Most were taken either on the way to Madison or on State Street for our "date day." The last two are at my sister-in-law's house while we were hanging out there before going to a family event. (One of the cutest babies in the world's first birthday party - I would post pictures of her, but 1) the internet would explode from cuteness and 2) I don't like posting pictures of other people's kids.)

	You Are Here Being here is a lot like ... um ... being in DeForrest, actually.
	Cow. America's Dairyland.
	Who Wouldn't Drink Here? I'm sure the townsfolk were wondering why we parked, jumped out, took four or five pictures, then drove off. We were trying to visit the Westfield Candy Shop so Monkeys could get some disgusting candied raisons for himself and his sister, but the candy shop was closed. The Thirsty Beaver was open!
	Lunch at the top of the world State street had many tempting options. Two were Nepali! Monkeys had some sort of onion fritter soup dish with a salad and flat bread. I had a dal soup, a vegetable stew with cauliflower/carrots/peas/potatoes, and their version of flat bread. Oh, and their version of chai plus we each got a desert so we split rice pudding and some odd date thing that vaguely tasted like fruit cake. It was really good! State street shopping had a lot of incense shops and hippyesque stores, including loads of bumper stickers that said Free Tibet. After leaving lunch Monkeys commented "Free Tibet? That meal cost $35!"
	Monkeys on State Street! You can see the capital in the background. We had hoped to go on a tour of the capital, but we spent so much time at the gardens we had to cut that visit out. So next time, it's on!
	Seriously, Watch Out My brother-in-law has his own arsenal. He used to be a hunter, but now he only shoots photographs. He is still a big fan of firearms, however. I attempted the civilian version of the M16. That lake never knew what hit it. Yes, that's a Beatles shirt. I should have called this Happiness is a Warm Gun.
	Cookies! Monkeys' sister baked for our trip! Pecan Shortbread, Double Double Chocolate, Cherry!Awesome, and something like Haystacks but with chocolate and marshmallows. YUM!

	If Tim Burton Designed Plants They would look like this.
	I'm on a bridge, Charlie! Going on an adventure!! This is the path to the Thai garden. :)
	Ouch! I would say that he's monkeying around... One of the statues near the Thai gardens.
	Thai Pavilion Ommmmmmmmmmmm - Can you see me sitting in lotus position?
	Reflecting pool at the Thai Garden This building was donated by the Thai alumni of the University of Wisconsin. It's covered in gold, so there were signs everywhere saying "DO NOT TOUCH" but we still got to run around inside.
	Monkeys Squared My attempt at an artsy shot.
	Black Eyed Susans, of a sort I couldn't find a name tag for this flower. How incredibly cool looking is it?!??
	Love in Bloom We took over 200 pictures at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison. That place was awesome! It seemed to stretch for miles with many themed gardens. Inside they had a tropical conservatory and for October they had a quilt exhibit. I would have loved a picture of both of us where you could also see flowers, but my arms were not long enough.
	My pretties! Okay, I have a little regret about salting the earth in front of our house at this moment. But our yard would never look like this, so I'm sure we made the right decision.
	The Rose Garden There weren't really a lot of roses, but it was still really lovely.
	In an English Garden I thought this was the Rose Garden, but there weren't a lot of roses around. Still, it looked very British and had some amazing collections of flowers.
	I'm Old Gregg! Weeping willows are pretty much my favoritest tree ever.
	Where are the elephants? Wow, the Great A'Tuin turned out to be really tiny! (While walking to the waterfalls I found a little turtle! Oh -that's Monkeys' hand, not mine.)
	They Didn't Say Keep Of the Grass At the sunken garden. :)
	Don't be Koi! Inside the tropical conservatory. It felt like Florida in there - I was way hot in my sweaters!

