Trip to Albany, NY, 2007

Click on any of the little pictures to see it at normal size. Click on the '=0=' after the picture to see it in giant size (about 2 minutes to download on dialup connection and larger than screen size). This could be useful if you wanted to really look at one part of the picture or to make a print.

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We had lunch in Copake and stopped by to visit the schools where Barbara works. Above on the left is Middle School / High School across the street from Barbara's school, Webutuck Elementary (grades 3-5) also shown above and here. Below is the library where Barbara works. Her duties are split in thirds between teaching computers, teaching classes, and providing library services. So, her room is divided likewise for those three roles. For the summer they cover Barbara's computers with plastic.	=0=
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Above is Barbara's work area. One year they were adding an addition to the MS/HS across the street and had to shift classes around. Barbara was moved to the Amenia Elementary School which is K-2. That was a hectic year to move all the books to a smaller space for just a year and then move back next year Whew! In that picture you can also see Barbara's cute little Matrix. Her space was behind the auditorium and was behind her car in that picture (I didn't know that when I took the picture). On Thursday we were off to pick up Nikki. Here is her house in Saratoga Springs. Below is a picture of Nikki and Jay. They are so cute. They look moderately similar and have similar interests and tastes. Next to them is a picture of Maggie, Nikki's mom. She works for U.S. government as a paralegal and is working on becoming an attorney.	=0=
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Here is a pciture of Mark, Nikki's step dad. He repairs refrigeration system (like those in restaurants, office buildings, etc.. There was a lot of excitement about passports. Jay had a problem getting his birth certifiacte and so filed a week after the normal time. So he paid $150 extra to expedite his passport and it arrived a month before we left. However, Nikki filed in time for normal processing and nothing had been done with her application until the day before we left. We called and called, but there was no relief. They were swamped as requests were way up because of the requirement that people traveling to and from Canada and Mexico now have to have passports (didn't need them before). That caused a big increase in demand, but they didn't have more people. Instead the just got backed up and processed expedited ones first. They processed Nikki's application on the day before we left and sent it FedEx. It arrived at 11AM on the day of our departure. We were going crazy deciding what to do if she didn't get her passport in time. So, if you need a passport in the next little while, I would suggest that you might make a mistake and list your departure date a few days early (oops, I was confused) so you won't be under so much stress. We left Friday morning, late, and Nikki said goodbye to her committed romantic partner, Dani, shown above. After that we went to Long John Silver's. When we would visit my family in Dallas, along with Mexican food, one of our treats was to get fried fish at Captain D's or Long John Silver's. Lately I haven't lived in an area with either, so it was a treat to have lunch there (they are so lucky). Below are pictures of Nikki and Jay, and Barbara and David. This one is close to David's work and a combined Taco Bell and LJS.	=0=
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