The Fabulous B@ker Blog

Well, hello there. Looks like the B@ker Blog took a bit of a summer vacation. Once again, busyness has taken over, and at the end of each quick day, I am too worn out (lazy...?) to post! The journey since my last post has taken us to Raleight-Durham North Carolina and back, with a visit to Cam, Sue and Ken, and nephew Tony thrown in. Annalisse and I travelled 1,750 miles in six days to check out possible dietetic internship (DI) programs for next year. On the way down we stopped to spend the weekend with Cam ( who is doing better, although disappointed he didn't get the job at Wayfair in Boston - his interests did not meet their needs ~ DUH ~ he's interested in big data and they needed a coding monkey.  I think that probably came through in the interview. LOUD AND CLEAR.), before heading down to Roanoke (well, technically Salem, Virginia), for an overnight with Sue and Ken, and the bonus of spending time with Cousin San. On Monday morning, with Sue and Ken joining us, our fir...

Today tops off what has been an alternately exciting, frustrating, and stressful week. Rarely have I had a week where every day brought new stressful, frustrating, expensive experiences. Here goes... As you know, this was the week we moved Cam down to Maryland to start his new job. So, on Monday I went to work, knowing that Tuesday I would have to take Annalisse to Syracuse to move her belongings out of her current apartment and into her new apartment, as she had to vacate by July 31 (a development I learned about only the Friday before). STRESSOR #1 . As a result, we headed out to Syracuse with the intention of simply moving her stuff from her old apartment to her new, but NO: It turns out we had to completely empty out her current apartment and move everything home since she could not get into her new apartment until after August 20 ( STRESSOR #2 ). Now, all of you know I'm a good planner. I had emailed the rental office earlier in the month asking about this process, but nev...

Chillaxin' at the pool Can it be that it has been almost 3 weeks since I updated the blog?! SHAMEFUL! But a super busy three weeks it has been. This summer is really flying by (sadness), but there is still so much to look forward to, like our trip down to Maryland as Cam starts his new job in Rockville. We will head out on Wednesday, bright and early, with our trailer containing all Cam's Earthly belongings ~ well, maybe not everything, but what he will need to get started in his new place. He is renting a "super studio" in Gaithersburg, at least for the first year, since the info on Craig's list about sharing a house seemed kind of sketchy. His new apartment features a "sleeping area," with no door, but it will fit his full-sized bed he bought at Ikea last year. We also got him a full-size futon so we will be able to stay with him when we visit. The apartment complex looks really nice, so I hope it works for him. On Thursday, we will work to g...

I know the lawns are getting brown. I know it's sometimes hard to sleep at night with all this heat. BUT I LOVE IT! This weekend has been a banner one, with beautiful weather and time spent with good friends. It simply doesn't get any better. The weekend started with a quick trip to Massena for my 35th reunion. I just went only for the Friday night get together, as Mark and I needed to attend our dear friend Kay's dad's memorial celebration on Saturday. Mark could not come along as he can't get away from work (having just taken two weeks vacation), so I started the day in Massena with lunch with my sisters and cousins, followed by a listing of Mom's house with a new agent and a party for Aunt Carol's 96th birthday. Later in the day I joined my girl's (and Ken, Sue's husband) for dinner at Sabad's before heading to the reunion get together at the Massena Country Club. As always, it was great reconnecting with friends (and ignoring those who I ...

Welcome back! Sorry for the long blog drought...we've been very busy, above and beyond the fabulous trip we took to Ireland! Since my last post (May 22 - sorry, again) one of the chicks launched her farm-to-table tour of Italy, and the other has been looking for a job (bites, but no offers yet). On May 24, we took Annalisse to Toronto for her flight to Pisa by way of Dublin. All her travel went off without a hitch, and she began her intense two week study abroad of the Mediterranean Diet. She had a wonderful time seeing how food was grown, visiting organic farms, working with bees to make honey, making pasta, wine, cheese and bread, and enjoying "slow food" meals that sometimes lasted up to three hours. The group ended in Florence, but spent much time staying and working at farms in between. She said the trip was amazing, and would love to live there (we hear that a lot from folks who visit Italy!) if it weren't for the language barrier. Her trip was capped off wi...

