Pretty Snow and Ice Courtesy of My Little Norwegian Friend

The teenager who used to catsit for us in Norway emailed me some photos of the frozen Gjovik landscape. So pretty! Much nicer than what we have going on in New York--we got over a foot of snow, which was gorgeous. Then the temperatures soared up into the 40's, so now we have slushy, muddy puddles everywhere. Yuck!

The Prison Barbed Wire in the Background Makes the Photo Even Better!

Washington D.C.

Our trip to D.C. was fun--we got the required touristy stuff out of the way on Friday...we saw the Washington monument:
And the Capitol Building:

And the White House Christmas tree--unfortunately the President had just landed, so the park the tree was in was blocked off for a few hours. Lots of people milled around waiting for the gates to open, but it was really cold on Friday, so we snapped a picture and left for the comfort of a warm restaurant!

On Friday, we also went to the American History Museum--I was really excited to see Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch on display--I had no idea that the original Oscar was orange! His color change was explained away with, "He lives in a garbage can and rolls around in muck, so he turned green." I was very disappointed that the first ladies' inauguration gowns display was temporarily closed, but at least I also got to see the ruby slippers from 'The Wizard of Oz" and Julia Child's kitchen.

On Saturday, we went to the Spy Museum--best museum EVER! I usually have a 1 1/2 hour attention span at museums, but we were at the Spy Museum for almost 4 hours and I was enthralled the whole time. We saw some really cool, high-tech spy gadgets--the lipstick pistol was my favorite!

The weekend was mostly about good food and drink, though--from Lebanese tapas to homemade noodles in Chinatown to pitchers of sangria and margaritas to French toast, oh my, did we ever eat and drink! Thank goodness we walked miles around the city, or else I might have had to ask for a seatbelt extender on the flight home!

Speaking of the flight home, we missed it! We got to Dulles, checked in, and went through security with about 30 minutes to spare. We went to our gate, but a flight to New Hampshire was boarding, so we went to the bakery next to the gate for a drink. We heard announcements for Binghamton, Savannah, Providence, but nothing for Syracuse. We had seen a sign saying that flights close 10 minutes before their scheduled departure, so we went back to the gate 20 minutes before our scheduled departure. We sat at the gate for a couple of minutes, and then decided to ask the gate agent if the flight would be on time...he told us that our flight was closed and our seats had been given away to other people! We were completely floored--it had never been announced, and we were there in plenty of time! Also, our bags were on the plane--don't airlines usually passenger-match and page people who have checked luggage but haven't boarded the plane? The gate agent obviously realized he had screwed up, as he offered us 2 free round trip tickets to anywhere in the continental U.S. for our inconvenience! We ended up getting on the 10 PM flight to Syracuse, and arrived home at 11 PM instead of 6 PM. Our bags were waiting for us at the airport, and now we have free tickets, so this morning, I am very grateful for all the craziness, but yesterday, when I was so tired and just wanted to get home, I really wasn't feeling the gratitude!

Catch Up

I haven't written in weeks--everything has been kind of crazy, but life seems to be calming down a bit now. Kevin has been at his new job for a week and seems to really like it. He will be traveling to Bath, England in mid-January for work, and then to Chicago at the end of January. I'm planning to accompany him to Chicago--I'm so excited! We lived in Chicago when we were first married, so it will be fun to wander around the old neighborhood--we lived in West Loop, which was "up and coming" when we lived there, but I have heard it has arrived now! Hopefully we'll get a chance to eat at my favorite restaurant in Greek Town, see Millenium Park and "The Bean," which were built after we left, and reconnect with old friends.

We're also going to Washington D.C. this weekend...I have heard that their Christmas decorations are gorgeous, so I'm looking forward to seeing them. I have never been to the Smithsonian, so that is high on the list of places I want to go. Kevin bought a guide book, so hopefully by Friday, I'll have a plan. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

I definitely need a little mini vacation--I have been so busy with all the holiday events and fundraising at the shelter. I love it, but it will be great to have a weekend off. This past weekend, I was helping with our Pet Pictures with Santa fundraiser when the local news showed up. I wasn't really expecting to be on TV, but publicity is always a good thing, so I gathered my thoughts and gave a quick interview. My mom called later last night to tell me that she had seen me on the news. I asked if I had stumbled over my words or said anything stupid, and she replied, "No, you sounded fine, but I'm guessing if you had known you were going to be on TV, you would have made more of an effort with your clothes and hair." Um, ouch! Oh well, hopefully the majority of viewers were more interested in my message then in my messy pony tail!

