My Fair Lunch

Look who I found at the Fairgrounds today during my lunch break! Eric had to work out at the Fair this afternoon, so we got together for lunch. (Although I was already eating by the time he got there...)

I had a very tasty chicken Gyro from a Greek restaurant at the Pepsi Pavilion. Eric had pizza from Twin Trees.

We walked around a little bit after we ate and saw these human statues. They're so cool.

We also ran into the NY State Dairy Princess and Mozzarella the Cow. (Mozzarella was on our morning show, that's how I knew her name...)

Then we decided to get a tasty dessert from Tootsie's Fried Dough place.

It was soooooooo good...... And that was our fun lunch date! After lunch, I headed back to the station to finish up my work day... quite full of Fair food.

Alex Returns

Alex has returned! And he was not taller than me. He's getting there though! But I'm afraid it won't be much longer...

And here's video proof that Jenny is indeed insane. I'm not sure what she saw outside, but whatever it was (squirrel, cat or maybe a bunny)... you can be sure that it was quite safe. Jenny was unable to break through the glass.

The Deep Fried Fair

Day 2 at the Great NY State Fair... here I pose with Maggie & Chris, fellow employees.

Today on our show we had the Harlem Wizards. They were very entertaining, the crowd loved them.

We also had Yooooolanda Vega! She's one of the spokespersons (and lottery hosts) for the NY State Lottery. And with tonight's big Mega Millions drawing ($333 mil), it was fun having her on the show. She promised me back stage that she'd make sure my numbers were drawn...

Here's a view of some of the audience. Very fun crowd! (They get especially excited if you throw them free t-shirts.)

Here's a photo of my lunch today. The hot dog platter from the Dinosaur BBQ. Yum!

And before I left to head back to the station, Beebs and I had a very important errand to run... so we took a golf cart...

Over to the Deep Fried Mashed Potato booth!! And yes... they were as fantastic as they sound!

This is a photo of the famed Deep Fried Mashed Potatoes on a stick.... served with a side of sour cream.

Beebs got the combo plate... complete with the mashed potatoes, fried ravioli, fried mac n cheese, fried crab rangoon and a couple of meatballs! Holy fried food!

The Fair: Day One

Today was the first day of the NY State Fair. I spent the morning working, helping out with our morning show that broadcasts live from the stage at "Chevy Court". It's a fun show and it's nice to get out of the building to do something different for a change.

Today we had Chuck Wicks on the show. This is a photo of him signing autographs during a commercial break. I didn't really know who he was until last spring when he was on Dancing with the Stars. Apparently he's an "up and coming" country singer... and he was at the Fair to perform a concert today.

Chuck Wicks stuck around to be a judge in our Karaoke contest. Today's contestants sang a Kelly Clarkson song, hoping to win tickets to her show this evening.

I also caught a glimpse of the Governor today. He was on our Noon news at our broadcast center at the Fairgrounds. He had quite the entourage following him around.

And if seeing Chuck Wicks and the Governor wasn't enough excitement for one day, the NY State Maple Syrup Princess & Queen posed for a photo for me too. The fun never ends at the NY State Fair!

This is a crowd shot at our broadcast area at the Fair. People love to seeing a live show... and they also love to get "free" things...

Here's our broadcast area, with the jumbo-tron. The Governor is being interviewed by our Noon anchor. If you look close, you can see them over to the far left middle of the photo, their backs are to the crowd. Tomorrow is Day 2. I wonder what interesting things I'll see tomorrow!

I Can't Believe It's Butter

Well, here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for. The unveiling of the infamous Butter Sculpture at the Great NY State Fair. I saw it today while I was out at the fairgrounds helping to set up our area for work. I still don't get the fascination of the butter sculpture... but I always seem to check it out every year.

Sir Reginald Gets a Bath

Eric has named the mini "Sir Reginald Green". Seems like a fitting name. And today he gave Sir Reginald a bath...

I'm not sure who enjoyed it more...

Slushie Sunday

We had another fun-filled day here at the Hayden House. We met some old friends at Stella's for brunch, and met a new friend too. The food there is always so very filling, but the atmosphere is fun and friendly.

Then we came home and made some wine slushies! I've been wanting to try this recipe for years. I found it on the Wisteria website. This is the recipe:

2 parts Ice

1 part Wisteria Wine

1/2 part powdered sugar

Mix together in a blender for 15 sec. (or for better results, use a Magic Bullet!)

It's very sweet, but oh, so tasty! And no... contrary to popular belief, we are not becoming winos! It just seems like we're drinking a lot of wine lately... and well, we kind of are. But not TOO much. And once Alex returns next week, and school begins again, the schedule will be too full again to partake in such luxuries... so we might as well enjoy it while we can!

Fifteen Candles

Today we hosted a family gathering to celebrate Kelsey's 15th birthday. We made all her favorite foods... including a boat load of chicken kabobs.

The group surrounds the table of food... while Jenny picks up anything that was "accidentally" dropped on the floor.

We all sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl...

Then she unwrapped her gifts... err... envelopes... with lots of help from Kelly, Laura and Haileigh.