The next couple of weeks will find a lot of Bakers coming and going and coming and going, starting with a quick trip down to Rockville, MD for Cam's first in-person job interview. The company seems to contract to government agencies, and with his background,  if he got the job, he might end up at a place like the NIH . One step at a time, though. Please send positive vibes! Our busy week will culminate in Cam's graduation from RIT on Saturday morning (8:30am). I know he's a little stressed trying to finish things up, but the finish line is in sight! After graduation we will go for a nice lunch at Woodcliff, then decide the strategy for moving him home before June 1. Then, a week from tomorrow we bring Annalisse to Toronto for her flight to Italy for her study abroad (studying the Mediterranean diet for two weeks). Then, two weeks after that we will be in Dublin for a week! YAY! Just about everything is set for our trip except the rental car from Dublin to the Cork area ...

Last night around midnight I got home from my week in Nashville, where I visited from Tuesday-Friday for the NAGAP conference. What a fun trip! I had the opportunity to spend time with my old college roommate, Linda, whom I had not seen since I was pregnant with Annalisse (as happens with good friends, we picked up right where we left off!). She lives about 45 minutes outside of Nashville, and came for the afternoon and spent the evening with me so she would not have to drive home late at night. I got in around 1pm, and we connected around 3pm and walked around a bit, going in and out of the honky tonks, had a nice dinner, and went to listen to some more music. Wow, were there great bands in the bars, and there is music literally everywhere you go in Nashville. So much talent. I was especially mesmerized by "Slick Joe Fick," a very well know "slap" bassist who had a role in the 2005 Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line . Here's a sample of amazing and entertaining...

Just like being there Here I am, safe and sound in the north where there is no (or very little) snow. Unless you live in a cave you probably heard about the massive, historic blizzard that hit the northeast last weekend. Of course, one of the hardest places hit was Washington, DC, where I had spent the week and had hoped to depart from on the weekend. But no. My plans for leaving Saturday, then Sunday, were scrapped by the big storm, which was actually a pretty bad one and lived up to its hype. Complicating things was the fact that the DC area (and areas east, west, north, and south) were not prepared to deal with the management and removal of upwards of 2' of snow. So, with much determination (and $100 spent paying kids to shovel me out over several occasions), I "escaped" the frozen wasteland of Northern Virginia on Monday afternoon. Other than the exciting storm, I spent a very pleasant week with Mom Shiao. After her daily treatments and any other running ...

I write to you from Mom Shiao's comfy couch in Alexandria, Virginia, where I'm spending a week hanging with her in her cute, sunny apartment and helping out where I can while she goes for her daily radiation treatments (which end next Tuesday) for lymphoma. Don't worry - she's doing great! Mark and I just thought it might be nice for me to come down and lend a hand. So, this week will find us spending the mornings at her treatments, and in the afternoons I will try to catch up on my "work work." Mark is home all alone with pup, as the kids are back at school. Annalisse's classes start on Tuesday, and Cam's not until next week but apparently he wanted to go back a week early and work out with the crew team. And so the Bakers are scattered once again after a wonderful break! 

Hello! It's been a while since the last post AND IT'S ALMOST MID-AUGUST. Seriously depressing. I've heard recently that August is like Sunday night, and it is too true. Blah. Change is in the wind as we start to shift back to school, and everybody is a little upset (me: A LOT upset) that summer is almost over. While it's been a very busy one, it's not totally been the "good" kind of busy, meaning we've been busy with work and school. That's not to say there haven't been weekends (and extended weekends) of fun. In fact, just about every weekend has been filled with day trips or trips up north to clean Mom's house. I have had vacation time, though. During my first week off I did a lot of running around, and Annalisse FINALLY had her road test (she passed by a hair...). We did a couple of historic house tours, but Mark and the kids were tied up most of the week with work commitments. I also did not get as much porch reading done as I mig...

