The Big Ice Storm

Last weekend we had a severe ice storm in Vermont, which was reputed to be the worst in 60 years. The drive up was sleeting and we were lucky to arrive at the cabin with no drama. The next day I backed the car out of the driveway to put it in the garage, and got stuck on the icy road. Conveniently we had kitty litter and shovels so were able to get it moving, but that was the first time I've ever had that happen on a flat road.

Here you can see a tree that has collapsed, blocking the one lane road to the cabin. It had the triple whammy of knocking out power, blocking passage, and keeping plow/repair crews from getting up valley. This is why we had to use the sled, as you'll see later.

It was quite cold, and with the loss of power, we had to rely on our wood stove. Here the cats are sharing the fire; normally they won't cohabit the cushion pictured but it was so cold they set aside that eternal squabble for a weekend. The rooms were much colder without the ceiling fans circulating the heat.

Here you can see how the ice has glazed every last branch of the mulberry tree in the front yard. As the ice accumulates, the weight on the twigs builds up, eventually snapping off the older and weaker ones, a form of natural pruning. Unfortunately this process causes power lines to go down, and roads to get blocked.

Fortunately we were prepared, with a supply of gallon water jugs in the basement for both consumption and plumbing. We also used some of our stock of emergency flashlights and candles, which were lit extensively, since darkness falls early near the winter solstice time of year. Here we heated some canned food on the woodstove, along with water for tea and hot chocolate. Once we got more organized, we pulled out the Weber and grilled some Korean style ribs, zucchini slices, with baked beans on the side.

Here's another mist frosted bush in the yard. Note how much the branches of the evergreens are drooping, weighed down by snow/ice/sleet. We use fireplace ashes, emptied each weekend into plastic buckets, for times like this when the walks and drives need something to add traction over the ice.

Here's the powerline that was down on our road. This was also on a blind curve, so when we encountered this we were alarmed. We saw car tracks over it, so determined that it couldn't be live, and passed it...but not without a little trepidation.

Because the last part of our road was too icy to safely drive, we loaded our chattels on a sled and glided down the road for the journey home. Fortunately our travel box and bag fit on it perfectly, with one of the cats riding on top. You can see his eyes peering nervously out of his travel bag.

This is a berry bush, coated with ice, sparkling in the clear sun.

Ski deals (from the WSJ)

A Lift for Skiers: Recession Spurs Deals on Slopes

By CANDACE JACKSON
Matt Power

Colorado's Aspen/Snowmass resort is offering free flights for children on Frontier Airlines.
Snow has begun falling on ski slopes -- and so have prices of lift tickets and luxury hotel rooms at many big destination resorts.
As the recession begins taking a toll on the ski industry, resort operators are offering a flurry of discounts they hope will draw more visitors. Colorado's Aspen/Snowmass ski area announced a deal last week that allows children to fly free on Frontier Airlines and get free lift tickets on the mountain if accompanied by a paying adult. The Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole, in Wyoming, is extending its early-season promotion -- a fourth night free -- through the end of April. And at Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah, which opened unusually early this year thanks to a heavy snowfall last month, is offering a variety of discounts, including free appetizers with entrees at the Steak Pit restaurant and an 11% discount on six-day lift-ticket passes with any lodging reservation.
In general, the steepest discounts can be found at ski areas such as those in the Rocky Mountains that rely largely on visitors flying from distant locations. Resorts frequented mainly by nearby skiers, including some slopes in Vermont and California, remain busy, but they are still rolling out some more modest deals of their own.
Last winter, ski resorts in the Northeast and the West saw some of the best conditions in years, boosting skier visits by almost 10% over the comparatively warm 2006-2007 season, according to the National Ski Areas Association. But this year many experts think even a series of well-timed blizzards won't save ski resorts from the economic downturn. "I think it'll be a bad year no matter how good the snow is," says Will Marks, a managing director with JMP Securities, who tracks the hotel and ski industry.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler, which still has holiday openings, is offering guests free lift tickets.

