http://blogs.fingerlakes1.com/bryankees/ en-us Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:37:08 GMT CakePHP http://blogs.fingerlakes1.com/bryankees/dozer/ We just got done with my daughter's 11th birthday party where my sister brought her 80 pound Old English bulldog, Dozer. Add together the perfect weather, a slip-n-slide and an 80 pound dog and you have a recipe for fun! Link to images Sun, May 24th 2009, 16:15 GMT http://blogs.fingerlakes1.com/bryankees/memorial-day-dc-style/ My daughter just turned 10, and for her birthday, she wanted to go to Washington, DC. She is currently learning about US History in school, so who could say no to a child with a thirst for knowledge? We planned the trip and made arrangement with our Congressman Michael Arcuri's office http://arcuri.house.gov/to tour the White House and the Capitol. A big thanks goes out to Congressman Arcuri'soffice for getting us into both places and the personal tour of the Capitol. If you call ahead, you can avoid the 20-30 person general Capitol tour and get a more intimate tour from one of the Congressman's aides.The Capitol was far and away the better tour. If you've never been, it's a must see. The old Supreme Court, the architecture, the statues, the paintings, the history, it's all amazing. You can almost feel the history. It was very impressive.After that, we made our way to the Mall. To my daughter's dismay, the mall contained no Limited too or Aeropostale! But she came around when she saw all the monuments she had read about. The Washington MonumentThe Lincoln MemorialThe WWII MemorialArlington National CemeteryArlington, for me, was the best part of the trip. I was blown away at the emotion I felt while there. From the simplicity of JFK's eternal flame to the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I had a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat most of the time. I don't think there was a dry eye when the Guard played Taps at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We were fortunate to be there when a group of at least 500 to 1000 Vets rode through on their motorcycles proudly displaying the Stars and Stripes and a POW flag. There was also a Motorcycle Parade on Sunday around the Mall. We must have spent an hour watching the bikers/Vets ride with their fists up, high fiving or waving to the other vets and onlookers not riding that day. It was also interesting to watch the Vets interact with each other. As they walked past each other, the common greeting was "Welcome Home." Watching the Vets at the Vietnam Memorial was as touching. I don't believe I know anyone who's name is on the wall, but it was very obvious most of the people there did. I almost felt guilty for watching. When someone finally found that name they were looking for, I couldn't tell if it was relief or dispair or grief or frustration.Most likely, it wasprobably all of them.The reality of it all just smacked us in the face this weekend. This happened, people died, so we could live. Our daughter got a taste of the history. She couldn't possibly fully comprehend what she was seeing. How could she? She's only 10. Hopefully it won't take her until she's in her late 30's, like her parents, to really get it. Wed, May 28th 2008, 07:10 GMT http://blogs.fingerlakes1.com/bryankees/geneva-bicycle-center/ A friend told me about the GenevaBicycle Centera few years ago. He was an avid cyclist, but moreover, he was a discerning consumer. He ignored the bike shop in his backyard to travel to Geneva for the knowledge and customer service available.I had assumed that the bike shop was a place where my buddy could go and get his high end road bike worked on, but not a place for a round guy such as myself to get a weekend warrior bike. Was I ever wrong.My wife and I found ourselves wanting new bikes so we could ride as a family. Considering our daughter wasalmost 9at the time and was very adept at riding herself, we figured it would be a nice way to spend time together as a family. So, we started looking around. We had already done the Walmart bike thing and weren't overly impressed. We were looking for something a little higher in quality. We checked Dicks andfound a couple bikes, but weren't sure if they were the right kind of bikes for what we wanted, and didn't get much direction from the person working the department. I happened to be out one day around lunch time in downtown Geneva, so I decided to stop in andcheck out theGeneva Bike Shop. I was greeted by a staff member who seemed to actually listen to what I was saying. After asking some relevant questions, she showed me a couple bikes that would fit the bill. Feeling pretty good about the place, I left, promising to be back with my wife so we could look together.We returned that