i got this message from a friend at CEDO and thought I would share:

There is an addtional 1,200 parking spots downtown for the holidays during nights and weekends.

If you want a map of the other 14 parking lots and garages and a list of the 300+ retailers downtown go to our web site www.cedoburlington.org

Here are the locations and times free parking downtown is available:

LAKEVIEW/FILENE’S NEWLY EXPANDED PARKING GARAGE: Located West of Filene’s 2 new decks with 278 more parking spaces. NEWLY CONSTRUCTED SPACES NOW OPEN, 2 HOURS FREE IN ALL CITY OWNED GARAGES!

STATE OF VERMONT PARKING LOTS at:

-50 Cherry Street (across from Filenes)50 parking spaces

-59 Pearl Street (Dept. of Labor) 39 parking spaces

Parking is FREE at these lots ONLY on weeknights, 6 p.m. to 10p.m.; Weekends 9:00 am till 10pm from November 23 through January 8, 2006.

CHITTENDEN BANK PARKING LOTS at:

-150 Bank Street (across from Henry’s Diner)26 parking spaces

-2 Burlington Square (Bank Headquarters) 24 parking spaces

Parking is FREE at these lots ONLY on weeknights, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Weekends 9:00 am till 10pm from November 23 through January 8, 2006.

PEASE WEST PARKING LOT at foot of College Street on the West side of Lake Street; at the end of the Free College Street shuttle (80 parking spaces)

Parking is FREE at these lots ONLY on weeknights, 6 pm to 10 p.m.; Weekends 9:00 a.m. till 10 p.m. from November 23 through January 8, 2006.

MAIN STREET LANDING PARKING LOT (160 Parking Spaces) at the foot of College Street next to Union Station at the end of the Free College Street Shuttle.

Parking is FREE at this lot only on Weeknights, 6 p.m. to 10p.m. and weekends 9:00am to 10pm from November 23 through January 8, 2006.

PERKINS PIER PARKING LOT (180 parking spaces).

Parking is FREE at this lot ONLY on Weeknights, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Weekends, 9:00 am – 10pm. November 23 through January 8, 2006

ELMWOOD AVE PARKING LOT, just north of the U.S. Post office in downtown Burlington (88 parking spaces)

Parking is FREE at this lot ONLY on Weeknights, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Weekends, 9:00 a.m. – 10 p.m. from November 23 through January 8, 2006.

HOWARD CENTER FOR HUMAN SERVICES, 102 S. Winooski Avenue, (50 parking spaces)

Public parking begins Friday, November 25, 2005 from 6 p.m.-10 p.m. through Monday, January 2, 2006.

FRIDAY NIGHTS ONLY 5:00 pm to 11 p.m. AND Weekends 9:00 a.m. to 11 pm

*TD BANKNORTH (100 parking spaces) on the corner of Main Street and St. Paul Street

The lot will be open for public parking through DECEMBER 31, 2005 at the following times:

Week nights: 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Weekends 9:00am to 10:00pm

NO PARKING ON THE FOLLOWING NIGHTS, – to accommodate Flynn Theatre patrons – on November 26, 27 and 30; December 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16 and 17th.

SURFACE PARKING LOT ON MAIN STREET across from TD Banknorth, DO NOT PARK ON EAST SIDE OF PARKING LOT ALONG BUILDING. Located mid-block between St. Paul and Pine Street. (30 parking spaces)

Weeknights, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.;

Weekends, 9:00 a.m. – 10 p.m. from November 23- December 31, 2005.

SURFACE PARKING LOT ON CORNER OF MAIN AND PINE STREET Across from the Ski Rack. (15 parking spaces)

Parking is FREE at this lot ONLY on Weeknights, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.; SUNDAYS ONLY, 9:00 a.m. – 10 p.m.. November 23 through January 8, 2006

SURFACE PARKING LOT MID-BLOCK ON PINE STREET BETWEEN MAIN ST. AND COLLEGE ST. across from North Star Sports (32 parking spaces)

Parking is FREE at this lot ONLY on Weeknights, 6

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

G.B. is our cat. He snuck out the door last night at about 11pm as I was letting the dogs back in from their pre-bed pee. And he bolted. I knew he would not come back for hours and hours and I after making a few attempts to lure him back to the house with the sound of tapping a spoon on his beloved cat food bowl, I knew that there was nothing I could do and went to bed with the window cracked so if he came back and meowed, maybe we would hear him.