Ski-industry executives say the timing of the financial-market slump this fall spooked skiers and snow boarders just as they would normally have been calling to book winter vacations. And with the dollar stronger against the euro, many Rocky Mountain ski resorts say they'll also see a drop this season in European travelers who had taken advantage of the steep exchange-rate discount in years past.
Aspen Skiing Co. says business could drop between 5% and 15% this season compared with last year. Vail Resorts Inc., which owns five ski resorts in Colorado, Nevada and California, reported Tuesday that advance bookings as of the end of October were down 23% from the previous year. The company says it has laid off at least 50 workers and says it won't fill another 92 seasonal positions.
"This year is kind of unprecedented," says David Perry, Aspen's senior vice president, mountain division. "People still want to take their family on the ski vacation, but are looking for the best bargains." Among Aspen's promotions: Customers who purchase discounted seven-day lift tickets in advance will no longer be restricted by blackout dates.
Aida Biller of Ocean Township, N.J., recently booked a ski trip to Utah for her and her fiancé for January. Most years, she takes three ski trips out west. But this year, to cut back on costs, she's taking only two trips. She also shopped around for the best deals. "With the economy these days, it's not a time to just be booking any package," says the 54-year-old investment bank employee.
Ms. Biller settled on a package from the Cliff Lodge & Spa in Snowbird, Utah, that includes meals and lift tickets. In total, she expects the trip will cost about $500 less per person than she spent on a ski trip to Utah last winter.
Holiday Openings
Many ski resorts also are reporting they still have openings for the peak holiday season, unusual for this time of year. During the weeks of Christmas and New Year's, rooms typically book up months in advance. They also command the highest rates of the year and come with lengthy minimum-stay requirements. But a general slowdown in bookings, combined with a spate of last-minute cancellations, have prompted many resorts to lift length-of-stay restrictions. And a few resorts are offering for the first time Christmas-week discounts in hopes of salvaging the season.
Heavily discounted promotion rates are in effect at a number of hotels and condos at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado. The local chamber of commerce recently allotted an extra $250,000 to beef up marketing for the holidays after they noticed that bookings were off to a slow start at local hotels. Though the 150-year-old town of Breckenridge always gets decked out for Christmas, more carolers will take to the streets and an annual ice-sculpture competition will be expanded. "We find ourselves in the unique position... that we have to promote Christmas, which usually takes care of itself," says John McMahon, the chamber's executive director.
At the 57-room Alta Lodge, a luxury hotel situated on the mountain in Alta, Utah, double rooms go for $455 during the holidays and are usually booked up nearly a year in advance. But this fall, the lodge says it has had a spurt of cancellations, opening up a number of rooms. It's a similar story at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler in British Columbia, which is throwing in two free lift tickets for each night booked. Normally, the resort would be fully booked for Christmas by this time of year, but is only about 75% full so far, it says. Fairmont Chateau is adjacent to a ski area that will host the 2010 Olympic Games, and a $50 million gondola to take skiers from one mountain to another was scheduled to open this week.
Procrastinators might also want to try the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek in Colorado, which is offering a fifth night free for people who pay for four nights. The promotion, which runs through March, also includes a room upgrade and free daily breakfast. The resort has about 20 rooms left for the weeks of Christmas and New Year's. Usually "it would have been a room here, a room there, an unusual length of stay," if booking this late for the holidays, says Giles Priestland, the director of leisure sales.
Ski areas that cater mainly to visitors from long distances are offering some of the best deals. The 320 Guest Ranch, a hotel about a 20-minute drive from the base of Moonlight Basin in Montana, is running a $77-per-person deal that includes free lift tickets. A comparable package last year cost about 20% more, says general manager John Richardson. He says he's noticed fewer guests from the East Coast and California this year.
Some resorts are offering flight deals to boost long-haul visitors, who tend to stay longer and spend more on extras like ski lessons. In Colorado, Steamboat Mountain Resort is running airfare specials like a $238 round-trip ticket on Delta from New York's LaGuardia Airport. The offer, which also includes other destinations, is good through March, and tickets must be purchased online at least 21 days before flying. Crested Butte, also in Colorado, has a "friends and family fly free" package that includes a free airline ticket with every two purchased.
Busy in Vermont
Not every ski area is expecting fewer crowds. Resorts on the East Coast and some in California that attract skiers and boarders who drive to the mountains for short stays, say they're expecting a busy winter, as travelers stay closer to home and avoid flying. The number of season passes sold this year at Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont is up 17% from last year. Executives at Stratton Mountain Ski Resort, also in Vermont, say they tripled their Thanksgiving weekend traffic projections this year. And at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort, a few hours' drive from the San Francisco Bay Area, season pass sales are up by more than 30%. Skiers "are maybe going to forgo that destination trip and drive to Tahoe instead," says Julie Maurer, the resort's vice president of marketing and sales.
Still, some drive-to resorts are rolling out deals. Stratton Mountain recently introduced a "Mondays on Us" deal that it hopes will entice travelers to stay longer. Skiers and boarders who book in a hotel or condo from Friday to Sunday nights can get free lift tickets on Monday.

Thankgiving

For Thanksgiving, we had a small family dinner at the cabin. My mom flew in from California and my sister joined us as well. Both the drive there, and back, were unusually long due to weather and traffic. It's frustrating when a drive that takes 3:45 ends up taking 7:00 with substantial amounts of stress.


In any case we got some quiet time up there and made the usual turkey with trimmings. I used an organic turkey breast from Murray's which was good, but nothing extraordinary. Since I typically brine them before roasting it may not make that much of a difference. (The orange dish you can see in the foreground is rutmuus, a Swedish rutabaga casserole.) The last few weeks have been difficult, but sharing this holiday with loved ones helps.

Later that weekend we baked a platter of vegetarian enchiladas, which you can see on the right. We also went on a mountain bike ride on the other side of the Black river, and came back chilled and mud spattered, but at least we made sure that the new bike is working properly. It's the last ride of the year since it started snowing on our last day there.

