Randall's Blog

Debbie & I brought home a new cat last weekend. He is a good sized boy kitty (11lbs+) and very handsome. He looks like a Himalayan mix - his face is not so flat though:

He is really quite shy and has been hiding under various pieces of furniture since we brought him home. He started out in Debbie's room and was under her love seat for a while. He did start venturing out a bit at night and met up with Smudgey.

There was some hissing but no real fur flying encounters. He had a name at the shelter, Sphinx, but we didn't like it so we embarked on a search for the best name for the new guy. He makes sounds that are a little like a "meep" so we gave him the name Meep, at least to start.

He seemed to be doing pretty well until yesterday when we had to take him to the vet. The shelter (Mohawk & Hudson River Humane Society (MHRHS) of Menands) put this in the adoption papers. I'm not sure why they insist on a visit within a week. If he wasn't adopted he might not have seen a vet for quite a while. It was quite traumatic to get him out from under my mom's bed and into a carrier. Next time we will use our own judgment on the timing.

He was pretty good at the vet. There were some issues to be looked at but he is a pretty healthy 6 yr old.

When he got home he found a pretty good hiding place in the attic - it took an hour to find him:

He will doubtless recover from this and soon be a happy kitty.

R

Here is a link to my image picks for 2009:

http://www.allrandall.com/2009Picks/

I have been meaning to write a post about how disgusted I am with Obama, the congress etc. but I am too angry. Lots of other people feel the same way and have written about their frustration - look here and here and here. I can't listen to the news anymore because I just want to scream at the stupidity!!!

I have been busy with my new job and dealing with my mother while working full-time. Fun-Fun.

This photo was supposed to have some meteors in it but alas there were none and it got even more cloudy.

The fast-moving clouds here did make for an interesting effect, though (taken 12/14/09).

I will be working on our end-of-year letter and Groundhog 2010 is Jan. 30th so save the date!

Happy Solstice!

Randall

I haven't had an update in a while. I went to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival again this year. It was another great event - two days this year. Here are my photos from Saturday afternoon.

I spent some time felling dead trees on our property and cutting fire wood.

We have had some really nice sunsets since the leaves fell:

A few weeks ago Debbie, my mom and I visited my cousin Joe and his family. It was a nice welcome home party. Very good to see that he is safely home for the holidays!

Other recent events were a birthday party for Liz and Santhoshi's defense:

We did get one very small last thing out of the garden:

Kinda sad considering that it had been growing for so many months...

We hosted the family Thanksgiving this year. Rebecca & Ali, Chris & Shannon, Jennie & Dan & Corey and two of Debbie's law school pals; Liz and Maiko joined Debbie, my mom and me. There was a LOT of great vegan food and Rebecca & Ali stayed till Saturday.

On Friday I went out to Gloversville for another vegan Thanksgiving and got to meet Heidi & Daniel's new baby, Eve. What a little cutie!

We have set the date for Groundhog 2010 as January 30th - so plan ahead!

My friend Dave flew into Newark last Friday and stayed through Tuesday. It worked out that Debbie's nephew, Ryan, and his family were also visiting Debbie's parents in Maywood last week. Dave and I planned to go to the big PDN PhotoPlus Expo in NYC last weekend, by flying in to Newark (a cheaper flight) we could get an early start to the day on Saturday. We all stayed over Friday night in Maywood and went into the city Saturday morning. Debbie, Ryan, Jenny & the kids went on a NYC tour (on double-decker buses) and Dave & I went to the photo show.

The photo show was fun - and dangerous - all the new cameras and photo stuff to play with. The Canon 7D is really nice... After, we all met up and stopped for a photo:

Ryan & Jenny had to take off as the kids were getting tired but Dave joined us for a nice dinner at Angelica Kitchen on E. 12th St. Dave & I had a drink around the corner (while we were waiting) and we all had a nice meal at Angelica. We were even able to stop at Trader Joe's on the way back to Albany.

On Sunday Dave & I went to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA. It was a nice day and the grounds are beautiful. Too bad Debbie had to spend the day hitting the books.

We both enjoyed the museum and spent a lot of time shooting the Fall colors on the grounds.

On Monday I convinced Dave to join me in an attempt to get to the bottom of the Plotterkill falls. Some poeple may not realize it but I actually have two blogs here - the second blog is a "photo blog" and does not get updated as often. I did post some shots from a Plotterkill hike last week. There was a lot more water flowing because of the rain and the falls looked very different than only a week ago. It was somewhat harder to cross the stream as well:

After a bit of backtracking we made it and the falls were pretty cool:

We also passed smaller falls on the way:

Dave & I had a nice hike and a great visit!

This weekend I'm planning to attend the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival again. This year it's a two day event - should be great!