More pictures from my NY trip - horses, giant tree trunks, octogenarians I want to be like when I grow up, my uncle's museum, ice cream, ice cream, fish and chips and ice cream, somewhat successful force perspective, and stores you really shouldn't visit ever.

( More New York Pictures behind the cut )

Meanwhile I'm trying to decide if I like the new Ms Marple. Haven't decided yet. She looks a bit too much like Florence Henderson to me, and while that shouldn't affect my judgement I keep picturing the Brady Bunch and it's taking me out of the story. Watching this, I want toast and I want tea. I want tea and toast.

Earlier today I was typing on Facebook while wearing 4 pounds worth of wrist weights. Now I'm sitting here in tap shoes typing instead of tapping. I'm so tired! I just don't have the energy to do anything. I feel as though I would fall instantly asleep if my head were to rest against anything.

I have managed to get all my trip laundry finished and folded. I just need to actually put it in drawers. I also cooked our lunch and did dishes. That's something, I suppose.

We ate out pretty much every day up there. We had ice cream four of the eight days. We also had fudge (Alex Bay has two fudge shops) and cookies and scones and muffins and brownies (the Busy Corner Cafe has loads of sweets). We met some aunts/uncles at Pizza Hut. Another set of relatives had a massive and amazing cookout for Alissa's high school graduation. Oh - and then there's the legendary buffet in Troutville, VA called Country Cookin' - possibly my favorite restaurant in the universe. ::wistful sigh:: Did I mention the Caramel Turtle coffee drink at Busy Corner? Half coffee, half hot chocolate, real caramel sundae topping, and probably loads of cream that's covered in whipped topping and chocolate. It's fantastic. I had three over the course of our stay there. The last one I split with Monkeys, at least. I gained six pounds from the trip. I'm actually surprised it wasn't more - but I also made sure to go out walking every day, to take the stairs instead of the elevators most trips, and to just walk the stairs as exercise some evenings. Monkeys ate everything that I ate plus a little more (I at least split some of my meals with my mom), yet he seems to have lost weight from the trip. That's not fair!

I attempted a low-calorie version of the Caramel Turtle Coffee today, and it wasn't too bad. I got some sugar-free hot chocolate, some caramel flavored coffee, and some sugar-free coffee syrup. If I had added some fat-free whipped cream on top with some more sugarfree cocoa sprinkled on the cream it probably would have been 90% perfect. So my goal is to get some sugar-free caramel sundae topping and whipped cream before my next attempt. I must succeed!!

That is all.

Looking forward to catching up on everyone in LJ world tomorrow after looooooong night's sleep in my own bed. :)

I saw this on loresinger and thought it was really neat, so I stole the meme. I'm not going to tell which band I picked; you can guess if you like. I'll make an icon for the first guesser. Instructions:

Using only song TITLES from ONE ARTIST and NO REPEATING SONGS, cleverly answer these questions.

I choose ...

1 Are you male or female: “ I'll Be That Girl ”
2 Describe yourself: “ A ”
3 How do you feel: “ Thanks, That Was Fun ”
4 Describe where you currently live: “ In The Drink ”
5 If you could go anywhere, where would you go: “ Long Way Back Home ”
6 Your best friends are: “ Conventioneers ”
7 You know that: " Everything Old Is New Again "
8 What is life to you: “ Beautiful ”
9 The best advice you can give: " I Can I Will I Do " or Never Is Enough
10 If you could change your name, what would it be: “ Maybe Katie ”
11 Something you're looking forward to: " If I Had A Millions Dollars ”
12 What you're going to call this list: ” Get In Line ”

Today's our last day in NY, so I won't be able to sneak off to the Busy Corner Cafe tomorrow and steal bandwidth. No one will be able to read my music title masterpiece unless our hotel tomorrow night has wifi. Yesterday we went to Alex Bay and walked the streets. Next visit I'm doing the boat tour darn it, but we still had fun, especially as we found some new shops this year. One coffee gift shop was extra fun. One of the owner's friends was in line beside me harassing his friend about bad service. The shopowner was giving back as good as he got. When it came my time to check out I was fishing around for pennies, and the friend handed me two. The owner made a snarky comment about the out-of-character act of kindness. Meanwhile, I found a penny from the Bahamas amidst my change and exclaimed "I've never even been to the Bahamas" which triggered more jokes from them. Finally I got checked out. As I was leaving, my penny-donor said, "He used to be my friend, but I changed my mind." I said, "You came to your senses." just as the door was shutting, and through the crack I heard both of them laughing and saying "oooooooooooooo" in startled voices. I was a bit afraid I had offended them, but as much as they were picking on each other, I think they were just pleased with the slam.I have more pictures of us eating ice cream to post eventually. Fudge and icecream and photoop THEN off to my Uncle's farm. I didn't get to tromp around the farm as much as normal, but we had a great visit and chat with relatives. In a bout of extraordinary timing, my cousin happened to be visiting from Germany, so I got to see family I haven't seen in possibly ten years. Today we have plans to meet up with three sets of relatives, so it will be a drive around day. Then we are doing loads of laundry and packing for an early rise return trip home. Woot!

bedraggled hermit delivering speeches to pinecones

Just about to leave the cafe, so no time to write a real post. It took forever to get the pictures loaded. :) THIS PLACE HAS THE BEST COFFEE!!

