Hymelick.com becomes Upon Stratford

Well, more news in the "site-has-moved" department, but hymelick.com is now uponstratford.com and is located with its very own domain name. CLICK HERE to visit!

THE BIG MOVE

Okay, so hymelick.blogspot.com has moved. It is now found at hymelick.wordpress.com. In the near future, we will be relocated at hymelick.com, plain and simple, again (I'm still working on that part!) with an awesome new gallery, much like on the original hymelick.com. To access the new site in one shot, CLICK HERE.

All posts from here have been moved over, so everything you could possibly want to read up on from the past is still there. Excess, non-family related posts have been deleted. If you are interested in "The Music Man" Project, it is now on my sewing blog - A Fine Notion (though those videos will remain up here).

This site, however, will remain to exist as an outlet for my constant ramblings about nothing, and my posts about anything and everything that is not important. Perhaps later I'll post my new favorite Saturday Night Live skit, starring Tina Fey as Sarah Palin!

Picture of the Week

Taking advantage of my new water camera pictures, here's me and Kristi in the water in Puerto Rico, looking like we've just swum in from nowhere!

An Update or Two

Yeah, so I've been neglecting things a bit here, but I'm trying to get things together for the launch of the new hymelick.com. I think it'll be worth it. Once that happens, I'll likely be clearing the family information from here and keeping it as a place for my random musings and video showings. All family news will be at the new site, which will hopefully come with a brand new gallery and everything.

In other news, our current gallery has been updated with more pictures from Puerto Rico, taken with an underwater camera Kristi bought and then I had developed the other day - FINALLY. You can view that here.

The New Look for Now

This is the new look as I move the blog to be about my random musings, and move the family website over to it's new home. Bear with it as it will go through many changes until I decide on the final layout and look forward to the new site.

Any name suggestions will be gladly taken into consideration! (Thought it might be fun if they reflect the new template.)

Coming Soon: A Makeover!

The Family Stories and Pictures site is getting a new look, and it's own domain! Keep a lookout here, for I will post when I get us all good and redirected! I am waiting until I am completely done with the renovation before I send people on over to it. The gallery is being updated and the posts are being streamlined to truly be all about the family!

This site WILL be updated in the meantime, AND it will likely continue to be here as the place where I post all my random musings and ramblings about movies and whatnot.

Picture of the Week

At Carol and James' wedding in 1993, Katherine discovered how much she liked dancing.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

In my first day of work craziness yesterday, I neglected to post birthday greetings for Grandma Ginger! Happy Birthday! (Sheepishly given one day late!)

Quote of the Week

"Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken." ~Bill Dodds

It's funny since in my job, I have the exact OPPOSITE reaction to Labor Day. Sure, people "lose" their kids right after Labor Day Weekend, but as the teacher, I GAIN them!

Picture of the Week

Kara refers to this period of her life as her "Whale Baby" days. I'd assume this was sometime in early 1988, as she was born in December of '87.

A Ladies' Tea

In our grand tradition, we had our Ladies' Tea today. The theme was "Go Green" and we all bought "green" gifts. I made a purse out of an old shirt and scraps, so it was "recycled!" A lovely time was had by all.

Lindsay and Katherine, right before we ate the excellent tea sandwiches.
The lovely tea cups.
A table of our gifts.
The bag that I made, and Donna received.

Happy Birthday, Ted!

Today is Ted's 78th birthday! Happy Birthday!


Ted and Grandma at the 2005 Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Happy Birthday, Lindsay!

Today we celebrate Lindsay's 24th birthday! There's a big party later to celebrate so I'm sure tomorrow you can expect a post with lots of pictures!

A baby Lindsay, circa 1985/1986 (depending on if she was 1 or 2 here!).

Lin and Jordan lounge on the chair, 1989.

Lindsay in Montauk, August 2008.

Picture of the Week

Well, since it's after midnight, and since I'm still up, and since I'm helping a friend paint her living room tomorrow and don't know when I'll be home, I'll just post the picture of the week right now!


I've always really enjoyed this picture of me and Lindsay, taken circa 1990 or so! (I actually think it's a bit earlier, perhaps '88.)

