Our First Christmas

Christmas was quite a day for two easy going socks like us. We started with a drive to Liz's parent's house. We took in the holiday sights along the way (and were "treated" to Liz's renditions of holiday classics like "Happy Holidays," "Winter Wonderland," and the entire Elvis Christmas album. The girl really likes her Christmas music!)

This is the famous "bear on the fountain" that marks the center of the town where Liz grew up and where her parents still live. A little further on we easily found her street by the festive sign that marked its start...

Apparently at night it is lit from top to bottom.

Once we arrived the feasting and tearing began. Food was everywhere and boy did it smell great! Before we could really dig in and enjoy all of the goodies the presents had to be opened. Box after box was filled with things only someone like Liz could enjoy until, as the very last package was ripped open, finally something we could enjoy, too...

They say Christmas is about family, well ours just got a lot bigger! Now that we aren't the "new socks in the drawer" anymore we will have to take these new members of our family under our careful guidance.

We chatted with the new socks and told them that Liz was okay as long as you didn't mind the singing and the rampant bunny that was unusually attracted to chewing anything in its path.

After everyone stuffed themselves to the point of groaning we set out through the cold night to enjoy some of the local holiday displays. One in particular dwarfed all of the rest. For what had to be at least a quarter of a mile we were blinded by holiday lights and deafened by cheerful Christmas music projecting from hidden speakers around the most incredible house we have ever seen.

After so much excitement we were glad to be home and tuck in for a well-deserved night's sleep.

Merry Sock Christmas!

What would Christmas be without a pair of beautiful stripey socks hanging from the mantle?



We were very excited to be included in the holiday happenings but what's up with the "goodies" we were stuffed with? A spider and a bat?! The bat is kinda cute but that spider is huge! We guess Santa knows best...


Merry Christmas everyone!

Lending a Toe

Seeing as Liz works at a nature center and we go there a lot, we thought maybe we would be able to lend a toe and help with some of the work. Liz thought long and hard and finally came up with something quite fun: Project FeederWatch.

Once a week we stare through binoculars at the bird feeders outside the nature center. We figure out what birds are visiting and then we count how many of each species come on each day.

We've never really spent much time appreciating the birds so we were surprised at how lovely many of them really are. And the equipment is cool, too! It's like those binoculars were made just for us...two sides so we can be comfortably next to each other and don't have to wait our turn to look at the birds.

This one is called a red-breasted nuthatch. Weird name but we kind of like it. It is very fast when coming to the feeder for seeds. It grabs one and then woosh! it's off again. If you stare at it long enough it even looks a little bit like us. Notice the stripey head and the colors are very close to our own.

Something New

We have been good and loyal socks to Liz. We know how much she appreciates our company and we look forward to all of our adventures with her. Now that the weather has turned cooler she wears us out a lot more, even though most of our trips couldn't really be thought of as adventures. She's been a little busy lately but really, everything has been fine. That is, until IT came...

IT came from our maker half-way across the country in Kansas. Like us, IT is home made. Unlike us, IT is merely decorative (rather than decorative and useful). Liz would argue that it has very real and practical uses. Whatever.

Just look at IT! How are we supposed to compete with that?! Not only is it new, but it is also woven from hand-spun wool. As if that weren't enough, while it doesn't have happy stripes like we do, it has something that produces a little squeal of delight every time Liz looks at it. Freakin' bats! How are we supposed to compete with bats?! Ugh.



Not only do we have to compete with the fact that it has bats but, on it's first night in town - the very day it arrived in the mail - she took it to the theater and left us sitting at home in the drawer! Apparently we aren't classy enough for the theater. We'll see about that...

That was all a month ago...we've been pretty busy since then. No adventures to speak of but we know there are some in our future. Liz did pay us the honor of wearing us on her birthday. Liz is going back to work at the place where all of the pumpkins were only now they are selling trees. We heard Liz telling someone that there would be real live reindeer there so we are looking forward to seeing them. Maybe we can get them to pass a note to Santa...

Sock the Vote!

Today is a very important day! So important that Liz made us stay in the sock drawer right through Halloween so we would be ready for it. Today is Election Day.

As soon as we finished breakfast we headed for the polls:

It wasn't long to get to the polls. In fact, it's right across the street! You may notice the lack of line in front of the door. We saw lines running around corners on the news this morning but the gentle folks of Avon don't seem to be in a hurry to vote. We hope they understand how important it is!