weekend and I spoke with another staff member who was just as pleasant as the first, and didn't at all seem annoyed my by very novice questions. I asked why some bikes were more than others, and instead of blowing off the question with a canned answer, he went specifically betweentwo bikes to show my why one was more expensive than the other. This part is metal here, while this one is plastic, this bike has an inner wall to prevent the spokes from puncturing the tire, etc. He also explained the difference between styles of bikes as well as tires. We thought we had it figured out what we wanted, so he suggested we take the bikes for a test ride. He sent us both out with bikes, me with the one we thought we wanted, and my wife with our other choice. We ride similar sized bikes, so we could both test ride each bike. I'm glad we did, because we changed our mind as soon as we rode them. The one bike rode much different than we thought. The other bike just felt right, as soon as we got on it. Feeling very well informed, we purchaseour newbikes. It's been a year since that purchase and I'm happy we did it. So happy, in fact that we just purchased our 3rd bike from the bike shop, this onefor our daughter. We were thinking of buying our daughter a bike last year, when we got ours, but our salesman talked us out of it. He could have grabbed the money, but he stated that the bike we wanted to buy her was probably too big and she'd struggle with it. He said if we wanted to get her that bike, we should probably wait a bit. I'm glad we did. She got the bike just the other day for her birthday (which is still 23 days away!) but we couldn't wait. There's just too much riding to do between now and then!Check them out if you are in Geneva, or on the web go to: http://www.genevabikes.com/ Mon, May 5th 2008, 06:52 GMT http://blogs.fingerlakes1.com/bryankees/spring-cleaning-redux/ It's been a while since my last blogging efforts. It's not that I haven't wanted to blog, but I just couldn't find the motivation. Until recently. My legion of fans were demanding....Ok, ok, that's a complete lie. I decided to post again because I was reading Tales From the B Side by a friend of mine, NYTwinsFan. I really like his blog.Anyway, back at it. A year ago I posted my honey do list for the spring cleaning/summer project season. I figured I'd go back over it, and see if there was anything I missed!#1 was clean upthe dog'slandmines on the lawn, check. It was a mess, but what didn't get picked up became fertilizer! For this year, I didn't haveas much to clean up from the dog as we moved this winter. To the new owner, sorry about that, it snowed way to early this year!#2 was fix the lawnmower, check, kind of. I paraded that lawnmower around the block to see if anyone in the neighborhood could figure out why it won't cut right since my wife hit the big rock. Nobody could figure it out, so time for a new mower. #3 was install invisible fence. Nope. Missed that one. The good news is, since we moved, we can install it this year. I'll move it up on my list, to be sure it gets done. Yeah, I know, #3 isn't that far down the list, but still!#4 Slate Patio. Yeah, that didn't get done either. Tried. Turns out you actually need to have a plan and stuff to figure that out. Who knew?50% through 4 tasks isn't very good.I wonder if my wife is on to something?Ok, time for the2008 version of thelist. Trying a new numbering strategy that my wife suggested to get more stuff done.#1 Install invisible fence. The dog doesn't even think my fake invisible fence routine is funny anymore.#1 Finish kitchen remodel. Stained the cabinets, new hardware, new flooring, new countertop, should be pretty quick! #1 Make driveway bigger. This is one better left to the professionals. But what the heck? They can clean it up after I completely screw it up.#1 Install new windows. Unfortunately, once I mess up the previous item, I'm sure we'll have spent enough money to push this to the 2009 list.#1 Paint outside of house. This is a topic that is widely commented on by anyone that knows where we live. As we meet the neighbors, many of them say, "Nice to meet you, when are you painting the house?" The house currently has a Grimace and Barney love child tint to it.