friday, we continued unpacking (once amanda arrived from buffalo) as the house was still in shambles. we had to get it into shape before susan arrived the next day for a visit.
saturday, there was more unpacking, cleaning, and whatnot. susan made it to ithaca around 11am; she made it here in a bit over three hours which is quite speedy. after lazing about, we managed to make it into town for a late lunch at viva taqueria. the weather was kinda sucky, so we did not do much walking about. intead we ran errands… the new home depot for some plastic sheeting and possible mums, the new petsmart for fish supplies, two new comet goldfish (“four” and “five”) to give “three” the goldifsh some company, and a new address tag fot piglet, and kmart for possible mums. we did not actually find any mums as the ones around were in pretty horrible shape.
on the way back to the house, we stopped by six mile creek vineyard for a bit of wine tasting.
at home, susan took the opportunity to take a long nap. amanda and i kept unpacking and whatnot. some big developments included setting up the compost bins, cleaning up the front porch which had all kinds of junk strewn about, wrapping our eight spare tires in our newly acquired plastic sheeting and stashing them behind the house, and yet more laundry and unpacking of boxes.
we talked with ben, one of our neighbors about random stuff (for example, why he rents the house beside when he owns all the land (which is quite a lot) behind our houses all the way to ny79. in short, he split up with his wife (as his kids were grown which was the only reason they were together at that point), tried living in his rv parked beside his woodshop, became way too cold in the winter, and then decided to rent a house from our landlords since he knew and had worked with them before. someday he’ll get around to building his own house. amanda went off on a walk with him whilst i dorked about.
i eventually also took a nap. when i awoke we discussed dinner. due to the lateness of the hour and our general noncommitedness we ended up going to maxies. afterwards, we started watching animals are beautiful people (which fortunately we were able to watch even though i could not find the dvd remote). as usual, amanda fell asleep within five minutes of the movie starting; susan lasted a bit longer. i spent the time alternately watching the movie and working.
sunday was still pretty lowkey. it took a while for us to get up and get motoring, but perhaps we were affected by the weather which was still pretty blah. we had thoughts about continuing wine tasting, but as most of the wineries were a bit far from us, it would have been better to start earlier in the morning. we ended up watching animals are beautiful people again since amanda and susan really did not see it last night. i spent more time organizing the house while amanda researched flights and whatnot for interviews in the coming month(s).
we considered going to the museum for cultural purposes, but no one seemed into that. we did go to the lab of ornithology which was cool. i had not been in quite a while and since that time cornell build a completely new building… much larger than the couple of rooms the lab had been before. since the weather was cloudy, wet, and cold, we did not go out on any of the trails… perhaps another time.
after a trip to the mall for lunch we headed back home. susan left shortly thereafter to avoid getting back to philadelphia too late. amanda and i kept unpacking. we managed to get all of the books unpacked, and now there are only a few boxes left. we still have to organize stuff as just because things are unpacked does not mean they are in their final resting places, but much has been accomplished. amanda decided to stay over the night and drive back to buffalo monday morning (like at around 430am). we had a dinner of broccoli and tofu before amanda retired. i relaxed for a while and then did some more work before calling it a night/morning.
monday we had no problem getting up at 4am. of course, amanda had the harder part of it as she had to drive whilst i was just going to work at home until later in the morning. she made it to buffalo, and after her call i went into work.
she will be working her first emergency room shift tonight from 7pm-7am, so i imagine that she is at lainie’s sleeping right now. hopefully, anyway, as she had a orientation earlier in the afternoon.
back to work…