Tag Archives: herkimer ny

Stop Whining and Blog!

Posted on April 20, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

First, the answer to yesterday’s trivia question is, “Nobody’s perfect.”  Didactic sorts (you know who you are) will point out that these word are not being spoken at the exact moment of that photo, but those are the words that are most apropos to me.  That being said, what about today’s blog post?  Oh dear.

I am having the most dreadful time lately.  I feel as if I am dragging myself through each day.  As soon as I typed that, I said to myself, “Don’t put that! That’s just whining!  Stop whining!”  It cannot be denied that I almost always have enough energy to whine about something.  That fact should prove to me that I have enough energy for other things, if only I would consent to exert it.  So here I am typing, and while I am not exactly dragging each word out of my recalcitrant brain, things are not flowing freely.  What, I ask, is a blogger to do?  No, really, I’m asking.  What should I do?  Anybody?  Bueller?

When in doubt, look for a picture.  After some moments of indecision, I decided on this one:

Pretty cool old building, isn’t it?

This is the old Frankfort Town Hall, in Frankfort, NY, which, for non-local readers, is close to Herkimer.  In fact, when Steven and I were looking for a house, we looked at several in Frankfort.  It is a nice little village, home of the Friendly Bake Shop, the Locavore, the Knight Spot, and other local businesses well worthy of Mohawk Valley Girl’s notice.  Alas, this building stands empty now.

I got the picture from The Mohawk Valley Through the Lens, a Facebook page I follow.   There are lot of swell pictures there.  I picked this one, because I have actually seen the building.  Looking through other photos on the page, I found another of a place I’ve been:

They’ll probably have some swell bands here this summer.

This is the Herkimer Marina near Gems Along the Mohawk and the Waterfront Grille, two of my favorite places.  I hope to go on an Erie Canal Cruise this summer.  I will write a blog post about it if I do.

I see now that I am over 300 words, a quite respectable number for a Wednesday, Wuss-out or not.  Additionally, I have to leave soon for rehearsal for Who Shot JS? my latest murder mystery (which I believe I have mentioned once or twice).  I hope to see you all on Thursday, which may or may not be of the Non-Sequitur variety.

 

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Walking on Sunshine

Posted on April 10, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

It was a drop-dead gorgeous day in the Mohawk Valley today.  Steven and I felt the right thing to do was to take a long walk, so we did.  First I wrote a few post cards.  I normally do that on Saturday, but, well, I guess it’s been kind of a lost weekend for me.  Don’t judge. Oh, OK, judge if you want, but don’t nag. I won’t listen.  Where was I?  Ah yes, about to write a Pedestrian Post instead of my usual Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

It was so bright and sunny I put on a hat with a brim and carried my purse, which contains my prescription sunglasses.  I put the sunglasses on before we reached the end of the driveway.  Before leaving, though, we walked into the backyard and shook our heads over the amount of yard work that needs to be done.  The delightful part was that we have some crocuses.  I was afraid with the early warm days and late snow we wouldn’t get any.  I noticed a few irises coming up as well.  Yay!

We walked down the sidewalk positively glorying in the warmth.  As we went through Meyers Park, I pointed out buds on some of the trees.  How wonderful it will be so see some green finally!  It was a comfortable temperature for walking, but I almost felt as if I won’t mind it too much when it does get super hot.  Oh well, I suppose I will be true to form and complain about it when it happens, but right now, I feel as if I won’t mind.  Does that make any sense to anybody?

After mailing the post cards, we headed toward Main Street then up Herkimer’s Historic Four Corners, one of my favorite spots.  We continued up Main then over to the path over what used to be a hydraulic canal.  We ended up walking down three stretches of the path, then up Washington and down Court Street to the Historic Four Corners again.  We met many people out taking a stroll or hanging out on their porches.  We exchanged greetings with all.

I was quite hungry when we got home so started cooking dinner. We opened front and back doors, because I ran the oven.  How lovely to air out the house!  I only wish I had brought our tablet on the walk so I could have taken some pictures to share.  Maybe I’ll look into getting one of them there smart phones; that ought to help pep things up.  Then I’ll have a Pepped Up Pedestrian Post.  You know how I love alliteration.  Happy Sunday, everyone.

 

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Can You Dig It?

