Laura Visit August 7 - 11

After leaving Greta's I drove to Laura's.  On the way I ran into a 7 minute hail storm but pulled off to the side of the road to wait it out.
The next day we drove downtown and parked at the Prudential Center and first thing we did was buy something so we could get the discounted parking.
Someone was nice enough to take our picture.

 For lunch we went to Joe's

 and took a selfie

 Then we got someone else to take our picture down by the pier.

We saw entertainment in front of Quincy Market

and other street entertainment

 We walked around Boston

 Walked through Quincy Market

 and Boston Commons but didn't stay for the play

We went back to the Prudential Center and when we went to pay our parking fee realized that we never looked at the check-in time of the ticket and had to pay full price because we were 4 minutes late!!

At night we went to Wegmans for the $6 meals.

On Friday we went to Mooney Street for some rug shopping.  Laura got 2 new rugs and Sydney quickly adopted the one inside the house.

and we went to the car wash

On Sunday we took a walk, went kayaking and to Margaritas for dinner.  A great weekend!!

Greta Visit August 4 - 7

I drove to Greta's on Monday and when I got there no one was home. Fortunately I could get in the house and I was listening to a good book so once I unloaded the car I sat out on the second level deck in the front of the house that had some comfy chairs. Around 6:30 I finally called Greta, who was at work to find out where everyone was. Charles had taken them to a water polo game and Greta said she would be home soon.
Everyone eventually was home and tired and bed time no longer entails stories since they can all read on their own. The boys all went to bed because the next day there was a Divisional swim meet. Charles was assisting so he took the boys in the morning and I came later with Bev.

A video from the event
Tucker taking a breather!

I helped Greta get ready for a dinner she was going to have on her widow's walk.  We carried

everything up there on Monday night and then the last minute things on Tuesday and then some

miserable wasp/bee that had a nest under the opening at the top of the stairs BIT ME on my knee.

My knee swelled up and the next day my ankle and lower leg.  Needless to say I was on Benadryl for a few days.

Bev took the boys to the playground at school and I walked down to meet them on Wednesday.

Back at home I helped Tucker finish up his summer school work.

Later that day, after going to the doctor's with Greta for a stomach ailment, we went to the water polo meet back at the Lake Club.  On the way there, the sky got very dark and we only got a little wet before reaching the sheltered area when the sky really opened up.  The kids had been out of the water for a 1/2 hour already because of the thunder.  Once the weather cleared the game was on and Rocky won!

The awards ceremony

A picture for me to take home.

And Tucker showed me a hidden talent.

At Rocky on my last day, Tucker liked hanging out with the big kids playing table tennis.

Myles and Hunter were going sailing in the afternoon but it took them more time than I had so I left before they took off.

Published

Here's a snapshot of when I uploaded the magazine to blurb and it showed up on the first page of "Just Published" and then a picture of it showing up when doing a search for magazine.
A 15 minutes of fame moment.

Bahama Cruise Photo Book

I'm on a roll with photo books, but now it's time for a break and to move on to some othere project.
I got this Shutterfly photo book for free from opening an Old Navy charge card.  I love what Shutterfly has done with the photobooks for giving the user the ability to customize everything!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Rochester 3-Day Tour

We had a really good time when Margie & John, our new friends from Ohio that we met on our cruise came for a visit.  They were so great to be with.  I don't think they minded, and I loved it, that I didn't have to do anything fancy.  They arrived on Wednesday around noon after touring Niagara Falls (NY side) and Lockport, the Underground Cave and Boat Ride that we didn't know anything about, but now want to see.

We had lunch here and then following my prepared Tour Package.  I can't say that we followed it exactly, especially not for the meals but we did see most of the sites.  We went to Pittsford and took a walk along the canal at Schoen Place.

From there we went to Wegmans in Pittsford which is one of the out of towners MUST see.  A trip down to Park Ave was next since we decided we would never be hungry enough to eat at 7:00 which was on the planned tour.  We wandered down to F. Oliver's where we sampled and purchased and then stopped into Baker St Bakery next door to buy some bread for dipping when we got home.  On the way home we stopped at our local Wegmans and each bought a $6 meal which we never ate that night because we had wine, bread, vinegar and oil and some other appetizer type things.  And then it was time for dessert.

On Thursday we went to Ontario Beach Park and walked out on the pier

the water was especially disgusting looking!

  We walked to the lighthouse

 and then went into the park and rode the carousel



We saw a car using the electric-vehicle charging station at the pier parking lot.  I didn't even know we had these.  I just Googled it and found out that as of April 2014 Rochester had 24 of these and for the first year they are free to use.  The article said that the cost of electricity is minimal.
Also learned that Governor Cuomo announced a Charge NY initiative in 2013, installing 360 EV stations across New York.  Where have I been??

After all that we went to Pelican's Nest for an outdoor lunch.

And a stop at the Charlotte Lighthouse 

From there, Larry took over the tour and took us to places outside of what the original tour included but were very noteworthy stops.
We went to the House of Guitars, which this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary along with the Riots in Rochester.

This is what I remember the House Of Guitars from way back when.

Not too different now but a lot bigger but still as disorganized.  But just ask and they can find anything you want.

From there Larry took us over for a little hike at Whiting Rd Nature Center, just to make sure we would be able to eat again and then we rode down to the end of Lake Rd where the swing bridge is.

Once home again some of us needed little naps and thought we would never be able to eat again but somehow we managed to down those Wegmans $6 meals from the day before.