Once we found our way inside we signed in (well, Liz did) and learned that we were number 163 to vote today. That doesn't feel like very many, although it was just 9 a.m. when we got there. We did have to wait a few minutes for our turn - there was only one voting machine in the room. Finally, our turn came.

There is a fancy curtain thing that gives voters privacy - human voters, that is. The curtain only covered Liz from the top of her head to her waist. What about our privacy? Fortunately Liz was able to do the voting for us:

Fingers and toes crossed! Now that we have done our duties as citizens we can spend the rest of the day having fun. As we travel we will proudly sport the fact that we voted. (We decided we need to take turns - Right gets the morning, Left gets the afternoon.)

Sock the Vote!

Fun on the Farm

With another season comes yet another seasonal job. This time Liz is working at a farm. We don't think it's an ordinary kind of farm. They have animals and pumpkins and everything you would expect...but then there's all of the extra stuff.

For example:

The Hillbilly Hen House. The hens you see actually talk. They tell bad chicken jokes and sing farmer songs. When school groups come they tell all about what it takes for a chicken to make an egg.

"Why did the chicken cross the road, roll in the dirt, and then cross the road again?"

"Because he was a dirty double crosser!"

There are also lots of fun things for kids to do like climb a fort made of hay, jump in a pit full of hay, slide down giant slides, pick pumpkins, and play in a giant box full of corn.

You know we had to have our turn! Liz said she was aching to get in it since the first time she saw it. Some corn snuck into her pants while we were rollin' around. Fortunately it just shakes right out. We thought the corn would be hard and uncomfortable but it was great! It felt so good. Probably the closest we will ever get to swimming with Liz.

One of Liz's jobs is to drive the train. It's really just a tractor disguised as a train. The "cars" are barrels made to look like animals. Our favorite is the turkey even though we didn't get to ride in that one. The train isn't so bad - it's smelly but about the warmest spot on the farm when the days are cold.

After we took school kids for a ride on the train today, it was our job to show them the animals in the petting zoo area. We started with the easiest ones to catch. In fact, Liz put some of them in her pockets! each kid got a chance to hold one (carefully, of course).

The kids were given small handfuls of food to feed the animals in the petting zoo. Some animals were hungrier than others...

This is Baby, she's huge (and always hungry). She makes all sorts of funny little grunting noises and her tiny little tail wags vigorously while she eats.

And then there is Suzette, the llama.

Can you see the little boy with the red hair and the camouflage coat? In about five minutes only me, him, and another farm worker will be with the llama and Suzette is going to sneeze right on his head! It was so gross! He didn't seem upset about it though - just thought it was funny. That's because he couldn't see the top of his head like we could!

There are also sheep, a calf named Frank, and a mini-pasture full of naughty bunnies who keep escaping.

"No naughty bunny here. Nope. No, sir. Don't know what you could be talkin' about."

We are sure we will be going back before the season is over. There is just so much to do there!

Stony Brook Ramblings

Oh, fall is upon us and we are loving it! The days are much cooler but still bright and sunny (an added benefit of this glorious weather is a major reduction in sweat production as far as Liz's feet are concerned). This week Liz had a mini vacation - the first since May - and took us on an adventure with her friend Karen.

Liz and Karen began the day with donuts. It started innocently enough as a need for a restroom after the long drive but quickly degenerated into a carb/calorie fest. After we loaded our bellies we headed for a strange place that looked like a library inside except the books were all really big and none of them had words on the spine. Turns out it was a fabric store - um, quilt shop, that is (Yes, I fixed it Liz! Geez!)

After Liz and Karen spent money they shouldn't have on strange pieces of fabric we all piled back in the car and headed for Stony Brook State Park.

As state parks go, it's kinda smallish but well worth the drive. Since it was Tuesday and getting into the off-season parts of the year, there was no entrance fee and almost no people to run into on the trails. Did we mention the trails? Now, we've been on trails with Liz before but these ones seemed to only go in one direction - up. The stony brook runs through a gorge with very steep sides (I suppose it wouldn't be a gorge if the sides weren't steep, hmm).