Posted on March 16, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Well, it is Wuss-out Wednesday today.  I got the day off work due to Winter Storm Stella (I like “winter storm” better than “nor’easter”; it makes me feel like I’m under 70 and I still have all my teeth) (was that a dreadful thing to say?  There is nothing wrong with being over 70 and toothless; I may be there myself one day) (but this is not that day).

Where was I?  Ah yes, telling you a little about my day.  The best part was going back to bed after I got up and found out all shifts were cancelled at my place of employment.  The worst part was spending over two and a half hours shoveling the driveway. However, even that had its moments.

I wanted to take some “before” pictures for this blog.  When the extent of the task became apparent, I abandoned the Tablet and just started digging.  For another reason, I was afraid the sheer whiteness of the view would make it harder to see where the snow ended.  I could barely see where the snow ended, and I was right there.

Our neighbor, who owns half the two car garage and has driveway rights, had snow-blowed a path from his half of the garage (where he keeps his snowblower) to the sidewalk.  That definitely helped, because the rest of the driveway was quite impassible.  I think he also blew out the very end of our driveway, because although it was completely filled in by the plow, it did not look as deep as other areas.  We dug and dug. I tried to keep my spirits up.

“We are bad-hyphen-ass,” I assured Steven.  Many things become more bearable if you can feel that you are bad-ass when you do them.  I paused to admire the bare trees against the grey sky.  No, I did not make it back outside to take a picture of those.  Sorry.

I sang, “High Hopes,” you know, with the verse about that little old ant who thinks he can move a rubber tree plant.  I tried to put new words and make the song about us, but I could not think of a word for “old farts” and a word for “snowbank” that rhymed.

“How you doing, honey?  How you feeling?”  I kept asking Steven.  This was not just me being silly.  People have heart attacks while shoveling snow all the time, and my husband is not a young man.  He also does not lead the healthiest of lifestyles, but perhaps I can help him improve on that.

At one point, the neighbor kids were out playing.  The boy did a cannonball off his deck into the snow.

“I wanted to do that!” I said.  Unfortunately, I did no such thing.  As we shoveled, my feet and hands were becoming more and more cold.

Finally we decided that good enough was good enough.  Both vehicles are clear enough to move, with enough space to make it to the road.  It ain’t beautiful, but it’ll do.  I hit the showers.

And almost cried when the warm water hit my toes! My thighs, which were bright red, stung like hell as well.  What a dreadful feeling!  It is good we did not take any longer than we did with our shoveling.  I do not need to lose any toes to frostbite; I need them to count to twenty!

 

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Macaroni Salad on Scattered Saturday

Posted on March 5, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

It’s that moment in an every day blogger’s life, when you’re waiting for the macaroni salad to chill and you want to get your blog post published and you realize your brain is working no better than it was earlier today (that is, not at all).  I’ve done a few things, so perhaps I could manage a Scattered Saturday post.  We’ll see.

We slept in till almost 6:30.  It was a late night (for us), opening night of Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  So we got a slow start.  Eventually we made our way to Mona’s Diner in Mohawk, NY for breakfast.  The last time we ate there it was called The Family Fun Center.  It’s still a pretty good place to eat.  We don’t get to eat breakfast out together as often as we used to, so we enjoyed it.

Next we went to Basloe Library in Herkimer.  Ah, libraries, how they can save your life.  I had the character sheets from He Laughed Himself to Death I wanted to print out.  That is the murder mystery Ilion Little Theatre is putting on as a dinner theatre at Morning Star Methodist Church in Ilion on April 1.   It may be a scramble to put it together, but I think it will be highly entertaining.

Around one o’clock, I took a nap.  I will have another late night tonight.  As I type this, I am drinking coffee in anticipation.  I do love coffee.

After getting up from the nap, I made a macaroni salad for dinner (remember, I mentioned that in the first paragraph?).   I enjoyed the therapeutic benefits of chopping vegetables.  I will enjoy even more eating the salad with the kielbasa we got to go with it.  Yum!

Now all I have to do is wait to go to the theatre for tonight’s performance.  I don’t feel as nervous as I did yesterday, but I am far from calm, cool and collected.  That was to be expected.  However, I am glad I have at least composed a blog post.  I hope to see you all on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

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He’ll Never Even Miss the Duck

Posted on February 19, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

What I day I’ve had and it’s not over yet!  We got to sleep in, because Steven did not work till 10:30 this morning.  After a fairly leisurely first part of the day, I got to moving and shaking when Steven left for work.