Seventy-seven degrees today. Sixty-ish and sunny yesterday. Could it be happening at last? Why yes, it must be happening because WE SET THE PORCH UP YESTERDAY! No turning back (except for the occasional rouge snowy day that I'm sure we will still have). Even the houseplants are asking: When can we go back outside! Yesterday's beautiful Sunday topped off a very busy week that took me to New Orleans for the annual NAGAP conference. I had never been, and I think I can now say that I've "done that." It was ok, but very run down and not really my thing. Perhaps if I was a buxom, attractive girl in my 20s rather than a 50-something mother of college kids I might feel differently about the whole French Quarter/Bourbon Street scene, but it was certainly interesting. I think the funnest time spent in the French Quarter is when my friend Kristen, her husband, Ken, and I took a ghost tour on Friday night. It was mostly ghost stories (with no ghosts in sight - HA!), but a...

Mom and Aunt Jeanine in 2004 Today is Mother's Day, and with every passing year folks of a certain generation (mine and beyond) can really look back and express an appreciation for the role of motherhood. Of course, children of any age know how important and impactful our mothers are (can be?~not everyone has such fond feelings), but as we begin to lose our moms hindsight becomes clearer than ever. Once again I will say: many deride social media (especially FaceBook) but today, as with all special days, it becomes a medium for those to post pictures of their moms and families, and to express appreciation, gratitude, and sometimes sadness and longing for those who are no longer with us. I love love love  the older pictures my friends and family members post, and it makes me feel everso connected to them, sharing in their joy and their pain. I took a quick trip up to Massena to visit my mom yesterday. I had not seen her since November...the harsh winter, other commitments and, ...

The view from my window I took the red eye back from SUNNY, WARM San Diego on Friday night, arriving back in RAINY, COLD Rochester around 9:45am on Saturday. Really, what a wet, dark, cold slap in the face. San Diego is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, the weather was perfect (sunny, warm/hot, not humid), and the area we were staying in was very nice, and within short walking distance to many sites (the USS Midway and other historic ships/boats, Petco baseball stadium, the downtown area) and shopping venues (like the Seaport Village right next to the Manchester Grand Hyatt, where we were staying).  The week was bittersweet as I attended my last NAGAP board meeting, and we were all feeling sad with the realization that this is the last time many of us would be together as a group for a while. Still, we managed to have many, many laughs. The conference itself was really worthwhile as well, and I am going back to work tomorrow feeling professionally refreshed...

Tomorrow afternoon I leave for San Diego for my last NAGAP board meeting and the annual conference. OF COURSE, I'm looking forward to the sunshine and seeing the beauty of SD, not to mention my awesome NAGAP friends, but I am also not really looking forward to such a long trip. It will be bittersweet to finish up my two terms on the board, but I am definitely ready to move on. The travel and professional growth has been awesome, but I'm sort of looking forward to traveling for "fun" and not having commitments while in fun places. Now that my stint with NAGAP is winding down, I am also looking forward to delving into other areas of my job (namely the transfer student professional network) that my board commitments didn't really allow me to because of the time it took. Still, I'll miss seeing my pals on a regular basis. I'm sure I'll have some amazing pictures to share, so check back!

Whew! Finally a chance to update the blog. I'm sure many of you checked first thing Monday to see how (if!) the trip to Puerto Rico went. Or maybe you didn't check. Anyway... I did go to Puerto Rico, but it was a super quick trip, cut short by a hellish travel day on Thursday that went a little like this: Flight out of Rochester cancelled due to a mechanical issue. Waiting Waiting Waiting around the airport while Southwest tries to shuffle and reshuffle a plane full of passengers, most of which seemed, just like me, to be going to sunny destinations  Finally, a taxi ride (courtesy of Southwest) to Buffalo to catch a 4:15 flight to Orlando to connect to a flight to San Juan. (Plus a $200 voucher for future travel up to a year. YES!) Just one hitch: the flight to Orlando lands at the same time the San Juan flight departs. Hmmmm. Luck was with me: We landed in Orlando, and three of us hustled over to the San Juan flight, which was just boarding. Arrive in San Juan at 11:...