In preparation for Christmas, we have lit our paper Swedish star in the front window, as well as the first candle for Advent.

Chimney all clean

We arranged for the fall ritual of having the chimney swept, by a new vendor -- the highly professional Vermont Master Chimney Sweep company. It took a while to get an appointment, as they said their backlog this fall has been 6-8 weeks, perhaps because they only make M-F appts. Clearly, this is something that can't be outsourced to China. We had a slight creosote buildup, but nothing too bad, and were advised to keep cleaning out the stove, while cold, prior to building it up each visit. In the picture below you can see a kind of reverse roto rooter being used to clean the bends in our stovepiping. When wood is a primary source of a heat, you have to do a little planning each season.

Flights reserved

I went prowling around on American Airlines web site today and reserved frequent flyer flights for J and I, into Eagle County. We would be arriving into Eagle on Jan 24 at 10:30am, departing on Jan 31 at 9:55am.

I was surprised that I could still do this so relatively late, and using only the 25k level of miles, and that so many other days and flight options were available. It would appear that bookings are down, at least at that carrier. You can see the geography above, although I know many of you are familiar with this after our various trips to this region over the years.

Also I noticed that some Citi / AA cards are running promos into Denver for 20k miles with a special code during December. I don't know if that will get renewed for January, but again that's also surprising to see low cost ff tix into ski country during the winter.

If you have miles, it's worth checking this out.

Ski Passes

We purchased our season passes for the Vail collection of resorts, and if you were planning on skiing more than one week out west this year, I would suggest you do so too. The passes are only on sale til this weekend. Season pass sales are running about 10% behind last years rate, and hotel bookings are running 20% behind, so clearly the slumping economy is hitting discretionary spending hard, especially luxuries like ski holidays.

At the time the deals were annouced last spring, I thought that this would lead to crowding at their collection of resorts, but it would seem that the whole industry is going to a have a rough time. The 'drive to' resorts in Vermont think they will be a little better off than the destination ones, but I'm not so sure about that.

I'll be dealing with flights later this month, and hope that some of you will start finalizing those, so we can begin the house hunt.

------------------------

Lena's ashes came home the other day, and have been lovingly stored in her old treat jar, along with a clay cast of her pawprint, a clinking tag filled collar, and a favorite scarf / drool rag. It's been a sad week, with the apartment eerily quiet when returning home, but things are getting back to normal now. We appreciate all the thoughtful notes people have sent us, and are particularly thankful for the remarkable medical care she recieved from both centers. The bulk of her chattels have now been donated to animal shelters in NYC and Vermont, where we know they will be put to good use.

Lena: 1995 - 2008

Lena passed away this morning at approximately 3:30 am EST. She woke us up to say goodbye and we went for a short walk outside. Upon returning, she collapsed and we carried her to the Animal Medical Center where she went into convulsions. She died as the doctor was preparing her, trying to find a vein to insert a catheter.

She lived 13 years, 7 months which is within the typical lifespan for Basset Hounds of 12-14 years. Lena lived 10 weeks after getting the diagnosis of terminal lymphoma, which beat the averages by a few weeks, although the last few weeks had been a struggle, even with a doubled dose of painkilling opiates.

Her last days were spent in Vermont -- snoozing in front of a warm fire, sniffing around the backyard, chomping on chicken trimmings, and enjoying the autumn sunshine. We had thought that we would end our journey together up there, but in the end we came home, and she relieved us of making that decision. She enjoyed a happy, good life and will be waiting patiently for us.

The house is so quiet without her.

Ski Trip Update - Beaver Creek

I just wanted to put up a quick confirmation of the ski trip. The dates are still the last week of January 2009, Jan 24 - Jan 31. We are going to Beaver Creek, Colorado which is close to Vail and between the two resorts there should be plenty of skiing for the week. As noted before, they share a common lift pass, and one can buy a season pass before Nov 15 for approximately $600. If you were going to go skiing out West more than once this season, it would make sense to get that option, but you would have to act in the next few weeks.


So far the folks who have responded are Yuji, Sean (part of the week), and Rajiv. I am assuming Andy will probably join us as well. Note that spouses/SO's are welcome, and although I am planning on having J. join us, nothing is guaranteed. (I point that out just in case there are SO's who might want to join us but only if other women might be there)

So I guess the summary is

• The trip is on -- for Jan 24 to Jan 31, 2009
  
• We're going to Beaver Creek, Colorado


• Currently Yuji, Sean, Rajiv, me/Jenn?, Andy?

Action steps in the next two weeks would be to

• Line up vacation / time off


• Consider the season pass option, and prospectively purchase


• Determine if you are bringing anyone


• Investigate paid or frequent flyer flights - whether to Denver / Eagle


• Figure out housing (I will advise on this in November)

The economy is clearly slower this year than in the past, so flights/housing/passes are not as urgent as before...but I can't front the house as I have in the past. Sometime in November, once we get a final handle on attendees, and I start the house hunt, please keep some funds on hand for that expense.