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

At Long Last, Kevin's Head

He Is Going to Be Insufferable Now!

Kevin has been away from home on his last MASSIVE business trip since the beginning of October. Seriously, 5 weeks abroad is insane, and if anyone at his company is really wondering why he resigned, they need look no further than his itinerary. He's flying from China to Norway right now, and he called me on the way to the airport to tell me about his Asian farewell dinner. He received so many gifts that he had to buy another suitcase to haul everything back. I asked him what kind of presents he was given, and he answered, "A tea set, a traditional Filipino dress shirt, a little Chinese good luck charm, and, um, a statue." I asked him about the statue, and he replied, "Um, well, it's kind of a statue of me." That's right, his coworkers in China took a photo of him to a sculpter. And now Kevin is lugging his own bust home... He will probably receive another farewell gift or two from his coworkers in Norway, and as awesome as a clay homage to his head is, I'm kind of hoping that the Norwegians choose to honor him with chococolate instead! I know the statue is a huge honor, and it was very kind of his Chinese coworkers, but seriously, how will I ever be able to top it? This Christmas, as he opens his usual dress shirt, sweater and book gifts from me, he's going to be all, "Yeah, the sweater is a nice color, but do you remember when someone commissioned a statue of me?"

Overwhelmed

I blinked back the tears as I cast my vote today, I trembled as I watched the election coverage on TV this evening, and as I listened to President-Elect Obama's victory speech tonight, my heart soared. I have voted in other elections, but never have I believed in a candidate so much. I'm so proud of and hopeful for our country!

Happy Halloween!

Where I'll Be This Weekend

I leave for Las Vegas tomorrow morning. Am I going to gamble, to see the shows, to hang out with Paris Hilton? Um, no. Actually, I will be here:
http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?i=33ec6f31-64ad-4c18-acca-85ae57ac5524
I am so excited!!!

Yay Fall!

I have been having massive computer problems lately. The Dell guy has been out to the house twice now, once to replace the motherboard, and then again today to replace both the screen and the motherboard. The computer is still not working, so tomorrow I'm supposed to send it in to Dell for a last ditch effort to revive it. I'm guessing I'm going to end up with a brand new laptop since the old one is still under warranty. In the meantime, I'm plodding along on my very old, very slow laptop from the days of yore (or 2007, whatever). Its lack of speed and reliability have discouraged me from even trying to blog or email much, but since I took some pictures this weekend of the pretty foliage, I thought I'd give it a try today.
Behold, autumn leaves:
And more leaves plus a waterfall:

And the best part of autumn of all, a haunted house:

The Syracuse fairgrounds is now home to a creepy carnival and 4 very spooky haunted houses--you have to walk in that scary, gaping clown mouth. Eek! I love Halloween so much, and after missing out on it completely last year due to living in Norway, I am celebrating it with a vengeance this year! In addition to the haunted houses, I'm going to a costume party on Halloween. I have no idea what I should dress up as--any suggestions? Keep in mind that my Halloween pet peeve is the stupid girl who wears a leotard, stillettos and pointy ears and says "I'm a cat!" I was at a costume store today toying with the idea of being a jester...I really want to be a Harlequin clown but I can't find a costume anywhere. I think I'll hold off on buying a costume until after I get to Las Vegas next weekend. I'm guessing that there are probably some amazing costume stores there. (And no, I'm not going to dress up as a show girl! Or Sigfried or Roy!)

Happiness is a Warm Puppy

It poured rain all day today, but despite the weather, I spent the afternoon with a group of volunteers, 3 dogs and 4 cats at an outdoor adoption event. I got very wet and cold, not to mention incredibly muddy playing with the 2 large-breed puppies we brought with us.

How cute are these guys--it's insane that they're both under 6 months old and this gigantic already! Anyway, I came home chilled and damp and covered in muddy pawprints, but so happy. I love these shelter animals so much...I wish I had room in my home for more. I feel so blessed to be able to spend my days with them, they are so full of gratitude for every walk, every treat, every cuddle, every game of "fetch".

Now I'm off to take a nice, hot shower, and then to relax in bed with a book...there will be many more slobbery kisses and muddy pawprints tomorrow!

