Missing Phone Booth Adventure

I received an email this morning, "Where is the Jay phone booth? Gone!"

I thought for sure this was some kind of practical joke since I was just preaching about my love of the phone booth the night before. I immediately hopped in my car with my pajamas still on and drove to find the truth.

It was true. The phone booth was missing.

I drove home immediately, gobbled up some peanut butter toast as fast as I could because I feared if I didn't find out the phone booth's fate, it would be too late. I was worried it would end up crushed at some scrap metal factory.

The Town of Jay informed me that it was the property of Frontier and they were the ones that removed it. Next, I knocked on the work building's door for Frontier in Ausable Forks and a nice employee told me his coworker took it home with him. He was reluctant to give out his information to a crazy woman demanding to know where the phone booth went, probably because he thought I might consider stealing it. I gave him my contact information and went along my way in hopes of some day being able to say good bye to the charming structure and take a picture of it at its new home.

This is a bittersweet ending to my morning's missing phone booth adventure. I am sad that this historical artifact is now missing for the public to see at our Village Green, but am happy that it is still intact and will be taken care of by a fellow phone booth fan.

Little Supermarket Pizza Tasting

The display of ready-to-go pizza slices at the Little Supermarket taunted me recently whispering, "Take me home, I dare you."

I have always been a skeptic about Convenience Store pizza. It rarely looks appetizing sitting next to the corn dogs and chicken wings that have been baking in the faux warmer all day long. We all know The Little Supermarket ranks way above the category of gross Convenience Store food and makes awesome made-to-order deli sandwiches, but what about their pizza?

Last Friday, we had plans to go to our friend's house for pizza and a movie. I suggested we phone in an order with the Little Supermarket and give it a try since they make pizza on Fridays and Saturdays from 3:30 - 7:00 pm. The phone order and pick up transaction went smoothly, but we were all anxious to know how the pizza was going to taste. We took a peek at it even before we left the store and all thought it looked good.

The six year old in the group was the first to dig in and even before we had tried a bite, she was half way through her first slice and said, "I think the cheese is the best part."

We were all very surprised at how good the pizza tasted. There were no issues with the sauce and agreed that what makes the pizza is the flavor of the crust. The 5th grader that took part in our Little Supermarket pizza tasting thought, "The cheese and crust mix well together. This pizza is my 2nd top favorite pizza place in Essex County." He also noted, "The crust is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside." His mother remarked that she couldn't believe that his sister "ate her crust because she doesn't always do that and the fact that she went through almost two pieces is really good."

Unfortunately, we all liked the pizza so much that there weren't any leftovers for their Dad when he got home late that night from a business trip. Looks like we'll just have to try it again, but next time we will have to order two.

Rosa Gets a Little Help From Ward Lumber

Something magical happened today. Rosa drove into the garage for the first time! However, she struggled moving over the cement entrance because of its unevenness. Luckily, we live just down the road from Ward Lumber and thought if we could buy some gravel and spread it over the dips it would be a smooth ride in and out for her.

Since most people aren't doing the landscaping thing at this time of year, the only option was a bag of white marble gravel. After purchasing a 50 pound bag, they called on the radio for someone to meet us with a forklift at Building Two because it had been put "up in the air" for the winter.

While waiting, Drew spotted what we needed and maneuvered the bag down himself.

Just as he was bringing the marble down, the forklift showed up. The worker just shook his head and said the same thing we were thinking, "All this for just a bag of marble. A bit overkill, huh?"

Ward Lumber always provides the best service and continues to go above and beyond. They continue to impress me, even if it is just a $4 bag of marble to help Rosa.

A Letter to My Beloved Car Rosa

Dear Rosa,

Congratulations on hitting the 110,000 mileage mark today. I'm guessing that after driving that far and closing in on 14 years old, you wanted to take a little break for yourself when deciding not to put the driver side window back up after using the ATM drive-thru.

I need to apologize for having my doubts about you and accidentally calling you a "Piece of S..." to my parents on the phone. I hope you can understand my level of frustration because it was cold and rainy out. Rather than having an all out fight with you, I removed myself from the situation and got a few groceries.

I took a deep breath before seeing you and it helped. I turned on your heat and pointed it toward the window. Slowly you poked your window head back up and with my assistance, I brought you to the top again.

I know you've felt sick plenty of other times before and I've helped you get over those illnesses. Christmas night 2008 was not one of the best when you decided to let the brakes go in Santa Clara and made Drew drive home 45 miles brakeless through the Adirondacks in the dark. The mechanic doctor helped you the very next day. You have proven to me that you're exhausted with the several complete exhaust systems I've bought for you. That summer that you had a leak in the gas tank, your fumes actually made me sick, but I still didn't give up on you.

What I'm trying to say little Rosa, is that I love you even after 14 years. I'll keep loving you and giving you the benefit of the doubt, but I need you to keep loving me too. I know that you look at that two door garage every night wishing that some day you'll make it inside. Believe me I want to be able to give that to you before the day comes when you no longer have that as an option. Maybe tomorrow morning when you see Drew, you could give him a little wink of the headlight and win him over so he'll clear out one side of the garage for your red hot body this winter.

Love always,

Your faithful driver

Visitors and a Cascading Waterfall

I like having guests visit me along the Ausable because it generally means good food and lots of laughs are on the way. If we know visitors are coming to stay at our house, it means we'll be eating a higher quality dinner thoughtfully prepared rather than our usual last minute frozen pizza option. If they're staying elsewhere, I try to figure out a place they would really enjoy eating at together. Good food and drinks always wins me over whether I'm a guest or a hostess.

As for activities, I like to plan out some fun things to do as well.

When I heard that L and P were going to be staying in Lake Placid and wanted to get together over the weekend, I immediately wanted to know where they were staying. Why? Well, I hoped their lodging accommodations would have a pool and I could build it into the evening's itinerary.

L informed me that they would be staying at the Courtyard Marriott. I wrote back right away telling her to pack their bathing suits. Now, I know writing this to someone you haven't seen in roughly 12 years and having gotten reacquainted through one another's blogs might seem strange, but L quickly wrote back, "I hear the pool has its own 'cascading waterfall' (as opposed to one that does not cascade)."

Before we checked out the cascading waterfall at the pool, we toured two dining establishments for drinks and food and then sprinkled in a little Adirondack ambience. The tour de Lake Placid seemed to exhaust everyone, but we rallied and put on our suits since we did at one point call the hotel to confirm that the pool wasn't closing until 11:00 pm.

There wasn't just one cascading waterfall, there were two! One each for L and P to relax under.

If L&P would like to return, I'll show them a real waterfall next time, one that cascades more than two feet.