Fall Survival Checklist: 2015

Fall Survival Checklist: 2015: We like to think of What To Do as The Old Farmer’s Almanac for suburban yuppies. Each season we check in with the OFA for need to know stuff like the weather, meteorology and astrology. If we asked the OFA to edit a Fall Survival Checklist for our towns, we think it would go something like this:

What To Do’s Old Farmer’s Almanac Report: Weather: The unseasonably warm early September weather will continue through October with both months logging average temperatures 3° above normal. A dry September will be followed by a rainy October. Expect 5 inches of rain – 1-½ inches above average. We’ll fill you in on OFA’s winter forecast next time. We know you can’t wait so we’ll tell you this: We took a peak and it’s not good. Cold! Snow! And cold again!

Astronomy: Full moon days: Sunday, September 27, Tuesday October 27, Friday November 27. (Don’t talk about Donald Trump or Hillary’s private email server with your spouse on a full moon or you may be lawyering up in the morning.)

Geminid Meteor Shower: Radiating from near the bright stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini, the Geminid meteor shower is one of the best in the Northern Hemisphere. The meteors are bright and plentiful, with 50 to 100 meteors per hour visible at the peak. Most meteor showers are best viewed after midnight but the Geminids are game on early evening. Watch between 9pm and midnight on Fri-Sat, 12/13-14. How do you know if it is dark enough to see? If you can see each star of the Little Dipper, your eyes have “dark adapted,” and your site is probably dark enough. Under these conditions, you will see plenty of meteors.

Best Fishing Days: According to the OFA the best fishing days are between the new and the full moon. Here’s when the fish will be biting this autumn. September 13-27, October 12-27, November 11-25.

Astrology: Celeste Longacre’s Best Days: According to the OFA’s resident astrologer/radio personality and author Celeste Longacre, here are the best days to: Quit Smoking/Begin Diet: 9/7 & 30, 13, 10/5 & 9, 11/6 &10. Go to the dentist: /11-13, 10/9-10, 11/5-6. Start projects: 9/14-15, 10/14-15, 11/12-13. Prune to encourage growth: 9/19-20, 10/16-18, 11/13-14. Destroy pests & weeds/cut hay: 9/28-29, 10/25-26.

Ingredient substitutions for foodies: Farmers are foodies too. In fact, they are the original foodies. So the OFA has lots of helpful tips for gourmets. For instance: Don’t feel like running to the store to pick up some lemongrass for your Vietnamese Coconut Lemongrass Chicken? The zest of one lemon equals two stalks of lemongrass. 1 tbsp. of red wine vinegar and 1 tsp. of sugar will sub for balsamic vinegar in a pinch. The mascarpone jar is empty? 3 tbsp. of heavy cream, 3/4-cup cream cheese and 4 tbsp. of butter will yield 1 cup of mascarpone equivalent. For common and uncommon ingredient substitutions from OFA check here and here.

Holidays and Observances: Rosh Hashanah: Sunday-Tuesday, 9/13-15, Yom Kippur: Tuesday-Wednesday, 9/22-23. Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 26. First Sunday of Advent: November 29. First Day of Chanukah: Monday, December 7. Christmas: Friday, December 25. First Day of Kwanzaa: Saturday, December 26.

And other special days worthy of observance: Sunday, September 20: Wife Appreciation Day (Go ‘head. Tell her you love her. It’s not gonna kill ya.) Wednesday, September 30: Ask A Stupid Question Day (How do you know when you run out of invisible ink?) Sunday, October 18: Chocolate Cupcake Day: (It should be everyday.) Monday, October 26: Howl At The Moon Day: (just tilt your head back and let it all out!) Thursday, November 5: Men Make Dinner Day Sunday, November 22: Go For A Ride Day: (See Day tripping on What To Do) Saturday, December 12: Dionne Warwick Birthday: Friday, December 12. (“I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”)

Chalk Talk with NWH’s Dr. Khabie on sports injuries, Tommy John & Matt Harvey: If your son or daughter is a competitive athlete you’ve probably heard the: “Johnny needs to pick one sport and play year-round” line. Young athletes eager to play a varsity sport and maybe even in college are increasingly subject to the pressures of one-sport, year-round training – and with it the threat of overuse injuries. Dr. Victor Khabie,  Co-Chief of Orthopedic Surgery and the Director of Sports Medicine at Northern Westchester Hospital’s Orthopedic and Spine Institute, told us that 80% of his young athlete patients come in for overuse injuries. We had a chalk talk with Dr. Khabie who offered us a reality check on sports dreams and athlete’s health. Read more.