Plant

PS: Our dear friend Holly, who we skiied with in Grand Targhee, has some happy and sad news, which you can find on her blog.

The Changing Seasons

As the mornings turn to frost, it's time to finish the last bits of preparation before snow season starts. This weekend I finished removing the air conditioner, replacing the storm windows, and arranged for the septic system to be pumped. If you have municipal water/sewer you probably have never dealt with it, but its part of the rural/mountain life for homes far off from the town service grid. Our prior septic pumping vendor, Bob, had retired to the good life of Florida, so we had to find a new person. Fortunately, a quick scan through our local paper found someone and he came by early Saturday. It tooks only 40 minutes and I felt better about having this squared away for the next few years.



Interestingly, this tradesman also raises deer, big 450 lb red deer, that are sold to the restaurant business. For the most part, game can not be hunted and then sold commercially, so when you see pheasant/deer on a menu somewhere it was raised in a farm like environment. We had some leftover lamb from a roast, so I made some pasties, although the first batch drooled a bit onto the baking sheet. The second attempt came out better since I used a Silpat sheet and cut a few steam holes to stop the crust from bursting. The dog has started spitting up blood so it looks like the growths have metastized into her lungs. But she still ate some beef this weekend and got her nails Dremeled down.

I went for a bike ride down into the village -- the foliage colors were stunning.

A visit from my sister

My sister visited us last night, and we enjoyed a quiet night at home with the pets and some Asian food ordered in. We don't do much take out, but I could see how with services like delivery.com or seamlessweb that people might never want to turn on their stove. A few nights ago I went out for dinner with some friends in my tasting group and they sent me home with tons of leftovers for the dog. Amazingly Lena didn't have much interest at first, but today she got more enthusiastic about the meat, after I had deboned the chop, cubed it, and microwaved it. Our theory is that her sense of smell is so diminished that unless food is hot, she can't smell what it is.

Some out of town friends visited us tonight and we met them at Bar Americain, where we popped open a few older California wines. The ambience and service were good, but the food was average. Maybe I'm getting a cold - nothing has really tasted right for a few days.

The Blessing of the Animals - St Francis Day

Sunday was St. Francis' Day (who was the patron saint of animals) so some churches offer a pre-service blessing for parishioner's' pets. It's not offered everywhere, but we were able to find St. Marks's in Springfield performing this. Given the short time left, it felt important to do this ritual, so early Sunday morning we rounded up the furry threesome to get them appropriately blessed. Lena and Zamfir were resigned to the auspicious event and put up no struggle, but Nikolai chose this time to declare his heresy. J. summoned the Spanish Inquisition and extracted him from behind the sofa, and into his holy cat carrying case. With varying measures of piety, we piled into the car for the pilgrimage. A surprisingly large crowd had showed up, accompanied by a veritable ark of of dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, birds and urns of ashes. It went smoothly except for one cat who rejected God, hissing at the priest. Somewhat unusually, they even allowed the animals inside and made them welcome for the main service. Some dogs even sat on the pews, distracted by each other, like gangly furry teenagers, although our own claimed the floor. This might have been the smallest, and most humble, church we've been in but the warmth was no less than our own Holy Trinity.

It was one of the most beautiful fall weekends I can recall in Vermont -- cool sweater weather days, cold nights somewhat north of freezing, a bright sun shining, and leaves that had begun their annual symphony of colors all under a dry sky. At the latitude and altitude we're at, the foliage tends to peak in the second week of October, convenient for the Columbus Day weekend acoming, but the forest looks brilliant right now. This is the weekend when we start the rituals of the fall: changing the cotton sheets to flannel, arranging for the chimney sweeps, switching the screens for the storm windows, and pulling all the vacuum packed bags of cold weather woolens out to be refilled with shorts, seer suckers and summery garb.

My in-laws are visiting next weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing them. I'm planning on stuffing a chateaubriand for one night, and roasting a mint wrapped leg of lamb another. The hound loves when this happens since there will be all kinds of trimmings from the roasts, as well as kindhearted visitors that she can deploy "Starving Skit #17" on. This meadow to the right is the one we usually take sledders to during the winter; it looks quite different now.

A link from Brigitte

Brigitte sent us this link, about old dogs. It's funny, and sad. We got the fireplace going this weekend for our sidekick, who then proceeded to make slow rotisserie roasted basset out of herself, rotating her body every 20 minutes so that every angle was suitably heated.

Ski Trip 2009

I'd like to organize a PiLam ski trip for 2009, for the last week of January, similar to what we have done in years past.

The dates would be Saturday, Jan 24 to Saturday, Jan 31, 2009.

For a variety of reasons -- some of which you folks know -- I was not able to put together a trip last winter, and I really missed it. Jenn has urged me to put a trip together for next year, no matter what is going on in our lives. So I'm blocking out the time, and moving ahead with the plan.

As I have mentioned a few times in the last months, there is a pretty good deal available from the company that owns Vail : an unlimited season pass for $579. It covers all their resorts as well. It seems like a good enough deal that we should pick a resort(s) covered by that. The only drawback I can see is that those resorts are likely to become even more crowded, and navigating Vail is already like fighting through Grand Central Terminal at rush hour.

