Tag Archives: local business

I Guess There Was a Race

There was a little bit of scatter to my Saturday but not enough to make it a Scattered Saturday post.  I got a little silly, so I was going to call this Silly Saturday, but a quick check of past posts showed that I used that headline back in 2012.  I suppose it would be OK to repeat myself after that length of time (it was kind of a dumb post, actually).  Well, let me lead with the silly.

I say it is fabulous and fashionable.

We are supposed to wear fancy hats on Kentucky Derby Day, aren’t we?  This was a hat I have had for some years now.  I found the furry thing earlier Saturday at a rummage sale at a nearby church.  I know, I am supposed to be getting rid of junk at my house, not purchasing more, but I just can’t resist a good rummage sale!  I also found a great pair of shoes for costume purposes, a few pairs of gloves good for running this winter, a bowl for my next Halloween party, the man’s blazer I’m wearing in the picture, and a handy zipper bag.

Yummy place to eat!

Before going to the rummage sale, I had breakfast at Saturday Spreads in Frankfort, NY.  I had an everything bagel with garden toppings, which I had last time I ate there and had been craving ever since.

Attired in my new fancy hat, I did not go to any Kentucky Derby parties or even to Pete’s Tavern, where I could have made a bet on the race.  I did stop by the Elks Lodge so my hat could be seen.  My friends were suitably impressed.

I think I need to start dressing fabulously more often and perhaps with less excuse.  It is fun and at my age, I think such eccentricities are to be encouraged.

 

Not Too Tired to Jump Around

I’m afraid today is going to be a Tired Tuesday post.  My over-60 body has betrayed me yet again (oh, shut up all you over-70 and over-80 bodies; I KNOW you are older and I have something to look forward to!).  I still have a few pictures of Mohawk Valley Adventures to blog about, but my cell phone is across the room charging, and I cannot possibly go over there and upload pictures to my Media Library.  How lame does that sound?  Am I sure it is not Lame Post Friday?  And so I laugh at myself.

Where I may be soon.

I thought a picture of me supine behind a chaise lounge with only a sweet pair of mules sticking out would be a good depiction of how I feel this afternoon.  However, that guilty-looking guy moving the suitcase out is less appropriate.  Nobody has just strangled me is what I am saying.  I swoon from my own lack of oomph.  Regular readers may recognize that as a rehearsal shot from Prescription: Murder at Ilion Little Theatre last year.

Good place to get jewelry.

Here is a Preview of Coming Attractions. I missed it, but today was the Grand Re-Opening of Weisser’s Jewelers.  The picture shows the location where they have been since the building next to theirs met with an unfortunate end.  They are finally able to move back into their original location.  I must go there and purchase some jewelry.  I do not especially need any new jewelry, but the beauty part of jewelry is that it is small.  I do not have to search for space in my messy house for it.

So this is my blog post. I guess it jumped around a little. Once again, I thank you for tuning in.

 

Lame is the Answer

Oh dear, I wanted to make my Lame Post Friday blog post before going out adventuring today, but I sit here at my Chromebook feeling headachey and dull.  Where’s that sparkling personality I thought I had?  And here we come to the ugly truth about me.  Never mind.  I want to make a blog post and I will.   Quick, throw in a picture to lighten  up the mood.

Who could be uncheered by a snowman?

I have not seen any snowmen recently.  It has not been warm enough for the snow to pack, unfortunately.  The caption, by the way, is an homage to Winnie the Pooh.

You KNOW I am going to enter!

Here is a sign I have not seen in a while, because I have not been running.  I really want to start again, but with below zero wind chills and ice on the roadways, I keep putting it off. I have been saying I am going to run the Boilermaker 15K in Utica, NY this July but have not yet registered.  I heard open registration started, so I better get moving on it.  It will be good for a few blog posts anyways.

Bittersweet is the word.

I close on a melancholy note.  I shared this picture on Facebook this morning after it showed up in my Memories.  The mugs were a Christmas gift from my sister Cheryl, the Queen of Christmas, to my dearly missed husband Steve and me. I said that I rarely use these mugs, but perhaps I would today for a cup of hot cocoa.  I recently purchased the necessary ingredients.  Hmm, that motivates me to get out the door and get on with my errands and adventures.  I can return to a steaming mug of hot cocoa.  Maybe I’ll add a shot of moonshine from Dikin Durt Distillery, just to give a local business a shout-out.

 

Late Post, Even Later Pictures

Well, the Mohawk Valley wasn’t lame yesterday, but I pretty much was.  I was afraid the Mohawk Valley Garlic and Herb Festival would be too much of a crowd scene, so I stayed close to home.  I did a little yard word and discovered I have another Rose of Sharon growing some distance from the original bush, and it has a few blooms on it!  I meant to take a picture for inclusion here but, alas, forgot.  I could do it now, but the sun isn’t up yet.

The crown scene in 2018.

As for cleaning the house, I made very little progress.  I managed to write my usual Saturday post cards and walked them to the post office.

A regular stop for me.

