End of the weekend...

 We had a long weekend.  I need a rest!  Here's a shot of J and the girls from our last day off.

-s

Memorial Day in Copake

It was a really fun day on Saturday. We went up to Copake to visit Uncle Lou and Glenn. My parents came with us and J's parents, Aunt Cathy and Uncle Doug were there as well. On the drive up we stopped for breakfast at the Putnam Diner. I had chocolate chip pancakes and a hot chocolate (yes, like a little kid). It was great! We then finished our ride up and met everyone at Glenn's house. The house looks awesome as always (and refreshed with the new paint and repairs) and the yard is huge! Great place for Livvy to run around. I can't wait until our yard doesn't have the pool in it so that Livvy can run around and have fun like she did in Copake today. Uncle Lou and Glenn are great hosts, keeping us all hydrated and fed the entire day. We (J, my parents, Livvy and I) first went for a bike ride while the other half of the group went to the tag sales. The bike ride was 8 miles! You'd figure when you get to the end of the first 4 there would be something like a lake or a rest stop... nope! Just turn around and go back 4 miles. Carrying Livvy on the back of my bike isn't the easiest thing... especially uphill. Well, all 5 of us made it back. On the way, J decided to trespass on some farm to ride up, then down a steep hill, twice. We also saw a farm with Alpaca's, a few streams and waterfalls. Next we rested for a bit while Livvy ran around again. Then we hiked to the falls. The hike is supposed to be around 15 minutes but it took more like 30 because we had to take turns pushing Livvy up the bumpy-hilly trail. It was fun but a lot of work. I actually would do it again though! The water was so clear when we got to the falls that I just had to put my feet in. Well, the water was so cold, had to be almost 40 degrees! My feet were numb in about 5 seconds so I didn't spend too much time taking a dip. J however decided to jump in. As you can see from the picture, he also jumped right out. My Dad, J and I decided to cross the river and climb up to the top of the falls while everyone else went back to the cars. The climb was amazing. Really difficult without any climbing gear but there was a guide rail half way up so we were able to use that when we got stuck in a bad spot. When we got to the top we notice that we had climbed a good 50 feet above the start of the falls. There wasn't an easy way to get to where we wanted to but we spend some time up there taking in the sites and trying to do more dangerous stuff. The trip down was easier but much more scary (for me at least) because I had to see how far I could fall if I took the wrong step. Like a good inexperienced climber, I went down frontwards, sliding on my butt a bit instead of actually climbing down. Yea, I'll try better next time. I had fun though! When we finally made it back to the correct side of the river, we realized we had at least a 15 minute walk to the cars. Then we got to the cars and yep, everyone had left us (nice, right?!). So we walked back about 3 miles on a twisty-winding road that had no pedestrian walking area. Then, when we round the corner for the home stretch to the house, my mom pulls up in the truck... yea, nice timing. Well, at least we had a good talk along the way. We're planning a trip to Hawaii for Fall 2010. Let's see if that sticks. The rest of the day was great, relaxing in Glenn's beautiful yard and eating ourselves silly. There was so much food! Of course on the drive home we had to stop at the Red Rooster for ice cream even though we had already had dessert.

Tomorrow we're going to see the Air Show, then to Aunt Pat's BBQ, then Livvy goes to Grandma & Grandpa's while J and I go to Jan's party. Should be great! I'll blog later this weekend to give an update on the rest of our fun. At this point Livvy is sleeping in her cozy bed, J fell asleep on the couch with Sports Center on and I'm still typing away - exhausted. I'm going to sleep!

-s

Our 1st Game at Citi Field

Yes, another post because I just got the pics off the camera. On May 11th we went to our first Mets game at Citi Field. It was Livvy's first game (well, first since she was born b/c she did go to a few Mets games at Shea when she was in my belly). She really didn't care much about the game, she just wanted to run around. Good thing I wasn't tired from my long day at work (sarcasm). We had tickets way up there but spent most of the time down by the food area. There are so many places to stand and watch the game that we really only saw our seats for 5 minutes. Livvy ate one of those Nathan's Foot long Hot Dogs and I had a sausage and peppers and a pretzel. J had Mexican, it was really good. Actually, all the food was good. The S&P was better than at Shea and you got to choose between hot and sweet sausage. I never thought I would say that. The line for the Shake Shack was at least a mile long the entire length of the game. I guess we'll have to find a way to get one of those amazing burgers another time.