I do not know if Jenn will be joining us yet, but she'd like to come. So if your significant other wants to ski with us too, it's fine. I realize that may change the ambience a little.

Anyways, drop me a line if you are interested. Perhaps we can challenge our old nemesis, the TequilaShotSki, again.

Final Homestand at Yankee Stadium

Lena taking a snooze on the couch with me. She's been doing ok, given everything that is going on with her. Some days are better than others.





The cats delighting in their newest toys, a pair of Crate & Barrel bags, one for each of them, not that more bags reduced their inclination to fight over them at all.

Jenn and I at Yankee Stadium for their last homestand, before the ballpark gets torn down. Derek Jeter became the all time leader for hits at this ballpark on the day we were there. He nosed aside Lou Gehrig, so it's a notable record, and given that the park is disappearing, he'll own that record forever.

Trust but Verify

Lena has developed a new -- and annoying -- habit.

We have to give her pain pills, three times a day, which apparently are somewhat bitter. She has taken to resisting these, and now spits them out even if they are pushed way back down into her jowls. So we have started concealing them in treats she is offered. But, newly suspicious, she no longer accepts treats with her usual "Gulp First, Sniff Second" approach. Each treat is now carefully inspected, sniffed, nibbled on, and then torn apart to make sure no bitter medicinal is hiding inside. It is rather incredible behaviour from an animal who has in the past cheerfully eaten (or tried to eat) toads, rat poison, loofahs, crayons, dishwasher tabs, and plastic bags. Even this morning a chunk of waffle was carefully torn apart prior to consumption so that she could be sure that no little indentation concealed an unsavory nugget. So we have resorted back to force feeding the pills, which is only somewhat better than the way hunger strikers in Guantanamo are getting fed.

Despite their long and large ears, Bassets don't listen to logical explanations well.

Lena's Prognosis

We got the results back from the cytologist -- a specialized kind of pathologist -- for the fluid aspirations they took from Lena's liver and spleen. As suspected, they are not favorable. Our wonderfully attentive veterinarian said they are indicative of lymphoma, at stage IV. The prognosis is median survival time from this level of cancer is 4 weeks, although they had plenty of disclaimers around that time. The tumors have not metastized into her lungs and bones yet though.

The options are limited at this late stage. There is a palliative drug treatment that does not actually extend the lifespan but may reduce some of the symptoms, such as fatigue and anorexia. If we were more aggressive, and the dog was younger, there is the possibility of administering chemotherapy by taking the animal in for intravenous injections weekly. At her stage, and age, they think that has about a 50% chance of adding 6 months to her lifespan. We have decided not to put her through that, and will make a donation in her name instead to our local clinic.

The growths are not "comfortable", and the weariness/fatigue she is experiencing will only increase, but she is not in pain currently. Jenn and I are closely monitoring her mood and activity to determine when we add pain management drugs for the final stages.

To get her tail wagging again we grilled a big T bone for her, which she chewed on with unusual relish. Realizing our time together is limited, we are full of joy to spend time with Lena. Every hound-doggy howl, each wag of the tail, every piggy snore is a blessing.

Snout Update

Following up on Dr. Jex's referral from Vermont, we took Lena to the top notch Animal Med Center in NYC, which is happily only a few blocks from the apartment. We took our aging basset hound in yesterday for an ultrasound on her liver & spleen. The procedure was handled by an actual radiologist, not a lab tech, and they interpreted everything right away. [When I have had radiology done for myself, it is generally handled by a bored lab tech, and results don't come back for days.] The follow on was that she went in for tissue aspirations today and they are trying to figure out if she has lymphoma or something benign. Pretty amazingly we live next to one of the nations best vet centers. It is staffed 24/7/365 and has 90 vets, with all kinds of specialities (oncology, radiology, ob/gyn etc). It's not cheap, but when you compare it to the delays and indifferent care you get in the human emergency room, it's clear how much unfunded mandates have hurt healthcare.

Anyways she is home and sleeping now.

What we have been doing the last few weeks....

Let's see ... my sister had us over to her apartment for dinner, where she and a friend made some great Italian food. You can see our loyal low altitude sidekick pestering both of them for nibblings.



My sister has done a good job decluttering her apartment and it has turned into a nice compact home that gets good light. The kitchen is pretty usable in fact; it doesn't really matter how big or small your workspace is since Lena will always get underfoot.



Our dear friends Jacques & Jill had a nice pool party out in Westchester, which was blessed by perfect swimming weather and great food and wine. I took the train up there and was graciously ferried back and forth to his house by Dale and Pappa.

There were a lot of serious old wines there, including 69 Heitz C block, 89 Fleur de Gay, lots of Corton Charlemagne and Batard Montrachet and more. Gio brought a pair of Dom's to compare 95 to 96 side by side, which was cool, but probably overkill by that point.