I first buzzed by the post office, where once again I needed post card stamps. I sent some people post cards of Utica, NY, which I purchased at the Oneida County Historical Society last Saturday.

From there I went to the Hot Spot Salon and Spa in Herkimer, where I had scheduled a pedicure.  I haven’t had a pedicure in months!  I was early, so I worked on the character sheets for the murder mystery I’m writing to be presented by Ilion Little Theatre at Morning Star Methodist Church April 1.  The title is He Laughed Himself to Death.  Soon, however, I was soaking my feet and chatting with the stylist.  I got my toes painted red, in honor of my character, Ruby, in Rubbed Out at Ruby’s, to be presented by LiFT Theatre Company at the Overlook Mansion in Little Falls Feb. 25.

With my toes all pretty (and a little cold, since I insisted on wearing my faux-birkenstock sandals (isn’t that a more elegant term for them than Fakenstocks?), I went to Ilion Little Theatre, where I met a couple of cast-mates from Steel Magnolias, to be presented the first two weekends in March, one of whom is also in Ruby’s.  We were going to shop a few thrift stores.

First we went to the Cornerstone Shop on Morgan Street.  We found purses for our characters in Ruby’s, and they found  a few good shirts for Magnolias.  I found a black evening purse with rhinestones on the clasp.  I did not need it for any play, or indeed at all, since I have many evening bags (I kind of collect them).  I bought it anyways.  It was beautiful!

Next we went to the New 2 You Shop in Central Plaza.  My friends had never been there, a scandalous omission.  We spent a lot of time looking at all kinds of things.  I found two pair of earrings, one for Ruby, one for me.  I tried not to look at the books but failed.  I actually refrained from buying any; aren’t you proud of me?  I found a jacket that will work for Claree, if I can put the right skirt with it. It was only a buck!

Then I saw a little duck that was only a dollar.  Wouldn’t Steven like a little duck?  However, we have many, many stuffed toys and are constantly giving each other more.  I refrained.  My friend Kim thought Steven might be disappointed.

“I will fix him something wonderful for dinner,” I said.  “He’ll never even miss the duck.”

“He never even has to know about it,” Kim suggested.

“Well, he will when he reads my blog and the title is, ‘He’ll Never Even Miss the Duck.'”

Kim agreed that was a good title, so I used it.  We had thought to go to the Salvation Army Thrift Store, but I was quite shopped out by that time.  I went home and had something to eat.

Now I have to get my rear in gear again and figure out something wonderful for Steven’s dinner.  Otherwise, I guess I’ll be going back to New 2 You on Monday and buying that duck.

 

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Why I’m Fat

Posted on January 24, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

In lieu of my usual Middle-aged Musings Monday (or Monday Mental Meanderings, I guess), I would like to give a brief shout-out to a local business.  Yesterday, Steven, our friend Kim and I had a good meal at Asteroga Ale House in Herkimer, NY.

We had just left Little Falls, where we met with other members of LiFT Theatre Company to brainstorm about the interactive murder mystery we are doing at the Overlook Mansion in February.  I’ll write more about that later!  Theatre stuff always makes me work up an appetite.  OK, any little thing, including the mere passage of time, works up an appetite for me.  Be that as it may, I wanted to eat and dragged Steven and Kim along with me.

It was shortly before five p.m. when we walked in and easily found seats at the bar.  I like to sit at the bar.  We ordered drinks and perused the menu.  I got the special of 1/4 pound cheeseburger with curly fries.  Steven got a BLT sandwich with chips.  Kim, who generally eats light, ordered sweet potato fries.  While we waited for the food, we looked at a football game on the television and chatted about our upcoming theatre projects.

The food tasted really good.  I shared my fries with Steven but still chowed down on a lot of them myself.   This is why I have such trouble meeting my weight-loss goals.

The Asteroga Ale house is located at 122 W. Albany Street, Herkimer, New York, phone number (315) 219-5578.  You can Like them on Facebook.

 

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Grey Run

Posted on January 22, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I bet some of you thought I was never going to run again (while others of you are saying, “I never thought that!”).  I confess, I had my own doubts.  But today it was a choice between go running or eat something and I chose running!  I believe this demonstrates that there is indeed hope for me. (Full disclosure:  I ate something after the run.)