Although she was a bit unruly, I was happy Livvy got to experience a Mets game, even if she'll never remember it. Well, at least she went for free! Also, I want to thank Kim for giving us her tickets for the game. It was definitely very nice of her and we had a GREAT time. Oh, BTW, the Mets ended up losing the game... figures.

-s

Our 1st 5K Race

I finally had a chance to get these photos off of my camera and to tell the story of our first 5K Race. We had a great time and finished in just over 34 minutes. 1/2 way through Livvy wanted to remove her shoes and socks and then she wanted to get out of the stroller but we toughed it out and made it the whole way in record time (well at least our record time since it was our first race). Our next race is still TBD. We were going to do the 5K walk on Shelter Island on June 20 but now we have other engagements to attend (a 2nd birthday and a 50th anniversary dinner). So, the other option for June is the 1 mile Robert Moses Beach run on the 29th. Livvy can't run (ride) with us though (unless someone else is going to push her through the sand!). So we'll have to employee a willing babysitter/grandparent to take her to the race to cheer us on. Then after that, we should have a race each month. Just need to decide which ones to do... Will fill in the details soon!

-s

Setting the Table

Here's Livvy setting the table at school this morning...

Our Friends The Ducks

Momma Gina's Penne Ala Vodka

I just wrote this up for my mother-in-law so I figured I'd post it so we don't loose it! Here's my mom's Penne ala Vodka recipe.

Note: We typically make vodka sauce with cooking sauce or a smooth sauce. It will probably be really good with marinara though we’ve never tried it. Also, this recipe is for a large amount of sauce for from 3-4 lbs of pasta. You should cut it down as you see fit.

Ingredients:
32 oz (1 quart) or more of cooked red sauce (not tomato paste or chopped tomatoes, use marinara or cooking sauce)
64 oz (2 quarts) of heavy cream
8 oz (.25 quarts) vodka
1 small onion chopped
6 cloves of garlic chopped
1 teaspoon of spicy brown mustard
4 cups of grated cheese
black pepper to taste
4 lbs of dry penne

Step 1: Fry Onions and Garlic in olive oil until brown (not too dark). Strain oil from onions and garlic well.
Step 2: Put heavy cream, onion/garlic mixture, vodka and spicy brown mustard in a pot and stir well.
Step 3: Stir in red sauce slowly until mixture is pink in color. It should be at least 32 oz but may need more if the color is too light. Don’t let it get red!
Step 4: Add pepper to taste (as you see fit).
Step 5: Bring sauce to a boil for 1 minute, then turn down to medium (slow boil) for 3-4 minutes to burn off the alcohol in the vodka.
Step 6: Cook the 4lbs of penne. Don't forget to add salt to the water!!!
Step 7: Once the sauce is cooked, let it cool just a bit and whisk in grated cheese to taste. Typically it would be from 2-4 cups of grated cheese but you may want to add less or more.
Step 8: Strain the penne once aldente and mix the ala Vodka sauce with cooked penne. NOTE: since I'm unsure of the pasta to sauce ratio, start with 1/2 the pasta and mix the sauce and pasta in slowly figuring how much sauce you want on your pasta.

This recipe is copyright by my mom so you publish it and start charging people then you'll have to pay her. So, I recommend not stealing this for your first published cooking book because she's lethal (she's my mom of course!).

Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

-s

Phone Fraud

I received a phone call tonight at around 9:45 pm from a man stating he was from the Long Island Home show and that I won a trip from Vacation Village resorts in the Berkshires. He stated that I also won $125 in Visa gift cards. He then asked that I put my husband on the phone so that the 3 of us could talk to the vacation planning department (I didn't tell him I had a husband so it was very odd when he asked for him). Well, I told the man that I didn't have another line. He asked me if I could get another line from a neighbors house. I told him I wasn't going to bother my neighbors at this hour. He then proceeded to tell me he was one step in a two step process and could not help me (remember he called me) unless I got my husband on the phone. I asked him to provide me his credentials (the company name and phone number). Instead of providing the information, he immediately stated he'd transfer me to the vacation planner and instead hung up the phone. The caller ID had this phone number 757-947-0249 and this name "Vac Vil Resort".

