all done and painted, cabinets are in the house ready to be installed, wood base boards and trim are all installed. Many, many tasks completed. Here are new pictures.

The Oscar Party

So Sunday was my superbowl actually it was the Academy awards so I had a party for friends and we all ate some food and watched the preshow and the big telecast. I know this post is late and the Oscar's are already old news but I will say that Charlize Theron did not wear a flattering dress, It concerns me that Lauren Bacall had such trouble with her presentation and Jon Stewart did a great job as host.

The Best gown of the evening was worn by Reese Witherspoon who I adore but should not have won the best actress award. It should have gone to Felicity Huffman for TransAmerica. I also enjoyed the actress from Memoirs from a Geisha's gown. I must say that the men should shave for such an occasion and as my friend Carol said "you should not walk down the red carpet with your hands in your pockets." So why did Sandra Bullock wear a dress with pockets in them and proceed to walk down the red carpet with her hands in those pockets? We'll never know.
Above: Cher in her Bounty gown made a guest appearance at the party.

Above: The balloting room pre Oscars

Above: shhh, The show has begunAbove: The hosts

Fausnacht

Hi Everyone. I wanted to post a link to our good friend and Artist Eric Fausnacht's website. Again I am not able to do that as yet so here is the address to his website with his works on display www.ericfausnacht.com I sent family and friends his site in an email last year. Revisit the site. He has added many new works and has since had a gallery display with another scheduled for July I believe.

Also Ned called the builder today about the color and their representative very unsympathetically let him know that the color on the house is the color we chose and perhaps we should have taken it out into the sunlight before we chose it. So thanks to everyone who has so far let us know they like the color. It's certainly a nice enough color it is just taking some time getting used to and it's not really the color we wanted.

The House of Blues

Ok So Ned and I were driving up the road toward the house wondering what has been done over the past two weeks. We knew that the siding was delivered on Monday and the weather was mild all week so we were optimistic. Indeed a lot a of work was done. Unfortunately we were shocked to see how blue the siding appeared to be. The color choice was Everest grey, which by the 4"x4" panel we looked at to choose color looks nothing like the color you see to the left. They are checking to make sure it was the right color. We were a little disappointed. Not that it's bad it just wasn't part of our vision and by the light of the sun is quite bright. In other news the blaferships are days away from completion of their amazing new home in Jacksonville. If I knew how to post links I would but since I don't here is the address to their blog www.theblaferships.blogspot.com Here are a couple of more pictures of the progress.

One week to the Academy Awards.

some drywall.

Ned made another quick trip up today before the snow started and while I slept. We have some drywall and a complete deck. By the way wish me luck I am not stuck at work forever. The heaviest of the snow hasn't arrived as of yet.

Will this Film ever end

Okay here are some new pictures of the Rocky movie. They don't capture the brightness of the lights. I suppose we'll look back on this as an adventure. I just wish there was and actor in the cast that I wanted to meet you know like Susan Sarandon, Ben Stiller or if only, Cher! Anyway here is the last of the pictures.




Above is the food stand two doors away from our house(we weren't offered anything)

Above is the light on the side of the truck that shines into our windows every night. Below is the light bouncing off the house. These pictures were taken at 8pm and do not convey how bright these lights are.

Rockys back and Pocono update!

Ok so the movie folk took down all of the signs on Thursday and left town so we thought. In reality they took the weekend off. I should have suspected when I noticed the Adrian's sign remained on the Victor Cafe. Anyway a whole new batch of no parking signs are up for us starting tonight at 9pm. So it seems the lights will be on and the engines will be running again this week. In other news Ned and I went back to the Pocono's this weekend to check the work and sign another portion of the loan over. It looks amazing. We also picked a whole lot of furniture out. Basic things really mattresses and living room furniture. So things are moving along, Below are some updated house pics. It doesn't really look all that different. Just more of the internal workings complete.

Movie pictures

Okay so here are a few pictures from the film shoot. I could not get any night shots last evening while they were filming. So here are quiet morning shots. I guess the scenes at the restaurant are all evening shots. I will try to get some better pics. The Restaurant "Adrian's" is actually the Victor Cafe. The truck on the left has a huge spot light on it which shines right into our front windows all night long. It also has a generator that runs constantly. the constant whirrr of the motor just lulls us right to sleep.

