i feel safe in a cage in new york city...

saturday i flew to nyc at 7 am for my friend sarah duford's bridal shower/bachalorette party. we grew up together and she now lives in brooklyn. we started out at le parc meridian in manhattan for a chocolate inspired brunch. it was excellent. sarah was very surprized. after that we chilled for a bit at my friend carly's place in queens. she lives in astoria, which is the greek part of queens. and as we were driving we saw some old ladies boobies!! she had a wrap on and she was fixing the way it was wrapped around her and apparently all she was wearing for a shirt was the wrap. i think that was my only touristy-shocking moment there. it was funny.

later we went to brooklyn and hung out at sarah's place. we went to dinner at this place called loka. it was very nice, a really small place but it was all open and the decor was really cool - oranges and blues. the owner was from turkey and started the place himself. i guess sarah's mom had met him previously because when we walked in the owner yelled "mommy!" "come, mommy, sit here, i have nice table for you" all in his little accent. it was like we were celebrities. and after dinner he did a round of shots with us, on him of course.

we went to a place called fontina's just outside of chinatown after dinner. we were equipped with the pink feather boa and the staple penis drink stirrers. sarah's sister had booths reserved for us so we just chilled there for a few hours. later we went to see sarah's favorite new band, meta and the cornerstones. they were a reggae band and i guess they are from south africa. i really enjoyed their music and bought their cd. we were there till about 2 am. we walked back to brooklyn and got pizza. it was so awesome. the guys working there were very italian. and they would take your order and then he would yell "next please" but in his italian accent. and then he would ask the drunk people if they wanted their pizza "for here or to stay?" and it would completely confuse them. when i went to pay for my slice he said "four dolla, no, four thousand dolla, ah no, for you just four dolla" it was so funny. and sarah was sitting there with here feather boa eating pizza randomly yelling "next please" in her italian accent. i kept yelling it at work today.

raindrops keep falling on my head...

i swear if billy and i have good luck, there is always bad luck around the corner. our life is like that episode of seinfeld where jerry always "evens out" yesterday billy got good news that our boat is not broken completely. it was just a leaky something or other that is no big deal, and not a cracked block in the engine. yeah! rejoice! rejoice. oh, but wait....at 11:30 pm last night (it had to be the same day we had good news) billy felt some "raindrops" on his head as he is doing the dishes, in our kitchen. and shortly thereafter, a nice chunk of our ceiling is on the floor! yeah!! sweet. it appears as if we had a leak somewhere around our tub upstairs. so, there goes our feelings of happiness and relief. but i guess its better to say that we don't have to spend thousands of dollars on both a boat AND a ceiling. but it would be nice to not have to to either.

To sing the blues you've got to live the tunes and carry on

i was sitting here reflecting on the past couple of times i was at the river. usually my personality is "go go go" i always have to be doing something when i am in clayton. but the past couple of visits all i wanted to do was sit on the dock, or swim, or even fish. i have not fished since i was maybe 10?? or even earlier then that. and i remember when i would go out in the Lyman with grandpa i would get so bored so fast. i would always get stuck on the bottom of the river or lose my gross worm, that someone else would have had to put on the hook. i would always think that something better was happening someplace else, like i was missing something. its not to say that i didn't have fun, i was probably just the typical kid. but all i wanted to do last weekend was stand on the edge of the dock and cast that line into the river, and if i caught a rock bass i was satisfied, and if i didn't catch anything, well, i was still satisfied. i feel obligated to take the time to actually relish in the all of the experience of the river. could there be a reason for this? i am not sure. maybe there is a force around me now that gives me guidance to feel this way, or maybe it is coincidence that i am just paying more attention. i would like to believe it is both.

Cold, cold water surrounds me now, and all i've got is your hand

with all the time we spent on the dock i took about 400 pictures. it is really hard to pick what ones will end up on here. after seeing the photos i took i have decided to try to sell my photography. hopefully it is the start of a very good business endeavor.


the usual sight of a ship floating by

me after i braved the cold water and went swimming

and billy concentrating on his fishing expedition

We can discover the wonders of nature, rolling in the rushes down by the riverside

sunday we spent the day on the dock fishing, and me swimming. the bass are just through with spawning and there were hundreds of babies hanging out by the dock. i would drop my lure by them and they would all swim to it and just look at it. it was almost something out of finding nemo.
this pic reminds me of some place tropical. it looks like there is no end to both the sky and the river

a blue heron flew by. it was really to high to get a good picture but i couldn't help myslef. i love them
i love this picture.