This is a warning to all my friends and family! DO NOT provide any personal information over the phone to anyone that calls you or requests that you call them. If someone does call you, ask for their company information and Google them to ensure it is the correct company. Also ask them how you can contact them and call them back. NEVER provide your personal information. This is the latest scam in identity theft and it's rampant.

Let me know if you've had anything like this happen to you lately. Also, if this does happen, immediately report it to the Better Business Bureau, the FTC and your state Attorney General using the links below:

FTC Fraud Complaint Department - http://www.ftc.gov/phonefraud
Better Business Bureau - http://www.bbb.org/
State Attorney General - http://www.naag.org/attorneys_general.php
-s

Whack

J is going to kill me for this blog but it's too interesting not to write it. About 6 years ago we were driving along, minding our own business (well actually J was driving and I was the passenger) and some kid in a supped up weed whacker car (that's what I call cars that buzz instead of rumble as the engine revs) pulled up next to us at a red light. I don't remember all the details but at one point after we started driving again, J got very annoyed at the kid. He kept revving his engine and getting close to us, probably wanting to race or something. Very interesting since we weren't in a very fast car at all. At one point, J got so annoyed that he rolled down his window and screamed out, wait for it, wait for it.... "You're Whack!!!!".

Yea, "You're Whack" as the terminology used back in the 90's to describe someone who is crazy, displeasing or undesirable. Here's the full definition for those of you too young to remember this term like me.

I teased J about this for years and never really heard it again until today...

I was talking to a Microsoft Visio instructor and he was verbally telling me how to get to a website. He said "Go to Microsoft.com whack Visio" or something like that. Now, I knew what he meant when he said "whack" but I had never heard it used that way. Of course I had to point it out and say that I've never heard that "whack" replaced forward slash and of course all the cool geeks in the room said "that's been out forever, where have you been?!". Yea, really annoying that I don't know the geek term. Even more annoying that I've teased J for using it and now I have to use it in front of my geek friends.

So, before writing this blog, I decided to Google "whack" and found a lot of information. For one, do not ever use the term "whack" to describe a back slash as explained here: http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/w/whack.htm That's a geek no-no.
I find that the term "Whack" is used in many different ways and is sometimes spelled "Wack". There was a song in 2005 that came out called "You're Whack" or something like that. That's not interesting though. Then I found what should be J's favourite website - http://www.freshorwack.com/. Yea... they use it way too much.

Anyway, for those of you who don't use "whack" today, please start using it to describe a forward slash so that it can go from "geek" to "chique" quickly.

Thanks,
-s

Prepping for a 5k

So most of you already know that I've been training for my first official 5k. I've run the distance before about 4 years ago. That was pre-baby so I was really fit. Well now, I'm working on running a 5k on Sunday pushing along Livvy in the running stroller. I'm excited to do it but I'm not sure I'll make it the whole way. So far I've run 2 miles in 24 minutes, a full 5k in about 38 minutes and 2.2 miles in 35 minutes pushing the stroller. I have to speed it up a bit and be able to complete it with the stroller. It's sunny out today (with a chance of rain) so I hope to get outside to run 3 miles at lunch. We'll see how it goes. J is running with me and of course will probably finish before me as usual.

Here's my current race schedule:
May 10, 2009 - 5k - http://www.elizabethtmcnamee.org/
August 23, 2009 - 10k - http://dirtysockrun.com/

Here are all the races I'm considering... http://www.flrrt.com/events.html

Here's the route I ran today - http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=290066

-s

Set your alarm...

A friend of mine who shall remain nameless sent me this email this morning... you'll appreciate it -

You will get a laugh out of this! And as my husband would remind me about sharing……“This is not something you share with people.”

So I forgot to set my alarm last night (not normal for me!) and I woke up at 5:50am. Normally by this time I am showered, dressed and ready to get my son up to run for the bus! So now that the stage is set….

I jumped up, said a few choice words…..ran into the kitchen to put coffee on and feed the cat (who trips me the whole way to the kitchen because she is use to be fed at 5:15am!) Took the coffee out of the freeze, grabbed a filter, grabbed the cat food….You can imagine what happened next….