A Foray into Web Design

I just finished my first actual website. It's for Grandma and Ted's Bed and Breakfast, The Hitchcock House! Check it out here! I hope it brings them lots of new business!

Cousin Day!

Today Jack "cashed in" on his birthday present - a day with me! We took a trip to Barnes & Noble, where I got him five books and then we headed to Brooklyn Botanic Garden to meet mom for lunch. The day ended after meeting up with Willa again and watching Jack play with one of his other birthday presents - one that baffled us. It seemed to be a foam spray that you used to decorate the sidewalk, but it didn't work quite the way any of us thought it would.

Highlights of the Day:

Jack at the Botanic Garden, trying out his new frog toy.
The butterfly that was landing on all the flowers.
Jack waiting patiently - and excitedly! - while Willa sets up the new toy!
Jack and his new toy.
The strange foam markings.

Recent Movie-Going Adventures

I don't drag myself to the movies for any old thing, so something has to REALLY peak my interest for me to want to see it. I do, however, tend to see more movies in the summer when I have a lot of time. Here are my two most recent, highly recommended movies, both of which I plan to buy on DVD (or ask to receive for Christmas, as I find DVDs to be the easiest gifts):


Mamma Mia, while admittedly corny and perhaps a little tacky, is very enjoyable, particularly if you were a strange child like I was who was REALLY into ABBA! (And you can't beat the scenery!)


Not as good as the first, but Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 did have its charms!

Quote of the Week

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together." ~Erma Bombeck

Coming Soon

I am in the process of creating an Etsy shop! It will be called Pig & Pepper, an homage to Alice in Wonderland (it's the name of a chapter) and in honor of the real shop Lindsay and I hope to open one day - full of handmade goodies and baked goods - of course, the Etsy shop will not include the baked goods! I also recently saw that you can sell photography prints on Etsy which I would love to do! Who knows... maybe this is the place to start.

So anyway, this is going to take a good month or two to really get off the ground, but I hope to work diligently the next couple of months to get some things done! We'll see how it goes!

Picture of the Week

Here's the pic of the week, one day early as I'll be upstate for the next couple of days seeing Othello and All's Well That Ends Well with Grandma!


Here's me, Lin and dad on the hiking trail in Montauk.

Dabbling in Photography

I've always liked taking pictures, whether they be of people, nature, animals or just junk. I would not consider myself a photographer really, just someone who wants to document the world as she sees it. Some of my recent work:

A flower, complete with a bug, in Grandma's garden upstate.
Jack, donning his fantastic mustache at his birthday party.
A formal shot of some dances at the first McKinley Ballroom Competition this past May - I was actually hired to do the job.
More dancers - in action - at the Ballroom Competition.
More action dancing from the Ballroom Competition.



The above four are all action shots from "The Music Man" in April.

Quote of the Week

"Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along."
-Hugh Allen

My New Favorite Website

A website recommendation, particularly for those of you out there who like to dabble with pictures. Picnik is a photo-editing website that can do simple touch-ups to pictures and you can play around with them, much like you could do with a photo editing program. However, I like some of these features and WILL put them to good use. Here's a sample of it's work:


This is a picture I took of a gnome on the small porch at the house in Montauk. I was able to make it look polaroid-esque. Personally, I think it looks like an add for something now.

Travel Tales: Puerto Rico 2008, Part Three

Sunday morning came with a trip to Old San Juan. We left relatively early and began our tour of the city. Frances was a helpful tour guide, though of course I don't remember anything! However, we saw a lot of old buildings and statues, and it's always a lot of fun to look at architecture, whether you remember it's significance or not. It was also really nice to see the water even more than we had at the hotel - it really put the island into perspective. We even got to see a cruise ship coming into the port!

Me by the fountain.
Me by the water.

We were headed for lunch so we continued our walk, stopping briefly at the pigeon park where kids go to feed the birds. Both Kristi and I commented on the size of the pigeons.

The Pigeon Park.

For lunch, we ate at the restaurant that claims to be the birthplace of the pina collada, so naturally we had to try them. We also had the opportunity to eat authentic Puero Rican cuisine, which of course, I really enjoyed. After a HUGE meal that left us all too full to want to walk, we continued on our journey and made our way to the fort.

