Family Surprise

When I was back home for my Grandfather's funeral a few weeks ago, I talked to my Aunt Michele. She and my cousins Amanda and Alyssa had a trip to the East Coast plenned. She gave me her itinerary for the 6 days in Boston, NYC and DC (talk about filled trip!). I managed to forget about the date that they were going to be in town until I got a phone call on Thursday night letting me know that they were in town.

On Friday, I was able to get out of the office for a bit to meet up with them and do a little site seeing in Mid-town. It is always wonderful to have family visit. I'm really sorry that I couldn't spend more time with them. They are all on the side of the family that I don't see as much. I think I should probably fix that in the future. It's just so hard to see everyone when I have so little time.

Anyway, it seems that my cousin Amanda is going to be going to culinary school after she graduates. And she has fallen in love with the East Coast big cities. I told her mom that I am happy to open my door to any of the family that wants to check out the big city. Plus, it give a bit of comfort zone for any parent that is reluctant to send their "baby" to the big city.

Camping...Me?!?!

Believe it or not, I actually went camping. Well, sort of hiking and almost rock climbing, too. I went up to The Gunks with Peter and some friends this past weekend. Everyone else is big into climbing while I am still rather secure with my feet on the ground. Actually, I'll probably try it in the future, just not when I'm not prepared and don't know what I'm doing. I'm a big fan of not maiming myself against large cliffs.

In any case, the entire adventure included camping on the nicest weekend of the year so far, wandering around some "mountains" (I still think it's funny that the Eastcoasters think they are mountains), watching perigrine falcons play, and -get this- driving. That's right, I also used that handy little license of mine that is getting cob-webby in my wallet. Oh, and I got to be the team photographer with Peter's fancy new camera.

I did contemplate suggesting the traditional Easter camping treat, Peeps S'Mores, or hiding eggs in the woods to find in the morning. For some reason, I think that might have been received poorly by the Ranger who kicked us out early Sunday morning.

All-in-all, it was a fun weekend, but I hope that the next trip I make goes back to the kind that has running water.

Snow in April

It is officially Spring. We have had 60 degree weather off and on for the past couple of weeks. And today, we have the largest snow flakes that I have ever seen falling like crazy. It started with rain, then they all became snow. I have lived in this city for 15 years and I still can't get used to the weather!

Oh, wait, I think it's stopping now. Nothing like a 30 minute snow storm!

Remember Me?

Grandma Dolly, This one's for you!

I know I have been very lax in my posting of late. And I got scolded by Grandma for not keeping this updated. So, I'm back.

There is a LOT to talk about but I don't have a lot of time for typing. So in a nutshell -

1) I just got back from a wonderful trip to Tokyo with my beau. It was 9 days of wandering around a foreign country, pretending I still remember some of the language I learned in highschool. But really relying heavily on the English of the Japanese people. There will be more following, including pictures.

2) Just as I got back from Japan - literally on the train from the airport, I found out that my Papa died. This was not entirely unexpected, but rather freightening since I saw him just the day before on a little side trip on the way back from Japan.

3) I couldn't tell you what time it is or when I am going to fall a sleep for the past week. Between spending 9 days in Japan, one day (Actually I lived through Monday 3/20 twice - once in Tokyo and once in Portland) on the west coast, one day traveling east, one day in NYC, 3 days on the west coast and then hitting daylight savings time on the way back to NYC, I'm lucky to be awake during daylight hours at all.

4) I am up to my ears in Girl Scout cookies. I extended the selling of the cookies from my cousin (the family girl scout) to those in my NYC network that don't have anyone knocking on their doors. I think the order was around 90 boxes this year!

5) I just finished up a couple of projects for another knitting book. This one is called Knitting With Balls - a book by and for male knitters. It was a bit of a fiasco considering I got the materials 3 weeks late and had less than 2 weeks to make a hooded cardigan and a throw. (I got them in a bit late, but as fast as I could.)

I can't think of anything else at the moment because I am very, very tired, yet still at work. I'm gonna go home, sleep and try to think of more things to post. G'night!