Fortunately both Liz and Karen, while able to go the entire trail up one side of the gorge and back down the other, were not in the best shape of their lives and stopped frequently on the steep inclines to wheeze and chug water.

We know it looks bad but Liz really was okay, she just needed a serious rest before continuing up the neverending stairs. All of the height we gained while hiking the east rim provided some beautiful views of the gorge below.

Check out the rad waterfall. There were more once we reached the other side and the hiking was finally more down then up. On the west rim we got right down next to the water. It was very beautiful.

Here is one of our favorite shots from the trip. Check out the lone maple tree that is already red - it's as ready for fall as we are!

After we all had a hearty (and inhaled) lunch we found time for a little fun on the swings. One of these days Liz is going to kill us all trying to get these crazy action shots!



Wheeeee!!!!

A Sweet Ride

What a month we're having! Our latest adventure took us to the busy metropolis of Caledonia, NY. We were attending a graduation party for the son of one of our favorite people (who also happens to be the education director where we work). Parties at her house are always interesting because her husband is, shall we say, a bit eccentric. His hobbies include model trains, army vehicles, and anything he can tinker with pretty much.

This house was also the site of the party where we were attacked by the gang of vicious kitties.

For some time we have been hearing about the most famous member of the army vehicle collection (don't spoil the surprise!) and were delighted to learn that rides on this vehicle were going to be part of the graduation festivities. We believe that Liz washed clothes a day early just so we could go with her.

After a hearty meal and pleasant conversation with the gang from the museum, it was announced that the time for rides had come. Hooray!

We have to admit that we were a little apprehensive but we figured a vehicle like that could only go so fast. Boy, were we wrong!

Here we are pre-ride:



This is called a half track. It is half truck, half tank. Who could've imagined it would go so fast?


This shot is of us rocketing down routes 5 and 20 towards the monument at the heart of Caledonia. Notice the quizzical looks from people on the street. What are a group of people doing driving the streets of Caledonia, whooping and hollering and waving, on a half track?


The ride was thrilling. And the vibrations that came from the floor of the half track were compared by many to the vibrating foot massagers found at the state fair. One rider said her feet were actually vibrated right to sleep!

After our ride, the owner proudly displayed pictures of the vehicle in its prime.



After so much excitement in one month we are predicting some serious downtime in September. School is starting up again and Liz needs to find another job so she can afford to keep us clean!

Sock Olympics

We’ve been watching quite a bit of the Olympics lately. It’s all very exciting! We have seen some pretty impressive feet at work but, sadly, not many socks are involved in the winning of medals. It’s kind of hard to imagine when we think of all of the adventures we’ve had with Liz that definitely were enhanced by the presence of socks – (especially socks as wonderful as us!)

We have become so inspired by the Olympic Games that we decided we needed to do something more with ourselves and take up a sport. We’ve enjoyed watching the swimming the most so far but, unfortunately, swimmers don’t wear socks. Maybe someday they will have magic swimming socks like their special swimsuits! Either way, as much as we’ve begged, Liz still refuses to take us to the pool with her when she goes early in the morning. Watching swimming on TV and then seeing Liz when she returns and smelling the chlorine odors that drift from her swimsuit as it hangs on the rack…someday, someday.

Well, we still had a problem – what sport would we really excel in? Finally, we found the answer…


Oh, yes. Rhythmic gymnastics! Sadly rhythmic gymnastics is a sport not widely followed. It is often overshadowed by, well, I guess we would call it regular gymnastics. Now, we’ve tried some of those fancy moves with the help of our trusty trampoline but, living in an attic, with peaked ceilings, running and jumping and tumbling is NOT recommended.



Now that we mention it, there is a trampoline category in the Olympics but again, our living arrangements prevent us from pursuing that.
To begin our rhythmic gymnastics training we had to find a way to move gracefully with a ball. I think maybe we need a smaller ball before we can make it to the Olympics though.


Next we pestered Liz until she made us the famous ribbon-on-a-stick thing. We experimented with several different ways of holding on to it. We finally settled with…

It is very graceful, no? (Didn’t know we could do a French accent, did you?)

After hours and hours of practice one thing became very clear – we need better equipment. To get better equipment, like all sports stars, we need a sponsor. Liz suggested Oliver’s. I don’t think that Oliver’s sponsorship will make us more graceful – bigger maybe, but not more graceful.