Zamfir after coming back from the groomers, reposing on his silk pillow. Whenever new sheets get put on the bed, he quickly pounces on them. He also loves to snooze in clean laundry; but he's learned the danger of sitting in the dirty laundry basket.

Paella = Yum Yum !

J. made her family's once a year paella recipe this weekend which requires a weeks worth of advance preparation and a day and a half of cooking. It's wonderful and a one of a kind treat, although the pets don't like the invasion of crustaceans before. As you can see Lena is taking a exploratory whiff/sniff of the Maine lobsters as they clatter along the patio, trying to avoid their Appointment in Samarra, a stock pot full of boiling water. Lena wasn't very curious in their non edible stage.

This is the full blown Valencia style seafood paella - chock full of lobster, shrimp, mussels, chicken, chorizo, pancetta, and prosciutto plus olives, peppers, onions, garbanzos, and saffron. I'm sure there are other things I'm missing too. We had something called paella at a restaurant recently, although it was a pale imitiation of what this was. Something like this is just too tricky to do off a menu though.

We started with chilled Fino sherry and warm nuts, pickled eel, olives and Manchego cheese outside. Ramon and Marina had brought over an older Rioja they had picked up traveling in Spain along with an authentic crema Catalena they made themselves, which made an impressive dessert. We were lucky that it was neither too hot nor wet to use the patio for apertifs.

Ed brought over Nora and her sister as well. We had gone to school with Nora (on the right) in Massachusetts; she was actually Sara's roommate as freshman. But it was great catching up after a decade or so. We drank a lot of wine with them, and then had the dessert muscat with the flan like custard that Marina had brought over. That was stunningly dense and tasty -- much more impressive than a creme brulee. Nora still speaks very fast, like playing a record at the wrong speed on your old fashioned phonograph. Ed just nodded his head, as if he could understand, while he wondered how bad of an allergic reaction he would get from the massive overdose of shellfish.

Hot & Busy Weekend

Hi everyone. We had a pretty busy weekend. On Friday, we picked up some friends and went down to the South Street Seaport, on the tip of Manhattan where we had dinner at Salut, a South American tapas restaurant, which featured lots of little plates of food. It was hot and crowded down there, but is a good place to go with a car since there isn't much public transport and parking is usually easy to find.

On Saturday we went to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick up a bunch of household sundry items. We found one of their ubiquitous coupons which made some of the sundries free. After that we stopped at the grocery store to get some munchies to take to a party we were going to later. When we got home we stuffed some squash flowers and sauteed them; they were great but labor intensive. Then we attended a big Bach celebration and reception in the early evening which featured lots of classical music. Then we popped into Lisa's apartment for a movie party which started late. We got home at midnight at which point we were pretty tired.

This morning we had some blueberries and whipped cream for breakfast and then headed off to church, which was unusually long. We didn't finish that til 1:30 or so. Then we came home and rested while we figured out dinner. We had some fresh vegetables from Vermont still, so we made egg noodles tossed with pancetta and leeks with a side of zucchini. We finally used one of our wedding gift cards and ordered some lobster for a dinner we are having next weekend. I'm doing a few search related things now and then we're going to wind down by watching a movie.

It's been a busy, and hot weekend. But we're fine and happy. The pets love that we keep the air conditioning on for them.

4th of July

Jenn and Lisa went crazy in the kitchen making her grandmother's fried chicken recipe, along with mini apple pies, with crisp Granny Smith apples. It was way too much chicken, so plenty went into the freezer. This is something that is so messy that it isn't going to be made more than once a year!

Last Christmas we got the cats this squishy foam multi colored box, which they promptly ignored in the surplus of wrapping papers, shiny baubles, and tinsel. Come a more Spartan summer, they have started squabbling over possession of the Fortress of Solitude. Right now the fatter cat has possession, guarding the entrance from his covetous littermate.

All Jenn and Lisa's picnic fixin's were for naught as torrential rains forced us to leave the Grafton Symphony and Fireworks festival and retreat back to the deck. So we put the basket on the table and pretended we had pesky ants and rocks under the blanket.

On the 4th of July, we went into the village to see the old war graves. I rode my bike down there while Lena hitched a ride with the girls in the car. There are plenty of Revolutionary war fighters interred there, their resting places marked by flags from the DAR.

Here we are on the village green, with the cemetary behind us and our loyal yet inattentive basset in front of us. She was pretty sick when the photo was taken so was even more subdued than her typical lethargic self.