It’s a scary place for cats around here at night. He is allowed to go out during the day time, but we always feed him at 5 and he does not go back outdoors after that. Our back yard leads into the mountains and who knows what cat-eating critters laying in wait. We know there are coyotes and foxes and occasional bears. Also Fisher Cats (originally brought into Vermont to help wth the porcupine problem) are notorious cat killers.

But luckily for all of us, Rich woke up just before 7am to the sound of G.B. saying “yo! I’m home. It’s f’in cold out here. I’m covered with snow and I want my damned breakfast!” or maybe it was just “meow meow, let me in pleeeeeeeeeeze!”. After he finished his breakfast, he ran up stairs to snuggle under the covers for a while and warm back up.

We will have to be that much more diligent now that he has had the taste of an exciting night out. I sure wonder what he did for those 8 hours.

Bah humbug. I’m sure it will be packed though and there’s lots of nice college students who will be happy for the waitressing jobs I’m sure. Don’t expect any Vermont.NET user group meetings there anytime soon. Though I suppose if I could get casey to come to Vermont, we could go for burgers there.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

I found this article by way of VT blogger, Mark Chadwick.

Vermont ranked as smartest state in the country

October 27, 2005

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

There was a big messy wet snow storm earlier this week in Vermont while I was in hot sunny South Africa. The power went out all over the place and was slowly restored over the next day or so. However the northeastern part of Vermont was slammed really hard. The electric company that provides power there is the same one that we are on so they are having a lot of trouble and we still have no power. Here’s the latest article from the local paper on that. Listening on the radio last night I heard them say that the damage to powerlines (and electric poles) was worse even than in the ice storm of 1998.

Luckily I am married to a guy who is a super-camper and we have a small generator to boot. The generator is inverted power so we are running the computers and the refrigerator for a little while. As we have a gas powered stove, Rich made not only eggs for breakfast, but used a campfire toaster to make us toast this morning. Rich also was smart enough to fill both bathtubs before the power went out (we had perfect conditions for an outage so he is one of those great “be prepared” kinda guys) so we can even flush the toilets. We have a gas fireplace in the office and in the living room – so since it’s not that cold out, this is keeping the  house perfectly fine. The only place where I notice any real inconvenience is the inability to take a real shower and wash my hair.

However as I just typed the word hair – guess WHAT!?! The power came on. Yahoo! I’m gonna go wash my hair!!!

We have not seen the sun in two weeks. It is here to day. Glory glory! I’ll have to take a picture.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

It has been raining for about a week with intermittent major downpours (like right now). We are in northwestern Vermont and not experiencing the dreadful flooding that surrounds us in New Hampshire, Southern Vermont and other parts of the NorthEast. Rich and I have discussed what would happen if there was indeed flooding around here. Though living on a mountainside and far from the mountain streams prevents us from worrying about our house being flooded, we have to cross bridges in two directions to get off of our road so we could be screwed if the bridges were ever washed out. All of the disasters of late have made us think about the what-ifs and what we need to do to be prepared. Not only do we have to think about food and water for ourselves but also our pets. And of course we would stay here with them. Funny the things you take for granted. Hopefully it will turn us all into little boy  & girlscouts.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

I bet you didn’t know that the Emily Post Institute was based in right here in Burlington Vermont! They are now reporting that good manners are on the decline in the U.S. Dear oh dear! 🙂

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

Our neighbors are selling their house. They are just up the road from us. I would add to their description below that there are over a hundred acres of woods behind the house (each of us on the road own a chunk of those woods) with trails for hiking, dog walking and cross-country skiing. (But not for snowmobiles or ATVs or hunting.)  You can walk through the woods right to a trail head to get onto the Long Trail, too! There is also DSL available on the road, but no cable. The DSL has been excellent for me with my demanding web access needs. Plus, of course, you will be able to attend meetings of Vermont.NET every month. We are a 4 hour drive from Boston, 3 hours to Montreal and from the Burlington airport, a 50 minute flight on Jet Blue to NYC. Burlington’s airport has lots of airlines with connections through the usual hubs.

.

Close to nature & an easy commute to Burlington, Middlebury, and the Mad River Valley, our bright and sunny Timber-Frame home is in move-in condition. Three bedrooms, 2 ½ baths (one w/ jetted tub), recently updated kitchen (w/ new flooring & stainless steel appliances), hardwood floors, finished basement, wrap-around deck, large Post & Beam shed, nearly 13 acres, mountain views – and more! 

In one of Huntington’s “coolest” neighborhoods. 

HUNTINGTON $303,000

Give us a call!
email: silvercoffey at aol dot com

I shared this list of personal favorite things to do in Vermont for someone who is coming here next weekend and thought I would share. This is all focused mostly in Northern Vermont.