#1 Figure out plant beds. We have a bunch of very nice plant beds at the new house, but we aren't sure if we have weeds or flowers growing. Although a neighbor of mine once gave me this tidbit.. "Do you know the difference between and weed and a flower?" "Location". So true. Ok, that should be it for now. More regular updates to come.. including how we are doing on items #1, #1, #1, #1, and #1.Bye for now. Mon, Apr 21st 2008, 08:33 GMT http://blogs.fingerlakes1.com/bryankees/getting-back-to-nature/ Every year around the 4th of July, my niece is in a twirling competition that gives the entire family a reason to take a few days and head up to the Adirondacks. We go to Old Forge for a couple days, enjoy Water Safari, and watch my niece twirl her heart out. This year, we tried to do it a little differently.We allnormally stay at the Hotel across the street from the water park, but this year,wedecided we were going to camp. We have the tent and all the fixings and just had a successful trip to Green Lakes State Park in Syracuse, so we figured, what the heck? We were only going to be there to sleep for the most part, so we could save a little money, and enjoy the lovely Adirondack mountains up close and personal. While I think this is a good idea, the rest of my wife's family told us they would visit the camp site, but stay at the usual hotel.We get to our site and get everything set up. So far, no biggie. The campground is very rustic. The roads were narrow and somewhat difficult to figure out. On the other hand, the beach is clean and showcases a very nice view of the Adirondacks. Our site was fairly small with the back of the site leading down into a heavily wooded ravine. The only thing of note so far, is that, during check-in, they mention that there are bears in the area and that you need to put food, coolers and garbage in your car and covered up so the bears can't see them.We finish the day at Water Safari then back to the camp for a wind-down fire. My sister-in-law and their family show up and we roasted some marshmallows. About 9:30pm, they pile in their van and head back to the hotel they where they were staying. As they leave, they encounter a small bear cub about 300 yards from our camp, so they double back around to let us know. As they pull back up and lower the window to call me over my daughter looks back towards them and says "There it is!" Not knowing what she's talking about, I spin around on the picnic table and see a large shadow between our picnic table and our car and tent. I shine the flashlight on it and sure enough, it's a full grown adult black bear. Did I mention that the bear was between us and our tent AND car? Did you also remember that I said that there was a ravine just beyond our fire pit? Just wanted to make sure you understood those points, becausethey certainly weren't lost on me.When I put the light directly on the bear, it was walking around our picnic table and crossed towards our fire getting approximately 5 feet from me as I got up to walk around the picnic table. The crazy thing to us was that this bear didn't seem to care that we were still awake, making noise and sitting by the fire. The other point that stuck with us is that the bear didn't seem to be afraid. Actually, he/she seemed far from it. It was as cool as can be. I decided to politely ask the bear to leave with a someone confident "YEAH! GET!" To which it seemed to think, "who does this guy think he is?" and "will you PLEASE get that light out of my eyes, it's not very nice"When he was finished inspecting our campsite, he decided to meander over to the neighbors site with me reporting his location to the neighbors' with my pathetic "Bear, bear, BEAR!" emergency notification system.Thanks to my advanced notice, the neighbors were able to get into their car before the near 300 pounder (it gets bigger every time I tell the story!) made his way over to see what they forgot to put away.Now that the immediate threat was gone, we retreated to our car to assess our situation. I tried to get my wife and daughter to see the wonder of the situation, but all they could see was the bear. I explained how we could retire to our tent and sleep peacefully knowing that we've been there, done that with the bear, but they weren't buying it.A quick phone call later, and we were on our way to join the rest of the family in the hotel. They were booked, but had a no-show and considering they were closing around 11 (it was 10:45 by now) they gave us the room after looking at my terrified daughter and equally terrified wife (although she was doing a good job trying to cover it up in front of my daughter).The next morning, we made the walk of shame back to our campsite to retrieve our tent and it's contents. What? You didn't think we took it down at night did you? Nooooooo.. did you miss the part where I said there was as bear??? Anyway, we got talking with the neighbors again, and they said our bear friend made a return trip at least once and ripped open a package of paper plates they had mistakenly left out. So we packed up, gave the neighbors the rest of our firewood and decided to rough it again in the hotel.The moral of the story? The t-shirt we found summed it up nicely.. Bears love campers. They taste like chicken! Sun, Jul 8th 2007, 17:53 GMT