We're going to NYC!!

I hate to admit it, but I'm 40 years old and have never been to New York --

There are a couple of major US cities I have no desire to go to -- Houston, Dallas and Atlanta -- to name them.

I've been to LA, Chicago, Seattle and many of the smaller places --- really, can you call yourself well-traveled domestically unless you've been to Ely, MN?? or Seward, NE??

But -- I've never been to New York -- and that will change in July.

Hubby's doing a 3 week thing in some city outside NYC in July -- so, we're going to meet in Manhattan for a weekend.

It helps that Hubby's been on a poker winning streak that will pay for the trip :).

So, if you had from Friday late-afternoon until Sunday morning in the city, in July -- what would you do?

The cat's out of the bag...

First of all -- remember, Mom reads my blog (HI mom!!)...

Second -- remember, Mom's into month 4ish of a 10 day trip to Florida to visit my grandparents.

Third -- my mom is now taking care of my 92 year-old grandma. Grandma is doing very well, but it hasn't been easy for mom...

So, a while back mom's sister (my aunt) proposed that I come for a visit. I thought it was a good idea, and decided also that we should surprise mom --- because mom likes surprises.

I booked the ticket, then couldn't say anything about it here or on facebook -- lest I ruin the surprise. Meanwhile, mom's planning on buying a new laptop and asking for advice... and it's all I can do not to say, 'we'll do that when I get there'.

Monday afternoon I made a 'checking in' call to mom --- not long before I packed and headed out the door to see her.

Monday night I flew into Orlando. Tuesday morning aunt and I set off for grandma's place near the Atlantic coast (Sebastian, FL to be exact --- between Melbourne an Vero Beach....).

About noon, mom's expecting Aunt or the meals on wheels person -- and I walk in the door.

The look on her face was priceless. She actually was surprised, even though grandma spilled the beans asking when I was going to be there on Monday, mom thought grandma was mixed-up... no, Grandma was right :) -- she just can't keep a secret :).

So -- the person mom hires to sit with grandma when she needs to go out for a while came over yesterday afternoon, and will be here all day today.

Yesterday we got the laptop -- and I figured out how to make the wireless router talk to the craptastic cable modem... (removing the cable modem battery?? not in the help desk's checklist... but, necessary to make it work!!). So, now mom has a spiffy new laptop and can waste as much time as she'd like on the internet!!

Today -- we're doing the beach. Sun and sand, with our books -- until we can't do anymore, then some nature stuff and a late lunch someplace called "Squid Lips".... which comes highly recommended by my cousin.

I'll be here until Sunday....

Cat update...

... or, why my 'office mates' may be more disruptive than yours :).

The Queen (on the right) and the Minio -- on my desk.

I'm pretty sure that they let me work at THEIR desk.

I tried to get photos of them sitting in the same position, so you could see that he's almost her size -- but, he doesn't hold still for very long -- and this was the best I could come up with.

How to spend a rainy Summer Sunday...

• Nerd Tv -- a combination of Voyager and Bones
• Cats -- napping
• Human naps
• A quick trip to the library
• A nice warm dinner
• A high score on Tetris...
  

On men's facial hair..

What's the deal with those little patches of hair -- or thin strips of hair around their jaws?

The little patches under their lower lips must be for catching drool.. and someone must have told these twerps that the thin strip makes them look more manly.

guys -- these 'styles' make you look like stupid asses... either shave, or have a decent beard. Don't go halfway -- and, if you can't grow a decent looking beard, admit that you aren't man enough to do so and learn to love shaving.

Another chapter in percolation...

The jus post bellum chapter is in percolation.

Right now, I like it -- which is why it needs to be tucked away for a while so I can see what's wrong with it.

That makes three chapters in pretty good shape, in three weeks.

Now -- I need to work on my summer classes and think about what comes next...

But, for now I'm going to the pool for a bit, then shopping (to spend some of hubby's poker winnings on frivolous stuff from here. There may be a stop at Office Max and/or the container store as well... hmmm....

Then, an appointment with the instructional design guy from BNCC -- who should be able to help with a couple of technical issues...

Another project -- done!

We have a DVD habit.... a bad one.

As a result, the DVDs were threatening to take over our livingroom.

A while back, in an effort to solve the problem, I put all the movies and CDs in those books...

That worked ok for the CDs, because we promptly changed to using our ipods -- so we never look in the CD books for anything.

The DVD books were less efficient and we got into them more often, which resulted in loose DVDs hanging around.

I also didn't do anything with the sets of TV series -- until yesterday.

Hubby and I decided something needed to change -- so we set off for Office Max. We bought paper sleeves and storage boxes. I spent most of yesterday and a couple of hours this morning getting rid of the packaging. All the DVDs are in their own little sleeves, the movies are in alphabetic order (complete with tabs :) , and the TV series are grouped together. I extracted all the important information from the packaging -- it's grouped together behind the neat little boxes...

The only series we decided not to put into the system are the STTNG collector's boxes --

YEA for fininshing a project -- now, back to the big D.