Yes, the only picture I could find in my Media Library of Herkimer’s post office was in the wintertime, January 2019 to be exact, and it took me long enough to find that.  Anyways, after the post office I kept walking.  For one reason, I had not gone running (will I go running today?  Good question).  For another, I was low on cash, and Cliff’s Local Market (might as well give them a shout-out too; they are locally owned) has an AmeriCU ATM.  From there it was little trouble to cross the street and enjoy another tasting at Valley Wine and Liquor.  They usually have them from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

Full disclosure: this is not what I tasted yesterday.

This is another photo from a previous event, but at least it is more recent than my previous pictures.  Additionally, it give me a chance to give another shout-out to one of my favorite local businesses, DikinDurt Distillery.

I guess this turned out to be a less lame blog post than I expected (or do I flatter myself?).  And I feel I should appreciate whatever I manage to get done these days.  Will I have any bloggable Mohawk Valley Adventures today?  Hard to say.  It is, after all, Wrist to Forehead Sunday.  But I do hope to make a blog post, and I hope you will stay tuned.

 

A Few Saturday Shout-outs

In my Scattered Saturday tradition, I will give a few shout-outs to some local businesses I visited recently.  I hope to do more detailed posts about each, but for now, this will have to do.

Fooey! You can’t read the sign!

A new business on Main Street in Herkimer is Petzotics.  they have birds, lizards and other exotic pets.  Also they bring their pets to birthday parties, so the guests can meet them.  Could that be an idea for my birthday party?  Friends, family, what do you think?

I hope not too secret of a hideout!

Godfather’s Hideout, on Protection Avenue in Herkimer, has been open for take-out for a while now and now has a dining room.  I recently went there for a dish of spaghetti, and YUM!  I also had a glass of red wine that was quite tasty.  It’s OK; I was walking.

He could have joined me for dinner.

I have made several posts about Yetty’s, on Mohawk Street in Herkimer, but none recently.  I was there for dinner last night and got garlic pizza.  I am enjoying the leftovers today.  As I left, a little boy was pointing at this lovely fellow looking over the railing.  I never saw him before. Of course I stopped to take a picture.

So, yes, I am trying to get out and about more.  If I can start writing about it more, I will be a pig in shit.  As always, I hope you will stay tuned.

 

Not a Powerful Blog Post

Yesterday I was disappointed to lose power about 9:30 in the morning.  I can’t put it stronger than that, because I had already had coffee and breakfast.  An inconvenience, merely, I told myself, and hoped it would not last long.  I wished, of course, that it was not such a gloomy day, because I could have happily sat doing crossword puzzles or reading.  I also wished I had completely charged my phone, but one can’t have everything.

Since I hadn’t gone running, I went for a walk, looking to see if any trees were down.  There were not, but I did not take that long of a walk, because my stomach started to feel upset.  When it settled down, I went outside and worked in the lawn, cutting down my daisies and peonies that were definitely over.

My flowers in better days.

That did not last long, either, because the humidity made it difficult to breathe while exerting myself.  Lots of bending and straightening, which is not easy with the pot belly I am having difficulty losing (kindly do NOT say TMI!).  Eventually I found sitting on my front porch working on a letter to a friend to be an eligible activity.  The light was better than inside the house, and there was an occasional breeze to assist my comfort.

Eventually it was lunch time and I took the lack of power as an excuse to go out to lunch.  Yetty’s had power but no internet, so the television wasn’t on and I had to pay with cash.  I prefer to do that anyways.

The Special board at Yetty’s, taken during a previous visit.

My power was restored by late afternoon.  Once again, I cannot complain. I hear other areas may not be restored till Tuesday at 11:30 p.m. (I’d thinking National Grid said that because it sounded better than just saying Wednesday).  Also Saturday’s storm caused great damage in surrounding areas, including three fatalities.  I personally feel blessed.

 

A Satisfying Sound Indeed

Last night after I attended a Frankfort Town Board Meeting (regular readers may remember I have a side hustle covering Valley meetings for Sentinel Media), I stopped by Fratello’s Pizzeria to enjoy some music with Ryan Quinn.  Oh dear, that sounds like he was my date.  No, no, he was making the music, I was enjoying it.

A very nice young man.

He was playing guitar when I showed up, and he smiled nicely when I went to take a picture.  I told him it was for my blog post.  Later he switched to keyboard, so I tried to get a shot of that, too.

And he is as talented as he is nice.

At first I thought I screwed up, because I couldn’t make the picture come up as I walked back to my seat at the bar (I like to sit at the bar), so I went back and tried again.  This time I took two.  My phone made that little “blb.”

“I’m sure I got it that time,” I said.

“It even made a satisfying sound,” he agreed.

I went to see Phil Arcuri at Fratello’s on a recent Wednesday but neglected to make a blog post about it.  How remiss of me.  In fact, I have not been catching the local music scene as much as I like to lately.  I’ll have to do something about that.

 

Late Slacker and Shout-Out Post with a Plug and Pleasantries

OK, I missed doing my Saturday Blog Post on Saturday.  I have no excuse; it was quite the Slacker day (my Chromebook decided to capitalize Slacker.  I’ll let it stand).  The highlight of my day was a late lunch at Yetty’s in Herkimer, NY.

