Sunday, January 29, 2012

The Sisters Visit

Dick's sisters paid us a visit recently. Sue and Mollie were staying in a motel in Saratoga so they went there first to drop off their things and then around 4:30pm they came to our house. Our daycare closed early at 3pm so it worked out really well. I was working in 50 miles away until 5pm and so I got to experience the rush hour all the way home in snowy conditions and got home close to 6:30pm. Around 6:00pm Dick called me to tell me Mollie was treating us the a Chinese takeout. Around 6:15pm I got a call from Mollie's cell phone  "Hello, hello, hello, I cannot hear anyone or anything, I am hanging up". I thought it was a butt call but it happened again, and again. About 4 times. So I thought we were all in a bad cell.

Shortly after cresting the hill at the monument I saw a car situated sideways on Burgoyne. It's nose was in the ditch outside our neighbor's house, so the car was parallel with Monument Drive.

It was Sue and Mollie. No one was hurt and the car looked undamaged. Mollie had already walked back to our house to let Dick know "there will be a slight delay in picking up the take out" she told him before she returned to Sue.

Apparently they had misjudged as they left our driveway and had fallen into the ditch quite soon after reversing. Sue thought she could drive the car out and kept going (in the ditch) but another car came up the hill so she had to break and that's when the back end swung around and ended up on the street.

There was a very happy ending. The newly elected Town (of Saratoga) Supervisor, Don Ormsby, just happened to have finished snow plowing the town offices and came across the sisters, so he parked his large truck with emergency-kind flashing lights below the "scene", I picked up the takeout and we all (except for Don who was adamant about staying in his warm truck) went inside to eat while we waited a short time for the tow truck to pull the car out. Jack was in his element with it all.

Here's a photo I borrowed from the internet which demonstrates the angle. Imagine snow, a smaller ditch and a slightly smaller, more modern car and two laughing sisters.

AAA pulled the car out of the ditch quite easily. A happy ending.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Baby Fish

We have a few new baby fish in the aquarium and I am not sure who the parents are.

I have not had time to photograph them (so I borrowed this photo from the web).

This particular one looks like a juvenile guppy. Ours are similar in color - golden with huge eyes.

Hopefully they grow to maturity and then we will be able to identify them properly.



Sunday, January 22, 2012

Helium Balloon

Kelly brought helium balloons for Jack's birthday last Saturday. Four regular ones and a red foil one which had "You're 3 Today" on it.

It outlasted the others and on Friday as I was trying to get Jack off to daycare in a timely manner, I suggested he take it with him. I told him a few times "Don't let go of it when we are outside because it will fly away and we will not see it again" - he said "Ok. I will not let go of it Mummy". No sooner had we stepped outside, Jack let go of it and I was not able to catch it as it flew up and over our house. Jack's facial expression was one of muted glee (he did not want me to see he was quite excited about it). I told him to say goodbye to it (thinking that gesture would make he feel bad about it - but not at all).

As it crested the roof it dipped a little so I asked Jack to follow me around to the front of the house. As the wind blew it across the lawn, the (warm) balloon was reaching ambient temperature, cooling down and sinking. I was able to catch it. And I put it back in the house.

Our science lesson for the day was "Cold Air Sinks".

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Happy Birthday Jack and Patrick!

Jack and Patrick celebrated their birthdays in Schuylerville and Bishops Stortford, respectively.

Jack was not the only one to love his icecream birthday cake (thank you Campbell and Kelly for that!). Hopefully we get to skype with Dad, etc. in Ireland today.

When I get a chance, I will upload more photos.



Thursday, January 12, 2012

Trying Out Everything

Jack got into my mascara the other evening before his bath.

We are so relieved he did not damage his beautiful eyes.