	It seems like Toaster may have stopped at the same rest stop! I love the fact they commented "Big hats rule" :)
	Why we can't have pretty things. I would do this in my own kitchen, too. Even the Dragoncon hotel doesn't have this much stuff. We had a sink, minifrig, microwave...
	Biggest hotel room ever. Well, biggest one we've ever stayed in, at least. We went a little nuts.
	Where's Monkeys? I would try to think of something funny to say, but I'm watching Supernatural right now and Ghandi is choking Sam - it's hysterical.
	The Lounge Area Is that how you spell lounge?
	Too bad we didn't order one of these for our bathroom Not that it would have fit in our bathroom, of course. This tub was HUGE!!
	No Snow Always check your wardrobes for fawns and Turkish Delight.
	Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! Tis the season for Pumpkin Shakes!!!
	Mmmmm Cheesetastic! Yeah, can you batter and deep fry that cheese curd for me? I think cheese is still a bit too healthy otherwise.

Road trip road trip road trip!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Gonna feed the ducks!!
Gonna eat fried cheese curd!!!
Gonna visit the Dells!!
Gonna try to revisit House On A Rock!!!
Gonna drink scads of root beer!!
Gonna attempt to trounce my sister-in-law at DDR!! (Okay, going to FAIL miserably at this, actually! *giggle*)
Gonna wear jackets and sweaters and scarves, oh my!!!

Badger Badger Badger Badger (State)

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 loved the Infocom Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy game. I actually prefer the text-based adventures to most of today's computer games. Anyway, I was goofing around LJ and found this link on someone's page (forgot to write down who's journal to give credit for providing the link...). It's an article from Wired magazine showing WoW if it had been a text based adventure. I've never played WoW, but this was funny...

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/commentary/alttext/2006/03/70348


Meanwhile, Monkey's podcast got mentioned on Wired magazine's Cult of Mac site (again!)
http://cultofmac.com/25-years-of-mac-engineer-steve-capps-talks/11189


And we are home safe from Tallahassee. Loved visiting; wish we could stay longer. My godson graduated high school on Friday, so we went over for the ceremony. It was one of those weekends were we were nonstop - getting things ready for the ceremony, getting things ready for the after party, getting things ready for their week vacation, etc. We made a vow that one weekend we're just going over to do *nothing* but hang out.

We also saw Night at the Museum II when we got back - loved it! Even with my back out from the bad seating at the Tally civic center and sleeping on the floor, I still enjoyed the movie - so props to the movie as it was hard to get my mind to break away from the real world of owieouch yet somehow it succeeded.

I'm tired.

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. :)

I finished reading Chapter 2 of the programming book, am 12 pages out from finishing Hodgman's Areas of My Expertise, and finished the Barenaked Ladies biography (EDIT) that the most awesomest person in the universe D'Toaster (/EDIT) gave me for Christmas; all three books have appendices. DID YOU KNOW?? I'm not sure if this is sheer coincidence or a sign of things to come. I do know I shall be watching the skies tonight, my friends.

Oh - another coincidence - this whole Squirrel thing Colbert reported on ties in nicely with Hodgman's book. Hodgman has a giant section on the various types of squirrels. I liked that section much more than the 700 Hobo names. But then, I'd rather be a squirrel than a hobo so my preference is not surprising.

Anyway, one of the BNL appendices is about road games they play. They spend a lot of time traveling, so have created new games or modified classic games. One of theirs is called Slint - where instead of using city names you use band/muscisian names to take turns shouting out bands that start with the same letter the other person's band ended with. Yeah, I did a bad job explaining that. If I say "Yes," you say "Sting," I say "Guns N Roses," you say "Supertramp," I say "Poe," you say "Eagles," I say "Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs," etc. As you can see, loads of bands end in "S" (Beatles, Monkees, GoGos...). So one road trip Ed said a band ending in "S" and Tyler spent over an hour trying to think of an "S" band because so many had already been used. He was mocked and taunted. He finally said "Slint" and everyone insisted that wasn't a real band. He gave some odd fact about their bass player, which garnered more insistence he was making it up because as we know from Balderdash the more unique the detail you put the odder the answer seems. The next afternoon Ed found a Slint CD on his amp (or something) with a note from Ty saying "Lick my hairy a$$, Slint *is* a band." Apparently Ty had gotten up early before the show, found a used CD shop, and sought out a Slint CD. Ever since then, their game was called Slint. Monkeys and I played it on the way home the other day, and it's actually quite a lot of fun! We played it for nearly two hours straight, and it really made the trip fly by. (And Monkeys even worked in "Slint.")