On Friday it was time to tour the George Eastman House.  

 Margie likes to take pictures in mirrors as much as I do.

 We toured the house on our own but then took part in the garden tour.

From there we drove over to Lake Ave and passed what used to be Midtown Plaza.  In looking up information about that I came across this video.  I remember all those stores from when I worked downtown at Xerox and we could just walk across the enclosed bridge to get into Midtown.

We finally got to our lunch spot, The Genesee Brew House

We didn't take any pictures of the food, but wasn't beer the reason to come?  But just as a reminder for the next time, Margie and I each got the Brew House Nachos which were really good but couldn't finish them so took them home.  Not so good as leftovers.  Next time share.

Because it was crowded and we didn't want to wait for an outside table we ate indoors and then went up to the 3rd floor roof to take pictures of the falls.

And John found a new friend as we left.

Back home we were going to have a healthy salad and pizza for dinner but by the time we got around to eating, it was just the pizza.  Looks like Larry and I were going to have to be healthy on our own.

We had a great time.  Thanks for coming Margie and John.  See you soon!!

Photoshop tips

Scanning photos from books, magazines and newspapers often results in an unsightly interference pattern called moire.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshop/ht/apsremovemoire.htm
Remove wrinkles
http://www.essential-photoshop-elements.com/remove-wrinkles.html

OS X Mountain Lion: Reinstall OS X and other solutions to frozen iMac

7/20/14

Maybe this would have helped the other 2 times but I had a similar experience this morning.  Last night I had to Force Quit BookWright and instead of reopening it, I shut down the computer and when I started it up this morning it wouldn't boot.  It wouldn't even let me get to the point to reinstall the OS.  It was showing that I needed new batteries for my keyboard/mouse.  I recently replaced the mouse batteries but maybe the reason I couldn't get to the reboot was because the keyboard wasn't working. While I was replacing the batteries and seeing what I could do, I used my laptop to look up why I couldn't get the iMac to boot.  I came across this http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570 and it did the trick.

At first I tried the Soft Boot by holding down the shift key and then it went back to the gray screen with the apple and spinning globe so I shut it off to try the boot where I could see what was going on by holding Shift-Command-V during start up. I liked this much better because it wasn't just looking at a screen, you saw words on what looked like an old DOS type screen.

In reading some of the print out I realized I left the speaker plugged in and quickly whipped it out.  Then a soft reboot - YEA!!  Then a normal restart and I'm back in business.






7/3/14
Thanks to BookWright and maybe my being on it for too long at a time, I've had to reinstall OS X twice in less than 24 hours.  Thought I better put these instructions here in case I forget.

Spring Rolls

When I make these for just us they become our main course because they are so good.
For company, they're fun to let everyone make their own as an appetizer.

Spring Rolls

INGREDIENTS:
2 ounces rice vermicelli
8 rice wrappers (8.5 inch diameter)
imitation or real crab, shrimp, chicken or whatever you like cut to fit
chopped basilchopped fresh mint leaves
chopped fresh cilantro
chopped lettuce
thin sliced carrots
thin sliced celery
hoisin sauce
chopped peanuts

Cilantro Chicken

I was looking for a new marinade recipe for chicken that I wanted to serve for when Lila and Keith came over for dinner and found this one.
After yoga I went to Wegmans to buy whatever I needed for dinner besides the ingredients for the marinade.

I guess I didn't really read the write up too closely because I bought regular chili sauce instead of the sweet chili sauce that you would get in the Asian section but it still tasted good.  I served it with grilled yellow squash and zucchini and corn on the cob.

Corn Flake Cookies

Kris made these when we went to visit for Claire's graduation and Larry really liked them and  I thought they tasted like pecan sandies.  I made them and Larry likes them, but I thought the ones Kris made tasted better.

Naan Pizza

The Wegmans Menu magazine had a lot of Naan pizza recipes this month.  I decided to make a Naan pizza too.  It was so good that we ate most of it before I remembered to take a picture.  Here's my healthy version.

Mini Zucchini Quiche

This was in the WW weekly and online http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeId=339391

The week after it was in the weekly someone brought a batch into the meeting I worked and I thought they were so good that I had to give it a try.  I made some in paper muffin cups but they stuck too much but my mini muffin pans were probably too mini because they came out so little, that's why I switched to paper because I could fill them more.  Maybe some spray on the papers would help.  After I made them, I froze them and when I want to use them I take them out and let them thaw and then warm them up in the toaster oven.

Stuffed Mushrooms

I wanted to make stuffed mushrooms, something I haven't made in decades but I couldn't find my recipe which I once had on an index card.  I found a recipe from Wegmans  that was  similar to the one I used to make and another one on allrecipes that sounded good too and I came up with this one.
As it is a day later, that I'm updating this I realize I never took a picture so I guess I'll have to make it again so I can add the picture.  I guess they were a hit when I took them to our get together at Jane's because there weren't any left.

imagine a picture of delicious stuffed mushroom here

Bread Pudding

BREAD PUDDING
I still want to try a bread pudding recipe and this one has great reviews

Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time:  45 min
Servings: 12

"This lightly spiced, extra-thick bread pudding is made with simple pantry items like bread, eggs, milk, and sugar. Best made with a rich egg bread or a moist white loaf."

INGREDIENTS:
6 slices day-old bread
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.  Break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread. If desired, sprinkle with raisins.
3.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.
4.  Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bread-Pudding-II/Detail.aspx