The fort was a really interesting place, full of little nooks and crannies for people to hide in.







Once we had exhausted ourselves in Old San Juan, we headed back to the hotel to relax on the beach for the remainder of the afternoon. That night, we decided to be adventurous and go out for dinner, so we asked the concierge what was within walking distance. Using a local Denny's as our landmark, we managed to find a cute (and cheap!) little diner-type place that also happened to sell gelato. We had a nice dinner and then headed back to the hotel to relax and sleep off the exhaustion of the day!

Travel Tales: Puerto Rico 2008, Part Two

Day two of our Puerto Rico adventure began early as we made our way to the caves. After an hour and a half drive, we discovered the caved were closed due to an earlier accident, and we opted not to pay to walk up and down 500 steps just so we could look out over the caves but not actually go in. So, after a quick lunch stop at Subway, we headed to the Bacardi Rum Factory to take a tour.

Me and Kristi with some fake cows (though Jack has corrected me since and told me they are actually bulls).

Me and Kristi in the factory with the bat.

One of the things we learned on the tour was that the emblem of the Bacardi bat came to be because there were bats in the original distillery. It was strange how they seemed to want to keep that a secret when actually the story was not all that exciting once you actually got to hear it.

The factory tour, I must admit, was not all that exciting, and after hanging out in the guest area for a while, we headed back to Frances' house. From there we went back to the hotel (Frances and Brian joined us) for some time in the pool. We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around on the beach and in the pool. That night, Kristi and I had dinner at one of the hotel's many restaurants, and then I called it a night while Kristi and Frances went out for a while.

Brian on the beach.
Me on the beach.
It's hard to see, but there was a wedding on the beach that day - two, actually, but this one is the only one I photographed.
The hotel - right on the beach!

Photo Gallery Updated

Pictures from our little Montauk excursion are now in the photo gallery and may be viewed here.

PIcture of the Week

Here's Jack on his 7th birthday donning the mustache I helped draw on his face.

Another Summer Adventure

Tomorrow I'm heading out to Montauk to spend some time with Dad and Kathi. Then I'm going to Pam's overnight so Katherine and I can see "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" so it's a slightly busy two days - and there are likely to be very little posts from me in that time. Will have the laptop with me, but I don't know about internet... I'm really only bringing it for writing purposes anyway!

Don't know if this is the kind of trip I'll be taking lots of pictures on, but we'll see!

Photo Gallery Updated!

In what is becomming an abundance of posts today due to the backlog of pictures that I wasn't able to put into the camera until today (had to buy a NEW cord!), the photo gallery has been updated - twice over!



The Puerto Rico pictures are up. They may be viewed here.



Pictures from Jack's 7th Birthday Party are also up. View them here.

And, as always, the complete photo gallery can be accessed at this link.

Travel Tales: Puerto Rico 2008, Part One

We arrived in Puerto Rico on Friday, July 25, 2008, and proceeded directly to Frances' house to have dinner with her parents. Her mom made us some VERY good authentic Puerto Rican food. It was the perfect way to start our trip off! We also got to meet her sister, as well as her nephew Brian (who I have met before when he was in New York with her parents).

From there it was on to the hotel. We checked in quickly and went to check out our room. It has a really nice view of the ocean from the balcony, and even out there Kristi and I were shocked by how humid it was in Puerto Rico - the temperature wasn't too bad, but the humidity made it feel worse. Our hotel, the Courtyard Marriot Isla Verde (or something along those lines) was right on the beach, complete with a pool with swim up bar and four different restaurants, as well as a casino. It was the perfect place to stay!

The view from the hotel balcony.

We checked out the beach, going in the water - which we both agreed was SO much nicer than New York. You could actually SWIM in the ocean there without feeling like you were getting coated in some sort of sludge!


The beach at the hotel.

After settling in and showering, Frances met up with us again and we headed to a casino in another hotel to play the slots a bit. I only lost about $10 total, which was good - should've quite while I was ahead though, because I could've turned my $25 into about $45 had I stopped playing!

Done with the casino, we headed out to dinner at Lupi's, a Mexican restaurant. Frances' friend joined us for the trip. We had some drinks and some food, and then headed back to the hotel for some well-needed rest.




At Lupi's.