We got home yesterday, but I was too tired to post.
Much love to EVERYONE up in GA - extra special pirateypaloozawhohoozy love to Captain Drew.

Registration.

Graduation.

Implementation of two new bachelors degrees. (My role is grunt work admissions, but still it's challenging as they have to get through me first. They've tried tears, whinging, indignation, pleading, arguing, and just speechless staring. Honestly, if they'd leave me alone to work, maybe more would get done - LOL!)

Pack for Dragoncon.

Clean the house.

Make arrangements for the cats and plants and sausages and goldfish.

Shower planning meetings.

Tap!!

And now, hurricane prep just in case it hits while we're gone or shortly after our return.

On the bright side, I don't think I'm sick any more :)


ONE MORE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello my lovelies! GARF was amazing as always. Everyone is so talented and incredibly *nice* and genuine and interesting. And Pub Sing is bawdy and brilliant. I wish we lived closer; I’d be there every weekend. ann_mcn – I’m so sorry I didn’t make it over to the Raven’s Nest!! We never quite trudged the entire way up that hill on the last day like we intended. I asked the Mayor to decree that everything always be downhill so that I could see everything but my request was not granted.

Despite numerous trips somehow I still have an “amazing discovery” or “new encounter” each visit – this time Sunday it was Vegetable Justice. I’m so in love with the insult comics – THEY HAVE PROPS!!!! I was waiting with baited breath to see what they were going to pull out next – the “Yo Mama” board topped the cake, however. I have named them Alan Tudyk, Johnny Osborne, Adam Sandler, and Pippi Longstocking since I can’t remember their real names (even though they did shout each other’s names quite a bit). I’m completely in love with Alan Tudyk because he called me “Ginger” and his insults were actually more like really naughty innuendos… Plus, if you hopped forward he’d let you get really close to him. That’s the only way I nearly hit him. Pippi Longstocking made fun of my hair and accused me of wearing a Hot Topic T-shirt so I’m not as fond of him; however, I recognize that was his intention ;) And it worked as in my irritation I barely hit the wall, thereby leaving him safe from harm. I did wear a Hot Topic shirt the next day just to spite him. We watched John’s entire show and he never once repeated himself. I'm in love with him, too, because he also was fresh and suggestive to me. I think all the bawdy and provocative comments that flit safely above the children's heads have finally broken me down - I am officially a wench. (What was the convent we discussed, girls?) Oh, yeah, Vegetable Justice... We also watched half of Adam Sandler and he had the best line of the day – as a goth teen walked by he did a squeaky voice impression “I’m going to marry Drakula”. She ignored him; we lost it. I also learned that children can throw really hard and really fast so I will never put myself in the tomato-men's positions. They are brave.

Monday’s new thing was street performers. Usually I’m so focused on the musicians I don’t really see much of the street performers but since we had advanced warning of a Team Evilty prank we spent a lot of the day over at the King’s Pavilion. I ended up watching a catch the ball in a cup competition, chatting with ghostly Banquo, dancing with the King’s Court (I got passed around by my favorite fop, the guy that sang “once you go Moore you never go back” at pub sing, and the King himself during Pass the Duchess), and kissed multiple times during Mayor Bullfrog and the Black Lupin’s mayoral campaign. The Lupin is quite the charmer!! Sadly, their debate was called off by the King.

But no matter how many new and exciting things we discover my favorite thing is and always will be getting to see Joni Minstrel and Three Quarter Ale perform and getting to visit with them and crazyauntjaynie and everyone else off set.

Oh, the margaritas at La Fiesta are waaaaaaaaay stronger than the ones down here, by the way. And I cannot get the chorus “but as for me, I come for to sing” out of my head.

Anyway, home safe and sound. Miss everyone. Looking forward to next year and camping in our little spot we claimed. Otherwise hope to see many of you at Dragoncon!!!

May the best day of your life be the worst yet to come, safe home....

We are back safe and sound. Had a GREAT time (which I'll bore everyone local to tears by talking about it for weeks on end.) I need a safe home icon. :)

Quick post - going to bed!!!

