Hi,
Very nice weekend. Mike & Joe were back and brought some family members for the weekend. One of my many boring stories I subject my guests to was where the frog night light came from (a guest bought if for me after I told them how enamored I was with the cocci frog in the water feature). They found a metal frog sculpture and bought if for the Inn. Nicole & John were in for a get away while cheering their daughter on in her State gymnastics tournament in Western PA (she placed pretty high in the three categories she competed in). My friends from Angola, Dave & Claire came in and are here for six days (their daughter and son will be joining them from NYC for the last two nights) and Tony & Sue from State College came in for one night. It’s always nice to see old friends and great when times don’t change your relationship.
Tony’s pretty amazing. He has made just about all the wooden furniture in their house. And he doesn’t just make stick furniture. Each piece is a unique design with all kinds of inlayed wood and unique appointments. He is friends with someone that owns a saw mill up in Centre County and any time they get unique logs in, they call Tony to see if he’d like it. He has all this cool lumber stacked in his basement waiting for a project. It’s always interesting to visit them and see what he’s up to. He made their dining room set (eight foot table, six chairs and china closet), their bedroom set (bed, dresser, chest of drawers, side tables) and all kinds of furniture around the house.
I don’t like the middle table in the dining room and have been thinking about shopping around for one that would fit exact requirements I have. When Tony & Sue said they’d be down to visit, a light bulb went off in my head. So while they were here, I explained what I was looking for and what my budget was and asked if he’d be interested in making it and it seems he’s very keen on doing it.
Kevin from the Crested Duck has been working in my kitchen getting ready for the Terminal Shops opening later this month. He’s the guy doing charcuterie. I have several hundred pounds of various sausages aging in my basement. 🙂 He’s been invited to set up shop in the Firehouse Market down in the Strip and I think he’s going to start down there this weekend. So he’s busy as a beaver making product. He has a lot of short and long term aging recipes, luckily. Also, we may have an arrangement. Instead of serving bacon I have been at breakfast, we may partner together and I’ll serve his organic local sausage. That’s pretty exciting.
I’m hooking up with Smartbox, they have a number of products, but the one I’m interested in is a presentation of various Inns and they sell these in bookstores and other outlets. It’s kind of a nice idea, the price you pay for the box includes the price of staying at an Inn. They make a nice purchase for someone themselves or a great gift. Lots of variety, pick an Inn you like in an area you like. I more or less only get half price (this is how they make their money) and I get great exposure. The pictures I sent didn’t have enough resolution, so I asked Stephen, my weekday housekeeper if he had a digital camera with high resolution. He said his fiance has a camera, but didn’t know the resolution. Allie was here waiting for him to get off work. When Stephen asked her about the resolution, she didn’t have an answer. She has a smart phone and so goes on line to look up the make & model camera she owns and then found out the resolution, which is more than adequate. The point of this note, is I find the use of smart phones amazing. To have that info available with a little work searching the web from your phone is just incredible. I think I need to join the twenty first century and get one for myself. I guess it’s about time.
Have a great one,
ed
