How I Spent My Fall Staycation

I've been on staycation this past week; you all know about staycations, right? A staycation is when you don't go anywhere on vacation, but instead stay home either to save money, to avoid the stress that's inevitably present when you're trying to plan and enjoy a relaxing trip out of town, or in my case to kill a hard-earned 40 hours of vacation. Here are some definitions; my personal favorite is #5, what's yours?

For my staycation, My Sweet Baboo went off to work every day, and I stayed home with the kids. Two of them (the brother and sister pair) were a bit under the weather -- Galway due to dental surgery, and My Angel the Fen because she had a horrible cold. Rightfully so, the two of them got quite a bit of attention, and of course the love must be shared with the other two as well...you can't talk to one cat without talking to all of them. And while I had lofty goals of getting some work done outside, and reading a couple of books, and getting summer and fall/winter clothes organized, and cleaning the porch, and doing something with the plastic storage containers that fall on our heads whenever we open that one cupboard door in the kitchen, and trying to sterilize some dust bunnies, and and and...I fell quite a bit short:

• the lawn is mowed (front and back)
• the garage is cleaned out (OK, that was a MAJOR accomplishment!)
• the brownies got made, as did a cake for someone in MSB's office
• several dust bunnies are now RIP
• I started one book, put it in the "why did I buy this?" pile, and started another
• the new printer is hooked up
• and I spent a great day with my Mom, which was the high point of the week (well, maybe second to getting the garage done...)

I also spent some time organizing the pictures I took on our September trip to the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain. This was one of our classic weekend trips, where we take eight hours to go three hours away, take tons of pictures, stop the car at the drop of a hat to pick up rocks for the garden, and eat someone else's cooking. MSB did the math for me and advised me that had I been using my Minolta instead of the Canon digital, I would have used 28 rolls of film... in four days. Clearly, I have issues.

And I also have only today to finish up the things on my list...and get the last of the bulbs planted, and make some roasted pumpkin soup, and finish the laundry, and...and...

Here's the first set of pictures, which include Ausable Chasm, the Westport area (where we stayed), one of the Lake Champlain lighthouses, and some 'end of season' shots that are typical of the towns on the Lake. Enjoy!