In Idaho, Ski Resort's Promise Fades (WSJ)

From Boom to Bust. Sigh. I remember mentioning this two years ago in happier times. Here's the story from today's WSJ. That link will probably work til July 15 or so, if not here's the story below.
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In Idaho, Ski Resort's Promise Fades
By JUSTIN SCHECKJuly 7, 2008; Page A3
DONNELLY, Idaho -- The real-estate downturn is taking Western locales like this tiny mountain village down a familiar path: from boom to bust.
Tamarack
Construction halted at Tamarack village in Donnelly, Idaho after financing for the ski resort dried up.
A half-century ago, timber brought prosperity that ended abruptly in the 1990s. This time, a luxury ski development called Tamarack Resort has whipsawed the town's 158 residents.
Tamarack gained headlines in 2003 when it became one of the few new ski resorts to be approved in the West in two decades. From 2004, when its lifts opened and the first homes sold, through last year, buyers committed more than $500 million for condos, houses and building sites. Fancy homes brought a rush of money, with newcomers buying land for stores and restaurants. Landlords tripled rents.
Then, last winter, building all but stopped. While Tamarack's lifts continued to run, motel occupancy plummeted. Rustica, a gift shop, closed down this year. McPaws, an animal shelter, endured a funding crisis. According to state estimates, the May 2008 unemployment rate was 6.1% in Valley County, where the town lies -- nearly double the year-earlier rate. Idaho's May statewide unemployment was an estimated 3.6%.
"This place just quit," says Gordon Cruickshank, a Valley County commissioner.
The luxury-resort boom brought windfalls to once-sleepy towns throughout the Rockies, as developers planned resorts with secluded homes and memberships to golf and ski clubs. Banks such as Credit Suisse Group, which syndicated nearly $1 billion in loans to luxury developments in the West, fueled the boom.
A resort's success was often staked to real-estate sales: As a Tamarack lender recounted in recent court filings, the resort had a business model in which "operating expenses would exceed revenue and the primary source of profit would be generated by the sale of real estate."
When the bust came, Donnelly was hit hard. It didn't have much of an economic base before Tamarack. The town, 95 miles from Boise, had thrived on lumber until federal restrictions gutted the industry in the 1990s. A succession of developers failed to build a ski resort on Donnelly's West Mountain. Valley County had one of Idaho's highest unemployment rates.
Mexican developer Alfredo Miguel Afif began planning Tamarack in the late 1990s. He brought in Jean-Pierre Boespflug, a former executive at Cisco Systems Inc., as chief executive. Mr. Boespflug helped persuade Idaho's governor to support Tamarack's development plan, which got final approval in 2003.
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Real estate in the area quickly boomed. Tennis stars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf agreed to develop a Fairmont Hotel as part of the resort. Mr. Boespflug personally wooed prospective buyers, leading hiking tours. Construction attracted workers who spent at hotels, restaurants and bars. Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter last year declared April 27 "Alfredo Miguel Afif Day."
Things abruptly changed in June 2007, Mr. Boespflug says, when he traveled to the East Coast to meet with another investor in Tamarack's planned Fairmont Hotel. Buyers had just committed more than $100 million for an initial offering of Fairmont condos, so "we were hoping to be greeted by big cheers and a check," he says. Instead, the investor, who had already put up money for the hotel, said, "'We don't have the money,'" Mr. Boespflug says.
The investor confirmed his group has decided not to put up any more money for the hotel, but wouldn't comment in detail because of legal proceedings.
Funding shortages forced the resort to slow construction on the base village and hotel. With Tamarack in danger of missing a payment to Credit Suisse, Mr. Boespflug arranged a $118 million credit line with French bank Société Générale.
But in February, amid weakening real-estate prices squeezed by the credit crunch, the bank withdrew the line "due to market conditions," says Société Générale spokesman Jim Galvin.
Tamarack went into default on its Credit Suisse payments. Business entities owned by Messrs. Boespflug and Miguel, which hold a majority ownership stake in Tamarack, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February. Credit Suisse followed with a foreclosure suit, seeking to take over Tamarack's majority-ownership stake, according to state and federal court filings.
Donnelly's boomtown air is gone. Tamarack and its contractors have laid off many. Jerry Frank, a Boise contractor who is part of the Tamarack Club -- $60,000 a membership, at current rates -- says he closed his Tamarack office. Mike Pannell, a developer who bought the Little Firefly Cafe this spring, says breakfast business is down about 40% from last spring.
Lani Anderson, who manages the local Long Valley motel, says occupancy has fallen at least 65%. "All I'm catering to now is the weary traveler, and there's not a whole lot of them with gas prices," she says.
Locals lament the town's fleeting promise. Lorie Mauk had moved back to the Donnelly area last year for a Tamarack job, having left the area years ago. But Tamarack laid her off in February, and she says the town's job situation is back to how it was before the resort brought prosperity.
Tamarack's base village is unfinished. The area slated for a Thai restaurant is roofless. The ski shop and pub are in plastic tents.
Home sales have withered, says Judy Land, a local real-estate agent. In 2006, 1,250-square-foot Tamarack cottages sold for more than $900,000, the resort says; Ms. Land says she recently sold one for $650,000.
The resort is continuing visitor operations over the summer, with lifts running for mountain bikers, and expects to run ski operations this winter. Ms. Land expects the resort to recover. But for now, she says, the few potential buyers "want to get away from the depression, from a resort that's in trouble."

We just got the dog back from the vet

She's doing better now.

Every Day is a Gift.

