vacation update

pheweeee... I may get tired of this working thing and just decide to stay on vacation, especially during the summer. We are up in Woodstock, NY, for a few days this week, just hanging out with the boys, taking hikes, runs, and naps.

We managed to swap out our little 4-dr Chevy Malibu rental car for something big enough to carry the boys' Taj Mahal. As it turned out, the only thing we could get our hands on was an F-350 cargo van. So we had plenty of space in the back. Can't wait to fill up this V10 monster. But we did get an offer from Toyota for the Team Vizslamobile... and yes, very generous. Not the $12K that a friend of a friend claimed to have received, but a lot more than the $4K we were planning to sell it for. Now the challenge seems to be actually finding a used Tacoma for sale at a dealer that's not either decrepit or still wicked expensive. In any case, so far Toyota is holding up its end of the bargain -- and assuming all goes well, we should have a check within two weeks.

We met this slippery dude on the Overlook Mountain trail yesterday. My knowledge of herpetology is pretty limited -- evidenced by me telling my wife, shortly before this 4' beauty started to act aggressive, that there are no poisonous snakes in New York -- and so my first guess was that this was a massasasauga. But between us being a little too far east, it being a little long, and the pupils on this gem being round (as opposed to slit-shaped ), I think it must be a northern water-snake. And I gather these wee monsters are prone to getting feisty.

If I had been thinking while I was being confronted by the quasi-killer reptile, I should have followed the directions on this sign posted by Luisa at Lassie Get Help.

And the first pic is of Meg and the boys at the fire tower on top of Overlook Mountain. After our first failed attempt back in March, it was nice to realise how close we had come back then and how well worth the hike it had been.