Kodak

I didn't do too much today.  We went to Wegmans again and Grandma went to play bridge with her friends at night.  She let me stay home and watch TV in her bed because she said I would be bored.

They've been playing bridge every week for 42 years.  Can you imagine that?  Probably a lot of our parents weren't even born yet when they started playing bridge.  They all met when they were working at Kodak right out of college.

Kodak used to be the biggest employer in Rochester.  This is where the company's headquarters are and it was started way back in 1880.  You can read more about the history of Kodak by clicking here, but there is a lot, since the company has been around for a long time.

             Kodak Logos old and current

Before digital, Kodak was the most popular camera when film that needed developing was used and just about everyone used Kodak film.  Kodak film is a leader in the making of movies but digital is now being used a lot more.  Avatar was an all digital movie that probably a lot of you saw.

Maybe you've also heard of kodakgallery.com where your parents can upload  pictures and make photo books or calendars or order prints.

"Kodak teamed with NASA on space science and remote sensing missions for more than 40 years. When John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, Kodak film recorded his reactions to traveling through space at 17,400 miles per hour. When Glenn returned to space more than 35 years later, he operated a modified Kodak digital camera to document the historic space shuttle mission. (1)

If you ever come to Rochester, you should visit the George Eastman House.  This is a museum about photography and the actual house where the founder of Kodak lived. 
Watch this interesting video of his life and Kodak's early years.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. I'm going to Cayuga Lake which is one of the Finger Lakes so I'll probably have a lot of information to tell you next week.

(1)  http://www.kodak.com/global/en/corp/historyOfKodak/impacting.jhtml?pq-path=2217/2687/2691

Golf

In the afternoon we all went to play golf.  It was very hot out today.  There are lots of golf courses around here, both private and public.   In 2007 Golf Magazine named Rochester the 10th "best golf city" in America.
Here I am riding in the cart, we walked and I couldn't keep up since I only have little legs so I got to ride in the cart.

On the same hole that Grandma was doing this shot we saw a family of geese walk across the fairway and go for a swim to cool off.

Wegmans

Today I had a busy day.  First we went to get the camera and then we stopped at Wegmans.  If you've never been to a Wegmans you will want to someday.  It's the BEST grocery store around.  It has everything.  It was founded in Rochester in 1916 and is family owned.  Now it is in 5 states, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Northern Virginia, and Maryland and it wins lots of awards. One special award it wins every year says that it it a great place to work.  Wegmans is the 2nd largest employer in Rochester.  As of 2009, 13,381 people worked there.  I'm going to learn some more about the businesses here and will share that with you another day.

Here are my friends from last night at the plant exchange. I'm right in the front. Everyone started different kinds of plants from seeds and then traded them so they could have a lot of different kinds. While Grandma and I went to Wegmans, Larry planted them.  I hope they grow, some are pretty puny. Do you know what it means for them to be puny? It means they'll be lucky if they grow.

I liked the dogs and Scout and Bailey liked me too.

A Little History

Hi Everyone in Mrs. Martineau's class, it's me - Myles' Flat Stanley.

You'll never guess what happened tonight.  We went to a plant exchange and I met a whole lot of new people but Grandma left her camera there so I can't show you my new friends now.  When we get the camera back I'll have a show and tell for you.
In the meantime, I'll tell you a little about what I learned about Rochester today.  I'm really learning a lot and I'll make sure to tell you something new every day.

I told you how the nickname for Rochester was "Flour" City and then became "Flower" City.  This happened because although Rochester was the largest flour-producing city in the United states in the early 1800s, by the mid 1800s the center of the wheat processing industry moved west.  But then Rochester became home to the booming nursery business, that's nursery for growing flowers, not a nursery where babies are.  And did you know that because of the flour (baking kind) production Rochester became America's first "boomtown" because it doubled its population in only ten years?

After the Civil War, Rochester became the city where world-wide companies were started.  I'll tell you more about some of those tomorrow because I have to go to bed now.

Goodnight.

Emergency House Repair

I didn't get to tour Rochester today but I did learn about what happens when you get water damage in the house.  Remember how Nashville, Tennessee just got flooded so badly and peoples houses were under water?  Well, we had a small flood yesterday. A pipe burst in the wall and the water was on for an hour before anyone noticed.  The rugs in the family room and guest bedroom were full of water.

This is the pipe that burst.
If you click on the picture you can see it up close.

We had to stay home today and clean out the rooms so the carpets could be removed and everything is being dried.  Here I am standing on the dehumidifier and you can see two of the fans in the background.  It's really noisy.  You can see where it's wet and where it didn't get wet.  The fans have to stay on until everything is dry.  Each room has 4 fans and 1 dehumidifier.

Planting Day

Today I helped Patsy and Katie plant flowers for Grandma and Larry.

The nickname of Rochester is the "Flower City".  It was called this since 1850.  Every year there is a big Lilac Festival that is a 10-Day Free Festival located on 120 acres of Highland Park in Rochester and attracts people from all over the country.  Today was the last day for this year but we didn't get a chance to go.  Instead we planted out own flowers.