GARF tomorrow! Woot!!
Miss everyone on Sat Night! Watch some craziness for me!!!

:)

Redd, Droid, Toast - imma a'wearing my ARMY boots! we'll see how that works :)

sigh, and now to work... HAPPY FRIDAY!!

As a surprise for disbandedtoastr's upcoming birthday we saw Jonathan Coulton in concert last Saturday. Full credit for this brilliant idea goes to reddheaded and her husband. So droidgirl, Redd, Toast, and I crammed into my VW Beatle and headed out.

I wish I could have inserted a memory chip into my brain to record all the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and feelings from last Saturday's concert event but that technology hasn't been invented yet which makes this post limited by my small memory capacity, exhaustion, and a limited vocabulary. In short, IT WAS SO AWESOME!

Over the next few days I do intend to do a series of more descriptive posts about the concert, the detours, post pictures, Toaster's Stick Figure Theatre illustrations, and maybe even videos.

But first let me introduce JoCo Caramel!
Thanks to Redd's spotting a Russell Stover billboard advertising Free Chocolate (free chocolate?!?!? I'm there!!) we made a side trip and that's where Toast picked up our trip mascot - JoCo Caramel the Traveling Bear. We got pictures of JoCo at nearly every phase of the trip, the only exception being actually with Jonathan Coulton (duh!) and that will be remedied next concert. On the ride home we decided JoCo needed his own journal to document his adventures so we've created a community called jocobear and are hoping to get everyone to join. This is our first attempt at a community and we have no idea what we are doing yet so bear with us... (a pun!) Oh, that community is probably where the Stick Figure Theatre will be showcased so if you want to see Toaster's drawings (and trust me, you do) you will have to go there.

That's all for now but... Coming Soon!
* JoCo's response to John's amazing T-shirts.
* The proper way to handle a detour.
* What not to do in front of a cop in traffic.
* How to respond when flicked off.
* Fate at the Heliotrope!
* Guess the number of ThinkGeek shirts at a JoCo concert.
* Poll - name your favorite song for closing out a concert
* Is a blouse appropriate "rockstar" attire?
* Guess the number of Dragoncon faces spotted at a JoCo concert.
* What is keeping right and how can you achieve that?
* When is the proper age to start wearing Depends?
* Why is PMS and Russell Stover a dangerous combination?
* Four girls, a bear, and a VW Beatle

Toast & Droid came over tonight (Redd had a show) for pizza and Skullcrushing. My husband designed tshirts for us based on Skullcrusher Mountain. Redd and I came up with the idea of tshirts and ran through some ideas then at Azteca (after Toaster figured out our suprise) we started brainstorming for reals. I gave him some thumbnails and he took them and made them BRILLIANT. We each made two shirts. One is made up of four quads. The first square is full of monkeys, the second has a my little ponyesque pony, the third a half-pony/half-monkey monster that was a blend of the monkeys and the pony; and the forth is the actual Skullcrusher mountain complete with howling wolf atop the mountain, a skull shaped rock feature, road to cave, and a direction sign marking the Secret Lair & the gift shop along with a beware of wolves sign. The Skullcrusher Mountain is so great we made a t-shirt entirely based on it in addition to our 4-quad shirts. I will try to post pictures. He printed out posters for us to get autographed plus some for Coulton to keep. I can't wait to hear his reaction - they are really impressive.

Oh, and the pizza was really good, too. Boy Scouts fundraiser Little Ceasers Pizza Kits - I highly recommend them! Add fresh mushrooms and green peppers and they are even better.

But now I have to get to bed! Still have to clean out my car for tomorrow!

ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ATLANTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COULTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the construction/capernter guys in the home improvement show actually said "this is my building hand"... I wonder?
Is he one of us?

O Captain! My Captain!
Does't Christopher Pike look a bit like Ed from the Barenaked Ladies?








HAD A BLAST IN TALLAHASSEE!
Dinner and hanging out with soberchef
Star Trek's The Managerie parts 1 & 2 in the theatre with Joe
My car COVERED in post it notes when I got out of the theatre and who could that be??
Borders for coffee and books with my fake sister and nephew :)