Taughannock with Spikes

Last weekend, Ryan and Sarah went to NYC to celebrate Sarah's birthday! They had a great time and got to visit so many cool restaurants. But since they couldn't take Spikes too easily, Mike and I got to dogie-sit. So on Saturday we decided to take her to Taughannock for a hike. It was actually pretty nice out, only in the 30's, but unfortunately VERY muddy!

Here's Spikes in the car - getting so excited!!

The water had such beautiful shades of blues and greens.


Taughannock Falls

This is the limestone streambed. It's got all these divots because of acid rain that has collected and evaporated over the years - it just eats away at it. A neat illusion though.

This is off to the side of the waterfall where all the mist collects and then freezes. It's really so beautiful!

And here is a dirty Spikes belly! Oh well, she actually cleaned up quite nicely :)

Ithaca Beer Bowling Party!

Let's see, I guess it was about a week and a half ago, Ithaca Beer Co. had the holiday party for their employees. (See, I'm not the only one behind on this holiday stuff :) It was a bowling party and we went to a bowling alley on Cornell's campus. This place is awesome, it's old school - no computers keeping score for you here - it's all done by hand. I personally like it better this way because you play by the hour and not the game. That way you can free-bowl as much as you like. Take practice rolls and just mess around. It was so much fun because we hadn't gone bowling for so long!
For those of you who don't know, I used to work at the bowling alley in State College - I wore many hats there - but my most prized position was as a mechanic. It was such a great experience and I learned so much. I really got into the "bowling scene." And although I never became a good bowler, it's still so much fun to go bowling. The sights, smells, sounds - it's a full-bodied experience :). The machines they had there were the same as the ones I used to work on, just a bit older. I was hoping for a tour, but it just didn't work out. But I can say now, with much confidence that we will definitely be heading back there in the very near future. Anyway, here are some goofy pictures from the night.

Yay - Presents! Dan got everyone some new gear. Mike and Chief got these cool overalls!

Then the guys on the bottling line got these coveralls - here's Zach being crazy as usual.

This is Mari (Dan's wife) with two of their kids - Kelsey & Skylar
(I think that's how to spell all their names :)

Here's Kelsey getting ready to bowl!

Alex & Denise

Patina & Bill

Zach, Bill, Alex, Jim, Amanda, Mike

Heather, Ginalola, Zach

Chris & Patina intently keeping score

Bill & Mike go head to head

Hi Heather! (Chief's wife)

I made friends with Dan and Mari's kids, Kelcey & Skylar

Kelcey, Chris, Skylar, Zach, Mike & Bill (Denise in the back)

Bill and Chris bowling
(if you look closely at this picture - you will see that I have super powers!)

Dan going for the strike - yes, he got it :)
Thanks Dan & Mari!!

The Ten

Last week, Mike's work was bottling the "Ten" for their 10 year anniversary. It's a double Cascadilla. I decided to stop by after work to check out the process and to get a little sample. I even got to try my hand at bottling a couple!

Here is the bottling machine

Here's Zach, capping the bottles (I got to do this a couple of times too).

Mike & Zach



Time for a new job???

And I must say - the Ten is tasting FANTASTIC!
We'll keep you posted on when its available.

Super Birthday Fun!

Thursday was Sarah's birthday! Ryan was working, so she decided to have a girls night out. Good times for sure!

More beads for her growing collection!

Here we are at Simeon's drinking "Turbos".
(Chris, Patina, Sarah, Ashley)

Sarah and Ryan reunited towards the end of the evening!

Happy Birthday Sis :)

Super Bowl Sunday

Look at me - I might actually get caught up with this blog!
So for the Super Bowl, Ryan and Sarah had us over and then Bill, Patina, Dylan, Ashley and Chief came over too. It was an awesome time - good company, tons of good food, football (I THINK I could tell you now who played), and just an overall good time. Thanks Sarah & Ryan :)

Sarah was quite festive with her Super Bowl chalk board drawing!


Huge homemade sausage by Ryan - everyone brought such good food!

We even had some towel snapping!

Ryan & Dylan with Patina in the background

Spikaroni

Silly Dylan :)

Happy Birthday Phil!

Last weekend we got to go to a surprise party for our friend Patina's father. Mike works with Bill (Patina's husband) and they just moved back here from living in Vermont.
It was a lot of fun! They had it at the American Legion in Trumansburg - good eats and music. I think it might have been the first time I've ever been in an American Legion.
Thanks for having us - good times!

Here is Phil and Nan (Patina's parents) when they came into the hall. Turns out he already knew about the party. It was still fun waiting for them to come through the door.

Here's Patina taping the big entrance.

Bill and their son Dylan

Mike & Sarah :)

Holy Birthdays!

Maybe it's silly, but I love birthdays and I think they are good times that should be recognized :) There have been so many birthdays over the last couple of months - so instead of going into serious detail,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:
Justine, Avi, Carol, Mom, Josh, Joy, Angie, Mick, Dad, Tabitha, Jeannie, Brent, Phil, Sarah, Chief, and Mike K!
We hope that you all had great days and have a fantastic year ahead!!

House Hunting

So Mike and I have decided that we really love Ithaca and want to stay for a long time. SOOO we've started looking for a house to buy. It's been pretty intense so far. We started in Jan. and have gone basically every weekend. So far we've seen about 20 houses :( Way too many with still not too much luck. We did find a cute place downtown but didn't act fast enough and it got sold. But we learned our lesson and are keeping our heads up. Things are already picking up with the Spring season approaching, so we'll see. We sure have seen a lot of different types of houses - several have been alright, but there have definitely been a handful of AWFUL ones!!! I take pictures everywhere we go so we can remember what we've seen, so now I can share a couple of scary/weird images with all of you:

This bathroom was the only bathroom in one house we saw. Isn't it cute - especially the tub. Unfortunately no shower, but maybe it could have worked.....ha!

This house was a little creepy. Mike and I have decided that we're not interested in any serious fixing up - and this was a little out of our comfort zone!

And this one takes the cake - it litterally had mushrooms growing out of the ceiling - YIKES!!Mike just reminded me of this one the other day - they actually went tanning in their basement - it was just a little too creepy :P

Bobby & Kelly Visit Ithaca

Sarah's brother, Bobby, and his wife Kelly came to visit Sarah and Ryan around mid-January. They live in Altanta and wanted to come check out Ithaca and see where their sister had moved to. It was Mike and I's first time meeting them and they were really nice! We took them for a tour at the brewery and then went to see some waterfalls. We also had dinner all together at Simeon's, where Sarah works.

Here's Bobby and Sarah

Mike and Bobby with the fermenters.

The girls - Kelly, Sarah & Chris

At Ithaca Falls

Frozen Buttermilk Falls - it was so cold when they were visiting - I guess it gave them a good taste of winter :)