Grooming day

Much to their dismay, the cats were taken in for a grooming today, bundled up in their carry all bags, bellies empty and fire in their eyes. And as an extra penalty, the pet grooming salon was flooded from some kind of leak from the floors above, so a dirty brownish water covered everything. We were all too happy to leave the caterwauling animals and go up to Fairway Market in Harlem where we stocked up on produce for the holiday week coming up. If you get there early in the morning its not such an aggravation to shop there. I got a nice slab of hake for tomorrows supper.

The photo on the left is last night's dinner -- mustard/mint lamb rib chops with red potatoes with provencal spices. It was pretty good, but cleaning up the brazier was a pain.

Drizzly Dog Weekend

This is Nikolai watching the Catsitter DVD up in Vermont. Pretty amazingly, the cats are fascinated by the gerbils, birds and chipmunks on the disc. They bat the TV with their paws and then they look behind the TV after it has been turned off trying to figure where their prey has gone.

These are the new flowering plants we got for the patio; pretty good deal for $21 total !



For dinner, I grilled a lemon stuffed 2.5 lb red snapper, Russian fingerling potatoes and some endives on the Weber last week. It worked out pretty well but that big fish only feeds about two people, with a little leftover for fussy cats.

This is Lena enjoying doggie ice cream; this brand is called FrostyPaws. It can keep her absorbed for 20 min per cup -- no brain freeze for this lady! She's back on her Piroxicam by the way, which has made a world of difference in her mobility and mood.
Our peonies have come out in bloom and you can see them in this "Before" picture of dinner. We prepared skewers of yellow/green squash, pork loin kebabs, onions, and pineapple rum boats in the back. Shish kabobs are time consuming which explains why prepared ones seem costlier than they ought to be. Anyways we like to custom cut ours and then put our own different Penzeys spices on each item, so we make this ourselves. You can not see it here but we also had some great lemon/scallion/cilantro rice to go with this.

And this is the "After" picture on the grill. The squash skewers are a little too long.

J. made a bonfire too after I dug out the firepit from a couple of seasons worth of ashes. I put the ashes into the plowscrape scars on the front lawn, so hopefully that will help them get filled in with new grass. It started getting cold and rainy, and we lost the electrical power (which happens once a year or so) so we came back earlier than usual on Sunday. Remember you can click on the pictures to look at high resolution larger versions of them.

Extra bonus - our friends Mike & Lisa just had a new baby !

And as previously mentioned - I am thinking strongly about this good deal from the Vail network of resorts. It really makes skiing/riding their system much more cost effective. They will probably be more crowded as a result, but this pass looks good. If you are interested, or end up getting one, let me know so maybe we can work our 09 group trips around that.

A trip to Curry Hill and a spice store

So this weekend we met some family friends at the Madras vegetarian chain gone global, Saravanaas, in NYC's Curry Hill neighborhood.

The food was excellent and spicy, but the service was weak --enough so that I'm not sure I would go back. They charge gratuity on the bill, which is legal in NYC if you disclose that, but I think when a venues opts for that there must be a reasonable level of service. I walked out thinking the service sucked and I don't think I'd go back. You can see the enormity of their fried bread known as poori's on the left side. The specialty of the house are the crispy rice griddle cades called dosai, also in the picture to the right

Afterwards, we went two streets up to the famed specialty spice store, Kalustyan's which stocks a massive array of spices known along with an incredible range of dried food and grains. I counted something like 30 different kinds of rice alone. They do a substantial amount of business to the restaurant trade, so their pricing for retail customers is on the high side. But its helpful to shop there just to see all the different things they have.
While we were there, we picked up a number of exotic spices that we can't easily find including florals like rosewater, jasmine, and lavender. Then in the picture to the right, you can see the big jars of goods, where we found glaceed orange rinds, apricots, and blanched almonds. Then in the powdered spice section we got some file powder, biryani blend, and Japanese dried bonito flakes. And then we also found some sour cherry juice, Peruvian hot sauces, and dried morels. It was quite the expensive shopping trip.

Indiana Jones New Movie - It was nothing special

We had a relaxing weekend in the city, taking care of household chores and seeing friends. On Saturday we started with our once a quarter visit to Costco to load up on pet food, kitty litter, and swiffers. After we came back and unloaded a car full of dry goods, we got ready to see some friends, Jesse & Susan. We met them at a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant (Ah Chiuhaha!) around the corner where we had some tacos and salsa. After that we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie that just came out. It was ok, nothing special, and certainly not as good as the prior three.

The next morning we baked cinnamon scones and then went to church, which seemed sparsely attended, and then went shopping afterwards. The city was shut down for a parade on 5th avenue so getting across town was a headache. So we walked for a while and stopped for an iced chai and jello while going home. Then we went to the Japanese market to get rice vinegar, bok choy, and various other Oriental spices. Afterwards I opened up a light Italian rose wine for dinner.

Last night for dinner Jenn made veal marsala, mashed potatoes and green beans which we ate on the patio. The patio is now covered with a dozen flowering plants which are all in various stages of bloom. They are quite thirsty though and need 3 gallons of water just about every other day; the pets like to snooze outside while we water them.