70 Degrees on Christmas Eve!

I had breakfast on the patio this morning, in shirtsleeves.  I'm so glad we did not wrap up our patio furniture for the winter the way all our neighbors did.  I'm loving it, but sort of feel sorry for all those folks who were planning on skiing over the holidays.

A Wonderful Concert

We attended the holiday concert of the Westminster Choir College bell choir this afternoon.  What a treat.  They have 8 octaves of bells - the largest set in the world.

Knee Surgery Update

I decided to give a progress report on my knee, just in case my other knee goes bad some day and I want to look back at my reaction to the first surgery.  I sure hope I don't have to go through another surgery, but I am so happy with the results I just might consider it again if necessary.  My only complaint at this point, 7 weeks after surgery, is that discomfort in my knee wakes me at some point each night, I think as a result of keeping it in one position for too long.  But it is just discomfort not pain.  The only pain I feel is when the PT pushes on the bent knee, trying to get just a few more degrees of bend.  But I can already bend it to 105 degrees on my own, which is pretty impressive.  The only thing I can't do is walk downstairs normally, alternating legs; that is apparently the last thing to return to normal.  There are even times during the day now when I completely forget about it and just go about my business.  I take a walk every day and can easily do a mile, which is much more than I could do before the surgery.  I can't wait to get back to aerobics class but that should probably wait until PT is done, probably at the beginning of January.

Knee Surgery

On October 5th, I had total knee replacement surgery at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.  Hence the hiatus in blog posts.  Recovery is going well, but I probably won't be doing anything blog-worthy for quite a while.

Cape May Point

We are back home again, this time from our annual family trip to Cape May Point.  This time we rented the house at 318 Knox Avenue, which was very nice.  There was very little bird watching to be had due to high winds from the east.  Any birds around were hunkered down out of the wind and many must have been blown westward.  But we enjoyed our usual activities of miniature golf, biking, and walking on the beach.  One bike ride takes us by Willow Creek winery where the way they prune and support their grapes is very impressive.

And of course we had our usual brunch at the Mad Batter.

Catching Up

We drove back to New Jersey on September 12th since we have so much to do here.  I spent the 14th in NYC doing pre-op stuff for my upcoming knee-replacement surgery.  Then today, we drove to north Jersey to pick up our new Tesla.  It is a great car but with a long learning curve.  It will be a long time, if ever, before I learn all the possible options.  Tomorrow I head to Oregon to visit my Dad.

Vermont Quilt Festival

Yesterday we loaded up the car and headed for New Jersey, taking a detour via the quilt festival in Essex Junction, VT.  After spending a couple of hours at the quilt show, we continued on to Albany, NY where we spent the night.  We got home this morning after an uneventful drive.  We will spend a few days in NJ then off to Ireland with the chorus on July 3rd.

Grounds for Sculpture

The Seward Johnson exhibit at Grounds for Sculpture was extended into this year, so we went again.

New Floor at Last

And if the weather cooperates, we should have our furniture back tomorrow.

More Moving

It has taken over a year but the builder is finally ready to replace all our hardwood floors on the first floor.  Here is the before picture showing our warped floor.  Hopefully I will be able to post an after picture by the end of the week that will look very different.

And this is what my quilting room looks like after several days of moving out of the first floor.

And the empty great room waiting for the contractor to move out the rest of the furniture.

Finally, the Last Snow?

At least it is pretty.  Check out the new bird feeders.

Last Snow?

8 inches of snow in March in New Jersey is just a bit much.  Enough already.  At least we are very pleased at how well the community cleans it up.

Another Snow Storm

We didn't get the huge snow they were predicting, but still got enough to bring lots of birds to the feeders, including this red-bellied woodpecker.  Whoever named it did not know their anatomy since clearly it is the head that is red.

First Snow

About 4.5 inches.