Watch for us in four years…2012 Olympics, here we come!

We Thought We'd Seen It All...

Just when we thought we'd seen it all, Liz has taken us on yet another adventure. A few days ago we went to the Wyoming County Fair in picturesque Pike, New York.

The fair was noisy and smelly (in both good and bad ways). Liz OD'd on maple candy and sugar waffles - there may even be some powdered sugar still on Left's ankle. As we were perusing some of the local livestock (a little too closely for our safety, if you ask us) there was an announcement for a livestock show about to begin. The first category was to be "Most Beautiful." All of the animals seemed equally attractive to us but we were curious to see how beauty was ranked according to official fair judges. So we headed around the corner and to the sawdust-covered bleachers to get a good view. What we saw once we were seated just about blew our little socky minds...

It was a 4H Animal Costume Show. We had hit the jackpot. Not only were the animals and their owners costumed but, as each made their way around the ring, the announcer told a story based on their outfits and recounting their adventures which ultimately led them to the fair.

Liz was in awe and took far more pictures than were needed but, she was convinced that her story would not be believed without hard evidence. Some of our favorite entries included:

The Olympics-inspired soccer player and referee. How big is that whistle?!

The teenage mutant ninja turtle pig who squealed in displeasure throughout the event.

The entomologist (from the Matrix, apparently) who finally found a nine-spotted lady beetle. (Check out the cow's antennae.)

How about a sheep in scrubs?

Of all of the places we've been, it's kind of funny that Liz got self-conscious and didn't want to risk the embarrassment of exposing our stripes to the locals around us. Although we still got to appreciate all of the sights and smells of the day. Looking back, it may have been in our best interest not to come out too far - there was more mud, poop, and beer around than we could've imagined. It's plenty dirty hangin' out inside Liz's shoes, thank you very much!

After so much sugar and entertainment we headed home and sacked out in front of the Olympics.

The Best $5 We Ever Spent

Whoopee!!!

Yahoo!!!

Yeehaa!!!

Sorry, we are a little preoccupied with our latest purchase. A few days ago Liz stopped by a yard sale on the way to work and we saw something we just had to have. She took some convincing. We new she was sold once the people let us all try it out! Check it out...isn't it beautiful!?!

We'd show you pics of us jumping but that is pretty much impossible. It doesn't mean we didn't try though - here's the best we were able to do.

Note the slightly blurry, actiony-feel of the photo and the barely pressing down quality of our footprints on the surface. Thank goodness the neighbors couldn't see us!

Christmas came early this year.

Code One - Animal Escape!

Today we enjoyed yet another lovely day at the zoo with Liz. We've been so thankful for the rare cool days when she decides it isn't too hot for real socks! You wouldn't believe the pathetic little things she puts on her feet when it's hot. They don't even deserve the name sock! How can something with only a foot, and no ankle at all, be considered a sock? They're footies - and about as exciting as, well, something really boring!

Sorry, anyway. Today at lunch we were sitting behind the animal stage as usual and decided it was time we introduced ourselves to Minnow - the African grey parrot who's a bit of a diva (what's the male version of diva?) because he has the only speaking part in the show.

We thought Minnow was having a good day - Liz had already fed him about 20 blueberries from her lunch - so we crawled out of the sneakers and stretched up to say hello. Well! Before we barely got our toes out of the shoes his wings went up and he became very agitated. Helen warned that he would gladly take our toes off if given the chance, so we had to say our hellos from a safe distance.

Since we were already out of the shoes, and it was such a beautiful day, we decided to rest ourselves on the cooler that Bodacious (Boa constrictor) is kept in (and which doubles as a lunch table). Barely two minutes had passed when we had some excitement - Code One - Animal Escape! Junior, the thick-tailed bushbaby, was out of his cage and on us in a flash!

Bushbabies are well known for their ability to jump distances of eight feet or more when traveling in the branches of trees. Apparently, in his haste to escape, we had to double for branches.

The situation didn't last too long and, with the aid of a bit of Liz's granola bar, Helen was able to wrangle Junior back into his cage and settle everyone down before the second show began. It was a close call though. We only hope that if there is ever an animal escape again while we are at the zoo, that it isn't Annie who gets out...

You can just imagine the kind of fun she would have with us if she did.