Rocky comes to our street

Ok so Ned and I open our door yesterday morning and see signs stapled to every telephone pole that read: by order of the city of Philadelphia all cars need to be removed from the street January29 at 8pm through February 6 at 5 pm. We think ok they are doing road work it'll be inconvenient but we'll get through. We go out run our errands only to come home and find all of these thick cords layed out from end to end on the street. Inside our door is a flyer letting us know that Rocky Balboa is filming on our street for the next week and that we must comply with the parking regulations or be towed at our expense. The flyer also gave us an in depth synopsis of the plot of the 6th installment of the Rocky Balboa saga. Rocky now widowed(yes Adrienne died) owns a restaurant, is trying to reconnect with his yuppie son and decides to get into the ring one more time at age 60. Sounds like a winner! Anyway i'll post if anything interesting comes from our street being a movie set over the next few days. Happy Chinese New Year

Roofs, windows and tubs oh my!

Well Ned made a lone trip up to the new house today to see the progress and oh my was there progress. The house was entirely covered with a roof and the "architectural shingles" as well as that tyvek wrap and even the shower and bath stalls were placed as well as some plumbing. It was almost to much to take in when he returned. Anyway here are a couple of picture updates.

A rainy morning in the Poconos

Well Ned and I decided to take a ride up to the Poconos this morning despite a never ending downpour. We were not disappointed when we arrived. Most of the framing has been completed. There were stairs up to the 2nd floor and despite the mud, rain and my rainy day mood it was a nice morning and early afternoon. Now Ned is snuggled on the couch ready for the football playoffs. We listened to the Sirius satellite radio that Ned got for the holidays for the first time today. We kept it easy listening, but scanned some of the other channels. Satellite radio is great and all but I still think the ipod is the invention of the century thus far. I loves my ipod. Anyway last evening friends and I watched Airplane! on DVD. It was as funny and goofy as I remembered. So if you need a rainy day activity watch Airplane! Otherwise here are a couple photos from the house.

Top: looking from the road. Bottom: looking from dining room doors toward front

Stacey and I take Manhattan

I just returned from the airport where I dropped my niece Stacey off so she can fly back home to Atlanta. It was a great trip. We enjoyed having her here so much and already miss her. I have to go to work in a few hours but need to post about our time in Manhattan. We saw Wicked! and Spamalot. Wicked! was Stacey's favorite and due to better seats I think, I paid closer attention to and enjoyed it even more the 2nd time around. Stacey and I agreed however that Fiyero could not sing. He could act and was cute but could not sing.He is a pivotal character and for a Broadway show one would expect a certain caliber of singing. Otherwise the other actors including none other than Blanche Devereaux I mean Rue Mcclanahan did a splendid job.

Spamalot was also hilarious though the Lady of the Lake is no longer Sarah Ramirez (who was brilliant and won the Tony award for best featured actress) and Tim Curry is no longer King Arthur. The new actors did a fantabulous job and we were quite exhausted after our whirlwind day. Needless to say we ended our long day singing to the show tunes at the top of our lungs during the car ride home. Here are a couple of more pictures.

Stacey's visit.

My niece Stacey has come to town for a visit and we have kept her quite busy. She arrived on Christmas day and she and ned had a traditional christmas dinner of chinese take out while I worked. Next it was off to see see the Chronicles of Narnia. When I was finally done work on December 27 Stacey and I went to have massages and facials at the spa. On the 28th we went to Albany to visit the Albany family with Stacey as the special guest star. Ned's sister Leslie, Josh and Charlotte also made a guest appearance commemorating the first interfamily visit.

In the Picture above are Charlotte, Leslie, Stacey, Sarah, Hayley and Denise. below Sarah and Josh

Everyone got on Splendidly. Next we we went to the poconos for the New Years Holiday. We were pleasantly surprised to find the foundation completed. we signed the papers and allegedly phase 2 of the construction is under way also known as the framing. Next on the agenda for Stacey is a trip to NYC tomorrow to see Wicked! and Spamalot. We have our outfits and our Stylish yet sensible shoes already for the great white way. We'll send pictures when were done for now here are some of the past week.