I traveled to New York this past weekend for my cousin Arthur and his fiance Meghan’s wedding. The rehearsal dinner was located at my mom’s cabin. My mom, grandma, and I cooked like crazy all day Friday. The dinner was Ramen noodle salad, rolls, stuffed cornish hens, wild rice, stuffed tomatoes, and for dessert chocolate covered strawberries and my mom’s famous New York cheesecake. YUM!
The wedding was on the lookout of the mountaintop that my uncle owns by Antler Lake, NY. The weather was beautiful and so was the wedding.
The reception was at Arthur’s house in Northville, NY. It was quite a drive from the wedding (an hour) but it was well worth the drive. Meghan’s parents brought in tons of fish and cooked all of the food for the reception themselves. It was amazing; homemade stuffed flounder, lobster pasta, clam chowder, and tons more. It was so nice to hang out with family that I haven’t seen in years. All my cousins are getting so big; I feel so old 🙂
Click on the picture below to see pictures of the rehearsal dinner, ceremony and reception:
-ec
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I bought a new vehicle today. But I’ll start from the beginning…
I sold the Talon today. A 17 year old and his parents drove from West Virginia (~5 hours) and ‘look’ at the talon. I knew it was as good as sold when I opened the garage door and Matt whispered “Dad….there it is!”. Didn’t get the exact amount I wanted for it, but I felt good selling it for less since I knew this kid was going to love the car. Here’s the car momments before it left my driveway for the last time:
Emily and I went out “looking” to see what kind of SUVs are on the market around here. We drove through and walked around 10+ dealer lots. At our last stop, Champion Dodge, I saw a maroon 98 Durango. Further inspection proved it to be a 20 footer (only looks good from 20 feet away). Dents, dings, scratches, thinned paint and a nail in a tire. Next was a 2001 Ford Explorer Sport. Out of my price range and the armrest was completely broken. Next was a 99 silver pewter metallic Durango. 5.2l V8 (230HP, 300lb/ft torque…but at 6300lbs!!). Looked nice, very little body defects, and has an aftermarket 6 disc cd changer.
We haggled a little. The dealer wanted $9995 which was about $3000 more than I was “allowed” to spend. So we went inside to get the sales guy’s card (it was his first day and he didn’t have any with his name) and while we waited, Emily suggested we just lowball them and offer the $6700 I got for the Talon. The sales guys were a little surprised, but they turned around, huddled and talked, and accepted the offer! Not bad eh?!
Although the Durango only gets 17MPG highway (hence the tree hugger title to this post), I only have to fill it with 87 octane. That saves me 20 to 30 cents per gallon at each fill up, and the talon only got 20-22 MPG anyway (about 200-225mi per tank), if I was lucky.
I’ll get some more pictures tomorrow, but here she is:
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Today I went to one of my little brother Philip’s football games. He plays JV for Lloyd High School. The team is really small this year, so all the players stay in most the game. He’s really enjoying football this year, and he’s getting really good at it! He made some great plays & tackles today. He used to be one of the smaller players when he started playing football years ago, now he’s the biggest guy on his team. I sure wouldn’t want to be across from him on the line! Those poor guys were getting pummeled and smashed every play!
Click on the picture below to see some pictures from today’s game.
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Our fence was finished Friday. It looks great and Megabyte spends about 5 hours a day out there running around, looking through the pickets and guarding her yard by growling at unsuspecting passerbys.
Many thanks again to our Uncle Ted and Aunt Karen whose gift made it possible for us to get the fence so soon after moving in. 🙂
Click on the picture below to see pictures of the completed fence (and some of Megabyte enjoying her yard).
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