Reason #592 I Will Vote for Obama/Biden in November

I generally leave politics out of my blog. I'm not an expert, and I have no desire to engage in a political debate. I'm not trying to offend anyone...I have some wonderful friends and family who are staunch Republicans, and I love and respect them. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind about their vote. That being said, if you are undecided thus far, and you are concerned about the rights and welfare of animals (wildlife, farm animals and pets) please read this article:
http://hslf.typepad.com/political_animal/2008/09/humane-society.html

The Vocabulary of a Marriage

Sometimes Kevin and I will have a conversation, and at the end of it, I realize that anyone eavesdropping would think that we were raving lunatics. On any given day, we might discuss spongy ghosts, filthy bears and tons of other seemingly random, crazy topics .
When we first moved to our house, we were plagued by water...our driveway and garage flooded every time it rained, the roof leaked in about a dozen places (it took the roofers who replaced the roof about 3 times to finally get it right and leak-proof!), water would gush in through the downstairs windows during a downpour, the line to the refrigerator ice-maker leaked through the floor and into the ceiling below, and the washing machine died a spectacular, explosively watery death. I theorized that perhaps we were being haunted by a damp spector, a spongey ghost if you will, and the term stuck. Now, if one of us yells, "Ahhhh, spongey ghost, spongey ghost!" the other one knows to come running with a towel!
We bought our house from an interesting character. He was a big, burly man who polished his rifle and talked to us about bear hunting while we measured for tile. When we first toured the home, we found a bottle of vodka in EVERY cabinet, and since then, we have heard from neighbors that he was known for walking around the yard with a drink in both hands (and a cigarette in his mouth). Based on the amount of grease that coated every surface in the kitchen when we moved in, he must have cooked a lot of bears during his time here. Kevin and I started calling him the "damn dirty bear hunter" but that was quickly shortened to "filthy bear." Whenever we discover some half-assed repair or renovation, we just curse the filthy bear, and go about fixing it.
I kind of like being in this odd little club of two, speaking in our own "secret code." Are we particularly crazy, or does every couple create a unique language over time?

Getting to Know You

Kevin and I went to the Syracuse Irish Fest last Saturday. It was fantastic!
There were some great bands, including "Enter the Haggis".

As wonderful as the music (and the free-flowing Guiness) were, my attention soon wandered to the beautiful architecture of Clinton Square.

We have now lived in the Syracuse area for 10 months, and we realized that we don't really know the city at all. This is partly due to Kevin's crazy travel schedule, but also partly due to that feeling of, "Eh, there's always tomorrow." When we lived in Chicago, we definitely did go out and do things, but we were usually spurred on by out of town guests who wanted to see the sights. There was so much more to see and do that we never got around to--our loft was directly across from Oprah's Harpo Studios (we could watch the celebrities' limos pull up to the building) but I chose to watch her show on TV instead of bothering to get tickets. I always thought "Someday" and then we moved and I have been kicking myself ever since! When we moved to Norway, we knew it was going to be for a limited time, so we really did take advantage of living there. By the time we moved back, several Norwegians told us that we had seen and done more in Norway than they ever had. But now we've fallen back into that rut of thinking we have all the time in the world to get out and explore our new city. Kevin and I vowed on Saturday, "No more! We're going to hang out on Tipp Hill, in Armory Square, by College Hill! And once we get to know Syracuse, we're going to expand our horizons and check out the Thousand Islands and Lake Ontario, and heck, maybe we'll even venture into Canada!"
We have definitely made progress--Kevin already has a favorite building in Syracuse, the very cool art deco NiMo building:

Bloggy Ups and Downs

I have not been feeling like writing much lately...because I have a site meter, I have a pretty good idea of who is reading this blog (it lets me know the city, state and country in which a reader is located) and I think this knowledge makes me censor myself to the point that it is no longer a joy to write. Instead, I'm constantly thinking about not offending anyone, about not hurting anyone's feelings, about not letting certain people too deep into our life. Some really funny things have happened lately, the kind of things that make me want to call a friend and exclaim, "Can you believe that s/he wore that/said that/did that?" but I can't write about it for fear that someone will recognize themselves in my blog and be hurt. In summary, central New York is full of quirky, wacky characters...I wish I could tell you more, but I can't!
A couple of days ago, something happened that made me appreciate all the blogging I did in the past. Kevin downloaded a bunch of updates onto my computer and somehow all my files, including all my photos, were deleted. I lost all my Lofoten pictures, but thankfully my best photos of the archipelago are saved on the blog, I lost all my Grand Canyon photos, but again, the best ones are posted on the blog. (Luckily all the photos I took while living in Norway are saved and backed up on another computer.)
Anyway, the point of this ramble is that I'm trying to think of a way to continue this journal, both as a way to keep in touch with friends and family, and as a way to preserve memories for myself, without oversharing or offending anyone. Or maybe I'll just post tons of pictures of cute animals. Whatever, I'll figure something out!

