Jack-o-lantern Spectacular

Next year, someone remind me about this. It was an amazing event, and we have 60+ pictures of it. We'll do a photo a day or something for October. Hmm. 60+. Maybe for September and October. And then we'll all carve our own and post them. Pumpkins rock.

Outside?

To these two outside is where the birds and squirrels are- and those logs that they enjoy sniffing, climbing, and trying to catch their leashes on.

As it turns out you can get a harness onto a cat and then put him on a leash without dying of blood loss. But you can't walk him. Oh No. He goes wherever he wants knowing that if you really want him to go (or not go) somewhere you'll pick him up and carry him.

Hillcrest Manor

I'm archiving photos, and I found the ones of the B&B. The master suite is on the second floor where you can see the curtains drawn back.

This is from the Corning, NY trip a few blog entries ago.

up Here

You know, I don't miss the suffering of being a grad student. At all.

But I do miss the people. Enter Lin.

Falafel

The problem with watching Food Network is that you get Ideas. It doesn't matter what you were planning to have for dinner because it all goes up in smoke. Last night we watched the Falafel episode of Throwdown, and we decided that tonight we'd go to a little falafel restaurant we'd seen on Rt. 1.

Falafel Inn is a tiny place with pretty awesome food. They had pictures for us less-knowledgable people, and they were very friendly.



Clockwise from the upper left we had Chicken Shawafel, Falafel, Lamb Shawarma, salad, hummus, some other salad, babaganush, more salad, some sort of tahini dressing, and pitas. The Shawafel was my favourite. We'll probably skip the platters next time because the rice is superfluous.

Playtime!

From October 19 (yes, we're still that far behind on kitten footage):

Corning, NY

About a year ago Banik and I visited Corning, NY, for "academic research" and had a pretty good time. The Corning Museum of Glass is something else, and for the record glassmaking was totally relevant to my thesis.

We stayed at the Hillcrest Manor, which was beautiful. (I found a photo and posted it here.) The hosts were great and served a tasty breakfast each morning. The master suite was lovely (though you do have to trade a shower for the double walled cast iron tub), and their glass collection is rather awesome.

Before we left the Finger Lakes Region we drove to a few vineyards before we left, and Bully Hill Vineyards was the favourite. The atmosphere was casual, the marketing was amusing, and the salesperson was knowledgable. He could talk about the differences between the wines Banik was tasting and answer all his questions, but he never acted superior. We left with a bottle of Ravat 51 and one of Sweet Walter Red (both are rather sweet wines)- and for a great price. Alas, they cannot send wine to CT.

We also stopped at a couple of less awesome wineries. Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Winery was pretentious, and I don't even remember the name of the wine that we bought for a gift. Heron Hill Winery showed promise, but apparently their visiting hours are something of a suggestion. We went all the way up there after they were supposed to have opened, and even though we walked around they pretended we weren't there. >.< CMoG, Hillcrest Manor, Bully Hill: all awesome.