Archive: Around Town

We returned from Florida to cold weather and grass above our ankles so our first fair weather job was mowing our lawn and field. Jim’s aqueduct from the new roof gutters to the pond had a first run (literally) so we added the final piece and dug it into the rim of the pond. After he adds some screening to keep out leaves, and figures how to camouflage the white section of pipe, the project will finally be complete.

Between unpacking and catching up at home we missed several of the winery events but we are looking forward to Halloween weekend at Bellwether and Americana wineries.

Mary did get to travel to Binghamton, a maze of bridges, with a friend to one of the State branch offices downtown. Parking is such a nightmare, even with a handicapped tag, that she ended up dropping him off and circling the building 4 times before parking was available within walking distance of someone with a bad knee.

 Since they were already parked in a regular spot, they decided to look at some of the quaint shops in the older section of downtown near the office buildings on Pawley Street.  “Imagicka” a local drum, fantasy, and Celtic/Wiccan shop caught their eye on the corner, so they wandered in to look at the African style musical instruments, stones, fancy cloaks and tarot cards available. It would have been fun to explore the other quaint shops and restaurants in the small pedestrian mall of older downtown Binghamton, but the meter was running out and they both had work to do in Ithaca. Even with a sizeable parking garage, downtown Binghamton is not an easy area, in our opinion, for shopping.

We try to find something positive in each of our local dining experiences, especially if the restaurant is new. What we can say about “Sammy’s” Pizza Buffet in the Tops Plaza on the Elmira Rd., is that if you are a college student who can eat large quantities of pizza and want variety, their “all you can eat” pizza buffet may be a good deal. Mary and our friend, Jeffrey, thought they were going for Chinese buffet, which used to be in the same place, but decided to give the pizza a try since they were there anyway and hungry. ( Not an especially good criteria for choosing a restaurant, folks.) While they have lots of variety, the quality was disappointing to both Mary and Jeffrey, who used to be a pizza maker. For people who now eat only two slices at most in a meal, the cost was a high and the multicolored faux Italian dancing fountain with colored lights and music was a bit much.

Our apologies to our readers for a bit of a dull week as we shift seasons and gear up for the holidays; people need to take several days of vacation at home after their away vacation to readjust to reality. We bought our Cayuga Wine Tour Holiday Shopping Spree tickets last week (available on line or Wegmans) since one of the two weekends usually sells out early. Jim will be “Santa “again this year at Sheldrake, The Creamery, and Trelaven on the second weekend so we’re touring the first weekend in cognito. We’ll post the times to visit our alter egos when the dates get closer.

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