The End of an Era

Kevin resigned from his current company last week. (I couldn't write about it until it was announced to all the employees, just in case anyone who works there reads this. Yes, I am delusional about having an audience.) Anyway, Kevin was getting so worn down from all the travelling...there were a couple of months when he was at home for 6 or 7 days all month long. By July, he was so frustrated with the situation that he half heartedly started perusing the job listings in the paper, and found a local recruiter who specializes in career opportunities in finance. Within a week he had interviews at 3 companies, and within 3 weeks he had an offer. His new commute is 30 minutes, and while he will still have to travel a bit (to England, China and Canada) he will be able to spend the majority of his time at home in New York. He is actually in Norway right now, and will have to go back there and to China a couple more times over the next several weeks, as his contract requires him to give 3 month's notice. I know this was such a hard decision for Kevin to make, as he really likes his job and the people he works with (who are not making it any easier by showering him with compliments and lamenting the fact that he is leaving.) We both believe that this decision is the right one for him, personally and professionally, but that doesn't do much to alleviate the sadness of this prolonged goodbye. The new job begins the first week of December, and the new company seems wonderful, so at least there is a lot to look forward to during this difficult time.

Wacky Wedding

The picture in the previous entry is of Kevin and me all dressed up at the wedding we attended this past weekend--Kevin wears suits for work on a semi-regular basis, but I am generally clad in jeans, a tee shirt, and a pony tail with some muddy pawprints and tufts of fur as accessories, so I felt the need to document that I actually wore a dress and slapped on some lip gloss! The weekend wasn't just about me donning a dress, though. We also visited Sleepy Hollow...here is the charming Old Dutch Church, built in 1697.
And Washington Irving's home, Sunnyside. (Irving wrote the very spooky headless horseman tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.")

The wedding was, um, interesting. There weren't any full-fledged wedding disasters, but there were definitely a couple of moments that made me laugh. Apparently there wasn't a rehearsal, so when the groom's uncle walked up to read a Bible verse, he started reading the wrong verse. After a couple of lines, the groom cut him off--the uncle grinned sheepishly, shrugged and went back to his seat. There was also a "singer" who performed mid-ceremony. She was really into the song--think John Mayer-type facial contortions. Unfortunately, unlike Mr. Mayer, she was unable to hit most of the notes she attempted to sing. It was so awful, Kevin and I were both shaking with (silent) laughter.

When Kevin and I got engaged 8 years ago, one of the first bridezilla decrees I made was, "Absolutely no singing at our ceremony!" I have been to so many weddings with horrific vocalists--everyone has that one friend who believes she can sing, and who would love to grace the wedding ceremony with the gift of song. As is evident during "American Idol" auditions, the ratio of people who believe they are wonderful singers to people who can actually carry a tune is shockingly high! Before anyone could offer up their vocal talent to our wedding I had a harpist hired--potential awkward situation averted!

I was almost responsible for creating a wedding disaster of my own last weekend. I chose to wear some very strappy high heeled sandals, and then I chose to drink several daiquiris. I teetered, I tottered, I was a Weeble--I wobbled but I did not fall down!

All Spiffed Up

Happy Sails

I don't have much to write these days--everything is fine, but not really blog-worthy. I'm busy at the shelter, Kevin's busy at work, we're enjoying summer, yadda yadda yadda. In lieu of actual content, I'll just post a couple of photos from the lake. This is Kevin's little sailboard birthday present:
And this is our neighbor kayaking with her little dog--he even has a tiny life jacket!

At some point, hopefully I'll have more to write. We're going to a wedding in Scarsdale this weekend, so maybe Kevin will finally get to witness a wedding disaster. Any time we go to a wedding, his fingers are always crosssed that a member of the wedding party will faint, or the candles on the altar will catch a bridesmaid's dress on fire, or the bride just won't show up, or best of all, when asked "Does anyone know of any reason why this couple should not be wed?" someone in the audience will jump up and say, "Yes, actually, I do!" I'm not generally the type to wish misfortune on anyone, but should Kevin's wedding disaster wishes come true, at least I'll finally have something to blog about!

In the meantime, if you have any funny wedding nightmare stories to share, please comment freely--Kevin will be so grateful!

Cat TV

Viva Las Vegas

I have been a bad blogger lately, but I'm finally posting some photos from our Las Vegas trip. We stayed at the Venetian...check out the tack-a-riffic hall:
And the view of the mountains from our hotel room:

And the massive bathroom in our room--our hotel room was so swanky and nice, there were fresh orchids in the bathroom every day. It was pretty tough to leave and return to my orchid-free home!

