Halloween 2012

Admittedly, it's a bit spooky around here with all of the problems in our surrounding areas.  We had over 100,000 household / business power outages in our locale but once again the Schneider household and office escaped any problems.  The winds whipped for several hours and we had many 50 mph gusts but that was nothing compared to what the shore areas sustained.

The boys are out raising heck in the neighborhood.  Cindy "irished" her coffee to cope.  Check out this year's costumes.

Our newest karate student - Sandy edition

I accomplished what Cindy could not.  I was able to get Jack to stand still while wearing his new karate uniform.  Today was his third class and his enthusiasm is still sky high.  We hope it continues.

To all of our midwestern fans - no need to worry about us in the storm to come.  We changed the oil in our generator and we are ready for what is to come.  If we lose power for an extended period of time, I will have to make sure and get to Walmart and buy that shotgun to keep all of our starving and electronic gadget deprived neighbors at bay.

Jack's 6th Birthday Blowout

Don't just turn 6 ... conquer it!  Jack informed us months ago that he wanted his birthday party at The Inner Wall, a local indoor climbing center.  There is a rather well known set of cliffs (The Shawangunk Ridge) right in our New Paltz backyard.  The "stoners"(HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA - hoo boy am I funny!) hang out at The Inner Wall  to tune up and build their skills.  It functions as a birthday party bonanza as well.

Well, all of the kids were great.  Only 2 of them were downright skittish with 1 suffering a total breakdown "mid-cliff".  Yours truly served as the belay (rope bearer requiring harness and use of carabiners ) for many of the fledgling climbers and the one in crisis.   One of the Inner Wall rescue team members had to scale the "cliff"to talk him down.

Cindy whipped up 48 cupcakes for the party which was this past Saturday October 20.  For Jack's actual birthday on October 15, Cindy blasted out a bunch of home made cookies for the class.  We were told that Jack dropped an entire tray of them on the floor.

Only a few photos were taken by Cindy and the quality is so so but honestly in this day and age where every moment is chronicled, I believe we will all get by just fine.  It's not like we need some professional photographer following us around like some people we know.

Jack was happy with all of his presents and will be thanking you all for them if he has not already.