Gifts, The Intrepid, Saugerties, Narrowsburg and Whistler's Mother

lyrics from a song I like currently, 2nd verse -

"For once I didn't say anything stupid--
my lover never once looked bored.
And soldiers come in smeared with lipstick,
like the last day of war.
The band divided up the money,
but the drummer could not stay.
He said he's gonna meet us later,
at The Dream Cafe."

Got some great unexpected gifts over the weekend - happy early birthday and belated Christmas to me!

Here's a handmade, hand-painted teapot fashioned into a typewriter. From England no less. From the clients of the Big Barn. Who's fancy now!?


And then a very nice A. Lincoln portrait from his pre-presidency congressional days. It's now the centerpiece of my Saugerties apartment (which didn't have any heat last night - Lucas and I cuddled up under the blankets with the temps in the mid-40's - don't tell protective services pwease.)



Picture of my office, and the Eames chair, the aeron chair, the River Gallery cow painting, the road bike, polished concrete floors, CB2 red rack, barn light electric barn fan, and shelves of typewriters. The only question with the new teapot typewriter is should it go on the typewriter shelf, or in my kitchen.


Lots of business conducted in this office for sure.


We got a lot of construction going on - helped by the warm weather, hurt by the mud - typically it would be frozen solid by now. Pete Kestler and his drilling rig. Think Paul Bunyan and his ox. Been drilling wells for decades - a hard job, not for the feint of heart, or weak. He also builds his own airplanes and flies them. he's drilled 100 wells for us at least. That's typical of our team - a lot of houses done together, which is why we can start building in faraway places - everyone knows what to do, and how to do it, so our management can be of the 'light touch' variety, not the minute to minute micro-management necessary of yesteryear.


Cottage 39 going up outside of Barryville NY. It's unspoken for and should be preeettttty sweeetttt.

Here's Barn VI with siding up and the metal roof. It's a very well-designed home. it's under contract.


and Ranch VI coming along nicely on Lake Ridge Road. It's under contract as well.


And the Big Barn coming along - with the white plank super high ceilings.


A weekend trip to the Intrepid...


with Lucas and his First Mate...



I had them convinced that the photo below was of the spy plane above, but spy planes don't show up on cameras...


Lucas is taking swimming lessons now at the local resort/spa, Woodloch Pines.




and at the Saugerties apartment, kick ass upstairs bathroom...


since we on a busy quasi-urban street, he likes to wake up early and look out the window at the school buses and other assorted trucks that go by 2 stories down...

and this picture doesn't have anything to do with anything, but I bought it anyways.



Just downloaded a Bob Dylan cover album from a lot of well-known singers - 78 songs, pretty radical interpretations with 1/2 of the proceeds going to Amnesty International no less! Don't think I will be listening to it too often. I hate when I do that - like when my first itunes download exercise was downloading every Prince tune known to man and then never listening to most again...