Keepin' Crisco in Business

Several, several months back my friend, Phil, stopped in town and we had a couple hours to drive around. Literally, that's all we did. I'm a terrible hostess. Anyway, he noticed right away one of the oddities of New York living that I had begun to take for granted. . . the omnipresence of Dunkin' Donuts. At the time, I just confirmed that "Yup, there's a LOT of them around". Since then I've checked out the company's website to discover that within a 10 mile radius of my zip code, there are 49 Dunkin' Donuts. FORTY NINE.

This all seems doubly amusing to me because the last place I lived had ONE. I'd drive by it about once a year (it was in an odd spot) and every time I'd remark, "Hey look it still exists!" Personally, I'd thought they had all gone the way of TG&Y! (Does anyone out there remember TG&Y?)

FYI: If there are any Krispy Kreme fans out there. . . the month I moved here the one and only Krispy Kreme in the area went out of business. I think I heard that it had been open just shy of a year. So now the closest one is 110 miles away in Connecticut!

Did I ever tell you. . .

. . . that Adirondack furniture is big here?

My Cheatin' Hea-uh. . . Brain

Alright, so anyone who knows me will know that I'm cheating a little on my Year of Firsts list. But only a little.

For example, I listed a costume party. Certainly I've been to costume parties before, however I can't remember being at a costume party during my adult life that wasn't thrown by me! I love theme parties. This was a Superheros and Villains party. I was Cruella deVil from the top of my head to the tip of my cigarette.

I also listed the Iron Pour at SAW and, again, I've seen 3 and been involved in 2 before. But my friend Sierra and I worked charging the furnace for most of the pour. I've never done that job before (and it is constant), so I felt I could list it just this once.

Later I hope to add a video from a pour in NC last month - it's a different pour, but iron nonetheless.

You Are What You Buy

A little honesty never hurt anyone.

Ausable is AWE-some

I took a "mental health day" with a friend of mine and we stumbled onto something cool - Ausable Chasm. Our original plan was simply to point the car north, look at the changing foliage and just wing it from there.

While exiting the interstate for a smaller highway, we spied a sign claiming that there was a chasm about a mile away. I exclaimed, "A chasm? Let's check that out! It might be cool" and then proceeded to make a right hand turn from the left lane. (No worries. . . no traffic).

Let's hear it for spontaneity, because it was a good day! You trek about a mile through the woods around the chasm and eventually along the sides of the walls. In places steps have been added for your convenience, but it is most certainly NOT for acrophobics. If you pay an additional fee, you can raft with a guide down part of the river. The bottom two pictures were taken from the raft. I'd recommend the trip to all my friends!

When Good Molds Go Bad

WOW!

I've heard about the possibility of this happening, but never seen it with my own eyes.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens to a resin-bonded sand mold when burned out at too high of a temperature. (The resin burns up and your mold is reduced back to sand). One poke at these and more sand just cascaded onto the floor. It was almost awesome in its total devastation. I mean, if you are going to screw up, do it big!

Actually, in this case no one screwed up, the kiln temp just isn't uniform throughout. We thought it could work for burn out molds, but it can't.

Oh, well. Live and learn.

"I go to airport."

I am happy to report that my Italian instructor is actually Italian. This may seem obvious, but I remember my high school Spanish teacher being French! English was his fourth language and it was sometimes difficult to understand him. I used to wonder if we'd all wind up in Mexico on spring break sounding like a bunch of French tourists.

So the good news is that my instruction this time around is coming from a woman who moved here from Italy 5 years ago. The bad thing is that since it only meets a few times, she isn't dwelling on "the little things". . . like articles. So if Rome is inundated with tourists this summer asking, "Where is bathroom?" and "Train leaves 4PM" you'll know why.