Now many people who know me personally know me to be a bit of a talker (No kidding!)  as well as somebody who loves to crack a joke as well. I always enjoy telling Laurie a joke or two and I think she gets a good kick out of laughing at them. It is of course hard to tell a joke when the hygienist has her dental probe in your mouth scraping away at the accumulation of tartar. Even more funny trying to tell a joke when she is rinsing out your mouth with water. You see,  the water goes everywhere!

One of my most favorite memories about dentists is when Mr Conehead, Played by the actor Dan Akroyd in Coneheads the movie, is absolutely hilarious when the Dentist asks him to open his mouth wide and the dentist fits the anesthetic mask into his whole mouth to make him sleep so that he can have all of his sharp canine teeth ground down and capped. Simply classic!.

Your see, the turkeys started coming in towards them but must have got spooked and went off in the other direction. The older brother went after them and as he returned back to where his younger brother was waiting, the younger one thought he was a turkey and pulled the trigger. Ironically and thankfully, the older brother, who at first passed out, came too and was able to use his cell phone to call 911.  His younger brother meanwhile went out to the road to direct the emergency services to where his brother lay. The older brother was then taken by mercy flight to Strong University hospital  where he has been and is still in intensive care albeit mercifully, he is recovering from the ordeal. At this point I would mention that many Mennonites carry cell phones with them these days despite this being extremely frowned upon by their church. Perhaps given these circumstances they can be forgiven for breaking the rules as ultimately the use of the cell phone and the emergency services of course, saved his young life!

Whilst the boy is out of the physical woods, he is not out of the proverbial woods as far as his health is concerned as he has several lead pellets lodged close to a major artery in his neck and the Doctors are concerned about them and where they may move to. They dare not operate being so close to the artery but are playing watch and see what they will do. Forgive me if I do not name the boys in this blog or their parents as to do so would not be appropriate I think.  My prayers and that of my family are with the brother who got shot of course but also with all of his family who must themselves be in shock and who need the support of their family and friends. I have this evening prayed for the boys swift recovery and prayed for his family too.

Christina K.

Cobtree, At home without being at Home!

Hobart William Smith Colleges Graduation 2012 Photo Courtesy HWS Colleges and their Photographer.

This weekend is the graduation weekend of the nearby Hobart William Smith Colleges and all of our properties are fully booked by parents who have booked properties here over a year in advance! It has been a gloriously sunny weekend and everything looks green and manicured here at Cobtree.  This morning I sprayed all of the fruit trees with the first insect preventative spray of the growing season. This has to be done every three weeks to ensure that the fruit does not get chomped to pieces by all and sundry insects that want a free meal of the fruit.  We actually permit guests to pick the fruit for their own consumption once the fruit is ready to be picked.  Currently we grow Nectarines, Peaches, Plums, Pears and apples as well as some tart cherries although I am thinking to purchase a couple of apricot trees to plant as well.

Mercifully and indeed, thankfully, the team at In House Graphic Design,Inc. dropped everything this morning to get our web site back in good order because, as the reader of this blog would be able to sympathize and appreciate, if our web site does not display the critical information about our properties here at Cobtree, we would be dead in the water. So to speak and would quickly have no business!

I have to say without blowing too much smoke up their skirts, that our relationship with In House Graphic Design,Inc is a very professional one and we have been most satisfied with their services since we first started working with them on our web site redesign. Today’s problem reinforced our relationship for which we are eternally grateful. Thank you team In House Graphic Design,Inc

Actually, next weekend Jane and I will be flying down to Philly    to stay at a nice boutique hotel (Kimpton Hotel)  located  in downtown Philadelphia for four days. During this time we plan on seeing all the sights and museums together to celebrate my 53^rd birthday. Jane has not been to Philly before whilst I have only been there once with my old friend Julia Zhang when we both attended a pharmaceutical conference there. It seems like so many years ago now and such a distant memory……sigh.

This afternoon Jerry and Marie graciously hosted a farewell (but not goodbye as they are not moving away from the town) and the party was attended by many of their loyal patrons and by many freeloaders as well who just turned up for a great time out,  free of charge of course!

It was quite comical to see Joe and Lisa drive past the restaurant in their Volvo SUV and despite waving for them to pull in, Joe did not see me. Around the block they went and as they drove past me for the second time, I waved again and still they did not see me standing there on the corner in my khaki colored pants and bright light blue jacket. Around the block they went again and finally Joe was able to see me as I ran to the side of the road to frantically wave him down!

Still, we all made it into the restaurant where Jane had already ordered some dishes due to the tightness of the time. I was somewhat disappointed over the food this time we visited the New Cantonese Restaurant. It was not up to the usual high standards for food and the stewed beef was almost inedible. Even though Jane complained to the waiter (and later to the owner) they did not offer to take the dish off the bill even though we hardly touched what we could eat of it.

I felt sorry for Joe and Lisa because clearly they were not enjoying the offerings of this restaurant and had driven an hour over from Geneva to enjoy what we had told them, was great food offered by this restaurant. The restaurant itself has become somewhat run down, no longer well maintained as it used to be. However, the food has always been excellent before and so we never really worried about the decoration too much. Now we have to start to look around for another restaurant to give our patronage to, I think.

Sorry Joe, sorry Lisa, we will make it up to you sometime soon when you come to stay with us once again.

Jane and I went on to see the performance of the Chinese Choral Society   and was hugely impressed by their singing, musical performance of Chinese orchestra and the Penfield High school children who also sang two songs in Chinese too. It was a terrific performance.  Thank you.