Spins Music & Arts at Grand Prix New York: Beginning this fall, Grand Prix New York will offer music, dance, art and creative playgroup classes for ages 0-6. Broadway singer/actor/dance instructors Katie Tomlinson Diamond and Kara Tremel lead the classes. Little Spinners Music teaches the basics of singing and playing rhythm instruments. Little Spinners Dance introduces the basics of ballet and hip-hop steps. These ten-week programs feature 45 minute classes followed by one-hour of free bouncy castle time. Grand Prix NY’s 118,000 square foot facility also offers a quarter mile long racetrack, a 19-lane bowling center, an arcade, carnival room and restaurant. (Grand Prix New York, 333 north Bedford Rd., Mt. Kisco, 914.241.3131; www.gpny.com

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month: In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month we publish this Q&A provided to us by Dr. Bonnie Litvack, Director of Women’s Imaging of the Beast Imaging Center at Northern Westchester Hospital. Dr. Litvack tells us that 4–50% of women have dense breasts – fibrous tissues as opposed to fatty tissues – and that density can obscure potential problems. She discusses how dense breasts can effect mammograms and contribute to cancer risk. Read more.

Beginning this fall all Byram Hills School buses stop at College Planning of Westchester

No schlep test prep and tutoring: Let the Byram Hills Schools transportation department bus your kids to their tutoring, test prep or college planning session. Beginning this fall, buses from all Byram Hills schools will stop at 200 Business Park Drive where you will find the new and expanded offices of College Planning of Westchester. CPW specializes in tutoring of all subjects, ACT and SAT test prep and college application and essay writring assistance. You will need to contact the BHS transportation department at 914.273.4245 and CPW at 914.273.2353. Alternatively, Castle Cab is offering discounted rides to and from CPW. To line up your $5 discount each way, call Castle Cab at 914.273.2535. Read more.

After school fitness and study hall with transportation: Here’s a great one for working moms and parents with just too many kids’ activities to juggle. Westchester MMA Fit in Mt. Kisco now offers an after-school program that packages a martial arts instruction class with a quiet, supervised study hall so your kid can keep fit and keep up with their homework. Best of all, your child can can be picked up at school by Castle Cab and dropped off at WMMA Fit’s 12,000 square foot facility. Read more.

Glam At Home with Cherylyn Salon – just in time for Bat Mitzvah season: Last year, the Glamsquad went all Uber on the beauty business offering an on-demand, in-home beauty service that sends the hair stylist and makeup artist straight to customers in NY, Miami and LA. Now residents of Armonk, Bedford & Chappaqua (and beyond) can live like the swells of New York. Just in time for Bat Mitzvah season, Cherylyn Salon of Armonk launched a new off-premise service called At Home with Cherylyn that will send a beauty team to your home, office or hotel for a blow-out, up-do, facial, make-up or airbrush service and even a massage. Their crews can accommodate parties of three to ten heads, cheeks, eyebrows, lashes and sore shoulders. Read more.

PWR4Fitness – It’s a club, a fitness studio, a party: Armonk resident Robin Lehman, the co-owner and fitness director of the new “Power Four Fitness” (PWR4Fitness) in Mt. Kisco says, “Gym fluorescent lighting flatters no one, seriously… No. One.” That’s the theory at her new fitness club where workouts are driven by live DJs with club lighting synched to the sounds of everything from rock and roll to hip hop. And their Run. Row. Lift. Bounce. circuit training levels the playing field between beginners and beasts. Read more.

Rolf Brandt, Arborist The Care of Trees

Fall is the best time to control ticks: According to Rolf Brandt of The Care of Trees in Mt. Kisco, “only 2% of ticks are found in lawns. 90% are found in the landscape areas where the woods meet the lawn and fields. So lawn spraying is really the last resort to controlling tick populations,” Rolf said. “”People typically spray throughout the spring and fall to help gain control over the tick population. A full tick control program that includes spraying, pruning, and barrier dehydration efforts in the fall gives you the most bang for your buck. Timing is crucial. You want to do everything before the leaves start to fall to kill the adult tick population that comes out at the end of the growing season. It not only provides protection through the winter but less adults in winter means less baby ticks in the spring.” Read more.

Where you can buy filet for the price of chopped meat: North Salem’s Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard’s Fall Festival is one of our area’s biggest annual events. Every weekend in September and October you can go for the apple picking and stay for the hay and pony rides, the farm animals, live music, and their famous apple cider donuts and smoked turkey breast BBQ. But the best deal at Harvest Moon may come from their pasture an hour north where their Scottish Highland cattle graze – not the orchard. If you are a committed locavore and grill-master and you have a big freezer, you can get an incredible deal on grass fed beef there, by buying yourself a whole, half or quarter cow. You’ll pay the same price for the best cuts of steak as you would pay at Whole Foods for chopped meat. If even a quarter cow is too much beef for you, you can set up a cow-pool with your friends and save on this incredible local opportunity. Read more.

How to write the College Application Essay: Chappaqua resident and President of College Planning of Westchester in Armonk, Neal Schwartz says the college application essay is the single most important portion of the whole application. “Assuming all things are equal,” Neal told us, “including grades, test scores, extra-curricular activities and recommendations, the essay is the best and perhaps only way for a student to distinguish themselves from other applicants and ‘break the tie’. Neal offered us some tips on how to approach and develop a winning essay. We even gave him our own True or False test with questions like: “It’s often best just to let mom or dad write your essay for you?” To find out if he said true or false –  Read more.