A bunny hopped across my path, i stopped and watched him go.............

billy had to go check on his osprey nest sunday. and we found that there were baby osprey in the nest. we could see their little heads poking over the top of the nest.
one of the times we drove back to the cottage we met . our friend rabbit hanging out by the front door. he was just minding his own business, eating the grass. he let us get about 4 feet to him before he ran away. we ran into him a few times after that. i think he has moved in.
as billy was taking pictures of the bunny, we saw this robin with a worm in his mouth. he was just running around! it was kind of funny.
and of course there are always a couple chipmunks hopping around.....we also witnessed a seagull grab a minnow for lunch............

it was like we were at a wild life refuge!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you come down to the river i bet your gonna find some people who live

well our weekend got off to a rocky start. billy drove to clayton early friday with the intention of putting our boat in the water. little did he know that the boat may have a cracked block in the engine. so it is sitting at the clayton marina with the hope that they will get to it in 3 weeks. billy had a few other mishaps throughout the day but he still remained in a cheerful mood.
saturday i spent most of the day solo, as billy was helping a friend install windows in his cottage. we planned on having a cookout with trisha and jim at the cottage so i stocked up on some cookout staples, kabobs, sweet corn, potato salad, etc. dinner was nice and afterwards we walked down to the dock and i snapped these awesome photos.....


me and my girls striking a pose with the best backdrop in the world!!

the sun is setting

the sun is setting

i don't know what i would do
without you in our lives
i cannot begin to imagine
how to carry on

this world would be a little colder
without your laughter

i would not know the way
down the shoreline without your hand

i could not sit under another sunset
without thinking of you

i will promise you to stand behind
his shadows and help him shine

my love for you will forever grow
along with your son's eyes

i will not let you down
and will forever look for you
in the burning colors of a midsummer
saint lawrence setting sun............

if i had a million dollars, i would buy you some art, a picasso or a garfunkel

here are my new finds from the christmas tree shop.... a butterfly and flower photo on canvas for the bathroom, it is nice and bright to wake us up in the morning.... some cool black and white photos for our bedroom.......

and some pretty floral scenes to accent the spare room.......plus a neat little rug.....
one little step at a time to make a house a home!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is so fun......

mom brought me a housewarming gift..my old rocking chair, i cannot believe my ass used to fit in that! aunt sandy also brought me some of her pepper jelly (yum) and a jar of grandpa's homemade horseradish!!!

don't you just love a bargain.....

mom and aunt sandy made it down today to see our house. that's a picture of the three of us i took before we went shopping. i had the afternoon off. we went to lunch, then to macy's. and we had to make the usual christmas tree shop visit. at macy's i got a dress to wear to a summer wedding and a shirt to wear to nyc for sarah duford's bridal shower. and at the christmas tree shop i went nuts. i have never been able to splurge in there before because i just had the apartment, but it is fun when you have a whole house. before we knew it it was 6pm. overall it was a fun day, lots of laughs like always. and uncle dick even made out with a special gift!

here's to dads, danny and dale jr!!!!!!!!

now i am in no way interested in nascar, unlike the rest of my entire family. but i have a sentimental attitude towards dale jr, because of his story and how grandpa was such a huge fan. well, he had a his first win today in 2 years. and i just thought it was nice because today happens to be father's day. it is nice in the way that he lost his dad, so this win could go out to him. and it is nice in the way that i can think that grandpa is up there enjoying his father's day even more because jr won one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

happy 25th to my "little" brother!!! i cannot believe how the time has passed. thanks to his girlfriend , sally, danny was enjoying his new xbox 360 when i talked to him earlier. i rummaged through all of my photos and came up with a little montage in honor of my one and only brother!!!!!!!!!!

happy father's day!!!!!!! to george, hope you have a wonderful day.

and happy father's day to my dad. i hope you are relaxing today!! miss you!!!