Yes……I put the coffee filter in the machine and filled it with cat food! Good thing I noticed before I turned it on!!!

Moral of the story…make sure your alarm is set before you go to bed!

I hope you enjoyed this one!
-s

Office 2007 SP2 is Available

I'm installing it now... there's supposed to be a lot of work to done to speed up Outlook performance if anyone has been seeing the lag.

Here's the link to download... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B444BF18-79EA-46C6-8A81-9DB49B4AB6E5&displaylang=en

-s

Update - 5/5, after about 15 minutes of install and 30 minutes of migrating my 22 GB of PST's, things look like they're working smoothly. I'll let you know if I recommend downloading soon... just not yet.

Update - 5/6, okay so yesterday I had some major locking up docking station issues. I don't know if it was related to Office SP2 but one minute my docking station was working and the next minute it went crazy. After about 20 minutes of being disconnected from the docking station, it started to work again.

Update - 5/13, so it's been just over 1 week since I've installed SP2. The only issue I've seen is a conflict with my corporate security patching system (the system thinks it still needs me to apply patches and keeps trying every morning). No issues with SP2 it self. Outlook is running much more quickly. Very nice... Okay, so now I think you can all upgrade.

How to Save Space on the Email Server

People constantly ask me this question so I decided to write up my way of "fixing" this...

Every so often, you'll get an email from your System Administrator stating that your Mailbox is full. To stop this from happening for a while, you can follow the steps below at least once every 6 months:

• First, check the space used in your mailbox:


1. Go to the top level folder entitled “Mailbox”, right click and select Properties.
2. Select “Folder Size” to see the size of each underlying folder.
3. Take note of this information so that you can compare after you’ve cleaned out your Mailbox using the steps below.


• Delete your deleted items
  
  1. Right click on the Deleted Items folder and select “Empty Deleted Items Folder”.
  2. Select OK.
  
  
• Delete your Sync Issues
  
  1. At the bottom left of your screen in Outlook, click on the folder icon. All folders in your Mailbox should expand.
  
  
  2. Expand the “Sync Issues” folder.
     
  3. Select the top folder “Sync Issues” and delete its contents.
     
  4. Select each underlying folder and delete their contents.
     
  5. Now delete all items from your Deleted Items folder again.
     
  
  
• Create New PST’s for older emails
  
  1. Go to File, Data File Management and select “Add”.
     
  2. Select Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst) and select OK.
     
  3. Choose where to save the file (preferably on your computer in a safe location)
     
  4. Name the file something you will remember (i.e. 2009-Inbox or 2009-SentItems)
     
  5. Select OK
     
  6. Name the Folders by removing the title “Personal Folders” and naming it something you’ll remember (i.e. 2009-Inbox or 2009-SentItems)
     
  7. Select OK
     
  8. The new PST file has been created. Now select Close on the Data File Management screen and you will be back in your inbox.
     
  9. On the left side of your Outlook screen under Folder List, look for the new PST you’ve created under the name you named it (i.e. 2009-Inbox or 2009-SentItems)
     
  10. Expand the folder by clicking on the + sign. Right click on the top of the folder and select new folder. Name it something relevant (2009-Inbox-April) and select OK.
      
  11. The new folder has been created. Now you can drag items from your Inbox and other folders into this new folder. You should pay special attention to emails that have attachments as they take up the most space.
      
  
  
• Archive your Calendar
  
  1. In Outlook, select File > Archive
     
  2. Select the second radio button for “Archive this folder and all subfolders:”
     
  3. Select the Calendar
     
  4. Choose a date to Archive from
     
  5. Choose a location to Archive to (you can name the file if you’d like by selecting Browse. Name it something you remember like “CalendarArchive.pst”.
     
  6. Click OK and the archive will begin.
     
• Now check the space used in your mailbox again:
  
  1. Go to the top level folder entitled “Mailbox”, right click and select Properties.
     
  2. Select “Folder Size” to see the size of each underlying folder.
     
  3. Compare this information with the information you took down at the beginning of this process.

If you still need help after this, call the help desk - not me!!!

Thanks so much!

-s