Busy Signal

Hello World, Happy Advent! Often the first Sunday in Advent happens in November, but Thanksgiving was so late this year, that Advent had to hold off until December 1st, so there was no getting a jump on the season like it usually does. This will already be the second Sunday in Advent, and we all know what that means - that is, except for the godless Communist apparatchniks and KGB agents monitoring my email (whose name is legion, heaven knows) who may not be aware that there are four Sundays in Advent leading up to Christmas day, so we're getting to be halfway there now. As much as I hate to be an alarmist, it behooves me to point out that anyone who is not already prepared to jingle all the way, would have reason for concern, and had better get busy, and pronto. Not to mention, Donder and Blitzen, it goes without saying. And speaking of the reason for the season, of course, last Thursday was Thanksgiving for parts of the world, reminding us all that we have much to be thankful for, in spite of it all. I had to work on Black Friday, so we enjoyed a quiet holiday at home with some Tofurkey and all the trimmings (I have the feeling that Stormin' Norman "Tofu" Rockwell would have been so proud) and glad for a bit of a respite from the busy pace and demands of the most wonderful time of the year, as the song goes. We held off the whole turkey and pilgrim celebration until Saturday, so we could have 2 days together for the festivities, and stay overnight, rather than try to cram everything into one hectic day. So in the morning, we headed to my sister's log cabin in the woods, and were greeted with open arms and all the hospitality anyone could hope for. We started with snacks and appetizers that were tasty enough to entice weary travelers back for seconds, as well as interesting drinks, like apple cider with peach - which was way better than it sounds, as the peach cut through the sharp edge of the apple's tartness, and added some welcome sweetness without being overwhelming. You can't get enough of their big screen TV, especially when there's college football to be seen, in all of its colorful pageantry, so we were certainly not bored while all the food was cooking. At last, we made our way to the groaning board, which was piled high with a bountiful cornucopia of seasonal favorites, including baked ziti, which may not be traditional for everybody, but suits us just fine, and thanks ever so. Our appetites made creditable inroads into the abundance, and there were no complaints, I can assure you. I won't say that we went as far as licking the plates, but I will admit that if there had been a dog there, he would have found no crumbs to clean up after us, by golly. After tackling a big meal, there's nothing like a brisk walk along the scenic Ashokan reservoir to revive flagging spirits, and the weather was pleasant enough for the occasion - unlike other times when plunging temperatures and piercing winds make for teeth-chattering conditions that scared the wildlife for miles in every direction. On the contrary, on this trip, we found the deer were so plentiful that it became almost boring to see them come right up to the fence and regard us - or rather, disregard us - like some fusty museum exhibit that had long since lost any interest for them. I suppose we can't expect anything else but snickering from the juveniles, but frankly, I thought their elaborate yawning was completely uncalled for. Back from our hike, we took the opportunity to swing by Kingston, to check in at the SuperLodge where we had stayed last year, and found it perfectly adequate and reasonably priced to boot. Nowadays we always try to check in while it's still early, and turn up the heat (on these winter trips to the northern climes) so we don't have a repeat of the frigid Russian winter that sabotaged our last visit to the SkyTop several years ago. Better safe than frozen is our motto, and we already learned that lesson the hard way, da? We got back to the cabin just in time for dessert, with a variety of pies and plenty of brownies and ice cream to go around, plus more college football to keep things interesting. After a long and busy day, we settled into the SuperLodge for the night, which was so quiet and comfortable that I certainly didn't stay awake tossing and turning, that's for sure - in fact, Bill will tell you that I was sound asleep before my head even hit the pillow, and I have no reason to doubt it. They probably have some sort of breakfast nibbles available at the motel in the morning, but we already had plans to head back to the cabin for pancakes and cinnamon buns, so we wasted no time in getting there, and it was worth the trip, I can tell you that. We followed that up with a technological experiment that managed to be both informative and hilarious at the same time, which is not an easy combination to pull off. Bill's iPhone takes pictures and videos, of course, but it also has another interesting feature, in that it can combine a series of snapshots into a single panorama. He first tried this at the reservoir, but then couldn't figure out how to stitch the separate photos together afterward. So he found a handy tutorial online, and discovered the correct camera settings to use on the phone, in order to make this work - and they also suggested a cute trick that seemed way too irresistible to pass up. If you start to take a picture in panorama mode, you can have a person pose there at the beginning, and once you move past that point in the frame, they can then run around behind the photographer, and pose again at the end, and they will then appear two different times at two different places in the same picture. (Remember this is a still picture and not a video.) If they have enough energy, they can run behind the photographer twice, and show up 3 times in the same picture - which is what we did in my sister's newly renovated kitchen, so you see the same 3 crazy people in 3 different places and poses in this one panoramic view. Not that you necessarily would want to, in fact, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't. It was way too early in the day for anyone to be drinking, but we still thought this was one of the funniest things we had ever seen, and I can highly recommend it to anyone with some spare time on their hands and a motley assortment of kooks at their disposal. Of course, running around the kitchen three times was hungry work, and fortunately, there was still ample dessert from the day before, so we tucked into that, and once again, there were no complaints, I can assure you. Finally the time came when we had to leave, so our hosts loaded us up with plenty of left-overs, and bid us farewell and good luck on our journey, and off we went. Halfway home, we pulled into Denny's in Newburgh for dinner, expecting it to be the same as always, but were surprised to see a welter of pennants flying outside like it was something new or different in the same old place. We discovered that it had been completely renovated, just since the last time we had been there, scant months earlier, so they had obviously been very busy in our absence. Most importantly, the food was just as good as ever, and here again, if there had been a dog in the place, he would have found nothing worth waiting for when we were done. The drive home was uneventful, and even the cats seemed indifferent to both our leaving and returning. You can be sure that we've been enjoying our left-overs ever since, and that's not just the pumpkin pie talking, believe me. Although truth to tell, if the pumpkin pie were talking, it would certainly confuse the heck out of the KGB agents listening in around here - but when it comes to taking a chance on another Russian winter, all I have to say is, "Nyet!" Elle