And the entire group looked on. It was a terrific day. With lots of food, wine (for the adults) and great company. I can't believe it's been a year since we hosted our first gathering in our new house. Time is just flying by...

Busy, busy!

We've got lots to do today, and this weekend for that matter! It started last night with shopping trips to Kohl's, Aldi and Wegmans. (And a fun dinner at Panera in between!)

We're hosting Kelsey's "family" birthday party today. We've got quite a full menu, with chicken kabobs, potato salad, baked mac n cheese, baked beans... and sooo much more. Oh and plus the cake and ice cream. (Well, the ice cream cake, as requested by the birthday girl.) Can't wait for the festivities to begin. We're hoping the rain will hold off so we can grill on the deck and have extra room outside.

Tomorrow we're going to a brunch to meet Beebs' new girlfriend! It's nice to see Beebs happy, can't wait to meet the girl who stole his heart.

The Amish Store

Last Saturday during our wine tour, we stopped at this Amish Store. I briefly mentioned it in my blog post. Well, I found this fun article about the store, and I thought I would share! There are some fun pictures of the inside of the store too. Click here to read the article and see the photos. (And the photo above was borrowed from the article... )

Must (Not) See TV

A little over a year ago we moved into our new home. We signed up for Time Warner Cable, and got their 1-Year Introductory offer of $39/month for Digital Cable. Our year is up, and now they want to charge us $65/month for the same exact service. I called to ask if we could down-size to just the standard cable. Much to my surprise, it's the same price as Digital Cable. And according to the not-so-very-nice salesman on the phone, it's the same because "elderly people find the digital cable box hard to use, so they charge the same for both"... which made absolutely no sense to me. Does it make sense to you?? I think he was feeding me a lot of bull... not to mention, that was kind of mean!

So our options to stay with Time Warner Cable are to suck it up and pay the $65/mo to watch about 25 of the 200 channels that we get, or pay $9/mo to get about 12 channels. There are no in between choices.

We're now currently looking into what sorts of Satellite TV packages are available, either with Dish Network or DirecTV. FIOS isn't available yet... and there aren't really any other options, aside from installing a giant antennae on the roof and using a digital converter box. (Which I think would be Eric's choice!) But I "need" my HGTV, TLC and Food Network... and Alex "needs" his ESPN.. and Kelsey "needs" her Disney channel... and I'd bet that Eric would really miss his SciFi Network if it suddenly wasn't there anymore... so what should we do?? Any suggestions?

Wine Weekend

We visited some Wineries this weekend! We started the day at 3 Brother's Winery. Since I was driving, I didn't get the "Passport" to taste at all 3 wineries (and a brewery!) And I had already been there a few weeks ago, so it was all good.

Our all-time favorite wine: Wisteria! Which can be found at Miles Wine Cellars. It's a fabulous wine, we all highly recommend it.

Our wine purchases. Between all of us, we bought 19 bottles of wine. Whew! That's a lot of wine. 

These are all the treats we found at a fun Amish Market that we stumbled upon. We spent quite a lot of time there and found lots of goodies! I was rather pleased with the giant bag of "Charms"... (the marshmallow candy found in Lucky Charms cereals...)

I'm so glad they had the chance to visit, we had a fantastic time. Highlights of the weekend include sitting on the deck reading magazines, having our fun little "Chutter" cheese party and getting to buy our beloved Wisteria. It was a great weekend!

Show Us Your Life: Favorite Vacation Spots

I've taken a break from the "Show Us Your Life" series for a few weeks, but I'm back for this one! Who could resist this topic. Not me! This week is "Show Us Your Favorite Vacation". And you all know how I love vacations! This was very hard to choose just one favorite though. I've been very fortunate to take MANY great vacations...  

A couple of years ago we discovered Cruises! I was lucky enough to take 2 cruises that year. It was SO wonderful. This particular cruise left the great city of New York and cruised up to New Brunswick & Halifax, Nova Scotia.  

The above photo was taken when we finally got on board, we were so thrilled and ready to start a great vacation! The weather was gorgeous. 

This was the lobby of the ship. Isn't it grand?! 

As the ship headed out of NY harbor, it had to squeeze under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. It doesn't look like it's going to make it in this shot, but it does. Just barely! 

This was the view returning to NYC early in the morning, 5 days later. Eric got up early that day and took these amazing pictures. 

Here is Lady Liberty, standing tall in the harbor as the sun rises. I can't wait to take another cruise... it was such a great vacation! 

And as many of you already know, probably my most favorite vacation spot is the Cape. I actually took this photo 3 weeks ago during our stay at the beach. (There are many blog posts in the month of July about our most recent vacation if you want to see more!) 

We've done the Cape vacation several times now. It's a family favorite. Nothing better than stepping out of your door and walking down to the beach. 

We enjoy flying kites on the beach too.

And doing some sight-seeing. This is Cape Cod Lighthouse. We stopped on our way back from Provincetown one beautiful day. Could the sky get any bluer?! 

Here I am posing at the Lighthouse. 

I love the sound of the ocean... And I love vacations!! Thank you Kelly for hosting this wonderful tour of vacation spots. If you'd like to participate or see other vacation spots, be sure to check out Kellys Korner!