From 1823-1849, Rochester was known as the "Flour City" because once the Erie Canal reached Rochester in 1823 flour was produced here and shipped out on the canal.  The Erie Canal is what made Rochester a city.  The Erie Canal goes from Albany to Buffalo.  There's a song about the canal, written by Thomas Allen in 1905 and you can play it here:




Here are pictures from our planting.

These are the flowers they brought over to plant.

This is how great they looked after we were done.

A Busy Saturday

Today I got to do a lot of different things. First thing we did was yoga for some exercise.  See how I stretched my arms out just like the man on the screen.  I felt so good when I was finished.  It's good to exercise every day.

It was sunny and hot outside so we had breakfast on the deck.  I had cereal with blueberries.

 

Then I helped Grandma do some things around the house.  We did some dusting and I got to use the big furry duster.

Next I helped water the plants.  The jug for watering was so big but I was a really good helper.

We went back outside to take a break from all the hard work and couldn't believe that it was almost 90 degrees.  If it stays this hot I think I'm going to need some shorts and a tee shirt.  Maybe even a bathing suit so I can go swimming.

I helped Grandma pack up a bunch of shoes and then we delivered them to Goodwill.

Next we went to the library and we went to the kids section and I saw some of my books that were on the shelf.

The nice lady at the library let me help her check out the books.

Then we drove around to the back of the library and Grandma showed me where you can return your books if you don't want to go inside and take out new ones. While we were at the library I was thinking that I would make a really good bookmark, not that I would want to do that. But what would happen if I got left in a book and returned in that book drop and was in the library overnight.  Would it be like that movie A Night at the Museum?  Think of all the things that could come to life from books!!

We went to a bunch of stores after that and Grandma tried on clothes but she wouldn't let me take any pictures of her in the dressing room. Our last stop was Target and I got to ride in the shopping cart.

A Party

I had the best time tonight and it was at a grown-up party.

First, I got to ride in the drivers seat with Larry and share his seatbelt with him while he was driving. If you're not a flat kid this isn't a safe thing to do so don't ask your Dad to do this.



The party was a surprise party for Kim's 50th birthday.  I can't believe that old people have birthday parties, with balloons and decorations and everything.  There was a big cake too!  Kim is Larry's daughter and Larry is Grandma's husband so Kim is grandma's step-daughter if you want to understand this whole crazy combined family thing.  Kim has kids that are way older than we are.

But the best part was that almost everyone knew who I was or they had at least heard of me.  I was like a celebrity.  Everyone wanted a picture with me.  It was so much fun!!

Here I am giving Kim a birthday kiss

Can you see me on Grandma's dress? 

These are Larry's kids (they're really grown-ups to me)

Kim, Karen, Michael, Larry, Grandma, Margie

 CB came all the way from Florida

and she recognized me right away

 John got to the party late because he works

too hard but I filled him in on everything 

that happened before he got there.

 Here I am with Margie and Darren

Here we are saying goodbye to Kim and everyone.

Time for us to go home.

Flat Stanley Is Here

"Welcome to our home Flat Stanley," Grandma says when she opens the big brown envelope and gives Stanley a big hug.  "You are now in the town of Webster which is a suburb of Rochester, NY.  Rochester is between Buffalo and Syracuse and is the third largest city in New York State.  You came in really good condition and I hope you had a good trip.   You're lucky you came now while our weather is so nice.  It gets pretty cold here in the winter and I would have had to get a heavy coat for you."

Stanley looks at Grandma and says "Myles said he was going to call and let you know I was coming, so I guess he did."  He was surprised she didn't give him a big sloppy kiss too.  "Can you say 'Hello' to Myles and everyone in Mrs. Martineau's class for me when you write on your blog?  Tell Myles I miss him but I know I'll be happy while I'm here.   Do you think I can play on your iPhone, Myles said that you let him?" 
Grandma thought, "Oh my, we have to find other things for Stanley to do so that he isn't on the computer or iPhone all day." 
"Why don't we look around the house and get familiar with where everything is and then we're going to get ready to go to a party tonight.

Stanley in front of the computer

Stanley in front of some

tulips picked from the garden

Stanley got to play one computer game

while Grandma took a shower.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Midship Cir,Webster,United States

Awaiting Flat Stanley

Myles called last night to tell me that I was going to get Flat Stanley in the mail.  I didn't know anything about who or what it was all about but he said that when he came it would all be explained to me.  This morning I went online and Googled "Flat Stanley" and found out all about him and can't wait for him to arrive.  Hopefully he comes today because I can take him out with me tonight.  For anyone who doesn't know about Flat Stanley you can find out about the project here:   http://www.flatstanleyproject.net.
And for even more about it, look here:  Flat Stanley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In short, Flat Stanley is a series of books by Jeff Brown about a boy, Stanley, who along with his brother was given a big bulletin board that was hung over his bed.  At night it fell off and flattened him but he was able to have all kinds of adventures by being flat because he could get into places no one else could.  The Flat Stanley Project was started in 1995 by Dale Hubert a 3rd grade teacher from London, Ontario, Canada and now in 2010 it has reached ME!!
I hope to do a good job with it.  I think Myles must have chosen me because he knows that I like to take pictures, I'm not called "Grandma Flash" for nothing.