digging up the yard

the gas company decided that they needed to move everyone's gas meters from inside their homes to outside their homes.  it ended up being a huge project with everyone getting their yards dug up so that they could run new gas lines too.  after 11 hours and a lot of arguing with the gas company, we finally had our gas turned back on and the holes in our yard filled back in.  a huge thank you to ryan who then went and fixed our flower garden that they dug up!

love, laurie

a day trip to destiny usa

for quite sometime, we've been interested in checking out destiny usa in syracuse.  we were originally planning on going back in january 2020 when we were in upstate ny to see dancing with the stars, but couldn't go because of a bad winter storm.  we happened to have all day free on sunday this past weekend, and decided to make a little day trip out of it.

we couldn't believe how massive the mall was and how many attractions there were.  we were also pleasantly surprised that it wasn't crowded at all and had a good time walking around and checking things out.  we grabbed lunch at jimmy buffett's margaritaville and dinner at the cheesecake factory.  in between, we checked out the stores and were in awe of the fact that they had an entire ropes course and go kart track inside!

love, laurie

pepe le pew

ryan's parents have a new little friend who has been hanging around their yard . . . pepe le pew!  recently, ryan's mom was able to capture a few pictures of the little stinker and we all couldn't get over the picture she snapped of the little skunk with its tongue out!

love, laurie

hello, hydrangea!

after waiting for what seems like forever, we're so happy that our hydrangea is finally blooming!  yay!

love, laurie

rock royalty tribute band

we kicked off tribute band season at the theatre this weekend with a 60s, 70s, and 80s tribute band called rock royalty.  we had a good crowd and the show went great.  of course, i espeically loved ryan's lighting.  photos really never do his lighting justice.  i didn't get to take a lot of photos, and i didn't have my camera with me, but i did manage to snap a few on my phone . . . 

love, laurie

lighting up leko

the other day, ryan was playing with different colors on his philips hue lights.  leko and i were in bed and having a good time seeing the different colors that the lights turned his fur.  (well, i was enjoying it, he was trying to sleep!)

love, laurie

fresh zucchini straight from the garden

ryan's parents grew some awesome looking zucchini in their garden this summer.  i should have put something next to the zucchini for a size comparison.  the zucchini on the left was between 12-14 inches long!  

there was enough from these 2 zucchini to make 3 different recipes: zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini cake, and one pot sausage, zucchini, tomato, and onion dinner (which i made with vegetarian sausage).  

it all turned out so good, you just can't beat fresh zucchini!  thanks to ryan's parents for sharing their veggies!

love, laurie

building new stage risers for the theatre

in the midst of all of the other craziness that's been happening in our schedule recently, this past week we had to build new stage risers for the theatre.  i'm really proud of ryan on this project.  he came up with the plan and went to town.

in the theatre, we use 4x8 foot wooden risers often.  most of the time two are put together to make an 8x8 foot riser for drummers and others are used in different configurations for musicians.  up until now, we've been borrowing/renting them.  we looked into purchasing them for the theatre and the cost was astronomical.  this project has been ignored for far too long and we had to finally tackle it because we needed the risers for a show this weekend.  so, we built our own!

we built the risers, painted them black, and then sewed fabric to skirt them which attaches with velcro.  most of the time, riser skirting is black to hide the underneath of the riser, but ryan came up with this genius idea to use white satin which he can use as a lighting tool to light from both underneath to give it under-glow and light from the front to project color and pattern onto it.  we tried it out and it looked awesome!  

can't wait to put them to use this weekend!

love, laurie

sneaking away for a few moments to kayak between thunderstorms

oh man, this summer's weather has been rough.  whenever we've had a moment of availability, the weather has been insanely humid with nasty thunderstorms.  of course, anytime the weather has been nice, we've been working.  we just can't seem to catch a break with this summer's forecast!

on friday morning, we snuck away for a few hours to get our kayaks back in the water before yet another thunderstorm rolled in again.  we took our kayaks to the lake at gouldsboro state park.  there was hardly anyone there and it was so nice.  our shoulders sure were sore the next morning, but it was worth it!

love, laurie

a little video of our soarin' eagle rail-biking tour

we really enjoyed our rail bike tour with soarin' eagle last weekend.  here's a little video from our adventure.

love, laurie

soarin' eagle rail-biking tour

on saturday afternoon we took a drive up to hawley, pa to jump aboard the soarin' eagle rail-biking tour.  this new rail-biking company has been advertised all over our area lately for their clever 2 and 4-seater "bikes" that ride on the railroad tracks.  

we booked a 4-seater and went on an adventure with my parents.  we didn't know what to expect, but it was a lot of fun and a bit of a leg work out too!

love, laurie