Always seasonal!

I had to take a picture of the head.  They decorate the head according to the time of year, much as I try to do with my skellington Bonita.  For lunch I had a Chicken Panini (my Chromebook insists on underlining panini, but I googled it!), which was quite delicious.  I have half of it in my refrigerator for a snack at a later date.

I’ll have to try to get a better picture.

Earlier that afternoon I went for a walk which ended up at the Elks Lodge, where I met a few friends, and we exchanged pleasantries.  On the way there, I saw some blue pinwheels in front of the County Office Building, to promote Child Abuse Prevention.  It is not a very good picture, but I use it just to give a brief plug to an important issue.  I suppose it behooves me to look for something to do of more substantive help.

Yay! Green!

Just after I took the picture of the pinwheels, I saw some green budding out of some bushes and had to get this encouraging shot.  Kermit the Frog famously said it’s not easy being green (which I found out was totally true when I was in the army), but when it comes to spring time, it is also not easy getting to be green.  I look forward to seeing more of my favorite color!

In the meantime, it is Easter morning, and I must set about getting a few things done before heading do Rome to see some of my beloved family.  I wish you all a happy holiday if you celebrate, and if you do not, I wish you a happy day, and for both groups, I thank you for tuning in.

 

When In Doubt, Add Coffee

And now my headache is back.  I begin my Lame Post Friday Post with a whine.  It is too early yet for wine, which might help my headache but could also cause a worse one tomorrow.  Ah, the trials and tribulations.

Random picture to denote passage of time while I go put on coffee.

I had tea instead of coffee earlier this morning, which is usually fine.  I had a headache, which got worse after I ate breakfast and took some Migraine Relief (with the magic ingredient caffeine, as a boss of mine used to say).  After lying down for a while, my head felt better, so I went for a run.  I did not run yesterday due to a back ache (YES all I do at my age is feel pain in various parts of my body.  Either you know what I am talking about or you eventually will).

Where was I going with this?    What a dull, boring post!

 

The inspirational bumble bee.

I looked for a more exciting picture to pep up the post and found this from The Mustard Seed in Little Falls, NY, thus adding a shout-out to a local business.  The bumble bee is part of their logo, because of the story that aerodynamically speaking, the bumble bee should not be able to fly, but somehow does.  Thus, the owner of the Mustard Seed never lets anybody tell her what she can and can’t do but somehow does what she does.  I have not been to the Mustard Seed in a while, but it is a very fun place to shop.  There are several fine places to shop in Little Falls.  I must take a drive there soon.

Don’t I look like a little devil?

I close with the wine I mentioned in the first paragraph.  I was wearing that shirt and drinking white wine yesterday, but my hair does not look like that these days.  I started to grow it out when I knew I was going to audition for the play I’m in (perhaps you have read my blog posts about that).  It will probably not stay long.

However, this blog post has gotten a little long for a Lame Post Friday post, approaching 400 words.  And I think the coffee I put on earlier is done.  Can headache relief be far?  In any case, I thank you one again for tuning in and hope I have managed to be at least mildly entertaining.

 

I Like Art

Sometimes I get a little culture.  For example, last Saturday I went to the Renaissance Pub in Little Falls for a Meet the Artist with Frank Wilcox.   The Renaissance periodically hosts local artists in cooperation with Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts.

I am acquainted with Frank from being in a play with him (Strike Story written by Angela Harris), and I have seen his work in several area venues.  Full disclosure:  my original plan was to write about the Renaissance (or the Ren as it is sometimes called) for Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  I missed the deadline for the February issue, so I will try again for a future issue (unless another writer beats me to it).  In the meantime, I wanted to give the place a shout-out, and give folks a chance to go see some of Frank Wilcox’s paintings.

I can’t quite get a good picture of behind the bar.

Of course I sat at the bar and had a glass of wine.  One must support a venue that promotes local artists.  Unfortunately the kitchen was not open yet, because the food there is very good.

It’s hard to take good pictures of pictures.

I was there early enough that it was not too crowded yet, so I did not have to worry about asking a bunch of strangers if it was OK if they were in the picture.  I did not take too many pictures in any case, because they did not seem to be turning out very well.  Therefore, I encourage all local readers to go to the Ren and take a look for themselves.

Erynn Lowery and Victoria Cheney

I was fortunate enough to get a picture of the proprietress and bartender.  Unfortunately Victoria, the bartender, was moving soon.

You really should go see this one.

I took a picture of my favorite painting.  I was happy to get a chance to tell Frank how much I liked it.  Unfortunately, there are no walls in my house big enough to properly show off a picture that big.  As I type this, I look around at all the nice pictures on my walls now, which include at least a few by local artists.  That was my husband Steven’s talent, hanging pictures and interior decoration.  Still, I could retire a couple of pictures if I acquired any more art.  I certainly hope to attend more Meet the Artists at the Renaissance.

The Renaissance Pub is located at 550 E. Main St., Little Falls, NY, phone number 315-556-1006. Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts is located at 401-403 Canal Place, Little Falls, phone number 315-823-0808. You can Like them both on Facebook.