This is a small section of the Vegas strip. We visited New York New York and rode on the insane roller coaster--seriously, the scariest roller coaster I have ever been on. The lights of the Vegas strip are even more dazzling when seen from 203 feet in the air and upside down!

We also visited the older section of Las Vegas on Fremont Street. The casinos were a little sketchy and the food was downright terrifying:

We wandered from casino to casino, winning some money at the blackjack tables, then losing some money at the blackjack tables. I loved the crazy acrobat shows at Circus Circus:

Since we were enjoying our tour of all things cheesy and cliche in Las Vegas, we stopped by the Mirage to check out Sigfried and Roy's white tigers. How cute is this little tiger cub?

In addition to tigers, the gardens at the Mirage had leopards:

and lions:

and dolphins:

We had such a fantastic, carefree time in Las Vegas, but the highlight was definitely the Cirque du Soleil show "Love" which was set to Beatles music. It was incredible (the 32 oz. margaritas we bought at the concession stand made it even better!) and we left the show in awe of the choreography, the artistry and the athleticism of the performers.

It's nice to be back to reality, but I would love to go back to Las Vegas for another dose of fantasy in the near future!

My Morning Began with a Bat, I Mean Bang

I woke up this morning, went to the kitchen to have some cereal, looked up and saw a little bat hanging in the doorway to the dining room. All the cats were standing underneath it, looking up, licking their lips and making their "I want flesh!" chattering noises. I'm very proud of myself, because I was cool, calm and collected, baby! I grabbed a bag of cat treats, lured the cats into the utility room and shut the door, then I grabbed a step stool and a couple of potholders, opened the front door, gently scooped the bat up and set it outside. I think the poor little thing was in shock, because instead of swooping away to freedom, it just sat there spitting at me. I know a photo op when it hisses in my face, so here is the photographic evidence of my crazy morning:

And no, I will not put this particular potholder back in my kitchen...based on the number of bats we see flying out of our eaves every night, I'm guessing I'll need it again for bat duty!

Finally, Some Grand Canyon Pictures

Kevin and I set out last Saturday at 5:30 AM from Las Vegas to see the Grand Canyon. Here we are at an overlook in Hurricane, Utah. (Late that night, on our long drive back to Las Vegas, we were pulled over in Hurricane, Utah for speeding, so we have all kinds of memories from that town!)
And here is a long horned steer--too cute!

We stopped by Zion National Park in Utah to see the incredible sandstone formations.

How amazing are these rocks? I have never seen anything like this before!

While we stopped to marvel at the sandstone, this adorable little lizared scurried by:

I love vintage 1960's signs so I always take pictures of them. (I have a bunch of cool sign pictures from Santa Cruz too.) I snapped this photo quickly, and it wasn't until I got home and was going through my pictures that I actually read what the sign said...um, is the economy really so stagnant that the ladies of the night have to bake pies in the morning just to make ends meet?

We were driving along towards the Grand Canyon when I spotted this sign and begged Kevin to pull over so we could take a tour. What an amazing place--I could have spent the rest of our vacation there! If you haven't heard of Best Friends, here's their website: http://www.bestfriends.org/

After our tour, we got back on the road and drove into Arizona. (I was able to add 3 new states to my list of states I have visited: Nevada, Utah and Arizona. I still have Mississippi, Alabama, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii to visit. I definitely think Hawaii should be my top priority!) It was quite overcast by the time we reached the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We paid our $25, drove into the park, and it started pouring rain, thundering and lightening. We debated turning back, but since we had already paid (and driven more than 300 miles to get there) we decided to make the best of it. This was my first impression of the Grand Canyon, as I was shivering out on a ledge, being pelted with icy rain and trying to avoid being struck by lightening!

We hid in the car until the rain let up a little, then we ventured out again. We walked along this path to a couple of different vistas and absolutely fell in love with the fragrance. It was a blend of cedar, sage, juniper and cliff roses mixed with that fresh rain smell--I wish my blog was scratch-n-sniff, it was such an incredible scent! I'm kind of obsessed with finding a candle or potpourri or linen spray or something that smells like that now--I want to wake up to that fragrance every morning! (It wasn't just me going nuts over the scent, Kevin wouldn't shut up about it either!)

I got a few more shots of the Grand Canyon, but it was still very foggy and overcast, so I'm not very happy with any of my photos:

Anyway, despite the inclement weather and the speeding ticket, we had a wonderful road trip. I would definitely love to go back to the Grand Canyon and see the south rim (and the north rim in the sunshine). I'll write a bit about Las Vegas later...