Fall Fun

A few weeks back I organized a little day trip in celebration of fall. We rented a much loved minivan (read: old school ghetto Dodge minivan complete with dents -- thank you All Car Rental at the BK Marriott), gathered a few friends, and took to the highway at about 11 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

Since, lots of people have asked me where we went and how we planned it. Well, for one, I planned it all by my little self (thank you internets -- mostly chowhound). I specialize in cuteness, so the idea of a quaint little trip upstate was too much to pass up - and resulted in probably a good 5-6 hours of research online. Let's just say if there was a Jeopardy category on orchards in the Hudson Valley, I'd ace it.

Here's what we did:


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First Stop (b): Bob-O-Link Dairy. A tiny little cow farm that sell artisanal cheeses and fresh, hearth baked breads. We sampled the delicious cheeses and bought some - along with a load of ciabatta bread - for noshing on later. Note for the next trip: bring a knife to cut the bread and cheese!

Second Stop (c): Pennings Orchard. For apple picking, of course. Unfortunately, Pennings apple picking was done for the season (on Oct. 19), but they provided directions to another nearby orchard that also sold among the best apple cider I've had along with apple and pumpkin butter. Yum! Unfortunately, they didn't have hayrides or farm animals to pet :(

Third Stop (d): Demarest Winery. Not your average winery, this one had some R&B pumped out of outdoor speakers and was manned by the Italian/Venezuelan equivalent of the soup nazi. This man makes everything - from wine to balsamic vinegar to mamajuana. And, if you don't folow the rules, he'll cuss at you in Italian (while his wife chuckles to herself). Charming (really). We got some wine and ate our cheese, bread and apples here.

Fourth Stop (e): Bellvale Farms Creamery. This stuff is among the best ice cream I've ever had. Flavors included s'more, pumpkin, coffee (with toffee pieces in it), and white chocolate with dark chocolate chunks and raspberry swirl. Line was long, but goes fast, and there was a gorgeous view of the valley.

Fifth Stop (f): Applewoods Orchard and Winery. A bit of a madhouse (and we got there only about 15 min before they closed), but satisfied the need for hot cider, cider donuts and farm animals.

Sixth Stop (g): the town (um, street) of Sugar Loaf. Essentially a craft village and the place where we got real food to offset the apples, cheese, bread, wine, and ice cream we had already consumed. There are quite a few foodie-type restaurants in this area, so I'd recommend looking those up and skipping Sugar Loaf.

Now this is where our little trip got interesting -- and also where we, as fearless trailblazers, make your life easier when you take this trip.

**There are no gas stations on the route from Point E to Point G**. In fact, there is only 1 gas station from Point G to Point H, and that gas station is a good 10 miles or so from Sugar Loaf.

You see, we had started out the trip with only 1/4 of a tank of gas -- falsely assuming we could get some along the way. Yes, we passed up numerous gas stations in NJ. And, yes, I was keeping an eye on the gas meter.

Needless to say, when the red light went on, there were no gas stations to be found -- even on our trusty iPhones. We were then caught driving across Harriman State Park (of Bear Mtn fame) in the dark on a two lane highway, with no gas and -- even more alarming -- no cell phone reception. Concerned? Yes. Panicked? Eventually. Usage of the 'neutral' gear to coast down hill while other cars followed behind? Most definitely. We even managed to make a u-turn, *up-hill* in neutral after one wrong turn. (This made us very proud.)

Thankfully, iPhones saved us, and we coasted (literally) into a gas station and fueled up which took us to our final,

Seventh Stop (h): The Great Pumpkin Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson. Over 4,000 hand carved pumpkins light up the night at this annual event. It is truly spectacular and deserves its own blog post. Get your tickets early in 2009. They sell out quickly.

At 11:30 p.m., after dropping our friends off and dividing up our apples, we arrived home, let the dogs out, and summarily went to bed (or I did anyway - the boy, of course, was up for another few hours).

Photos to follow.

Dear Blogger

Can you provide a function wherein I am able to keep a list of all of my blog ideas?

It would be much appreciated.

Best,

Amy

In the meantime, I will write a blog reminder for myself (for those who are actually reading: if you can decipher, I suppose you deserve to scoop my yet unpublished words.)

- how we get scooped
- who will women voters be when i'm old (like me, I think)
- rectifying the need for indulgence and brains
- why must my dog lick his foot until the pad is gone? (oh wait, that's a question for my vet -- unless someone out there has an answer)
- must-see list
- Netflix...and why I'm always last on the bandwagon
- MFK
- food, politics -- metaphors
- new Microsoft commercials? Brilliant or just silly?
- why is my computer screen pink? (ask the BF tonight)
- contest (make my readers do something)
- why the Ds need a CMO
-haiku

BIG News

That's right, my loyal readership (you know who you are), there is big news today. I mean B-I-G.