	Blue Ridge Mountains Can't see them too well, but that's the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background when we stopped off in VA for the night.
	Apples My uncle has a Macintosh apple tree in his backyard. Unfortunately they were not yet ready for eating.
	Me and Gram Stopped off at Pulaski for cheese curd and ice cream.
	Canada! W/o a passport this is as close as I can get now. I'm actually pointing at the building, not the ship. I was telling Monkeys to make sure to get it in the picture and didn't realize he was already pressing the button.
	Ship's a moving This is the same ship from earlier - it's made it all the way to the other side of the marina.
	Croak Croak Mom said it looked like he had pecans on his skin.
	Flower Power Monkeys giving me a wildflower.
	Monkeys gave me a flower! Monkeys picked a wildflower from the park and gave it to me. :)
	Busy Corner Cafe - again My favorite place in the 'Burg.
	Busy Corner Cafe If you are EVER in Ogdensburg, stop here!!! And get the caramel turtle coffee.YUM! Monkeys let me use his big laptop and took the small one so that we could take advantage of their free wifi to check email.
	GIANT marigolds Have you seen marigolds this big before?
	Ogdensburg banner Tried to get a picture of me near the sign. Gram's building is in the background on the left.
	Joining the Border Control I will be guarding the FL/AL border when I accept my new position...
	A is for Anarchy For some reason I really liked this bit of graffiti.

I am so excited about our upcoming New York trip!! I want to start packing now but that’s just stupid as we aren’t leaving until June 19th. Monkeys is coming this year; it’s the second time in the nine years we’ve been married, so I’m extra excited because I keep thinking about getting to show him houses and yards and plants and rocks. He’s probably not all that excited, because I’m sure nothing has changed dramatically since the other time he came with us. But two of my cousins got new homes with *amazing* yards, so I think Monkeys will enjoy tromping around their woods and streams, at least.

I’m not really much of a nature girl. I don’t spend a lot of time outside. But I think that’s because there isn’t much shade around here and I don’t handle sunshine well (instant explosion) and because all we have around here are sand spurs, beaches, and straggly pines and water oaks. Our beaches are gorgeous, truly. The Gulf is stunning; the water is often the most incredible shades of blue and green. (Often – “frequently”, not “one who has no children”…) When I was dating Ken of the Sailboat I was outside every weekend on the boat enjoying the coastline. But from shore, it’s not as fun for me. I love mountains and woods and streams. I love Florida more, so I imagine I will never permanently get my forest home, which I suppose makes the NY trips even more special.

I adore everything about the flora and fauna up there. I love visiting the plants as much as I love visiting the people, which seems a little wrong. But they have ferns and flowers and bushes that we just can’t grow down here. It’s insanely green and lush. Honestly, I could just lay out a sleeping bag in any of my aunts’ or uncles’ back yards and sit in the grass the entire week. Well, except for the bugs. I hate the bugs. They don’t get as many of them either because of the cold winters which would probably freeze me back to Florida, but they do have loads of mosquitoes. Then again, at least that part feels like home. :)

We made it home! It's nice to be back but I'm already looking forward to getting to go back up. Here are some pictures from the trip. None of people, just of places for now. It is so beautiful up there!

So Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there and Happy Birthday to Paul McCartney who is, in fact, 64 :)

( pictures of NY ) Now I have to catch up on everything. Wish me luck!!

I love Virginia! I would go THERE for vacation. I love the mountains and the fog. I love Pennsylvania! I would drive through there every day. I love the crazy curves and the rocks and the wildflowers as you coast down the road and the sudden panorama views when you come out of the rocks and see for miles and miles below you. Little white houses dotting the mountain sides.

I love NY. Hills and mountains and fields and grasses and trees I never see down home.  And there's a beautiful little waterfall over by Chittinango (cannot spell that to save my life).  I'm really hoping we can go back there today so I can take a picture. I had to go to the bathroom so badly yesterday we couldn't stop :(

Anyway, we are here safely and I'm stealing time on my uncles's computer but now I have to go. Breakfast is ready.