Tomorrow, maybe. Tomorrow at this time I will be on a plane to Baltimore to connect to my flight to San Juan. MAYBE . Tons of flights are cancelled in this hellish frozen wasteland, and as I write this, I am waiting for a jump from AAA because my car won't start. I have to admit I'll miss having Annalisse and Nic along on the trip this year. It was tons of fun having them tag along last time. If I'm fortunate enough to be invited back to the board for another term (my term is up in April), maybe they can tag along next year. If I'm not able to rejoin the board, it sure has been a great ride!  Now, if AAA could only get here so I could get to work...because you know I'm so anxious to go outside...and have my lungs be paralyzed...and have my hair and hands freeze...

So, apparently we're supposed to experience another POLAR VOTEX (I'm sorry, I just can't help myself. I love that term. It's just begging to be the name of an indie rock band) this week, much like the one that caused plunging temperatures two weeks ago. But that's okay, because on Thursday I head to Puerto Rico for NAGAP's January board meeting. Haters gotta hate! I suppose I should get packing. (I hope the POLAR VORTEX doesn't interfere with flights like it did the last time or the joke might be on me.)

Lovely Lady Liberty This is the fist chance I have had to sit down and reflect on our whirlwind weekend in NYC. One thing I came to realize, seeing most of the famous sights for the first time, is that EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT NEW YORK CITY  I LEARNED  FROM SONGS, MOVIES and TV.  Sad but true. Let me explain... We got into The Big Apple around 10am on Thursday and, after stowing our suitcases at The Hotel Empire, we took a brisk 25 minute walk down to Times Square to book a hop-on-hop-off tour of the city. My goal was to find a tour that took us "downtown" to lower Manhattan to see such sites as Chinatown, Little Italy, The Twin Towers/Freedom Tower sight, The Statue of Liberty, among other things. As I've mentioned in the blog before, I've never really gotten to be a tourist in New York as I'm always strapped for time attending one meeting or another. The perceived New York City of my youth was a gritty one, with Dad's Daily News newspaper, Sesam...

An antique shot of the Statue of Liberty that I found with the old pictures my sister sent me. Ironically I've still not yet seen Lady Liberty in person - only from planes. :( October is funny. Not ha-ha funny. Just weird, you know? We've had beautiful warm, almost spring-like weather all month, then BAM!, windy, cold, dark. As a general rule of thumb it seems that you can pretty much plan outdoor activities until October 15, then forget it. This year was no exception. When I get home from work off the work clothes come and on go the sweatpants. The silver lining: my neighbors can't see me walking pup in my stripped-down attire since it's so dark by the time we head out for our nightly stroll. Looking to the rest of the week: Mark and I are heading out tomorrow for a long weekend in NYC where I'll attend the NAGAP board meeting from Friday afternoon through Saturday (maybe Sunday, also? I'd better check the schedule...), with a leisurely tourist da...

I just got up from a much needed nap. Boooyyyy did I need that. Yesterday we had a great time celebrating Annalisse's big day. It wasn't a knock-down-drag-out crazy celebration; there was no big party and not even any balloons (the structure of the day did not lend itself to that), but it was a nice day spent with family experiencing a small slice of Annalisse's new life at Mercyhurst. The day started early with a stop at the Head of the Genesee Regatta where Cam was racing in the afternoon. The weather started out typically crappy with a steady rain, and we got pretty wet regardless of our best attempts to keep dry. We didn't tell Cam we were coming, but his face did light up when he saw us, a good sign! His sister ran to him yelling his name and flailing her arms - announcing, in her usual low key way, that she had arrived.  After chatting a bit and finding the Mercyhurst team (but she would not speak to them), we hit the road for Erie around 9:30 and checked in w...