Today is...

The 80th Anniversary of the day Tich Freeman became the only bowler to take 300 wickets during the English Cricket Season.

Well, that AND...

The official end of my 3 month hiatus from blogging!

I just can't help myself. I mean, Gossip Girl was sooo good tonight. Love the steamy steaminess between Blair and Chuck.

You'd think there was something else going on in the world that would spur me to re-engage with my short-lived favorite hobby (a big 'I told you so' to anyone that read the post where I made that prediction...don't say I don't live up to my word.)

In all seriousness, I've been meaning to write. I really have. It's just that nothing was getting me riled up. Well, there were those 2 turtles and that nasty man who accused me of not being a responsible dog owner (different incidents). Oh, and the delicious pork stir fry I made the other night. Yet, I still wasn't feeling as feisty as Maureen Dowd.

But, then they couldn't let it rest: this whole Sarah Palin and the election thing. And, I had the best blog title in my head all weekend ("It's not about Sarah Palin, stupid."...I didn't say it was the most original.) But, real life scooped me. The economy is in shambles, and so it actually just might, just maybe, just possibly COULD be about the economy...stupid.

Now, can we get down to a real election, please?

p.s. Don't get me wrong, I do want to see more of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Foghorn Leghorn as John McCain. Oh yes, and more of Maureen Dowd's snarky columns. And just one more thing: keep the smut coming Gossip Girl (and don't forget NY Mag's next-day reviews) Please. Pretty please.

Sometimes Marketers Are Just Plain Brilliant

Zipcar IKEA brooklyn

We're sure you've heard all the hoopla and hype that IKEA Brooklyn is opening up this month. And well, we know how much you love your IKEA trips and how much of a madhouse it's going to be there and we wanted to make your life a little bit easier! So, to save you a little bit of time, Zipsters who drive their Zipcars to IKEA will be getting VIP Treatment in the form of 6, count 'em, 6, designated parking spots near the entrance! This means less circling the lot like a hungry shark, and more time for assembling later!

Author's note: I'm not going to deny that I am a HUGE fan of Zipcar. Nor will I deny that, while waxing poetically about the beauty of Zipcar to my Aunt from Ohio, she laughed out loud at the idea of renting a car by the hour. Only in New York (oh, and about 45 other cities. Take that Aunt Sally.).

Feeling Patriotic

It's summertime...but even more importantly, we have a candidate for President. Hurray!

I've jumped on the bandwagon early on and am hosting a bakesale for Barack next Sunday, June 22nd at 1:00 pm on my stoop. You can find more details at:

http://political.moveon.org/event/bakesales08/47997

I'm thinking the bakesale will be much less dangerous than my door-to-door effort for Gore.

Long story short: me and my girlfriend. bright eyed and bushy tailed. steel working town in Pennsylvania. we split up thinking we can cover more territory. me ringing doorbell at my first house. alone. large man (we're talking 300 lbs) answering and grabbing my arm and pulling me into his house (without a word). me. throwing up my Gore for President leaflets and screaming bloody mary thinking this is my last day on earth (also thrashing my arms and legs as much as i am able). friend running across the street to save me. large man (and equally large son) freaking out almost as much as me claiming they are trying to save me from their dog who was about to bite me. friend standing at the end of their driveway unable to save me due to the large dog. me. seeing dog and (sort of) understanding the assault. father and son feeling REALLY badly and offering my friend and I cookies and a coke. me. making sure they went out to vote the next Tuesday.

All for the cause, people.

Yes, bakesale is predicted to be MUCH less eventful. In a good way.

Tickled My Fancy

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Apparently I'm behind the times as this blog caught the attention of the greater tech-geek-types a while back. But, it makes me snicker (and even snort once or twice), so I thought worth sharing with my vast readership.

Goal Accomplished

I create lots of "to do" lists. Weekend to-do's, career to-do's, house to-do's - and on and on. It makes me happy to make lists and cross things off. As the boy will tell you, I am very goal oriented.

The thing about my lists -- especially the more long term lists -- is that I'm not so great at tackling them. Keeping up with my blog is one such example. Updating my resume is another (that one's been on the list for at least 2 years).

But, I am proud to say that this dreary Sunday morning, I have crossed a major item off my list!

I began the creation of an online recipe book.

You see, I'm not an especially creative cook. But, I do like to follow recipes (it pleases the left side of my brain). And, I'd wager that I've tried at least 100 new recipes in the last year and a half or so, all of which are either scattered around my kitchen or in one of my e-mail inboxes.

So, here it is:

www.desktopcookbook.com

Thing is, the site isn't super advanced (read: some programmer dude -- or dudette -- could make a MUCH better site, and I would actually pay for a subscription). That is, I can't just share the URL, I have to share my login info. So here you go:

login: aefitzgibbons
password: recipes123

Enjoy!