It was 40 degrees out, five degrees below my perhaps arbitrary border for running in shorts and short sleeves.  I found a pair of log johns that were only semi-dirty (I always feel so reduce-reuse-recycle when I wear something more than once before washing it) and pulled a long-sleeved running shirt out of my pile.  I was going to look for a ARMY t-shirt with a reflective decal in the back, but the sun was up and I was in a hurry.

Spunky wanted to go out when he saw me bustling about getting ready, so I took him for a short business meeting, then I was off.  Right away I thought, “Why oh why did I ever stop running?”  I also felt that the time not running had not wrought total havoc on my body.  Just a note:  I did not COMPLETELY stop running; let’s just say my habits have been  sporadic.  I turned right on German Street. Usually when I have not run in a while, I turn left, then go down Caroline Street, up Margaret, then down Henry.  That sounded boring to me.

It was grey and gloomy out.  I admired the bare trees against the sky, as I always do.  Perhaps I will venture out later with my Tablet and try to get a few pictures.  Soon it became apparent that my lack of running regularly had, naturally enough, had a negative impact on my body.  My legs were quite unhappy with me.  I sternly told myself that one must have the not so fun runs in order to get to the good stuff.  I tried to distract myself by deciding where to run.  Up Main Street and down the nice path?  I saw a man walking a dog in that direction and decided against it.  I do like to stop and pet a dog, but in the first place I did not know if that was a pettable dog and in the second place, I didn’t think it was a good idea for me to stop.

By the time I got to the end of German Street I had run almost ten minutes.  Oh dear, that doesn’t usually take me that long, does it?  Then again, what did that matter?  I set out to run a certain length of time; who cares how much ground I actually cover?  I thought a 20 minute run would be good.  I tried to feel happy about being halfway there.  It really wasn’t a horrible run.  Just kind of grey, meaning the sky and my mood.  Well, how much of life is in the grey area?  I’m thinking, a lot.

I looked at houses as I passed.  I saw one that still had red ribbons and wreaths on the porch.  As I ran I was narrating in my head that I went down this street, then that to the other, but that is more words than I feel like typing right now.  I ran by Herkimer’s Historic Four Corners.  There were poinsettias, red and gold foil, in the urns outside the Historical Society.  I made the sign of the cross as I ran by Herkimer Reformed Church.  I also noted the County Courthouse and 1834 Jail which make up the other two corners.

My run ended up being 22 minutes long.  I said good morning to three dog walkers as I walked around the block for my cool-down.  They were across the street from me, so I still didn’t get to pet a dog.  I petted my own dog when I got home.  I felt very happy that I ran again.  I hope to keep it up in the coming weeks.  I’ll probably write more blog posts about it.

 

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Lame-a-Rita?

Posted on January 14, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

It is Lame Post Friday and, yes, I am drinking and typing.  At least, I had a drink and now I am typing.  If my dear, DEAR husband, Steven, gets me a glass of wine, I will be drinking and typing.

“Would you like a glass of wine?” he just asked me.  He really is a most satisfactory husband.

So at Christmas my sister (my dear, DEAR sister) Cheryl gave us a gift card for Applebee’s.  I know, I don’t usually plug chains in this blog, but Herkimer Applebee’s is really an exemplary link in the chain.  Additionally, I am amused by the story of tonight’s drink of choice.

Last October, I was in Applebee’s with the large cast of Splitting Issues, the play Steven and I were in at Ilion Little Theatre.  I was not drinking, due to a tiresome medical issue which I will not bore you with at this time.  I was also fighting a dreadful cold, but I managed to have a fun time anyways.  That often happens when you hang out with theatre people.  As we were leaving, I caught sight of a drink being enjoyed by the wife of a fellow cast member.

“Is that an upside down beer in your drink?” I asked, awestruck.  It was.  It was, in fact, Corona, one of my favorite beers (as well as a pretty good typewriter).  I promised myself that one day I would go into Applebee’s and have “one of them there drinks with the upside down beer in it”  (yes, that was precisely how I planned to ask for it).  Today I had that opportunity.

We were lucky enough to get one of the tall tables in the bar area, which I love to sit at.  Steven pointed out on the “Featured Drink” card a drink with an upside bottle of Reunite Lambrusco.  I asked the waitress about it, mentioning the one with the beer as well.

“That’s the Corona-Rita,” she explained.  “After that, we came up with the one with Reunite.”

I opted for the one with the beer, because Lambrusco is sweet and I prefer dry wine.

