Hi! I’m back. I’m fine, just needed a break from blogging. I thought I’d return later than this, but I started feeling that blogging itch again, so here I am typing away late on a Sunday night after everyone else has gone to bed.
A recap of June, July, and beginning of August
This summer has been hot and humid. The heat started around the same time (we always seem to put in the ACs the week of our anniversary), but it jumped into the mid 90s and stayed there for the end of June, all of July, and the first week of August. Brutal.
- Charlie got to pull the air horn of a semi truck at a Touch a Truck event in Verplanck.
- I had jury duty at the US District Court in Manhattan. (Think Chuck Rhoades in Billions.) I had to go in two days and went into a court room for the selection process, but didn’t get selected.
- I took Charlie out in the guideboat on the Hudson for the first time. We rowed from Verplanck to Stony Point and back. He did great and loved it.
- We spent the week of the July 4/Independence Day holiday in Groton Long Point with the Wasmer family. We caught crabs, swam, played, made sand castles, ate some tasty meals, walked in a parade, and relaxed. Charlie even played with sparklers for the first time. On the way home we stopped at the Stepping Stones Childrens’ Museum.
- I started a new position at Automattic. I now oversee the whole engineering team (3 sub teams in all) in the Concierge group instead of just one of the sub teams. The transition has been more challenging than I expected.
- Charlie and I took walks in the woods, including a morning exploring the creeks.
- We ate our yearly helping of sausage and peppers at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast.
- I built a Little Free Library for Esther Place in Peekskill.
- We celebrated Colin and Hayden’s marriage in Lake Peekskill.
- Our garden did great in the hot, humid weather. We have tons of roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, borage, tomatillos, and potatoes. The nasturtiums did better than they’ve ever done and we have plenty for drink garnishes.
- We made lots of pizza sauce, lots of tomato paste, some salsa verde, and borage ice cubes. We also froze a bunch of tomatillos for this winter (chili verde with pork, albondigas, etc), and gave a bunch to friends.
- We had Charlie’s third birthday party. Even though it rained and everyone had to go in the house, the kids still had fun.
- While my parents were visiting, Charlie and I took them to Stony Point to check out the historic Hudson River lighthouse and Revolutionary War battleground.
- Charlie mastered his balance bike and can now lift his feet up and cruise down ramps at high speed.
Some small moments:
- Coffee on the porch in the morning.
- Ice cream at Blue Pig.
- Playgrounds with Charlie.
- Charlie asking politely to wash the car.
- Charlie and I spraying each other with the hose.
- Meeting friends for dinner, play dates, hangs at the farm market, impromptu pizza and ice cream.
- Going to the park to play, but watching a magic show instead.
- Checking out a tree frog, green frogs, garter snakes, and snake skin.
- Charlie having the time of his life on carnival rides.
- Charlie running around joyfully in the rain.
- Snuggles.
- Charlie riding his bike down the street with his birthday balloons attached.
- Playing cars.
What I read:
- Extremely Online by Taylor Lorenz
- My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
- Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
- Two books by Eliot Peper: Foundry and Reap3r
- The first three books in the Expeditionary Force series by Craig Alanson
I’m currently reading The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey.
Week of August 12, 2024
Let’s start the weekend before, August 10 and 11. We met Kate, Ben, and the twins at the TaSH Farmers Market in the morning and had Cuban sandwiches for lunch at Croqueteria, then went to Jay and Marie’s that afternoon for a summer garden party. Amanda and Jay played their flutes, then Jay, Jeremy, and Matthew played some bluegrass. Detra sang.
The next day Charlie and I spent the morning walking and riding bikes along the waterfront and exploring the newly opened Fleischmann Pier. That evening we met Kate, Ben, the twins, Jeremy, Meg, Miles, and Grandma JuJu for dinner in Beacon. The restaurant messed up the reservations, so what was going to be a chill outside dinner ended up being a stressful inside dinner with four young kids who much prefer to be anywhere but at a table, and six parents wishing the service was faster. Oh well. We got through it, we all ate, but zero adult conversations were had. After dinner we found an ice cream shop across from a playground, which is exactly what we needed.
Monday we picked tomatoes and potatoes. We found a small garter snake who had been living under one of the potato bags.
Tuesday we had an impromptu pizza and ice cream hangout with the Crisantes. Baci’s woodfire Tuesdays, then the Blue Pig. Amanda had some free time during the day and weeded the garden.
Wednesday I started making some banana liqueur. I macerated bananas with Demerara sugar and soaked the peels in some dark rum. Charlie came home from daycare with a fever, which persisted through Thursday night. Amanda and I switched off holding him.
Amanda made pizza sauce with the romas we picked.
Friday I took off work to go on a long kayak paddle with Jeremy Wall. We planned it a month ago. We started from Annsville Creek, paddled up past the Bear Mountain Bridge, up Popolopen Creek, ate lunch, went swimming in Hell Hole, then paddled back. ~8 miles round trip. It was nice to be out on the water.
We pulled our kayaks up on the short and walked up to Fort Montgomery, where I learned that Iona Island used to be called Salisbury Island.
Saturday Charlie and I spent the morning in Beacon and Cold Spring. We got donuts at Peaceful Provisions, coffee at Big Mouth, then played for a while at the Tiny Tots park in Cold Spring. He was finally feeling better and needed to get out of the house, and Amanda needed some time to herself since Charlie sticks to her like glue when he doesn’t feel well. While we were out, she made tomato paste from the second big batch of tomatoes we picked.
During naptime I finished making the banana liqueur, which I used in drinks for us later that evening (Breakfast Mai Tais).
Sunday morning I got up early and made some Haitian pikliz, then breakfast (fried potatoes, sausage links, scrambled eggs). The forecast called for rain for the entire day, so we racked our brains for a way to get out of the house. We decided to hop on the train and ride it to Grand Central, have lunch and explore there, then ride it back. Charlie thinks trains are the coolest, so he was excited and ended up having a great time. He was glued to the window the entire way there, then fell asleep on Amanda on the way back. Chris Johnson and Meg Walter met us for lunch at Grand Central and walked around with us for a bit.
It seems like a small thing, but it means the world to us that we have friends who do impromptu things with us. That happened four times in the last week, and we feel incredibly lucky. It took us a while to build up a community after moving here, and the first two years were pretty lonely (COVID definitely didn’t help.)
No one really mentions how hard it is to build a community from scratch when you move somewhere new with no family around.
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