I confess, I was a little disappointed in the drink.  I think in the future I’ll stick with their Perfect Margarita, which I have enjoyed on many occasions.  Or a glass of wine. However, I was happy I finally had my drink with the upside down beer.  We got some appetizers, too, which were pretty tasty.  All in all, a very fun evening out.  In fact, it was not in the least bit lame, but this being Lame Post Friday, I went with the headline I did.  Happy Friday, everyone.

 

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Is It Worth 3,000 Words?

Posted on January 13, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I think I may have run out of things to say about not having anything to say.

I am forcing myself not to backspace and erase that, as I did to at least three other possible leads.  I’m thinking at least one of those leads was better than what I went with, but of course now I can’t remember any of them.

Using a few random pictures seemed to work yesterday.  I wonder if I could get away with it two days in a row.

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He’s telling me what to say, and I’m thinking he’s full of beans.

 

This picture is from the Ilion Little Theatre production of Harvey in 2012.  Steven played Dr. Chumley.  I was Veda.  Perhaps longtime readers remember when this blog was All Harvey All The Time.

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My character is drinking wine, but it is not real wine in the glass, a source of much disappointment to me.

This is a more recent stage appearance: Splitting Issues last October.  I believe I also wrote a couple of blog posts about that.

 

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In jail, where some believe we belong (you know who you are).

 

I don’t have another theatre picture of Steven and me together, so I will show a picture of me in costume with Steven.  This was a Haunted Tour of Herkimer’s Historic Four Corners.  I reprised my role (wait a minute; my computer thinks “reprised” is not a word, but apparently “reprise” is. Oh, I can’t worry about that now) of Roxalana Druse, who was hanged behind the 1834 Jail.  I don’t think I did a blog post about that event (the haunted tour, not the hanging, although I never wrote about the hanging either).  How remiss of me.

So this is my Non-Sequitur Thursday post for the week.  I think I’ve jumped around enough to qualify.  If only I could think of a catchy headline, I could head to my Steel Magnolias rehearsal content.

 

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Don We Now Our Running Apparel

Posted on December 27, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I felt glorious as I got dressed to go running this morning.  Yes, “glorious” is the exact word that entered my head as I dug out the running clothes I have not had on since much earlier this month.  I was excited to go running, and hoped to write a Running Commentary blog post (we’ll see how that goes).

Yesterday we had terrible freezing rain.  I left the house very few times for specific reasons:  to help Steven scrape ice off his vehicle, to take my dog for a business meeting, and to decide NOT to scrape ice off my vehicle and drive anywhere.  I thought today was going to be better.  Listening to Jill Reale on WKTV News this morning, I found it was going to start out warm(ish) then get colder as we go on. Obviously there was no time to waste.

The sun was not all the way up when I started.  I donned my reflective vest, because I intended to run in the road, which had a decent shot at not being ice covered.  Really, as I started down my road, narrating in my head as I like to do, I thought, “I donned my reflective vest…”  Then I chuckled at myself for using an old timey word like that.  Then “Deck the Halls” played in my head for the rest of the run. It is not a bad tune to run to.  I thought of making up new words to it (another hobby of mine), but all I came up with was “heedless of the tacky pleather”  (you know, like “heedless of the wind and weather”) (I don’t expect everybody to know all the verses).

Fortunately there was not much traffic, since the side of the road had frozen and semi-frozen puddles.  The busiest street I ran on was German.  I ran all the way to the end, rounded the corner and ran down Church Street to Main.  Main Street in Herkimer is sometimes busy, sometimes not so much.  It was a busy moment, which was bad for me, since I had to cross the street to continue left-side-facing-traffic, which I am quite the stickler for.  Then I noticed that the sidewalk was almost completely clear.  Score!

I did not run all the way down Main, but cut through the little park by Basloe Library (open normal hours today, yay!), then crossed Pleasant Street.  This way I could go by the “Do Not Enter” sign on Bellinger Avenue.  I so enjoy entering where it says not to.  I crossed my own street to run up Henry.  I had thought to run a mere 20 minutes, because it had been so long since running last.  Then I thought, it didn’t matter if I ran too long and got achey legs, because my legs also ache from not running.  As I like to say, pick your pain.

I ended up running 23 minutes then walked 11 for my cool-down.  It was a wonderful run.  Every step felt good and the cool-down walk felt awesome!  I thought, “I have found the secret to happiness!”  I’m damned if I can remember why I stopped running.  I hope to not be so silly again.

 

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